Stop if you feel faint or pain! [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Ellipsis that results in one word serving as both subject and object
I am “adjective” and I am “present continuous” in one sentence
I was using some exercise equipment the other day and saw the sign:
Stop if you feel faint or pain
It immediately struck me as wrong, because faint and pain seem to force feel to serve two different verb functions. Is that true?
I think correct alternates would be:
Stop if you feel faint or pained
Stop if you feel faintness or pain
Here's a contrived example that exposes the wrongness I detected from it. Imagine you're reaching into a box to feel the objects inside, and you're told:
Stop if you feel happy or noodles
If that doesn't make you smile, you don't live in my world! :)
"Stop if you feel faint or pain" is an example of syllepsis:
A figure of speech in which one word simultaneously modifies two or more other words such that the modification must be understood differently with respect to each modified word; often causing humorous incongruity.
The syllepsis section of wikipedia's zeugma article includes numerous examples of several forms. Both of your suggested revisions correctly improve upon the original wording.