Author Topic: Prepositions are weird (Read 5083 times)

dkw · « **on:** October 21, 2007, 06:52:55 PM »

I'm brushing up *cough*relearningfromscratch*cough* my German, and it's reminded me how absolutely bizzare preposition usage is. Why do we stand in the street instead of on the street? And why are houses on the street when they're really beside it? Why are things hanging on the wall, not against the wall? And we attach the picture to the wall in order to hang it from the wall.

Prepositions are weird.

Tante Shvester · « **Reply #1 on:** October 21, 2007, 07:03:55 PM »

By me, we stand on the street. There's even a sometimes news column interviewing the "man on the street".

And we also have the option of standing "on line" or "in line" when we line up, although "on line" is more prevalent.

You know what I really love, though? People who can recite their prepositions to the tune of "Yankee Doodle". That's just hot!

Porter · « **Reply #2 on:** October 21, 2007, 07:34:06 PM »

Quote

And we also have the option of standing "on line" or "in line" when we line up, although "on line" is more prevalent.

I've never heard of standing on line.

Jonathon · « **Reply #3 on:** October 21, 2007, 08:51:33 PM »

Looks like it's mostly a tri-state thing.

rivka · « **Reply #4 on:** October 21, 2007, 09:44:34 PM »

With a cluster in SoCal. Which is consistent with my experience.

dkw · « **Reply #5 on:** October 22, 2007, 06:11:54 AM »

Yep. Bob says "on line." I am trying to break him of that, because it drives me nuts.

This is in direct contradiction to my normal beliefs about not trying to change your spouse's completely harmless habits, but some things just go too far!

Porter · « **Reply #6 on:** October 22, 2007, 08:26:16 AM »

I'm online right now.

Jonathon · « **Reply #7 on:** October 22, 2007, 11:01:17 AM »

That's not the same.

Oh, and prepositions are just as weird and idiomatic in French. But now my French is rusty enough that I can't remember any good examples.

rivka · « **Reply #8 on:** October 22, 2007, 12:17:00 PM »

They're weird in Hebrew too. (And, to the tiny degree that I recall my HS Spanish, in Spanish as well.) Totally ruins some jokes in translation.

Tante Shvester · « **Reply #9 on:** October 22, 2007, 01:59:15 PM »

If you are connected to the internet on your PDA while you are waiting in the checkout lane at the supermarket, you can be online while you are waiting on line.

But seriously, rest-of-the-English-speaking-world, lines are one-dimensional. You can't be in them, unless you reduce yourself to a non-dimensional point. That's why all sensible people get on line.

Bob is right on this one. Dana, stop trying to corrupt him.

Tante Shvester · « **Reply #10 on:** October 22, 2007, 02:00:54 PM »

And, speaking of supermarkets, that thing you push around there is a cart. Not a wagon, not a buggy. A shopping CART.

Get it right.

Jonathon · « **Reply #11 on:** October 22, 2007, 02:08:16 PM »

What about "trolley"? Is that right out?

Tante Shvester · « **Reply #12 on:** October 22, 2007, 02:15:48 PM »

You betcha.

dkw · « **Reply #13 on:** October 22, 2007, 03:02:24 PM »

Plurals are also weird. How come "pants" is (are?) plural and "hair" (when referring to the thousands of them on your head) is singular?

Porter · « **Reply #14 on:** October 22, 2007, 03:06:21 PM »

Hair is singular for the same reason that milk is.

rivka · « **Reply #15 on:** October 22, 2007, 03:18:36 PM »

And water (which is plural in some languages).

dkw · « **Reply #16 on:** October 22, 2007, 03:26:47 PM »

That doesn't work -- you can pluck an individual hair, what would be the equivalent for a milk (or water)?

Porter · « **Reply #17 on:** October 22, 2007, 03:31:42 PM »

When you talk about somebody's hair, you aren't talking about a collection of things (hairs), you're talking about the substance hair.

The same thing happens with the word fish.

Jonathon · « **Reply #18 on:** October 22, 2007, 03:35:13 PM »

Hair isn't exactly like milk, because even though we usually refer to it as a mass, it's still made of discrete pieces. In French hair is treated as a plural.

Porter: I'm not quite sure what you mean about fish.

Porter · « **Reply #19 on:** October 22, 2007, 03:41:16 PM »

Much like hair word fish can be used to describe a single fish or to describe the substance fish.

"We think that Care Bear ate her sister's pet fish the other day."

"Which is odd, because she usually doesn't like to eat fish."

(The second one was made up. The first one, however, is true.)

Porter · « **Reply #20 on:** October 22, 2007, 03:45:12 PM »

Another word like that is beef, except that the plural of beef isn't beef -- it's beefs or beeves.

Jonathon · « **Reply #21 on:** October 22, 2007, 03:46:55 PM »

Okay, gotcha. I disagree that that's analogous to hair, though. A bunch of fish-the-animal together don't make fish-the-substance.

Porter · « **Reply #22 on:** October 22, 2007, 03:50:33 PM »

That's a good point.

Porter · « **Reply #23 on:** October 22, 2007, 04:09:35 PM »

Quote

A bunch of fish-the-animal together don't make fish-the-substance.

Actually, I think they do.

Tante Shvester · « **Reply #24 on:** October 22, 2007, 04:34:07 PM »

Beeves? Like at Quiznos they have all different kinds of beeves to choose from?