Why are you "On a train" yet "In a car" when you are inside both vehicles?
"On a bike" makes sense but "On a plane" seems wrong as you are actually inside the plane rather than on it.
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Seems to vary, depending on when the words were written: Google NGram searcher.– Peter K.Commented Oct 18, 2013 at 13:30
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Even that Ngram can't really shed too much light on the question – not when there are so many hits like, "I fell asleep in a train seat," "he died in a train crash," "she was running around in a train station," and, "I was lost in a train of thought."– J.R.Commented Dec 24, 2014 at 2:09
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2 Answers
Generally speaking, the metaphoric senses of get on and get in follow dimensionality:
- the object of on is a Surface, i.e, an object with 2 dimensions, or the surface of a 3-D object
- the object of in is a Container, i.e, a bounded 2-D or 3-D object
In terms of conveyances,
- humans get on a raft, a horse, a bicycle, a sled, a wagon, a skateboard, a surfboard
- humans get in a car, a boat, a ship, a railroad car, a trolley, a bus, an airplane
This much is predictable.
The problem arises with scheduled public conveyances;
in that case only,
a human who gets in the conveyance physically
also is on the roster of passengers metaphorically
(on the roster is a 2-D "page/paper" metaphor).
So one can be said to get on the bus, the plane, the train, the trolley; but not the taxi.
answered Oct 18, 2013 at 16:53
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1I think it's more common to get on a boat, and aircraft terminology is largely borrowed from nautical, but otherwise I agree, this sounds right. Commented Oct 18, 2013 at 20:56
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You get on a large vessel, but that's because everything is flat, and it's a scheduled conveyance (whether public or not), so you're on the list. You get in a rowboat, a canoe, or a kayak, however. Commented Oct 20, 2013 at 21:32
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I think we get on a bus for the same reason we get on a skateboard: because during the act of boarding at least, and sometimes even during the ride, we are standing (on a surface which holds us up). When we get in a car, we do so by immediately and inevitably sitting (in seat which contains our body)– Dan BronCommented Jun 29, 2016 at 14:13
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Good point. The posture of the agent may well make a difference; stand is a bedrock human reference, for instance. Commented Jun 29, 2016 at 14:33
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1@JohnLawler You've pointed me to that paper before, and I've read it, and I found it fascinating. I even used it to support an argument over on Linguistics.SE!– Dan BronCommented Jun 30, 2016 at 1:06
I remember different opinions on that:
When you get in the car, you get directly into your seat, while on public transport you have to walk to it (plane, train, bus).
You can stand up and walk around in public transport, thus the "on".
Public transport is "elevated", you need to go up a bit to get on it (stairs, platform).
"car" deriving from "carriage", a vehicle mounted with a car. That also explains why we get on the train, but in the train car.
