Great and mighty, as everyone calls it, the Russian language is rich in a variety of expressions. In our language, which already contains about half a million words in its arsenal, it is common to borrow foreign forms to describe certain things. Perhaps that is why the Russian language is the most beautiful and complex. The vocabulary of one person does not even reach 500 thousand. This is explained not only by elementary ignorance of any words, but also by a misunderstanding of their meaning. Probably, you have heard a word more than once, but could not understand what it was about - this is exactly such a situation.
For the most part, this applies to those expressions that are borrowed from another language or belong to special subject areas.
I think that many have heard the word "consensus". Now let's answer the question of whether we understand itmeaning. Most probably not. An unusual expression that catches the ear, but the meaning remains unsolved for one single reason: the word is perceived in context, which means that we do not need to know it in order to understand the meaning of the statement. This approach is not very good due to its limitations, so it will be useful to analyze what consensus is. This will be discussed in this article.
Borrowing words
The word "consensus" itself sounds unusual, not in Russian, which means it suggests that it came from somewhere abroad. In general, why did such a tendency appear - to borrow words? The fact is that progress in Western countries moves at a slightly higher speed than in Russia. The same applies to scientific thought. It is for this reason that new words are "created" there, and then spread throughout the world. Another basis for the borrowing theory is the fact that many things, for example, the names of dishes, belong exclusively to a certain area, and going beyond it was accompanied by the appearance of new words in the lexicon of other peoples.
If you have been abroad, you must have heard expressions consonant with some Russian words even in European languages.
About the word "consensus"
For most Russian people, this expression will seem at least strange. For our perception, an unusually large number of hissing sounds, of which there are as many as three in consensus. Some may find it difficult to pronounce. Like many other words whose origin isancient Greece, "consensus" is perceived as a kind of scientific expression that causes hostility. Nevertheless, there is nothing terrible in it - for people accustomed to the scientific presentation of their thoughts, it will seem the most ordinary.
Meaning
What is consensus? In different dictionaries there is no single wording that describes the meaning of this word - everyone gives it in their own way, but in general, the definition may look like this. Consensus - coming to a mutual agreement or making decisions that suit all parties to the conflict. In a real situation, this is what a mutual agreement is called.
In other words, to find a way that would suit everyone means to come to a consensus. The word is really used quite rarely in everyday life, as it is of an official business nature.
When appropriate to use
As mentioned above, the word has more of an official coloring, so it is most often used in various reports, reports on negotiations. You can often hear this expression on TV in news releases. In everyday life, of course, you can also use the word "consensus", but it is much more convenient to say "Vasya and Masha agreed" than "Petya and Sasha came to a mutual consensus." Also, because the expression is unusual and occurs infrequently, the interlocutor may simply not understand you, which may affect the result of the conversation.
Semantics of a word in phrases
In itself, "consensus" means nothing. What is important is how this word is combined with others. There is suchphrase like "reaching consensus". Its meaning lies in the fact that the parties were able to regulate their relations in such a way that they found a way out of the current situation. Such phrases take place, in most cases, in news releases, informational articles about any social or political events, and can also be heard in reports at various conferences.
Thus, decision-making in the form of the word "consensus" is more of an expression for the business style of the language used in the areas listed above. For everyday communication, it is rare, rather, it is an exception rather than the rule.
Synonyms
We have decided what "consensus" is. As it became clear, this expression serves for official communication, therefore, commonly used words are needed in everyday life. It follows from the definition that this is a kind of decision-making that suits both parties. Therefore, for the word "consensus" a synonym is an agreement. This expression sounds much clearer and is more often used in everyday life.
You can also write words such as “consent”, “agreement” as synonyms. Knowing what “consensus” is, it is easy to check whether the word is suitable for the role of a substitute. To do this, you need to substitute it in the expression "The parties came to a consensus." Thus, when substituting, for example, “consent”, it will turn out “The parties have agreed.”
As you can understand, the meaning has not changed at all, which means that for the word "consensus" the synonym "consent" is legitimate. As a counterexamplewe use the word "consilium", as it is consonant and can be easily confused. The word "consilium" means assembly. When substituting into our phrase, something like “The parties came to the meeting” will turn out, which completely distorts the meaning of the original statement. By the same principle, you can easily check absolutely any synonyms.
Types of consensus
Like any word, "consensus" can only delineate a certain range of meanings. Among them, for example, political consensus.
Such an expression means agreement in some political matter, for example, when discussing a bill, different factions had the same views on the issues described in the document, but were able to reach an agreement.
Also, this expression can mean an agreement between two organizations on a controversial issue. Thus, everything that concerns the settlement in the field of political action, either in the state, or in the management of a company and rivalry with competitors, can be considered a political consensus. Its achievement is considered extremely important in situations where it is necessary to resolve any conflict.
There is another common type - social consensus. The expression can denote any agreement between different social groups on issues affecting their interests. An example can be given: half of the residents of an apartment building have personal cars, while the other does not. Vehicle Owners Push For Parking Spaces, But They Are Resistedthe rest, for example, due to the fact that there will be no room for walking in the yard. The achievement of consensus in this situation will be that during the construction of parking spaces, the owners of vehicles will conduct a subbotnik to improve the territory in order to create a zone for walking and recreation. It is easy to come to a consensus - it is enough just to hold a meeting at which all parties will express their points of view.
Mistakes of usage
Probably one of the most serious mistakes is that the meaning of the word "consensus" is confused with the semantics of the expression "compromise". If the first case means an outcome in which everyone will get exactly what was originally laid down in their requirements, then a compromise is a way of resolving a conflict in which the parties make small indulgences in order to achieve one goal.
Also, as mentioned above, confusion often occurs due to consonance with the word "concilium".
Another common mistake is to use the word in the opposite sense, namely the concept of disagreement and divergence. In order to avoid such mistakes, there should be a clear understanding of what consensus is. The meaning of this word is unique, and it must be remembered.
Conclusion
The Russian language is considered to be one of the most beautiful on the planet. It includes not only words and expressions, but also a huge number of different syntactic constructions, and the levelborrowing is quite high. Of course, there are many opponents of this way of organizing the language, but this process cannot be controlled.
Moreover, a considerable number of words are already so firmly rooted in our language that we consider them native. Why does it happen that some expressions quickly “turn brown”, while others take years, and sometimes even centuries, to take their place? The answer is simple: for those words for which many synonyms have already been selected, as for "consensus", it is quite difficult to win a place. People are reluctant to use unfamiliar expressions. However, they help improve the language, and their use would be highly desirable in everyday communication.
