principal at school

Question

Hello People(1) He is principal at/of X school.(2) He became principal at/of X school.Which preposition do you use for #1 and #2 each, "at" or "of"?If you choose "at", is "at X school" a place adverbial or a post modifier for "principal"? paco

YoHf · Accepted Answer

I would use "of" in both sentences.

[8]

Paco2004 · Answer

YoHf

Thanks for the quick reply. Could you give me the reason for your choice?

paco

YoHf · Answer

There are 2 reasons behind my choice. The first one may seem a bit childish to you.

1) It sounds more immediate and sounds better as well.

2) I went and looked for the definition and that's what I found most interesting:

Principal: One who holds a position of presiding rank, especially the head of an elementary school or high school.

Courtesy of www.answers.com

[8]

Clive · Answer

Hi guys,

(1) He is principal at/of X school.
(2) He became principal at/of X school.

Which preposition do you use for #1 and #2 each, "at" or "of"?
If you choose "at", is "at X school" a place adverbial or a post modifier for "principal"?
If I were thinking of position, I'd say 'of'. But if I were thinking of 'place', I'd be more likely to say 'at'. eg

A: Where does Tom work?

B: He's the principal at X school.

I added the article to make it sound more natural.

Best wishes, Clive

YoHf · Answer

I see. Then we can use both, and yet again everyone is happy.

However I should have thought of that before; I'm sorry if I somehow misled you Paco.

[8]

Paco2004 · Answer

Hello YoHf and Clive

I think the first reason of YoHf's is not a reason at all.

As for the second reason, I wonder why it could be the reason for the choice. Is it that there are "of"s in the dictionary's description for "principal"?

But anyway, I agree to YoHf's choice. To my understanding, "Y of Z" is a form to express a title or position "Y" in an organization "Z". So it should be "of" at least for the sentence #2 the version of "became". I don't think people would say "He became President in the United States".

Frankly speaking, I posted this question to think over the question by Hela. Her question is to determine a syntactic role of "in the orchestra of the Royal Opera House" in the sentence:
"He has become first violin in the orchestra of the Royal Opera House".
Hela's question was whether the phrase "in the orchestra of the ROH" is a place adverbial or a post modifier to "first violin".

I think the writer of this sentence chose "in" instead of "of" for the phrase "in/of the orchestra" to avoid a collocation <…of … of …>. I think this sentence should be rather like:
"He has become first violin of the Royal Opera House's orchestra".
And if it were written this way, there would be no ambiguity in interpreting the role of "of the ROH's orchestra".

How do you think?

paco

YoHf · Answer

Paco2004Hello YoHf and Clive

I think the first reason of YoHf's is not a reason at all. As for the second reason, I wonder why it could be the reason for the choice. Is it that there are "of"s in the dictionary's description for "principal"?

That's not it. It's just my brain (if I still have one) that thinks in an odd way.

However I quite agree with your last post.

[8]

Paco2004Fan · Answer

YoHf I somehow misledyou Paco.

[8]

Well, you do it ALWAYS.

. Please, please,please... YoHf, If you are not sure about concepts, don't assume answers and avoid confusing the forum members. This is our polite request.

The17pointscale · Answer

hi, everyone. i may be swerving way off course here, but when choosing between 'of' and 'at' in these scenarios, i first considered the relationship between principal and school (or first violin and orchestra). it seemed to me that the 'of' was more appropriate because there is only ONE principal in a school. in contrast, if the first example read He is teacher at/of X school, I would be more inclined to choose 'at' because the teacher is presumably one of many teachers.

-andrew

principal at school

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