sullivan@harvard.UUCP (John Sullivan) (04/30/84)
[tell me if you don't see this line: I don't believe the bug exists]
Although (as a recent submission noted) if x is a person,
"turn on x" and "turn x on" are very different, if x is an
electrical device they are the same. I see no difference
between "turn on the light" and "turn the light on".
The interesting thing to note is that when a pronoun is substituted,
only the second possibility remains. At least to me, "turn it on" sounds
right, and "turn on it" is impossible. (Unless possibly it has the
meaning of "turn on" found in "turn on him" or a very literal meaning
["What is that platter for? The record turns on it."] in which "on" is a
real preposition.)
Similarly, although I might say "look up the word in the dictionary" or
"look the word up in the dictionary", only "look it up" would be acceptable
if "the word" is to be replaced by a pronoun. The sentence "Look up it."
bothers me; if I did hear it, I think I would most likely take it as a
command to peer through a vertical tube.
I would explain this by saying that in "turn on the light" (or "look
up the word") the 'preposition' is really part of the verb, as in the
German "andrehen"==>"Drehen Sie das Licht an". (I hope my German is correct--
it's been a long time.) Although in English we don't give the infinitive
as "on-turn", the German sentence order corresponds to "turn the light on".
This explains "look it up"; in "look up it [the chimney]", "up" is really
a preposition, and thus belongs before the pronoun. A remaining question is
why "turn on the light" is possible when we have an actual noun; in German
this would be wrong. Is it just the infuence of the Latin grammarians?
I would be interested in hearing from anyone who disagrees with me
about which sentences are acceptable, or has other comments.
John M. Sullivan
...!{allegra,decvax,genrad}!wjh12!harvard!sullivan