" One should be considerate of/to ..."

[Tacia]

Ladies and Gentlemen:

This time I want to understand the sentence pattern: [Somebody] is
considerate of/to [Somebody else].

1. You should be considerate of your mother.
2. You should be considerate to your mother.

Are there semantic differences?
Or is it merely a pondial difference?

What follows is what I found in the entry of "considerate" in some of
the dictionaries within my reach.

/Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English/ lists a collocation,
"considerate towards," and gives the following example sentence:
As a motorist, I try to be considerate towards cyclists.

/Merriam-Webster Advanced Learner's English Dictionary/ suggests
"often + of" and gives the following example sentence:
He is always considerate of other people's feelings

/Collins Cobuild Advanced Learner's English Dictionary/ suggests "oft
ADJ of n" (often "adjective of noun") and gives the following example
sentence:
I've always understood one should try and be considerate of other
people.

/Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary/ does not especially suggest a
collocated preposition, but "towards" is used in one of the example
sentences.

Thank you.

Sincerely,
Tacia

[CDB]

There is only a very small distinction, in my opinion, which comes
down to the two slightly different meanings of considerate. The
Merriam-Webster Online definitions are:
1 : marked by or given to careful consideration : circumspect
2 : thoughtful of the rights and feelings of others
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/considerate
>
As you can see, the second meaning is a development of the first. I
would expect to find the first meaning followed by "of", and the
second meaning followed by "to" or "towards". In your examples, I
would read the first sentence as meaning "You should be mindful of
your mother's feelings," and the second "You should behave in a way
that takes your mother's feelings into account."
>
One practical difference is that, in sentences with "to" or "towards",
one is considerate only to or towards people; in sentences with "of",
one can be considerate of people or of other things, like their
feelings.

[John Lawler]

In my usage, "considerate of [X]" is the general term, referring to
the state of considering [X]'s feelings and/or wellbeing when
performing some action. So, "Be considerate of the janitor when
disposing of your wrappings" doesn't require the janitor's presence.

"Considerate to [X]", on the other hand, means (again in my usage)
acting towards [X] in person in a considerate manner. Thus, "Be
considerate to the janitor" does require the janitor's presence.

Naturally, since the second usage has to do with personal behavior,
"to [X]" usually requires that [X] be human. This is not necessarily
true with "of [X]", however.

As I said, this is my usage; your mileage may vary. There is no
standard usage, just a bunch of variation. Like most prepositional
usages in English.

-John Lawler http://www.umich.edu/~jlawler
"People demand freedom of speech as a compensation
for the freedom of thought which they seldom use."
-- Søren Kierkegaard

[Mark Brader]

John Lawler:

> In my usage, "considerate of [X]" is the general term, referring to
> the state of considering [X]'s feelings and/or wellbeing when
> performing some action. So, "Be considerate of the janitor when
> disposing of your wrappings" doesn't require the janitor's presence.
>
> "Considerate to [X]", on the other hand, means (again in my usage)
> acting towards [X] in person in a considerate manner. Thus, "Be
> considerate to the janitor" does require the janitor's presence.

I agree exactly.
--
Mark Brader "All this government stuff, in other words,
Toronto is not reading matter, but prefabricated
m...@vex.net parts of quarrels." -- Rudolf Flesch

[Tacia]

Thanks again. Your comments are very useful to me. In my opinion, the
editors of those dictionaries for learners should mark a distinction
between these two collocated prepositions.

Sincerely,
Tacia