By Farooq A. Kperogi, Ph.D. Is it “catch cold” or “catch a cold”? Is the expression “bushman” Standard English? Or is it an exclusi...
By Farooq A. Kperogi, Ph.D.
Answer:
Yes, it is. In American English,
politicians "run" for elections. In British English they
"stand" for elections. In Nigerian English they "contest"
elections.
Is it “catch cold” or “catch a
cold”? Is the expression “bushman” Standard English? Or is it an exclusively Nigerian
English expression? Is “radical” a negative or positive word? Why do some native speakers
drop their “g” in words that end with “ing”? Find answers to these and other
questions in this week’s Q and A. Enjoy.
Question:
I'm
a really avid reader of your highly cherished columns albeit I never wrote to
you before. Please I want to know which is correct between the following
sentences: “I hope you didn't catch cold” and “I hope you didn’t catch a cold.”
I heard one grammar police say that the indefinite article “a” must be used in
the sentence, but I came across quite a number of expressions made by pukka
grammarians without the article "a" in the sentence. Please I want
you to judge this case in your subsequent Q & A session. Secondly, I want
you to shed more light on the following sentences: “Don't go there” versus “Go
there not.” It seems to me the latter isn't often used in spoken English. Is it
wrong to do so?
Answer:
The short answer to your first
question is that modern English dictionaries and style guides say it is
perfectly permissible to use “catch a cold” and “catch cold” interchangeably. But,
as the Oxford English Dictionary points out, this has not always been the case.
In the past, to “catch cold” (without the indefinite article “a”) only meant to
be exposed to chilly weather, the kind that causes one to shiver, as in “if you
stay out too long in the Harmattan you will catch cold.” To “catch a cold”
(with the indefinite article “a”) only meant to suffer from the common cold,
which causes people to sneeze, cough, have a sore throat, a runny nose, etc.
“Catching cold” may cause one to “catch a cold.”
However, when I searched the British
National Corpus and the Corpus of Contemporary American English, the definite
records of modern English usage in Britain and America, I found that native
English speakers still preponderantly use “catch a cold” to mean contract the
common cold (better known as catarrh in Nigeria) and “catch cold” to mean
exposed to chilly weather. I personally like that distinction.
Now to your second question: “Don't
go there” is more common and more natural than "go there not." The
latter would, however, be appropriate in poetic contexts.
Question:
Sahara Reporters, the online news
site, described a murdered Nigerian Islamic scholar as a "radical Islamic
scholar." The use of the word "radical" to describe him caused a
fit of rage amongst some Nigerian Muslims. I thought the use of the word was
apt. Now my questions is, considering the literal meaning of the word
"radical," what is wrong with using it to describe anyone who
preaches for societal and moral change? Is there any negativity or disapproval
attached to the word?
Answer:
Both Sahara Reporters and the people
who objected to the word “radical” are right. Radical has several meanings. One
meaning of radical is, "introducing fundamental changes." That is a
largely positive meaning, and that’s probably how Sahara Reporters intended the
word to be understood. But another meaning of radical is: "far beyond the
norm," that is, extremist. That's a negative meaning.
These days, thanks to American
politicians and the mainstream American media, "radical" has come to
assume a largely negative connotation. For instance, terrorists and their
worldviews are routinely characterized as “radical,” so the general population
has come to subliminally associate the word “radical” with disruptive,
daredevil extremism. The notion of “radical” as desiring new, fundamental,
progressive changes is receding and is being replaced with the notion of
anarchic “extremism.” Many dictionaries haven’t captured this quiet semantic
shift yet.
Question:
Is the expression “bush man”
Standard English? Or is it just Nigerian English? I can’t seem to find it in
any dictionary or book of idioms.
Answer:
“Bush man,” especially the way it’s
used in Nigerian English, isn’t Standard English. It’s a Pidgin English
expression that has found its way into the standard varieties of English spoken
and written in Anglophone West Africa. Last year, for instance, when Ghanaian
president John Dramani Mahama delivered a
lecture at Kennesaw State University in the United States where I teach, he
used the expression “bushman” in ways his audience didn’t understand. In a
passage he read from his recently published autobiography, he jokingly
described one of his high school classmates as a “bush man.” Most people in the
audience had no clue what he meant. I know this because no American laughed.
Only the few Ghanaians and Nigerians in the audience giggled.
Most native English speakers in
Britain and America understand “Bushman” (plural: Bushmen; note the uppercase
“B”) to mean the hunter-gatherer ethnic group in southern African now known as
the “San.” The term emerged in the 18th century from the Afrikaan
word “boschjesman,” which literally translates as “man of the bush.” It was
the word the white settlers in South Africa used to refer to the San people who
number nearly 100,000 and who can be found in Botswana, Namibia, Angola, and
South Africa. Western anthropologists and journalists who studied and wrote
about the San people adopted the Afrikaan name for the people and helped
popularize it beyond the shores of southern Africa.
“Bush man” also appears in
Australian and New Zealand English to mean a pioneer or a man who literally
lives in the bush. It can also mean a person who travels or lives in the bush
and is intimately familiar with the ways of the bush.
In West African English, “bushman”
or “bush woman”—or any variation of the term, such as “bush people”—is a
pejorative term for an unsophisticated person who isn’t versed in the ways of
the world. It’s traditionally reserved for farouche, provincial rural dwellers,
but it can be used to refer to any unworldly person, especially one who lacks
social skills. In American English, such a person would be called a “hillbilly”
or a “hick.” In British English, such a person would be called a “country
bumpkin” or a “yokel.”
If President Mahama had described
his high school classmate as a “hick” or a “hillbilly,” the Americans in the
audience would have understood him and laughed.
Question:
As a regular reader of
your column, I am always happy and enjoy reading it. Please, I want you to help
out on this matter. Here in the UK, I have heard people pronounce the word
“thing” as “think.” On other occasions, I have heard people pronounce many
words that end in '-ing' as '-ink'. Am I mishearing them?
Answer:
You’re
not mishearing, except that it’s not a “k” you hear; it’s a soft “g.” That was
one of the first things I also noticed when I first came to the United States.
Upon inquiry, I discovered that dropping the "g" in words that end
with "ing" is considered colloquial and sometimes uneducated. Not dropping it is considered formal and
educated. In Britain and America, you can sometimes tell people’s social class
by whether or not they drop their “g” in words that end with a “g.”
Politicians
here who want to identify with the “unwashed masses” sometimes drop their “g”
during political campaigns even though they pronounce their “g” in their
everyday speech. I drop my "g" when I pronounce words that end in
"ing." I guess it's a result of my Nigerian upbringing. Nigerians
generally drop their “g” irrespective of their education and social class.
Question:
It’s common to see the word “run”
used to mean politicians vying for elective positions, as in “he is running for
governor of his state.” Is it appropriate?
Answer:
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