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Discussion Groups / English Usage / January 2004trap
My dictionaries say that to trap means 1 to place in a confining position 2 to catch in or as if in a trap, Is the usage below regarded as 1? If so, is there any connotation associated with a trap for animals? I woke up because I sensed a strange light coming into the trailer. It was only the afternoon slant of the southern summer sun. It didn't look like ordinary light. It looked as though if you touched it, it would punch back. I felt trapped by the blaze of light falling in slats through the windows of the camper. << [] My dictionaries say that to trap means 1 to place in a confining position 2 to catch in or as if in a trap, Is the usage below regarded as 1? If so, is there any connotation associated with a trap for animals? I woke up because I sensed a strange light coming into the trailer. It was only the afternoon slant of the southern summer sun. It didn't look like ordinary light. It looked as though if you touched it, it would punch back. I felt trapped by the blaze of light falling in slats through the windows of the camper. [end quote] >> Yes it is regarded as (1). No particular animal connotations. -- --------------------------------------------- Richard Maurer To reply, remove half Sunnyvale, California of a homonym of a synonym for also. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >My dictionaries say that to trap means >1 to place in a confining position [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] >punch back. I felt trapped by the blaze of light falling in slats >through the windows of the camper. I don't quite follow the question, but consider if the light fell in slats then there would be shadows - or a darker area - between the slats. The resulting pattern would look like the bars of a prison cell and thus give the feeling of being trapped. If you want an animal connection, make the cell a cage, but I'd go for the cell. >>My dictionaries say that to trap means >>1 to place in a confining position [quoted text clipped - 14 lines] > cell and thus give the feeling of being trapped. If you want an > animal connection, make the cell a cage, but I'd go for the cell. Do you mean the slats ( or bars of a prison) are vertical? >>>My dictionaries say that to trap means >>>1 to place in a confining position [quoted text clipped - 16 lines] >> >Do you mean the slats ( or bars of a prison) are vertical? Prison bars run vertically. The only camper I've ever owned was a Volkswagen camper bus, and that was in the 70s. It had horizontal louvered windows on the sides. It's a discrepancy, but the author is going for imagery and not technical correctness. I'm not even at all sure the author is using the same imagery I'm thinking of. However, I can make a case for this imagery. When the narrator woke up he was horizontal. From his horizontal position, the shadows ran parallel to the length of his body as they would if he was standing in a cell. This is a paragraph of imagery. Light doesn't punch back. Light doesn't blaze in this situation. The author is creating a picture, and not a blueprint, in your mind. If you look too closely at the picture, all you see is some harmless light and shadows. The author wants you to see something that makes you feel trapped. Japanese artists are famous for creating images from a few strokes of a brush. A standing crane is no more than a single curved stroke of the brush. You see what they mean and not what they did. Allow an author to do the same. >>>>My dictionaries say that to trap means >>>>1 to place in a confining position [quoted text clipped - 38 lines] > the brush. You see what they mean and not what they did. Allow an > author to do the same. Is it more usual to think that the window is louvered than to guess that venetian blinds are hung if nothing about the slats is mentioned any more in the story? >>>>>My dictionaries say that to trap means >>>>>1 to place in a confining position [quoted text clipped - 42 lines] >venetian blinds are hung if nothing about the slats is mentioned any >more in the story? No, I don't think so. I mentioned the louvered windows because that's what my VW camper had. If it was a larger camper, or a more modern camper, I suppose it would have venetian blinds or something similar. They do have a blind called a "vertical" that operates like a venetian blind but the slats (which can be strips of cloth-like material) run vertically. You really should ask someone more familiar with modern campers than I am. Truly, though, Masahiko, why concern yourself with the technical aspects? It's the light, the shadows, and the illusion that the author is writing about. I know you are concerned with understanding English usage and the various meanings of words, but I think you might miss meaning if you only look at definition. They are not always the same. >>>>>>My dictionaries say that to trap means >>>>>>1 to place in a confining position [quoted text clipped - 60 lines] > various meanings of words, but I think you might miss meaning if you > only look at definition. They are not always the same. In Japanese the slats of blinds are different from those of louvered windows. What I am anxious to know is what english native speakers generally imagine the slats are when they read the paragraph, if the word "slat" can be used for both blinds and louvered windows. << [masahiko] My dictionaries say that to trap means 1 to place in a confining position 2 to catch in or as if in a trap, Is the usage below regarded as 1? If so, is there any connotation associated with a trap for animals? I woke up because I sensed a strange light coming into the trailer. It was only the afternoon slant of the southern summer sun. It didn't look like ordinary light. It looked as though if you touched it, it would punch back. I felt trapped by the blaze of light falling in slats through the windows of the camper. [end quote] >> << [masahiko] In Japanese the slats of blinds are different from those of louvered windows. What I am anxious to know is what english native speakers generally imagine the slats are when they read the paragraph, if the word "slat" can be used for both blinds and louvered windows. [end quote] >> I think that the author is commenting on the light within the trailer -- not the slat mechanism at the window. The rectangular pieces of light, falling on dust particles, looked like slats with dark spaces between. He might have had his back to the window. -- --------------------------------------------- Richard Maurer To reply, remove half Sunnyvale, California of a homonym of a synonym for also. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > >>>>>>My dictionaries say that to trap means > >>>>>>1 to place in a confining position [quoted text clipped - 65 lines] > generally imagine the slats are when they read the paragraph, if the > word "slat" can be used for both blinds and louvered windows. The word is SLANT, not slat. See my other post. Gary >>>>>>>My dictionaries say that to trap means >>>>>>>1 to place in a confining position [quoted text clipped - 65 lines] >generally imagine the slats are when they read the paragraph, if the >word "slat" can be used for both blinds and louvered windows. Another poster has suggested the word is "slant" and not "slats". For the light to fall in "slants" it has to be broken up by something. For "slant" to work, the author should have written " I felt trapped by the blaze of light slanting through the windows of the camper." I don't see how the plural "slants" would fit. Maybe if you counted each window as a source of slanting light, but that doesn't sound right. In answer to your question though, venetian blinds, verticals, and louvered windows are all made up of slats of material: cloth, plastic, or glass. Blinds (plain blinds and not venetian blinds) are made of a single piece of material. > >>>>>>>My dictionaries say that to trap means > >>>>>>>1 to place in a confining position [quoted text clipped - 67 lines] > > > Another poster has suggested the word is "slant" and not "slats". "Slant" is not a suggestion, it's in the text. Read the paragraph masahiko provided in his follow-up post, the very one that you are commenting on. It contains the word slant, not slat. Masahiko originally misread it as slats. His original question was about slats. But the text he's trying to interpret is about slants. Gary Masahiko wrote: >>>>>>>>> I woke up because I sensed a strange light coming into the >>>>>>>>> trailer. It was only the afternoon slant of the southern >>>>>>>>> summer sun. It didn't look like ordinary light. It looked as >>>>>>>>> though if you touched it, it would punch back. I felt trapped >>>>>>>>> by the blaze of light falling in slats through the windows of >>>>>>>>> the camper. Tony Cooper wrote: >> Another poster has suggested the word is "slant" and not "slats". > "Slant" is not a suggestion, it's in the text. Read the paragraph > masahiko provided in his follow-up post, the very one that you are > commenting on. It contains the word slant, not slat. > > Masahiko originally misread it as slats. His original question was > about slats. But the text he's trying to interpret is about slants. The text mentions slant and slats. The sun was slanted, the light fell in slats. I don't believe that Masahiko misread it; I believe you did. m. >"Slant" is not a suggestion, it's in the text. Read the paragraph >masahiko provided in his follow-up post, the very one that you are >commenting on. It contains the word slant, not slat. > >Masahiko originally misread it as slats. His original question was about >slats. But the text he's trying to interpret is about slants. I've lost track. This is not the first time that Masahiko has typed in context incorrectly. The question becomes which version is the incorrect one. Slats, slates, slants, sláinte, or slacks....the general context is that the writer is trying to convey an image of something and that the specifics of what is involved is not really the point. If Masahiko decides to read Sandburg's "Fog", he/she will wonder what breed of cat is involved and how big a cat has to be before Americans no longer consider it a little cat. Tony Cooper and Masahiko write: >>> The resulting pattern would look like the bars of a prison >>> cell and thus give the feeling of being trapped. >> Do you mean the slats ( or bars of a prison) are vertical? > Prison bars run vertically. You have visited every prison in the world, or just examined their specifications? :-) I do seem to see vertical bars more often than horizontal ones in TV or movie prisons, but there seems little practical reason to have them one way or the other, and I expect that real-life prisons vary. Probably many of them have few or no bars anyway; there are other ways to keep people confined.  SignatureMark Brader | I rise to speak ... well, actually, I don't rise, Toronto | nor do I speak, but I lounge to type in his defense. msb@vex.net | -- Bob Lipton > Tony Cooper and Masahiko write: >>>> The resulting pattern would look like the bars of a prison [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > or movie prisons, but there seems little practical reason to have them > one way or the other... It's easier to climb up horizontal bars. m. > > I do seem to see vertical bars more often than horizontal ones in TV > > or movie prisons, but there seems little practical reason to have them > > one way or the other... > > It's easier to climb up horizontal bars. Which only matters in places where climbing would be helpful in escaping. SignatureMark Brader "It is always dangerous to send authors to jail. Toronto This removes their chief excuse for not writing." msb@vex.net -- Arthur C. Clarke >>> I do seem to see vertical bars more often than horizontal ones in TV >>> or movie prisons, but there seems little practical reason to have [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > Which only matters in places where climbing would be helpful in > escaping. Not at all. 'Escape' is not the only problem a gaoler may encounter. m. >>>> I do seem to see vertical bars more often than horizontal ones in >>>> TV or movie prisons, but there seems little practical reason to [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > > Not at all. 'Escape' is not the only problem a gaoler may encounter. I'd think that if the prisoner is a 200-pounder or heavier, a horizontal bar would be a lot easier to bend than a vertical one. SignatureSkitt (in Hayward, California) www.geocities.com/opus731/ > >>My dictionaries say that to trap means > >>1 to place in a confining position [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > >>punch back. I felt trapped by the blaze of light falling in slats > >>through the windows of the camper. Aha. "slant" is not the same as "slat". Slant ( = an oblique angle) makes a lot more sense here than slat. Gary [...] > > >>I woke up because I sensed a strange light coming into the trailer. It > > >>was only the afternoon slant of the southern summer sun. It didn't look [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > Aha. "slant" is not the same as "slat". Slant ( = an oblique angle) > makes a lot more sense here than slat. I don't think I'm quite happy with that, Gary. Do you think it feels like a natural figure of speech in the way "slats" does? Yes, it works, but "trapped" and "slats" gave me an instant and vivid mental image of unusually bright horizontal bars of light coming through a Venetian blind. Note also that "slant" has been used already in the same paragraph, and some writers are careful to avoid repetition. I'd also guess that "not" has been left out of "It was only the afternoon slant..." Either that, or "It didn't look like..." needs to be preceded by a "But". All speculation, of course: perhaps Masahiko could confirm the transcription? Or perhaps somebody recognizes the book? Mike. Masahiko quotes his dictionary on "trap": > 1 to place in a confining position > 2 to catch in or as if in a trap, And asks about: > I woke up because I sensed a strange light coming into the trailer. > It was only the afternoon slant of the southern summer sun. It > didn't look like ordinary light. It looked as though if you touched > it, it would punch back. I felt trapped by the blaze of light > falling in slats through the windows of the camper. First, the dictionary senses 1 and 2 are really quite similar, and when we move away from a physical trap to a literary image like the quoted passage, there is really very little difference between them. In this case the writer imagines that the light is threatening, that "if you touched it, it would punch back". To me this suggests that the sense is closer to sense 2: the speaker feels as if he or she has been caught in a trap like an animal. But it's only a feeling, and as some other people have said, the details are unimportant here. What matters is the feeling of being trapped. Elsewhere in the thread the word "slats" was questioned. I think it's correct. The camper's windows presumably have some sort of louvers or Venetian blinds or vertical blinds that break up the beam of light into strips; since the speaker is perceiving the light as something real and threatening, he or she is also perceiving those strips of light as if they were solid slats of some material, like parts of a box. (We usually use "slat" for strips of relatively flimsy material, like plastic or thin wood or thin metal; for the stronger pieces of metal that would make up a prison cell or the cage for a large animal, we say "bar". But "slats" could still be strong enough to feel confining, especially if you think they're made of light that's ready to punch you!) SignatureMark Brader "You have a truly warped mind. Toronto I admire that in a person." msb@vex.net -- Bill Davidsen My text in this article is in the public domain. |
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