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From: jc@minya.UUCP (John Chambers)
Newsgroups: sci.lang,comp.cog-eng
Subject: Re: Geographical uses of "in" and "on"
Keywords: spatial language, prepositions, metaphor
Message-ID: <129@minya.UUCP>
Date: 5 May 89 20:29:02 GMT
References: <5434@cs.Buffalo.EDU> <17765@cisunx.UUCP>
Organization: (none)
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In article <17765@cisunx.UUCP>, hirtle@cisunx.UUCP (Steve  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."  
> 
> 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.

Well, I don't know about speakers of other dialects of English, but in
mine (American West Coast, basically), there are differences in meaning
between "in" and "on".  For example, I could say:
	My car is parked in the street.
	My house is on the next street.
I.e., "in" means physically located inside the boundaries of the street;
"on" means adjacent to the boundaries.  The metaphor is a container with
boundaries.  A different set of metaphors uses "in" for political/legal
entities with boundaries, but "on" for areas with surfaces.

Thus, a cornfield is a container within which you grow a crop, so you'd 
be "in" a cornfield; a battlefield is a surface "on" which actions take
place.  Ireland is primarily a political entity, so "in" is appropriate;
when dealing with some aspects of its tangled history, it makes more
sense (to me) to talk of things happening "on" (the island of) Ireland.
People can live "on" (the island of) Manhattan or "in" (the borough of)
Manhattan.  And so on.

Both "the man in the street" and "the man on the street" sound OK to me,
but the former gives me a bit of an uncomfortable feeling, which comes
from thinking that he'd be safer if he'd join the latter on the sidewalk.

-- 
John Chambers <{adelie,ima,mit-eddie}!minya!{jc,root}> (617/484-6393)

[Any errors in the above are due to failures in the logic of the keyboard,
not in the fingers that did the typing.]