Hollywood PR machines are of course going to try to milk as much whatever out of anything, but I do get sick of hearing “earned an Oscar nomination.”
First off, you don’t “earn” a prize; that’s simply not colloquial English. You “win” a prize. If you don’t “earn” the prize itself, then you don’t “earn” a nomination for the same prize.
This isn’t merely a matter of idiom, either. We tend to use the word “earn” when the reward accrue to labor according to a predermined formula. Hence, I earn my salary; I don’t earn my Lotto winnings. Contrariwise, I don’t “win” my salary.
www.m-w.com also gives the following:
This would seem to be the meaning of “earn” closest to justifying “earn an Oscar” (though not necessarily “earn an Oscar nomination”); however, I say this still won’t do. A promotion, in theory, can be “earned” because of the performance of the candidate(s) as based in fact and objectively measured, not merely because of opinion, as most contests are.
We could, however, note that a star’s performance is so good that his/her receiving an Oscar for it goes beyond mere arbitrary judgment; that s/he “earned it” or “really earned it.” But so saying is to make a claim and express an opinion of our own, not merely to convey the fact that s/he received an Oscar, which is to say, won it.
In terms of praxis as opposed to theory, if you Google “earned an Oscar,” you get a mere 17,000 entries. If, however, you Google “won an Oscar,” you get 185,000 entries. “Earned an Oscar nomination” gets you 11,500 entries, nearly as much for “earned an Oscar” itself (hmm, interesting). “Won an Oscar nomination,” not suprisingly, yields just 5,300 entries.
The reason why publicists say “earned an Oscar nomination” is fairly obvious: they want to spin it (receiving the nomination, which is also to say, losing the Oscar itself) in the most positive light. Saying “win a nomination” grates too obviously against common idiom, not to mention common sense, whereas “earned a nomination” manages to slip in under the radar.
I, for one, however, call bullshit. An Oscar nomination is not a prize; it’s simply what it is: a nomination. It’s nice to be nominated, but it doesn’t mean that the august Academy has conveyed any particular honor or recognition of goodness upon one. (Indeed, who can doubt that many nominations are just “filler” that have no chance against the one or two real contenders?)
Tell me what you think.
