Jose Carillo's English Forum
English Grammar and Usage Problems => Use and Misuse => Topic started by: Miss Mae on May 31, 2015, 03:29:06 PM
-
If I am attributing to a video in YouTube, should I say Video from (name of channel) or Video by (name of channel)?
I can't believe I'm still puzzled with those two prepositions till now!
-
Offhand, I’ll venture to say that neither “from” nor “by” would be the correct preposition to use in the attribution statement that you presented. The syntax of statements like “The video from TV 5” or “The video by ABS-CBN” or “The video by GMA-7” is at best dubious if not downright faulty. It’s because in such sentence constructions, a preposition alone will not suffice to express the intended modification or predication; a verb or verb form is typically needed to work with the preposition to form a meaningful noun phrase.
(Also, always keep in mind that prepositions are not only for indicating source or authorship; they are actually of five general kinds. There are prepositions of place and location, of motion, of direction, of specific points of time, and of periods of extended time. To choose the appropriate preposition, you must have in mind a specific action or state for which to use it.)
See how each of those statements acquires a clearly understandable sense when a specific action word or phrase is supplied to work with the preposition: “The video supplied by ABS-CBN from its news archives,” “The video produced by GMA-7’s special events team,” or “The video taken from a TV 5 telecast.” The important grammar lesson to be learned here is that unless a prepositional phrase comes with a particular verb denoting an action or state, it will always be a puzzler figuring out the appropriate preposition to use. So, before even thinking of the correct preposition to use in a sentence or phrase, think of the verb or the action first with which you’ll be using it.
RELATED READINGS:
Lesson #7 – The Prepositions Revisited (http://josecarilloforum.com/forum/index.php?topic=119.0)
Lesson #8 – Specific Rules for Preposition Usage (http://josecarilloforum.com/forum/index.php?topic=139.0)
-
Thank you, Sir!
To choose the appropriate preposition, you must have in mind a specific action or state for which to use it.