I'm wearing my blue shirt.

[xiaoen]

I'm wearing my blue shirt.

Hi,
Can we say that the above blue sentence can have two different meaning if used in different contexts?

This is my analysis:

I'm wearing my blue shirt. => I have put on my blue shirt (before) and it's on my body now.

I'm wearing my blue shirt. => I'm putting on my blue shirt (now) => (I'm doing the act of putting on now)

Am I right?

 

[Matthew Wai]

I think you are wrong because 'wear' does not mean 'put on' according to http://www.macmillandictionary.com/...-be-wearing-clothes-and-to-dress-other-people

 

[Tdol]

You are only wearing something once you have put it on for me.

 

[emsr2d2]

You are only wearing something once you have put it on for me.

Not just for you - for everyone.

 

[xiaoen]

Thanks. I have another similar question.

1. What are you wearing?
2. What do you wear?
3. What do you put on?

#1 means what you have on your body now and #2 means what you put on (maybe every day) as a habit.
And #2 and #3 have the same meaning. Am I right?

Am I right?

 

[xiaoen]

Alex: "I hate my office because it has a terrible dress code."

Jennifer: "Hahaha, really? Why? What do you wear?"


The above conversation is self-made. Can we say that the above blue question means "what do you put on? (for work)"

 

[emsr2d2]

If there's a strict dress code, the question would probably be "What do you have to wear?" or "What do they make you wear?"

 

[probus]

In spite of all the opposition I think you are absolutely right. Both can be perfectly natural and correct, depending on the context.

I'm wearing (= I am going to wear) my blue shirt when I go to the anti-trump rally.

I'm wearing my blue shirt because all of my other shirts are dirty.

 

[xiaoen]

Thank you.

Imagine you're Queen Elizabeth-what do you wear to meet the Pope or Marilyn Monroe?

http://fraze.it/n_search.jsp?q=what+do+you+wear%3F&l=0

Now in the above blue context can we say that "what do you wear?" means "what do you put on?"?

 

[emsr2d2]

That's more like a reported version of a rhetorical question. It's the kind of question that many of us will have asked ourselves over the years. We might think "Hmm, I'm meeting the Pope on Friday. Now - what do I wear?" It equates to "What shall I wear?"

I think you need to stop equating "wear" with "put on". We don't ask ourselves "What shall I put on to meet the Pope?" We ask "What shall I wear ...?"

"Put on" refers to the actual physical act of donning (look up the verb "to don") clothing, one piece at a time - stepping into your dress, pulling on your trousers, pulling up your socks, doing up a shirt etc. "Wear" is what you do after you've finished adding all those clothes to your body.

 

[Tdol]

And wear is appropriate because we're thinking of ourselves dressed in front of the Pope, rather than the act of getting dressed beforehand.