{"id":1238,"date":"2013-03-23T00:44:24","date_gmt":"2013-03-22T13:44:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.meganix.net\/pavement\/?p=1238"},"modified":"2013-03-23T00:44:24","modified_gmt":"2013-03-22T13:44:24","slug":"pavement-pedantry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.meganix.net\/pavement\/2013\/03\/23\/pavement-pedantry\/","title":{"rendered":"Pavement pedantry"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"12k-mIMAG0171-PathLeast\"<\/a>

‘The path of least resistance’, King Street, Newtown (Sydney), 2012<\/p><\/div>\n

Here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s another one of those pedantic vocabulary posts. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve already done \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcsgraffito\/ graffiti\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/a> and \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcpalimpsest\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/a>. Now it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time to do \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcpavement\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 because I got another email this week querying why I use that term.\u00c2\u00a0 In Australia, says my correspondent, we more commonly use the term \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcfootpath\u00e2\u20ac\u2122. \u00c2\u00a0Trouble is, dear correspondent, that this blog \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and indeed my whole Pavement graffiti<\/i> project \u00e2\u20ac\u201c is meant for an international audience, and in any case I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m obsessed with graffiti not only on places where people walk, but also on the hard surfaces where they normally drive, ride, skate and park.<\/p>\n

It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a tricky problem of vocabulary that I have never properly resolved. But here is how I justified using the term \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcpavement\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 in my thesis. It comes with a lengthy footnote:<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153By \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcpavement\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 I mean hard, paved surfaces in public places. These include roads (or \u00e2\u20ac\u02dccarriageways\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 in older terminology), footpaths (\u00e2\u20ac\u02dcfootways\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 in older Australian terminology, \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcsidewalks\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 in America), public squares and parking lots. Their paving materials range from cobblestones and flagstones to tarmacadam, asphalt and concrete.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Footnote<\/i>: The term \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcpavement\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 can be problematic in that usage varies across English-speaking countries. Respondents to my blog, Pavement graffiti<\/i>, have pointed out that people in Britain usually think of the pavement as a paved footway; in Australia this seems to be the more generally accepted meaning as well, although the term \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcfootpath\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 is more widely used. In American English the term \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcpavement\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 is used for \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcthe durable surface material laid down on an area intended to sustain vehicular or foot traffic, such as a road or walkway\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 (see the entry for Road surface<\/em><\/a> in Wikipedia, accessed 3 March 2013).<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153<\/i>The Oxford English Dictionary\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s list of definitions of \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcpavement\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 covers all these uses. Condensed, the OED\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s meanings (excluding the specialised mining and zoological uses), are: a paved surface or hard covering laid on the ground (used chiefly in technical contexts); paving or similar surfacing (used as a mass noun); the paved or metalled part of a road or other public thoroughfare or the roadway (used chiefly in North America and in Engineering); a paved footpath alongside a street or road (but the preferred term in North America is \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcsidewalk\u00e2\u20ac\u2122) (see the entry for pavement<\/em>\u00c2\u00a0<\/a>in OED Online, Oxford University Press, accessed 20 March 2013).<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153In my extensive reading of current as well as older references \u00e2\u20ac\u201c mainly from Australia, but also from Britain and USA \u00e2\u20ac\u201c I have seen the term \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcpavement\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 variously used by both engineers and laypeople to refer to the paved surfaces of roads, of footpaths alone, and of roads and<\/em> footpaths. For my project I have chosen to use \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcpavement\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 in this last, broad sense because it is the only term available that can collectively refer to all the different kinds of hard surface laid down on the ground for ease of passage, whether by wheels, feet or hooves.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Does that help?<\/p>\n

\"13a-mP1010880-NewAshphelt\"<\/a>

‘New ashphelt’, Broadway (Sydney), 2013.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s another one of those pedantic vocabulary posts. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve already done \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcsgraffito\/ graffiti\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 and \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcpalimpsest\u00e2\u20ac\u2122. Now it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time to do \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcpavement\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 because I got another email this week querying why I use that term.\u00c2\u00a0 In Australia, says my correspondent, we more commonly use the term \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcfootpath\u00e2\u20ac\u2122. \u00c2\u00a0Trouble is, dear correspondent, that this blog \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and <\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[107],"tags":[4,51,3,5,7],"class_list":["post-1238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-paving-materials","tag-asphalt","tag-footpaths","tag-graffiti","tag-newtown","tag-sydney"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t