{"id":279,"date":"2019-06-04T22:18:39","date_gmt":"2019-06-05T05:18:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/linguamonium.com\/?p=279"},"modified":"2021-04-25T05:30:16","modified_gmt":"2021-04-25T05:30:16","slug":"semantics-101-for-caterpillar-inc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/linguamonium.com\/?p=279","title":{"rendered":"Semantics 101 for Caterpillar Inc."},"content":{"rendered":"

It seems that the world\u2019s largest manufacturer of construction equipment, Caterpillar Inc., is in serious need of a basic semantics lesson. I came across this article a couple days ago:<\/p>\n

\u201cSanta Cruz coffee shop with \u2018cat\u2019 in its name hit with cease and desist from Caterpillar Inc.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Beyond the ridiculousness of a giant corporation going after a tiny local caf\u00e9, what struck me as even more absurd was the following:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Even if<\/em> the trademarked \u2018CAT\u2019 of Caterpillar Inc. was an oft-used clipping <\/strong>(shortening) of the full word \u2018caterpillar\u2019 (and so indicated that wriggling, butterfly-metamorphosing insect), it would not <\/em>be the same word as the \u2018cat\u2019 of the caf\u00e9\u2019s name \u2013 \u201cCat and Cloud Coffee\u201d \u2013 which refers to the common feline house pet. These would be homonyms<\/strong> \u2013 words which are spelled alike, but have different meanings.[1]<\/a><\/li>\n
  2. As it is, no one ever calls the aforementioned insect a \u2018cat\u2019 (not that I\u2019ve heard, anyway). So the trademarked term is something else entirely. It has its own unique sense, which can in fact refer to at least two related things: (a) a particular machine produced by the company, or (b) the company itself. Obviously, neither of these are that purring, internet-beloved animal either. They are yet another set of homonyms.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Totally different words. Totally different senses. The news piece doesn\u2019t say this explicitly, but most people possess an intuitive understanding, as evidenced by quotes from caf\u00e9 customers:<\/p>\n

    \u201c\u2019I don’t think anyone correlates the Caterpillar company with their big yellow massive trucks with a small caf\u00e9,\u2019 said Rick Tawfik, of San Jose. \u2018I mean, I never thought about Cat and Cloud and Caterpillar in the same sentence until we heard about this lawsuit.\u2019<\/p>\n

    \u2018I don’t think they have a legitimate case,\u2019 added Emma Davis, of San Jose. \u2018I don’t think I would ever confuse the two of them. It doesn’t make sense to me.\u2019”<\/p>\n

    Caterpillar\u2019s trademark lawyers apparently lack such common sense, or are (more likely) willfully ignoring it.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    [1]<\/a> Etymologically, hundreds of years ago, the terms could have been related, in that (according to the Oxford English Dictionary) the Middle English word for \u2018caterpillar\u2019 catyrpel <\/em>may have derived from the Old French chatepelose <\/em>(literally \u201chairy or downy cat\u201d)\u2026but enough time has elapsed between now and the 11th<\/sup> century that it\u2019s not reasonable to claim a modern meaning connection. Does anyone you know think of caterpillars as \u201chairy cats\u201d?<\/p>\n

    *Photo attributions: CAT excavator<\/a>; Caterpillar<\/a>; Pet cat<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    It seems that the world\u2019s largest manufacturer of construction equipment, Caterpillar Inc., is in serious need of a basic semantics lesson. I came across this article a couple days ago: \u201cSanta Cruz coffee shop with \u2018cat\u2019 in its name hit with cease and desist from Caterpillar Inc.\u201d Beyond the ridiculousness of a giant corporation going…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":286,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[11,17,28,33],"tags":[89,164,177],"class_list":["post-279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-etymology","category-lexicology-lexicography","category-semantics","category-words","tag-homonyms","tag-trademarks","tag-word-senses"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\nSemantics 101 for Caterpillar Inc. - Linguamonium<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/linguamonium.com\/?p=279\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Semantics 101 for Caterpillar Inc. - Linguamonium\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It seems that the world\u2019s largest manufacturer of construction equipment, Caterpillar Inc., is in serious need of a basic semantics lesson. 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