LGT THOUGHT THE GND CTLR CLEARED HIM INTO POSITION AND HOLD ON THE ACTIVE RWY AND THEN CHANGED HIM TO LCL FREQ. LCL CTLR UPSET BECAUSE THE LGT CROSSED THE HOLD LINE WHEN ANOTHER ACR WAS READY FOR TKOF AT THE END OF THE RWY.

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ENCOUNTERED GATE HOLD OF APPROX 15 MINS. CONSIDERABLE CONFUSION EXISTED CONCERNING DEPS; DELAYS; ROUTES AND ADVICE TIMES. GND CTLR SEEMED HARRIED AS HE CONTINUALLY SWITCHED ACFT BACK AND FORTH BTWN HIMSELF--CLRNC--AND GATE HOLD. WHEN WE RECEIVED CLRNC WE WERE CLRED TO 'RWY 22R; RA TO OUTER TO ROMEO SHORT OF MIKE; REMAIN WITH ME.' WHEN REACHING MIKE; WHERE APPROX #4 OR 5; GND ASKED US; 'CAN YOU ACCEPT INTXN DEP FROM MIKE?' WHEN WE ADVISED WE COULD; WE WERE TOLD OR HEARD; 'TAXI INTO POS AND HOLD. CONTACT TWR 118.3.' I STARTED DOWN MIKE TOWARD RWY WHILE F/O TUNED RADIO TO TWR FREQ. AT THAT TIME I NOTICED AN ACR GOING INTO POS AT THE END OF THE RWY. THEN IT DAWNED ON ME THAT GND CTL HAD ISSUED THE CLRNC INTO POS; NOT THE LCL; SO I STOPPED SHORT OF THE RWY; BUT WELL BEYOND THE HOLD LINE. ONCE CONTACT WITH TWR (LCL) WAS MADE; HE EXPRESSED CONCERN RE: OUR HOLDING SHORT BEYOND THE HOLD LINE. WE RELAYED THE ABOVE EVENTS TO HIM. HE UTTERED AN UNINTELLIGIBLE COMMENT. ALL 3 FLT DECK CREW MEMBERS AGREE THAT WE ALL HEARD GND CLR US INTO POS AND HOLD. IF BY CHANCE HE SAID SOMETHING DIFFERENT; HIS TERMINOLOGY HAD TO BE NON STANDARD AND VERY CLOSE TO 'POS AND HOLD' FOR ALL OF US TO HAVE BELIEVED WE HEARD THE SAME CLRNC. I BELIEVE HE SHOULD HAVE SAID 'HOLD SHORT OF RWY 22R ON TXWY MIKE. CONTACT TWR 118.3.'