Musings on the Oxymoron of the "Only Choice"
Have you ever said something was the only choice? Maybe you haven't said it yourself, but you've heard other people say it.
Have you ever thought about the phrase itself?
The "only choice"?
This is an oxymoron, where contradictory or very different words are used together. "Choice" is about having more than one option. "Only" refers to one sole thing. See how they are very different, even oppositional? If you're going to have choices, there is going to be more than one, so there's never only one choice really.
The "only choice" is an oxymoron, yet we understand how this figure of speech references something that makes sense; something that we can understand.
There can be a situation where, obviously, there are many things that one can do, but some of these things will not produce the result we want, or may even harm us or others. In such a case there is often only one choice to make out of the many because it is the best choice to make.
There may not "only" be one choice to make, but sometimes there is clearly a better and optimal choice to make, which makes it the "only choice" a rational and reasonable person would choose compared to the alternatives.
Sometimes language is really weird like that. We can put two things together that normally wouldn't make sense together, but because of a certain context or situation, two oppositional words can unite to provide greater definition about that situation being referenced.
I enjoy learning about how language functions to provide meaning and definition to aspects of reality that we want to communicate about. Word symbols summon imagery into our "minds" and invoke emotions into our "hearts" (consciousness). Words influence us like a spell (spelling), to affect our thinking, feeling and behavior. Language is powerful!
Great example of how weird English can get. I love exploring the vagaries of language and how different languages can affect how people perceive their environments.
English has evolved so powerfully over the centuries in part because it allows this kind of delightful weirdness you've shone a light on today. I've found it gives it advantages over more structured languages like French, which doesn't typically allow that sort of contradiction, and I suspect most other languages are more rigid in how they cope with the abstract. Perhaps those are cheats rather than advantages - said from the perspective of someone who used to do technical translation and was forever frustrated by English writers' ability to be hyper-unspecific about something which required a specific description in French. I can only imagine what an English to German translator would have done with some of those texts!
One of the French words which came to mind thanks to "only choice" was "alternative" - in English we can have multiple alternatives, but in French it's only a choice between two possibilities (not the only choice 🙃). As the Church Lady used to say on Saturday Night Live, "Well, isn't that special!"
Have you read any of Steven Pinker's stuff on English, or listened to any of his talks? If you enjoyed the exoticism of "only choice", I suspect you'll enjoy his material.
English is bonkers, at school they never bothered with grammar because the language is so flexible it really doesn't matter.
I suspect the only reason I have any feel for English grammar (and it's nothing to boast about) is because of the years we spent studying French grammar. Similar patterns lurk in English sentences, but they hide in the mists of exceptions to rules of conjugation and pronunciation and strange hierarchies of words. French has rules, and by golly, you stick to them, while English is a glorious jumble of contradictions and exceptions to everything that just somehow works.
Right, I have often found people from countries with a Latin language base have a much deeper understanding of grammar and syntax. On the one hand I expect this helps them with the process of learning other languages, on the other hand English must feel like a disaster zone :)
Indeed! Disaster zone - lol 😂
You mean "un alternatif"? Mais ils peux avoir plusieur alternatifs, non? I don't spell perfect French, never liked the so many rules, COD, conjugation, and the and other things. English was intuitively learned by doing (write/speak) and reading. I'll check out Pinker, thanks for the recommendation and feedback.
Now that's an interesting question. I had to look it up to make sure, but if my dictionary's correct, alternatif is an adjective, not a noun and it means alternating, as in courant alternatif (the AC kind of electricity). There's a second definition which touches on the original discussion: it can mean alternative, in the sense of different. Our translation professor was most strict on us Anglos not using alternative in the English sense - we had months and months on how to avoid anglicisms. Fascinating stuff.
And yes, English does let you learn intuitively. Good old COD! Haven't heard of him for years, but didn't even have to look it up when I saw it - shudder.
Enjoy Pinker.
Ah yes my bad, I didn't even check the dictionary lol. I am prone to anglicism and turning english words into french. It works so well and Quebecer French has quite a few english words in there colloquially.
You're right - I wasn't aware of it or sensitive to it until I started studying translation. Quebec French used to be pretty accepting of this...unless the Office de la Langue Française has grown even sharper teeth...yikes....
I see the phrase "only choice" as hyperbole. It's like saying "it was the most obvious decision in the world."
Also, I could see the phrase being used as an absolution of responsibility for a decision. Either someone could be making an excuse for a decision that went wrong or hedging their bets just in case their decision takes a bad turn.
The beautiful thing about language is how it is sent and received. One party formulates the intended message from their own interpretation and then sends it to someone else who may interpret it completely different.
That is probably the most applicable reason this phrase gets used lol. To justify an action. Otherwise, who cares, it's just another choice, no biggy. But when there are stakes on the line, that phrase comes out more. Good point. That's actually why this phrase was of significance to make a post, seeing movies and shows use it in moral situations hehe. Thanks for the feedback.
A related type of choice is what's called a Hobsons Choice, in this scenario you think you can choose one of many options, but then find out you can only choose one specific item or have none at all. For example you go into a cake shop and see all the cakes on display, but it turns out they all went out of sell by date except one, you can either have that specific cake (even if it's not your preference) or no cake at all. You still have a choice, but if you want cake, you have no choice.
Indeed, nice example. There are still choices, to have a cake or not, then if you make one choice, then you have the other level appear of whether you want the only cake in this bakery, or not. There is still another option of getting another cake, go to another bakery (if this one isn't the only one). Or go make a cake. LOL. If it's 30 minutes to the birthday party and a cake is needed because for some reason you can't make one while the party is going on... or don't know how... and the store is the only one in your town... then yeah, you have that one choice if you want a cake ;) The circumstances/situation can vary. Thanks for the feedback.
Knowledge is power too @krnel. Knowledge and Language both go together. I enjoyed the post 'The Only Choice'
I believe that too many options given can create complications but One Choice is One Way Street. A Clear Path. Thank you for sharing.
Indeed, language is knowledge ;) We always boil it down to one choice to make usually. Sometimes we can do two things and see what turns out best, but often we have to stick with one choice and go with it. One way street indeed.
Good one! I find phrases like 'good grief', 'diet coke' and 'working vacation' quite funny... they make sense though!
Hehe, yeah, nice ones! Good grief doesn't make sense for a good type of grief? Just messed up lol. Diet coke is just less of badness of coke. Working vacation isn't really a vacation if you're working lol, so that one works to describe what's going on, but it shows how it's not really a vacation since you're also working :P
Haha true that!
hahahaha.. now i keep thinking what else doesn't make sense. Recently I learned about working vacation, couldn't figure it out what was it actually , what kind of vacation while working (beside for travel writer, IMHO) :D
Lol :)
Great post to make people think @krnel.
To quote "Freewill" by Rush:
Any thoughts on the way people butcher mathematical concepts?
i.e. saying things like "4 times smaller". Things like that seem to be all over the TV these days.
I also have a Lowe's commercial in mind as a demonstration of ignorance of the English language.
Mathematically, times can refer to
xor*to refer to multiplication, which can also be described by factors. You can say you are multiplying something by a factor of (4x), and you can divide something by a factor of 4 (4x). The factoring of size is what is being referred to, not the strict "times = multiplication", but the "times = factors" aspect. Otherwise we should say "one fourth smaller"? It's easier to say a "hundred times smaller" than "one one hundredth smaller" :P Fraction are not very liked lol.People in Murica seem to especially dislike the hard work that math can create.
Thank goodness for debit cards.
This is so true with the English language. Words like "jumbo shrimp" or "almost always" are definitely oxymorons but we know what the context meaning is, so we don't think twice. It makes you wonder how many other things we "overlook". Our brain is so wired to use the least amount of work that it often skips over those details. Words are so powerful and it's nice to see someone breaking them down into the deeper meanings. Thanks for sharing :)
Yeah language is pretty neat to understand. Words are like magic :)
Never given it much thought before actually. Probably because my mind interprets it more as someone exaggerating on a situation. I think how can it be the only choice when by picking it, it's choosing it over another already. But now that you pointed it out, I keep trying to remember a YouTube video that was making fun of phrases being said that normally wouldn't make sense unless you're a native speaker of a certain language (in this case, English).
Brilliant!
Never really thought of the phrase as an oxymoron, thanks for the perspective.
"They" say we're just one choice away from a different life ;)
I never think it that way yet keep using the phrase, " bla bla was my only choice" . Thank for the new knowledge tho :D
LOL, to justify doing something you don't want to?
Or the only thing that I wanna do 😁😁