Re: on or about

From: Harlan Messinger (hmessinger.removethis_at_comcast.net)
Date: 01/28/05 

Date: Fri, 28 Jan 2005 09:45:02 -0500

CyberCypher wrote:
> Harlan Messinger wrote on 28 Jan 2005:
>
>
>>Tomi A wrote:
>>
>>>I listened to a lecture by an Australian fellow living in the
>>>USA. All through the lecture - at least I think so - he used
>>>"about" instead of "on". " .. these issues about ... this article
>>>about ..." and so on. Now, this sounds like a good thing for
>>>somebody like me who has problems with English: "about" is much
>>>more intuitive than "on". But is it correct?
>>
>>It's fine. With "articles", "on" and "about" are interchangeable.
>>
>>He wrote an article on current economic conditions.
>>He wrote an article about current economic conditions.
>>
>>As for "issues", "issues on" is incorrect. Whether to follow
>>"issues" with "about" or "of" or to precede it with an adjective
>>or follow it with "related to" or "pertaining to", etc., depends
>>on what follows.
>>
>
> Given that the use of "issues" is almost always buzzwordism these days,
> I'd probably have to agree with that, but when someone in the board
> room says "The issues on the back burner

That's not by any means a use of "on" that one would confuse with
"about", and the use of "on" here is rather independent of the fact that
the noun is "issues". I was addressing uses like "issues of control" or
"issues about job security" or "issues related to the economic condition
of the nation".

> are going to burst into flame
> very soon if we don't attend to them now", I'd say "issues on" is
> perfectly correct.
>
>