On the Work

Question

www.mountainview.gov/civica/filebank/blobdload.asp?BlobID=2295

"Where a portion of the Work which has been subcontracted by the
Contractor is not being prosecuted in a manner satisfactory to the City, the
subcontractor shall be removed immediately on the written direction of the Engineer
and shall not again be employed on the Work."

Shouldn't it be "employed in the work"?

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

MountieeShouldn't it be "employed in the work"?

No. Work is being used here as 'project' or 'job'.

employed on the project
employed on the job

CJ

Mountee · Answer

Thank you for your reply, CalifJim!

In the same document:

"No subcontractor will be recognized as such, and all persons engaged in the Work of construction will be considered as employees of the Contractor, and the Contractor will be held responsible for their subcontractors' work, which shall be subject to the provisions of the Contract Documents."

, "in the work" is instead of "on the work". Is this an error?

CalifJim · Answer

Mountee"in the work" is instead of "on the work". Is this an error?

No. Here 'work' is used differently than in your previous post, as if it were 'labor' or 'effort'. Besides, the verb here is 'engaged', which usually takes 'in'.

engaged in the labor of construction
engaged in the effort of construction

You have to take into account all the words around your word of interest. Try to look at the bigger picture. How is each word being used? What words come before and after? All of these things influence how the words combine correctly.

CJ

Mountiie · Answer

Thank you for your reply, CalifJim!

So, that means:

"He was employed on the effort of construction."
"He was engaged in the project."

?

CalifJim · Answer

MountiieSo, that means:"He was employed on the effort of construction.""He was engaged in the project."

No. employed doesn't go with effort very well. engaged doesn't go with project very well.

I mean you can put those words together like that if you like, but they just don't sound as natural as when you reverse them and say employed on the project and engaged in the effort.

Once you throw words together at random, or even in carefully worked out permutations, you get into situations where nothing is really right and nothing is really wrong. It's not even a matter of grammar. It's more like a statistical sampling of which words normally go together. The combinations that are used more often are going to sound more correct, but that doesn't mean that the less used combinations are always wrong. Sometimes they're wrong and sometimes they are just strange.

CJ

On the Work

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