Of functions, roles 2

Today, we continue the analysis of the excerpt considered last week. The excerpt is hereby returned as sample 1.

Sample 1: “One of the critical personnel required for aviation is pilot. However, the cost components of training local pilots is on the rise, no thanks to the unstable exchange rates which has seen the local currency, naira pummeled against the dollar…Corroborating this fact, Sam Adurogboye, General Manager, Public Affairs, Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority(NCAA) the apex regulatory body which plays oversight functions in the aviation sector said it’s a regulatory requirement for commercial pilots to do training every six months…Speaking with a cross-section of experts they argued matter-of-factly that the enormous cost of training borne by trainee pilots has become further worsen by the grinding economic crunch…Expectedly, there have been concerns that the cockpits of an average Nigerian airline aircraft is filled with expatriates but the airlines explain that they employ experienced pilots…”(Worries over Rising Cost of Training Pilots, The Nation, Sunday December 3, 2017)

We noted the characteristic of some adjectives and nouns which allows them to be converted to verbs by simply adding –en to them. As an example, the adjective weak becomes weaken; its past tense/past participle is weakened; its present participle/continuous form is weakening. Following the same process, the adjective  broad becomes broaden; its past tense/past participle is broadened; its present participle/continuous form is broadening.

This morphological process must not be confused with that in which nouns are converted to adjectives by the addition of en: wood becomes wooden; gold becomes golden; ash becomes ashen; brass becomes brazen.

Please read the following sentences: 1) Can steel furniture completely replace wooden furniture in modern times? 2) Wooden houses are prone to being burnt during dry season. 3) I would prefer wooden chairs to cane ones any day. 4) The wealthy family uses golden cutlery as a status symbol. 5) The golden chain costs a fortune. 6) Our highly revered monarch wears a golden crown. 7) The box contains highly expensive golden jewelry. 8) I love the car’s ashen colour. 9) The sky which was initially ashen suddenly became dark, and soon water was pouring down in torrents. 10) I used the ashen shirt until it became old.

These two processes—of converting adjectives/nouns to verbs, and noun nouns to adjectives by the addition of –en—should not be confused with past participle forms. Remarkably, regular verbs have their past participles marked by –en ending: broken, beaten, bitten, written, stolen, driven, spoken, fallen, eaten, shaken, forsaken, woken, etc.

There are two important structures or contexts in which past participles feature in English: The perfect tense and the passive structure. Fortunately, these two structures are thoroughly familiar in this place. No harm would be done, I believe, if we review the structures here. The perfect tense is of the following nature: have/has/had plus a past participle form of the verb. Let’s read the following sentences: 1) David has written the letter. 2) The girl has spoken the truth. 3) The men have broken their promise. 4) The officers have prepared the report. 5) The boy had released the secret before the warning came. 6) The police had arrested the man before the court order was vacated.

ALSO READ: Been and being revisited

Those are examples of the perfect tense outside the passive structure. The same grammatical principle is maintained in the context of the passive structure. In this case, the structure is of the form: have plus been, where been represents the past participle. Now read the following sentences: 1a) The company has bought new cars (active sentence in the perfect tense) 1b) New cars have been bought by the company (passive sentence in the perfect tense). 2a) The police have arrested the criminal. (active sentence in the perfect tense) 2b) The criminal has been arrested by the police. (passive sentence in the perfect tense) 3a) That transaction has created many fraudulent loopholes. (active sentence in the perfect tense) 3b) Many fraudulent loopholes have been created by that transaction. (passive sentence in the perfect tense) 4a) The central government had constructed numerous roads. (active sentence in the perfect tense.) 4b) Numerous roads had been constructed by the central government. (passive sentence in the perfect tense) 5a) Soldiers have invaded the crisis-torn zone (active sentence in the perfect tense) 5b) The crisis-torn zone has been invaded by soldiers. (passive sentence in the perfect tense) 6a) The library has stocked over six million books. (active sentence in the perfect tense) 6b) Over six million books have been stocked by the library. (passive sentence in the perfect tense)

Now let’s have more examples from another effort in this place:structures: 1a) The Boko Haram insurgents have abducted over two hundred school girls. (active sentence) 1b) Over two hundred school girls have been abducted by Boko Haram insurgents. (passive sentence) 2a) Almost all the political parties have conducted primary elections. (active sentence) 2b) Primary elections have been conducted by almost all the political parties. (passive sentence) 3a) Armed robbers have taken over our cities. (active sentence) 3b) Our cities have been taken over by armed robbers. (passive sentence) 4a) Members of the National Conference had recommended fundamental changes in the constitution. (active sentence) 4b) Fundamental changes in the constitution had been recommended by members of the National Conference. (passive sentence). 5a) The police have arrested the criminal elements in the group. (active sentence). 5b) The criminal elements in the group have been arrested by the police. (passive sentence). 6a) The security agencies have addressed the issue of security challenges. (active sentence) 6b) The issue of security challenges has been addressed by the security agencies. (passive sentence)

In each of the six pairs of sentences, both the active and the passive sentences are in the perfect tense: have plus the past participle. In addition, the passive sentence contains the form, been: have been, has been, and had been.

The discussion of the excerpt continues next week by God’s grace.