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From: treese@crltrx.crl.dec.com (Win Treese)
Newsgroups: sci.lang,comp.cog-eng
Subject: Re: Geographical uses of "in" and "on"
Keywords: spatial language, prepositions, metaphor
Message-ID: <136@crltrx.crl.dec.com>
Date: 27 Apr 89 05:33:23 GMT
References: <5434@cs.Buffalo.EDU> <17765@cisunx.UUCP>
Reply-To: treese@crl.dec.com (Win Treese)
Organization: DEC Cambridge Research Lab
Lines: 46

In article <17765@cisunx.UUCP> hirtle@unix.cis.pittsburgh.edu (Stephen Hirtle) writes:
>Michel Grimaud had an article in _Geolinguistics_ recently comparing
>use of prepositions in French, British English, and American English
>and he made some interesting observations and noted systematic 
>differences.  For example, in American English, "in" is used
>for larger political divisions, as "in Ireland," whereas "on" is used
>for smaller units, as "on Staten Island."  There is also a consistency
>in that we say "in a cornfield" and "walking through a cornfield",
>but "on a battlefield" and "walking across a battlefield."  

Hmm.  I don't think that the size is the critical issue in the usage for
political divisions.  In America, at least, one hears "in America",
"in Massachusetts", "in Cambridge", and "in Kendall Square".  The use of
"on" for the Staten Island example seems to me to be related more to
the nature of the island.  But then, we do say "in Manhattan", which
is very similar to Staten Island as a political subdivision and as an
island.

>As for the differences, he described how the three languages look
>at street names relating it to the issue of containment.  In all three 
>languages we talk of "in the alley," as alleys are considered containers, 
>and "on the boulevard," as boulevards are considered surfaces.  But the
>languages differ on whether "in" or "on" is used with intermediate
>cases.  For example, Americans say "the man on the street" or "on
>Wall Street," but in England "the man in the street" is considered
>proper.  Metaphorical uses are also discussed.  Grimaud notes that 
>"The house is on the ocean" is only proper in English, not in French.

In American English, one also says, "he lives on Smith Street".  French
generally uses "he lives in the Rue Morgue".  I do seem to recall that
"man in the street" is fairly common the US, though -- "man-in-the-street
interviews" are probably interchangeable with "on".

This also brings to mind another question.  In my experience, people from
New York City (and environs -- great word, that) say "stand on line".
Everyone else from America talks about standing "in line".  (Britain avoids
this problem, of course, by "queueing up".)

And, of course, George Carlin drew an important distinction:

     "Would you get on the plane now, sir?"
     "On the plane?! I'm getting *in* the plane, where the pilot is.
      You can get *on* the plane."

Win Treese						Cambridge Research Lab
treese@crl.dec.com					Digital Equipment Corp.