Glad Yuletide to all relevanters,
A tit-bit (or tiD-bit, as the pooritan Americans prefer):
"When my grandmother was 80 years old, she didn't use glasses."
TRY TO REASON THE OPTIMAL RELEVANCE FOR THAT
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"She drank right out of the bottle." (Syman Hirsch)
Is there a name for that phenomenon. I mean why do we (or at least I) infer
wrong? Call it "The Glasses Effect". My explanation (INTER ALIA)
- "glasses" in plural is a fixed collocation.
You cannot wear a glass.
but cfr. a monocle.
(I think John Lyons's book on pragmatics plays
on this pun on the cover of the Fontana edition).
- also the proper English (British) way is to
"WEAR" glasses, not "use" them!
- old people wear glasses.
- you don't clean your dirty linen in public, as the
English do (I mean, as the English "say"!)
I.e. alcoholism is not a relevant out-of-the-blue
conversational topic.
- etc.
A Glad Yuletide to all!
JL
(Mr)
Bs.As, Arg.
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