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The Coffee Shop Sign

The Coffee Shop Sign The Context Place: a college coffee shop Time: 8 am on the Monday of finals week during the winter term (e.g. March 10) Cast: Kevin, the guy behind the counter, who has a weird sense of humor. Miscellaneous sleepy students who have been studying hard for finals. WAL

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The Coffee Shop Sign

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  1. The Coffee Shop Sign

  2. The Context • Place: a college coffee shop • Time: 8 am on the Monday of finals week during the winter term (e.g. March 10) • Cast: Kevin, the guy behind the counter, who has a weird sense of humor. Miscellaneous sleepy students who have been studying hard for finals. WAL

  3. The Action • WAL goes into the coffeeshop to get a cup of coffee. • Greets Kevin, orders coffee. • Gets coffee and turns to pay, when he see the following sign posted beside the cash register:

  4. Kevin’s Sign Do not serve dead customers. To anybody.

  5. Some questions • Why do we laugh at the end of the first line? • Why do we laugh more at the end of the second? • What semantic knowledge is involved here? • What processes are involved here?

  6. The verb feed • Do not feed the pigeons. • ?Do not feed the corn. • Do not feed the pigeons (the corn). • Do not feed the corn *(to the pigeons).

  7. The verb sell • Do not sell the cups. • ?Do not sell the students. • Do not sell the students ?(the cups). • Do not sell the cups (to the students).

  8. The verb serve • Do not serve the soup. • Do not serve the students. • Do not serve the students (the soup). • Do not sell the soup (to the students).

  9. Conclusions • Detailed linguistic knowledge determines what possible interpretations are available. • Lots of background information and “normal expectations” influence the construction of interpretation. • We can be misled in recognizing which linguistic expression was uttered.

  10. Multiple interpretations • The clowns all sat on Jumbo’s trunk. • Sandra talked to Maria about her aunt. • The chancellor told the proctor to stop drinking in the dorms. • I didn’t buy an SUV because they use a lot of gas.

  11. One more example… A: I just won a chance to have dinner with Ozzie Osbourne and his family. B: Great! Are you going to take a bat? Thanks to Deirdre Wilson.

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