Unpacked
Posted by: roscivs, in UncategorizedI have a closet full of unpacked boxes.
Speaking of the Language Log, I discovered a very interesting post there recently. It had to do why the word “unthaw” means the same thing as “thaw”—another interesting curiousity of the English language.
When you read the above sentence about my closet, what did you picture? Did the boxes contain things, or were they empty? Does the following sentence change matters?
I have a closet with boxes still unpacked from the move.
Technically speaking, “unpacked” means “not packed”. So, the above sentence literally means, “I have a closet with not packed (i.e. empty) boxes left from the move.” But that’s not how most people read it. Why is this? It seems quite odd. I can’t do the same with other words, e.g. “I have a closet full of still undressed dolls.” This sentence can’t mean anything but that the dolls have no clothes on. But other phrases are murkier: “How many bottles of wine are still uncorked?” or perhaps, “I’ve opened nearly all of my birthday presents, but I still have one left unwrapped.”
There are many more examples at the Language Log. But the curious thing is—why does it work in some cases and not work in others? Does “unpacked” always mean “not packed” to some people, and sound odd in the above constructions? Or vice-versa, does “unpacked” always mean, strangely enough, “not yet unpacked” to some people? (Thus the sentence, “We’ve finished packing nine of the boxes, but the tenth is still unpacked.” would sound odd to them.)
Furthermore, why does it work with some words like “pack/unpack”, but not with other pairs? You can’t say, “I’ve switched off four of the five computers, but the last one is still unplugged,” to mean anything but not-plugged. You can’t say, “Nearly everyone had taken off their hat; only one head was left uncovered,” meaning that the head still had a hat on it.
What do you see when reading these sentences? Which meaning pops first into your mind?
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