Sunday, April 10, 2011

Our Imprecise Use of the Language

The television commercial for a company selling gold begins with a young woman saying: "I am a small business owner." What did she say? Is she a small person who owns a business? I think it would have left no room for ambiguity if she had said: "I own a small business."


Similarly I remember years ago when I worked in an office in Chicago and OSHA had just gotten its feet under it when they declared that any four drawer file cabinet that was not securely fastened to the wall should have a sign posted on it that read "OPEN ONE DRAWER AT A TIME." I did precisely as instructed and when I got the fourth drawer open, the damn cabinet fell over on me!


Then I went on an extended trip to England where they also had a bureaucracy that purported to do the thinking for everyone. There the sign was less ambiguous that said: "PLEASE HAVE NO MORE THAN ONE DRAWER OPEN AT A TIME."

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