Matching criteria with Fora

Sample 1: ‘NUJ members planned to match on the headquarters of the special Task Force on Jos crisis and the Government House… ‘(NUJ Protests Killings of Members, The Nation, Tuesday May 18, 2010).

The word that interests us is match which occurs in the structure, ‘NUJ members planned to match on the headquarters’.  The word intended in  the context is wrongly represented by the item match.  While noting the spelling of the word match as it occurs in the context, we must remind ourselves of the point we have made repeatedly: that the English spelling system has no reputation for facilitating a systematic relationship between the graphological forms and meaning.  The challenge posed by this feature can sometimes be so daunting that people of middling talent would have a hard time coping.  However, with painstaking attention and patience, with thoughtful and discriminatory deployment of words, the confusion often occasioned by the largely arbitrary spelling system can be minimised.

Now the problem with the word match is that it has been chosen in a context belonging to march.  Please notice that the only difference in terms of spelling between match and march is the difference between the letters t and r.  We may now illustrate their respective usage.

First march: (1) The Games Master blew the whistle and the pupils marched in the direction of the goalpost.  (2) Before the fateful massacre, the soldiers had marched round the village and ensured that nobody would be able to escape.  (3) Quietly and determinedly, the protesters marched on the Council Chambers.  (4)  The operation being over, the policemen marched over to their waiting van, jumped in and the van speeded off.  (5) The dare- devil man marched to the presence of the king and declared that the throne was vacant.

The word march has been used as a verb in each of the five sentences above.  It can also be used as a noun as the following sentences illustrate:  (1) Women are not expected to join the protest march.  (2) Having mobilized thousands of workers across the land, the labour leader announced that the march would commence from the Freedom Square. (3)  The march had gone on for half a mile when the most important strategist collapsed from exhaustion.  (4) The march went on smoothly until it was halted by a team of anti-riots policemen. (5) The soldiers continued the march even under the heavy downpour.

From the illustrative sentences above, we know that the word march is about some kind of energetic walk.

Now match:  (1) Surprisingly, his action does not match his words.  (2) When we match this year’s achievement with that of last year, we would notice that little progress has been made. (3) Let’s look for a shirt whose colour matches that of your trousers. (4) As husband and wife, their temperaments do not match. (5) Our team is more than a match for yours.(6) There will be a football match this afternoon.  (7) When you match those who love truth with those who love falsehood, you will be surprised to find out that the latter are in the majority. (8) It may be unfair to match the achievements of adults with those of minors.

From the discussion and illustrative sentences above, we know that the difference between march and match goes beyond the spelling, even though the spelling is the first major signpost in the direction of that difference.

At any rate, the word march should replace match in the context under review.

Sample II: ‘Although the National Chairman of the PDP, Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo has alluded to non- performing governors only in issuing a criteria for the party’s tickets, findings showed that political agency might be used to stop the governors’.  (2011: PDP in Fresh Crisis, The Nation, Tuesday 10 august 2010).

I draw your attention to the phrase a criteria which is part of the larger phrase ‘in issuing a criteria’.  Particularly remarkable is the relationship between the article a and the noun criteria.  It is an established grammatical fact that the article a is used to define a singular noun which it pre- modifies.  It is equally an established, though less known grammatical fact, that the noun criteria is in its plural form.

We then have a case of mismatch between the modifier (a)  and the headword (criteria) which results in an absurd structure less known but not better than a houses, a books, a boxes, a farms, a birds, etc.

The problem probably stems from the fact that the writer, like many other Nigerians, is not familiar with the relationship and the difference between criterion and criteria.  Let us note that the singular form is the former (criterion) and the plural form the latter (criteria). Let’s illustrate their respective usage.  First criterion:  (1) One criterion that should override all others is the age of the candidate. (2) This criterion should be separated from the first three mentioned.  (3) The Chairman suggested computer literacy as a criterion, but most members did not agree with his suggestion.  (4)You cannot divorce the first criterion from the remaining ones. (5) Only one criterion has been mentioned so far:  ability to read and write extensively.            We can now illustrate the usage of the plural form – criteria:  (1) The criteria have been listed in their order of importance. (2)  The candidates are confused because the criteria are not clearly spelt out.  (3) The criteria that have been suggested so far care not critical to the jobs that are to be executed. (4)  We are sill evaluating the criteria – to see if they are consistent with the earlier ones. (5) The criteria are still evolving and by the end of the month we should be ready with a clearly defined set.

The relationship between criterion and criteria is similar to that between forum and fora.  The only difference is that in modern usage, the plural fora occurs in free variation with the plural forums.  In other words, the form forums is as popular as the form fora if not even more popular.  Let us illustrate their respective usage.  (1)  This is not a forum for the discussion of private and personal matters. (2) I am thinking of creating a forum for the discussion of issues that are likely to create conflicts between the staff and the management. (3) The newspaper as a medium is a forum for the exchange of all sorts of ideas, from the most banal and downright inane to the wildest and most outlandish. (4)  The young officers are not allowed to participate in the discussion at this forum.  (5) This forum is becoming more and more popular as a means of ironing out personal differences.

Now fora:  (1) Of all the fora/forums available, this is the only one for the dialogue between the staff and the management.  (2)  All the fora/forums meant for meaningful interaction have been cancelled. (3) Two fora /forums have just been created, one for the junior officers and the other for the senior officers.  (4)  The management has been harping on the existence of different fora/forums for dialogue, but we all know that those fora exist only on paper.  (5) The fora/forums are fast degenerating into places for the discussion of very petty issues.

The relationship between criterion and criteria and between forum and fora also exists between datum and data except that the form datum has virtually disappeared from current usage so that the form data is used both as a singular and a plural noun depending on the context.