Avoid use of English words in writing by erroneous association

The declaration “I am not boarding” is synonymous with Mr Miguna Miguna in Kenya today. The story of Miguna is a long one, and despite some desperate individuals hiding behind legalese that serves their immediate concerns to frustrate the good fellow, nothing will change the fact that he is a Kenyan. Insistence by whoever feels inclined to deny Miguna his ‘Kenyan-ness’ simply because he holds a Canadian passport is dishonesty; the deceit behind which ‘they’ hide to avoid facing the truth.

So, when some bright sparks in government decided that Miguna the foreigner was to be deported aboard a Dubai bound plane, he was of the contrary opinion and swore he would not board that plane voluntarily. Of course, he dared the government to kill him first before leaving for Dubai, and the 'government' almost obliged him. By doping him (a claim by Miguna), the 'government' half killed him, for he went to sleep and woke up in Dubai dazed. That’s how tough government can be.

The operative word from this narration is ‘deport’, which is basically defined as; ‘to expel a foreigner from a country, typically on the grounds of illegal status or for having committed a crime’. ‘Deport’ is the verb form of the noun ‘deportation’ (the action of deporting a foreigner). There is another word- ‘deportment’-whose closeness to the verb ‘deport’ and noun ‘deportation’ is sufficient to cause confusion and lead to its misapplication in writing.

Deporting him

In the case of Miguna, especially, it is quite easy for the casual reader to get the wrong message if one wrote: “Miguna’s deportment is likely to ruffle Governor Mike Sonko’s projections’. Remember, last week, Governor Mike Sonko nominated Miguna for the deputy governorship of Nairobi County. Interestingly, Miguna once derogatively referred to Sonko as ‘functionally illiterate’, but never one to be outdone, Sonko had his own choice epithets for Miguna.

The phrase “Miguna’s deportment’ does not refer to the act of deporting him, it has an entirely different meaning unrelated to being forcefully taken out of a foreign country. ‘Deportment’ should not be taken to be any other form of a tense of the word ‘deport’. The noun “Deportment’ refers the manner in which a person stands, walks, behaves or conducts him or herself. It is basically about behaviour and manners. Thus, the differences in attitude, perspective and ideology make a Sonko-Miguna combination, as improbable as it is, a combustion chamber.

In a nutshell, the point I am trying to put across is that we all must be quite sure of the meanings of words we put down on paper. With technological advances, this should be easy, particularly for those who use the computer. The dictionary comes in handy for those without ready access to a computer. Using certain words by associating them to others where no relationship exists is unwise, yet it is a common practice. An earlier column pointed out the difference between words that are normally used out of context. These words include, ‘enormity’, ‘enormous’ ‘several’ and ‘severally’. In short, these words mean different things; ‘depravity’, ‘huge’, ‘more than two’ and ‘separately’.

Grammatical errors

Learning is continuous process. As such, if after every writing the writer is cautious enough to take time to verify the correctness and aptness of the words used, it propagates learning and eliminates some of the most common, embarrassing grammatical errors. It helps to remember that English words carry not one, but many meanings. Having urged caution, let us briefly examine the use of the word ‘caution’.

Notably, ‘caution’ is a word to which some writers attach the wrong preposition. For instance, as heavy rains continue in most parts of the country, alerts have been sent out on the possibility of dams breaking their walls and landslides occurring. One such alert read:  'Transport Cabinet Secretary James Macharia warns motorists using Nyeri-Kangema, Gacharage-Thika roads to be cautious over sporadic landslides.'

The preposition 'over' implies one needs to be cautious 'above', across or 'atop' the landslides. While this is the message conveyed, it is hardly what the writer intended. A caution or an alert is mostly about something potentially harmful, or the dangers of something. Thus, motorists should be 'cautious about' landslides that are likely to occur in the specified areas and 'cautious of' the dangers of those that have already occurred. 'Cautious in', also applies.

Mr Chagema is a correspondent at The [email protected]