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Date: Wed, 29 Oct 2003 15:45:30 +0000 (UTC)
From: amesnopsamrak.demon.co.uk (Andrew Stephenson)
Subject: Re: winter tyres with rims


In article <3F9FA1FE.41FA9CC5nopsamfitter.com> johsnopsamfitter.com "Johannes H Andersen" writes: > [...] I always smile when someone on the street says that you > dropped something on the 'floor'. In Danish we distinguish > clearly between inside and outside floors. [...] <g> As, of course, does English. That use of "floor" is AFAIK a regional (north country?) idiom. When employed to signify "the ground", it is likely a whimsical and/or humorous connotation is implicit. A book which goes deeply (possibly too deeply) into the evolution of English from the USian POV is Bill Bryson's "Made In America". This spends some time discussing the roots of English which, as I expect many know, rapidly acquired a vast treasury of words from Britain's sundry international (ad)ventures, both commercial and political. My guess is, it was helped in this by its established acceptance and use of metaphors (as derived from the Germanic and Scandinavian cultures of so many of its early, ahem, tourists and immigrants). English enjoys playing games with meanings. Therefore (one hears), a typical "English --> X // X --> English" dictionary will be fatter in the "English --> X" part, due to the extra words needing translation. (NB, that is what one hears, so please don't shoot the messenger.) But, let's face it, a living language will usually have whatever words its users need. Shortages lead to creation (or borrowing) of new words. Surpluses lead, eventually, to withering and loss. (All wildy off-topic for this NG. Butwhattheheck...) -- Andrew Stephenson

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