Forum newsfeeds
Forum Newsfeeds


Sites for Teachers

Sites for Teachers


Go Back   UsingEnglish.com ESL Forum > Learning English > Ask a Teacher

Notices

Reply
 
LinkBack Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1 (permalink)  
Old 31-Jul-2004, 22:25
Anonymous
Guest
 
Posts: n/a
Default out of

Should it be "It happened out of my house." or "It happened outside my house."
Should it be "It happened out of the sight of the camera." or "It happened ouside the sight of the camera."
Reply With Quote
Sponsored Links
  #2 (permalink)  
Old 01-Aug-2004, 04:44
Casiopea's Avatar
VIP Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2003
Country: Canada
Posts: 12,997
Current Location: China
First Language: English
Thanks: 0
Thanked 21 Times in 21 Posts
Casiopea is on a distinguished road
Default Re: out of

Quote:
Originally Posted by shori
Should it be "It happened out of my house." or "It happened outside my house."
Should it be "It happened out of the sight of the camera." or "It happened ouside the sight of the camera."
1. It happened outside (of the confines of) my house.
2. It happened outside (of the range of) the camera's sight.
3. It is out of sight. (I can't see it/ Idiom: It's wonderful, fantastic)
4. It was outside (of the path/range of) my sight.

All the best, :D
Reply With Quote
  #3 (permalink)  
Old 01-Aug-2004, 10:41
FW
Guest
 
Posts: n/a
Default

3. It is out of sight. (I can't see it/ Idiom: It's wonderful, fantastic)

Does this sentence imply that I could see it but now it has gone out of sight? (I am not considering its idiomatic meaning.)
Reply With Quote
  #4 (permalink)  
Old 01-Aug-2004, 11:01
Casiopea's Avatar
VIP Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2003
Country: Canada
Posts: 12,997
Current Location: China
First Language: English
Thanks: 0
Thanked 21 Times in 21 Posts
Casiopea is on a distinguished road
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by FW
3. It is out of sight. (I can't see it/ Idiom: It's wonderful, fantastic)

Does this sentence imply that I could see it but now it has gone out of sight? (I am not considering its idiomatic meaning.)
Both I suppose:

Non-idiomatic meanings:

A. I was looking at it, but now it's no longer in my range of sight.
B. I am trying to see it but I can't see it at all. It's out of my range of sight.

All the best, :D
Reply With Quote
  #5 (permalink)  
Old 01-Aug-2004, 15:24
FW
Guest
 
Posts: n/a
Default

Thanks.

This is interesting.
What do you think of:

"My office is out of town."
as opposed to:
"My office is outside the town."

I think you can use "out" here, but in another reply you said that one can't say:"New York is out of France." I think you're right there too.

I think when we think in terms of "distance to be covered" we can use "out". Like in "it is a long way out of my sight" or "it is a long way out of town."

I don't think one would say "New York is a long way out of France."

Am I right? What do you think?
Reply With Quote
  #6 (permalink)  
Old 01-Aug-2004, 18:54
Casiopea's Avatar
VIP Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2003
Country: Canada
Posts: 12,997
Current Location: China
First Language: English
Thanks: 0
Thanked 21 Times in 21 Posts
Casiopea is on a distinguished road
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by FW
Thanks.

This is interesting.
What do you think of:

"My office is out of town."
as opposed to:
"My office is outside the town."

I think you can use "out" here, but in another reply you said that one can't say:"New York is out of France." I think you're right there too.

I think when we think in terms of "distance to be covered" we can use "out". Like in "it is a long way out of my sight" or "it is a long way out of town."

I don't think one would say "New York is a long way out of France."

Am I right? What do you think?
Oh, I agree. It's an interesting point. With regards to

EX: New York is a long way out of France.

I think it's OK, especially if you're inside France at the time and asking for directions (hehe). :D

As for out of town, it sort of clouds the issue since we now have an idiom to contend with,

EX: My office is out of town.

It has two meanings, 1) idiom: your office staff is out of town on business or pleasure, and 2) emphasis on parameter: your office is outside the town's limits.

Getting back to "New York is out of France", I can't get the meaning "New York is outside France's boundaries". Can you? I'm not 100% sure why that is. It may have to do with the fact that we know New York is a city in North America and so relating it to the boundaries of Europe, an ocean away, is somewhat strange.

As for the original sentence "New York is out of Europe", again I can't get the meaning "New York is outside of Europe", but, and here's the real question, why is it that we can get that meaning from "My office (i.e. building) is out of town" (i.e. outside of the town's limits)? Is it that your office is near town (i.e. connected to the town) and that New York is not near/connected to Europe? Hmm.

Along that line of thinking, what about?

X town is out of Paris. (OK, if out means, outside the limits)
X country is out of Europe. (OK, if ....same as above)

Yes. That's probably it. New York is not close/connected to Europe and hence doesn't work with "out of".

What do you thunk?

All the best, :D
Reply With Quote
  #7 (permalink)  
Old 01-Aug-2004, 22:13
FW
Guest
 
Posts: n/a
Default

I think you explain things very well.

This is my theory: When we say "something is right out of town" or "a long way out of" or "the hotel is out of town", we are thinking about a trajectory and a distance to be covered by normal, everyday means. We think about a line from point A to point B and the fact that that line crosses a boundary. In other words we are not really thinking about locations per se, but about a movement and a boundary. You can't think like that when it comes to New York and Europe (there is no boundary in the real sense of the term.) You won't say a hotel in LA is out of town if you were in New York and if you said 'It is a long way out of town.' you'd probably be using irony. Am I right?

When we say "He is out of the building." don't we imply that at one point in time he was in and has now gone out? Movement again.
When we think only about location, we use outside. It is geography we are talking about.

This is only a theory, but what do you think about it? I think it takes into account everything you have said on the subject.
Reply With Quote
Reply

Bookmarks

Tags
None

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are On
Pingbacks are On
Refbacks are On


New To Site? Need Help?

All times are GMT. The time now is 05:09.


vBulletin, Copyright ©2000 - 2008, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Search Engine Optimization by vBSEO 3.2.0 RC5
Copyright © 2002 - 2008 UsingEnglish.com