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Acacian Posted 20 years ago
Grammar

Preposition question

12. Provincial governments play a big role in the lives of Canadians, ...... primary responsibility ........ health, education and welfare.
A) through / over
B) at / about
C) from / to
D) by / of
E) with / for

I'd like to hear your comments on this question. I'm undecided between A and E. Thanx.
  

Top answer

Hi, 12. Provincial governments play a big role in the lives of Canadians, ...... primary responsibility ........

  • Hi, 12.
  • Provincial governments play a big role in the lives of Canadians, ......
  • primary responsibility ........
  • health, education and welfare.
  • A) through / over B) at / about C) from / to D) by / of E) with / for E presents the sentence as almost two separate facts.
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10 Answers
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Hi,

12. Provincial governments play a big role in the lives of Canadians, ...... primary responsibility ........ health, education and welfare.
A) through / over
B) at / about
C) from / to
D) by / of
E) with / for


E presents the sentence as almost two separate facts. A is a better answer, because the use of 'through' signals
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Hi,

Welcome! I think the answer is "c"
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Acacian12. Provincial governments play a big role in the lives of Canadians, ...... primary responsibility ........ health, education and welfare. A) through / over B) at / about C) from / to D) by / of E) with / for I'd like to hear your comments on this question. I'm undecided between A and E. Thanx.

Provincial governments play a big role in the l
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Dear Clive, Goodman and Pinenut, thank you for your precious comments. I understand what you mean. But for some reason I think as Clive does.

And, though "responsible for" is a fixed expression, I believe "responsibility over" can be used in this context.

And I also guess E would be more plausible if written in the following way.

"Provincial governments, with primary
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The expression is "reponsible for", not "responsible over".
Nobody's going to say "The government is reponsible over education".
Only E works.

CJ
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Hi,

'responsible over' is certainly beyond the pale.

However, 'responsibility over' sounds fine to me. Google gives 769,000 hits, eg from The Washington Post:

Bush's decision last month to transfer responsibility over postwar Iraq from the Defense Department to the National Security Council was widely seen as a rebuke to Donald Rumsfeld
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Whoooo! Yipes! Sounds weird to me whether adjective or noun! Emotion: wink
CJ
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Hi, Clive,

Can I persuade you through an alternate route? Let's set aside "responsibility over". The word "through" is equally problematic in answer A.

The relationship between "playing a role" and "responsibility" is not correctly expressed with "through".

Compare:
understanding life through art : art is a means for understanding life
making frien
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Hi CJ,

12. Provincial governments play a big role in the lives of Canadians, through primary responsibility over health, education and welfare.
A) through / over
E) with / for


As often happens with these things, I'm trying to defend a sentence that is written in a way that I myself would not have written it. I understand
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I see what you mean, but ... hmmm ...

Were it not for that comma before "through", I would find your rationale more persuasive.
I think the comma also makes the responsibilities sound incidental. Therefore the comma is more congruent with "with".

In any case it's not a sentence I'm willing to go to the cross over! We've both given it our best shot, and yet neither

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