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.
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.