When English doesn't work right

[nq:1]Saw this hand-lettered sign on the rear end of a tradesman's utility truck yesterday: "We're expensive, but our quality is cheap."[/nq]
Again, this may be just me but I know what they're saying and I approve. Someone recommended a 'nudge nudge wink wink' glazier and was baffled when I said I wasn't rich enough to afford a cut-price workman. I buy my electrical goods from established reta

[nq:2]Saw this hand-lettered sign on the rear end of a tradesman's utility truck yesterday: "We're expensive, but our quality is cheap."[/nq]
[nq:1]Again, this may be just me but I know what they're saying and I approve. Someone recommended a 'nudge nudge ... goods from established retailers and always choose branded goods because I'm not sufficiently well enough off to afford cheap products.[

[nq:2]Again, this may be just me but I know what ... because I'm not sufficiently well enough off to affordcheap products.[/nq]
[nq:1]I know what they thought they were saying; unfortunately for them, "cheap quality" doesn't mean what they'd like it to mean.[/nq]
The sign isn't saying "cheap quality" though. It's saying "our quality is cheap," which means, in context, exactly what the writ

[nq:2]Saw this hand-lettered sign on the rear end of a tradesman's utility truck yesterday: "We're expensive, but our quality is cheap."[/nq]
[nq:1]Again, this may be just me but I know what they're saying and I approve. Someone recommended a 'nudge nudge ... goods from established retailers and always choose branded goods because I'm not sufficiently well enough off to afford cheap products.[

[nq:1]The sign isn't saying "cheap quality" though. It's saying "our quality is cheap," which means, in context, exactly what the writer intended it to mean.[/nq]
To me "our quality is cheap" is ambiguous at best. "This apple is red" means the same to me as "this is a red apple," and the same inversion suggested itself to me when I read the sign.

Michael West
Melbourne, Australia

[nq:2]The sign isn't saying "cheap quality" though. It's saying "our quality is cheap," which means, in context, exactly what the writer intended it to mean.[/nq]
[nq:1]To me "our quality is cheap" is ambiguous at best.[/nq]
I think it's subtle rather than ambiguous - designed to make people think & therefore remember it.
[nq:1]"This apple is red" means the same to me as "this is a red

[nq:2]"This apple is red" means the same to me as ... inversion suggested itself to me when I read the sign.[/nq]
[nq:1]Invert away, but it doesn't always work. I don't think it works here. 'Talk is cheap' and 'cheap talk' aren't the same thing.[/nq]
No; one is a statement and the other is a fragment. But if we say talk is cheap, then we are referring to cheap talk.
[nq:1]If I see 'Thi

[nq:2]Oh my. I do hope someone points out the flaws in that one before he goes bankrupt.[/nq]
[nq:1]Judging from the quality of the lettering and the condition of the truck, I'd say he may have done so already.[/nq]
No surprise there then.