"At the meeting, Mary tabled the discussion paper."

I've been told that an American interpretation of this sentence will be exactly the opposite of a Canadian interpretation. I don't know how the British read it. What does it mean to you?

I remember something about that, too, Duncan. I believe the British have the same interpretation as you do.

To those of us in the U.S., "to table" a discussion paper would mean to put it aside or delay it.

You are right. To us it means to propose it for discussion.

quote:

To us it means to propose it for discussion.

I hadn't heard this before. Fascinating! How did that happen?

I've no idea how it took the opposite meaning in the US, but here it comes from 'put on the table'

I suppose I could have researched this a bit before I posed the question, but being an unregenerate procrastinator, I didn't.
In any event, here's what the Canadian Oxford Dictionary has to say...

"v.tr. 1. Cdn. & Brit.bring forward for discussion or consideration at a meeting. 2. esp. U.S. postpone consideration of (a matter). * Because both of these contradictory meanings are in use in Canada, confusion may arise if the verb table is used outside of the strictly parliamentary context, where the first sense should be understood. As a result, it is better to use a different verb altogether, such as present or postpone as the context requires."

Yes, us Canucks are stuck in the middle. We gotta know twice as much about language just to understand what the hell the Brits and Yanks are trying to say.

quote:

Yes, us Canucks are stuck in the middle. We gotta know twice as much about language just to understand what the hell the Brits and Yanks are trying to say.

And the French as well, I suppose! How I'll get on when I visit in April, goodness only knows;-)

Someone (an American) at my office (in America) said "I'd like to table such and such a restaurant". I asked him who had suggested it in the first place, and he said "Me, I'm tabling it". I explained to him the issue with table having different meanings in British and American English. To prevent any confusion in the future, we decided on the convention that when using a British usage, we end the sentence with "guv'na".

For example, "I'd like to table a restaurant that serves Chicken Tikka Masala, guv'na".

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Originally posted by Seanahan:

For example, "I'd like to table a restaurant that serves Chicken Tikka Masala, guv'na".

A fine idea. And in the spirit of international relations we'll adopt the Canadian Convention -

"I'd like to table a restaurant that serves Chicken Tikka Masala, eh?