“Class, open your books TO/AT page 13!”—Is it a matter of dialectal difference?
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My original notion was,
A) If there's a movement and a destination (as in the case of thumbing a book to reach a certain page), it should be to:
Class, open your books to page 13!B) If there's none, then at:
There on the counter rested my cookbook, open at page 13.
The tome fell open right at the middle page.
Then I asked around and rummaged in corpora and found out that my reasoning was flawed. [IMO, there's either something wrong with logic or with language—or both. Somebody fix the whole mess please.] In fact, when it comes to opening or being open, the preposition is almost always to in AmE, whereas BrE is probably mixed, and (sometimes?) there is even a strong preference for at (especially in cases like B above).
I'll close with some of the search results that I mentioned, and leave the rest to others to hash out. Speakers of other dialects are more than welcome to chip in as well!
she snapped open the Daily News and immediately turned to Page Six – COCA
Students, if you could please open your math books to page two – COCA
Open your grammar at page fourteen – BNC
every time I took up the book it opened at page 92, although I have never deliberately read that page – BNC
I happened to open the Rome Treaty at page 89 of the English text – Hansard Corpus
prepositions american-english british-english dialects
asked 7 mins ago
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add a comment |
My original notion was,
A) If there's a movement and a destination (as in the case of thumbing a book to reach a certain page), it should be to:
Class, open your books to page 13!B) If there's none, then at:
There on the counter rested my cookbook, open at page 13.
The tome fell open right at the middle page.
Then I asked around and rummaged in corpora and found out that my reasoning was flawed. [IMO, there's either something wrong with logic or with language—or both. Somebody fix the whole mess please.] In fact, when it comes to opening or being open, the preposition is almost always to in AmE, whereas BrE is probably mixed, and (sometimes?) there is even a strong preference for at (especially in cases like B above).
I'll close with some of the search results that I mentioned, and leave the rest to others to hash out. Speakers of other dialects are more than welcome to chip in as well!
she snapped open the Daily News and immediately turned to Page Six – COCA
Students, if you could please open your math books to page two – COCA
Open your grammar at page fourteen – BNC
every time I took up the book it opened at page 92, although I have never deliberately read that page – BNC
I happened to open the Rome Treaty at page 89 of the English text – Hansard Corpus
prepositions american-english british-english dialects
asked 7 mins ago
FærdFærd
2,98331744
add a comment |
My original notion was,
A) If there's a movement and a destination (as in the case of thumbing a book to reach a certain page), it should be to:
Class, open your books to page 13!B) If there's none, then at:
There on the counter rested my cookbook, open at page 13.
The tome fell open right at the middle page.
Then I asked around and rummaged in corpora and found out that my reasoning was flawed. [IMO, there's either something wrong with logic or with language—or both. Somebody fix the whole mess please.] In fact, when it comes to opening or being open, the preposition is almost always to in AmE, whereas BrE is probably mixed, and (sometimes?) there is even a strong preference for at (especially in cases like B above).
I'll close with some of the search results that I mentioned, and leave the rest to others to hash out. Speakers of other dialects are more than welcome to chip in as well!
she snapped open the Daily News and immediately turned to Page Six – COCA
Students, if you could please open your math books to page two – COCA
Open your grammar at page fourteen – BNC
every time I took up the book it opened at page 92, although I have never deliberately read that page – BNC
I happened to open the Rome Treaty at page 89 of the English text – Hansard Corpus
prepositions american-english british-english dialects
asked 7 mins ago
FærdFærd
2,98331744
My original notion was,
A) If there's a movement and a destination (as in the case of thumbing a book to reach a certain page), it should be to:
Class, open your books to page 13!B) If there's none, then at:
There on the counter rested my cookbook, open at page 13.
The tome fell open right at the middle page.
Then I asked around and rummaged in corpora and found out that my reasoning was flawed. [IMO, there's either something wrong with logic or with language—or both. Somebody fix the whole mess please.] In fact, when it comes to opening or being open, the preposition is almost always to in AmE, whereas BrE is probably mixed, and (sometimes?) there is even a strong preference for at (especially in cases like B above).
I'll close with some of the search results that I mentioned, and leave the rest to others to hash out. Speakers of other dialects are more than welcome to chip in as well!
she snapped open the Daily News and immediately turned to Page Six – COCA
Students, if you could please open your math books to page two – COCA
Open your grammar at page fourteen – BNC
every time I took up the book it opened at page 92, although I have never deliberately read that page – BNC
I happened to open the Rome Treaty at page 89 of the English text – Hansard Corpus
prepositions american-english british-english dialects
prepositions american-english british-english dialects
asked 7 mins ago
FærdFærd
2,98331744
asked 7 mins ago
FærdFærd
2,98331744
edited 1 min ago
Færd
asked 7 mins ago
FærdFærd
2,98331744
asked 7 mins ago
FærdFærd
2,98331744
asked 7 mins ago
FærdFærd
2,98331744
2,98331744
add a comment |
add a comment |
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