"Go get a handful of spoons" and Literal Meaning!

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I have a friend who is alchoholic and Mr.Science
all rolled in one. Last night we were discussing
literal meaning indirectly. He explained that
at the restraunt he works at he has to explain to
hispanic(non-english speaking ones) the literal
meaning of "go get me a handful of spoons".

He was wandering why it was so difficult to do so.
Meanwhile I wanted to explain to him why I no
longer watch movies with him.

I am autistic, and
based on literature I have seen online academically
we aren't wired properly to understand literal meaning.
The further note on NVLD speech therapist's
dilema is that they can help train one in the autism
spectrum how to communicate words to the best
of their ability(lifelong issue) but they find it
not realistic to expect literal meaning to be fully
grasped.

Getting back to my friend and his hispanic co-workers.
I would explain to him that they take literal meaning.

•What the NT hears: "Go Get a handful of spoons"
•What the non-english speakers hears: "Go Get-Spoons"

They basically don't get the muddled english intrusions
we throw in our language(a handful of..). I then associate
this to the english speaking autistic person.

Mom: "Go play in the water"
Scoots: see lake, and other bodies of water,

•hose
•bucket of water
•kiddie pool
•Large lake

and associates literally "go play, Water" and
see the largest body of water(the lake).

I then explain to my friend when you watch a movie
you see it in parts(I think he has ADD), I see it
as linear(4hrs of Ben Hur or I will watch it on my
own time).
As you can tell the autistic person to one degree
or another is starting and finishing a obsession,
or linear thought. And to further this I say, when
we talk you break off in many tangients which
causes alerts, memory loss(temporary) in the
autistic person. LET THEM FINISH THEN SAY
WHAT YOU NEED, please no HFA red alerts.

I rarely visit this person because of this, and that
is when I became aware of how I am, and react
I am more prone to get these alert. That is,
not through instinct, BUT awareness that it is
happening. I no longer can hang with him
on such a personable level, but maybe that is
how it needs to be.

I take off for a bit(too many tangients from him)
and when I knock on his door he opens it.
I ask for a pair of scissors and said I bought a
box of cigars. He say's, "don't you mean a package",
and I say, "my friend, you have just given a
example of a literal moment".

I would explain to him that when you said
a package, I see boxes in all sizes, and
don't associate a box being big, a package
being small, a carton of cigarettes. I just
realized that I call them all boxes.

Here is another one I told him. You say
get me a six pack of beer. I say here is
you bottle of beer. I didn't associate a numerical
value associated to the beer.


"Go Play in the water"-NO! "not the lake.

I hope this adds insight to literal meaning.
If you have any thoughts I would appreciate
them.

Just trying to be helpful,
Ghosthunter.

some snips here, I'm still figuring out the quote button..

"I have a friend who is alchoholic and Mr.Science
all rolled in one."

I used to be surprised at how many alcoholics I've known as friends and colleagues. But...maybe it's not so surprising!


"Last night we were discussing
literal meaning indirectly. He explained that
at the restraunt he works at he has to explain to
hispanic(non-english speaking ones) the literal
meaning of "go get me a handful of spoons".

"I would explain to him that they take literal meaning."

•What the NT hears: "Go Get a handful of spoons"
•What the non-english speakers hears: "Go Get-Spoons"

"They basically don't get the muddled english intrusions
we throw in our language(a handful of..). I then associate
this to the english speaking autistic person."

heh, like "Manuel" in Fawlty Towers? "Que?"

I always feel like I'm speaking a foreign language - and I'm perceived as a tourist. Yeah, the language problems can be similar to non_english speakers, same kind of mistakes.

Sorry, I'm confused. What is the implied meaning of the expression "go get a handful of spoons"? Does it mean something else than a request to bring 5-10 spoons?

I'm with Magic on this. I have never heard that expression before. Please explain it.

Also- Ghosthunter, why did you post this in the Bug Reports forum? Is it because of the PM I sent you earlier? If so, please PM me, and I can try to explain myself more clearly this time. I'm also going to move this to the general forum for you.

To Magic
My friend is a expeditor. He works
with busboys as well. When he needs
to have tables set, they don't always
bring enough spoons. He tries to explain
to them "a handful" but unless you
show them they sometimes don't get it.

To Civet,
I have no idea why this went to "bugs and
problems"? Alex did leave a memo about
breakingup sentences that I am trying to
work out.

I hope this clears up any misunderstandings.
I also sincerely appologize for the testing
of "quotes" on the "Crying Page".

Ghost hunter

I can understand where the problems lay with the expression "get a handful". The lack of a specific number of spoons means that a specific number is not needed. As for a handful to dertemine the number, well my hand is rather small, while most others are big handed. Does this mean I need to get two handfuls? I may ask "What do you need spoons for?" to try and estimate how many spoons are needed. This could be taken as rudeness. As I work through this understanding in text, I realize that in real life, I would be standing there staring as all this goes through my brain. It would take about 5 minutes of de-coding information at least, to realize I could ask "About how many spoons do you need?" It may not even click till next year.

This could be taken as annoying too I guess, as person may feel they have already told me. "A BLOODY HANDFUL FOR GOODNESS SAKE, WHY DO I HAVE TO TELL YOU TWICE??" I imagine this would be response to me in situation.

I can add to that, how many times
have I been asked to get "a thing"
and don't really understand it quanitity,
numerical value(hence forth, "A bottle
of beer" spoken naturally, yet I am
handing him a SIX(6) PACK. This
has always intrigued me in my life,
G.H(actually should be real name),
get me a.... Are stupid? I said!
But I thought you wanted? and so
forth.....

So "get a handful of spoons" isn't a colloqialism but simply an example of inexact speech? That makes me feel better. I thought I'd heard all the normal ones by now.

By the way, I *love* it when the literal interpretation of a colloqialism is actually more accurate than intended. My favorite examples are "buying a pig in a poke" (which means buying something sight-unseen and not getting what you expected) and "letting the cat out of the bag" (which means revealing a secret unintentionally). Both *originally* meant exactly what they say.

A "poke" is a burlap bag. Unscrupulous farmers (during the depression, I believe) were known to round up barn-yard cats and put them in burlap bags. Those would be taken to the fair, where the farmer would claim to be selling baby pigs and pressure suckers into buying the "pig in a poke" without looking at the contents. Of course, accidents happen, and sometimes a bag would become untied and the cat would get out, exposing the fraud.