floor 'ground'

[Chris Waigl]

This happens to be a tough word pair for me, one of a small number where my otherwise relatively good (for a non-native speaker) intuition of English isn’t functioning reliably. It is harder to pin down than others where my native language doesn’t make a distinction that is present in English. I have been corrected by my (American/Canadian) spouse. Maybe because it’s not completely observed by native speakers either, and I wonder if there is even a rough consensus about whether to say “it fell on the floor” or “… ground” in edge cases:

- What if it is an outdoors stage, dais or porch?
- What if it is an indoors workshop with a dirt floor (ha!) or gravel?

Furthermore, it seems right to say that “ground” is more general than “floor” in utterings where both cases are included (“If your smartphone falls to the ground its screen may crack.”) though in practice speakers may circumnavigate the problem (“If your smartphone is dropped its screen may crack.”) 

Chris 

On 26 Sep 2014, at 00:41, Arnold Zwicky <zwicky at STANFORD.EDU> wrote:

> from Chris Hansen on a Facebook lgbt group:
> 
> To the linguists among us: Arnold and Chris [Waigl] among many others. I've noticed recently that some people now use "floor" to mean "ground", as in "He was walking down the street and suddenly fell to the floor." Another FB friend in another group (the Empress of Washington Post's Style Invitational devotees, if you must know) has never heard this usage. I've searched but my Googling has obviously fallen victim to my preconceptions because I haven't found anything useful. Does anyone here have any insights on this? Perhaps some written articles? I know this isn't the perfect group in which to ask this but, not being a linguistics person I'd feel embarrassed to barge in on one, ask the question, and then leave again once I'd found the answer. That would be too much like "rubber band management". I'd be extremely grateful for any thoughts.
> 
> .....
> 
> i'd be happy to relay responses on this list to Chris [Hansen].
> 
> arnold
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

-- 
Chris Waigl -- http://chryss.eu -- http://eggcorns.lascribe.net
twitter: chrys -- friendfeed: chryss

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org