Why does a simple Haskell function reject a Fractional argument expressed as a ratio?

Question

I'm admittedly a Haskell newbie. To explore laziness, I created a function in ghci that returns its second argument:

Prelude> let latter x y = y
latter :: t -> t1 -> t1

I am able to call it with arguments of types Char, [Char], Num, Floating, and Fractional (expressed as decimals):

Prelude> latter 'x' 'y'
'y'
it :: Char

Prelude> latter "foo" "bar"
"bar"
it :: [Char]

Prelude> latter 1 2
2
it :: Num t1 => t1

Prelude> latter pi pi
3.141592653589793
it :: Floating t1 => t1

Prelude> latter 0.5 0.7
0.7
it :: Fractional t1 => t1

Why do I get a horrible error (and what does it mean) when I try applying latter to a Fractional expressed as a ratio:

Prelude> 1/2
0.5
it :: Fractional a => a

Prelude> latter 1/2 1/2

<interactive>:62:1:
    Could not deduce (Num (a0 -> t1 -> t1))
      arising from the ambiguity check for ‘it’
    from the context (Num (a -> t1 -> t1),
                      Num a,
                      Fractional (t1 -> t1))
      bound by the inferred type for ‘it’:
                 (Num (a -> t1 -> t1), Num a, Fractional (t1 -> t1)) => t1 -> t1
      at <interactive>:62:1-14
    The type variable ‘a0’ is ambiguous
    When checking that ‘it’
      has the inferred type ‘forall t1 a.
                             (Num (a -> t1 -> t1), Num a, Fractional (t1 -> t1)) =>
                             t1 -> t1’
    Probable cause: the inferred type is ambiguous

Answer 1

Function application in Haskell binds more tightly than anything else. So

latter 1/2 1/2

gets read as

((latter 1) / (2 1)) / 2

Applying 2 to 1 is not such a hot idea, and since latter takes two arguments, latter 1 is actually a function. Dividing a function by something is also not a good idea. You can fix all of these problems using some parentheses:

latter (1/2) (1/2)