Why scribes should beware of the preposition minefield when writing
Needless to say, the signwriter was commissioned to pen ‘WORLD Press’ and only heaven knows why he changed that to read WOLD Press. Trust signwriters! PHOTO | ISAAC M
The preposition is arguably the most treacherous grammatical component in any language. Check that out in regard to any other language you are familiar with.
A preposition is a word or group of words used before a noun or pronoun to show place, position or method. Examples include in, out, out of and on behalf of.
A misguided use of a preposition can convey unintended meaning, or—to be more precise—misinformation. By misusing a preposition, you could end up being accused of spreading fake news!
Imagine presenting a package of sweet bananas to someone and telling her, “This is ON you;” instead of, “This is FOR you.”
In the former, you will be suggesting that the hapless recipient must part with money for the bananas—they’re not for free; they’re not a gift!
The Saturday, May 30 edition of Bongo’s senior-most broadsheet’s lead story is entitled ‘TZ wildlife ON positive growth.’
The meaning here (which we are sure is not what the headline writer intended to convey) is that some entity or person called ‘Tanzanian Wildlife’ is talking about—or presenting views—about matters related to positive growth!
However, if our country’s wildlife is registering growth, the preposition preceding “positive growth” should be “in”—‘TZ wildlife IN positive growth.’
Page 17 of the broadsheet has a story with the headline, ‘Nigerian who chose KSh12 over having dinner with Davido.’
The intro, preceded by a Lagos dateline, reads thus: “A Nigerian man has gone viral after he stated that he would rather take KSh22 (sic!) million in cash than have dinner with ‘Afrobeats’ musician Davido.”
Now what is this cash referred to as KSh12 (or KSh22) in a story filed in Lagos, Nigeria, and published in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania?
Kenyan currency as we know it, is in short written as Ksh. Now could it be that our foreign editor here picked up the story as published in Kenya (hence KSh12), copied and pasted in a Bongo publication without bothering to convert that to Tsh? Had our colleague cared, he would have given his readers a headline reading Tsh240, because Ksh1 is currently equivalent to around Tsh20.
And, by the way, Davido is an Afrobeat (not Afrobeats) musician.
In the last paragraph, the story reads: “In a related story, Nigerian singer Davido scolded a fan for bringing a baby to a live concert in Abia State. He POSED his performance and questioned the fan…”
Hang on! Davido “posed” not his performance; he PAUSED his performance.
Our word of caution: foreign scribblers goof too; we can blindly copy and paste their stories at our own peril!
And now, a look at Bongo’s huge and colourful broadsheet of Monday, June 1, whose Page 4 has a story bearing a headline which reads, ‘Leading food producer battling persistent children stunting rate.’
In the second paragraph from the bottom, the scribbler reports: “Enticed by immediate financial returns, many HOUSEHOLDS fail to reserve adequate food supplies for local HOUSEHOLD consumption throughout the year.”
That the use of the word “household” twice depicts avoidable intellectual laziness. Let us have a redeeming rewrite: “…many HOUSEHOLDS fail to reserve adequate food supplies for THEIR OWN consumption throughout the year.”
On Page 5, there is a story entitled, ‘Over 1,300 pupils’ innovations targeting agriculture, climate resilience challenges.’
In Para 1 of Column 4 in the 5-column story, the scribbler writes: “Following an assessment PROCESS, 162 projects have been shortlisted and their developers have undergone mentorship from science advisors…”
The qualifier “process” does not add any value to the noun “assessment” and should therefore be dropped so that we remain with, “Following an ASSESSMENT, 162 projects have been shortlisted…”
