"drunk riding"

[Neal Whitman]

----- Original Message -----
From: "David A. Daniel" <dad at POKERWIZ.COM>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Tuesday, September 01, 2009 7:29 PM
Subject: Re: "drunk riding"


> ---------------------- Information from the mail
> header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "David A. Daniel" <dad at POKERWIZ.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "drunk riding"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>>The real question remains: regardless of how much more idiomatic "ride a
>>motorcycle" may be, is there a significant number of people inane enough
>>to
>>believe that "drunk driving" laws do not apply - or could be argued in
>>court
>>not to apply - to motorcyclists?
>
>
> I don't think that is the real question at all, being obvious and all. I
> thought we were just discussing terminology, idioms and usage. I know that
> I, at least, was discussing terminology, idioms and usage. Ride just
> doesn't
> always mean you are the passenger, is all. If you are riding a horse, it
> doesn't mean you're propped on the rear end behind the driver...
> DAD

"Ride" doesn't even have to mean you're the one on the horse; it can be
predicated of the horse itself, as in "The top 15 horses rode in the Final,
held Sunday in the main arena before the Grand Prix Freestyle." It's also
happened with "drive", as in "Actually his findings were that cars drove
closer to him when he was wearing a helmet." (Well, with "drive", I guess it
could just be that "car" refers polysemously to the car's driver.) I've
written more at
http://literalminded.wordpress.com/2006/10/05/zero-backformation/.

Neal

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