[Jack Simth]

Jack "It is a problem on parsing, with the key problems being the sentences 'There are only three words in the English language.' and 'What is the third word?'"

Jack "'There are only three words in the English language.' could be parsed as 'There are only three words in "the English language".' in order to make it true."

Jack "The other problem is thus: if a word is third, then it is in something; some order; some sentence. However, the question leaves it dangling. As the English Language has no inherent order, third is meaningless in that context, so that option can be ruled out. Likewise, words ending in -GRY have no inherent order; third is again meaningless, so that target can be ruled out."

Jack "The principal of proximity then indicates several options: It could be referring to the third word in the riddle, the third word in the sentence of the question, the third word in the previous sentence, or the third word in the perviously referred to phrase (which incidentally has three words)."

Jack "The third word in the riddle is "words" - this fits every criteria in the riddle, but is rather distant from the question, and thus has a weak fit."

Jack "The third word in the sentence of the question is "the" - which is used everyday, but only as a word, not as a thing. Again, it fits, but is weak, as it can be avoided if one sets their mind to it."

Jack "The third word in the previous sentence is "only" - which isn't used everyday by everyone, and so can be ruled out.

Jack "The third word in the perviously referred to phrase ('the English language', if my parse of the sentence is correct) is 'language'. This is very close to the question, has been directly referred to, and is used everyday by everyone that speaks (which excludes the very young, coma patients, some monks, and a few others, but is good enough for most riddles). Thus, it is 'Language'."

Jack "Does anyone disagree?"

D "Works for me."

Jack "All right then. The answer is 'language'"

ooc:[I looked it up to confirm, but I had it right just from the problem; I've never encountered that one before, but I have fun with deliberate valid-but-not-intended parses of sentences sometimes, and knew what to look for.]

Face "Correct. The third question is: Who finally succeded Emporer Pesci of Mare after his death?"

ooc:[Fake history question - answer however you like - but note we are running low on riddles - we need two more questions (after this one) and only one more riddle.]