floor 'ground'

[Dan Goncharoff]

Just to add a tidbit for sources of confusion, the German word Deckung
means ceiling. (I wonder whether the deck of a ship was originally a cover
to protect storage areas from the elements.)

I am surprised no one has brought up the concept of the "ground floor",
which is the 1st floor in the US and the 0th floor in the rest of the world.

DanG

On Fri, Sep 26, 2014 at 12:08 PM, Chris Waigl <chris at lascribe.net> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Chris Waigl <chris at LASCRIBE.NET>
> Subject:      Re: floor 'ground'
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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=92t functioning reliably. It is harder to pin down than =
> others where my native language doesn=92t make a distinction that is =
> present in English. I have been corrected by my (American/Canadian) =
> spouse. Maybe because it=92s not completely observed by native speakers =
> either, and I wonder if there is even a rough consensus about whether to =
> say =93it fell on the floor=94 or =93=85 ground=94 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 =93ground=94 is more general =
> than =93floor=94 in utterings where both cases are included (=93If your =
> smartphone falls to the ground its screen may crack.=94) though in =
> practice speakers may circumnavigate the problem (=93If your smartphone =
> is dropped its screen may crack.=94)=20
>
> Chris=20
>
> On 26 Sep 2014, at 00:41, Arnold Zwicky <zwicky at STANFORD.EDU> wrote:
>
> > from Chris Hansen on a Facebook lgbt group:
> >=20
> > 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.
> >=20
> > .....
> >=20
> > i'd be happy to relay responses on this list to Chris [Hansen].
> >=20
> > arnold
> >=20
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>
> --=20
> Chris Waigl -- http://chryss.eu -- http://eggcorns.lascribe.net
> twitter: chrys -- friendfeed: chryss
>
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