Preposition update

[robinturner]

I note with pleasure that British train conductors have stopped saying that such-and-such a place "will be the next station stop" and gone back to the old usage of simply calling stations "stations". After all, there is no point in telling us about stations where the train won't stop, nor indeed in stopping anywhere other than at a station (although they seem to manage the latter frequently enough). On the other hand, I was puzzled when the conductor said that we would soon be "arriving to Birmingham New Street." I'm used to my students' saying "arriving to" because in Turkish the equivalent verb takes the dative, but since when has this been a feature of English?

With all this prepositional confusion, I suggest we resurrect the Anglo-Saxon prefix á-, which as I mentioned some time ago can be a contraction of either on or æf. This would kill two prepositions with one stone. In fact, it could kill several, since in Anglo-Saxon, "on" did service for "in" and "into" and æf was not only "of" and "off" but also stood in for "from", "away" and "out of". So we can say "the train will be arriving á-Birmingham," and everyone will be happy. Well, everybody except for those who would insist that the train should arrive æt Birmingham (which incidentally could mean to, before, next, with, in, for or against Birmingham).

By the way, do the people who claim that "since" should not be used as a conjunction (since it is a preposition) apply the same principle to "as"?

Comments

[miss-next.livejournal.com]

I frequently hear "arriving into Preston", with the emphasis on the "into". I have no idea why train announcers like to emphasise prepositions. Moreover, I'm afraid that I still hear "station stop". It rather sets my teeth on edge.

[arya.livejournal.com]

BART conductors say "Arriving at Powell." Anything else just sounds wrong.

[oblomova.livejournal.com]

When I lived in the Bay Area, I always got a morbid giggle out of hearing the BART announcement "Your final destination is Colma." (That town is known as "Cemetery City" for the non-Bay Area readers.)

[vret.livejournal.com]

Maybe that's where Gene Wolfe got the idea for the trains that run to the terminus at the Necropolis of the City Imperishable at the start of The Shadow of the Torturer from.

[(Anonymous)]

Now if we could only get Washington DC Metro conductors to drop "station stop" also.

Granted, one can seldom make out what they're saying over the garbled loudspeaker anyway. The first days after I arrived in DC, I could have sworn that there was a "Switzerland" station. When I finally got a train that was sufficiently empty to allow me to see out the windows, I discovered that "Switzerland" was in fact the Smithsonian.

Train announcements

[(Anonymous)]

As a senior conductor who works trains into Birmingham new st i have also heard conductors using the term station stop, and can understand its use when sometimes you announce your next stop is? only for the train to stop at a signal just before the station and have people trying to open doors when there is a 7ft drop to the ground below. You are perhaps not taking into account that not everybody has a private education and a first class honours degree from Oxford. Rail staff come from a wide range of backgrounds not to mention countries. I was born, raised, and educated in Oxford but would still not consider myself an expert in the English language but somehow i struggle by. There is a saying in the railway that there is a box at every station entrance where passengers can leave their brains. When you here people asking "has the next train to Worcester gone yet"you do wonder if they should be allowed out on there own.

Re: Train announcements

[solri.livejournal.com]

That makes it a bit clearer. It didn't occur to me that people would try to get out at a stop where there wasn't a station, but I suppose if there's a stupid thing that can be done, someone will try to do it!