• Mind Our English is co-ordinated by Jane F. Raghaven.

YES, I know. The title of this piece looks odd. Everything is wrong with it. It seems to have a letter-cluster within quotation marks, except that the first quotation mark is mistakenly reversed – but no, the marks are apostrophes. The first apostrophe plus the following “t” is a contraction of “it”, as in ’tis (for “it is”), ’twas (for “it was”), and ’twere (for “it were”). The “ain’t” is non-standard English, “widespread in many dialects and informal speech” (Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 2004), being a contraction of any of the following: “am not”, “are not”, “is not”, “has not”, and “have not”. The last word “rite” is wrong, the right spelling for which is “right”.

I thought the title would rightly serve to introduce some words and expressions which have appeared in print as gaffes or in some other guise, some of which are so subtle as to likely pass unnoticed OR are so unlikely as to cause one to do a double take. Let us look at some examples.

As such = as what?

“They (students) must not only learn history but must also appreciate it and its relevance to how our nation was founded. As such (my underline), history books in Malaysia should reflect the facts and role played by all races.” – New Straits Times, Jan 14, p.23. Okay, a definite article should be inserted before the word rôle, but my focus is on the phrase as such. The expression means “in the exact sense of the word or phrase”, and the pronoun such should have an antecedent within the same sentence (We don’t have a secretary as such, but we do have a student who comes in to do a bit of filing and typing – example taken from Cambridge International Dictionary Of English) or in the preceding sentence (He is the boss. As such, he gives the orders here – BUT NOT He is the boss. As such, we take our orders from him.)

Coming back to the passage quoted above, the pronoun such has no antecedent within the same or the preceding sentence. Surely the whole of the preceding sentence cannot serve as the antecedent. In the passage, the phrase as such seems to have the meaning of “under the circumstances”, “such being the case”, and suchlike. Such usage seems to be common. Who knows, it may become standard in the course of time.

To be assured of rest?

“Nik Aziz, the PAS spiritual adviser, said the people should be rest assured (my underline) that he would not speak one thing in private and come out with a different statement publicly.” – NST, Jan 13, p.10. There is no cause to have the two verbs be and rest in apposition. Either one on its own would suffice – thus “... the people should be assured ...” OR, better, “... the people should rest assured ...”

Né and née

There seems to be a fascination with the word née (whether printed with or without the accent mark). Note two examples (names have been changed) from the obituary column: (1) “Chua Su Ling , nee Mrs K Kumar” (The Star, Dec 27, 2010, p.N44), and (2) Mrs Lee Heng Koh nee Madam Goh Yee Eng” (The Star, Jan 7, 2011, p.N60).

The words né and née are the masculine and the feminine forms of the French word meaning “born”, from the past participle naître, and ultimately from the Latin nasci “to be born”. Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 2004, defines the adjective thus: “originally called; born (used in citing a person’s former name, especially a married woman’s name)”.

Now let us come back to the first example quoted. The deceased could not have been born as an already married woman. The citation should have been reversed, thus: “Mrs K. Kumar née Chua Su Ling”. In the second example, the deceased could not have been born as an already adult woman with the honorific “Madam” preceding her maiden name! The citation should omit the honorific, thus: “Mrs Lee Heng Koh née Goh Yee Eng.”

While on the same subject, it is not usual for men to change their names on marriage, but they may do so or be given a new name later in life. Thus it is not incorrect to write, for example, “Chinggis Khaan né Tamujn” and “Tamerlane né Timur”.

Is pretty an adjective or an adverb?

“Man has no given explanation for the sudden ‘curse’. Therefore, they can only blame a woman, or in this case, a young, pretty (my underline) peasant girl, who is inevitably accused of being a witch.” – From a movie review in The Star, Jan 7, p.T6. Readers may note that the adverb only could be moved so as to precede a woman, and that the comma after woman could be moved so as to come after or so as to serve as the initial parenthetic mark for the phrase in other words – but our focus is on the phrase underlined above. The phrase does not sound natural. To comply with the convention for the word-order of adjectives (see MOE, April 23, 2010), the expression should be “pretty young peasant girl”, where pretty (Opinion) precedes young (Age), and peasant being a modifier is tied to the noun girl. But then pretty young has a different connotation – in such construction pretty is not an adjective but an adverb meaning “to some extent; fairly” (Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, 2010). How do we get around the difficulty? I suggest “young and pretty peasant girl”. Do readers have other ideas?

He, she, or they?

“We are trying to trace the person behind the email address, though he or she has tried to hide their identity.” – The Star, Jan 13, p.S62. The quote has a bizarre construction, starting with the noun person in the singular (the antecedent for the pronouns that follow), then a singular third-person pronoun he or she, and finally a plural third-person pronoun their. The speaker vacillates between masculine and feminine for the noun person, as well as between singular and plural for the associated pronoun. A problem such as this arises from the fact that English lacks a gender-neutral pronoun for the third person singular. In this connection, there is merit in legal documents, articles of association, and constitutions of societies in which, for example, “words importing the masculine gender shall be deemed to include the feminine and the neuter genders and words importing the singular shall include the plural, and vice versa.”

Miscellanea

I could go on and on, but I am anxious not to exceed the word limit for my column. So, to round off, I’ll throw in a few quick examples of gaffes et alia, in no particular order and with spurious words or expressions underlined.

1. “China has the second-most billionaires after the US ...” – NST, Sept 9, 2010, p.27. The compound second-most is odd-sounding. The sentence could be amended to “China has the second largest number of billionaires ...”

2. “The folk story of an ancient Chinese woman who replaces her father in battle will get its second live-action adaptation in recent years ...” – The Star, Sept 9, 2010, p.W43. Here is another case involving word-order of adjectives: ancient (Age) before Chinese (Origin) – but carrying an unintended meaning. Who would think of a very old Chinese woman replacing her father (who must be even more ancient than his daughter) to replace him on the battlefield? The phrase an ancient Chinese woman could better be amended to a woman of ancient China.

3. “Seremban deputy OCPD ... said the remains are believed to be that of a 25 year-old ...” – The Star, Sept 15, 2010, p.N20. The compound noun 25 year-old should be fully hyphenated, and the pronoun that should be amended to those, whose antecedent is the plural noun remains.

4. “There maybe a time in the next couple of years where we have to stretch ourselves ...” – The Star, Sept 15, 2010, p.S58. As constructed, the main clause lacks a verb – maybe is an adverb meaning “perhaps, probably”, which should be split to become the verb may be.

5. “Apparently, he had on some occasions defended the needy on a pro bono basis at no cost to them” – The Star/StarMetro North, Nov 23, 2010, p.M2. The phrase pro bono or, in full, pro bono publico is in Latin, meaning “for the public good”, and should be italicised. In law, it denotes legal work done without charge. The phrase at no cost to them is, therefore, superfluous in the said construction.

6. “A decision on not to renew the contract of karate coach P. Arivalagan has sparked a revolt in the national team.” – The Star, Jan 5, p.N60. The preposition on is redundant.

7. “A chancellor’s constant strive for progress” – Title of advertorial in The Star/Star Special, Jan. 14, 2011, p.SS3. The word strive is a verb; it should be replaced by strife, a noun.

8. “Borne of suffering, desperation, and starvation, every migration is a death-defying journey, filled with countless obstacles.” – NST, Dec 12, 2010, p.19. The word borne is the past participle of the verb to bear, meaning “to carry”, and is a misfit in the sentence. The right word is born.

9. “Mohd Safee is a much- soughted after player after his exploits with the national team ...” – Sunday Star, Jan 2, p.S61. The word soughted is a no-no, whereas sought is the past participle (as well as past tense) of the verb to seek. The quoted sentence should be amended, with proper hyphenation, to: “Mohd Safee is a much sought-after player ...”

10. “We have acknowledged that we have a programme around the world where we are alert for people who may be surveilling our embassies ...” – The Star, Nov 10, 2010, p.W42. The word used here, surveilling, is apparently a back-formation from surveillance, BUT it does not appear in any dictionary I consulted.

11. “Featuring the long-awaited climatic battle between Harry and his arch-nemesis Valdemort, the book marked the final of a series that many a child had grown up reading, ever since the first book came out in 1997.” – The Star, Dec 30, 2010, p.T13. The battle has nothing to do with climate, but everything to do with climax. The right word is climactic.

12. “Good fiction stays with you as long as the pages of the book lay open.” – NST, Jan 12, p.8. There are three closely sounding words to be noted, viz. lie/lay/lain (an intransitive verb meaning “to be in or to assume a horizontal or resting position on a supporting surface”), lie/lied/lied (an intransitive verb, meaning “to tell a lie), and lay/laid/laid (a transitive verb, meaning “to put down gently or carefully into position for use”). In the given sentence, substitute lie for lay.

13. “As individuals pour into a police station, they are met and dealt with indifference ...” – NST/Northern Streets, Jan 15, p.6. Playing cards can be dealt, but not people. People are dealt with. The given sentence should include another with so as to read: “... they are met and dealt with with indifference”.

14. “The average age of marriage for women in the country has increased from 1970 to 2000.” – New Sunday Times, Nov 28, 2010, p.10. My goodness! Women in Malaysia seem to live very, very long lives, and to marry when they are over 1,500 years old.

• Survey: Britons love tea more than coffee
• New York City relies on automation technologies to face challenges of urbanisation
• Oil palm firms team up with Sabah to protect Malua Forest Reserve
• Powering the Big Apple
• Build robust cities
• Fun with words
• Rail marvel in New York
• Fun with synonyms
• Carnegie Hall gets green facelift
• Win The Good Food Cook Book!

Latest Jobs from Star-Jobs