Newsgroups: sci.lang
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From: lilandbr@scn.org (Leland Bryant Ross)
Subject: Re: languages & happiness!!
Message-ID: <E5xLDr.KKD@scn.org>
Sender: news@scn.org
Reply-To: lilandbr@scn.org (Leland Bryant Ross)
Organization: Seattle Community Network
References: <5e8hpt$beh@reader.seed.net.tw>  
Date: Fri, 21 Feb 1997 02:25:02 GMT
Lines: 22


In a previous article, dski@cameonet.cameo.com.tw () says:

>Yes! I've often wondered how many Americans would understand "I'll open
>the bonnet while you get the spanner from the boot -- or did you leave it
>at the flat?" ("flat" and a few others really mystified me when I first
>encountered them in British novels)....

Has anybody done any dialect-atlas-type fieldwork on this, e.g. on the 
interpretation of and attribution (or not) of ambiguity to, sentences 
(out of context) like

		Didn't she have a flat?

(does it make you think *first* of lodgings or tyres?)

--
Liland Brajant ROS'        Juvat me nubes labentes spectare
P O Box 30091              Et cherubim in caelo cogitare;
Seattle, WA 98103 Usono    Cum cherubim cogitantur a me,
Tel. (206) 633-2434  	   Nescio utrum sint hi aut hae.  --ab Ogden Nash
			
