Well, to me in “the gift we give tomorrow”, “tomorrow” answers to “when do we give it ?” not “to whom do we give it ?”. But that may be because I’m not a native English speaker, in English the “to” is indeed not mandatory, so the sentence could technically mean both. In French the “to” (well “à”) is mandatory, so my french-wired brain probably stops scanning once it found a way to interpret the sentence in a french-friendly way. Unless directly asked “could there be a second meaning ?” and then it’ll dig further into non-frenchy ways. That’s the way I feel it at least...
But IMHO, better use a sentence that can only be understood one way, when possible, especially when trying to convey a very strong meaning.
In some cases, where you have multiple words with the same meaning, it can be more poetically powerful to choose the ambiguous meaning. The best choice is going to very from culture to culture.
On the other hand, “The Gift We Give Tomorrow” can have both meanings (English doesn’t require “to” before the indirect object of “give”) and it scans better, so you may not want to change it.
I do think “Gift We Give Tomorrow” scans better, but the original post had a particular name, and I figure we should stick with that, at least in official writeups. (Casually I intend to keep saying “Gift We Give Tomorrow”)
Really torn about how awesome and how terrible that pun is. (I’d total use that phrase if it didn’t distract from the seriousness of what I’m talking about. Maybe reference in the opening toast when it’s okay to be sillier)
I actually watched the Hogfather movie just after this event, which was surprisingly relevant.
Heh. I actually read it the same either way, but to avoid potential confusion (and just be, you know, correct) I shall fix it.
Well, to me in “the gift we give tomorrow”, “tomorrow” answers to “when do we give it ?” not “to whom do we give it ?”. But that may be because I’m not a native English speaker, in English the “to” is indeed not mandatory, so the sentence could technically mean both. In French the “to” (well “à”) is mandatory, so my french-wired brain probably stops scanning once it found a way to interpret the sentence in a french-friendly way. Unless directly asked “could there be a second meaning ?” and then it’ll dig further into non-frenchy ways. That’s the way I feel it at least...
But IMHO, better use a sentence that can only be understood one way, when possible, especially when trying to convey a very strong meaning.
In some cases, where you have multiple words with the same meaning, it can be more poetically powerful to choose the ambiguous meaning. The best choice is going to very from culture to culture.
On the other hand, “The Gift We Give Tomorrow” can have both meanings (English doesn’t require “to” before the indirect object of “give”) and it scans better, so you may not want to change it.
I do think “Gift We Give Tomorrow” scans better, but the original post had a particular name, and I figure we should stick with that, at least in official writeups. (Casually I intend to keep saying “Gift We Give Tomorrow”)
Let me adapt a pun from Terry Pratchett, and mention that this can also become “The Present we Give to the Future” :-)
Really torn about how awesome and how terrible that pun is. (I’d total use that phrase if it didn’t distract from the seriousness of what I’m talking about. Maybe reference in the opening toast when it’s okay to be sillier)
I actually watched the Hogfather movie just after this event, which was surprisingly relevant.