I am Sean Fields

I’ve been a bit negligent with my writing duties of late.  It’s been an odd month.  This past week has shown me that there actually ARE people out in the world that are reading my silly little musings, so I now feel a new responsibility to keep new content coming.

This article is intended to be the first in a series of random things that simply make no sense to me.  With any luck, there’ll be more of these to come.

Let’s talk about English.  By “English”, I mean the language.

First of all, having spent some time in England several years ago, I should first point out that what we Americans speak is very different that the language spoken in the UK.  So, for the purposes of this article, “English” equals “American”.

I’ve heard or read somewhere before that English is one of the most difficult languages to learn.  I can absolutely understand this.  First of all, you have all of the slang and regional colloquialisms.  But even setting those aside, there are grammatical rules enforced in our language that are completely inconsistent and downright confusing.

Let’s start with a simple example:  Take the word “do”.  “Do” means to take action.  Using “do” as the root, we can apply prefixes to alter the meaning according to a predictable pattern.  Adding the prefix “un” results in “undo” which means to take away an action performed.  Adding “re” results in “redo” which means to take the action again.  Pretty simple right?

So what’s the deal with the word “repeat”?  The definition is essentially the same as “redo”.  But according to the establised pattern, it’s a root word appended with the prefix “re”.  So if that’s the case, then why isn’t the word “peat” exercised in our language.  Actually it is, but in a different context (it’s a kind of moss).  The point is, if one must first “do” something before one can “redo” it, shouldn’t one also have to “peat” something before one can “repeat” it?

But wait, there’s more….

Let’s take the word “solve” as our root:

Context 1:
solve - accomplish a goal / arrive at a conclusion / fix a problem / etc.
solution - the goal / conclusion / fix

Context 2:
solvent - in chemistry, a liquid substance into which a solid substance can be combined
solute - in chemistry, the solid substance to be introduced to the solvent
dissolve - the act of mixing the solute into the solvent
solution -  the mixture of the solute in the solvent

Now, particular focus should be placed on the prefix “dis” in the word “dissolve”.  “Dis”, for the most part, seems to mean remove, reverse, etc.  When applied to a root, it establishes an antonym of that root.  As in the word “disassociate” becoming the opposite of “associate”.

Here’s where it gets tricky.  In the first context, to arrive at a “solution”, one would “solve” the problem. However, in the second context, to create a “solution”, one would “dissolve” a solute into a solvent.

So, “solve” results in solution, and it’s “dis” prefixed antonym “dissolve” also results in a solution.

See what I mean?  No sense.  I can go on and on about this.

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