Cooked Food Centre

I saw this sign post at the food centre near my house, and snapped a picture of it! The words "Cooked Food Centre" caught my eye. Of course of course, there's nothing seriously wrong with it. However, on second glance, it occurred to me that "Cooked Food Centre" can have two meanings! The first meaning is that this is a food centre where cooked food is sold. This is when the adjective "cooked" modifies the noun "food", to give "cooked food", and "centre" is added at the back of "cooked food", to mean a food centre where cooked food is sold. It was mentioned in class that "shopping centre" is a quasi-phraseme. So I guess "cooked food centre" is a quasi-phraseme too.

"Cooked Food Centre" can have another meaning too! It can mean a food centre that is cooked. HAHA. But of course, this is not the intended meaning of "Cooked Food Centre". In this case, "food" and "centre" form a compound first, and then the adjective "cooked" modifies the compound "food centre". This would give the meaning of a food centre that is cooked.

If a person is not lexically primed to recognise the words "cooked food" (perhaps the person only eats food that is raw), he/she will not have any idea what "Cooked Food Centre" means.

The phrase "Lock Up Stalls" caught my eye too! I was thinking, what could "Lock Up Stalls" possibly mean? Stalls that are locked up? Then wouldn't it be "Locked-up Stalls" instead? But I seriously have no idea. Haha. =)