In the explanatory dictionary edited by Ushakov, the word “alternative” is marked “bookish”, but in modern Russian it has already become common. This word can be heard on radio, television, journalists use it. It sounds both in the scientific environment and in everyday conversation. In addition, among today's youth, it has acquired several more new meanings.
Instructions
Step 1
The word "alternative" came to our language from French. There it sounded like an alternative and, in turn, went back to the Latin alter, which means "one of two, the other." In the "Big Explanatory Dictionary" edited by S. A. Kuznetsov, today this word has two main meanings.
Step 2
The first meaning of the word "alternative" is the need to make a choice between two or more possibilities that exclude each other. Example: the hero had an alternative - to go straight, to the right, to the left, or even to turn back.
Step 3
The words “choice, question, task, dilemma” are indicated in dictionaries as synonyms for this meaning, but all of them only partially reveal the meaning of the word “alternative”. For example, "dilemma" has a narrower meaning: the need to choose between two options, and moreover difficult.
Step 4
An alternative is not just a choice, but a choice between such options, the coexistence of which is impossible. For example, buying milk or sausage from the store is not an alternative, because you can buy both products. This task will become an alternative only if there is only enough money for one. Having made a choice, a person loses an alternative. In this regard, L. Sukhorukov ironically formulated the Main Law of the Alternative. It sounds like this: "the best alternatives appear only when the choice has already been made."
Step 5
The second basic meaning of the word "alternative" is each of these mutually exclusive possibilities. Example: The alternative to spending the whole summer in the country seemed rather boring to him.
Step 6
Slang meanings. In the modern informal environment, this word often means an alternative direction in music (alternative metal, rock), which is opposed to the official trend. Fans of literature use this word to call alternative fiction.
Step 7
In mathematical logic, the term "alternative" is also used, meaning a function-statement in which two arguments are linked by the conjunction "or".
