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How to use the word frontier correctly?

For example, is this sentence correct:

Imagination enables going beyond the scientific knowledge frontier.

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Alyazan, welcome to ELU. We need a bit more information from you to answer your question. What do you believe frontier means, and why are you uncertain that that meaning is appropriate in your sample sentence? Or are you uncertain about grammar? If so, why? Also, what context is this for? Sounds like it might be for a scientific publication of some sort, but what sort? (And what the heck does tunning mean?) – Marthaª Oct 24 '12 at 20:52
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If you replace tunning (“putting into casks”) with some other word, the sentence will be one small step closer to that far-off goal of making sense. – jwpat7 Oct 24 '12 at 20:52
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Now, now, @jwpat7, be nice. (LOL, and very true, but still.) – Marthaª Oct 24 '12 at 21:01
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@alyazan: soft-landing frontier has no meaning to the average (or even highly-literate) native English speaker. You'll need to explain what you want it to mean before anyone can say if it's a valid usage or not (but most likely it isn't). – FumbleFingers Oct 24 '12 at 21:06
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@alyazan: To be explicit - if you don't edit your question to explain exactly what you want to say (in your best "simple English"), your question will be closed as "Not Constructive". – FumbleFingers Oct 24 '12 at 21:12
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closed as not a real question by Marthaª, FumbleFingers, JSBձոգչ, tchrist, Zairja Oct 25 '12 at 13:13

It's difficult to tell what is being asked here. This question is ambiguous, vague, incomplete, overly broad, or rhetorical and cannot be reasonably answered in its current form. For help clarifying this question so that it can be reopened, see the FAQ.

2 Answers

up vote 1 down vote

Generally, you use either frontier of something

Imagination enables going beyond the frontier of scientific knowledge.

or alone, if the context makes it clear what kind of frontier is meant.

There were some skirmishes between the settlers and the Sioux in the frontier.

The adverbs attached directly usually describe the frontier itself, not what it is a frontier of:

Space is the final frontier.

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By definition the frontier is the groundbreaking arena. You can be at the frontline or bleeding edge of research or the frontier of scientific knowledge; I'm not sure what lay beyond that virtual frontier. You could easily go beyond a physical frontier but essentially you'll be talking about something else entirely, not the subject of the frontier.

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