Silencing grammatical discord

SAMPLE 1: “Peter alleged the rumour was concocted by people who…have found it difficult to silence Maharaj Ji from telling the truth about happenings in Nigeria and the world at large.”(Satguru Mararaji Ji is Alive, not Dead, Says Aide, The Nation, Sunday, 29 April, 2018)

Readers should please note the expression “silence…from telling the truth” which occurs in the context: “have found it difficult to silence Mahaeaj Ji from telling the truth.” We are interested in the relationship between the verb silence and the particle from. The collocation offered here by the reporter seems to be based on the analogy of the expression, “prevent from.” It is rather odd to allow silence to collocate with the particle from as we have it in this excerpt.

As the following sentences show, the word silence, used in its verb form, does not need a particle such as from: 1) The incisive rejoinder has silenced our opponents. 2) You are mistaken if you think the blackmail can silence me. 3) He has been silenced by nothing but his own gross misdeed. 4) He is so utterly without scruples that nothing can silence him. 5) The government is looking for facts that could silence the social critic.

It would seem to me, as noted earlier, that in attaching the particle from to the verb silence, the writer confuses the usage with that of: prevent from.Actually, some words and expressions commonly confused are: deny, deprive of, prevent from, and forestall.

The verb forestall, let us note, does not take any particle at all. Here are examples of the usage of the verb forestall: 1) The police presence is to forestall any possibility of the wild boys harassing the girls. 2) To forestall the famous scorer penetrating the front easily, two strong defence players should be arranged to tackle him. 3) To forestall an epidemic, we decided to disinfect the house. 4) To forestall a breakdown of law and order, two teams of policemen were put on patrol. 5) To forestall the Governor refusing the application, two delegates were sent ahead to plead with him. 6) The government constituted a panel that would have a dialogue with the representatives of the labour union to forestall a nationwide protest. 7) He put another lawyer on standby to forestall a situation in which no lawyer would be there to represent him. 8) To forestall a fire disaster all bowls containing petrol should be removed far from the house.

The following sentences illustrate the usage of the verb prevent: 1) Children were prevented from going out after 7pm every day. 2) Journalists were preventedfrom taking pictures of the gory sight. 3) Through pressure and blackmail, the president was preventedfrom taking decisions that could jeopardize the electoral process. 4) In Yoruba land, women are prevented from witnessing certain ritual practices. 5) The firefighters prevented the fire from spreading to the adjoining fuel station. 6) It was the presence of the chairman that prevented the complaints from degenerating into public riots.

In each of those sentences, the verb prevents collocates with the particle from.

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Like forestall, the verb deny does not take any particle. Some Nigerian users of English have developed the habit of attaching the particle of to the verb, not realizing that it does not take any particle at all. Now read the following sentences: 1) Unfortunately, many departments were denied accreditation by the National Universities Commission (NUC). 2) People with suspicious appearance were denied access to the hall. 3) Freedom of Information Bill is to guarantee that members of the public are not denied vital information. 4) Having been denied his own share of the profit, he headed for court.  5) No bank has the right to deny anybody access to his money. 6) The lawyer complained that the suspect was sentenced unfairly because he was denied legal representation.

In none of those sentences is the word deny allowed to be followed by the particle of or by any particle for that matter.

Now compare those sentences with the following in which the verb deprive is used: 1) People who are deprived of their rights are free to go to court. 2) It is wrong to deprive children of their meals as a form of punishment. 3) No child should be deprived of education simply because his/her parents are financially handicapped. 4) Children that are deprived of motherly care will grow up to become maladjusted adults. 5) The governor has promised that rural areas would no longer be deprived of the amenities available in the cities. 6) The lady is seeking divorce on the grounds that she has been deprived of love.

Sample 2: “The three-room hospital constructed over 40 years ago, which is begging for expansion, with a block of female and male wards situated opposite the hospital are the first symbols that would tell a visitor that Amanawa needs total rehabilitation…On the ugly situation in the village before his official transfer, Muhammed disclosed that the hospital and community lacked social amenity until more pressure were mounted on the government.”(Life in Kebbi 48-year-old Leprosy, Tuberculosis Colony, The Sun, 21 October, 2018)

First, let us pay attention to the verb-form (are) which occurs between the words pressure and mounted in the following structure: “the hospital and community lacked social amenity until more pressure were mounted on the government.” It is obvious (I presume) that the verb-form in question (were) is in its plural form. The grammatical logic that places that plural verb-form there must be correlated somewhere in the structure by the presence of a plural noun subject. No such noun form can be found in the context. Of course, there is the compound nominal group, “the hospital and community”, which deserves a plural verb-form. But the truth is that there is no logical connection between this compound nominal entity and the verb slot in which the plural verb-form currently occurs. The only noun which is logically and grammatically related to the verb slot is pressure. The noun is unambiguously a singular entity that should attract a singular verb-form. In the light of this grammatical reality, the verb-form (were) should be changed to its singular form: was.

Next, we note the plural verb-form (are) which occurs immediately after the word hospital in the following context: “The three-room hospital constructed over 40 years ago, which is begging for expansion, with a block of female and male wards situated opposite the hospital are the first symbols…” The rationale for the choice of the plural verb-form (are) should be the existence of a plural nominal entity that is grammatically and logically related to that verb slot. The point must be made bluntly. The writer has made a wrong choice based on a consideration of items that are unrelated to the verb slot: “with a block of female and male wards.” These words (“with a block of female wards”) only post-modify the important item, “important” for the purpose of concord: “the three-room hospital.” Yes, “the three-room hospital”, a singular noun phrase, is the key element that should guide the writer’s choice of the verb-form. The reporter must have been misguided by the plurality of the noun wards. At any rate, the plural verb-form (are) should be changed to its singular form in the light of this fact: is.