chance22
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- Mar 14, 2010
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In the same article, the author tries to say that British English is difficult to understand by an American, and he illustrates by using the following examples,
"After I married into this curious island race, I spend years trying to fathom their linguistic ways. I learned that when Britons table a motion they mean shelve it rather than put it forward for discussion, that a courgette is a zucchini and an aubergine an eggplant,..."
However, in dictionary, to table something means to put forward sth for discussion, esp. in Britain; on the contrary, in America, to table something may mean to put something aside for the moment. I wonder if the author is being ironical in explaining the phrase in an opposite way, to show that British people do not say what they want to say, or there is really a change in the meaning of "table" in British English?
Could you help me?
"After I married into this curious island race, I spend years trying to fathom their linguistic ways. I learned that when Britons table a motion they mean shelve it rather than put it forward for discussion, that a courgette is a zucchini and an aubergine an eggplant,..."
However, in dictionary, to table something means to put forward sth for discussion, esp. in Britain; on the contrary, in America, to table something may mean to put something aside for the moment. I wonder if the author is being ironical in explaining the phrase in an opposite way, to show that British people do not say what they want to say, or there is really a change in the meaning of "table" in British English?
Could you help me?