| Well, that is the point at which the syntax error occurs. There isn't really much that can be done about that.
The second function is just wrong - it cannot be parsed - the first expression appears to set a variable to an empty array, but it actually continues with the brace enclosed part since an expression followed by a block may be one of the resource type expressions. In most cases when wanting to return a literal hash, the preceding line must be terminated with semicolon ;, or use an explicit return. | 
