LJ Idol Week 1 - "Resolution"
I consider myself very privileged to have had the good fortune of being born to English-speaking parents in an English-speaking neighbourhood in a (partially) English-speaking country. Yes, Canada also has a French component to it, but for my purposes today, that is irrelevant.
I consider myself privileged because English is treated in many circles as the 'standard." Promoters of English learning are quick to call English the "language for doing International Business". In aviation, standardization on English, and a base requirement that all pilots, flight crew, etc. meet minimum English proficiency requirements, is accepted internationally. Exactly how this is fair or reasonable is beyond me. Google tells me that of the 7.7 billion current Earthlings, a grand total of 371 million of them speak English as their native language. There is something amazing about the fact that such a small group, less than 5% of the population, has such influence.
But there are many times in my day to day when I'm confronted by the fact that, quite simply, English sucks. It is full of ambiguity. The meaning of many words is impossible to discern absent significant context. Many idioms make absolutely no sense if translated literally. Hitting the books will hardly make your friendly neighbourhood librarian happy. Stabbing someone in the back is a sure-fire way to learn about the criminal justice system, quick. Quitting cold turkey sounds like a fine idea to me, because I prefer my meat hot. Being born with a silver spoon in your mouth must have made things rather unpleasant for your Mama. The last time I brought home the bacon, my wife said that Mr. Wilbur couldn't stay and I had to take him back to the farm where he came from. Being lost at sea when you live in the middle of the continent is awfully hard to envisage.
So when the esteemed clauderainsrm threw the word "resolution" into my head, it quickly occurred to me that this is a great example of why English sucks, at least if you are one of the unfortunate 7.329 billion Earthlings not blessed with a Native English upbringing. Consider, for a moment, the range of meanings (as identified by Google/Oxford):
"Jim has a special kind of resolution about him" either means that Jim is very determined, or that Jim plans to present to the next assembly of the group a proposal or motion about "him," whoever "him" happens to be. Or perhaps it means Jim's eyesight is very good or he has a very good capacity for noticing fine details. A native speaker is unlikely to use it in that way, but someone who has learned the term "resolution" from working with Photoshop but has otherwise never learned the word? It's not illogical.
"There has been a resolution regarding that problem" leads to similar ambiguity. Perhaps the problem has been solved. Or perhaps someone has merely made a plan that they hope will solve the problem and expressed their intention to act upon it. Sadly, getting more precise about the nature of the problem doesn't necessarily solve the dilemma, either. A doctor telling a patient that "there has been a resolution of the pain in the knee" might mean that they can now go run a marathon ("the disappearance of inflammation"), or it may mean that they will never walk again because their knee can no longer bend ("the conversion of something abstract into another form").
So, if there is anyone out there in Season 11 whose first language is not English, I salute you for your resolution to accept the challenge.
I consider myself privileged because English is treated in many circles as the 'standard." Promoters of English learning are quick to call English the "language for doing International Business". In aviation, standardization on English, and a base requirement that all pilots, flight crew, etc. meet minimum English proficiency requirements, is accepted internationally. Exactly how this is fair or reasonable is beyond me. Google tells me that of the 7.7 billion current Earthlings, a grand total of 371 million of them speak English as their native language. There is something amazing about the fact that such a small group, less than 5% of the population, has such influence.
But there are many times in my day to day when I'm confronted by the fact that, quite simply, English sucks. It is full of ambiguity. The meaning of many words is impossible to discern absent significant context. Many idioms make absolutely no sense if translated literally. Hitting the books will hardly make your friendly neighbourhood librarian happy. Stabbing someone in the back is a sure-fire way to learn about the criminal justice system, quick. Quitting cold turkey sounds like a fine idea to me, because I prefer my meat hot. Being born with a silver spoon in your mouth must have made things rather unpleasant for your Mama. The last time I brought home the bacon, my wife said that Mr. Wilbur couldn't stay and I had to take him back to the farm where he came from. Being lost at sea when you live in the middle of the continent is awfully hard to envisage.
So when the esteemed clauderainsrm threw the word "resolution" into my head, it quickly occurred to me that this is a great example of why English sucks, at least if you are one of the unfortunate 7.329 billion Earthlings not blessed with a Native English upbringing. Consider, for a moment, the range of meanings (as identified by Google/Oxford):
- a firm decision to do or not to do something
- a formal expression of opinion or intention agreed on by a legislative body, committee, or other formal meeting, typically after taking a vote
- the quality of being determined or resolute
- the action of solving a problem, dispute, or contentious matter
- the smallest interval measurable by a scientific (especially optical) instrument; the resolving power
- the conversion of something abstract into another form
- (in music) the passing of a discord into a concord during the course of changing harmony
- (in medicine) the disappearance of inflammation, or of any other symptom or condition
- (in chemistry) the process of reducing or separating something into its components
- (in physics) the replacing of a single force or other vector quantity by two or more jointly equivalent to it
- (in photography or optics) the degree of detail visible in a photographic or television imag
- (in linguistics / poetry) the substitution of two short syllables for one long one
"Jim has a special kind of resolution about him" either means that Jim is very determined, or that Jim plans to present to the next assembly of the group a proposal or motion about "him," whoever "him" happens to be. Or perhaps it means Jim's eyesight is very good or he has a very good capacity for noticing fine details. A native speaker is unlikely to use it in that way, but someone who has learned the term "resolution" from working with Photoshop but has otherwise never learned the word? It's not illogical.
"There has been a resolution regarding that problem" leads to similar ambiguity. Perhaps the problem has been solved. Or perhaps someone has merely made a plan that they hope will solve the problem and expressed their intention to act upon it. Sadly, getting more precise about the nature of the problem doesn't necessarily solve the dilemma, either. A doctor telling a patient that "there has been a resolution of the pain in the knee" might mean that they can now go run a marathon ("the disappearance of inflammation"), or it may mean that they will never walk again because their knee can no longer bend ("the conversion of something abstract into another form").
So, if there is anyone out there in Season 11 whose first language is not English, I salute you for your resolution to accept the challenge.