In vs. On

[Allen165]

A sentence from a textbook:

"The focus of the speech category lies not in the offensiveness of the idea but on the mode of expression."

I'm wondering why the author wrote "on the mode" instead of "in the mode." Any ideas?

Thanks.

 

[Raymott]

A sentence from a textbook:

"The focus of the speech category lies not in the offensiveness of the idea but on the mode of expression."

I'm wondering why the author wrote "on the mode" instead of "in the mode." Any ideas?

Thanks.

S/he's semi-literate, or wasn't concentrating?

 

[Nightmare85]

**Neither a teacher nor a native speaker.**

I doubt it but "i" and "o" are neighbors, so it could be a typo...

Cheers!

 

[Abstract Idea]

A sentence from a textbook:

"The focus of the speech category lies not in the offensiveness of the idea but on the mode of expression."

I'm wondering why the author wrote "on the mode" instead of "in the mode." Any ideas?

Thanks.

What's the author's nationality?

I doubt it but "i" and "o" are neighbors, so it could be a typo...

Not in my Dvorak keyboard!

 

[Allen165]

What's the author's nationality?




Not in my Dvorak keyboard!

The author is an American lawyer. I guess it's a typo.

 

[Kazuo]

Hello, Jasmin165!

"The focus of the speech category lies not in the offensiveness of the idea but the focus of the speech category is on the mode of expression."

The passage underlined was omitted.


++++ Not a teacher ++++

 

[Raymott]

Hello, Jasmin165!

"The focus of the speech category lies not in the offensiveness of the idea but the focus of the speech category is on the mode of expression."

The passage underlined was omitted.


++++ Not a teacher ++++

No, you can't do that. You've removed a verb "is" and expected "lies" to cover for it. It doesn't work. You could do it if the first verb was "is".

Anyhow, you could almost get by with:
"The focus of the speech category lies not in the offensiveness of the idea but is on the mode of expression." You'd need to include 'is'.

Why are people so averse to attributing apparent textual errors to laziness, incompetence or poor English skills? I'm sure they're the main causes.

 

[Allen165]

No, you can't do that. You've removed a verb "is" and expected "lies" to cover for it. It doesn't work. You could do it if the first verb was "is".

Anyhow, you could almost get by with:
"The focus of the speech category lies not in the offensiveness of the idea but is on the mode of expression." You'd need to include 'is'.

Why are people so averse to attributing apparent textual errors to laziness, incompetence or poor English skills? I'm sure they're the main causes.

In this particular case, I would say because the person who wrote the sentence is a law professor and is thus likely to have a better command of the English language than I do, but also because I'm assuming that his book was proofread by editors. I may, of course, be wrong on both counts.