A small linguistic cry of confusion - help, USA-based friends!

[heliophile_oxon]

Well I thought I knew ... that when people in the USA say "yard work" they mean what we Brits call "gardening"

But what is the difference in the USA between yard work and gardening?

I have to translate, would you believe a sentence from USAnian to Brit-speak, that refers to doing "yard work or gardening" and one that refers to "digging in the garden

Comments

[catalenamara]

Interesting question. I grew up in a desert area. We had a front yard and a back yard, though not much of anything actually grew there except some sticker plants and some shrubs my father grew as a windbreak when he set up an irrigation system. The only time I heard the word "garden" used was when someone tried to grow a vegetable patch, such as when my neighbor managed to successfully raise tomatoes, lord knows how he managed it. When I moved to California, the term "garden" was used for both vegetables patches and flower beds, and I've learned since then that seems to be the common usage, with yard mostly referring to grass and trees.

[heliophile_oxon]

Thank you very much for giving me your thoughts (and sorry I took a while to get back to you!)

It's been quite an eye-opener for me, finding out just how much the concepts don't map onto each other between USA and UK usage - for instance, I've been speaking to one person born and brought up in the USA (though I don't know where) and now living and gardening in the UK, who reckons there could be gendered connotations - and possibly connotations of high- or low-skilled work - between USA-yard work and USA-gardening that just don't translate easily to UK usage (>.<)

I know the old divided-by-a-common-language thing, but this is proving quite curious :-)

Anyway, juuuust in case you have a minute still - would you say there's any notion that either of yard work or gardening is definitely more or less physically taxing than the other?

Many thanks for your help!

[catalenamara]

Yes, the person you were speaking with is correct. My understanding of yard work is it was a descriptor of a primarily male activity as it is more physically taxing than gardening. When I was growing up in the 60s and 70s, the gender division of work involved what was done in the house was women's work EXCEPT for any kind of repair to equipment and carpentry. What was done outside was men's work, except for the purely ornamental work of gardening (i.e. flowers). This is the message I got from media, with its focus on white middle class suburban life. However, I was raised in a rural desert area, and gardening often referred to vegetable patches, which was not a gendered activity. (Additionally, grass was non-existent except with a considerable expenditure of and wasteful use of water, so lawns were the exception, not the rule. Many front yards consisted of no-maintenance native plants, cacti, etc). All we did to keep the shrub windbreak alive (it consisted of three bushes and a spindly pomegranate tree set in depressions with

[heliophile_oxon]

Aha, thank you for that - I feel pretty confident now that the intention of the questionnaire is to make sure that everybody who does do any kind of outdoor work - of whatever type - is going to tick yes, and avoid any possibility of people mistakenly under-reporting their physical exertion because they feel the question doesn't mean them ("I can't tick this one, because I don't do gardening I only do yard work" sort of thing, or vice versa "I only do gardening, somebody else does the yard work"). It's been extremely helpful being able to get these responses from a range of people - thank you so much!

Eh, I'm pretty bloody shocked too to learn there is no mandatory paid holiday time in the USA. And no mandatory pregnancy leave - afaik the only first-world country in the world not to have any! All of which is particularly close to home right now, with our shoot-ourselves-in-the-head brexit disaster going on, that I see a lot of our tory party apparently hell-bent on copying only what's bad from the USA (like gutting the NHS even more

[catalenamara]

One thing I'm curious about. I attended several fan conventions in England in the 80s and 90s. They were all-inclusive and meals were served at long tables with random seating. I remember at one of these meals several people from various parts of England began comparing specific regional and wildly varying terms for various objects, such as gates. Are there any regional differences re garden and yard in England? I also remember reading, and hearing on a tour* that I took in Yorkshire, that American English is primarily descended from northern England accents and usages. These language differences fascinate me. (*The tour guide explained that the BBC almost did not approve the showing of "All Creatures Great and Small" in the US out of concern that Americans would not be able to understand the accent. That series turned out to be wildly popular here.)

[heliophile_oxon]

To be honest I'm not sure - it's very likely there will be regional differences (since there are for almost anything you care to mention!) but pretty much everybody would use/understand the "standard" usage even if they might use a different expression/use a word differently at home/among locals.

I didn't know that about AE being related to northern England usage/accent! Reminds me (I expect you know this) about the discussions lately of Shakespeare being written in and for South-West England accent and rhythms - which are also responsible for "Pirate" speak *g*