Re: For V/s Of

[Phil <philstokes03 -at- googlemail -dot- com>]

Not adding much to the debate, other than a vote from my own idiolect.

Nine times out of ten I would use 'of'. However, if I were pinned to the spot for justification, I would go with Di's beautifully ontological distinction. It sounds like the sort of think J.L. Austin or Gilbert Ryle would have come up with. Fantastic! 


Phil.
On 13 Jan 2011, at 04:21, Di wrote:

> some-one needs to play devils advocate and put forward a case for one or
> other. otherwise how do we get to the excellent bun fighting stage of
> conversation?
> 
> so.
> 
> i would find a preference for 'for' or 'of' in this sentence depending on
> the focus of the reader's interest in the details.
> 
> i would choose
> 
>> a) You do not have the privilege to view details for this shipment,
> 
> if the details of primary interest in the context were things like sender,
> code and date sent. Such details are external to the shipment itself. The
> shipment would essentially be the same shipment if any of these details
> changed.
> 
> and i would choose
> 
>> b)  You do not have the privilege to view details of this shipment.
> 
> if the details of primary interest in the context were the content of the
> shipment. The content is inherent to the shipment. The shipment would be a
> different shipment if the content was different.
> 
> i'm fairly sure there is a piece of grammar, style or possibly philosophy
> advice that i was given way back in the dark passages of time, that
> dictates why i would think of 'details' in this way in order to make the
> choice between 'for' and 'of'. But i don't recall anything about it. The
> principle at work seems clearer to me with a person. With a person - 'gender
> of the person', sounds better to me than 'gender for the person' and 'code
> for the person' sounds better than 'code of the person'. with all them i'd
> be tempted to turn the sentence around and talk about 'shipment details'
> 'person's gender' and 'person's code'.
> 
> Di
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> 
> Create and publish documentation through multiple channels with Doc-To-Help. 
> Choose your authoring formats and get any output you may need. Try 
> Doc-To-Help, now with MS SharePoint integration, free for 30-days. 
> http://www.doctohelp.com
> 
> ---
> You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as philstokes03 -at- googlemail -dot- com -dot- 
> 
> To unsubscribe send a blank email to 
> techwr-l-unsubscribe -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
> or visit http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/options/techwr-l/philstokes03%40googlemail.com
> 
> 
> To subscribe, send a blank email to techwr-l-join -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
> 
> Send administrative questions to admin -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-  Visit
> http://www.techwr-l.com/ for more resources and info. 
> 
> Please move off-topic discussions to the Chat list, at:
> http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/listinfo/techwr-l-chat
> 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Create and publish documentation through multiple channels with Doc-To-Help. 
Choose your authoring formats and get any output you may need. Try 
Doc-To-Help, now with MS SharePoint integration, free for 30-days. 
http://www.doctohelp.com

---
You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- web -dot- techwr-l -dot- com -dot- 

To unsubscribe send a blank email to 
techwr-l-unsubscribe -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
or visit http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/options/techwr-l/archive%40web.techwr-l.com


To subscribe, send a blank email to techwr-l-join -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com

Send administrative questions to admin -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-  Visit
http://www.techwr-l.com/ for more resources and info. 

Please move off-topic discussions to the Chat list, at:
http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/listinfo/techwr-l-chat