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Are We Losing Our Railway Stations?


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Our fair native tongue has long been under threat from what is supposedly up-to-date diction. The language that we were taught to read, write and speak with some degree of accomplished fluency by the time we left school can sometimes appear to be fighting a losing battle with its struggle to maintain tradition. 
 

Ever advancing technologies bring their own new words and phrases; an inevitable situation acceptable to all.

But!

There are occasions when a word or phrase, which clearly has its origins beyond the Atlantic Ocean is heard, whereupon the listener may be left thinking “Why on earth say it that way?”

 

Listening to the news recently, the newscaster (the term “Anchor” has been intentionally avoided) on referring to those establishments where passengers can board and alight from railway trains , called them “Rail Stations”.
Americans have long referred to them as “Train Stations” and this other derivative would not be long following. 

 

British Railways > British Rail, fair enough, a change of branding.

 

Our good, (dare I say it?) old term “Railway Station” has always evoked its own peculiar yet very pertinent subject matter, leaving the listener in no doubt to its reference and meaning. We grew up with them; they served us; we used them (and still do). Now they are in danger of being wiped from our vocabulary forever.

 

Dr Richard Beeching, amongst others may have been responsible for the closing of many routes and stations, yet it has taken just two decades into the 21st Century for the British media to begin the annihilation of another piece of our history, if only in descriptive terms.

 

 

 

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The argument, which I find hard to accept accept, for "Train Station" is that it is analogous to "Bus station", that railways do not stop at stations. But I can see no logical argument for "rail stations". At one time the BBC had a panel which decided accepted terminology etc but that seems to have gone by the board.

Jonathan (former editor and English teacher)

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Language is a tool for communicating. If everyone understands a term as having the same meaning then it's done its job.

 

Worrying about these things changing is just causing yourself stress, it's going to happen no matter what you or I or anyone else thinks.

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But the more general language is being lost to hyperbole.

 

'yes' is now 'absolutely'

'very' is now 'incredible'

'good', 'very good', 'nice', 'super', brilliant' are all now 'fantastic'

'before' is 'pre'

'after' is 'post'

 

I know there is a plain English society. Are they still active?

 

Graham

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The English language has a huge amount of words* - We suck them up from all over the place like some sort of giant word-hoover**

 

It does seem that the more modern accepted term is often "train station" - but why not - it is a place where trains stop and allow one to board or alight.

Maybe we should be more specific and refer to Passenger Stations and Goods Stations as our forefathers were wont to do? No I thought not....

 

*Lexicon

**Other Vacuum driven cleanin devices are available.

 

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6 hours ago, dagrizz said:

But the more general language is being lost to hyperbole.

 

'yes' is now 'absolutely'

'very' is now 'incredible'

'good', 'very good', 'nice', 'super', brilliant' are all now 'fantastic'

'before' is 'pre'

'after' is 'post'

 

I know there is a plain English society. Are they still active?

 

Graham

 Anything which is "of no consequence whatsoever"    through to " life-changing / redefinines civilisation"  is now simply  'awesome'

Edited by Pandora
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9 hours ago, BernardTPM said:

A slash is something you do behind the bicycle sheds. Or something more vicious with a knife.

Or something quite different.

 

Physics teacher to classmate, circa 1962 "Use a ruler, Phipps, don't just slash across the page!" Sniggers all round.

 

But then teachers did miss the point sometimes. History mistress (she seemed to be about 120) was covering the history of art, using illustrations in books from the school library. Nudity was involved, and some boys had, unsurprisingly, noticed. "Why, when I show you a picture of a naked woman, do you have to titter?"

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8 hours ago, NittenDormer said:

Don't get me started on staycation. 

 

An interesting invention. It has probably set a record for a change in meaning in such a short time. I think that it took less than a year.

 

It originally meant a holiday where you stayed at home and did day excursions. It now means a holiday taken away from home anywhere in Britain.

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Perhaps fifteen years ago I observed to some of my colleages that "Railway Station" seemed to be giving way to "Train Station". One of the younger of them replied "Yes, and have you noticed that nobody says Phonograph or Horseless Carriage any more?"

 

That's when I realised there was no point in resisting it. 

 

I don't think either term has any more intrinsic merit than the other. It's just a matter of what you're used to.

 

I have a theory about how the change came about. A generation  brought up in families who'd alway had cars would seldom have had reason to travel by train nor to think about the places where you went to catch one. Then when they started travelling independently they deduced from first principles what they thought they should be called.

 

I've seen it asserted in previous discussions on this topic that Train Station is not a particularly American usage.

Edited by Andy Kirkham
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2 hours ago, Andy Kirkham said:

I don't think either term has any more intrinsic merit than the other. It's just a matter of what you're used to.

 

If you could just convince the membership of RMWeb of this, you'd have made a lasting contribution to World peace.

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Northern Ireland Railways sign their passenger/train interface locations as 'Train Stations'. Given that people still seem to understand that this was somewhere they could board a train, what is all the fuss about ? Language has and will continue to evolve, all that matters is that its meaning is understood. So, sorry, but IMHO a big fuss about nothing. 

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6 hours ago, Oldddudders said:

Or something quite different.

 

Physics teacher to classmate, circa 1962 "Use a ruler, Phipps, don't just slash across the page!" Sniggers all round.

 

But then teachers did miss the point sometimes. History mistress (she seemed to be about 120) was covering the history of art, using illustrations in books from the school library. Nudity was involved, and some boys had, unsurprisingly, noticed. "Why, when I show you a picture of a naked woman, do you have to titter?"

"Titter ye not!" ;)

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4 hours ago, Andy Kirkham said:

Perhaps fifteen years ago I observed to some of my colleages that "Railway Station" seemed to be giving way to "Train Station". One of the younger of them replied "Yes, and have you noticed that nobody says Phonograph or Horseless Carriage any more?"

 

That's when I realised there was no point in resisting it. 

 

I don't think either term has any more intrinsic merit than the other. It's just a matter of what you're used to.

 

I have a theory about how the change came about. A generation  brought up in families who'd alway had cars would seldom have had reason to travel by train nor to think about the places where you went to catch one. Then when they started travelling independently they deduced from first principles what they thought they should be called.

 

I've seen it asserted in previous discussions on this topic that Train Station is not a particularly American usage.

 

Try telling these guys..

 

https://www.bpi.co.uk/

 

And Grammy is short for gramophone. The actually prize is called Gramophone Award.

 

https://www.grammy.com/

 

 

 

Jason

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A Phonograph is a cylinder machine (Edison), obsolete long before the BPI was even formed

A Gramophone (or Graphophone) is a disk machine. (Berliner) and what the BPI was originally set up to promote.

 

Hence the BPI don't know their *rse from their elbow.:jester:

Mind you I've heard Juke Boxes referred to as "Phonographs":scratchhead:

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