This sign on campus has my little grammar brain spinning.
Is it supposed to be a command? "Walk, bicycles!"
A list of nouns? "Walkers, bicycles"
Actions allowed under the bridge? "Walk. Bike."
This is why construction management majors should be required to take more English courses. So that I waste less time trying to mentally correct their signage.
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6 comments:
"Walk" is in the imperative, "bicycles" is the direct object. Kind of the opposite of "Ride bicycles." Would it make it better for you if it said "Please walk bicycles."? (And yes, I know that it's a bit odd that a grammar freak has his own rules for punctuation.)
Nice to see you back for a bit. Though it looks like your commenters are also in the middle of the summer adventures. Trust a nerd post to pull one out of the woodwork. :)
Agreed. I see you were on the "Scholars Walk". That sign drives me nuts. It is like it was too difficult to figure out the correct punctuation, so it was best to just give up and do nothing.
See, I see "bicycles" as being in the Vocative case - which would be more like "Hear Ye Bicycles: Thou shalt walk!"
Of course, I wonder why they are addressing the bicycles and not the bicyclists. After all, lone bicycles cannot walk. At least not yet.
JMW
I've always wondered about icecream vans - "Caution Children". Are we being cautious of children, or should the children be cautious of the icecream/man/van?
Gilly...that's another good one! Of course, now I'm going to be trying to figure that one out, too...ha :)
What Confusador said.
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