Belated reply re: "the" wife

[Aaron E. Drews]

Even if one were a college student (as opposed to a university student), one
would say "I'm at college", meaning both that "I'm a student" and "I'm
physically at the further education institution as I speak".   I can't think
of an instance when anyone would say "in university" or "in college".


(BTW, "college", in general, in the UK roughly equates to the community
college in north America, with similar services and types of
qualifications).



> Andrea, would you address this state of being vs. location phenomenon in
> regards to
> higher education?  I'm thinking of the British "at university" vs. the more
> American "in college."  Or have I got it wrong?
>
> "A. Vine" wrote:
>>
>> Perhaps to get away from the connotation of "the" referring to a known
hospital,
>> the English say "in hospital".  It's more of a state, as in "in school" vs.
"at
>> school".  When talking about my father who is a doctor, I don't say, "he's in
>> the hospital", I say "he's at the hospital".


--Aaron



________________________________________________________________________
Aaron E. Drews                               The University of Edinburgh
http://www.ling.ed.ac.uk/~aaron      Departments of English Language and
aaron at ling.ed.ac.uk                    Theoretical & Applied Linguistics

 "MERE ACCUMULATION OF OBSERVATIONAL EVIDENCE IS NOT PROOF"
  --Death