English is not an easy language (#335, Topic L)
In an earlier post, I mentioned that a reader in Ann Arbor felt a notice he saw in a hotel room in Manaus, Brazil, was worthy of writing a letter to the editor of Wall Street Journal (#332) -- and editors at WSJ felt that it was worthy of publishing. A friend asked me how that notice was phrased. Here it is: "Press 9 and we will come to take off your clothes." It is unlikely that our letter writer was concerned with the fine distinction between we shall and we will; more likely, it was the phrase take off that prompted him to write -- after "wacking English" in Beijing "made [the letter writer] laugh." Is the notice really that bad? Is it wrong, grammatically speaking? Given my limited understanding of the English language, I have to confess that I cannot find anything wrong with this notice -- grammatically speaking. Perhaps the letter writer felt that the phrase take off has only one meaning. If so, I have news for him. Dictionary: Macmillan, which is intended for high-school students -- or for people like me -- finds the verb take so difficult that it adds (and defines), after the main entry, more than a dozen prepositional phrases -- from take after, take back, take down, take for down to take to, take up, and take up to. As to take off, one of the phrases defined, the dictionary offers no less than 5 different meanings -- "a to remove, as a garment; b to deduct, to subtract; c to imitate; d to rise up in flight; e to depart, leave." Frankly, I am more interested in knowing how people to whom English is the first language handle their mother tongue. Yesterday, I wrote about the presidential news conference (#334). Today's Washington Post has a long story on that event. At one point, the president asked a reporter: "Michael, who do you work for?" Who? not whom? It is understandable that Americans want non-native speakers of English to have a good command of the language; fair enough. But, please show us the way; set a good example. Show us how English should be used; spare us the nitpicking. Spare us a tree or two.
posted by David H. Li at 11:00 PM
1 Comments:
David, you're confusing grammatical correctness and usage here. English is indeed and complicated language and all of us fall short in the area of grammar. In addition, we usually allow more lattitude in informal situations, such as an offhand comment, as apposed to an edited manuscript. The President should have said "For whom do you work?" since it is also considered inappropriate to end a sentence with a preposition, though this prohibition is less and less observed these days.
The humor in the Brazilian hotel sign has nothing to do with grammar, but is completely dependent on usage. It is indeed correct to use the phrase "take off" in reference to clothes. However, to a native English speaker, that prhaseology almost invariably describes the act of removing clothing from the person, not the premises. What is not obvious to the Brazilians is that the notice offers the hotels services to disrobe its guests. Since this is not their intent, it becomes humorous.
I looked around for other examples of this sort of humorous misunderstanding. Here are a couple from hotel notices:
Athens, Hotel
Visitors are expected to complain at the office between the hours of 9 and 11 A.M. daily.
To an English speaker, this invites two hours of continuous complaining, rather than merely offering the opportunity to complain during those hours.
Yugoslavia, Hotel
The flattening of underwear with pleasure is the job of the chambermaid.
This one implies some sort of sexual conduct, though actually offering ironing services.
Japan, Hotel:
You are invited to take advantage of the chambermaid.
Again, the phrase "take advantage" is grammatically correct, yet implies to an English speaker that the chambermaid is being somehow violated or opporessed.
These misusages give us a humorous window into the difficulties of learning our language, and of overcoming the barriers between cultures. I'm sure such occurrences exist in other languages as well, as English speakers and others struggle to express their thoughts in an unfamiliar medium, and I would imagine that those people find it amusing as well.
Russia, Hotel:
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