cuchuflete - 16 April 2011 07:02 PM

I seem to have little companionship in thinking of a mount as a horse.

Perhaps it’s because mounts are more apt to be hurt than damaged.

That’s interesting, I certainly wouldn’t have considered the sense horse. Is it idiomatic to speak of living things being damaged in English? (Other than figuratively, “she’s damaged goods”, etc). I’m firing from the hip here so I may well be greeted by a hundred examples of such a usage!

Also, remember headlinese has its own vocabulary. I would not be the least bit surprised to find mount commonly used for mountain in headlines, even when it is rare in standard, non-poetic contexts.

(No, I haven’t looked to see if it is.)

I would not be the least bit surprised to find mount commonly used for mountain in headlines

But you’ve been reading headlines all your life!  Do you really have no sense of what is and isn’t used?  Surely “pact” = “treaty” strikes you as familiar in a way that “mount” = “mountain” doesn’t?  I’m all for an appropriate level of self-doubt in language analysis, but one can go too far.

I’m constantly surprised by words I’ve been reading for years, yet never noticed. I’m not prepared to say whether mount is or is not used in headlines with any degree of frequency.

aldiboronti - 17 April 2011 06:40 AM

cuchuflete - 16 April 2011 07:02 PM

I seem to have little companionship in thinking of a mount as a horse.

Perhaps it’s because mounts are more apt to be hurt than damaged.

That’s interesting, I certainly wouldn’t have considered the sense horse. Is it idiomatic to speak of living things being damaged in English? (Other than figuratively, “she’s damaged goods”, etc). I’m firing from the hip here so I may well be greeted by a hundred examples of such a usage!

I think you are right: livings things are more apt to be injured, hurt, suffer cuts and bruises, etc. than be damaged.  That said, try googling “sheep were damaged”
for some of those hundred examples you posited.  “Cattle were damaged” yields even more surprising (to me at least) examples.

As noted above, it is more idiomatic to say that an animal is “hurt” or “injured” rather than “damaged” (and I suspect that when the latter verb is used, the primary concern is the economic value of the animals).  In addition, though the use of “mount” for a horse is not uncommon in US English, it refers to a horse in a specific relationship to a person, i.e., it carries the sense of a horse being ridden, and wouldn’t ordinarily be used in a headline without some reference to the rider. So you might see “Jockey praises mount” or “Policeman injured by mount”, but it would be odd to see something like “Lightning kills mount” if horse was just standing in a field and was struck by lightning.  If the horse were being ridden and the time you might see a headline like “Lightning kills mount, rider survives.”

I would consider it very idiosyncratic to think of a horse in the context of the original headline.

At the time, “mount” as in steed never had enough time to arise. 

In fact, I do not recall paying it any attention until it was suggested above as a possibility for confusion. 

It seems to me that the deeper one goes into the roots of meanings, the more possibilities for interpretation open up and consequently, the more preconceptions are dispelled or at least held at bay.  Abeyance, perhaps would be a better term.  I would not have been too surprised to have discovered it was meant in the equestrian sense.

At the time, “mount” as in steed never had enough time to arise.
In fact, I do not recall paying it any attention until it was suggested above as a possibility for confusion.
It seems to me that the deeper one goes into the roots of meanings, the more possibilities for interpretation open up

(Lady, weeping, enters taxidermist’s shop holding cardboard box)

Taxidermist: Can I be of any help, madam?

Lady (sniffling & wiping nose): My dear, dear pair of pet hamsters died suddenly. Do you think you could presrve the two darlings, so that they can be with me always?

Taxidermist: Of course, madam. Would you like them mounted?

Lady: Oh, no - just holding hands......

lionello - 18 April 2011 12:43 AM

Lady (sniffling & wiping nose): My dear, dear pair of pet hamsters died suddenly. Do you think you could presrve the two darlings, so that they can be with me always?

Taxidermist: Of course, madam. Would you like them mounted?

Lady: Oh, no - just holding hands......

Brilliant!  Thanks for the good chuckle.

I’m with S.Laulu

”It didn’t exactly mislead me.................., but my instinctive reaction was that it was a careless error for “Storm damage mounts”.

I think that the Subject being “Damages” messed up the head experiment somewhat for me: when I saw it I thought of the npun. Not sure how I’d have reacted to “storm damages mount” without that prepping.

OP Tipping - 18 April 2011 04:31 PM

I think that the Subject being “Damages” messed up the head experiment somewhat for me: when I saw it I thought of the npun. Not sure how I’d have reacted to “storm damages mount” without that prepping.

Yes, sorry about that - I should have thought harder about the topic title, I realised too late.

Forgive my typo. That “npun” should be “noun”.

OP Tipping - 25 April 2011 01:27 PM

Forgive my typo. That “npun” should be “noun”.

Awww, I thought “npun” was kinda cute…

lionello - 18 April 2011 12:43 AM

Lady: Oh, no - just holding hands…

Taking the lead from lionello...:

Taxidermist: Of course, madam. Would you have them mounted?

Lady: Oh, I… I never thought of that… Yes.  Yes! That would be so nice…

Taxidermist: (Taxidermist opens large sketch-pad) Let’s sketch the position you would have them assume…

Lady: Oh, no… I could never… you just go ahead and pick the… position that ... animals… most usually assume when they… get stuffed… (Lady pays, exits]

(days later… Taxidermist presents Lady with hamsters’ heads on a magnificent hampster-sized trophy “mount” as understood from the taxidermists’ lexicon...)

(Lady, weeping, exits taxidermist’s shop holding cardboard box)

Not strictly OT but I just encountered a great crash blossom:

Corruption claims dog miner