On or In: The Perfidy of Prepositions
Do you wait in line or on line? The answer depends on your origins and locale; people in the middle of the country will say “in line” and people from New Jersey and New York tend to say “on line”. The use of different prepositions to describe one’s relation to, in this instance, the line reveals some meta-linguistic information about the regional dialect.
The difference between “in” and “on” is more than one would intially believe. Being “on” something implies that the subject and object – the line – exist independently of one other; the person waiting in line is constitutionally distinct from the line and the line distinct from the person. When the person leaves the line, the line, metaphysically trivially or not, continues to exist. The line’s function persists even if no one is on it.
Waiting “in” line suggests that the subject is within some encompassing boundary. Being “in” something, like a tunnel or a car, means being enclosed within something. The person in line and the line itself are constitutionally distinct, but instead of being on top of the line, the line itself encloses the person.
Who knows what it says that some regions of the country say “on” whereas most of the country says “on”, but perhaps it’s interesting; perhaps not.
Clearly, this interpretation of “in” or “on” is completely subjective. It’s simply meant to stress that when one considers the perceived underpinnings of the reasons for certain prepositions, it is clear why prepositions can be especially difficult in a non-native language.
In Hebrew, for instance, there is a direct article marker – את (at) – that doesn’t mean anything other than to signify the direct object for some verbs. So, for instance, instead of saying, “I know him,” you’d actually say “I know (את) him.” This isn’t difficult to get used to but it’s still something awkward. In addition to that, of course, there are a number of prepositions that one must master. The confusion arises, however, when one tries to translate from English to Hebrew; this is normally a bad idea but with prepositions, it’s almost always a failed proposition.
When one waits in line in Hebrew, there is one preposition – ב (b’) – that signifies a relationship of accompaniment as well as manner. In Latin, you have “cum” (with) which can be used similary; you hit someone “with” a hammer (means, manner) but you travel “with” friends (accompaniment). While the function of some prepositions are clearly similar, the translations of those prepositions can be quite different.
Therein lies the conundrum. The only way to get though these horrors is to read and listen to native speakers; it is truly a laborious and tortured process.