Do We Live In Taiwan or On Taiwan?
- In
- On
0 voters
I’m currently arguing this issue with CNN/ICRT and losing badly!
Both. We live in Taiwan the nation, and on Taiwan the island.
I live in the UK.
I live on the Isle of Skye.
I live in Japan.
I live on Okinawa.
I live in Taiwan.
I live on Green Island.
what you are arguing about is the physical island of Taiwan and Taiwan an an entity or country
so both are true…on and in
I just did a concordance search on Cobuild and it seems that (verb) + (in) + (country) is the norm.
On+Taiwan is very infrequent and seems to follow the pattern (noun) + on + (country).
The semantics are also quite different.
You can do your own search at: titania.cobuild.collins.co.uk
[quote]Alert for Chinese attack on Taiwan
CHINA has preparations for a 30-day assault on Taiwan
The Republic of China" on Taiwan
or KMT, consolidated its grip on Taiwan.
the Kuomintang has reform and democratisation on Taiwan
its use as a unifying force on Taiwan.
by the mounting Chinese pressure on Taiwan,
taken a tough (if belated) stand on Taiwan.
with the charges and called on Taiwan to
plans to fire one missile a day on Taiwan to
carrier Nimitz, was closing on Taiwan[/quote]
I think the editors who post on this board and who live on the island of Taiwan and who voted for
Cobuild again,
Live+on+Taiwan
Live+on+America
Will ICRT argue with that?
I live on the planet Earth.
Astronauts walked on the Moon.
My parents live in the USA.
:?
However, Article 10 of the Treaty of Peace signed by the ROC and Japan uses “…the Republic of China in Taiwan…” and the English language version of this Treaty prevails over the Chinese and Japanese versions.
Now if this was a unification issue, and your people at CNN/ICRT are in favor of reunification with China, then they may be thinking along the lines of how someone in China would say the sentence.
Jemin said, “Those DPP scumbags on Taiwan better not declare independence.”
He would construct the sentence in much the same way Blair would say, “My daughter is on the isle of Man.”
What does CNN/ICRT say?
I’ve heard ‘on Taiwan’ several times on CNN/ICRT and cringe each time. Maybe ‘in Taiwan’ just doesn’t register with me as that’s what i’d say.
It seems from what the good editor fellas have said here is that using ‘on’ somehow infers a bias towards reunification and using ‘in’ indicates sympathy with Taiwan being a seperate state. Or maybe not…
We live “on” the island of Taiwan, but we can also say we live “in” Taiwan if we are referring to it as a political, economic, or other such entity.
I’ve worked on countless official speeches and government documents over the past ten years, and I’ve got used to referring to “the Republic of China on Taiwan” in accordance with the established formula preferred in official circles.
There’s quite a few island nations apart from Taiwan. Would you say he lives on Madagascar? In Madagascar sounds better to me. In New Zealand we’d say “she lives in the South Island” or “he lives in the North Island”, but “she lives ON Stewart Island” because Stewart Island’s only a littly. I hardly expect Australians say “that poor bastard lives ON Tasmania”.
So my conclusion: definitely IN Taiwan.
Brian
These are all just examples of phrasal verbs and in essence could be used to apply to any country, e.g. “made an attack on the U.S.”
Alert for Chinese attack on Taiwan (make an attack on)
CHINA has preparations for a 30-day assault on Taiwan (make an assault on)
or KMT, consolidated its grip on Taiwan. (have a grip on)
by the mounting Chinese pressure on Taiwan, (apply pressure on/to)
taken a tough (if belated) stand on Taiwan. (take a stand on)
with the charges and called on Taiwan to (to call (up)on)
plans to fire one missile a day on Taiwan to (to fire on)
carrier Nimitz, was closing on Taiwan (to close (in) on)
Are these possible sentences?:
Alert for foreign attack on the US
a terrorist has preparations for a 30-day assault on the US
consolidated its grip on the US
by the mounting NATO pressure on the US
with the charges and called on the US to
the terrorists were closing in on the US
So of course the Collins collocations could find “on+country” probably like it could for any country. The point is that these "on"s belong to a set phrase.
These are all just examples of phrasal verbs and in essence could be used to apply to any country, e.g. “made an attack on the U.S.”
Alert for Chinese attack on Taiwan (make an attack on)
CHINA has preparations for a 30-day assault on Taiwan (make an assault on)
or KMT, consolidated its grip on Taiwan. (have a grip on)
by the mounting Chinese pressure on Taiwan, (apply pressure on/to)
taken a tough (if belated) stand on Taiwan. (take a stand on)
with the charges and called on Taiwan to (to call (up)on)
plans to fire one missile a day on Taiwan to (to fire on)
carrier Nimitz, was closing on Taiwan (to close (in) on)
Are these possible sentences?:
Alert for foreign attack on the US
a terrorist has preparations for a 30-day assault on the US
consolidated its grip on the US
by the mounting NATO pressure on the US
with the charges and called on the US to
the terrorists were closing in on the US
So of course the Collins collocations could find “on+country” probably like it could for any country. The point is that these "on"s belong to a set phrase.
I can’t agree that all of these are phrasal verbs, which are usually defined as an idiom or an expression that is not understandable from it’s constituents. For example break in meaning to wear something new until it’s / they’re comfortable. Quite idiomatic.
While some of the examples you cite do have an idiomatic meaning, attack on, assault on and fire on seem quite straightforward. Perhaps the change in preposition (from in to on) simply avoids ambiguity; an attack in Taiwan is quite different to an attack on Taiwan. Consider the slight, but not idiomatic meaning shift in “to throw something to someone” and “to throw something at someone.”
Does anyone care what the people at IRCT say?