LINGUIST List 2.531

Tue 17 Sep 1991

Disc: Warning

Editor for this issue: <>

Directory

1. Lou Burnard, RE: 2.518 Warning: in case
2. , Re: 2.518 Warning: in case
3. , Re: 2.518 Warning: in case

Message 1: RE: 2.518 Warning: in case

On the sun-kissed island of Mauritius, which has a linguistic history
of extraordinary variety, official notices warning you that you may
not pass them without straying into private property generally
consist solely of the word
 TRESPASS
This is not (I think) an invitation, but an abbreviation.
for the good old fashioned `Trespassers William' (under whose name,
it may be recalled, Piglet lived)
helpfully,
Lou Burnard

Message 2: Re: 2.518 Warning: in case

Two comments on Michael Kac's comments. First, I suspect warning is
simply a notification /announcing to the hearer of some prospective
state of affairs the speaker believes will be to the hearers dis-
advantage. It doesn't have to be dangerous. Second, one could draw (
but I won't) the inference from the European train "warnings" that
whereas Italians can draw the inference about the problems with leaning
out of a train, the French and Germans must be directly told not to
do it. Does this directness/indirectness reflect the different cultures,
the language, or sign makers? Bruce Fraser

Message 3: Re: 2.518 Warning: in case

Ron Smyth's comments on WARNING seem to point in the direction
of a legal or quasi-legal value attached to it. If my instructor
refuses to accept a paper late and if she has issued a WARNING
in due time, then I cannot accuse her of bias/discrimination/malevolence,
etc. and will have to nurse my ulcer in silence. On the other hand,
if there was no WARNING, then I might appeal to the headmaster/dean/provost/
or whatever saying that I had not been WARNED. Likewise, if no sigh
I mean sign is POSTED (ie there is no WARNING) by the lake and I
go swimming and Nessie bites off my toe, I stand a better chance to win
a law suit than would be the case if a prominent WARNING sign had
made it clear I was swimming there at my own risk. If any of you
has a lawyer friend, you might ask him what he thinks of this matter
before this otherwise interesting discussion gets too abstract.
----------------------------
Milton Azevedo
ctlnttviolet.berkeley.edu
----------------------------