Timeline for Preposition in and on regarding clothes
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
17 events
when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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May 19 at 11:37 | comment | added | Mari-Lou A | If you edit your 2024 answer on EL&U to include this comment, I'll upvote it. (I'm not wholly convinced "on" is an adjective but that it takes an adjectival role sounds reasonable) | |
May 19 at 11:10 | comment | added | TimR | And I expect a contemporary grammar would call it an intransitive preposition or maybe an adposition. M-W also uses the term "function word". Do you not have the sense that reasonable people might disagree on how to understand this construction? I'm saying that the preceding noun licenses a particular non-gradable binary adjective when the noun is object of a prepositional phrase headed by with | |
May 18 at 19:30 | comment | added | Mari-Lou A | M-W also says (2 of 7) adverb 1 b: in or into a position of being attached to or covering a surface especially : in or into the condition of being worn // "put his new shoes on” | |
May 18 at 19:10 | comment | added | TimR | M-W says "on" is an adjective in "The radio is on". There will be different kinds of authorities. There will be lexicographers, and grammarians both pre and post computational model. | |
May 18 at 19:06 | comment | added | TimR | When someone says "I like my coffee black" they're not talking about its shade but about its contents. They wouldn't be happy if you put milk in it that had been dyed to a perfect black. Don't become a barista or act that part at your next party. Just sayin'... | |
May 18 at 16:55 | comment | added | Mari-Lou A | Black is a colour. It can be different in shades/tones/strengths/intensity. Diluted, thinned, black coffee without milk or creamer, is more a dirty brown colour. Or as my mum used to call it "American water" :) Just include one authoritative resource in this answer that states "on" in "with X on" can be parsed as an adjective and I'll give this answer and the 2024 answer each an upvote. | |
May 18 at 16:50 | comment | added | TimR | You're straying into unreasonable territory when you start talking about appearances and not the absolute that "black coffee" implies -- no creamer. It's not a color-word there but a specialized meaning -- no creamer. | |
May 18 at 16:48 | comment | added | Mari-Lou A | If the coffee is diluted, and some black coffees are, it won't appear as black compared to an espresso. | |
May 18 at 16:46 | comment | added | TimR | Not in the coffee sense where it means "no cream or milk or creamer". It's not gradable there. I didn't say "all reasonable people". You can analyze it as an intransitive preposition or adposition. | |
May 18 at 16:22 | comment | added | Mari-Lou A | Something can be blacker, it's uncommon, but it's used. I don't think black is an absolute adjective which being the reasonable person you are (so anyone who disagrees is unreasonable?) is why you did not say "She likes her coffee white". However, there is "the blackest paint" in the world! :) | |
May 18 at 16:03 | comment | added | TimR | It's an ungradable adjective, hence no comparative/superlative. Just as with "black" coffee there's no gradability either. And we don't say "It's an on light." and yet people still understand "on" in "The light is on" to refer its state (a role typically taken by adjectives), and some reasonable people do call "on" an adjective there. | |
May 18 at 13:35 | comment | added | Mari-Lou A | "She puts her hat on" In that case is "on" an adjective only because we can say "She takes her coffee black" ? The word black can precede the noun e.g. black coffee but on by itself can't precede the noun "on hat" or be modified by "very" e.g. very black coffee (Y) very on hat or hat very on (N) Something can be "blacker" but I've never heard anything being described as "onner" maybe something is "more on than off" but in that case "on" is a noun, not an adjective | |
May 18 at 12:04 | comment | added | TimR | Explaining the meaning in a simple way to learners is a rather different thing than answering the theoretical question "What licenses it?" I think on can be analyzed as a state predicated of the preceding noun and the preceding noun licenses the predicate. "The woman has her hat on". Similar to "The woman likes her coffee black". We can't say "The woman likes her coffee on" or "The woman has her hat black". | |
May 18 at 11:32 | comment | added | Mari-Lou A | Is "on" also an adjective in this case? | |
Sep 7, 2017 at 4:38 | vote | accept | user54219 | ||
Sep 6, 2017 at 17:48 | vote | accept | user54219 | ||
Sep 6, 2017 at 17:48 | |||||
Sep 6, 2017 at 13:52 | history | answered | TimR | CC BY-SA 3.0 |