The Hourglass

I was shopping the other day at a department store and wandered into one shop which carries a lot of American country goods: things like quilts, decorative covers for kitchen appliances, and that kind of stuff. Although this was in Japan, most of the stuff seemed to have been imported directly from the US (or at least diverted enroute from China…) and had labels entirely in English. I noticed a small package of reusable stickers—you know, the kind that you can put on windows—that had roses on them. Upon closer inspection, I noticed the following description:

For me, this sentence is ungrammatical. While there are some (e.g., peevologists and peevebloggers) who would take this as evidence of waning educational standards and thereby bemoan the pitiable state of the education system, that's not my interest. For me, it's much more interesting to try to figure out why the writer wrote the sentence this way. So let's walk through a couple of possibilities here.

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I was browsing some blogs recently when I happened upon this post by Tigerhawk. He noticed the following AP headline and lede.

House Democrats to unveil Iraq war plan

In a direct challenge to President Bush, House Democrats are advancing legislation requiring the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from Iraq by the fall of next year.

He objects to the title because the democrats' proposal is not a war plan but rather a retreat plan. One commenter, Shochu John, takes the view that the headline sounds fine: "It means plan regarding the Iraq war, no?" This is an interesting difference of opinion. Whose interpretation is correct? Well, linguistically, both of them.

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