knock the door, knock on the door and knock at the door

10:16 Sep 5, 2010 

I find it amusing how such a non-pro question has started this linguistic-philosophical discussion! :-)
...and we stumbled upon another liquistic twist. :-)

My response to “I do not find it jarring” – “Why would you…?” would have been clearer in a face-to-face discussion, because of the accompanying body language. (Shoulders up a little, nod of the head, finished may be with a twitch of the lips :-))

Or I should have written:
Of course, you would not. Why should you? There is no reason for it. There are numerous literary examples you may have read, without paying any particular attention to it.
......
When I think of “knocking at the door”, somehow for me it usually implies “going to and knocking on the door”, but it may be only my impression.

09:14 Sep 5, 2010 

Just want to point out that I definitely wasn't saying that it SHOULD BE "on". In fact I agree with Jane Translates - I personally use one version but I don't necessarily think the other version is wrong. The quotes from Dickens etc make me wonder if the usage has changed over time.

00:47 Sep 5, 2010 

To respond with, "Why would you?" often implies, "It would be strange if you did." I don't think it would be strange if I found a usage that I (apparently) never heard as I was growing up "jarring"; the fact that I do not, though it never comes naturally to my own lips, means that I must have been introduced to the usage later, as I broadened my horizons through reading and contact with people from other places. For comparison, though I know that "waiting ON line" is a completely normal usage in some dialects, my ears, accustomed to "waiting IN line," find the usage "jarring." I don't mean that I think it's WRONG; I simply cannot get used to it and hear it as "natural."

00:16 Sep 5, 2010 

She said "I do not find it jarring".
For this type of negative statement, "I do not find it funny" or "I do not disagree", or anything similar, one way to AGREE with the person who uttered the statement is to say: "Why would you find it jarring?" or "Why would you find it funny?" or simply "Why would you?"

21:50 Sep 4, 2010 

The Sun Also Rises
He rang the bell and the chambermaid came and knocked at the door.
"Bring up half a dozen bottles of beer and a bottle of Fundador," Mike told her.

Cat in the Rain
Someone knocked at the door. ‘Avanti,’ George said. He looked up from his book.
In the doorway stood the maid. She held a big tortoiseshell cat pressed tight against her and swung down against her body.

21:06 Sep 4, 2010 

But what I find interesting in the literary examples you provided, juvera, are the few instances of "I knocked at the door"... According to both mediamatrix and Sheila's understanding, if a person is talking about his/her own action of knocking, it should by definition be "I knocked on the door" (own perspective/ action).
I find it amusing how such a non-pro question has started this linguistic-philosophical discussion! :-)

20:54 Sep 4, 2010 

Dickens:
Mr Weller knocked at the door, and after a pretty long interval -- occupied by the party without, in whistling a tune, and by the party within, in persuading a refractory flat candle to allow itself to be lighted--a pair of small boots pattered over the floor-cloth, and Master Bardell presented himself. (The Pickwick Papers)
...and as I came up, one of the two warders (the postboy) knocked at the door... (Great expectations)
I had gone to bed and fallen asleep when my guardian knocked at the door of my room... (Bleak House)
G.B. Shaw:
When I knocked at the door, an old woman, his only servant, opened it, and informed me that her master was then officiating at the cathedral... (The Miraculous Revenge)
Thomas Hardy:
He entered the garden, and knocked at the door with the knob of his stick. (Jude the Obscure)
Mark Twain:
But if this woman had been in such a little town two days she could tell me all I wanted to know; so I knocked at the door, and made up my mind... (Huckleberry Finn)
Keats:
I should run round and surprise you with a knock at the door....

And so on and so forth...

16:46 Sep 4, 2010 

I am a native English speaker (monolingual, with a little exposure to French and Spanish, until the age of 19), raised in Midwest U.S., and I NEVER say "knock at the door." Regardless of perspective, I would say "knock on the door"--as an imperative, as an action ("I knocked on the door"), as a perceived sound ("I heard a knock on the door"), etc. I conclude that that was the only version I heard in childhood and youth. However, when I hear "knock at the door," in any of the aforementioned contexts, I do not find it jarring.

13:22 Sep 4, 2010 

I think your explanation, Sheila, fits in with mediamatrix's explanation somehow. You say the difference is between sound and action, MM says it's a matter of the perspective of the listener. That may be because when you hear a knock but can't see the knocker, you're probably inside the house whose door is knocked (an unseen person knocked at the door), but when you describe the action of knocking you're probably standing on the knocker's side, witnessing his action (he is knocking on the door).
Starting to make sense to me.. :-)

12:04 Sep 4, 2010 

Thinking about what I'd say and not say, I seem to favour "at" for the sound (there was a knock at the door) and "on" for the action (someone's knocking on the door). Do others agree?

22:16 Sep 3, 2010 

For me, "knock on the door" is the most natural, but "knock at the door" is perfectly acceptable. "Knock the door," in this context--no.

22:08 Sep 3, 2010 

is out of the question in this context.