Okay, I realize that this is a bigger deal to me than it may be to some of you. But as a dedicated English teacher, I cannot help but use this medium to promote the proper use of our language. After all, we would never want our careless presentation to detract from the message we have to deliver.
God is a God of order: grass grows upward, water flows down a hill, and so on. Although the Bible does not contain grammar instructions, the nature of God shows us that there are absolutes. This philosophy applies even to the everyday use of words. When a word has a defined meaning, it is important to use the word correctly. More and more frequently, people have been using words to say things that those words do not exactly mean. If this continues, we will eventually have chaos instead of communication as everyone uses his favorite word to mean whatever he wants it to mean.
Occasionally, I would like to present a few common usage problems and the solutions for how to avoid them. Let's do what we can to preserve the meaning of our language. (Don't worry. I do not plan to include grammar diagrams in any of this series.) :)
I'll start with a simple one: anxious vs. eager. We seldom use the word eager, and we seldom use the word anxious properly. According to the American Heritage College Dictionary, anxious means "uneasy and apprehensive about something uncertain; worried." Eager means "having or exhibiting keen interest, intense desire, or impatient expectancy." Basically, anxious and eager both indicate one's emotions while waiting for something. Eager indicates a positive excitement, and anxious indicates a nervous expectation.
Therefore, if you told me "I'm anxious to see you next week," I would wonder what it is about me that scares you. I'll try to be nice, really. The gracious thing to say is "I'm eager to see you next week." Unless we honestly mean that we dread what is ahead, eager is the better word choice.
Bottom line: when talking about a future event, use anxious when you are nervous about it and eager when you are looking forward to it.
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Lean Not: a reminder to follow God's command in Proverbs 3:5,6: "Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths."
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2 comments:
Love your passion for language. And I agree with you (especially for the sake of uniformity in college papers, etc.)
BUT ...
(of course, right?)
one of the things we've been talking about in my Structure of Modern English class is that English changes over time. I would bet you money that in ten years, if you look up anxious in the dictionary, you'll see an additional meaning added. If enough educated English-speakers use anxious in its non-dictionary meaning, they will eventually change it.
I'm fascinated that words like "hood" now mean neighborhood and that it's no longer unacceptable to end a sentence with a preposition (although maybe still taboo in Freshman Comp?).
I used to think what I loved most about grammar was its rules, its inflexibility that you could count on.
Oh well. :)
Well, I wrote a reply to your comment, but my internet hiccuped and I lost it. Here's a second try.
I agree with you, for the most part. English is certainly one of the most adaptable languages in the world, especially given its many contributing languages.
And although I support the fact that dictionaries must update their meanings, changing meanings because of commonly incorrect usage is evidence of a philosophical problem. For example, the Webster dictionaries were great until the Merriam family bought the name, with Webster's Third New International being the major pivotal dictionary. By reading the introductory material to many modern dictionaries and by studying further about their creators, you realize that their philosophy of how to approach language is rooted in an anti-God, anti-standards belief system. The current movement has been toward seeing "whatever native speakers say" as the authority on what words mean, however mistaken those native speakers may be. This gives anyone the license to define words as he pleases, thus resulting in Bill Clinton-type definition problems. The dictionaries do not want to set standards; therefore, they simply describe what speakers are saying. A good, conservative dictionary will be prescriptive -- that is, it will give advice about whether a word is correct, informal, etc.
But, for the sake of graceful writing, I do believe that prepositions are fine words to end sentences with. :) Or as Sir Winston Churchill sarcastically stated, "From now on, ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I will not put." In other words, sometimes a preposition can be the most effective ending for a sentence.
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