If it doesn’t what does it do?
If the phone has a bell, and the bell vibrates to produce a ring then it has rung.
If the phone doesn’t have a bell, then it alerts, notifies, signals, flashes, vibrates, etc… but does not ring a bell.
Is the sound I hear when I call you still a ring? If so, has your phone still rung?
In the purest sense of the word no, there is no ringer, there’s no bell
In the colloquial sense of the word sure, the phone has alerted you that there is a call
If your phone gets a call but doesn’t give you any indicator was their call at all? Probably
If you call for takeout, how can you be at home, silently? You’re not “calling” anything, nor taking anything out, as you’re squarely staying in.
Being that prescriptive would end up like an irl version of the Big Bang theory, just much much worse. (And the original is already… eh.)
Language for sounds doesnt work like that though. If I hear a pop song and say “dang that’s a great snare” it isn’t wrong if technically the sound is actually a synthesized snare. When you hear something you can name it without it having to be physically present. Plus plenty of things ring without being a bell.
You know what, you’re right. And the act of putting in a number can’t be called ‘dialing’, because there isn’t a dial. Also, when a car stops at a designated spot and is shut down, that’s not ‘parking’ because there isn’t a park there like there used to be when that word was first used.
Language cannot possibly evolve in these obscene ways!
Well, going by these definitions:
- cause (a bell or alarm) to ring.
- (of a telephone) produce a series of resonant or vibrating sounds to signal an incoming call.
- call for service or attention by sounding a bell.
- sound (the hour, a peal, etc.) on a bell or bells.
I’d say it’s pretty clear.
no sound = no ringing.
by these means no mobile phones ring, since they have no bells anymore. and not even the fancier landlines, either.
(of a telephone) produce a series of resonant or vibrating sounds to signal an incoming call.
All sound is vibrating, because sound is just air vibration, therefore any audio at all produces by a telephone fits this definition. I will die on this hill.
… Or perhaps the definition is just a bit outdated, only accounting for ringtones that sound like bells which used to be a popular choice. IMHO the definition should be updated to include any sound that alerts of an incoming call.
Wait, what am I saying? Where did my hill go?!
the screen turns on
You mean what’s the vernacular?
“Ring” is a hold over word from when phones had bells that rang upon receiving a signal from an operator. Now it means anytime a phone makes a sound to indicate an incoming call.
If a sound isn’t made, you can just say “notify”, because chances are it creates a dialog, or flashes a light, or does something to notify you that someone is calling your phone.
After processing the question while writing my replies in this thread, I’d say it doesn’t ring. If it vibrates then it vibrates, simple as that. If it neither rings nor vibrates but the screen turns on, then… it flashes? Not super sure about that one.
