Date:  Fri, 28 Oct 1994 02:00:00 LCL

From:  "M. Lynne Murphy" <104LYN[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]MUSE.ARTS.WITS.AC.ZA>

Subject: Re: buggy vs. cart



> For some reason which is not clear to anybody I continually refer to the

> shopping vehicle in grocery stores as a "carriage." When people in the

> midwest questioned this I told them I assumed I learned it in NY, but on

> further checking no NYers I know use it, nor does anyone in my family from

> NY. So where did I get it? I always thought it must be an idiotisme (is

> that the word in French?) but this mention of calling it a "buggy" leads me

> to mention "carriage," in case anybody else has collected the term.

>

> Dennis (idiot savant) B

> --

> Dennis Baron                       debaron[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]uiuc.edu



this doesn't sound unfamiliar to me (and i've lived in both places),

but i'm wondering if it's by association with "baby carriage", which

is a very similar thing, and which shopping carts are often used as.



lynne





______________________________________________________________________

M. Lynne Murphy          e-mail: 104lyn[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]muse.arts.wits.ac.za

Lecturer, Dept. of Linguistics          phone: 27(11)716-2340

University of the Witwatersrand         fax:  27(11)716-8030

Johannesburg 2050 South Africa



   "Language without meaning is meaningless." --Roman Jakobson