Re: [lojban] Illogical English Sign

[Jorge Llambías <jjllambias@gmail.com>]

On Thu, Aug 5, 2010 at 10:08 AM, Michael Turniansky
<mturniansky@gmail.com> wrote:
>  At the hospital where I work, there is a sign in the bathroom which
> reads, in part, "...Note: Those identified not washing your hands
> after bathroom use may be approached by your coworkers.  You can avoid
> this embarrassment!" This makes the logical part of my brain laugh
> every time I read it.  Translating that into lojban we get ".i ju'i .i
> lo na'e lumci be lo xance be do be'o bei ba'o lo nu pilno le lumku'a
> cu ba jai se tolzau la'acu'i lo kansa be do bei lo nu gunka   .i do
> kakne lo nu rivbi le za'i se burnygau"  It seems to me there are
> several billion people who don't wash MY hands after using the
> bathroom (their using, or my using?  It's not clear).  I don't really
> care if my coworkers approach them, nor am I really sure if my
> coworkers would.  And how would that embarrass me?

Is the sign really illogical, or just (potentially) ambiguous?

You can reduce the ambiguity considerably by replacing "those of you"
for "those". Can't "those" be understood that way??

How would you interpret "those with something in your hands"? Does
"your hands" restrict "those" to "those of you" in this case?

So I see how you can get a funny reading, but I don't really find the
wording as used illogical. (I do find it unbearably bigbrotherish
though. Wouldn't a "please wash your hands after ... " or "remember to
wash your hands after ..." suffice?)

mu'o mi'e xorxes

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