Teacher Discussion Forums

There have been semi-furious debates on other fora regarding the valid use of the preposition "on" in the following passage. I myself think it is valid. What about you?

"We can be proud that Leif Ericson had ancestors from Norway, but must admit that Leif Ericson was an Icelander. His father, Erik the Red, was born in Norway and emigrated to Iceland. Leif was born on Iceland and he was a fairly big boy when he followed his father to settle on Greenland," Dr. Heyerdahl pointed out.

Heh, not for me

Lorikeet wrote:Heh, not for me

Have you gone all Zen on us, Lori? Why wouldn't you use it there?

Because I'm thinking more of a country than an island I imagine.

We can be proud that Leif Ericson had ancestors from Norway

Might this suggest that the passage was written by a Norweigan? Impeccable though their English may be most of the time, they do make the odd mistake. Interestingly, the writer says in Norway but on Iceland - shurely shome mishtake

lolwhites wrote:

We can be proud that Leif Ericson had ancestors from Norway

Might this suggest that the passage was written by a Norweigan? Impeccable though their English may be most of the time, they do make the odd mistake. Interestingly, the writer says in Norway but on Iceland - shurely shome mishtake

Check out these:

Interesting?

Icelandics have lived on Iceland in total isolation for a thousand years.

http://www.gaitedhorses.net/BreedArticl ... edDesc.htm

They had lived on Iceland, true, but it was in the 9th century and majority of them were monks, which are not supposed to practice any reproductive activities, are they?

http://journeys.20m.com/potovanja/is/is_eng.htm

* "Virtually" because, if you lived on Iceland you would know that
latent cooling of the earth is the source of geothermal energy. (Not that Iceland is the only place that harvests geothermal but they do it so well.)

http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/toy ... sage/41240

Vikings!


Actually Columbus wasnt the first man to explore the land west of the Atlantic Ocean. Several hundred years before him vikings who lived on Iceland found Newfoundland.

http://ycdo.takingitglobal.org/discuss/ ... readid=564

Lorikeet wrote:Because I'm thinking more of a country than an island I imagine.

A good answer.

You'd say on Guernsey/Jersey/the Isle of Wight/Mykonos so I supposer of you think of Iceland as an island you could say on Iceland as well. The debate arises when the island is also the name of a country.

What do people think of on Cuba, on Jamaica or on Cyprus? They sound odd to me but I'd probably get used to them. I'm sure I wouldn't say on Britain or on Ireland.

Should add that I'm asking how people feel about the use of on in its positionsl sense. Clearly phrases such as the American position on Cuba or Turkey's policy on Cyprus are fine.

lolwhites wrote:You'd say on Guernsey/Jersey/the Isle of Wight/Mykonos so I supposer of you think of Iceland as an island you could say on Iceland as well. The debate arises when the island is also the name of a country.

What do people think of on Cuba, on Jamaica or on Cyprus? They sound odd to me but I'd probably get used to them. I'm sure I wouldn't say on Britain or on Ireland.

Actually:

Born on Cuba in 1960 Coco Fusco took a masters' degree in 'Modern Thought and Literature' at Stanford University and a bachelors' degree in 'Literature and Society and Semiotics' at Brown University.

http://www.culturebase.net/artist.php?502
Don’t miss this concert with the man who’ll cheer you up not justas this year’s poster motif, but who’ll also please your heart and head. Omar Sosa is purely a fantastic pianist.

Omar, born on Cuba, impresses with his brilliant technique and driving Afro-Cuban music.

http://www.maijazz.no/Webdesk/netblast/ ... ?id=126338

Ernest Rutherford, born on New Zealand, showed in 1911 that alpha particles were sometimes very strongly scattered by the positive charges of the atom, in a way that could only be explained if such charges were concentrated in a very small volume, practically a point in space.

http://www-istp.gsfc.nasa.gov/stargaze/Ls7adisc.htm

Marley was born on Jamaica to a young black mother and an older white father. A precocious musician, a teenaged Marley formed a vocal trio in 1963 with friends Neville "Bunny" O'Riley Livingston (later Bunny Wailer) and Peter McIntosh (later Peter Tosh).

http://www.cleartest.com/testinfo/bob_marley.htm

Just perhaps "on" could be used with a very small island, but have you seen the size of Greenland - It's huge. OK, it's not quite as big as it looks in maps, because Mercator's projection tends to make it look bigger than it really is, one thing's for certain, though - it ain't small. The only use of "settle on" would be if they were choosing between different places. After discussing all the pros and cons of the different places they settled on Greenland.

This is a quite different idea to settling in Greenland.

Andrew Patterson wrote:The only use of "settle on" would be if they were choosing between different places. After discussing all the pros and cons of the different places they settled on Greenland.

This is a quite different idea to settling in Greenland.

Sorry, Andy, but I don't see your point. I was asking about "born on".

Still "settle on" has two meanings:

1. decide

2. rest, stop, stay begin to live on.

"They settled on settling on Iceland" - so to speak.

The meal settled badly on his stomach.

"born on" would be the same - OK for a very small island, but not for one as big as Greenland. Not sure about Iceland. It's quite small, but then it's a whole country. Born on Sark (another that's a country, but it really is small), the Isle of white, Gernsey, the Isle of Skye sound OK. Anything small enough to be called "an isle" would definitely be OK.

Andrew Patterson wrote:"born on" would be the same - OK for a very small island, but not for one as big as Greenland. Not sure about Iceland. It's quite small, but then it's a whole country. Born on Sark (another that's a country, but it really is small), the Isle of white, Gernsey, the Isle of Skye sound OK. Anything small enough to be called "an isle" would definitely be OK.

Did you see this one:

Ernest Rutherford, born on New Zealand, showed in 1911 that alpha particles were sometimes very strongly scattered by the positive charges of the atom, in a way that could only be explained if such charges were concentrated in a very small volume, practically a point in space.

Andrew Patterson wrote: Anything small enough to be called "an isle" would definitely be OK.

Isn't Britain an isle , subjectively, to some folks:


From what one could read of the translation, after one had dipped it into disinfectants (one did mention these finest minds of Young Britain mucked out the stables, didn't one?), one gathers that the correspondent fancies himself, like most Frenchies, in love with some hapless young woman. Well, attendez-voo, you. The sort of mooning you describe might go over very well for a young man in the throes of first love over there, but on this fair isle, none of the men experience calf-love. (Except perhaps in remote and lonely regions of Wales.)

http://www.grandiose.com/00/000124.html