atw: Not ... all
- From: Howard Silcock <howard.silcock@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 9 Oct 2009 11:25:55 +1100
An email circulated in the government department where I work says 'smoking
is not permitted in all areas of the building occupied or controlled by the
Department'. I think the intended meaning is that you mustn't smoke in any
of those areas.
Am I being pedantic if I object that you could quite accurately interpret
that as meaning just that there's at least one area where smoking isn't
permitted?
If I said, for example, 'telephones are not installed in all offices',
surely you wouldn't think I meant that none of the offices had a phone? And
isn't that a parallel example?
Howard
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