Wednesday January 16, 2008
What do you make of these?
THESE two notices were displayed in plain sight in one of Kuching’s clothes shops just before Christmas. I think your readers will agree that the one with the word “amicable” is somewhat more of a challenge, and I have been cracking my head trying to work out what it is trying to say, despite being a native speaker of English!
 |
The notice is presumably informing customers that they can only try on three items or fewer in the changing rooms. Not that the word “amicable” is any help of course!
In the second notice, the problems are more grammatical, with the word “reason” lacking its plural marker, and the misplaced apostrophe on “pants”. I also have problems with the use of “neither” which should be replaced with “nor”. Here, I think it should have read: “Do not try on due to reasons of hygiene. Girdles and pants sold are neither exchangeable nor refundable”. I will leave a correct interpretation of the first notice to your readers, as a test!
 |
– Dr Simon Faizal Hakim, Associate Professor in English Language, UiTM Sarawak, Kuching
RSS
