"hit in/on/to"

[Richard Petty Deegan]

I explain it as dealing iwth location-movement. Medical usage is "Where does it hurt? In my...." Has to do  with hit.
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: dcoles 
  To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU 
  Sent: Monday, September 25, 2000 3:59 PM
  Subject: "hit in/on/to"


  Dear Listers
  Teaching English to non-native speakers, I came up empty in response to a student's query. Perhaps you can help.
  In a news report regarding a hockey player taken to court for excessive roughness, the announcer included details of a previous case in which the defendent had "hit his opponent in the head with a hockey stick."
  The student asked why "in" - not "on the head." 
  Certainly a different mental image is conjured when I say "he was hit on the head" and "he was hit in the head," but that's hardly a helpful answer for a non-native speaker. We can be hit "in the gut" but it would sound odd to say we've been hit "on the gut." And in boxing, we hear a hit "to" the shoulder or head.
  I thought about the need for a human mechanism as opposed to a falling rock or other inanimate object, but that didn't go very far. (He was hit on the head by a falling rock, Joe hit him in the head .  . . the wind blew in his face . . . etc.)
  I also thought about the site of impact - yes, the gut is sometimes soft and squishy but most heads are pretty solid.
  So, aside from slang and idiom ("hit on" meaning to chat up or make a pass at, or "hit on an idea" meaning to gain inspiration in thought) I haven't been able to make a suitable rule to sort out these prepositional Shiboleths that mark the speaker. If this has been discussed before, will you let me know where I can find it? If not, will you take a crack at it? I need a ready explanation that will be accessible to advanced ESL learners.
  Thanks . . .
  Devon Coles 
   

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