For the Grice Club
Mikes writes in "How to become a Brit"
"Furriners should not regret, and recall that
they provide an endless source of mirth to
some Englishmen"
--- And he knew -- but that was before we's got swamped by them -- them Hungarians!
---
Anyway, Grice was perhaps right in restricting 'implicature' to "intended implicature".
"An implicatura," he writes, "is not like a baby. An unwanted baby is _still_ a baby; an unwanted implicature is not". He meant, not an implicature, no not a baby, which we know.
Thus, when travelling abroad, never mind. Never mind the implicature. People don't _KNOW_.
It's useless to _try_.
Just consider this random sample of signs from around the world. That is, English signs in foreign places. And why is it that the _wrong_ people travel? Now you know!
Cocktail lounge, Norway:
LADIES ARE REQUESTED NOT TO HAVE CHILDREN IN THE BAR.
At a Budapest zoo:
PLEASE DO NOT FEED THE ANIMALS. IF YOU HAVE ANY SUITABLE FOOD, GIVE IT TO THE GUARD ON DUTY.
Doctors office, Rome:
SPECIALIST IN WOMEN AND OTHER DISEASES.
Information booklet about using a hotel air conditioner, Japan:
COOLS AND HEATS: IF YOU WANT CONDITION OF WARM AIR IN YOUR
ROOM, PLEASE CONTROL YOURSELF.
Car rental brochure, Tokyo:
WHEN PASSENGER OF FOOT SIGHT, BLOW THE HORN, MELODIOUSLY AT FIRST,
BUT IF HE STILL OBSTACLES YOUR PASSAGE THEN BLOW HIM WITH VIGOUR.
In a Nairobi restaurant:
CUSTOMERS WHO FIND OUR WAITRESSES RUDE OUGHT TO SEE THE MANAGER.
On a River highway:
TAKE NOTICE: WHEN THIS SIGN IS UNDER WATER, THIS ROAD IS IMPASSABLE.
On a poster at Kencom:
ARE YOU AN ADULT THAT CANNOT READ? IF SO, WE CAN HELP.
In a City restaurant:
OPEN SEVEN DAYS A WEEK, AND WEEKENDS TOO.
In a maternity ward:
NO CHILDREN ALLOWED.
In a cemetery:
PERSONS ARE PROHIBITED FROM PICKING FLOWERS FROM ANY GRAVES BUT THEIR OWN .
Tokyo hotel's rules and regulations:
GUESTS ARE REQUESTED NOT TO SMOKE OR DO OTHER DISGUSTING BEHAVIOURS IN BED.
On the menu of a Swiss restaurant:
OUR WINES LEAVE YOU NOTHING TO HOPE FOR.
In a Tokyo bar:
SPECIAL COCKTAILS FOR THE LADIES WITH NUTS.
In a Bangkok temple:
IT IS FORBIDDEN TO ENTER A WOMAN EVEN A FOREIGNER IF DRESSED AS A MAN.
Hotel room notice, Thailand:
PLEASE DO NOT BRING SOLICITORS INTO YOUR ROOM.
Hotel brochure, Italy:
THIS HOTEL IS RENOWNED FOR ITS PEACE AND SOLITUDE. CROWDS FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD FLOCK HERE TO ENJOY ITS SOLITUDE.
Hotel lobby, Bucharest:
THE LIFT IS BEING FIXED FOR THE NEXT DAY. DURING THAT TIME WE REGRET THAT YOU WILL BE UNBEARABLE.
Hotel elevator, Paris:
PLEASE LEAVE YOUR VALUES AT THE FRONT DESK.
Hotel, Japan:
YOU ARE INVITED TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE CHAMBERMAID.
In a Russian Orthodox monastery:
YOU ARE WELCOME TO VISIT THE CEMETERY WHERE FAMOUS RUSSIAN AND SOVIET COMPOSERS, ARTISTS, AND WRITERS ARE BURIED DAILY EXCEPT THURSDAY.
Supermarket, Hong Kong:
FOR YOUR CONVENIENCE, WE RECOMMEND COURTEOUS, EFFICIENT SELF-SERVICE.
From the "Soviet Weekly":
THERE WILL BE A MOSCOW EXHIBITION OF ARTS BY 15,000 SOVIET REPUBLIC PAINTERS AND SCULPTORS. THESE WERE EXECUTED OVER THE PAST TWO YEARS.
In an East African newspaper:
A NEW SWIMMING POOL IS RAPIDLY TAKING SHAPE SINCE THE CONTRACTORS HAVE THROWN IN THE BULK OF THEIR WORKERS.
Hotel, Zurich:
BECAUSE OF THE IMPROPRIETY OF ENTERTAINING GUESTS OF THE OPPOSITE SEX IN THE BEDROOM, IT IS SUGGESTED THAT THE LOBBY BE USED FOR THIS PURPOSE.
An advertisement by a Hong Kong dentist:
TEETH EXTRACTED BY THE LATEST METHODISTS.
A laundry in Rome:
LADIES, LEAVE YOUR CLOTHES HERE AND SPEND THE AFTERNOON HAVING A GOOD TIME.
Tourist agency, Czechoslovakia:
TAKE ONE OF OUR HORSE-DRIVEN CITY TOURS. WE GUARANTEE NO MISCARRIAGES.
The box of a clockwork toy made in Hong Kong:
GUARANTEED TO WORK THROUGHOUT ITS USEFUL LIFE.
In a Swiss mountain inn:
SPECIAL TODAY - NO ICE-CREAM.
Airline ticket office, Copenhagen:
WE TAKE YOUR BAGS AND SEND THEM IN ALL DIRECTIONS.
Etc.
As an exercise take your pick and analyse in some detail where the misimplicature lies.
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Are you familiar with crash blossoms?
ReplyDeleteNow I am, thankyou!
ReplyDelete"The potential for unintended humor in “compressed” English isn’t restricted to headline writing; it goes back to the days of the telegraph."
--- has a good Attalardian ring to it.
Attalardo is my favourite Gricean authors in humor-theoretical stances. But more about him, later.
-- Your thing, crash blosooms, should appeal McCreery whom we both know. He lives, after all, in Tokyo. The other day he was sharing with us,
"Surely I wasn't outskirting a Buddah monk"
--- Or something. He _sells_ word works!
The Japan original 'crash blossom' is a good one. For I would distinguish between
lifelong native humour
and other
-- the Japanese _are_ lifelong (Japanese) natives, so... But one doesn't know about that collocation. I failed to understand it, literally.
The blossom of a crash, etc.
Oddy, one of my first posts to FLN also implied or implicaed the Japanese. I was reading in The Guardian (sorry abhat that) that the Japanese refused to call a mouse (as per computer) a 'mouse' on the basis of it sounding "dirty".
But I would thus distinguish between native (monolingual monocerebrial) speakers and other (eg. bis).
I think it's _sad_ to have a monolingual gaffe like that. With lifelong natives (of other furrin languages) it's more OK.
Etc.
Humour can be a trick. I'm assuming all the listees in my list are apocryphal. Etc.
The ones mentioned by the rather pedantic (but I love them) Language Log are too sophisticated to my taste, but should have a look.
I don't think Grice really discussed this case of gross mistake that may originate a laugh, or a laughter, as the case may be.
Attalardo did. He found that ALL humour, even slapstick one, as Chaplin falling over a banana skin, is some violation ('flouting' he writes) of a Gricean maxim.
I once contacted him, a nice chap from Milano. I said, "I have to congratulate you on your having initiated that conference at Berkeley, the Legacy of Grice". He said, "That's because my name starts with an "A", unlike Zwicky's".
Etc.