Riding vs Driving?

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  • February 16, 2016 at 2:57 pm #1048072
    annoyedindc
    Participant

    I think cabin fever may be setting in…

    February 16, 2016 at 3:00 pm #1048075
    TwoWheelsDC
    Participant

    And why do you park in a driveway, but drive on a parkway?

    February 16, 2016 at 3:04 pm #1048076
    Riley Casey
    Participant

    THIS is why we wear helmets.

    February 16, 2016 at 3:36 pm #1048078
    hozn
    Participant

    This also came up on the ELF thread awhile back. Basically, the distinction on ride vs. drive is not a distinction based on locomotion, but more to do with the time of horses & carriages and relationship between the subject and those transport vehicles.

    Here are a couple sources:
    – http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/qanda/data/faq/topics/Usage/faq0021.html
    – http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/learnit/learnitv72.shtml

    February 16, 2016 at 3:48 pm #1048044
    Tim Kelley
    Participant

    What about golf carts, ATV’s and snowmobiles?

    February 16, 2016 at 3:51 pm #1048045
    Vicegrip
    Participant

    Are you On it or In it while controlling it? You ride in a car when not the driver but two people on a horse or motorcycle are both riding

    February 16, 2016 at 3:58 pm #1048047
    jrenaut
    Participant

    It is long established that English is an absolutely ridiculous language. I’d say we should abolish it, but then we’d lose the works of Faulkner and Dr Seuss.

    February 16, 2016 at 4:06 pm #1048048
    hozn
    Participant

    @Vicegrip 135046 wrote:

    Are you On it or In it while controlling it? You ride in a car when not the driver but two people on a horse or motorcycle are both riding

    I think there is also a meaningful distinction between the driver of a motorcycle and the rider (passenger). But that is a slightly different meaning and I think one that could equally be applied to bicycles when there are passengers on the bicycle. Though I think /this/ use of “driving” does have something to do with locomotion, so maybe we would be more inclined to describe who was pedaling and/or steering vs. who was riding on the back.

    February 16, 2016 at 4:10 pm #1048049
    lordofthemark
    Participant

    A. Yeah, what folks said – we ride a bike cause we ride a horse. We ride a car when we are the passenger

    B. Anyone who says they drove their bicycle immediately marks themselves as a VCer of the more argumentative variety. Like someone who says they do not eat dead cow.

    February 16, 2016 at 4:12 pm #1048050
    lordofthemark
    Participant

    @Tim Kelley 135045 wrote:

    What about golf carts, ATV’s and snowmobiles?

    All signs of madness.

    February 16, 2016 at 4:14 pm #1048051
    hozn
    Participant

    @jrenaut 135048 wrote:

    It is long established that English is an absolutely ridiculous language.

    I’m certainly glad I didn’t have to learn it later in life. And now that my kindergartner is trying to learn to read/spell, the confusion is very fresh.

    But … I would suggest that it is actually a really fascinating window into history. Every sentence is like an archeological dig. I love, for example, how words get reimported over time into English giving us the same word source yielding slightly different meanings: fragile, fraile; chief, chef; etc. Or how cultural differences got encoded in word connotations: e.g. swine vs. pork, dish vs. plate.

    And there are generally perfectly reasonable explanations for why things are they way they are, but they are not simple explanations. For example. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Vowel_Shift

    Of course, one could point out that garbage pits are also an archeological gold mine. :-)

    February 16, 2016 at 4:17 pm #1048052
    jrenaut
    Participant

    Agreed, it is fascinating. I’ve always considered going back to school after I retire to get some sort of degree in linguistics.

    February 16, 2016 at 4:19 pm #1048053
    hozn
    Participant

    @jrenaut 135053 wrote:

    Agreed, it is fascinating. I’ve always considered going back to school after I retire to get some sort of degree in linguistics.

    Yeah, that’s what I did (well, the first time around — practicality be damned) :) Historical linguistics is definitely an area I would like to study more.

    February 16, 2016 at 4:27 pm #1048054
    dkel
    Participant

    @hozn 135054 wrote:

    Yeah, that’s what I did (well, the first time around — practicality be damned) :)

    Wait—how old are you??

    February 16, 2016 at 4:28 pm #1048055
    hozn
    Participant

    @dkel 135055 wrote:

    Wait—how old are you??

    Sorry, I mean, I studied linguistics in undergrad. Not that I’ve gone back to school multiple times. I can’t summon up enough energy to even do that once :)

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