By Farooq A. Kperogi, Ph.D. Prepositions are those pesky little words such as “to,” “on,” “from,” “for,” “of,” “with,” etc. that connec...
By Farooq A. Kperogi, Ph.D.
“Contest election.” To “contest” something is to dispute it or to make it the subject of a legal proceeding in a court. But to “contest FOR” something is to struggle to gain power or control over something. But there is a tendency for Nigerians to say politicians “contested elections” when they actually mean the politicians “contested FOR elections.” If someone hasn’t gone to court to dispute the results of an election, he shouldn’t be described as having “contested an election.” This distinction is important for mutual intelligibility in international communication in English.
As I wrote in a previous article, Americans and Britons tend to prefer the more conversational “run for” in place of “contest for.” Example: Goodluck Jonathan will run for re-election in 2015.
55. The Arabic Origins of Common Yoruba Words
56. Idioms, Mistranslation, and Abati's Double Standards
57. Native English Speakers' Struggles with Grammar
58. Q and A on Nigerian English and Usage Rules
Prepositions are those pesky little words such as
“to,” “on,” “from,” “for,” “of,” “with,” etc. that connect parts of sentences. They are the main ingredients of many popular
English collocations, that is, groups of words that almost always appear
together in a sentence. For instance, phrases such as “put up with,” “accused
of,” “on behalf of,” “in line with,” etc. “naturally” appear together. We never
stop to question why the above sentences can’t appear differently, such as in
these forms: “put up for,” “accused to,” “of behalf in,” etc.
We immediately
recognize these constructions as wrong because they lack what I call collocational
cadence, that is, they don’t naturally co-occur in everyday speech. So they
sound “weird” to the ear.
There are many popular Nigerian English expressions
that violate the collocational rhythm of native-speaker varieties of the
language. I present a few of them below, which mostly revolve around the misuse
(or, in some cases, lack of use) of prepositions.
“Conducive.”
Nigerians are fond of saying that a
place is or is not "conducive" without adding the preposition
"to" after “conducive” to make a complete sense—that is, by the
standards of American and British English where "conducive" ALWAYS
co-occurs with the preposition "to." For instance, instead of saying,
"our universities are not conducive," Britons and Americans would say
"our universities are not conducive TO learning or living or scholarly
productivity." Sometimes where Nigerian speakers of the English language make
a complete sense by adding something to “conducive,” they tend to use the
preposition “for” in place of “to,” as in: “our universities are not conducive
for learning or living or scholarly productivity.” To “conduce to” is to make
happen, to contribute to.
“Enable me do.” Many scholars of Nigerian English have identified the tendency to omit the preposition “to” in the collocation “enable someone/something to do something” as one of the key features of our dialect of the English language. "Enable" and "to" are indissolubly "married" in American English and British English; one cannot appear without the other. So where Nigerians would write or say "I hereby apply for a loan to enable me buy a car," British or American English speakers would write or say "I hereby apply for a loan to enable me TO buy a car."
“Enable me do.” Many scholars of Nigerian English have identified the tendency to omit the preposition “to” in the collocation “enable someone/something to do something” as one of the key features of our dialect of the English language. "Enable" and "to" are indissolubly "married" in American English and British English; one cannot appear without the other. So where Nigerians would write or say "I hereby apply for a loan to enable me buy a car," British or American English speakers would write or say "I hereby apply for a loan to enable me TO buy a car."
Professor Igboanusi, a prolific and well-regarded
University of Ibadan scholar of Nigerian English, once pointed out that
American English, like Nigerian English, also dispenses with the preposition
“to” in the phrase “enable someone/something to do something.” That is wholly
inaccurate. Only Nigerian, and perhaps Ghanaian, English omits “to” where
“enable” occurs in a phrase.
A non-Nigerian who has followed my writings on the
distinctive stylistic imprints of Nigerian English was saved a potentially
devastating 419 scam because he remembered my previous mention of the
peculiarly Nigerian tendency to never let “enable” and “to” to co-occur in the
same sentence. He said he received a well-written notification from a US State
Department letterhead that he had won the Green Card Lottery. He was naturally
overjoyed, he said, until he got to the end of the letter where this phrase
appeared: “to enable us process your ….”
He said the omission of “to” after
“us” in the sentence activated memories of one of my writings on the subject
and caused him to doubt the authenticity of the letter. And, sure enough, when
he called the US State Department to confirm if the letter originated from them,
he was told that no such letter was sent to him; that it was a scam. So, you
see, awareness of the rules of grammar can save you from certain troubles.
“I replied you.” In
native-speaker English varieties, “reply” always co-occurs with “to.” Where
Nigerians would say “she didn’t reply my letter,” native speakers of the
English language would say “she didn’t reply TO my letter.” “Reply” and
“respond” are wholly synonymous. If we would never write “she didn’t respond my
letter” we should also never write “she didn’t reply my letter.”
“Contest election.” To “contest” something is to dispute it or to make it the subject of a legal proceeding in a court. But to “contest FOR” something is to struggle to gain power or control over something. But there is a tendency for Nigerians to say politicians “contested elections” when they actually mean the politicians “contested FOR elections.” If someone hasn’t gone to court to dispute the results of an election, he shouldn’t be described as having “contested an election.” This distinction is important for mutual intelligibility in international communication in English.
As I wrote in a previous article, Americans and Britons tend to prefer the more conversational “run for” in place of “contest for.” Example: Goodluck Jonathan will run for re-election in 2015.
“Request
for.” While Nigerians blithely omit prepositions when we
use "enable," "contest," "reply," etc., we gladly
pluck some from the air and insert them where they are normally not used in
native varieties of the English language. An example is the phrase
"request FOR." In American and British English "request" is
never followed by a preposition. For example, where Nigerians would say "I
requested FOR a loan from my bank," native speakers of the English
language would write "I requested a loan from my bank." Of course,
when "request" is used as a noun, it can co-occur with the
preposition "to” such as in the phrase “a request to supply equipment to
your office.”
"Off
the light/generator" or "on the light/generator." Nigerian English treats the prepositions “on”
and “off” as verbs. No other variety of English I know of does that. Where
other varieties of English would say “put/switch on the generator” we would say
“on the generator.” When "off"
is used as a verb in informal American English, it means to kill someone
intentionally, as in: he said he would off her if she turned down his proposal
to marry her.
"Over and above." Nigerians understand use this
prepositional phrase literally, although it is an idiomatic expression in
native-speaker varieties of the English language. For instance, it's usual to
come across expressions like, "He was promoted over and above me,"
where "over and above" merely intensifies the sense that someone was
favored to our disadvantage in a promotion exercise. But in both American and
British English, "over and above" only means "in addition
to" or "besides" (example: they made a profit over and above the
goodwill they got). Anytime you replace "in addition to" with
"over and above" and it doesn't add up, you're probably misusing the
idiom "over and above"— by the standards of American and British
English.
Concluding thoughts:
It isn’t only Nigerian English
that dislocates the collocational harmony of the English language. American
English does, too. It’s just that America’s preeminence in the world ensures that
the deviations of its variety of English sooner or later get social prestige
and acceptance. For instance, it used to
be that “wait on somebody” meant to be a servant to somebody. But, in American
English, it is now synonymous with to “wait for somebody.”
Other American subversions of
age-old English collocations and prepositional phrases are “different than,”
instead of “different from” and “in behalf of” instead of “on behalf of,”
although “in behalf of” is still regarded as nonstandard in American English.
Related Articles:
1. A Comparison of Nigerian, American and British English
2. Why is "Sentiment" Such a Bad Word in Nigeria?
3. Ambassador Aminchi's Impossible Grammatical Logic
4. 10 Most Annoying Nigerian Media English Expressions
5. Sambawa and "Peasant Attitude to Governance"
6. Adverbial and Adjectival Abuse in Nigerian English
7. In Defense of "Flashing" and Other Nigerianisms
8. Weird Words We're Wedded to in Nigerian English
9. American English or British English?
10. Hypercorrection in Nigerian English
11. Nigerianisms, Americanisms, Briticisms and Communication Breakdown
12. Top 10 Irritating Errors in American English
13. Nigerian Editors Killing Macebuh Twice with Bad Grammar
14. On "Metaphors" and "Puns" in Nigerian English
15. Common Errors of Pluralization in Nigerian English
16. Q & A About Common Grammatical Problems
17. Semantic Change and the Politics of English Pronunciation
2. Why is "Sentiment" Such a Bad Word in Nigeria?
3. Ambassador Aminchi's Impossible Grammatical Logic
4. 10 Most Annoying Nigerian Media English Expressions
5. Sambawa and "Peasant Attitude to Governance"
6. Adverbial and Adjectival Abuse in Nigerian English
7. In Defense of "Flashing" and Other Nigerianisms
8. Weird Words We're Wedded to in Nigerian English
9. American English or British English?
10. Hypercorrection in Nigerian English
11. Nigerianisms, Americanisms, Briticisms and Communication Breakdown
12. Top 10 Irritating Errors in American English
13. Nigerian Editors Killing Macebuh Twice with Bad Grammar
14. On "Metaphors" and "Puns" in Nigerian English
15. Common Errors of Pluralization in Nigerian English
16. Q & A About Common Grammatical Problems
17. Semantic Change and the Politics of English Pronunciation
41. Most Popular Mangled Expressions in Nigerian English
42. Q and A on Grammar
43. More Q and A on Grammar
44. Q and A on Usage, Articles, and Tenses
45. Top Hilarious Differences between American and Nigerian English
46. The Grammar and Vocabulary of "Fuel Subsidy Removal"
47. Top 10 Words That Are Changing Meaning
48. Q and A on African English and Common Usage Errors
49. Nigerian English as Excuse for Sloppy Scholarship
50. Reuben Abati's Violence Against Metaphors
51. Grammar of Reuben Abati's Semantic Violence
52. Top 10 Grammatical Errors Common to Americans and Nigerians
53. Q and A on Idioms, Nigerian Expressions and Punctuations
54. Q and A on Metaphors and Usage
42. Q and A on Grammar
43. More Q and A on Grammar
44. Q and A on Usage, Articles, and Tenses
45. Top Hilarious Differences between American and Nigerian English
46. The Grammar and Vocabulary of "Fuel Subsidy Removal"
47. Top 10 Words That Are Changing Meaning
48. Q and A on African English and Common Usage Errors
49. Nigerian English as Excuse for Sloppy Scholarship
50. Reuben Abati's Violence Against Metaphors
51. Grammar of Reuben Abati's Semantic Violence
52. Top 10 Grammatical Errors Common to Americans and Nigerians
53. Q and A on Idioms, Nigerian Expressions and Punctuations
54. Q and A on Metaphors and Usage
56. Idioms, Mistranslation, and Abati's Double Standards
57. Native English Speakers' Struggles with Grammar
58. Q and A on Nigerian English and Usage Rules
No comments
Share your thoughts and opinions here. I read and appreciate all comments posted here. But I implore you to be respectful and professional. Trolls will be removed and toxic comments will be deleted.