There are certain phrases, casually bantered around any science facility, that make no sense at all if you stop and think about them. Take, for example, one I use frequently: in the field. As in, "I won't be able to catch up over lunch tomorrow because I'll be in the field." Field? What field? When have I ever done research in a field? And what does it mean to be in the field anyway? Wouldn't it be more correct to say on the field?
This really has nothing much to do with anything at all - it's just one of those things I've been thinking about when I'm not thinking about the massive ginormousness of the project that I've signed up to do. I had a three hour meeting on Friday with my supervisor at the guy in charge of running Victoria's marine parks. I left feeling under qualified and overwhelmed, not the best of combinations. It did however, shift the way I think about this project. I no longer think of it as a university course; it's become a research project that I've been hired to execute. Because they are paying me so poorly, they've sweetened the deal by agreeing to give me a nice piece of paper and a title change when I'm done. Perhaps surprisingly, this little change in perspective actually makes the whole thing easier. I like doing research projects - figuring out which questions to ask, how to ask them and then how to figure out the answers - but I'm not sure at all that I like getting a PhD; that sounds far more difficult. So, I play little mind games with myself (and the other self who so pleasantly agrees) and think about the foolishness of language in an effort to make it all feel better.
3 comments:
i think you're losing sight of the whole thing. what you're after is the little paper. pronounce it phonetically: phd. FOOD. hello, ms. hunter-gatherer.
I did some research of my own and found this. (Took all of 43 seconds). Not that it's right or scientific, but in my "field of work", we just do what works, we don't ask why it works! ;)
[Q] From Meg Pitt: “We were having a discussion at work and were wondering what the origin of the phrase in the field was. The reference was to people who work outside or remotely from the main office.”
[A] It comes from one of the earliest senses of field, one that is now obsolete. Originally field meant any open, flat stretch of unwooded landscape, not one that was necessarily cultivated. It was also used specifically as the opposite of an urban area, as in town and field. Such open areas were the sort of terrain preferred for the set-piece battles of earlier times, and so it became used in such expressions as field of battle. To be in the field then meant to be away from headquarters on a military campaign. The phrase has more recently shifted to refer to anybody who works away from base, even though they may actually be in an urban area and not out in the countryside at all.
whoh. ed and i commented at the same time and it's like 1:13am here. get a life ed!
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