chain gang

Lynne Murphy lynnem at COGS.SUSX.AC.UK
Mon Mar 20 16:20:19 UTC 2000


The following is from the website of the Brighton (UK) Evening Argus
newspaper.  I call your attention to the use of "chain gang" in the last
paragraph that I've included here.  Here, "chain gang" seems to mean a
line of people passing things from one to another.  My UK dictionaries
only have the US sense of chain gang (group of convicts chained together
doing hard labor), and the Collins Concise even labels it as US
dialectal.  Is it the case that this is a nonce use (or misuse, if you
prefer) of this meaning, or is this meaning of _chain gang_ established?

Is there another name for a line of people passing things on to each
other (it seems to me that there is, but I can't think of it).

Lynne


From:  http://www.thisisbrighton.co.uk/
Up in smoke
Hundreds of firefighters battled to save historic buildings from
destruction as blazes hit two shopping streets.

This was the dramatic scene in Arundel High Street on Saturday afternoon
after fire engulfed a 15th Century property.

And on Friday night, drinkers fled a blazing timber-framed pub in the
East Street pedestrian precinct, Chichester. In Arundel, more
than 100 firefighters battled to save Spencer Swaffer Antiques when fire
erupted in a second floor flat above the shop.

Members of the public formed a chain gang to save valuable antiques as
the flames spread. Hundreds of residents and tourists
watched in horror as smoke started pouring from the building just after
1pm.

Dr M Lynne Murphy
Lecturer in Linguistics
School of Cognitive and Computing Sciences
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 9QH
UK

phone +44-(0)1273-678844
fax   +44-(0)1273-671320



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