Pullover

Language is governed by rules. There are two basic rules that govern meanings of words and the order we use to convey a certain message. Constitutive rules and Regulative Rules.
My observation is the on the constitutive part. Constitutive rules tell us which words represent which objects. There are many advantages of experiencing different cultures but sometimes the same words mean different in the same language. Two years ago I was making my first trip out of Pittsburg- Kansas ever since I came down to the United States. My friends and I were driving down to Dallas that day and we were just about to enter Quapaw OK, I still remember that place because we ended up getting a ticket for over speeding in the downtown there...
But this story is not about that; a funny incident took place that made us realize that English is indeed a funny language. We had just entered Quapaw and we heard the siren and saw the police following us. After a few seconds my friend who was driving told me that he is asking us to ‘pull over’. I was not sure of what he meant and kept quiet, we pulled over and had the police came to our car, after an exchange of a few words and papers we ended up with a ticket for over speeding. The cop allowed us to advance the journey. Before I asked my friend to show me the receipt for the ticket I asked him. “Where was the 'pull-over' involved in all of this?” He was confused and simply replied “What?”
I told him “when the police vehicle was chasing us, you said something about the pullover”. To me the only meaning for pullover was the one that I was wearing. When my friend said that the police officer is asking us to pull over, I did not hear it well and probably that was the reason why I miss understood what he said. Both of had a good laugh and with that I added another American jargon to my dictionary.