Is it result INTO or result TO something? No, say: result IN…

A preposition is a word or a group of words used before a noun or pronoun to show place, position, time or method. Examples: IN, AT, AGAINST, ON, WITH, BETWEEN and OF. Be warned that prepositions are highly idiomatic, so they don’t necessarily subscribe to usual grammatical logic.

Which is to say, you have to use a preposition in a particular context as handed down by indigenous speakers of the language—take it or leave it!

It is widely acknowledged that the preposition is the most damning grammatical category in English, more so if you learnt it as a second language! It can really mess you up!

Having thus lectured (bah!), let me now proceed with sharing linguistic gems recently gathered from the Bongo press. Here we go…

On Page 20 of Bongo’s senior-most broadsheet of Sat, Sept 28, the lead story had the headline, ‘CAS pushes Morrison case to September’, for which the intro is thus penned:

“Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has once again rescheduled the ruling of the highly awaited case BETWEEN Young African AGAINST Bernard Morrison to September 21st this year.”

Do you see what I said above about prepositions? Treacherous! We don’t say between this against that; it is BETWEEN this AND that. It means, the use of “between” in the context of this information isn’t correct.

Or, you may rightly say: “…the case PITTING Young Africans AGAINST Bernard Morrison…”

In Para 3, the scribbler writes: “ACCORDING to part of the letter which was signed by CAS Counsel Carolin Fischer, IT READS: ‘On behalf of the…please be advised…’…”

Incidentally this irritation of “according to so and so, HE SAID…” is also common in Kiswahili media, where our counterparts are apt to shamelessly say: “Kwa MUJIBU wa fulani bin fulani, ALISEMA kwamba…” So nonsensical!

Here is our rewrite of the intro:

“THE Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has once again rescheduled the ruling ON the highly awaited Young African VERSUS Bernard Morrison CASE to September 21st this year.”

My Para 3 rewrite: “PART of the letter which was signed by CAS Counsel Carolin Fischer READS: ‘On behalf of the…please be advised…’…”

In Para 5, the sports scribbler writes: “This means, sport (sic!) fans who are eager to see the end product (sic!) of this case will have to wait for almost one month before knowing who will be winner AND loser.”

A certain party to this case will emerge winner and loser at the same time? That doesn’t make sense, does it? I aver the scribbler meant to say sports fans are keen on knowing “who will be winner and WHO WILL BE the loser”.

And now, a look at what was unearthed from the tabloid closely associated with this columnist, in its Friday, Sept 3 edition. On Page 3, there is this story: ‘Bad news as TMA predicts drought’. Purporting to report on what a Tanzania Meteorological Department senior official said, the scribbler writes in the last Para:

“According to him, inadequate pasture and water could also result INTO conflicts between pastoralists and other land users.”

Result into conflicts? Nope! Matters result IN (not into) this and that.

My Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary gives two examples that support what I am asserting:

• The cyclone has resulted IN thousands of deaths and

• These policies result IN many elderly and disabled people suffering hardships.

Finally, there is a Page 12 story from the same tabloid entitled, ‘Rapper Mulla explores the Bongo Flava music genre’, in which the scribbler writes regarding the rapper:

“…by the time he was a FORM 3 student IN SECONDARY SCHOOL…”

A perfect example of tautological nonsense, this! Yes, tautological (providing unnecessary info ostensibly to emphasise), because when you say someone is in Form 3, it is obvious he is in secondary school. Right?

Ah, this treacherous language called English!