Terminology: car-top carriers
Jul. 6th, 2024 07:34 amOur car-top carrier hasn't had a functioning lock in several years, and this summer we finally decided to get a new one (since getting anything repaired is an uphill battle). So I searched "car-top carrier" in Google Maps, getting a list of a dozen nearby auto-parts stores that mention car-top carriers on their Web sites. I called the nearest store of a major nationwide auto-parts chain.
"Hello? I'm looking for a new car-top carrier, or perhaps to repair the one I've got."
Silence.
"Let me get you to someone who can help you."
"Hello? I'm looking for a new car-top carrier, or perhaps to repair the one I've got."
Silence.
"A new what?"
"Car-top carrier."
"What's that?"
"You know, the container you attach to your roof rack to carry extra luggage."
"Oh, let me get you to someone who can help you."
"Hello? I'm looking for a new car-top carrier." [Maybe the mention of "repair" was confusing them.]
Silence.
"A new what?"
What's going on when multiple employees of an auto-parts store, who in my experience are generally hired for some interest in and knowledge about cars, don't even recognize the phrase "car-top carrier"? It's not like they've gone out of style: I see them around my neighborhood every day, even outside summer-vacation season.
We did some Web shopping, and eventually![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
shalmestere bought one through Amazon, mail-order: it arrived a day or two later in a cardboard box the size of a bathtub, and we used it for a trip last weekend. It has some design flaws, which I discussed here, but it's better than nothing, and arguably better than the old one without a lock.
"Hello? I'm looking for a new car-top carrier, or perhaps to repair the one I've got."
Silence.
"Let me get you to someone who can help you."
"Hello? I'm looking for a new car-top carrier, or perhaps to repair the one I've got."
Silence.
"A new what?"
"Car-top carrier."
"What's that?"
"You know, the container you attach to your roof rack to carry extra luggage."
"Oh, let me get you to someone who can help you."
"Hello? I'm looking for a new car-top carrier." [Maybe the mention of "repair" was confusing them.]
Silence.
"A new what?"
What's going on when multiple employees of an auto-parts store, who in my experience are generally hired for some interest in and knowledge about cars, don't even recognize the phrase "car-top carrier"? It's not like they've gone out of style: I see them around my neighborhood every day, even outside summer-vacation season.
We did some Web shopping, and eventually
shalmestere bought one through Amazon, mail-order: it arrived a day or two later in a cardboard box the size of a bathtub, and we used it for a trip last weekend. It has some design flaws, which I discussed here, but it's better than nothing, and arguably better than the old one without a lock.How do you pronounce “four”?
Jun. 27th, 2022 09:38 amIn particular, is the number “four” pronounced the same as the preposition “for”?
I ask because the (BBC English) voice navigation system in our rental car consistently pronounces “four” (as in a highway number) as an unaccented “f&schwa;”.
In my experience, the number “four” usually carries substantial meaning and is at least equally long and accented as the syllables before and after it, while the preposition “for” is usually less important, shorter in duration, and less accented than the syllables before and after it.
The voice navigation system also gives numbers in full: “please turn left onto the A f&schwa; thousand eight hundred and nineteen”, as though 4819 were a magnitude. It’s not: four-digit roads are generally smaller then three-digit roads, which are smaller than two-digit roads, but there’s no particular connection between the A4819 and the A4818, which for all I know could be at the other end of the island. A highway number is a point in a discrete topological space; two such numbers are either the same or different, but their digits don’t tell you much more than that, and each digit is equally important.
Google Maps (in US English), by contrast, pronounces the same thing either “four eight one nine” or “forty eight nineteen”.
I ask because the (BBC English) voice navigation system in our rental car consistently pronounces “four” (as in a highway number) as an unaccented “f&schwa;”.
In my experience, the number “four” usually carries substantial meaning and is at least equally long and accented as the syllables before and after it, while the preposition “for” is usually less important, shorter in duration, and less accented than the syllables before and after it.
The voice navigation system also gives numbers in full: “please turn left onto the A f&schwa; thousand eight hundred and nineteen”, as though 4819 were a magnitude. It’s not: four-digit roads are generally smaller then three-digit roads, which are smaller than two-digit roads, but there’s no particular connection between the A4819 and the A4818, which for all I know could be at the other end of the island. A highway number is a point in a discrete topological space; two such numbers are either the same or different, but their digits don’t tell you much more than that, and each digit is equally important.
Google Maps (in US English), by contrast, pronounces the same thing either “four eight one nine” or “forty eight nineteen”.
