0

What I was taught is it's supposed to be doors are closing or doors close. However CTA announcements clearly say doors closing. I'm pretty sure it's not door's closing because it also says doors open on the right. So it uses plural. Also quick search in Google reveals everyone thinks it's doors closing.

Is it really grammatically correct? If not why do they use it in such official environment?

Thanks

Improve this question
1
  • 5
    The announcement isn't a sentence as such, it's a description of the state of affairs, for information only. In that situation, brevity and clarity are important. Have you come across the phrase "Man Overboard"? Think of it as a widely-recognised label for a certain situation.
    – JHCL
    Commented Oct 25, 2015 at 16:10

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
5

This is one of those situations where extra words are elided. This happens on signs and in headlines, where space is at a premium. And it happens here during a warning, which is intended to brief and emphatic. You only need to know two things: what it is (doors) and what it's doing (closing). You certainly don't want to get stuck in the doors contemplating a missing verb.

Improve this answer
4
  • Right. It's short for "The doors are closing."
    – Brian Hitchcock
    Commented Oct 25, 2015 at 5:50
  • 1
    On the other hand, the automated BART announcement says "The doors are closing. Please stand clear of the doors." (And then the doors close.) So it's not as though every mass transit system concurs with CTA about the need to be as laconic as possible.
    – Sven Yargs
    Commented Oct 25, 2015 at 7:06
  • Different systems will allow different message lengths. And I'm sure there are different theories about what is clear and concise, versus what is polite and encouraging.
    – Stuart F
    Commented Aug 7, 2023 at 13:03
  • @Sven Yargs High Speed Trains may have different priorities.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Aug 7, 2023 at 15:22
0

It's an ungrammatical shortening -- similar to "slow children" on a road sign.

In the case of "doors closing" in an audio announcement, I'm not really sure why they bother shortening "The doors are closing". At least with the road sign, brevity is important to someone driving a car. Writing out "drive slowly, there are children in the area" is too verbose for the purpose.

Improve this answer
3
  • 'Ungrammatical' carries some allusion to impropriety. I'd say that this falls outside the scope of standard grammar's jurisdiction. There's even a warning traffic sign with merely an exclamation mark on it. How can that be either grammatical or ungrammatical? But it usually gets the job done.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Aug 7, 2023 at 15:27
  • "Ungrammatical" in the sense of "does not follow the standard rules of grammar". Is this somehow controversial?
    – Stephen R
    Commented Sep 11, 2023 at 15:07
  • Dictionary.com's more usually accepted definition: << ungrammatical: grammatically incorrect or awkward; not conforming to the rules or principles of grammar or accepted usage >> Strings not conforming to the standard rules of grammar but not necessarily considered 'incorrect' / unacceptable are better termed 'extra-grammatical' (headlinese, slogans, instructions on notices, as here; some idioms). Outside the scope of rather than violating.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Sep 11, 2023 at 16:30

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .