"hit in/on/to"

[storkrn]

Devon Coles queried:

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.

Richard Deegan replied:

I explain it as dealing iwth location-movement. Medical usage is "Where does it hurt? In my...." Has to do  with hit.

My response is:

The logic of the medical usage, which I think helps explain much of this, concerns where the pain or injury is perceived. An injury of being "hit on the head" would imply a bump, bruise, or lump on the scalp or skull. "Hit in the head" would signal to a medical person a brain injury or concussion. Similarly, "Hit in the gut" implies an internal abdominal injury or pain, compared to "hit on my stomach/abdomen/gut" which would leave an external bruise. In the boxing example, a "hit to the shoulder" also has an external implication., when compared to the penetrating injury of being "shot in the shoulder."

Hope this explanation from a non-linguist helps a bit.

Sharyn Hay, RNC, MSN
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