2020-09-10
180305 คำชวนสับสน ในการใช้ ชุด D – Dilemma - difficulty
การใช้ภาษาอังกฤษ ที่ถือว่า ถูกต้อง ในที่นี้ เป็นไป ตามมาตรฐาน ของภาษา
การใช้ภาษาอังกฤษ ไม่กำหนดมาตฐาน ถือตามส่วนใหญ่ที่ใช้แต่ละท้องถิ่น
ความหมาย อาจยืดหยุ่น ขึ้นอยู่กับ ตำแหน่ง/หน้าที่ ในประโยค
Dictionary.com
ออกเสียง “dilemma” = “dih-LEM-uh”
ออกเสียง “difficulty” = “DIF-i-kuh l-tee”
Dictionary.com
HISTORICAL USAGE OF DILEMMA
The word dilemma combines di-, a prefix meaning "two," with lemma, meaning "a proposition, theme, or subject."
Our world is filled with propositions, themes, and subjects
—matters about which we have to make a variety of decisions as we move through life.
If we are forced to make a choice between two courses of action, or between doing something and not doing it, and if neither choice is a good one, we are in a dilemma in its primary sense
—faced with a double bind, caught between Scylla and Charybdis, trapped between a rock and a hard place, and truly on the horns of a dilemma.
As we can see, the sense of dilemma that deals exclusively with two unpleasant alternatives is powerful enough to have engendered a good deal of descriptive language over the years.
But in today’s complex environment, if people tell you they are in a dilemma, you cannot be sure that their problem is restricted to two choices.
They may be facing a situation of much greater complexity. While the first meaning is still the most common, the broadening of dilemma to include this more general sense of "any difficult or perplexing situation or problem," is an example of normal language growth.
The first meaning of dilemma, involving two choices, remains alive and well. But this broader meaning is not only common and acceptable, it is found in multiple examples of educated writing.
New Oxford American Dictionary:
อธิบายการใช้ว่า “dilemma” มีส่วนสำคัญอยู่ที่
“สถานการณ์หนึ่งที่เกิดความยากลำบาก ในการเลือก”
ที่ต้องกระทำในระหว่าง สองทาง หรือมากกว่า
เมื่อใช้ไม่เป็นทางการ อาจหมายถึง “สถานการณ์ที่ลำบาก” (difficult situation)
หรือเป็น “ปัญหา” (problem) เช่น
“The insoluble dilemma of adolescence.”
การใช้เช่นนี้ พวกอนุรักษ์นิยม ไม่เห็นด้วย อ้างว่า “ไม่มีน้ำหนัก” (weakened use)
หากแต่มีบันทึกเป็นหลักฐานว่า มีการใช้ตั้งแต่ต้นศตวรรษที่ 17
และมีการใช้ และเป็นที่ยอมรับ ทั่วไป ในปัจจุบัน
ควรสังเกตและระวัง การสะกดว่าต้องมี สอง m
COMMON ERRORS IN ENGLISH USAGE
DILEMMA
DIFFICULTY
A dilemma is a difficult choice, not just any difficulty or problem.
Whether to invite your son’s mother to his high school graduation when your current wife hates her is a dilemma.
Cleaning up after a hurricane is just a problem, though a difficult one.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language
dil′em·mat′ic (dĭl′ə-măt′ĭk) adj.
Usage Note:
In its traditional use, dilemma refers to a situation in which a choice must be made between alternative courses of action or argument.
The word is also used more loosely to mean "problem" or "predicament" without implying that a choice must be made.
This usage has been criticized by language critics, and the Usage Panel still supports this view, but this support has been eroding over time.
In our 1999 survey, 58 percent of the Usage Panel rejected the sentence Historically, race has been the great dilemma of democracy.
This is a significant decrease from the 74 percent that rejected a similar sentence in 1988. · It is sometimes claimed that because the di- in dilemma comes from a Greek prefix meaning "two," the word should be used only when exactly two choices are involved.
In 2005, some 58 percent of the Panel reported that they followed this restriction in their own writing. The remaining 42 percent said that the word could acceptably be used for more than two choices. It seems unlikely that writers will be taken to task for ignoring the two-choice limit.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary
Words at Play
What's a Dilemma?
Writers face a dilemma these days: use the word dilemma to refer to something that is problematic, and they will be called out by grammarians for misusing dilemma.
Commentators claim that dilemma can't be used to refer to something that is merely problematic: that the proper use of the word is to refer to a choice between two equally unsatisfactory options. Dilemma came into English as a term used in rhetoric to refer to an argument in which an opponent is given two options to choose from, with both of those options being detrimental to the opponent. Very soon after that, it came to refer to any choice that offered two equally unsuitable or unattainable things—the proverbial devil and the deep blue sea, or the rock and the hard place.
Soon after this second meaning appeared, dilemma's use broadened again to refer to the state of mind marked by someone facing a dilemma: a sense of uncertainty and doubt. Shakespeare used this sense in The Merry Wives of Windsor: "In perplexity, and doubtful dilemma."
That's where things start getting problematic for dilemma. A person who is afflicted with doubt and uncertainty over what to do might not be faced with the classical dilemma (a choice between two equally unsuitable or unattainable options), but just any difficult situation. Additionally, the suitability or attainability of the options presented is primarily in the mind of the person faced with the dilemma. Take a look at this early example:
Fuller has worded his example in such a way that it's clear that one of these options, while not great, is still more suitable that the other: resign and stay alive, or be deposed and get killed. In most choices between life and death, life is preferred, and so this isn't the "correct" use of dilemma.
The word has broadened in use since the 1700s to refer to a problem, and not necessarily a problem that involves a choice between two options. Take, for example, this excerpt found at our entry for dilemma:
So if your dilemma is whether to use the word or not, you may just find yourself faced with an easy choice after all.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary
Usage of Dilemma
Although some commentators insist that dilemma be restricted to instances in which the alternatives to be chosen are equally unsatisfactory, their concern is misplaced; the unsatisfactoriness of the options is usually a matter of how the author presents them.
What is distressing or painful about a dilemma is having to make a choice one does not want to make. The use of such adjectives as terrible, painful, and irreconcilable suggests that dilemma is losing some of its unpleasant force.
Merriam Webster Collegiate Dictionary:
อธิบาย การใช้ “dilemma”
โดยอ้างการยืนยันของนักวิเคราะห์วิจารณ์ บางคน
ให้จำกัดการใช้อยู่แต่เฉพาะ ในสถานการณ์ ของการเลือก
ที่ต้องกระทำระหว่าง “สิ่งที่ไม่น่าพึงพอใจ” เหมือนๆกัน
“ความไม่น่าพึงพอใจ”ของทางเลือกนั้น ปกติจะเป็นเรื่อง ของผู้นำเสนอ
สิ่งที่เป็น “ความเจ็บปวดหรือความยุ่งยาก” เกี่ยวกับ “dilemma” นั้น
ก็คือ การที่ต้องเลือก “ในสิ่งที่ผู้เลือก ไม่ต้องการจะทำ”
คุณศัพท์ คล้ายกัน อื่นๆที่ เสนอแนะความรุนแรง น้อยกว่า ‘dilemma’ เช่น
“terrible” “painful” “irreconcilable” ที่ควรใช้แทนในสถานการณ์ที่รุนแรงน้อยกว่า
Collins COBUILD English Usage
difficulty
1. 'difficulty'
A difficulty is a problem.
There are a lot of difficulties that have to be overcome.
The main difficulty is a shortage of time.
2. 'have difficulty'
If you have difficulty doing something or have difficulty in doing something, you are unable to do it easily.
I often have difficulty sleeping.
She had great difficulty in learning to read and write.
Be Careful!
Don't say that someone 'has difficulty to do' something.
Collins COBUILD English Usage:
อธิบายว่า “difficulty” คือ ปัญหา อย่างหนึ่ง (a problem) เช่น
“There are a lot of difficulties that have to be overcome.”
“The main difficulty is a shortage of time.”
ถ้าคุณ ‘have difficulty doing’ บางสิ่ง หรือ
‘have difficulty in doing’ บางสิ่ง หมายถึง
คุณไม่สามารถ ทำสิ่งนั้นได้ ง่ายนัก เช่น
“I often have difficulty sleeping.”
“She had great difficulty in learning to read and write.”
ข้อควรระวัง อย่าใช้ว่า “บางคน ‘has difficulty to do’ บางสิ่ง”
