Timeline for Why do the titles of scholarly works sometimes begin with the word "on"?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
22 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Oct 2, 2017 at 17:01 | history | edited | Kodiologist |
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| Jul 27, 2017 at 14:28 | vote | accept | Kodiologist | ||
| Jul 26, 2017 at 20:01 | answer | added | talrnu | timeline score: 1 | |
| Jul 26, 2017 at 15:40 | answer | added | JValgreen | timeline score: 6 | |
| Jul 26, 2017 at 15:19 | comment | added | Brian Hooper | This isn't peculiar to English: have a look at the short career of Dr. O. Uplavici. | |
| Jul 26, 2017 at 12:00 | answer | added | tpettinato | timeline score: 2 | |
| Jul 25, 2017 at 21:02 | comment | added | Pedro A | Closely related: academia.stackexchange.com/questions/52399/… | |
| Jul 25, 2017 at 16:57 | answer | added | Peter Shor | timeline score: 22 | |
| Jul 25, 2017 at 12:37 | answer | added | earthman2 | timeline score: -1 | |
| Jul 25, 2017 at 12:01 | comment | added | WS2 | @Kodiologist I think that fixer1234 and TripeHound have perhaps expressed the position more succinctly than I did. | |
| Jul 25, 2017 at 6:52 | comment | added | TripeHound | Echo @fixer1234. "The Origin of Species" carries the danger of being perceived as the definitive word about how species came to be -- the whole subject, with absolute certainty. On the other hand, "On the Origin of Species" would only claim to be part of the discourse on the subject, and allows that some parts may be speculative. | |
| Jul 25, 2017 at 5:37 | comment | added | Patrick M | +1 because I learned something, but this isn't really about the english language. Aside from stemming from ancient times, scholarly works in other languages also start with similar prepositions. Perhaps better suited to Academia.SE? | |
| Jul 24, 2017 at 22:36 | comment | added | fixer1234 | A title without the "on" implies that it is a comprehensive treatment of the title's subject matter. "On" implies that it is discussion related to the subject. Perhaps it's a matter of managing expectations. | |
| Jul 24, 2017 at 21:54 | answer | added | RaceYouAnytime | timeline score: 24 | |
| Jul 24, 2017 at 20:55 | comment | added | Kodiologist | @WS2 I don't see how "It would have been out of order and presumptuous to call it simply 'Liberty'"; what would the title lead you to expect other than "a considered statement on the matter"? Surely such a title would not imply that the book constitutes liberty. Most titles describe the topic of a work, not the nature of the work itself. | |
| Jul 24, 2017 at 20:13 | comment | added | WS2 | One of the more celebrated instances of the use of "on" in this way was the 1859 publication On Liberty, by John Stuart Mill. In that and other examples, I believe the "on" is important, as an abbreviation for "(A dissertation) on (the subject of ) liberty". It would have been out of order and presumptuous to call it simply "Liberty". The title, as it stands, recognises that it is a considered statement about the matter. Similarly with Darwin's "(A treatise/observations) on the origin of species". | |
| Jul 24, 2017 at 19:40 | history | tweeted | twitter.com/StackEnglish/status/889571084697206784 | ||
| Jul 24, 2017 at 19:21 | answer | added | Unrelated | timeline score: 71 | |
| Jul 24, 2017 at 19:01 | comment | added | Unrelated | And it goes back much further than that. Cicero wrote De officiis and Lucretius wrote De rerum natura in the downward counting years @tchrist | |
| Jul 24, 2017 at 18:49 | answer | added | Devil07 | timeline score: 4 | |
| Jul 24, 2017 at 17:34 | comment | added | tchrist♦ | I'll bet that the real reason is because all the medieval scholarly texts had titles in Latin that began "De ...." to mean "about" or "regarding" or "on the matter of". | |
| Jul 24, 2017 at 17:30 | history | asked | Kodiologist | CC BY-SA 3.0 |