food for thought

[disreputabledog]

Why is it, that when you "take advantage of an opportunity", it's a good thing--and when you "take advantage of a situation" or *gasp* a person, it's a bad thing? Interesting how the same phrase can mean diferent things depending on the subject in said phrase. Don't ask me why I just suddenly thought about this.

Comments

[unlimitedblack]

"Taking advantage of a person" connotes that you are extracting a substantial benefit at that person's expense. An opportunity or a situation is de-personified -- an opportunity won't have it's pride torn to shreds, a situation won't feel violated.

I mean, it becomes a matter of samurai barbers, but then again that's the whole issue with the English language. So much is dependent upon grammatical structure and context that words that describe important things, like the words "love" or "hate," ends up getting used in any number of unimportant situations, which devalues the words themselves.

It is, truthfully, an overly complex language.

[disreputabledog]

But that in itself is why I love the English language so much. That every nuance of a meaning has its own descriptive word--the most lovely thing that can exist in a language, in my opinion. Maybe I'm just biased since it's the language I speak, but I find so few other languages can grasp the same subtleties, "flavors" of meaning. Really, it's almost magic. ^_^