Question sent to my Personal Messages Box by ifontok, Forum member (March 10, 2015):
Good day!
I would like to ask, sir, which of the following is grammatically correct?
1. “This award is given to Mandy in recognition of her outstanding leadership.”
2. “This award is given to Mandy in recognition for her outstanding leadership.”
Thank you.
My reply to ifontok:
The correct usage is that of Sentence 1, “This award is given to Mandy in recognition of her outstanding leadership.”
The prepositional phrase “in recognition of” just happens to be the conventional usage in English. The usage of “of” can be justified by saying that it’s needed to indicate belonging or a possessive relationship, but it can easily be countered by saying that “for” can do the job as well to indicate the goal of the indicated action. Indeed, it will be tough to give a convincing semantic or logical explanation for the choice between those two prepositions. So let’s just accept the fact that over the years, native English speakers simply found it easier and more comfortable to articulate that phrase with “of” instead of “for,” thus making the usage idiomatic.
