₦airaland Forum

10 Most Annoying Nigerian Media English Expressions
By Farooq A. Kperogi

Contemporary Nigerian media English, for the most part, derives from a fetid repertoire of aggravatingly stereotyped and error-ridden phraseology. I have isolated 10 recurrent ones that particularly grate on my nerves.

While some of the expressions I have highlighted below are outright grammatically incorrect, others are grammatically correct but either laughably outdated or hopelessly clichéd. Either way, they all need to be dumped like “the verbal refuse” that they are. The numbering of the expressions is entirely arbitrary; it doesn’t indicate a hierarchical ordering of their egregiousness.

1.“Remains deposited at the mortuary.” This is almost the standard expression in Nigerian media English to say that a dead body has been delivered at the mortuary. There are two problems with this expression. First, the word “remains” is too formal for a news story. “Corpse” and “dead body” are the more usual words. And “deposit” is a singularly quaint verb to associate with death, especially in popular usage.

There are three principal senses of the word “deposit” in conversational English. The first and most popular is to put money or other valuables in a bank account. The second sense is to put, fix, force or implant something, as in “deposit a bullet in the table.” And the third sense is to situate something, that is, to put something somewhere firmly, as in “deposit the suitcase on the bench.” It’s unclear how this expression sprang in Nigerian media English, but it makes me sick to my stomach.

2.“Hear him,” or “in his words:” These are not strictly grammatically incorrect expressions; they are just ugly, inappropriate and superfluous verbiages. The convention in journalistic writing globally is to quote a source and acknowledge attribution by writing “(s)he said” at the end of a sentence. Example: “I hope Yar’adua lives long enough to save us from a potentially destructive constitutional crisis,” he said.

Now, when Nigerian newspaper journalists write “hear him,” they are not only being superfluous; they are also being unfaithful to the medium in which they write. We don’t literally “hear” people in print; we read them. And to write “in his words” while at the same time inserting quotation marks to those words is redundant. It is precisely because you’re quoting your source “in his words” that the sentence is in quotation marks. It’s, of course, appropriate to write “in his words” in broadcast scripts since they are meant to be read out.

3.“As at the time of filing this report:” Well, the correct expression, which is actually a fixed prepositional phrase, is “AS OF,” not “as at.” So, that sentence should read: “As of the time of filing this report.” This solecism has sadly percolated deep into the conventions of Nigerian English in general.

4.“Men of the underworld”: This expression has lost currency in other parts of the English-speaking world. But my gripe with it is that it’s a hackneyed, flyblown cliché that evinces the intellectual laziness of Nigerian journalists. Why not simply write “criminals”?


To be continued...

5.“Names withheld.” This expression rankles me to no end. It’s not only unprofessional and irresponsible journalism to habitually conceal the identity of the subjects you are writing about (as in, “a south-south governor in an oil-rich state [names withheld] is involved in a corruption scandal”); it’s also exasperatingly redundant to state that you have withheld the name of someone whose name you have not mentioned anyway! It is obvious to any reader that a name has been withheld if it’s not mentioned. But what is particularly irksome about this practice is that it is used even in reporting stories of crucial public importance.

If reporters and editors are not prepared to name names, even where it is legally and ethically safe to do so, why waste ink and space to opaquely hint at them? But the bad news for editors and reporters who practice this imbecilic and feeble-minded journalism is that, in media law, not directly mentioning the name of a person or an organization is not sufficient safeguard against legal liability. If a person or a company can prove that there is sufficient material basis for “right-thinking” members of the society to infer that they are the object of a libelous newspaper innuendo, the paper is in the soup.

6.“Electioneering campaign:” “Electioneering” and “political campaign” mean the same thing. So “electioneering campaign” is tautologous. It’s either electioneering or campaign.

7.“Our story is true in every material particular:” The phrase “in every material particular” is an archaic legal jargon. It is not used in everyday English in any native variety of the English language.

8.“Yesteryears:” This old-fashioned word, which is sometimes used for literary effects, has no plural in both the British and American varieties of Standard English. It remains “yesteryear” whether it’s in the singular or plural form. Another word that Nigerian newspapers—and by extension Nigerian speakers of the English language—pluralize against conventional practice is “slang.” The plural is often rendered as “slangs” in Nigeria. In Standard English, however, the plural form of slang does not take an “s”; it is often rendered as “slang expressions.”

9.“A free-for-all fight:” This tautologic expression is probably a consequence of the misrecognition of the part of speech of “free-for-all.” It is a noun, not an adjective, and cannot modify another noun. It means a brawl, a noisy fight in a crowd. So it is sufficient to simply write that there was a free-for-all without adding “fight.”

10. “Not unconnected with:” This expression is not grammatically wrong but is hopelessly hackneyed and pretentious. George Orwell once urged us to laugh the not un- formation out of existence by memorizing this sentence:“A not unblack dog was chasing a not unsmall rabbit across a not ungreen field.

Source:http://www.farooqkperogi.com/2009/12/10-most-annoying-nigerian-media-english.html

hon.patrick...
na u b dat..sooryyy...i catch u

English has played it part...
nawah ooo

Britons self no dey complain say we dey spoil their lang..

yes i mad it...haaaa...takes mic..speechless
(rubs my face with my hand)

Wow, I'm impressed

Good job...
But my man, if you want to teach or correct, try not to create more problems.... with All this grammar u blowing here, u should be working as Chris Okotie's interpreter or APC spoke person...

be explicit as possible except u wona be noticed/show off...

nice work though...

English Migwo

Bros I for like make you teach Patience Jonathan first , b4 you teach us

We are not from england yet we find delight in over speaking english.

How many of us can write in our native language?

Very educative. I am also guilty of some of the above expressions(I hope that was grammatically correct).

tobechi74:
We are not from england yet we find delight in over speaking english.

How many of us can write in our native language?

Hogwash. Do you know the meaning of a Lingua franca?

In a related development

this phrase is grammatically correct but the error is in it usage.
the word development is generically a positive word so you cannot use it to explain something negative.

eg you can't say : 3 students were shot dead during a protest.in a related development, 5 student were also killed during a political rally.
you can not also say developing a cancer or brain tumor etc. instead why don't you just say similar event etc

2: BUT CANNOT BE FOLLOWED WITH A POSITIVE STATEMENT .

but signifies negativity or something opposite of a pleasant experience.

e.g they were involved in a ghastly motor accident but they are fine.
a correct expression would be.

they survived the accident but they they sustained injuries.

pls note that this is just my opinion and understanding

Nonsense! Do you expect us to speak english exactly like the british? This is Nigeria and thats Nigerian english for you.
I expected you to criticize their horrible foreign accents.

fr3do:
Nonsense! Do you expect us to speak english exactly like the british? This is Nigeria and thats Nigerian english for you.
I expected you to criticize their horrible accents.

Is The language yours? If you must speak a language, speak like the owner of the language. You may not have the accent but the grammar/technicalities must be revered.

English is not made in Nigeria, so there is nothing like "this is Nigeria for you".

Speak English the way it should be spoken.

fr3do:
Nonsense! Do you expect us to speak english exactly like the british? This is Nigeria and thats Nigerian english for you.
I expected you to criticize their horrible accents.

Nonsense. Anything worth doing, is worth doing well. How can you report in English when you don't make grammatically correct and coherent sentences. Forget about the accent, that is relative to culture. If we can't be good at written English, let's skip it and make Igbo, Hausa, Yoruba our official languages instead of having learned indegenes and foreigners laugh at our semi-literate reporters masquerading around as the exact opposite of what most of them truly are-semi-literates.

nice post..

i hope this post makes fp
because its been yesteryears since posts like this hit fp.
electioneering and magomagonanism on NL

I here by implore the moderators to do the needful my moving this topic/post to frontpage.
Cc:finestboi,olawale babs n co...

kilokeys:
nice post..

i hope this post makes fp
because its been yesteryears since posts like this hit fp.
electioneering and magomagonanism on NL

I have noticed some of these things myself. Nice job for the enlightenment Op. Kudos!

Largas:
Nonsense. Anything worth doing, is worth doing well. How can you report in English when you don't make grammatically correct and coherent sentences. Forget about the accent, that is relative to culture. If we can't be good at written English, let's skip it and make Igbo, Hausa, Yoruba our official languages instead of having learned indegenes and foreigners laugh at our semi-literate reporters masquerading around as the exact opposite of what most of them truly are-semi-literates.

Nonsense, if you think accepted changes and flavour we have made and given to the english we speak is wrong, you should also consider the english spoken in america and other english speaking countries wrong.
Isnt it bad enough that we are communicating in an alien language that we should now go further by abiding by some invisible british code of speaking english.

Culture is dynamic
culture changes
language is culture

Educative post, it's been long i read something this nice of NL

DjAndroid:
Is The language yours? If you must speak a language, speak like the owner of the language. You may not have the accent but the grammar/technicalities must be revered.

English is not made in Nigeria, so there is nothing like "this is Nigeria for you".

Speak English the way it should be spoken.

the sole purpose for language is communication, Nigerians are communicating intelligently and unamibigously, that's what matters.
your logic of saying that since it is a borrowed language, it shouldnt be suited to us is like buying a house that you can't make changes to.
Americans have so much modded the English but you dont see any american screaming about falling back to some invisible british guideline for speaking english.
Even in britian itself, they are different sorts of englishes, all considered correct.

pyyxxaro:
English Migwo

Bros I for like make you teach Patience Jonathan first , b4 you teach us

abi ooooo

learnt! to much grammar tho

learnt! too much grammar tho

others are.. Nigerians have expressed their displeasure with senator x how do journalists come up with the statistics to determine that majority of Nigerians have spoken.

*yawning*

This is the reason why i hate writting or speaking in english. It's peak time i get myself a france visa.

fr3do:
Nonsense, if you think accepted changes and flavour we have made and given to the english we speak, you should also consider the english spoken in america and other english speaking countries wrong.
Isnt it bad enough that we are communicating in an alien language that we should now go further by abiding by some invisible british code of speaking english.

Culture is dynamic
culture changes
language is culture

Says the nonsense-spitting-one. If language were culture then we should stick to our native languages and forget about English. Those English speaking countries you think of, what other languages aside English do they have as major language? Speak out.

Me fail English,that's unpossible.

Will this make me get job after school? I jes wanna book space for booking sake.

SaintRobs:
If a person or a company can prove that there is sufficient material basis for “right-thinking” members of the society to infer that they are the object of a libelous newspaper innuendo, the paper is in the soup

Wow! I had to read that sentence three times before understanding...and yet, to some extent!

i so hate the 'name witheld' part, na dis one no make us knw bokoharam sponsor since

Largas:
Says the nonsense-spitting-one. If language were culture then we should stick to our native languages and forget about English.

Nigeria is a compilation of numerous ethnic nations, we were united to form one country and english is the official language, we have all fallen to it to communicate with one another. pidgin is even there for quicker and more convenient communication.

Communication is what language is all about, Nigerians are getting information explicitly that is what is important, not some guidelines from Britian.
English in Britian has been changing since time immemorial, english in medival times is different from english now.
If english can change in Britian why cant it change in Nigeria?

Those English speaking countries you think of, what other languages aside English do they have as major language? Speak out.

how does this deviation help your argument or counter mine? Drop your points and stop asking yeye questions.