One of my coursemates from another module that I'm taking this semester (Discourse Structure) put up this example on the forum:

























He commented that it was interesting that the first sign appeals to the customer's negative face by giving him/her the space to do what they want. He said the sign also conforms to politeness strategies, such as the use of the words "dear customer" and "your thoughtfulness". However the second sign sounds authoritative, with no leeway whatsoever.

I found it so cool that he made an observation like that! To quote the oft-used phrase, "Why didn't I think of that?" :D

For me, my theory is that as compared to smoking, studying seems more tame and of course, it doesn't break the law. And by right, it is the customer's "prerogative" to study there as they've already purchased food/drinks. So of course the restaurant will use more polite words to encourage customers to not study.

In the case of smoking, it's a big DUH that you shouldn't cause hey, it's air-conditioned and you're supposed to smoke in the yellow box anyway (just fyi, the outlet was at Bishan)

I'll be on the lookout for signs that say "Dear customers, please refrain from smoking in our restaurant at all times". Now THAT should be posted hehe.

Guess what! Imma doesn't just stand for "I am going to."

It's also an acronym for the Irish Museum of Modern Art :D http://imma.ie/en/index.htm

Hahahaha!

Bad joke alert!

"Imma go to imma today"

(^.^)V

Hurhur

Ahem. *clears throat nervously*

I was wondering if I should share this post but I shall assume that you readers are a nice bunch of people and will not judge me (^.^)V

I was on fmylife.com and came across this post (click on it to view it more clearly!):

So usually participants will post the awful things that happened in their lives on the site. And I was wondering what was so bad about the guy beside you saying "nice watch".

I then did a search on urbandictionary.com and I found the clarification to my bewilderment:

Phrase muttered at a urinal to make small talk or to cover for the fact that the person saying it has just looked at your junk.

And now we know! The website also says that you can use the phrase to mess with the person who picked the urinal next to yours. Boys, useful info for you? :)

The family and I went on a one-day trip to Malacca for a short holiday trip on Sunday. While we were there, we managed to drop by A&W for lunch. My mom, the coffee drinker in the family, ordered a cup of coffee. The cashier then asked whether she would like "white coffee". My mom said yes (though I have the lingering suspicion that she had no idea what "white coffee" is).

And I saw a couple of signs on the ride back that advertised "white coffee" as well.

So I then went on to Google (Bless Google) and searched for white coffee. One interesting thing that happened was that as I was typing "white coffee", the auto-search presented "white coffee malaysia" for me! So I was thinking that "white coffee" is more of a Malaysian lexicon rather than a Singaporean one, since I have not in my 21+years of existence come across "white coffee" in Singapore.

Anyway, Wiki says that
In English-speaking countries, "white coffee" is used to refer to regular black coffee that has had milk, cream or some other "whitener" added to it.

And lest you confuse it with cafe au lait,
White coffee should be distinguished from cafe au lait, in that white coffee uses room temperature milk or other whitener, while café au lait uses heated or steamed milk.

I also found an entry on Ipoh white coffee! Wiki says that
Ipoh "white" coffee is a popular coffee drink which originated in Ipoh, Malaysia. The coffee beans are roasted with palm-oil margarine, and the resulting coffee is served with condensed milk. The term "white coffee" originates from the literal translation of its Chinese name, which was introduced in the 19th century by Chinese migrants who came to work in the local tin mines.

Traditionally, Malaysian style "black" coffee roast is produced by roasting the beans with sugar and margarine. "White" coffee, on the other hand, is produced with only margarine and without any sugar, resulting in a less dark roast.

Ohhhhh.. And now we know :) So if you're in Malaysia, or an English-speaking country, by any chance, when the waiter/cashier asks if you'd like "white coffee", you'll know exactly what he means :)

I was at Buona Vista MRT station when I passed by this shop that sells naan. And on the shopfront was a picture of one of their menu items with *drumroll please* the words "DANIEL SPECIAL" on it!




















I took a double take when I saw the sign! I've heard of "Breakfast Specials" or "CNY Specials" but "Daniel Special"?!

Interesting huh! I'm sure our two Daniels must be feeling pretty honoured right now that there's a menu item named after them haha.

Well I didn't get the chance to find out what the fillings were, or why it was called "Daniel Special" because I was running late :) But you could say it's a food for thought aye? (Bad pun totally intended hehe)

Remember Prof Ooi gave us the word "imma", and said that those who have not come across the word might not know what it meant? I was thinking about words in the black vernacular English variety that have made it into popular culture, and I thought of the word "boo".

One very popular song that uses the word "boo" is Usher and Alicia Keys' duet "My Boo". (Wiki entry here :) )

So one line of the lyrics goes:
I know we haven't seen each other in a while but you will always be my boo

According to urbandictionary.com, "boo" is used to refer to one's boyfriend or girlfriend.

Black Eyed Peas also uses the word in their song "Shut Up":
Things that lovers say and do. I love you boo, I love you too.

Timely information with V-day around the corner huh? ;p

As linguists, we're all taught not to sneer at the "deviations" from the variety of language we call Standard English.

However, I am (guiltily) amused by this post on the IVLE regarding blood donation awareness talks.
























It's not very clear in the picture but what it says is:
Besides, there will be goodie bags with tempted voucher (value up to $20) distributed for ealiest birds.

Be warned, fellow linguists, the vouchers you could be receiving are tempted. There is also the wrong use of preposition and a spelling error but like Prof Ooi said, we're not S-tom-pers :)

Interesting point though - both tempting and tempted here function as adjectives. Though tempted could be used as a verb (I tempted her to break her diet), it seems that tempted here is almost like an adjective (cf: The tempted girl couldn't resist the chocolate buffet). Hmmm. What do you guys say?

If you took a double take at my title (and probably thinking "Can't she spell?!"), no worries it wasn't a spelling error :)





























This mailer was in my NUS email inbox, as part of an email blast advertisement for the NUS Career Fair 2010, and "Oogle" was their theme.

Although you could say that "Oogle" here could be the creative spelling of "ogle", the first thing that caught my attention was the similarity of the font type to that of the Google homepage:




















So then I thought it probably was a clipping of the "Google" word, so it became "oogle". My thought is that since the career fair is about you searching for your career, and the search engine is basically about searching (wow.), so the advertisers decided to do a play on the word "Google" so you "oogle" for your career. It might also be to prevent copyright infringement but let's not go there haha.

And combined with the fact that "oogle" can also be a variant spelling of "ogle", then there's a word play on the definition of ogle (to look, eye or stare at) to mean that we are looking for a career.

Confused? :D

So in other words,

I've got a new blog skin! Woohoo!

Quite feminine huh? :D

Nur Rashidah

This blog is a compulsory component of a Linguistics module I'm taking. I, along with my other coursemates, have to note down our observations on the English Language twice weekly.

I'll try to make the anecdotes as entertaining and personal as possible, but having said that I must stress that this is in no way a personal blog whatsoever :)

Do leave a comment to say hi, criticise constructively or just to share what's up :)

Amelia Teng
Amelia Leong (Mia)
Daniel #1
Daniel #2 (Danny)
Emmalyn
Heon
Hui Min
Jeanette
Jia Jie
Melissa
Ying Qi
Zuhara

January 2010

February 2010

March 2010

Honesty is the best policy! Leave the credits alone!
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