Q: "Nantucket coach"?

[Douglas G. Wilson]

On 12/9/2012 12:59 PM, Joel S. Berson wrote:
> .... These descriptions don't sound like a presumably-plodding
> "all-purpose cart used as a coach in/on Nantucket". Perhaps Austin was
> envisioning a Nantucket sleighride after all.
--

It is my impression that in Austin's text (<<This chair, like a
Nantucket coach, would answer for everything that ever went on
wheels.>>) the phrase "like a Nantucket coach" would most naturally
refer only to the all-purpose design or versatility of the vehicle (not
to its exact size, speed, color, etc.).

That is, I take the sentence to be equivalent to <<This chair would
answer, like a Nantucket coach, for everything that ever went on wheels.>>.

For comparison, if I write <<Tom, like Dick, can do any kind of work.>>
I probably do not mean to imply that Tom is similar to Dick in size or
age or running speed or other features.

The alternative interpretation ( = <<This chair, which had the general
characteristics of a Nantucket coach, would answer for everything that
ever went on wheels.>>) seems unlikely to me, the more so in the absence
of any standardized referent of the term "Nantucket coach".

Would the suggested whale-related concepts be sensible? <<This chair,
like a boat being towed by a whale, would answer for everything that
ever went on wheels.>>? <<This chair, like a whale's upper jaw, would
answer for everything that ever went on wheels.>>? Offhand they doesn't
seem right to me.

-- Doug Wilson

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