Hello everyone! A very Happy New Year to all of you! Hope all of you have had a great New Year! Haha. =)
Oh gosh, I realised that having to create this lexical journal for class has caused me to be constantly looking around, keeping my eyes peeled for potential "targets" to include in my blog! HAHA.
This time, I was on the bus on my way to school, looking around at the various signs inside the bus, in the hope of finding something to include in my blog, and aha! I found something when I was about to alight from the bus!
This sign was pasted on one of the doors at the exit:
Oh gosh, I realised that having to create this lexical journal for class has caused me to be constantly looking around, keeping my eyes peeled for potential "targets" to include in my blog! HAHA.
This time, I was on the bus on my way to school, looking around at the various signs inside the bus, in the hope of finding something to include in my blog, and aha! I found something when I was about to alight from the bus!
This sign was pasted on one of the doors at the exit:
"Please do not alight when door closing light is on."
Most of us would have no problems understanding what this sign is trying to convey, from the situation of being about to alight from the bus, and also when we spot the box with the words "DOOR CLOSING" written on it, located just above the doors. But for someone who is not lexically primed, the sign might cause some confusion at first glance. What does "door closing light" mean? The door closing the light? Of course, this sounds hilarious. One way to get rid of the confusion would be to construct the sign as this:
"Please do not alight when 'door closing' light is on." Sounds better?
Another thing that we can point out is the word "on". But this doesn't really pose much of a confusion, since "on" is being used as an adverb over here, meaning "switched on", and not the transitive verb introduced in TCEED2. We can also reword this sign as:
"Please do not alight when 'door closing' light is switched on." Perhaps it sounds cumbersome?
Or how about:
"Please do not alight when 'door closing' light is flashing." Sounds better?
On the whole, this highlights the importance of lexical priming, which we tend to take for granted in our daily lives. We are able to understand the sign, precisely because it is lexically primed for us.
Most of us would have no problems understanding what this sign is trying to convey, from the situation of being about to alight from the bus, and also when we spot the box with the words "DOOR CLOSING" written on it, located just above the doors. But for someone who is not lexically primed, the sign might cause some confusion at first glance. What does "door closing light" mean? The door closing the light? Of course, this sounds hilarious. One way to get rid of the confusion would be to construct the sign as this:
"Please do not alight when 'door closing' light is on." Sounds better?
Another thing that we can point out is the word "on". But this doesn't really pose much of a confusion, since "on" is being used as an adverb over here, meaning "switched on", and not the transitive verb introduced in TCEED2. We can also reword this sign as:
"Please do not alight when 'door closing' light is switched on." Perhaps it sounds cumbersome?
Or how about:
"Please do not alight when 'door closing' light is flashing." Sounds better?
On the whole, this highlights the importance of lexical priming, which we tend to take for granted in our daily lives. We are able to understand the sign, precisely because it is lexically primed for us.
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