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Archiver > TMG > 2005-03 > 1109697857


From: "Excalibur131" <>
Subject: Prepositions - what to do
Date: Tue, 1 Mar 2005 12:24:17 -0500


It looks like the message traffic over the past several day's really got
some of us to thinking about prepositions. We seem to want something
implemented in TMG for better handling of those little devils, but we've
shyed away from talking about which ones to implement and how to use them
grammatically. I've also seen at least two messages from people that want
the prepositional needs of people in countries other than their own
considered, but I don't recollect seeing people from those other countries
say what their needs might be.

Some things to consider.

In, on, and at ... the big three prepositions for indicating _place_.
You are in country, in state, in province, in county, in a city, in bed, in
prison, and in the hosptial.
You are on a street, on a plane, and on a train.
You are at a street number.
You are in a room, in a corner (of a room), in a park, and in a car.
But wait! You are on a river, but at sea. You are on the coast and at the
seashore. You are on a ship, but in a boat. You can be in college and at
college. You can be in school and at school. You are in the country, but on
a farm. You are in a building, on a street, at someone's house; of course,
if it was the big house you would be in prison.

Then we get into preposition _positional_ words. In, on, at, by, above,
over, beside, around, opposite, across from, among, inside, out, outside,
under, below, in front of, near, between, behind, and through. Phew ... and
that's just the common ones.

Rut roh ... now come the big three prepositions for indication of _time_.
In year and in month.
On day and on date.
At time, but in a few minutes. Oh, let's not forget at the moment, at
present, and at noon.
In a week, but on weekends or on the weekend.
In the morning, but on Saturday morning. In the afternoon, but on Sunday
afternoon. In the evening, but on Friday evening.
In the winter, but on Christmas Day and at Christmas.
On Thursday night, but at night.
Then we have at the same time, at the beginning of, and at the end of.

Oh No! Now we have to think about prepositions for _travel_.
To, in, at, into, by, on, up, and down. Hm-m-m, I was on the plane, but when
I traveled by plane I was in the plane.

Now my head is spinning or is my body spinning and my head sitting still?

The point of this exercise in futility was to try and figure out what
prepositions we might want TMG to provide a better way of handling. There
are so many prepositions out there and these are just a few of the more
common ones. Would TMG be able to figure out _how_ the preposition was being
used? Would TMG users know _how_ to use prepositions presented in a list?
Would TMG provide a minimal list of prepostions, 15, 25, 50, 100, more? Do
the categories of _place_, _position_, _time_, and _travel_ all have to be
considered by TMG or can/should any of the categories be removed from the
process?

I have no idea how any of this affects anyone in other countries. Maybe now
is the time for people, in those other countries actually using TMG, to
speak up with their concerns and wishes, likes and dislikes. Maybe people in
other countries don't have a prepositional problem at all and would be
content if the current way that TMG handles prepositions was left completely
intact and they would continue on their merry way. I don't know.

Having said all this, I would still like for TMG to provide better handling
of prepositions. I don't have any idea what form it should take or will take
if it's ever implemented. There are a lot of things to be considered, not
least of which is how people (the end user) will treat and use whatever is
implemented. I want to believe that the masses want something implemented,
but my gut tells me that most people probably don't care one way or the
other -- something to be considered when thinking about the amount of
programming a change of this nature might take.

Well, I've used more than my nickel and nickle :-)
Tom



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