When I checked-in, I asked the hotel desk clerk, and he couldn’t tell me what item #2 means.
Which do YOU think is the case?
A.) There are NO rooms in-which you are allowed to smoke, OR…
B.) There are rooms available in-which you MAY smoke?
(We’ll never know, because I don’t smoke, and the desk clerk apologized “I’m new.”)
Verb omission is common in radio news.
Here’s an example, from a station in Texas, a story about a love triangle shooting. Listeners heard:
“The woman’s husband arrested the wounded man taken to the hospital.”
Here are the facts the writer obscured:
• Police arrested the woman’s husband, the accused shooter.
• The person he shot was hospitalized.
As-is, the ear was told something different when half-sentences ran-together.
