The Vagueness of Language

_Howard wrote:

After having mastered the language sufficiently to carry on normal conversation, more than one of them has said that they find that the meaning of words seems to change according to context. Try to explain the rationality of that to someone.

I occasionally find myself rewriting a sentence because what I have written can be taken two different, often opposite ways.  Many other times I have not noticed this until after the recipient misunderstands me.

Occasionally I have used this to my advantage, to tell somebody something they do not want to hear but to phrase it in such a way that they THINK they're hearing what they want but in point of fact I'm saying the opposite.  I'm not lying to them, they're just misinterpreting.  Can't think of any examples right now, but the English language is a marvelous tool for obfuscation.

Famous examples from the internet are giving recommendations for an ex-employee: "We literally cannot tell you what Marjorie did for this company."  "Marjorie's departure has left a hole we will be unable to fill."  "Nobody did the job better than Marjorie."

Teacher: "The use of a double negative, though uncommon and often considered poor grammar, results in a neversal of both negatives, resulting in a statement affirming the clause with the double negative. There is no coincident reversal of meaning when using two positives."

Student: "Yeah, right."

A PAIR of glasses, or a PAIR of underwear... but only a single BRA?

A PAIR of pants. Why not a PAIR of shirt?

On a side note: Do you think Markaba feels cheated when he has to buy a pair of gloves?

I wonder if this is an American thing? Do the Brits use these forms?
Richard?
Richard?
Bueller?
Bueller?

It's not just the word pair, but other terms denoting plurality. You say, "I need some new Levis." But you don't say, "I need some new jacket."

You ask someone if he would like "some coffee". I notice in the British programs I watch that they always say, "a coffee." But they also say "some tea".

Maybe there are glove exchanges like they have for shoes for one-legged people.

_Howard wrote:

You ask someone if he would like "some coffee". I notice in the British programs I watch that they always say, "a coffee."

Starbucks is the reason "a coffee" is too vague.

What Starbucks serves is only vaguely coffee.

But, like McDonalds has done for the hamburger, their miserable approximation has come to define the genre.

I have eaten at McDonalds exactly twice in my life. Both times I got a terrible stomach ache. The two times were about ten years and 150 miles apart, so it can't be blamed on one establishment.

For a lot of British people, when you're talking coffee, you're talking instant, so they do make you a cup of (ersatz) coffee. On the other hand, even if they're using tea bags, they're throwing them in a pot and making a whole pot of tea. So they can offer you some of that tea.

Thanks, Richard. I was considering that it might be something like that. Makes sense.
As I no longer brew pots of coffee, but brew each cup individually, I sometimes find myself asking if a friend would like "a coffee" or "an espresso". But for whatever reason, it still sounds odd when I hear it spoken by someone else.

Regarding fast food burgers, am I the only one who tastes spoiled meat and feces in the meat? I mean seriously, I taste that.

It's been a while, but as best I remember, my biggest problem with fast-food burgers was I couldn't really taste meat at all.

There are mom & pop burger joints that use fresh ground round and their burgers taste good (not much of a red meat eater, but occasionally). It's the mass-produced frozen patties that taste like they were made from garbage dump refuse.

BTW the tacos at Taco Bell are just as bad.