Versed, Vast, Adjoining, Adjourning…

Sample 1: “Yet, no one can ever deny Pastor Kumuyi’s consistent track as a preacher of holiness, highly vast in the knowledge of the mind of God as revealed in the Bible, humble, clear thinking and man of simplicity.”(Kumuyi admits his past teachings against prosperity…Opera News, Sunday 15 November, 2020)

We are interested in the word vast which occurs in the structure, “highly vast in the knowledge of the mind of God”. The choice of the word vast is the result of the confusion of its identity with that of versed. Spelling similarities, and sometimes pronunciation similarities, help scant familiarity with the two words to generate the confusion and the resulting mistaken identity. Uncertainties and doubts, which should have been cleared by diligent reference to good dictionaries, are the chief facilitators of confusion in lexical identities.

To return to the solecism before us, the writer has been misled by his own limited knowledge of the language and the surface similarities between vast and versed. A person is not vast in an area of knowledge, but versed in it.

Now we demonstrate the usage of the word versed:

(1) Versed in theoretical Physics, the scholar surprisingly veered into linguistic and literary studies at a later stage in his scholarship.

(2) To have a brilliant and outstanding career in Medicine, you must be versed in Chemistry and Biology.

(3) His eloquent delivery, which held the audience spell-bound, left nobody in doubt that Olu Adenle is versed in the art of public speaking.

(4) All intending participants must be versed in elementary Mathematics and Principles of Accounting.

(5) Versed in constitutional law, the new Special Adviser to the President is certainly an asset to this government.

(6) Only two of those who were invited for the interview are versed in architectural design.

From those sentences, it should not be difficult to learn that the word versed (and not vast) is used to indicate that a person is well-grounded in an aspect of knowledge or area of human activity.

On the other hand, the adjective vast means extensive, large in extent, wide or wide-ranging. Illustrations:

(1) The government should acquire a vast area of land for the purpose of large-scale farming.

(2) According to the World Bank, the vast majority of Nigerians live below the poverty line.

(3) A vast expanse of land has been cleared in preparation for the establishment of the university.

(4) A vast amount of money has been set aside for the project

(5) The UNO is a vast organisation spending vast sums of money every year.

(6) There is a vast yet unexplored market for our products.

At any rate, our phrase should read, “highly versed in the knowledge of the mind of God”

 

Sample 2: “Benin City and the adjourning communities have in the last three weeks been under the siege of armed rival cult groups and robbers.”(Benin residents resort to self-help as security situation deteriorates, Opera News, 16 November, 2020)

I draw readers’ attention to the word adjourning which occurs in the context, “the adjourning communities.” Is the word adjourning the appropriate one for that context? What do you think of the word adjoining? Are adjoin and adjourn variants of the same word or are they two distinct lexical items?

They are certainly two different words fused in the writer’s mind as a result of a weakness basically at the level of pronunciation. Discomfitted by the slight similarities in spelling and pronunciation, the writer lost his balance such that his sense of appropriateness is undermined.

The word adjourn usually collocates with meetings, court and parliamentary sessions. Please read the following sentences:

1)Tired, confused and somewhat frustrated, the chairman adjourned the meeting in the middle of a controversial discussion.

2)The meeting was adjourned as soon as the items of the agenda were exhausted.

3)In the absence of the key witnesses, the presiding judge felt obliged to adjourn the hearing.

4)The House adjourned till the end of the festive period.

5)After listening to all the witnesses, the investigation panel adjourned its sitting.

6)Sporadic shootings in the neighbourhood forced the chairman to adjourn the meeting hurriedly.

And adjoin? A thing is said to adjoin the other if it is close to it and joined to it:

1)His room got burnt together with the two adjoining rooms.

2)The riots and arson soon spread to the adjoining streets.

3)The boys who live in the house that adjoins mine are notoriously and incorrigibly noisy.

4)Since the toilet adjoins my room, it is no surprise that stench assaults my nose occasionally.

5)King Ahab of biblical fame insisted on acquiring Naboth’s vineyard because the hapless man’s piece of land adjoined the palace.

6)The two adjoining neighbourhoods have some security challenges in common.

And so the relevant portion of the text should read: “the adjoining communities.”

 

Sample 3: “The spokesperson of the Lagos police command, Olumuyiwa Adejobi, said that three officers where shot and are at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) (Three police officers shot, as ENDSARS protesters attack police station in Lagos, News Opera, 13 October, 2020)

Let’s pay attention to the context in which the word where occurs in the following structures: “three officers where shot”. It almost beggars belief that anyone would insert the wh- word where in the position in which it occurs in the structure under reference.

My guess is that the error stems from a pronunciation crisis on the part of some Nigerians who often pronounce were as where (and presumably vice versa). It is likely the case that they would select where or were blindly in a context requiring just one of them. In other words, the two words remain undifferentiated in reality. Elementary as these issues are, it is expedient to illustrate the usage of the words involved to avoid the risk of misleading young and vulnerable readers.

Please read the following sentences illustrating the usage of the verb were:

1) If I were you I would not borrow a kobo for the burial of such a useless relative.

2) Janet and Ajetunmobi were husband and wife until December last year.

3) The girls were punished for coming late.

4) All the bills were thrown out by the National Assembly because they were allegedly sponsored by the opposition party.

5) The patients were discharged prematurely because the health workers had gone on strike.

6) The children were always complaining about their father’s absence from home.

7) The two women were always trading insults in public.

8) The five names that were initially on the reserve list were later brought to the main list.

9) The villagers were not interested in talking to the police.

10) The offensive clauses were later removed from the constitution.

Please note that like is, am, was, and are, the word were is a form of BE. It occurs in contexts similar to those in which the other forms of BE occur. But specifically, it is:

1) used with plural nouns

2) in its past form. Actually, it is the past form of are.

Now compare its usage with that of where:

1) Where were you when the inspector arrived?

2) Where would you like to spend the next holidays?

3) Where in western Nigeria is the place in which hot water is flowing side by side with cold water?

4) Where are you living?

5) Nobody seems to know where the information leaked.

6) You should know that where your right ends is where another person’s right begins.

7) Where else in Africa is the press as vibrant as our own?

8) He is so energetic that one sometimes wonders where the energy comes from.

9) I will continue to live in Lagos, where I have lived for the past ten years.

10) I don’t even know where to start.

11) Where is your faith, you doubting Thomas?

Please let the verb were replace where in the context under consideration.

 

 

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