When Verbs Become Nouns I remember when I bought the latest edition of Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations; the advertisement said that it contained three hundred more listings than the previous edition. Imagine my surprise when it arrived to discover that it was fifty pages shorter. It was because of the change in usage over the years. There are fewer long narrative quotes and more short ones: among them a quote from Michael Jackson, “Beat it,” and “Me want cookie,” from the Cookie Monster. One of the most troubling recent developments for language usage for me personally is the tendency to change nouns into verbs. “Parent” for example, is not just something you are but something you do – along with “mother” and “father.” Not so with “child;” you can mother and father but you can’t child. Some churches don’t have fellowship, they “fellowship” one another. And they “disciple” people. My least favorite of all is the word “task.” Rather than being given a task we are “tasked” to do something. It’s awkward and I don’t like it. But even worse that changing nouns to verb is changing verbs to nouns – taking an action word and making it an object, making a movement stationery – fixed. The “occupy movement” is at the point now where they have to regroup and re-evaluate their identity. The freestyle energy of the first phase has run its course. So they are going to incorporate to get tax exempt status. Don’t you find it a bit ironic that a movement birthed (there is one of those verb/nouns) to protest corporations and their influence in government, should find it expedient to incorporate in order to have more influence on government? Did you know that Abraham Lincoln was opposed to designating a day as the national day of Thanksgiving? He was afraid that by institutionalizing it, people would cease to give thanks the rest of the year. When you change “thanks giving” (two words / small T) into “Thanksgiving” (one word / capitol T) you have turned an action into an event – a way of life into a date on the calendar. Lincoln actually assigned it the fourth Tuesday of November. It was Roosevelt who changed it to the third Thursday – so it would allow more time for Christmas shopping. The institutionalization of Thanksgiving gave birth to “Black Friday.” He changed it back to the fourth Thursday in 1941 because of a storm of protests. The most pervasive verb attached to the Thanksgiving event is not “giving thanks” but “eating.” Food has been associated with the celebration since the Pilgrims. It would be interesting if Benjamin Franklin had prevailed in the selection of the national bird. He wanted it to be the American turkey – noble and ubiquitous in North America. Comedian, Stan Freeburg, observed that if Franklin had prevailed we would all be eating eagle for Thanksgiving dinner. So when we turned thanks giving into the noun “Thanksgiving” we made the primary action word “eating” rather than “thanking.” And there is also “watching,” as in football. But the main reason for the decline of thanking is the lack of an object. A verb without an object is a pale and incomplete sentence. Abraham Lincoln’s Thanksgiving proclamation and most of the succeeding ones were specific about the object. The day was set aside as a national day for giving thanks TO GOD. The latest one by our current President was so bland I decided not even to include it in this service – vague generalities about being thankful for abundance and family. Remember the old joke? What do you get if you cross an atheist with a Mormon? Somebody who knocks on your door for no reason. What to you get when you institutionalize Thanksgiving in a secular society? People who give thanks - to no one. I have been at dozens of gatherings around Thanksgiving tables. There is that obligatory going around the table and saying what we are thankful for. (Abraham Lincoln’s fear was justified of course; it doesn’t happen any other day of the year) High on the list of things for which we are thankful are friends and family, good health and turkey and pumpkin pie. But seldom does anyone ever mention God as the object of their thankfulness or the provider of the afore-mentioned blessing. Generally our thanks is directed to others in the room, like our parents, or ourselves. Our thankfulness becomes further evidence of our depth of character and humility. That’s why I started having these Thanksgiving services years ago, they are for my benefit – to remind me and anyone who cares to come along, that God is our benefactor, the giver of all good and perfect gifts, the Lord and Giver of life and it is to him and him alone to whom our thanks is directed. So we take this hour to turn this institutionalized event back into an action / a verb, and give thanks to God from whom all blessing flow. |