One Sentence, Three Glasses of Water! (ii)

CONTINUED FROM LAST WEEK

Now this: “PEACE campaign is also out to discourage and encourage Christians to do away of rejecting medical situation because knowing that you have a disease does not bring death.” First, we note the segment, “to discourage and encourage Christians.” In what possible situation or on what possible issue can Christians be discouraged and encouraged simultaneously? Admittedly, this may not be impossible to imagine, but journalistic reports are not the kind of communication in which you leave anything to the imagination. Ambiguous and paradoxical situations and issues may be reported, but the sense in which they are ambiguous or paradoxical must be clearly spelt out in the report. Regrettably, we have no benefit of such explicitness in the report under consideration. This accounts in part for the fundamental weakness of this report.

Perhaps worse than that is the segment: “to do away of rejecting medical situation.” No doubt, the expression, “do away of rejecting” is defective, but in what sense is it? The idiomatic character of the supposed idiom seems to be compromised by the choice of the particle of, following the word away directly. The position occupied by that particle actually belongs to the particle with. You do away with things.

Having advised ourselves to take “to do away with” as the appropriate idiom, we now have: “do away with rejecting medical situation.” Even this is awkward. Do away with rejecting? We shall return to this shortly.

And this: “medical situation.” Poor expression! The word situation should be replaced with the word condition. We are now in a position to revise the entire structure: “PEACE campaign is out to encourage Christians to accept their medical condition…”

There is another terrible error which I have elected to believe is a typo. Yes, a typo. Or could it be otherwise? I banish the thought. Get thee behind me, Satan! Here is the error: “must had waited patiently.” This is the correct version: “must have waited patiently.” Please note that the form had has been replaced with have. Any explanation on this? Sorry, none today!

Next, we note the word torch which occurs in the following context: “The mission is to reduce maternal mortality rate and to positively affect and torch the lives of women in particular for the better…” There is a case of mistaken identity involving the words torch and touch. The wrong choice would seem to have been motivated by confusion at the level of pronunciation. The words torch and touch are certainly pronounced differently, and the first step towards overcoming the problem of mistaken identity is to learn to pronounce each of them accurately.

Now what is the difference between touch and torch? To touch something is to let your hand be in contact with it. When two things touch each other, they are in contact with each other. The word can be used as a noun. In addition, it can be used figuratively. Please read the following sentences: 1) The woman with an issue of blood touched the hem of the garment of Jesus. 2) The lady alleged that the man touched her indecently. 3) The baby cries hysterically any time a stranger touches her. 4) Don’t let those flies touch your food. 5) We were crammed into the bus such that our legs were touching each other’s. 6) Her hair was so long that it was touching her shoulders. 7) I was deeply touched by her piety. 8) His humility was touching. 9) There is a professional touch in the painting. 10) The approach is out of touch with reality. 11) Are you in touch with your former husband? 12) We were in touch for almost ten years after graduation. 13) The government’s policies and actions are touching people’s lives positively.

A torch (wrongly called torchlight by some Nigerians) is a portable light-producing device powered by batteries or recharged with electricity: 1) Take your torch with you any time you are going out at night. 2) It is impolite to shine your torch into the eyes of passersby. 3) The illumination was provided by torchlight. 4) Torches are useless without batteries. 5) My torch uses four batteries.

To torch a thing is to deliberately set fire to it: 1) The man was accused of torching his wife’s property. 2) Students were on the rampage, torching cars and buildings. 3) The Boko Haram insurgents killed scores of people and torched almost all the houses in the town. 4) The government has no plan to compensate the people whose houses were torched during the riots. 5) Although many cars were torched, no life was lost.

Finally this: “She called on government to invest more resources into health…” We note the relationship between the verb invest and the particle into. The appropriate particle is in and not into. You invest in…

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