Re: To restrict

Dragged out of Google...

On Thu, 08 Jul 2004 02:48:49 GMT,
Steve Hayes <hayesm...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Wed, 07 Jul 2004 11:39:17 +0100,
Alec McKenzie <mcken...@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

From the "Description" content of
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/3872691.stm

"A police force in the north-east of England urges pub landlords to
restrict the sale of alcohol to people under 21."

To me, this means they are urged to sell alcohol only to those under 21.
Is the verb 'to restrict' really so ambiguous?

That's the first meaning that occurs to me too.

It only looked ambiguous on the third reading.


--
Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/7734/stevesig.htm
E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk

This is somewhat interesting, because over the last weekend a thirteen
year-old relative of mine, the middle of three siblings, proclaimed
that the explanation for the movie rating "restricted" did not make sense.

The wording was

Restricted - Admittance restricted to persons 18 years of age or over.

(The word "Admittance" may not have been in what they were quoting
--displayed on their cell phone when I got to see it; I'm not sure if
it was a snapshot or a download).

They proclaimed

"restricted"--that means "not allowed", and "to persons 18 year of
age or over". That means admittance is not allowed for people 18
years of age or over.

I think they added also one of their typical strong assessments such
as, "That's stupid", or "That totally doesn't make sense".

I was able to suggest that "restricted" be interpreted in this case as
"limited", at which point the oldest sibling (not the one who had
initiated the discussion) saw the resolution. After some quizzical
looks the initiator appeared to be saying the youngest sibling was
looking it up in the dictionary. But I never heard any more about it
after that.

But one wonders if such wording will eventually need to be changed
to suit gradual misunderstanding of the meaning of "restrict".


Adrian Pepper.
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: To restrict
    ... Is the verb 'to restrict' really so ambiguous? ... Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa ... Restricted - Admittance restricted to persons 18 years of age or over. ...
    (alt.usage.english)
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    ... But yet you claim that people do EXACTLY that when they vote to restrict ... their liberty on what age groups they can have sex with. ... restrict their own liberties all the time. ... and adults are rarely very submissive. ...
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