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When notifications get aggressive

You have been warned
It's always pleasing to find signs in public places with exemplary punctuation and word use. Just as pleasing as having sentences written in a sarcastic way interpreted as being sarcastic.
Else where on this blog you can find examples of chinglish (Chinese-English) and other language mistakes that I have a love/hate relationship with.

I saw this amazing example today by Sydney Harbour and Foreshore Authority.

Sign attached to 5 barriers
Taped to 5 plastic barriers, the sign warns the city's citizens that there is "no parking", which is a reasonable request.

But then it goes on to further advise that "offenders will be infringed". Despite seeing those Copyright Infringement Notices from ISPs where you download something illegally then get notified that you have infringed some copyright, I've not seen the word used in a different way. Especially warning that an "offender will be infringed". Among the dictionary definitions of infringed is the word violated. And adding some punctuation it makes the sign read "No parking, offenders will be violated".
Maybe it's not a language error, just good use of a thesaurus....




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