Understanding "について"

[nalo6451]

I've noticed as I work through Genki 1 there are a few phrases which are conjugations of separate words which are taught as a single phrase for simplicity of learning. While I can definitely appreciate this (makes learning MUCH easier), I would, where possible, like to understand these conjugations at their fundamental level.

After a little research I found that について is the conjugation of に + つく (and similarly the phrase につき is derived from this combination). Genki 1 hasn't covered the use of に in this way (which is why the phrase is taught as a conjugate) but I'm guessing that in regards to について, に is used a particle indicating purpose to some noun and ついて is roughly translated as "about" or "in regards to".

I'm probably wrong somewhere here so if anyone can clear this up for me I would appreciate it .

 

[Toritoribe]

～について means "about/in regards to" as a set. There are so many these kinds of words, e.g., ～に対して, ～にとって, ～に関して, ～において, ～によって, ～に向かって, ～として, ～と違って, ～を除いて, ～を通じて, ～をめぐって... You'd better think these words are a set phrase since the function of these words is almost the same as particles.