Children Sold Here
This sign, which tries unsuccessfully to combine two noun phrases — children’s books and Chinese books — was spotted in a bookstore in Singapore. It implies erroneously that children are sold here, in addition to Chinese books!
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3 comments:
Took me time to read the whole article, the article is great but the comments bring more brainstorm ideas, thanks.
- Johnson
That's great, Johnson -- thanks very much.
The word "child" is a bit tricky, don't you think? The German word, "Kinderarzt" can be erroneously translated into English as "child doctor", which implies that a child prodigy has received a licence to practise and is working as a medical doctor. A better translation should be "doctor for children". However, the right English word is "paediatrician" (or "pediatrician" in AmE). The English vocabulary is rather too complicated with Anglo-Saxon, Old Norse, Norman French, Parisian French, Greek (as in this instance) and Latin words galore ("galore" is of Celtic origin, incidentally).
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