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 #17 (permalink) Tue Aug 19, 2008 8:12 am "What' s on your mind?" vs "What's in your mind?" |
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| Taeglich wrote: |
| Yeah, not really. "What's in your mind" sounds wrong, no ifs ands or buts about it. |
Sounds wrong in your variant of English, right?
Apparently, it doesn't sound wrong to "AMERICA'S MOST HONORED
WRITER OF BOOKS FOR CHILDREN":
Don't think about ideas. Think about writing down what's in your head. If you stop, listen and "watch" what's in your mind, you'll find there is a lot of stuff going on that you can write down. Look at what's up there in your mind. Be in touch with your head and what goes on up there. You see a pretty out-door scene, try to describe it from memory and write it down.
virginiahamilton.com/pages/clues.asp#
And I guess it sounds fine to JED DUVALL, ABC News:
Do -- you talked about Social Security last night, you talked about prescription drugs. But we -- there's a lot we don't know about how you'd like to do your Social Security plan, and we don't know if there would be a guaranteed minimum. We don't know with prescription drugs, how you would pay for it. # I know that you say this has to be worked out with the Congress in the future, but don't the voters need to know what's in your mind about how much of their Social Security they would be able to invest or how much a prescription drug plan would cost? Don't we need to know those details?
americancorpus.org
And David Lawrence of the Scripture Union:
2 Make a list of as many Christians as you know at your school. Include pupils, teachers --; even caretakers and dinner ladies if you know they are Christians. 3 Try to talk to some of the people on your list to explain that you're thinking of starting a Christian group in school. Explain what 's in your mind and ask whether they'd be interested in helping start it or being a part of it when it gets going.
corpus.byu.edu/bnc/x.asp |
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Molly
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| #18 (permalink) Tue Aug 19, 2008 9:25 am "What' s on your mind?" vs "What's in your mind?" |
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Hi Molly/Milky/Metal/(or whoever you are)
I couldn't help but notice that not one of your examples was "What's in your mind?"
Why haven't you posted any examples of the sentence in the original question? ;)
| jee.gaetz wrote: |
what's the difference between the following two:
"What' s on your mind?"
"What's in your mind?" |
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Yankee
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| #19 (permalink) Tue Aug 19, 2008 10:12 am "What' s on your mind?" vs "What's in your mind?" |
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| Quote: |
I couldn't help but notice that not one of your examples was "What's in your mind?"
Why haven't you posted any examples of the sentence in the original question? |
Not sure what you mean, Amy. Is there a large difference between the form as a question and as a statement. If so, what's the difference?
And why haven't you posted an reply to the original question?
Here's an example, in question form:
The survivor survives. Result: unity. You overvalue the idea of the self. " # " There's a real cosmic perspective. Dr. Tate, lay the child down by those carrots, will you? " # " Why should I do that? What 's in your mind ? " # " Thoughts, Dr. Tate.
Title One of Her Paths
Author Ian Watson
Source Fantasy & Science Fiction |
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Molly
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| #20 (permalink) Tue Aug 19, 2008 10:15 am "What' s on your mind?" vs "What's in your mind?" |
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| Quote: |
| As for the "207,000 English pages", big numbers on Google are meaningless: |
The number was insignificant here. The poster needed contexts. Google gives such contexts.
BTW, is "What's in your mind?" an English form? Is it used? |
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Molly
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| #21 (permalink) Tue Aug 19, 2008 10:22 am "What' s on your mind?" vs "What's in your mind?" |
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| Molly wrote: |
| Is there a large difference between the form as a question and as a statement. |
Obviously, if you can't find any examples (or hardly any) of the exact sentence in question, that would tend to support Taeglich's point of view. :wink:
.
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Yankee
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| #22 (permalink) Tue Aug 19, 2008 12:03 pm "What' s on your mind?" vs "What's in your mind?" |
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| Yankee wrote: |
Obviously, if you can't find any examples (or hardly any) of the exact sentence in question, that would tend to support Taeglich's point of view. :wink:
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But Amy, what's your point of view on this? And how about Alan's point of view. Is that not also important here? |
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Molly
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| #23 (permalink) Tue Aug 19, 2008 22:53 pm "What' s on your mind?" vs "What's in your mind?" |
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1. If you stop, listen and "watch" what's in your mind...
2. What's in your mind?
Do you think "what" has the same function in each of these examples, M?
MrP |
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MrPedantic
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| #24 (permalink) Wed Aug 20, 2008 7:51 am "What' s on your mind?" vs "What's in your mind?" |
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| MrPedantic wrote: |
1. If you stop, listen and "watch" what's in your mind...
2. What's in your mind?
Do you think "what" has the same function in each of these examples, M?
MrP |
From now on, I'm going for the "could you answer my question before I answer yours, MrP?" approach. Hope that's OK.
The question was:
| Quote: |
| BTW, is "What's in your mind?" an English form? Is it used? |
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Molly
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| #25 (permalink) Wed Aug 20, 2008 8:26 am "What' s on your mind?" vs "What's in your mind?" |
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| So, natives, is "What's in your mind?", as Taeglich suggests, wrong? |
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Molly
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| #26 (permalink) Wed Aug 20, 2008 10:22 am "What' s on your mind?" vs "What's in your mind?" |
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In times of post-constructionist theories, everything's possible, nothing is wrong, we can talk about everything, and all depends on personal preference and liking. If you're asking me, I'd generally prefer "What's on your mind?" and leave any other possible form to pre-constructionists.
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| #27 (permalink) Wed Aug 20, 2008 22:28 pm "What' s on your mind?" vs "What's in your mind?" |
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:)
Ah! I had forgotten that Molly may ask questions till the dikgomo come home; but dislikes it intensely when Mollyesque questions are directed his way.
I'll rephrase accordingly:
"You have erroneously assumed that what has the same function in each of those examples, M."
As for your question, you may find my answer in an earlier post.
All the best,
MrP |
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MrPedantic
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| #28 (permalink) Thu Aug 21, 2008 1:12 am "What' s on your mind?" vs "What's in your mind?" |
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| Molly wrote: |
| So, natives, is "What's in your mind?", as Taeglich suggests, wrong? |
"What's in your mind?" sounds unnatural if you want to ask "what are you thinking?". I'd use "what's on your mind?" or "what do you have in mind?" which in this case means "what do you want to do?". In some of your examples of "What's in your mind?" usage, in context, they are appropriate. |
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Diverhank
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| #29 (permalink) Thu Aug 21, 2008 8:10 am "What' s on your mind?" vs "What's in your mind?" |
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| Quote: |
| Ah! I had forgotten that Molly may ask questions till the dikgomo come home; but dislikes it intensely when Mollyesque questions are directed his way. |
MrP, look back and see just how many questions of mine you've "ignored". At least you could be honest about that.
As for the answer to your question, "no". |
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Molly
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| #30 (permalink) Thu Aug 21, 2008 8:12 am "What' s on your mind?" vs "What's in your mind?" |
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| Quote: |
| In some of your examples of "What's in your mind?" usage, in context, they are appropriate. |
Indeed they are. So what would be your reply to the thread poster? |
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Molly
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| Dialogue used in American English? | Prat the British version of "jerk"? |
