Asperger/autism Symptoms?

[Barquentine]

Does anyone else experience the following confusion? Whenever a phrase in common usage can be looked at one of two ways, most people understand immediately what is meant, but I always see the phrase as ambiguous and cannot remember which is the correct interpretation.

As examples, ‘bringing a date forward’ always meant (to me) making it later in the year. ‘Put the date back’ meant it will happen sooner than planned. Because I see time as a road – moving ‘back’ means towards where I am now.

‘He has all but completed the task’ – used to mean to me that he still has everything to do – the exact opposite of its actual meaning.

If today is Monday, ‘next Friday’ means the second Friday from now – the one that is near the end of next week. ‘This Friday’ is the Friday of the week I am in – but this is not what people mean! Most people mean this Friday when they say ‘next’ Friday. So many missed dates!!

An address stamp in the office had a sticker saying ‘TOP’. This was no good to me! Did this mean you should have ‘TOP’ towards you or away from you? Not a problem for anyone else in the office. That’s when I suspected I had a problem!

My best example is, as a kid, I was concentrating hard on a task at school. The teacher told me that I “couldn’t see the wood for the trees”. I took umbrage and complained: “Yes, I can sir, I can see the bark on the trees”. The teacher could see I was not being sarcastic and was genuinely confused. This example illustrates perfectly how my mind always seems to focus on entirely the wrong things so it is working overtime to try to catch up with what others understand easily.

My question is what type of condition these comprehension errors point to; they clearly indicate all is not normal in there!

[Cloverjo]

AnswerPrancer, it took me a little while to work out what you meant, but now I see; the less ambiguous way of speaking would be to say "you have a choice of two things."

[Answerprancer]

"you have a choice of two things."
That would mean two pairs of things to me.

[Cloverjo]

Ok, I thought I understood you, AnswerPrancer. Would "a choice between two things" make more sense?

[Jackdaw33]

...but not to me. It means to me, here are two things , make your choice.

[Answerprancer]

Sort of, except "choice" (by definition) is between two or more things anyway.

eg. "You have a choice: do this or do that"

Similarly:

"You have two choices: "do this or that" or "do this* or that*"
(*represents different actions).

[Cloverjo]

I see now, AP. The word "choice" is making me feel a bit strange now, as when you repeat a word often enough it loses its meaning.

[Jackdaw33]

I take your point, AP, but it all boils down to a matter of semantics..

[Answerprancer]

The need to 'conclude' stuff is a real problem with me, I get accused of being obsessive, pedantic, labouring issues etc. Especially if I've been accused of something - I just can't let it go unless it has been settled. This is one of the reasons why I post here in 'bunches' then run away for a period.

[bunkmoreland]

choice means 2 options....2 choices infers 4 options. Never thought that out so much until tonight!

[Answerprancer]

Now let's deal with the term "two teaspoonfulls" "teaspoonfulls"? "FULLS"!??
Shouldn't it be "two teaspoonsfull"?

[1ozzy]

Neither according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary neither!

teaspoonful
noun tea·spoon·ful \-ˌfu̇l\
plural tea·spoon·fuls \-ˌfu̇lz\ also tea·spoons·ful \-ˌspünz-ˌfu̇l, -ˈspünz-\

The choice is yours.

[1ozzy]

Please feel free to insert a comma after "Dictionary". ;-)

[Answerprancer]

Ok too many 'L's but I'm sure you get my point ;-)

[1ozzy]

Sure, but apparently both terms are correct.
But.
If a recipe called for two teaspoonsful would you need to get two teaspoons and fill them both?
If the same recipe called for two teaspoonfuls could you use the same teaspoon twice?

[Buenchico]

^^^Er, don't most recipes just refer to 'teaspoons' anyway?

The problem there, of course, is that 'teaspoons of gold' and 'teaspoons of silver' clearly refer to teaspoons made of those two metals, respectively. So 'teaspoons of sugar' must surely mean . . . ?

;-)

[1ozzy]

...must surely mean?

Don't expect to see much of it after you have stirred your cup of tea ;-)

[Buenchico]

Another thought (and genuinely something that irritates me):

If I go to a pub, my drink will be served in a 'glass'. That's fine, because the name of the receptacle is clearly derived from the substance that it's made of.

However, in some establishments, if I want to take my drink outside I have to have it poured into a receptacle which the bar staff insist upon referring to as a 'plastic glass'. That's ridiculous!!! It should just be a 'plastic'!

[1ozzy]

Or maybe a polyethylene terephthalate beverage container ;-).
But I doubt a bartender could pronounce that.
Lord knows I couldn't

[Jackdaw33]

The pluralising of words and phrases consisting of a noun and adjective take me back to my junior school . Courts martial or court martials? Queens Mother or Queen Mothers? In both cases the former is strictly correct but sound unnatural.

[1ozzy]

I've never totally understood the correct usages myself.
But!

When one of my sons was an infant we were discussing school during dinner one night. He informed us that Mrs **** was giving them "grandma" lessons, "you know dad, the correct use of grandma".
Before, after, his, hers, singular, plural etc.

When I thanked the lady (who was elderly) for her "grandma" lessons she looked daggers at me, until I explained.
Then she was so happy that a little kid actually understood what she was teaching, all we had to do was correct the pronunciation.