TIL: Today I Learned

[Valka D'Ur]

I'm an English teacher and I'ld dock points for the lack of the article.

Interesting alternative spelling.

I'd also point out that even "the Earth" is not a "chance," exactly. There's some weird lack of parallelism when it's put that baldly. "Preserving the Earth is (or represents or constitutes) the only chance our species has for survival." Something along those lines..

You're missing the unsaid part of that. It is a chance when the alternative is trying to breathe vacuum, because right now this is the only planet we have where we can survive.

 

[Gori the Grey]

That's kind of what I'm saying about the sentence as a sentence. It's not as though humans are sitting in some abstract space where they have several "chances," one of which is "the Earth" and that one, among the whole range, is conducive to our survival.

The Earth is not a chance. Almost no physical object is properly spoken of as a chance. Various developments in time are chances that one can or cannot take.

 

[Mouthwash]

The Earth is not a chance. Almost no physical object is properly spoken of as a chance.

That is absolutely false. I could easily refer to a notebook as my only chance of passing a test, or a flamethrower as my only chance of surviving a zombie apocalypse.

 

[Gori the Grey]

You'd want to say your notebook gives you your only chance of passing a test or your flamethrower provides your only chance of surviving a zombie apocalypse.

 

[Kyriakos]

Or, at the very least, you'd need a tied verb form to something, to make it be a chance. Eg "Writing down in my notebook is my only chance of passing the exams" etc.

In english, 'chance' seems to either mean the possibility/probability, or the hope of something happening. But mathematically speaking a chance (possibility etc) is the state itself: eg one chance is you will pass the exam, another is you will fail. The means aren't part of the chance, although they may allow it to exist.

 

[sophie]

"One chance is you will pass the exam" is not a phrase that sounds correct to my ear.
"One possibility is..." or "Chances are [that....]" sound much more natural to me.

That being said, "[x] is [poss. only chance] of/to/at [y] is certainly a construction I've heard numerous times in English:

e.g. in the White Rhinos song "[This] is [my chance] to [feel alive]". There's also "[Now]'s [your chance]" and "[He/that] was [my only chance] [at fame]"

Douglas Goldring's "A Fight for Freedom" has the line: "I may as well tell you that your only chance of marrying in your own class is to marry Michael Henderson.", which can be inverted to fit the construction: [Marrying Michael Henderson] is [your only chance] of [marrying in your own class]

I found a jstor article with the headline: "Jackpot: For Colonial Slaves, [Playing the Lottery] was [a Chance] at [Freedom]

I found a mondoweiss article with the headline: "The Palestinian Minority inside Jerusalem is our last Chance for Freedom" (no troll intended MW; literally just keyword searching "chance for freedom"

Found a guardian article with the headline: "[The Star Wars Open Audition] was [My Chance] at [Fame], and I didn't get It"

I'd say both the notebook and the Earth examples are perfectly valid constructions. Really just comes down to the context. All that being said, I don't think I would personally use "chance" for any of these - "hope" or "shot" come much more naturally to me when I try to say them.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

[Saavik]Colloquial English... it is a difficult concept. [/Saavik]

 

[GoodSarmatian]

I'm really concerned and annyoed by the recent rise of the grammar and semantics alt-right.

 

[Snerk]

Grammatik macht frei.

 

[Arakhor]

I'm really concerned and annyoed by the recent rise of the grammar and semantics alt-right.

Deliberate hook or obligatory error?

 

[Snerk]

Hah! It was a grammar-trap! *throws net over Arakhor*

 

[Mouthwash]

I found a mondoweiss article with the headline: "The Palestinian Minority inside Jerusalem is our last Chance for Freedom" (no troll intended MW; literally just keyword searching "chance for freedom"

Sure, but Google results change based on where you've gone online.

(On the other hand, just being a lefty is probably enough to bring that up.)

 

[Gori the Grey]

That being said, "[x] is [poss. only chance] of/to/at [y] is certainly a construction I've heard numerous times in English:

e.g. in the White Rhinos song "[This] is [my chance] to [feel alive]". There's also "[Now]'s [your chance]" and "[He/that] was [my only chance] [at fame]"

Douglas Goldring's "A Fight for Freedom" has the line: "I may as well tell you that your only chance of marrying in your own class is to marry Michael Henderson.", which can be inverted to fit the construction: [Marrying Michael Henderson] is [your only chance] of [marrying in your own class]

I found a jstor article with the headline: "Jackpot: For Colonial Slaves, [Playing the Lottery] was [a Chance] at [Freedom]

I found a mondoweiss article with the headline: "The Palestinian Minority inside Jerusalem is our last Chance for Freedom" (no troll intended MW; literally just keyword searching "chance for freedom"

Found a guardian article with the headline: "[The Star Wars Open Audition] was [My Chance] at [Fame], and I didn't get It"

I'd say both the notebook and the Earth examples are perfectly valid constructions

None of these in fact refute my claim, which was that a physical object can't properly be spoken of as a chance, only some development in time. The one that comes closest, Palestinian Minority, only works because we imagine that minority as doing something that will provide Jerusalem its last chance for freedom. You've made x a more capacious category in order to find these examples. That you could find only ones like these, many of them gerunds, rather illustrates my point, and explains why this instinct:

All that being said, I don't think I would personally use "chance" for any of these

is healthy.

 

[Mouthwash]

None of these in fact refute my claim, which was that a physical object can't properly be spoken of as a chance, only some development in time. The one that comes closest, Palestinian Minority, only works because we imagine that minority as doing something that will provide Jerusalem its last chance for freedom.

http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc-news/watch/rubio-i-m-your-only-chance-against-trump-640960579610

 

[Gori the Grey]

By which Rubio meant "Nominating me is your only chance against Trump." He's regarding himself (as political candidates do with their candidacies, and in fact as we do with selves generally) as a development in time, not a physical object.

 

[Mouthwash]

By which Rubio meant "Nominating me is your only chance against Trump." He's regarding himself (as we do with selves) as a development in time, not a physical object.

Yes, but the point is that linguistically he's referring to a noun as a 'chance.' You could easily say that it isn't the flamethrower that's your only chance against the zombie horde, but the implication of huge jets of fire burning them up. But it's easier to use 'flamethrower' as a shorthand.

 

[Gori the Grey]

I didn't say noun. I said physical object. You're doing the same thing Owen did, which doesn't end up refuting my claim.

 

[Mouthwash]

I didn't say noun. I said physical object. You're doing the same thing Owen did, which doesn't end up refuting my claim.

Google doesn't seem to be well-suited for finding examples. I am, however, one hundred percent certain that physical objects can be chances in American English.

 

[Gori the Grey]

Well, okay then, that's different. Your hundred percent certainty certainly refutes my claim.

 

[Kyriakos]

Chance as hope isn't in tautology with chance as a probability/possibility. Surely "the earth" (the example which got this discussion going) isn't a hope, but a probability thus (mis)used as a chance

Clearly visible in the ' i am your last chance against' etc example too. It means 'last hope', not 'last possibility'.