EXPRESSION By Ebere Wabara
YOU are welcome today: “Cladded (Clad) in black, they came in connection with….”
“I am making this post only because an unusually heavy downpour (because a downpour)….” We can also talk of ‘torrential rains’, but certainly not ‘heavy or torrential downpour’ because the rainfall intensity is encapsulated in ‘downpour’. In other contexts, we also have ‘showers’, ‘drizzles’, ‘light/heavy rainfall’ etcetera.
Saturday Tribune of September 4 vitiated its ‘most informative newspaper’ pay-off line on two occasions: “Oil spill triggers fire outbreak” Tacitly put, ‘outbreak’ is clearly otiose here. Therefore, oil spill triggers fire.
“Salami refuses to handover” The phrasal verb error used to be just hyphenation. Now, it is horrendous (‘handover’) instead of ‘hand over’! Let the truth, courage and lexical fairness of 1949 still prevail.
“Paucity of funds threaten Egbin power plant” (DAILY SUN Headline, August 22) A recurring case of subject-verb disagreement (S-VD): Paucity of funds threatens….
“OBJ, IBB bite more than they can chew” (THE NATION, August 22) Both of them bite off more than they can.
“Below are some correspondences from BPE (Bureau of Public Enterprises) to BUA and Council Memo to Mr. President.” (Full-page advertisement by the Management of BUA Group) BPE can of worms: ‘correspondence’ is uncountable.
“Indeed, President Muhammadu Buhari has said little and done even littler (less)” (THE NATION ON SUNDAY, September 5)
“While trying to locate the address close to a hotel at (on) the outskirts of the town.…”
“Lagosians welcome Sanwo-Olu’s marching order on tanker drivers along Apapa-Oshodi expressway” Fixed expression: marching orders.
“More grease to your elbow.” More power (not grease!) to the elbow of Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria’s epochal president.
“8 policemen arrested over extortion” When will police criminality stop going the rounds? They will always be arrested for (not over) weapon misuse (‘accidental discharge’), extortion and banditry!
“But even at that, labour was not overtly involved in the arrests and detentions that followed” ‘Detention‘ uncountable
“In fact, it looks like increase in the prices of petroleum products have (has) become an annual ritual.” Another S-VD embarrassment
“Female lawmakers angry over treatment meted to the female minister.” No chauvinism: meted out to.
“…until 1998 when individuals and groups converged in (on) Italy.…”
“I throdded that strange land and it took the grace of God to survive.” What is going on? ‘Throdded’ for ‘trod’?
“Given the fact during the electioneering campaign of 2019 in the country….” Buhari’s right steps: ‘electioneering’ indicates ‘campaign.’ ‘So, to employ the two words is morphological abuse.
“Unfortunately for the US government, majority (a majority) of the UN members were not.…”
“…as the attending leaders would be falling over each other (one another) to get the attention of the world’s number one citizen….”
“Succeeding (Successive) governments have shown no inclination to (for) overhauling our antediluvian criminal justice system.”
“A TV footage of the visit showed a heart-rending scene of inmates kneeling and wailing and pleading to (with) her to secure their release.”
“By leaving so many frivolous laws on (in) our statute books….”
“One of Nigeria’s finest and pioneer professor (professors) of dentistry….”
“Real development in (on) the African continent cannot be achieved through coups.”
“Nigeria successfully restored Sierra Leone’s president (another comma) into (to) government after he was deposed by.…”
“Although the government is still settling down into (to) its second term.…”
“Transporters are usually the first to do so making workers spend the lion (lion’s) share of their salary on transportation (why not just transport, which is Standard English; not the excerpted Americanism?)
“I and my wife plotted the scheme which….” No spousal coup, gentlemen: My wife and I plotted the scheme.
“Community commends Wike over grassroot (sic) development” The community surely commended the governor for (not over) grassroots development.
“10 arrested at Apapa Ports over (for) hemp dump.” Fixed expression: ‘arrest’ takes ‘for’ (never ‘over’) always. It is not optional.
“With regards to the first question (a comma, please) the answer will be two-pronged.” Choose between ‘as regards’ and ‘with regard to’, which applies here.
“How I lost my lover to a bossom friend” From the stable of the Flagship: bosom.
“Nigeria’s speedster…in his hey days” Simply heyday (a word and non-count)
“They came to enjoy music, not pay through their noses (nose) for a few hours of fun.”
“…the dead would have done a dance of approval at the befitting honours accorded them by their offsprings.” ‘Offspring’ is uncountable.
“Today, not only is the civil conflict still raging, but the fall-outs of the wars….” ‘Fallout’ is uncountable.
“…the prospects of bilateral military co-operation between Nigeria and the US in the troubled spots of West Africa….” One of the fascinating aspects of the English language: trouble spots.
FROM MY INBOX
I do enjoy your weekly analysis of grammatical blunders made by our journalists who speak and write the English language as their first language (LI). I want to use this opportunity to commend you for your great critical work that is worthy of emulation. From Olanrewaju Temitope Adedapo (08156970191)
Thanks so much for your weekly Media Gaffes. Do we still have proofreaders and sub-editors in our newspaper houses? Some of the ever-recurring errors are too basic for the checkers not to notice before publication. I am not a journalist but we were thought all those things in O’ level English language. May be the standard has dropped so much. Our children are in trouble except for the intervention of someone like you. Please, keep it up. Oladele (08057689906)
Once more, constructive criticisms, observations and comments are welcome.
