Deadly accident in Shanxi mine

I have some trouble with the following part:
人车插爪式防跑车装置没有起到保护作用。

Any hint?

Pete, workers' paradise?  That is so 70's.  Thx for your labor though.

I don't know where I got the idea that 名 was for higher ranking persons; I did find this list of measure words in, of course, Wiki. It states that 名 is used for, "high-ranking persons (doctors, lawyers, politicians, royalty, etc.); in formal language, can also be used for any type of person (not necessarily high-ranking)."

In other words, what you and Jiaojie said.

Hi henning,

人车插爪式防跑车装置没有起到保护作用

I'm no expert on hydraulics in mineshafts, but this passage is saying that there is some kind of claw-like (插爪式) device (装置) that would prevent the car from running out of control (防跑车). Maybe it would do that by grabbing onto the sides of the shaft? Just my guess.

But in this case, the system did not protect the workers as it should have.

Hi Goulniky,

You're quick!

I guess I'd add that Chinese sometimes seems a bit wordy about this kind of stuff. This type of structure 做...（function)(工作、作用）etc. occurs fairly often, whereas in English we would just say "It failed to protect the workers," not "It failed to do its function of protecting the workers."

Goulniky & Pete,

thanks! Got it.

:)

Hi henning,

The sentence is grammatically very simple, but at the same time, it's confusing for us foreign learners as the subject is too long. You often come across such "top heavy" sentences when reading Chinese. There is no trick, but actually it's not so easy for learners to write this kind of "very Chinese" sentences. 

人车插爪式防跑车装置/没有起到/保护作用

人车带有的插爪式的防跑车装置/没有起到/保护作用

My wife is native Chinese and was confused by this sentence.

it wasnt too clear initially to me either, but :

插 chā insert
爪 zhuǎ foot of a utensil --> 爪式 some kind of block
防 fáng anti-
跑车 pǎochē accidentally slide down
装置 zhuāngzhì install

so I guess this means that they didn't insert the anti-sliding device that would have protected them (that has a protective function).

ON a different topic, I have a stupid question on the mechanics of these posting.  On the coloring in the text, the light blue obviously stands for text with adjacent flossing, while the purple stands for text flossed below. What does the darker blue stand for?  For example, the 有限责任 in 有限责任公司/limited liability company.

Also, I note the presence of 名 again as a measure word.  I know that it's used in as a measure word for members of an occupation, and I can understand it when reading it.  However, if writing my own sentence, I would only use it for higher-ranking positions.  (Actually, I'd probably just use 个.)  Yet I've seen it used for both firefighters (i.e. nuclear plant fire article) and miners. Not to demean miners, but does anyone have any ideas why the author would use 名 for a laborer position?  Does it have to do with the formality of the writing; or, possibly, as a respectful way to refer to the deceased or injured?

tvan, I can only address the first question, color-coding. You got it right, blue is for text with adjacent definition, purple for definitions at bottom.

both come in 2 nuances, automatically generated to distinguish consecutive words. I suppose I could tweak the algorithm to not change colors when two highlighted words are separated by black text, but as it is those nuances always alternate.

goulniky, I wouldn't bother with the algorithm; you do enough work around here as it is.  I've just been curious for a while and decided to ask.

Hi tvan,

Regarding 名 being used for less-exalted jobs: We are in the Workers' Paradise! There is no such thing as a lowly job!

I don't really know if this is the justification. Actually, I think 名 doesn't have much of a status connotation. I will ask a native speaker during normal office hours.

名 follow-up:

According to Professor Lu (Jiaojie), this measure word can be used for any job/social level.

javcau, was your wife confused because of the structure, or the vocab? I suspect the latter, which describes some specialized mining terms which she's probably not familiar with (as the rest of us). Or is it the news style from this BBC reporter?