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Perpetual Traveller · Joined: 29 Aug 2005 Posts: 651 Location: In the Kak, Japan

While on a short break in England last week I came across an advert that said:

"Never too busy to ignore love"

which struck me as nonsensical. I would think that the sentence should be 'Never too busy for love' because to me the way it is written implies that there is always time to ignore love. That is because I think

never too busy to = always have/make time to

because you can say 'I am never too busy to go swimming' and it means the same thing as 'I always have/make time to go swimming'.

You can't say 'I am too busy to ignore love' (well you can I guess but it doesn't make a whole lot of sense) so why can you say 'I am never too busy to ignore love' or can you?

Help me out here folks, is it just weird British English? Perfectly acceptable anywhere English? Or was PT right (for once) and it is wrong?

PT

Guy Courchesne · Joined: 10 Mar 2003 Posts: 9650 Location: Mexico City

How about these store signs...

In a UK shop window.

"Why go elsewhere to be cheated when you can come here?"

In a US restaurant window.

"Don't stand there and be hungry. Come on in and get fed up."

Outside a UK cemetery.

"Persons are prohibited from picking flowers from any but their own grave."

Sheikh Inal Ovar · Joined: 04 Dec 2005 Posts: 1208 Location: Melo Drama School

Or that ray of hope in the otherwise crappy 80's Brit soap Eastenders ... an advert over a second-hand car-dealership run by a Mr Frank Butcher ...

"Fancy a motor .. 'av a butchers"

dmb · Joined: 12 Feb 2003 Posts: 8397

khmerhit · Posted: Wed Feb 22, 2006 4:50 pm Post subject: copycritters

very amusing, gentlemen. Very Happy

But to offer some khelp to the original poster,
I would say that not just in my humble opinion, but universally and globally, and according to the unbendable rules of logic, he is right-- and the statement

--never too busy to ignore love--

is wrong.

--never so busy as to have to ignore love--

or--as the OP clarifies--never too busy for love--

is the intended meaning, I think. But copywriters are outlaws!! they dont care. Think of it, thOSE MISERABLE CREATURES, advertising copywriters, they are out there right now, undoing all the careful work we put in as teachers.... scratching their heads at their little wooden desks in Harmondsworth or Bristol or Lyon or Kiev or Mumbai or Santa Barbara or Seatlle or Kansas City...there they are, unravelling all our hard work.

LETS GET THEm --LETS GET THE @#$#%##^&!!!! Shocked

wow--i need another cup of coffee---no, i need a WIFE!!

Justin Trullinger · Posted: Wed Feb 22, 2006 5:45 pm Post subject:

Maybe the question we need to ask is "What was it an advert for?"

As DOS, I always find time to ignore love, but rarely time to do anything else with it. Just ask my girlfriend! (This is a throwaway comment, and not in any way a reflection on my relationship. Cool

The original phrase is relatively grammatical, as sentence fragments go, and makes sense. As in "I always find time to ignore my significant other." I suspect this is a very different meaning than the writer intended, but maybe it's some tongue in cheek kind of thing? Or not...

Justin

Justin Trullinger · Posted: Wed Feb 22, 2006 5:45 pm Post subject:

Maybe the question we need to ask is "What was it an advert for?"

As DOS, I always find time to ignore love, but rarely time to do anything else with it. Just ask my girlfriend! (This is a throwaway comment, and not in any way a reflection on my relationship. Cool

The original phrase is relatively grammatical, as sentence fragments go, and makes sense. As in "I always find time to ignore my significant other." I suspect this is a very different meaning than the writer intended, but maybe it's some tongue in cheek kind of thing? Or not...

Justin

Perpetual Traveller · Joined: 29 Aug 2005 Posts: 651 Location: In the Kak, Japan

Oh yeah sorry, meant to put that and forgot, was overly enthusiastic about getting some replies, this became quite a hot debate topic between my aunt, my cousin and I! The advert was for medical romance novels (didn't say I was buying any, just the ad caught my eye) and the whole sentence was something like 'a world never too busy to ignore love and romance'.

khmerhit and Justin, thanks for the help,
dmb, Guy and Sheikh, thanks for the laughs!

PT

fluffyhamster · Posted: Wed Feb 22, 2006 9:36 pm Post subject:

http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/teacher/viewtopic.php?t=2246

BTW, I'm British. Wink

wildchild · Joined: 14 Nov 2005 Posts: 519 Location: Puebla 2009 - 2010

Even after viewing the link provided by fluffyhamster, which deals with the deep structure of the phrase put forth by the OP and ultimately argues for one �correct� interpretation of the phrase, I might argue for a different interpretation, no matter its inconsistency with the deep structure, when a context will allow for it, of course.

I might also add that I think Justin is on the right track: we need to look to the context!

e.g.

A lover who has been waiting near a previously hot dinner says to the other lover who has just returned late from work for the 4th time in one week, "you are so busy that you always ignore my love!"

The other lover responds, "[I am] never too busy to ignore love,� and then proceeds to passionately embrace the other.

Since this is my story, there is no room for doubt: the first lover does not push the other away and ask for clarification of the phrase. It has been understood correctly in the context.

Moving on:

Even grammatical phrases may seem "non-sensical" when spoken in an inappropriate context:

e.g.

Bob says to Bill, "Would you like coffee or tea?"

Bill responds "Liberate your television!"

Although Bill's response is grammatical, it is quite "non-sensical" given Bobs offer of tea.

Also, ungrammatical phrases may be quite "sensical" when spoken in an appropriate context:

e.g.

Bob steps on Bill's foot and Bill shouts "flippity fluck shuck!"

While the above reaction to severe pain may be ungrammatical it is quite �sensical.�

GambateBingBangBOOM · Joined: 04 Nov 2003 Posts: 2021 Location: Japan

Chasgul · Joined: 04 May 2005 Posts: 168 Location: BG

You could think of it as 'pragmatic' ellipsis: Never too busy (in order) to (have to) ignore love. Or was that the parasitic gap...? Twisted Evil

fluffyhamster · Posted: Thu Feb 23, 2006 5:36 pm Post subject:

Gregor · Joined: 06 Jan 2005 Posts: 842 Location: Jakarta, Indonesia

I've seen the "Eat Here and Get Gas" sign in California.
Who remembers THIS one - "Marlboros Taste Good, Like A Cigarette Should" ? That's my emphasis, for those of you who otherwise wouldn't catch the problem. When this ad came out, people went NUTS. And the advertisers never backed down.

khmerhit · Posted: Sun Feb 26, 2006 3:23 am Post subject:

they know their market, thats why--and the market aint esl geeks like us, its ordinary folk. i was just readin this bio of paul bowles--aparently he translated j-p sartres "Huis Clos" in 1946 and gave it the name No Exit in english, which all trans have subsquently used... anyway john huston took it to market but made v liberal changes to the story and pissed off jps--but it was a great success. i daresay huston knew more about people than jps ever did.... likewise yer marlboro men. Why do you think Geo bush talks like a hick? Does anyone really believe he cant talk proper? i believe some of his errors are ignorance, and others are deliberate attempts to talk like an ordinary joe and the habit has just grown on him.
he went to andover and yale for gods sake, dont tell me he is not educated. hmmm... i seem to have wandered off on a tangent....... Confused

---btw have you seen the cover of the new yorker tihs week--it has a painting of bush standing behind cheney who is blowing a puff of smoke off the end of his double-barreled shotgun. inside there is a roz cartoon of a get well card from cheney to harry whiitington his friend whaich says---'Sorry i shot you in the face with my shotgun--get well soon love dick' Laughing

---------man, i've been spending too much time hanginout in this caff--or cafe, as you call it. Yeah....another double intense colombian-java fripple--whipple latte with chocko sprinkles, thanks...........oh, and an order of fries --or is that chips, old man. Ta....