Wordcraft Home Page    Wordcraft Community Home Page    Forums  Hop To Forum Categories  Potpourri    Mismatched phrases
Go
New
Find
Notify
Tools
Reply
  
Mismatched phrases Login/Join
 
Member
Picture of BobHale
posted
Something struck me as odd about an advert I saw on TV yesterday. It doesn't matter what it was for (code for I can't remember what it was for Smile) but it started with this

"Don't just look, see. Don't just hear, listen."

It may just be me but I can't unscramble the meaning of this because for me look compares logically to listen while see compares logically to hear. I can decipher "Don't just look, see" as meaning that trying to do something is less important than doing it. (If we take "look" as being "try to see".) On the other hand "Don't just hear, listen." seems to be the opposite - that doing something is less important than trying to do it (with listen being "try to hear".)
The two halves of the slogan seem to me to be logically mismatched rendering the whole sound bite as gibberish.

Or is it just me over analysing again?


"No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money." Samuel Johnson.
 
Posts: 9421 | Location: EnglandReply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
Picture of zmježd
posted Hide Post
It could be interference from the secondary meaning of see 'understand' as in I see what you mean. But, yes, I agree that, for me, both look and listen are directed, volitional activities, and see and hear are things that can happen by chance without conscious processing of the incoming data.


Ceci n'est pas un seing.
 
Posts: 5148 | Location: R'lyehReply With QuoteReport This Post
<Proofreader>
posted
Instead of "see" and "hear", the person could have said, "Become aware (of whaqt is happening)". Don't ignore or overlook a situation -- prejudicial acts, for example.
 
Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
Picture of Kalleh
posted Hide Post
Perhaps linguistically you are correct, Bob. However, I have to say that I would equate "see" with "listen" and "look" with "hear." You can look around, but miss really seeing the intricacies. Similarly, you can hear the words that your husband or wife are saying, but you're not always listening (for understanding). I don't know if that makes sense.
 
Posts: 24735 | Location: Chicago, USAReply With QuoteReport This Post
  Powered by Social Strata  
 

Wordcraft Home Page    Wordcraft Community Home Page    Forums  Hop To Forum Categories  Potpourri    Mismatched phrases

Copyright © 2002-12