I'm used to hearing "in quest of..." as an equivalent for "in pursuit of..." -- I'm wondering if "in a quest" is the result of "on a quest" blurring into "in quest of," rather like we've recently gotten a lot of examples of "on accident" from the collision (I know, bad pun) between "by accident" and "on purpose." Bill Spruiell Dept. of English Central Michigan University -----Original Message----- From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of MC Johnstone Sent: Tuesday, September 30, 2008 6:41 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: On a quest Claudia Kiburz wrote: > For me the differences are in focus. > > "In a quest": One has been placed into a quest.Focus might be more on > how one got there, not where one is going. It seems more static. I > would not use it very often. "We are in this quest now because our > teacher told us to find some information." I did a cursory search on Google, plain vanilla, for "in a quest" and "on a quest". Both turned up around a quarter of a million hits, surprisingly with "in a quest" scoring the slightly higher number. I'd never heard "in a quest" before, but I've been living in a non-English speaking country for fifteen years now so I've missed out on quite a lot. From looking at them briefly, they seem to be interchangeable. I suspect that some people use "in" while others use "on" and never the twain shall meet. Mark > > > "On a quest": One has decided to go after something. The focus is on > the end. > > "In quest of": The focus is on process > > However, the last two could be interchangeable; again, one might wish > to use one rather than the other for focus, as I hear the phrases. > > We are now "in quest of" more input on this topic ... no end in sight. > > */Dee Allen-Kirkhouse <[log in to unmask]>/* wrote: > > Hi, > My colleague has a question raised by her high school seniors who > want to know the difference between "in a quest" and "on a > quest." I say "in quest of" and "on a quest for," but they may > be the same idea. Also "in a quest" seems to be equivalent to > being in the process of a quest. Any thoughts? > > Dee > > > Dee Allen-Kirkhouse > > > To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web > interface at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and > select "Join or leave the list" > Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/ > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > New Email addresses available on Yahoo! > <http://sg.rd.yahoo.com/aa/mail/domainchoice/mail/signature/*http://mail .promotions.yahoo.com/newdomains/aa/> > > Get the Email name you've always wanted on the new @ymail and @rocketmail. > Hurry before someone else does! To join or leave this LISTSERV list, > please visit the list's web interface at: > http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or > leave the list" > > Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/ > To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or leave the list" Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/ To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or leave the list" Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/