Date:  Fri, 28 Oct 1994 15:02:51 -0400

From:  Elizabeth Martinez <MARTINEZE[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]COFC.EDU>

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

Both these terms sound familiar to me too. I grew up in NY City (Queens)

and I remember the term "shopping cart" (no abbreviations, i.e., cart) in

certain contexts, such as "Go get a shopping cart"; but I remember using

"carriage" in other contexts:"Get in the carriage" or "I want to get in the carriage