Sample 1: “When Abati recognised the former Ogun State governor, a deafening applause rented the church’s atmosphere.”(Abati’s Mother’s Burial: Amosun, Daniel in Popularity Contest, the Saturday Punch, July 20, 2013).
The word under focus is rented occurring in the structure, “a deafening applause rented the church’s atmosphere.” The misleading impression one is given is that “the church’s atmosphere”, “rented” by a deafening applause, had previously carried the advert: “Church Atmosphere for Rent”! Can you imagine a facility being rented out without it being available for letting?
Rented the church’s atmosphere? We find in the form rented all the indices of an ignorant writer who finds it difficult to recognize at the appropriate places the morphological and grammatical boundaries between two seemingly confusing entities.
Let’s tell the reporter that there is the verb rent and there is the verb rend. When you rent a house or a part of it, you pay regularly for occupying or using it. The past and past participle of that verb are represented as rented. Please read the following sentences: 1)My plan is to rent a room in a neighbourhood close to our workplace. 2)If you rent out two of the rooms, you can use the income to defray some of the expenses. 3)The hall being used as church auditorium was rented for five hundred thousand naira per annum. 4) If I rented a facility for so much, I should be allowed to enjoy it to the maximum. 5)Those who live in rented accommodation in this country are often unfairly treated by their landlords.
6)At the appropriate time, the house will be rented out. Those sentences illustrate the usage of the verb rent. What about rend? Interestingly, the past form of this verb(rend) is identical in appearance to the basic form of the verb rent, without having anything to do with it semantically. I mean that the past tense and the past participle of rend are presented as rent(and not rented as erroneously offered by the reporter.) Let’s read the following sentences: 1)The atmosphere was rowdy and the traffic heavy, with political slogans rending the air.
2)When it was exactly 12 midnight, shouts of ‘hallelujah’ and ‘happy new year’ rent the air. 3)It was a practice in ancient Israel that, when confronted with his sin, a truly penitent person would rend his clothes as a sign of sorrow for his sin. 4)The impact of the collision was so enormous that the engine of the smaller vehicle was rent into two. 5)The mere vibration caused by the bomb blast rent the adjoining building. 6)The violent storm carried the boat and dashed it against the rock, rending it into three. 7)Her heart having been rent twice by two unfaithful boyfriends, the lady is unwilling to enter into any committed relationship. 8)He seized the paper from her and rent it in an effort to destroy the evidence.
Let’s note once again that the verb is rend; the past tense is rent; the past participle is also rent. At any rate, the form rent should replace rented in the context under review.
Sample 2: “They sent the account number to her but she would not bulge.”(Why our mission to extort money…failed, The Nation, Saturday, August 3, 2013) We focus attention on the word bulge which occurs in the context, “she would not bulge.” Obviously the writer has confused the word bulge with budge, a sign of both poor spelling ability and limited pronunciation ability. To bulge is to swell, to increase in size, usually in a rounded form.
Let’s read the following sentences: 1)His bulging belly is a sign that he has been drinking heavily over the years. 2)He came in clumsily, his two side pockets bulging with odds and ends. 3)We mistook his bulging briefcase for a load of foreign currencies. 4)He became fiercely horny, his bulging eyes indicative of uncontrollable emotion.
5)With a bulging chest, he challenged his fellow urchins to a duel. 6)It was the bulging hand bag that drew the attention of the petty thieves. 7)With a bulging bank account and a fleet of cars, it is difficult not to believe that the man had tampered with the fund. 8)When I noticed his bulging cheeks, I suspected that he was hiding a piece of meat in the corners of his mouth.
And budge? To budge is to move, shift one’s position, change one’s opinion. Please read the following sentences: 1)Much as the policeman shouted at him, threatening to shoot him, he would not budge. 2 I hooted and hooted but the vehicle in the front did not budge.
3)Pressurized to release the Lagos Local Councils’ funds, the former president would not budge. 5)When the government realized that the Nigerian people would not budge, it had to reduce the prices of petroleum products hiked on the first day of the new year. 6)On matters of principle we may not budge, but when it comes to protecting the integrity of our nation, there should be no dissenting voices.
Let readers note that there is a major difference between bulge and budge. The differences are marked at the levels of meaning, usage, spelling, and pronunciation.
Sample 3: “Among the people at the meeting, which lasted about two hours, was the former governor of Niger State, Alhaji Abulkadir Kure, and the National Secretary of the Christian Association of Nigeria(CAN)”(Controversial Conversion to Islam: Pastor’s Daughter Remains in Etsu Nupe’s Palace, the Sunday Sun, August 4, 2013) I draw readers’ attention to the verb was which occurs in the context, “among the people…was…” Having encountered the singular verb-form, was, we logically prepared our minds for the introduction of a singular noun. Yes, the singular noun does come in: “the former governor of Niger State, Alhaji Abdulkadir Kure.”
Surprisingly, this is followed by another singular noun conjoined with and: “the National Secretary of the Christian Association of Nigeria.” This is a matter of simple arithmetic: 1 +1=2. And nobody should doubt that two is the figure from which plurality begins. And so the writer’s choice of the singular verb-form, was, is both illogical and ungrammatical. At any rate, the form were, a plural item, should replace was in the context under examination.
Sample 4: “Those who decide to play competitive sports they often undergo the degradation of being the least wanted…Leaving school, as young adults, there is often more difficulty gaining acceptance into college and securing jobs and future promotions.”(Low Self-Esteem and Overweight, The Nation On Sunday, August 11, 2013) First, we scrutinize the structure of the sentence: “Those who decide to play competitive sports they often undergo the degradation of being the least wanted.”
What is the subject of this sentence? “Those”—that is the subject, which is of course qualified by the relative clause/adjectival clause—“who decide to play competitive sports.” In English, that is enough as a subject.
However, somewhere in the middle of that sentence, the writer drags in the word they, a variant of that self-same subject—a pronoun immediately preceding the adverb often. That pronoun is intrusive, grammatically subversive and semantically redundant. But I know where it comes from.
It is a typical constructional Yoruba pattern, particularly attestable in rhetorical or poetic Yoruba. Poets and playwrights such as Niyi Osundare and Femi Osofisan have effectively appropriated the Yoruba semantic and constructional resources in their writing. The effectiveness of their efforts stems mainly from the deliberateness and adroitness of their experiments.
Those writers are not victims of ignorant and pernicious drifting or semantic false steps or disorienting syntax. No. Since they have a solid control of the resources of both English and Yoruba, they feel secure in their playful utilization and manipulation of both. But the writer under reference here has ignorantly transferred a feature of the Yoruba language into English. We can see no evidence of a writer who has a masterful and admirable grasp of his medium. A failed medium, we should not fail to note, hurts the matter, the message beyond a mere dent. In journalism, we are in a realm where the medium is almost the message or at least the medium is as important as the message. In this calling, a person of middling talent in the use of language has his own chances of great achievement gravely compromised.
At any rate, we delete the pronoun they. Now this: “gaining acceptance into college.” At first sight, the collocation was so weird I had to doubt my own idea of the relationship between acceptance and college. Do people gain acceptance into a college? I was compelled to consult dictionaries. My position was confirmed: that people gain, not acceptance, but admission into college or university. How did the writer come about this strange collocation? Can we attribute this thought process to Yoruba habits of thought awaiting proper refining?
Sample 5: “The people wore forlorn looks, discussed in hush tones the fate of the fire brand human rights activist and Lagos based legal practitioner.”(13 Days in Kidnappers’ Den…the Sunday Vanguard, September 22, 2013)
I draw readers’ attention to the word hush which occurs in the context, “the people…discussed in hush tones…”
Something is wrong with the form hush. Please note that the slot occupied by that word belongs to an adjective or participle, qualifying, as it does, the noun tones. As it stands, it is in its noun form. The participle form which the context requires is hushed. Yes, the –ed ending is an indication that it is a participle.
Now let’s read the following sentences: 1)There was a hush in the audience as soon as the president came in.
2)The hush that fell on the crowd soon gave way to a murmur. 3)The politician’s presence inspired a hush that was almost divine. 4)Politicians were discussing in hushed tones. 5)What was initially a hushed conversation grew louder and louder until it became an angry quarrel. 6)The subject was such that could be discussed only in hushed tones.
The first three sentences contain the noun form, while the last three contain the participle form. It should be obvious now that the participle hushed should replace the noun hush in the context under consideration.
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