RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Val Ojo and his Crudity -- a re-post

[Pamela Smith]

What to think/make of the 5/11/10 Val Ojo diatribe and, save for Maureen
Eke's lone voice of condemnation, also the seeming deafening silence of
this body of intellectual discourse?

The Ojo rant, though personally aimed at one member (Ken Harrow) and
absolutely insulting by any name, was indeed an attack hurled at the
collective (ALL of US). It is akin to a bully beating a downed victim to a
pulp over and over and over! It went on and on pointlessly, its vitriol
feeding its own deep-seated biases and prejudices instead of letting
empirical data do the arguing as is not only required of us academics by
virtue of our academic training in the fundamentals of discourse, but also
by the rules of CIVIL ENGAGEMENT I think the Administrator of this forum
intended. Resorting to unnecessary, unprovoked personal insults and
bullying tactics on an INTELLECTUAL FORUM is unbecoming, and frankly, a
poor reflection of intellectual acuity/confidence and a lack of
self-respect.

Unless there's something else outside of the string of responses we have
read (and reread below), Ken Harrow's queries and responses of Val
Ojo's ?points/argument? do not warrant the unrelenting, vanquisher vitriol
with which Val Ojo met them. I hope the body decries and calls a spade a
spade in this (and all such) incident(s) to stem this kind of fruitless,
hurtful exchange.

More importantly, I hope the Forum's Administrator is quick to reiterate
that participation in the forum IS a PRIVILEGE (not a right) for ALL to
RESPECTFULLY ENGAGE (even in impassioned debates) and most certainly NOT A
RIGHT FOR ONE (or a few) to appropriate as a bully pulpit for casting
denigrating innuendoes, name calling, and outright insults to silence
others with (sometimes perceived) dissenting views.

I hope Maureen's disavowal below has spoken on behalf of many members of
this otherwise stimulating body of intellectual discussants.

Cheers,
Pamela J. Olubunmi Smith, Ph.D.
Professor, English, Humanities & Women Studies
Secretary, Association of African Women Scholars (AAWS)
The Goodrich Scholarship Program
University of Nebraska @ Omaha, CB 123H
Omaha, Nebraska 68182
402 554-3463 (Off); 402 554-3776 (Fax)
URL www.africanwomenstudies.org



From: "Eke, Maureen Ngozi" <eke...@cmich.edu>

To: <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>

Date: 05/12/2010 04:45 PM

Subject: RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Common Errors of Reported Speech in Nigerian English

Sent by: usaafric...@googlegroups.com






In the past few weeks, I have seen tremendous strutting and spitting of
venom on this list. We begin with the anger at Yar'adua, now deceased, then
the fury over Henry Louis Gates Jr's engagement with Africa and/or
Africans, and finally, we arrive at the unwarranted abuse against our own
members. I am shocked at the lack of tolerance often displayed on the
list, particularly, since this list presents itself as a forum for
intellectual engagement with one another. For sure, it is acceptable to
register disagreement with another person's view, but when such registry
becomes occasion for silencing others, I begin to worry that we are
becoming or are creating the very nightmare we seek to avoid. Europeans
have silenced us; the West is silencing us, we constantly claim, but what
do we say when we engage in a similar silencing, thus, mimicking the very
attributes we critique? Perhaps, such is the nature of colonization. We
reproduce the horror we seek to destroy, nationally, and even on a list
such as this.

I am troubled by Valentine Ojo's recent vitriolic assault on Ken Harrow.
It is unacceptable not only because Harrow is a member of the list, but
also because Harrow has expanded the list's discussion (even as a Prof. of
Literature on a list filled with historians). It is also unacceptable
because as Ojo claims, we are educated Africans and an important aspect of
that education should be the ability to participate in a wide range of
discussions without turning it into bole ka ja.

Ojo should not and cannot speak for all Africans, not even those on the
list. Harrow has the right to register his views (opposing or in
agreement) on the topics addressed on this list just as Ojo. To insist that
the list is an African forum and therefore excludes other voices
(non-Africans, as Ojo hints) is absurd. Ojo should know better.
Discrimination by any other name smells the same.

African or not, the reality is that Africans will have to co-exist with
others. To reject that is tantamount to self-annihilation. Nowhere does
this list indicate that the condition for membership is Africanness. So,
Harrow does not need to be an African or African-born to participate in
this public forum. And, I have to believe that Prof. Falola did not and
does not wish to make Africanness a condition for membership on this forum.
Perhaps, Prof, Falola should rather invoke the right of list editor and
limit the number of times a given person can post insulting messages to the
list before silently being removed. I will vote for that!

I refuse to support the divisiveness which Ojo seems determined to inject
into this forum! I reject the hostility, the silencing of other voices,
other views, African or not! I am shocked at our own silence or seeming
acceptance of this insult and the assault to our sensibilities. I welcome
intelligent, engaging, and informative discussions, even when I do not
subscribe to those perspectives.

Peace.
Maureen N. Eke, Ph.D.
Professor of English
Central Michigan University
Mt. Pleasant, MI 48859
989-774-3117 (voice)
989-774-3171 (main office)
989-774-1271 (fax)
maure...@cmich.edu or
eke...@cmich.edu


________________________________

From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com on behalf of Dr. Valentine Ojo
Sent: Tue 5/11/2010 12:02 PM
To: USAAfricaDialogue
Cc: har...@msu.edu; Adeniran Adeboye; Abraham Madu; Bimbola Adelakun;
Emmanuel Babatunde; Ede Amatorisero; Joe Igietseme; Lavonda Staples; Nnanna
Agomoh; Odidere Afis; Omo Oba; Iyalaje Fama; Pius Adesanmi; Dele Olawole;
Joe Attueyi; Toyin Adepoju
Subject: RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Common Errors of Reported Speech
in Nigerian English


Ken:

"in this regard, i disagree with the statement that africans are not
europeans." - kenneth harrow har...@msu.edu

I am not going to respond to you point for point either. It's not worth it,
since you are obviously not here to engage in an exchange where maybe you
could learn something.

You are here to teach your African minions.

Sorry, Ken, wrong place, wrong time, wrong century!

You are free to disagree as much as you want.

Are Africans Europeans?

Are Europeans Africans?

Are Jews Germans or Americans?

What's your point that you "disagree with the statement that africans are
not europeans"?

What has that got to do with whether you agree or not?

Fazit: Africans are NOT Europeans!

"as for my ignorance, i would appeal to you and others in the listserv to
refrain from insults since that will close down, not open up, intellectual
exchange." - kenneth harrow har...@msu.edu

But you are IGNORANT!

And let it close down what you consider to be an "intellectual exchange",
which it is not!

Kenneth Harrow, I was not born yesterday, and you will not be the first
white/European pretender I have met, who would like to delude himself that
he knows Africans and Africa more than Africans know themselves or Africa.

And you will surely not be the last.

You do not DETERMINE the conditions of participation or contributions on
this forum either.

If you do not like what you hear because it is a bitter truth someone
should have told you a long time ago, then that's just too bad!

I am Nigerian, and Nigeria is not the Cameroon.

Can you live with that?

Your so-called "study" was back in the 70's, carried out by you and your
European peers - in urban areas, and not in the rural areas of the
Cameroon!

This is 2010, and you are dealing with EDUCATED AFRICANS - Africans who
have done their own independent researches, but not from a Euro-centric
worldview - and not with Africans who look up to European
pretend-Africa-experts like you would like to believe that you are as some
kind of demi-god, which you are not.

Be humble, Kenneth, and you just might learn a thing or two.

Or you can shove off to a forum where you can dictate and pontificate to
your adoring African disciples without fear of being challenged.

Not here, and not among today's EDUCATED AFRICANS.

Wake up and smell the coffee.

Colonialism is dead and buried, Ken, and most of us will do everything in
our power to counter the resurgence of any form of European
neo-colonialism, especially of the insiduos mental kind.

You are not exactly an example or model of polite communication either -
first pick the mote in your own eye, sir!

Politeness is not a one-way street - tender your submissions politely, and
you will get a polite response in exchange.

Your penchant to write in lower case letter is RUDE and DISRESPECTFUL of
others. You would not submit an academic treatise in that format now -
would you?

But you believe you can do that on an African forum - and get away with it!

You are supposed to be a professor of English Language, no?

Dr. Valentine Ojo
Tall Timbers, MD



On Tue 05/11/10 10:14 AM , kenneth harrow har...@msu.edu sent:


val,
there is no rest to fill in. rivers flow into oceans, oceans
circulate waters around the globe, the waters evaporate, the clouds fly
across the skies, rain and snow on lands and oceans, and the nollywood
films get sold in brixton as well as detroit and lagos.
there are those who want to put europe against africa, the
white man against the black man, in all these debates. and there are those
who can talk, not simply across divides, but in between and alongside of
and diagonally joined.
i'd rather not respond point by point, and when the "dialogue"
devolves into insults, i check my limits of participation closely.
in 1977 edna koenig, dept of linguistics yaounde, and
practically all the other members of that dept conducted a long survey of
languages in cameroon. i was there, though just a neighbor to the members
of the dept doing languages; i was doing lit.
the results showed cameroon had around 250 languages, of which
pidgin english was the most widely spoken.
i have no stake in making that claim; i just remember it. it
was surprising since most of cameroon is in the francophone zone, but if
you went into the markets pidgin could be used by those who didn't speak
french.
i do not believe it makes sense to talk about this usage being
imposed by conquest. trade preceded colonial conquest by hundreds of years,
and people who trade have to communicate. eventually trading communities
develop, languages spread, and linguistics have their field day.
the politics of language is indeed important. one of my
favorite passages on the topic comes from cheikh hamidou kane's Aventure
ambigue, where the narrator states that the conquest of african was
accomplished by the cannon and the alphabet, and that the latter had much
more of an impact than the former. i agree with that. yet i also note that
french in senegal is in decline vis a vis wolof. i remember khatibi, in
l'amour en deux langues, evoking another colonial response to language in
which he saw the advantages of assuming literacy in french as an opening,
an ability to turn the colonial imposition into a love relationship with
the culture and language. i also note how different the wolof of the
cities, laced with french and english words, is from wolof spoken in the
villages.
that too has happened,and as has achebe's defense against
ngugi's simplistic equation of one colonial language=one colonial mentality
which deprives all africans of the agency to reterritorialize culture and
language, as we all do throughout our lives.
if the walls between the advocates of colonial mentality vs
native mentality were not permeable, we could not have anglophone and
francophone and lusophone african literature and culture, film and art.
we can all recognize and oppose colonial discourses and their
new forms, we can recognize the patterns of domination implicit in
relations, between people, between economic classes, between nations; and
we can retreat into constructing our own fortresses and close off the flows
between, or we can try to move on to relations that become productive, if
not progressive.
in this regard, i disagree with the statement that africans
are not europeans. i don't think of being, of defining people as monads, as
meaningful; rather, it is becoming, change and flows of interractions, that
always already give definitions to all peoples. i remember the please i had
in a discussion with a senegalese historian some years back when asking him
about his favorite films. he told me it was japanese cinema. he opening my
mind another crack.
as for my ignorance, i would appeal to you and others in the
listserv to refrain from insults since that will close down, not open up,
intellectual exchange.
anyway, that is my own rule from now on. i will not respond to
any more messages containing insults
ken harrow



At 01:29 PM 5/10/2010, you wrote:


"if, however, your point is that there is some
immutability in language and culture, then we part company. i think of both
as being like streams or rivers that continually change..." - kenneth
harrow

Yes, languages may be like rivers that continually
change.

However, the Thames and the Rhine are European
rivers.

The Niger and the Volta are African rivers, and
they never meet at any point in their journeys. They can therefore not have
similar ecological systems, fauna, fishes, villages along their banks, etc.

Fill in the rest...

"lastly, the line between english as a foreign
language, a european language, and african languages, as ngugi argues,
makes no sense at all to me." - kenneth harrow

Why would it make any sense to you?

After all, it is not your European language that
is being supplanted by an African language that can never reflect the
REALITIES of your European lifestyle.

It is he who wears the shoe that knows where it
hurts!.

"languages can be adapted to a place and a
culture; english has been spoken in africa, beginning with the w coast, as
long if not longer than it has been spoken in the united states." - kenneth
harrow

Ken, you are either truly ignorant, or you are
simply being mischievous!

English is spoken in the US by a large European
population with similar and frequently a common European history and
culture.

That is not the situation of English, a European
language IMPOSED on an African people that have no cultural communality
with Europeans.

Africans are NOT Europeans - can you somehow come
to terms with that REALITY?

Most Americans have been to school, and they speak
and understand English to some degree. They frequently have no other
languages to fall back on.

Nigerians who speak English - including even
Pidgin English - are a DISTINCT MINORITY, since majority of Nigerians still
do not speak a word of English!

And even, among those who speak English with some
competence, including Wole Soyinka, Chinua Achebe, etc. English was a
second language first learnt in school, and not at their mothers' breast!

English is not NATIVE to Nigeria! Period!

They invariably have a second - actually a first -
African language they had learnt before beginning to learn some English in
school - Igbo for Chinua Achebe, Yoruba for Wole Soyinka.

They cannot therefore pretend that they are
monolingual in English, and English can never completely capture the
REALITIES of their African existence.

"when i was in cameroon in the 1970s they did a
language survey of the country. guess which language was the most widely
spoken: not french, not standard english, not ewondo, but pidgin" - kenneth
harrow

That is an ILLUSION and a LIE too!

You were in the urban area, where the need and
propensity to use a lingua franca is naturally at its highest! Had you gone
into the interior you would have discovered that majority of the population
- even today - still don't speak French, English or Pidgin!

And of those who speak pidgin, their pidgin
invariably reflects their specific African language. Read Ikhide's comments
to that subject matter.

In Nigeria for example, mostly the Igbo, the
Riverine/Delta people, and the people of the old Bendel State use a lot of
Pidgin English.

The Hausa and the Yoruba hardly ever use any
Pidgin!

Ken, you are not an "expert" on Africa or on
African languages, even if you have read and study a few African writers
like Wole Soyinka or Chinua Achebe. These people are not necessarily
reflective or representative of Africa!

Only in the literary circles that recognize them,
not the ordinary man or woman on the streets of Lagos, Benin, Ibadan,
Enugu, Kano, Owerri or Abuja with whom they have very little in common!

That is not Africa, and like most Europeans who
fancy they do, you really know little or nothing about Africa - reading
what you have written thus far about your "knowledge" of Africa.

Africa is not one huge village where ALL AFRICANS
act and think alike! Even the communality among African ethnicities is not
as broad as what obtains among European ethnicities who frequently share a
common Greco-Roman, Judeo-Christian heritage.

There is NOTHING similar within the African
context. Your attempt to force compare Africa to what obtains in Europe
will simply not fly.

Talk to Africans who KNOW!

Dr. Valentine Ojo
Tall Timbers, MD



On Mon 05/10/10 7:16 AM , kenneth harrow
har...@msu.edu sent:


valentine, i don't get your point. i
agree languages express their cultures; i also imagine that there is
something called standard british english, standard, american english,
standard nigerian english; and then there are dialectical versions to those
standards which have different accents, use many words differently, are
wrapped into discourses that strike the ear of the standard language user
as accented, and often, visible--or i guess-audible, noticeable, and
sometimes with a particular charm, as more able to convey humor or even
closeness. i remember cameroonian friends saying that only in pidgin could
they really convey a sense of closeness. and humor in cameroonian
anglophone theatre was often couched in pidgin.

if, however, your point is that there
is some immutability in language and culture, then we part company. i think
of both as being like streams or rivers that continually change, not only
through the encounter with others, but with usage itself. the minute we
speak we alter that stream.

lastly, the line between english as a
foreign language, a european language, and african languages, as ngugi
argues, makes no sense at all to me. languages can be adapted to a place
and a culture; english has been spoken in africa, beginning with the w
coast, as long if not longer than it has been spoken in the united states.
nigerian english is nigerian. achebe had his defense based on his education
and upbringing, but that was just for one generation. we can go back
hundreds of years to find english used, first as a trading language, then
as more. when i was in cameroon in the 1970s they did a language survey of
the country. guess which language was the most widely spoken: not french,
not standard english, not ewondo, but pidgin

ken


At 11:48 PM 5/9/2010, you wrote:


Not good enough, sir.


Related languages also
have to share some related culture they represent.


You cannot divorce
language from culture.




On Sun 05/09/10 11:34 PM ,
kenneth harrow har...@msu.edu sent:

the basis for
my comparison is language usage.


At 03:36 PM
5/9/2010, you wrote:

"irish
dialectical speech in english texts, are the things you want to be able to
say or imitate. they have a presence in our ear" - kenneth harrow
har...@msu.edu

The last time
I checked, Nigerians, Cameroonians, Ghanaians, etc. are AFRICAN.

The English
and the Irish are EUROPEAN.

Where is the
basis for your comparison?

Dr. Valentine
Ojo
Tall Timbers,
MD



On Sun
05/09/10 10:25 AM , kenneth harrow har...@msu.edu sent:

is nigerian
english the same as nigerian pidgin?
also, as one
who works in literature, the pidgin passages in many a nigerian and
cameroonian, ghanaian, etc text, are often the most lively and exciting,
where the language, like irish dialectical speech in english texts, are the
things you want to be able to say or imitate. they have a presence in our
ear, whereas the "standard" speech just slips by unperceived
ken
At 11:33 PM
5/8/2010, you wrote:

"...so that a
man is not faulted for speaking his language nor should he have to
apologise
about it Ã'Â- call it Nigerian English if you please..." - Cornelius
Hamelberg cornelius...@gmail.com
Since when did
'Nigerian English' become anyone's 'language'?
Dr. Valentine
Ojo
Tall Timbers,
MD


On Sat
05/08/10 11:43 AM , Cornelius Hamelberg cornelius...@gmail.com sent:

Language is
the most powerful too we have. Tagore won the Nobel Prize
in 1913,
primarily for writing Gitanjali in Bengali.
<
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1913/>
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1913/
The fallout
continues:
<
http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com/articles/farooq-a-kperogi/common-errors-of-reported-speech-in-nigerian-english.html
>
http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com/articles/farooq-a-kperogi/common-errors-of-reported-speech-in-nigerian-english.html

Ãf¢
Ã'ÂEURÃ'ÂoeA question in your nerves is lit
Yet you know
there is no answer fit
To satisfy,
insure you not to quit
To keep it in
your mind and not forget
That it is not
he or she or them or it
That you
belong toÃf¢Ã'ÂEURÃ'Â
Sure, itÃf¢
Ã'ÂEURÃ'Â(tm)s not merely about Greek and Latin as part foundation of a
Germanic
Anglo-Saxon - itÃf¢Ã'ÂEURÃ'Â(tm)s a question of national integrity - so
that
a man is not
faulted for speaking his language nor should he have to
apologise
about it Ã'Â- call it Nigerian English if you pleasse Ã'Â- and no
one, not even
you have to look upon it as a disgrace to the Human
race.
A serious
question that's worth looking into is the certification of
what may
properly be regarded as Nigerian English - at par with other
varieties of
the language. This is where serious language scholars
come into the
picture - who knows, Microsoft may well employ a cadre
of qualified
Nigerian and non- Nigerians, to look into the matter, so
that Nigerian
English also takes its pride of place with other
certified
national varieties of the language that have been given
official
recognition, such as Belize, Hong Kong, India, Jamaica, the
Philippines,
South Africa, Trinidad and Tobago - and Zimbabwe - and
of the
aforementioned, Nigeria stands to enrich the language as no
other has yet
done by introducing valuable loanwords from the
diversity of
her rich indigenous languages not only for items of local
landscape (as
Australia has done) but cultural terms and concepts from
religion,
philosophy, Art, Music, agriculture, other lifestyles just
as a normal
EnglishmanÃf¢Ã'ÂEURÃ'Â(tm)s vocabulary even mine, has been considerably
expanded by
loanwords from Sanskrit, Hindi, Arabic, Farsi, French,
German,
Swedish, Spanish, Portuguese, Yiddish Scottish, Hebrew,
Yoruba, Igbo,
Mandinka.
For all this,
as we already know, it is our creative writers,
journalists,
songsters, other literary artists, that must make these
introductions
by using/utilizing Nigerian words that cannot be exactly
translated -
just as many Arabic words lack a precise equivalent in
English Ã'Â-
salaat (the ritual prayer) for example not being exactly
prayer which
is more akin to dua Ã'Â- a personal supplicationn
Substituting
the original word that is functional in its cultural/
geographic
context does introduce more of the anthropological and
necessitates
footnotes / explanatory web links etc but the alternative
is less
authentic (William is not Guillermo Ã'Â- nor is Chiniiyeke Jehovah
or Olodumare,
Allah
A calabash is
a calabash even as you recite
Ãf¢
Ã'ÂEURÃ'ÂoeBEFORE YOU, mother Idoto,
Naked I stand;

Before your
watery presence,
A prodigal
Leaning on an
oilbean,
Lost in your
legend.
Under your
power wait I
on barefoot,
watchman for
the watchword
at
Heavensgate;
out of the
depths my cry:
give ear and
hearkenÃ'Â...Ãf¢Ã'ÂEURÃ'Â
<
http://www.christopher-okigbo.org/006_selectedpoems.asp>
http://www.christopher-okigbo.org/006_selectedpoems.asp

On 7 Maj,
13:13, Cornelius Hamelberg < corneliushamelb...@gmail.com <
mailto:corneliushamelb...@gmail.com> >
wrote:
> Sheikh
Sadiq has been a professor at Qom for more than two decades
> now and like
nearly all Shia scholars and those of the laity, who have
> studied
Nahjul Balagha, is something of an orator and a rhetorician.
> Some 22
years ago I agreed to give Sheikh Sadiq the venerable son of
> Sheikh
Hassan of Najaf some English lessons Ã'Â- althouggh he already
> spoke
beautiful English mostly expressing himself carefully and with
> the usual
humility and modesty that has always been an essential part
> of his adab.
I jokingly warned him that my step dad since the age of
> about eleven
Ã'Â- was a real Scot and should he want unadulterated
> English he
had better listen to Prince Charles or the Duke of
> Edinburgh
and not the man from Fulham.
>
> Whereupon,
there and then and before the very first lesson, he told me
> the
following cautionary tale about the impropriety of linguistic
>
dictatorship:
>
> Ãf¢
Ã'ÂEURÃ'ÂoeA man fainted and was taken to hospital. The doctor turned up
took
> his pulse,
listened for a heartbeat and failing to detect any sign of
> life by
either pulse or heartbeat, declared him as dead as a dodo. He
> was then
placed on a stretcher and was being wheeled to the morgue
> when he
apparently woke up, noticed where he was and asked Ãf¢Ã'ÂEURÃ'ÂoeWhatÃf¢
Ã'ÂEURÃ'Â(tm)s up?
> What am I
doing here? Where are you taking me?Ãf¢Ã'ÂEURÃ'Â
>
> Ãf¢
Ã'ÂEURÃ'ÂoeWhat are you doing here?Ãf¢Ã'ÂEURÃ' mimicked the doctor, Ãf¢
Ã'ÂEURÃ'ÂoeWhere are we taking
> you? YOU ARE
DEAD and weÃf¢Ã'ÂEURÃ'Â(tm)re taking you to the morgue, for deep
> freezing.ÃfÂ
¢Ã'ÂEURÃ'Â
>
> Ãf¢
Ã'ÂEURÃ'ÂoeNo IÃf¢Ã'ÂEURÃ'Â(tm)m not dead, protested the man,Ãf¢Ã'ÂEURÃ'Â
rubbing sleep from his eyes and
> suddenly
sitting up like a bolt, defiant.Ãf¢Ã'ÂEURÃ'Â
>
> Ãf¢
Ã'ÂEURÃ'ÂoeOh yes you are deadÃf¢Ã'ÂEURÃ' , replied the doctor, Ãf¢
Ã'ÂEURÃ'ÂoeI just told you, you are
> dead.
> DO YOU KNOW
MORE THAN ME? IÃf¢Ã'ÂEURÃ'Â(tm)m the doctor!Ãf¢Ã'ÂEURÃ'Â
>
> So much for
the present and past tense: DEAD:
>
> I feel that
Dokta Kperogi is more or less saying the same things
> here, when
he says:
>
> Ãf¢
Ã'ÂEURÃ'ÂoeSo it would be bad grammar to write, "This man had no clue what
> Nigeria's
foreign policy WAS!" when, in fact, Nigeria's foreign
> policy
> hasn't
changed between the time Jonathan betrayed ignorance of it and
> the
> time I
reported this fact.Ãf¢Ã'ÂEURÃ'Â
>
> In my view,
grammar (good or bad) is surely not the issue here. What
> is at issue
is the facticity of the matter and what I understand the
> journalist
to be saying and meaning is exactly what he said and
> meant : that
the man in question
>
> Ãf¢
Ã'ÂEURÃ'ÂoeHAD NO CLUE as to WHAT
> Nigeria's
foreign policy WAS!"
>
> In faulting
president Jonathan you also erroneously said that
> Ãf¢
Ã'ÂEURÃ'ÂoefaithfulsÃf¢Ã'ÂEURÃ' does not exist in the English LanguageÃfÂ
¢Ã'ÂEURÃ' . Your exact
> words: Ãf¢
Ã'ÂEURÃ'ÂoeAnd Ãf¢Ã'ÂEURÃ'ÂoeMuslim faithfulsÃf¢Ã'ÂEURÃ' ? Well, there
is no
> word like
Ãf¢Ã'ÂEURÃ'ÂoefaithfulsÃf¢Ã'ÂEURÃ' in the English language, Mr. Acting
President.Ãf¢Ã'ÂEURÃ'Â
> Well, Mr.
Kperogi perhaps thatÃf¢Ã'ÂEURÃ'Â(tm)s what they taught you at the Baptist
> School at
Okuta, but in the English Language of my ancestors, you will
> find
"faithfuls" in the Oxford Dictionary:
>
> <
http://www.google.se/#hl=sv&source=hp&q=Faithfuls>
http://www.google.se/#hl=sv&source=hp&q=Faithfuls
>
> On 7 Maj,
09:57, "Farooq A. Kperogi" <farooqkper...@gmail.com > wrote:
>
> > Thursday,
May 6, 2010
> > Common
Errors of Reported Speech in Nigerian
> > English< <
http://farooqkperogi.blogspot.com/2010/05/common-errors-of-reported-s...%3E
> http://farooqkperogi.blogspot.com/2010/05/common-errors-of-reported-s...>
<
http://farooqkperogi.blogspot.com/2010/05/common-errors-of-reported-s...%3E
> ;
> > **
> > *By Farooq
A. Kperogi
>
> > *
> > *There is
a pervasive kind of error in reported speech in Nigerian English,
> > especially
in Nigerian media English, that is inspired by what grammarians
> > call
hypercorrectionÃ'Â- the tendency to be misguidded by false, ill-digested
> > analogies
and insufficient familiarity with the complexity of grammatical
> > rules.
This error came to light recently when someone who took issues with
> > my recent
harsh criticism of JonathanÃf¢Ã'ÂEURÃ'Â(tm)s bad grammar thought heÃf¢
Ã'ÂEURÃ'Â(tm)d Ãf¢Ã'ÂEURÃ'ÂoegotÃf¢Ã'ÂEURÃ' me by
> > pointing
out what he thought was my own error in reported speech.
>
> > This was
the contentious sentence from my piece: Ãf¢Ã'ÂEURÃ'ÂoeThis man had no clue
what
> > Nigeria's
foreign policy is!Ãf¢Ã'ÂEURÃ' In his obviously modest knowledge of the
rules
> > of verb
inflection for tenses in reported speech, the man thought the verb
> > "is" in
the sentence should be in the past tense.*
> > **
> > *
> > Well, this
hypercorrection is caused both by an over-application of the
> > general
rule of tense change in reported speech and by a lack of awareness
> > of the
exceptions to the rule. (For analogous errors, see my previous
> > article
titled, Ãf¢Ã'ÂEURÃ'ÂoeHypercorrection in Nigerian EnglishÃf¢Ã'ÂEURÃ' ).
>
> > As most
people know, Ãf¢Ã'ÂEURÃ'Âoedirect speechÃf¢Ã'ÂEURÃ' is the actual words
that someone has
> > used,
usually indicated with quotation marks. Ãf¢Ã'ÂEURÃ'ÂoeReported speechÃf¢
Ã'ÂEURÃ'Â (also called
> > indirect
speech), on the other hand, is a form of speech used to express
> > what
someone else has said. It does not take quotation marks and often
> > involves a
change in tense.
>
> > The
general rule is that what would be present tense in direct speech
> > becomes
past tense in reported speech. Example:
>
> > She said,
Ãf¢Ã'ÂEURÃ'ÂoeI LIKE the weather.Ãf¢Ã'ÂEURÃ' [Direct speech].
> > She said
(that) she LIKED the weather. [Reported speech].
>
> > But there
are exceptions to the rule. For instance, when an action is
> > constant,
expresses an eternal truth, or refers to religious verities, the
> > verb isn't
inflected for tense in reported speech. For example, it is
> > perfectly
legitimate to write:
>
> > "He said
their son LIVES in Abuja" (if he still lives there).
> > "She said
they HAVE WRITTEN to her many times" (if it's possible that they
> > will
continue to write).
>
> > Similarly,
it's wrong to say, Ãf¢Ã'ÂEURÃ'Âoehe said he believed God existed" (if he
still
> > believes
that God exists). It should correctly be, Ãf¢Ã'ÂEURÃ'Âoehe said he
believes God
> > existsÃf¢
Ã'ÂEURÃ' (because, for religious people, God can't or wonÃf¢Ã'ÂEURÃ'Â
(tm)t ever dieÃ'Â-although
> > irreverent
German philosopher Nietzsche pronounced God dead a long time
> >
ago!Ã'Â-and the man we are reporting presumably stiill believes in Him; to
> > write, "he
said he believed God existed" would imply that the man no longer
> > believes
in the existence of God).
>
> > It also
wrong to write, "He said the sun rose in the east." It should be,
> > "He said
the sun rises in the east" (because that the sun rises in the east
> > is an
eternal, unchangeable truth).
>
> > Another
exception to the rule is that the original tense in direct speech is
> > often
retained if an action has not yet occurred at the time of reporting
> > it, as in
"she said the national debt WILL [not WOULD] be eliminated in
> > 2015."
>
> > Now,
Nigeria's (and, for that matter, any country's) foreign policy is often
> > fairly
constant within a given administration, or at a particular period of
> > time. So
it would be bad grammar to write, "This man had no clue what
> > Nigeria's
foreign policy WAS!" when, in fact, Nigeria's foreign policy
> > hasn't
changed between the time Jonathan betrayed ignorance of it and the
> > time I
reported this fact.
>
> > Well,
perhaps, shortly after his appearance at the Council on Foreign
> > Relation,
Jonathan announced a major change in Nigeria's foreign policy. If
> > so, I
plead guilty to the charge of mangling the tense in my reported
> > speech!
>
> > Q and A
> > Question:
> > How come
most people say Ãf¢Ã'ÂEURÃ'Âoedifferent thanÃf¢Ã'ÂEURÃ' instead of Ãf¢
Ã'ÂEURÃ'Âoedifferent fromÃf¢Ã'ÂEURÃ' and
> > yet the
style manuals tell us that the former is incorrect and the latter
> > correct?
>
> > Answer:
> > Well, Ãf¢
Ã'ÂEURÃ'Âoedifferent thanÃf¢Ã'ÂEURÃ' is chiefly American. ItÃf¢Ã'ÂEURÃ'Â
(tm)s almost absent in any other
> > national
variety of English. The traditional rule is that Ãf¢Ã'ÂEURÃ'ÂoethanÃf¢
Ã'ÂEURÃ'Â can only be
> > used with
the comparative forms of adjectives (e.g., Ãf¢Ã'ÂEURÃ'Âoebetter than,Ãf¢
Ã'ÂEURÃ' Ãf¢Ã'ÂEURÃ'Âoemore
> > than,Ãf¢
Ã'ÂEURÃ' Ãf¢Ã'ÂEURÃ'Âoebigger than,Ãf¢Ã'ÂEURÃ' Ãf¢Ã'ÂEURÃ'Âoemore
beautiful than,Ãf¢Ã'ÂEURÃ' Ãf¢Ã'ÂEURÃ'Âoeless than,Ãf¢Ã'ÂEURÃ' Ãf¢
Ã'ÂEURÃ'Âoeless successful
> > than,Ãf¢
Ã'ÂEURÃ' etc) and with Ãf¢Ã'ÂEURÃ'ÂoeotherÃf¢Ã'ÂEURÃ' and Ãf¢
Ã'ÂEURÃ'ÂoeratherÃf¢Ã'ÂEURÃ' (e.g., Ãf¢Ã'ÂEURÃ'Âoeother than,Ãf¢
Ã'ÂEURÃ' Ãf¢Ã'ÂEURÃ'Âoerather
> > thanÃf¢
Ã'ÂEURÃ' ). Since Ãf¢Ã'ÂEURÃ'ÂoedifferentÃf¢Ã'ÂEURÃ' signifies contrast
rather than comparison, it is
> > taught
that it shouldn't co-occur with Ãf¢Ã'ÂEURÃ'Âoethan.Ãf¢Ã'ÂEURÃ'Â
>
> > However,
the phrase Ãf¢Ã'ÂEURÃ'Âoedifferent thanÃf¢Ã'ÂEURÃ' has become standard
in American English
> > and it
seems churlish to resist it. But I don't think I can ever bring
> > myself to
say "different than." My tongue would fall off!
>
> > British
speakers also have their own awkward deviation from the rule in the
> > phrase ÃfÂ
¢Ã'ÂEURÃ'Âoedifferent to.Ãf¢Ã'ÂEURÃ'Â
>
> > My sense
is that these deviations from the traditional norm were initially
> > usage
errors committed by people at the upper end of the social and cultural
> > scale
(recall my point about the unabashed elitism of usage rules?) or by a
> > critical
mass of people, which gained social prestige over time. What I've
> > noticed,
though, is that the Brits tend confine their Ãf¢Ã'ÂEURÃ'Âoedifferent toÃfÂ
¢Ã'ÂEURÃ' to
> > informal
contexts. But in America Ãf¢Ã'ÂEURÃ'Âoedifferent thanÃf¢Ã'ÂEURÃ'Â
competes with Ãf¢Ã'ÂEURÃ'Âoedifferent
> > fromÃf¢
Ã'ÂEURÃ'Â even in formal contexts.
>
> > Question:
> > I have two
questions. First, what can you say about some journalists here in
> > Nigeria
[who are fond of saying] "my names areÃ'Â..." when introducing
> >
themselves? Second, what is the grammatical rule for using Ãf¢
Ã'ÂEURÃ'Âoeattach herewithÃf¢Ã'ÂEURÃ'Â
> > when
writing formal letters?
>
> > Answer:
> > The phrase
Ãf¢Ã'ÂEURÃ'Âoemy names areÃ'Â...Ãf¢Ã'ÂEURÃ' is unnquestionably
nonstandard by the conventions
> > of modern
English. Contemporary native speakers of the English language
> > donÃf¢
Ã'ÂEURÃ'Â(tm)t introduce themselves that way. My preliminary investigation
shows
> > that, that
form of conversational self-reference occurs chiefly in Nigerian
> > and Kenyan
English. This may indicate that itÃf¢Ã'ÂEURÃ'Â(tm)s an old-fashioned
British
> > English
form that has survived in some of BritainÃf¢Ã'ÂEURÃ'Â(tm)s former
colonies.
>
> > In modern
English, though, most grammarians agree that Ãf¢Ã'ÂEURÃ'ÂoenameÃf¢
Ã'ÂEURÃ'Â in the sense
> > in which
you used it is a language unit and refers both to oneÃf¢Ã'ÂEURÃ'Â(tm)s
first name
> > alone and
to oneÃf¢Ã'ÂEURÃ'Â(tm)s first, (middle) and last names combined. So the
socially
> > normative
and grammatically acceptable way to introduce yourself is to
> > either say
Ãf¢Ã'ÂEURÃ'Âoemy name is DanjumaÃf¢Ã'ÂEURÃ' or my Ãf¢Ã'ÂEURÃ'Âoemy name
is Danjuma Olu Okoro.Ãf¢Ã'ÂEURÃ' The
> > fact of
the addition of Ãf¢Ã'ÂEURÃ'ÂoeOluÃf¢Ã'ÂEURÃ' and Ãf¢Ã'ÂEURÃ'ÂoeOkoroÃfÂ
¢Ã'ÂEURÃ' to Ãf¢Ã'ÂEURÃ'ÂoeDanjumaÃf¢Ã'ÂEURÃ' doesnÃf¢Ã'ÂEURÃ'Â(tm)t
require that
> > you
inflect Ãf¢Ã'ÂEURÃ'ÂoenameÃf¢Ã'ÂEURÃ' for number, that is, it doesn't
require you to pluralize
> > "name" to
>
> ...
>
> lÃfÂfÃ'¤s
mer ÃfÂ'Ã'»
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Kenneth W.
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517 803-8839
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Kenneth W. Harrow

Distinguished Professor of English

Michigan State University

har...@msu.edu

517 803-8839

fax 517 353 3755


Kenneth W. Harrow

Distinguished Professor of English

Michigan State University

har...@msu.edu

517 803-8839

fax 517 353 3755


Kenneth W. Harrow
Distinguished Professor of English
Michigan State University
har...@msu.edu
517 803-8839
fax 517 353 3755

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