Unclear suspension

City of Westminster
WARNING
PARKING SUSPENDED
If this suspension is unclear or is not being used, please call 020
7823 4567

Maybe this has some meaning to Londoners, but it has left me
mystified. ...

Well, then, why didn't you follow the instructions?
--
Mark Brader, Toronto "Don't try this at work."
msb@vex.net -- Dennis Ritchie

On 2011-08-07 19:50:58 +0200, Mike Lyle said:

On Sun, 07 Aug 2011 17:01:34 +0100, Nick Spalding <spalding@iol.ie>
wrote:

Don Phillipson wrote, in <j1m9sk$ppq$1@speranza.aioe.org>
on Sun, 7 Aug 2011 09:38:34 -0400:

"Link" <LinkedIn@centre.com.au> wrote in message
news:nq1t37l7japf0o6bloadakoh5f2qrimk5m@4ax.com...

On a recent trip to Blighty, I saw the following sign on a traffic
cone:

City of Westminster
WARNING
PARKING SUSPENDED
If this suspension is unclear or is not being used, please call 020
7823 4567

Maybe this has some meaning to Londoners, but it has left me
mystified. No matter how I look at it, it makes no sense.

Can some clever cockney explain it?

This is not cockney English but Lego theory viz. assembly
of an order or instruction by juxtaposing nouns. In this case:
1. "Parking" = public right to park a vehicle here
2. "Suspended" = temporarily in abeyance.

I don't suppose the OP is having too much trouble with that bit, but
what is the meaning of the next sentence, in particular the "is not
being used" part.

Lego theory is common. Another example is "welfare" to
mean payments to the poor. If these payments were changed,
we might read something like "Welfare halved in Scotland."
This is correctly understood to mean the amount of payments
(or perhaps their total sum) has been or will be reduced by 50%,
No current reader interprets it as meaning the actual well-being or
comfort of Scotchmen has been altered.

You can apply to have a town parking space to yourself for a limited
period. It's generally for a few hours to enable removal vans to do
their stuff, or a few days so that a disposal skip ("dumpster") can be
parked outside for house-clearing, building or landscaping work. You
pay for it, and the other residents may get hacked off with you if it
goes on too long. The off-pissedness makes a crescendo if the
suspension isn't actually used.

That makes perfect sense, but I would't have guessed that that was what
it meant.

Usually when people move into or out of the building where I live the
concierge marks off a space with chairs or some such to reserve it for
the movers' lorry. Last week, however, the movers themselves marked off
the space and attached notices saying that there was a municipal order
that allowed them to tow away anyone who violated the space. I would
have been exceedingly pissed off if I got towed away for parking in a
space reserved for residents, so I read the municipal letter carefully:
it just gave the movers permission to park there; it said nothing about
preventing residents from parking there or towing them away if they
did. Needless to say I didn't park there (I never do, even when they
don't issue threats); in any case there is no shortage of spaces
between the 14th July and 31st August.


--
athel

Mike Lyle:
You can apply to have a town parking space to yourself for a limited
period. It's generally for a few hours to enable removal vans to do
their stuff, or a few days so that a disposal skip ("dumpster") can be
parked outside for house-clearing, building or landscaping work. You
pay for it, and the other residents may get hacked off with you if it
goes on too long. The off-pissedness makes a crescendo if the
suspension isn't actually used.

Athel Cornish-Bowden:
That makes perfect sense, but I would't have guessed that that was what
it meant.

Likewise.

Usually when people move into or out of the building where I live the
concierge marks off a space with chairs or some such to reserve it for
the movers' lorry. Last week, however, the movers themselves marked off
the space and attached notices saying that there was a municipal order
that allowed them to tow away anyone who violated the space...

In Toronto, you can phone the parking enforcement department and
"request consideration" for a company to park illegally while doing
the sort of work described above. You have to supply the dates and
the vehicles' license numbers. If there is also a concept of a
public parking space being reserved as described above, I haven't
encountered it.
--
Mark Brader | "And I won't like [this usage] any better if you
Toronto | produce examples from Shakespeare, Milton, Johnson ...
msb@vex.net | Or, indeed, myself." --Mike Lyle

My text in this article is in the public domain.

On Sun, 07 Aug 2011 18:50:58 +0100, Mike Lyle
<mike_lyle_uk@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:



You can apply to have a town parking space to yourself for a limited
period. It's generally for a few hours to enable removal vans to do
their stuff, or a few days so that a disposal skip ("dumpster") can be
parked outside for house-clearing, building or landscaping work. You
pay for it, and the other residents may get hacked off with you if it
goes on too long. The off-pissedness makes a crescendo if the
suspension isn't actually used.


OK, now I get it. It's pretty dreadful English, though, isn't it?

I often take photos of bad English I encounter in various places
around the world, but it's normally in non-English speaking countries,
so is therefore excusable.

You don't get much closer to the centre of the Queen's English than
the City of Westminster, though.