Excellent analyses under all criteria Prof. Azindoo!
Thanks a million for this enlightening piece.
Excellent analyses under all criteria Prof. Azindoo!
Thanks a million for this enlightening piece.
ADJOA WANGARA 9 years ago
Azindoo must give Francis Kwarteng some free lectures on English grammatical, because he (Kwarteng) is a big victim of grammatical assult.
Azindoo must give Francis Kwarteng some free lectures on English grammatical, because he (Kwarteng) is a big victim of grammatical assult.
Prof Lungu 9 years ago
Professor Abubakar Mohammed Marzuq Azindoo,
Maybe you will descend this time to argue your case, some, if you cared to read comments about your previous essay.
ITEM: Looks like you took what is essentially a secular tas ... read full comment
Professor Abubakar Mohammed Marzuq Azindoo,
Maybe you will descend this time to argue your case, some, if you cared to read comments about your previous essay.
ITEM: Looks like you took what is essentially a secular task and twisted it into a faith, a religious edict, with your "...God is the Best Error Analyst..."
Question: Whose God is that?
Question: What about those without your kind of God?
Question: When one without faith makes a mistake, em, an error, and substitutes criterion for criteria, when and how will they know "God is the Best Error Analyst, for their particular "error" situation? Will they receive a Report of the Analyses by God to show and share?
Question: Finally, if you are in deed a Professor, of what relevance is your personal faith to this task, and say, to students sitting across your table who are wise enough, critical where it is important, not to tell you what faith they subscribe to?
Haba!
ADJOA WANGARA 9 years ago
Prof Lungu, you can also assist Francis Kwarteng to better his English grammatically because he in most casse copy and pastes, he amalgamates sentences and paragraphs trying to use some gargantuan words he himself don't under ... read full comment
Prof Lungu, you can also assist Francis Kwarteng to better his English grammatically because he in most casse copy and pastes, he amalgamates sentences and paragraphs trying to use some gargantuan words he himself don't understand. Lungu you will bear me out that the guy in most of his essay deviates, expecially when he tries to impress readers with big words instead of writing simple English. But it is not his fault because he can't do otherwise. His I.Q is not sufficient for him to write on his own apart from copying and paste essays.
Abubakar Mohammed Marzuq 9 years ago
Thanks to all contributors to the article of mine, particularly Dr. SAS, whose comments are more encouraging. Hahahahaha! Also, I find Prof Lungu's comments very interesting. In fact they do not only constitute thoughts of a ... read full comment
Thanks to all contributors to the article of mine, particularly Dr. SAS, whose comments are more encouraging. Hahahahaha! Also, I find Prof Lungu's comments very interesting. In fact they do not only constitute thoughts of a critical thinker but also demonstrate the liberal nature of the intellectual community. If secularism welcomes a variety of viewpoints, then Prof, in his respect for secular culture, should expect viewpoints about belief in God - whether Azindoo's God or Francis Kwarteng's God. As for my students, they are entitled to the constitutionally guaranteed freedom of religion in Ghana. As a secularist and liberalist, I would forever respect their opinion about God. Finally, I extend special thanks to Adjoa Wangara for the vote of linguistic confidence she has passed in me. Hahahahaaa!
NOTE: Prof, Please, read my reply to your comments on the earlier essay - Politics over Semantics.
INXS 9 years ago
Prof Lungu is simply asking what God and your faith have to do with the wrong use of "criteria" and it's correction. What has God got to do with realising your mistakes and learning from them?
I think Prof Lungu is right i ... read full comment
Prof Lungu is simply asking what God and your faith have to do with the wrong use of "criteria" and it's correction. What has God got to do with realising your mistakes and learning from them?
I think Prof Lungu is right in asking you not to mix what is essentially a secular issue with concerns about God. If you were writing an article about morality which you relate to a god, we would understand that. But God doesn't make the rules of grammar and is better left out of such discussions.
Prof Lungu 9 years ago
Thanks, INXS!
The opportunity is, we believe that all of us have a responsibility not to confuse students and the young, if they are under our "tutelage", and are not our own children.
Singapore could never develop tha ... read full comment
Thanks, INXS!
The opportunity is, we believe that all of us have a responsibility not to confuse students and the young, if they are under our "tutelage", and are not our own children.
Singapore could never develop that fast with these kinds of religious fanaticism. That is worth some critical thought.
Therefore, in we may further elaborate, in direct response:
ITEM: We are all free to believe in whatever we want. We are not against that, Professor Abubakar Mohammed Marzuq. It is a personal thing.
Again, to channel INXS, what is the point about "God is the Best Error Analyst" when you are talking about a rather pedestrian concept, "criteria"?
Secularism only argues separation - of public interests and private faith - to allow critical thoughts, science, rationality, etc., to thrive so solutions to human problems can be arrived at, and applied, on earth.
Secularism does not proscribe religion.
Further Professor Abubakar Mohammed Marzuq is free to write about God, when he writes about Cats!
Professor Abubakar Mohammed Marzuq is free to write about God, when you writes about Pigs!
And Professor Abubakar Mohammed Marzuq is free to write about God, when you write about Diseases.
In all those cases, we will know what critical lens we will apply!
AGAIN:
Question: When one without faith makes a mistake, em, an error, and substitutes criterion for criteria, when and how will they know "God is the Best Error Analyst, for their particular "error" situation? Will they receive a Report of the Analyses by God to show and share?
Thanks!
INXS 9 years ago
Neither does he write Annual Reports or issue statements of account - lol.
We understand that as a practicing Muslim, Abubakar Mohammed may precede all his pronouncements with a reference to God - ordinary letters, deeds, ... read full comment
Neither does he write Annual Reports or issue statements of account - lol.
We understand that as a practicing Muslim, Abubakar Mohammed may precede all his pronouncements with a reference to God - ordinary letters, deeds, agreements, etc.
We, however, submit that in this matter of correcting our common language mistakes, he should kindly cut out all references to God and other deities. We will accept and be guided by his corrections on the strength of the arguments he makes and his authority on such matters. There's no need for him to confuse and "dabaloo" us with any references to God.
This is important since we think he's doing a good work and should not needlessly include things that will turn some people off.
We look forward to his other pieces...
Dr. SAS, Attorney at Law 9 years ago
Enough of your diversionary posture, Prof. Lungu!
Instead of dwelling on Prof. Azindoo's sound grammatical exegesis, you have chosen to focus on his last sentence,"God is the Best Error Analyst" to distract yourself and ot ... read full comment
Enough of your diversionary posture, Prof. Lungu!
Instead of dwelling on Prof. Azindoo's sound grammatical exegesis, you have chosen to focus on his last sentence,"God is the Best Error Analyst" to distract yourself and others.
That statement itself demonstrates the humility of the good Prof. as he tries to make comfortable those who might feel inadequate as a result of the errors they make in English.It is not supposed to be construed as any proselytization of theism.
And in any case, you would have been praising him if he had substituted "God" with your idol Kwame Nkrumah. Please be edified by the scholarship of Prof. Azindoo and stop your trite discourse about issues that are rather moot.
Kwadwo 9 years ago
That was a good one SAS. Lungu would have certainly praised Azindoo had he substituted "God" with Nkrumah. Like Kwarteng, Nkrumah is Lungu's Robitussin that cures every political and economic ailments in Ghana and Africa at l ... read full comment
That was a good one SAS. Lungu would have certainly praised Azindoo had he substituted "God" with Nkrumah. Like Kwarteng, Nkrumah is Lungu's Robitussin that cures every political and economic ailments in Ghana and Africa at large. In one of his comedy skits, Chris Rock talks about his father prescribing Robitussin when ever he was sick as a child. NKrumatussin is what Lungu, Kwarteng and other ardent Nkrumaist have been prescribing on this forum, but it cures nothing. Besides some of us don't like its side effects.
Prof Lungu 9 years ago
YOUR: "...Lungu would have certainly praised Azindoo had he substituted "God" with Nkrumah..."
OUR COMMENT: Not!
YOUR: "...Lungu would have certainly praised Azindoo had he substituted "God" with Nkrumah..."
OUR COMMENT: Not!
Prof Lungu 9 years ago
Your are the Thurgood Marshall School of Law lawyer!
It is you who can decide best what relevance "God is the Best Error Analyst" has at the closing of an essay on a mundane concept that has precious with little public pol ... read full comment
Your are the Thurgood Marshall School of Law lawyer!
It is you who can decide best what relevance "God is the Best Error Analyst" has at the closing of an essay on a mundane concept that has precious with little public policy implications.
ITEM: Secularism is not a religion, we will now note
Coming back, we understand perfectly how the piece is "excellent" in your eyes. Language, most of all, a "foreign language", is an edict to you, like a law: It never changes, it never assumes new meanings, it is never concatenated, never vernacularized, even by those for whom it is not their natural "tongue".
We know!
Context for you, is trivial, if it does not serve your purpose.
But then, you were all that gung-go for Nkrumah, before you were not all that gung-ho for Nkrumah. That is great credit for a lawyer of your stature!
Greetings!
jimmy 9 years ago
I wonder, when we are going to be on ourselves as intelligent black people who God has divinely endowed us a lot of potential than the white men.
English as a language, number one it is a slave language which makes us blac ... read full comment
I wonder, when we are going to be on ourselves as intelligent black people who God has divinely endowed us a lot of potential than the white men.
English as a language, number one it is a slave language which makes us black people being captivated into the whiteman's way of talking by stupidly throwing away our indigenous language from God. Number two, we do make a lot of mistakes in our local languages: Twi, Fante, Dagaba, Ewe, Mamprusi, Dagomba etc than the English itself, but we must ask ourselves, how many times do we use such a platform and otherwise to correct ourselves instead of taking such a slave language, English, and scrutinize to draw people's attention to some errors. I don't totally condemn what the writer has done here but we are being stupid, I hate to say this about us as Africans, why must technicality of a whiteman's language being too much concerned to us more a whiteman being too much concerned with it? The reason why Africans we are not being creative like Bill Gate, Chinese and others, to solve our continent's problems is because of this whitman's language emulation. In schools, our students could be much creative if they had been taught in our languages.
Don't tell me, why then write Twi, Fante or Gonga here in the comment but use English. Look at countries like Japan, China, South Korea and other developed and semi-developed countries, although some are trying to learn a little bit of other languages in order to trade their manufactured goods around the globe, they have had been proud of their indigenous languages and writings by using them in schools instead of importing and wasting precious time correcting any slave language as we are doing. So a Japanese student of 18 years is much creative by designing a cellphone or a computer game.
It is hard time we become proud of our own god-given languages and then correct the errors we make everyday before we consider a slave language like English and try to correct the petty errors which seem to be more important to us than to the whites themselves.
Dr. SAS, Attorney at Law 9 years ago
So what is your point? Why don't you stop using all western inventions because they are also slave inventions?
If you are suggesting that we develop one of our indigenous languages as a national one like the countries you ... read full comment
So what is your point? Why don't you stop using all western inventions because they are also slave inventions?
If you are suggesting that we develop one of our indigenous languages as a national one like the countries you mention, which one will you choose? Aren't you going to spend the rest of your life fighting over which one?
And how will this fact alone make us creative all of a sudden?
Instead of embarking on a sissypian endeavor to abolish English, you should think of the ways in which you can see all humankind as equal no matter what language they are speaking. And also think of the practical convenience and international cohesion brought on by the use of a lingua franca. Thereafter, consider improving your own lot by availing yourself of better knowledge of the language through extensive reading, unless you want to kick against every western invention by dubbing it as slavery......
There is nothing known as "slave language", but every culture has been a slave culture at some point in the past. And there is nothing wrong in developing any indigenous language or correcting common errors in indigenous languages alongside studying English.
But you are all alone in your spurious assumption that anybody will stop learning English on the rather stupid notion that it is a "slave language". English is a universal language, and the reason why you are here is that you can somehow express yourself in it in spite of your hatred of it.
The real slavery here is in a mind like yours that has refused to evolve because of racism and bigotry. Wake up from your ignorance and live!
Abubakar M. M. Azindoo 9 years ago
Thanks Dr. SAS. Your response to the gentleman wallowing in Anglophobic nonsense is most appropriate. He has forfotten that we are now in a global society where languages must compete in the global affairs and order. His fail ... read full comment
Thanks Dr. SAS. Your response to the gentleman wallowing in Anglophobic nonsense is most appropriate. He has forfotten that we are now in a global society where languages must compete in the global affairs and order. His failure to use the so-called indigenous language to communicate on this platform alone is not only hypocritical but also counter-productive to his claim. I hope he would wake up from ignorance and live!
Abubakar M. M. Azindoo 9 years ago
Correction: forgotten NOT forfotten. Sorry for the textual virus. Hahahahaaa!
Correction: forgotten NOT forfotten. Sorry for the textual virus. Hahahahaaa!
??? 9 years ago
Japanese,Koreans,and the Chinese developed/created their own alphabets/characters.We never developed our own.Are you prepared to ditch the "Slave Latin Alphabet" as well? I think you/we should forever be grateful to Johann G ... read full comment
Japanese,Koreans,and the Chinese developed/created their own alphabets/characters.We never developed our own.Are you prepared to ditch the "Slave Latin Alphabet" as well? I think you/we should forever be grateful to Johann G Christaller and Rattray.Has Morocco,Tunisia,Algeria propelled themselves to a "developed status"by ditching French for Arabic?
Oketekyie. 9 years ago
To me, few things are more annoying than someone who nitpicks about grammar. Grammar is important, to be sure, but how much does it really matter if your sentences are grammatically “correct,” as long as your message is c ... read full comment
To me, few things are more annoying than someone who nitpicks about grammar. Grammar is important, to be sure, but how much does it really matter if your sentences are grammatically “correct,” as long as your message is communicated clearly?
Criteria is plural. Criterion is its singular.As language and words evolve, it is apparently becoming acceptable to use the word criteria as both the singular as well as the plural form.Traditionally, criteria is plural, and criterion is singular. These reflect the Latin forms. Although most dictionaries and usage authorities still make this distinction, criterion is likely to go the way of datum and agendum (which are only used by small groups of English speakers). That is, criterion will become rarer and rarer, while criteria will become the singular form (with criterias perhaps emerging as the plural).
Only time will tell whether it will reach the unquestioned acceptability of agenda.
Abubakar M. M. Azindoo 9 years ago
So, why don't you wait for the time to tell. But for grammar, you wouldn't have known similar words like datum and data and their origin. In any case, the adjective "important" is relative. What is important to you is unimpor ... read full comment
So, why don't you wait for the time to tell. But for grammar, you wouldn't have known similar words like datum and data and their origin. In any case, the adjective "important" is relative. What is important to you is unimportant to another person. So, in a spirit of constructive criticism, if Azindoo considers (grammatical) error analysis important, what is your beef?
Dr. SAS, Attorney at Law 9 years ago
Your question as to how important grammar is is as naive as asking how much important proficiency in any language is. Grammar is at the cornerstone of every language and facilitates content, style and even intelligence in the ... read full comment
Your question as to how important grammar is is as naive as asking how much important proficiency in any language is. Grammar is at the cornerstone of every language and facilitates content, style and even intelligence in the articulation of any language. Any language worth speaking must have its grammar right or else communication will be distractive, if not altogether impossible. Without grammar in the language, we only devolve to its pidgin brand.
Now I can agree with the second part of your argument that words do change in their grammatical use over time; but even where that happens, the etymology and grammatical evolution will still remain intellectually worthwhile.
Waste of time 9 years ago
Thanks a lot for your observation. Language they say is the soul of a people. Africans as a whole are lot for ever if we decide to forever use these foreign languages.
Thanks a lot for your observation. Language they say is the soul of a people. Africans as a whole are lot for ever if we decide to forever use these foreign languages.
Waste of time 9 years ago
To Jimmy
To Jimmy
Waste of time 9 years ago
Thanks for your observation. Language they say is the soul of a people. We will be lost forever if we decide as Africans to continue to use these foreign languages. I am surprised people are not coming to terms with what you ... read full comment
Thanks for your observation. Language they say is the soul of a people. We will be lost forever if we decide as Africans to continue to use these foreign languages. I am surprised people are not coming to terms with what you are trying to drive home. We will remain like this forever trying to copy the whiteman.
Opanin Karikari 9 years ago
Words like MEDIA and STADIA ought to have been mentioned. These are plural
nouns; they have to agree with plural verbs. It is therefore wrong to write or say "news media is" instead of "news media are." Stadia becomes the pl ... read full comment
Words like MEDIA and STADIA ought to have been mentioned. These are plural
nouns; they have to agree with plural verbs. It is therefore wrong to write or say "news media is" instead of "news media are." Stadia becomes the plural form for stadium. These have to follow the grammar of the Latin language to distinguish between neuter and plural nouns. Another one that comes in mind is the use of DATA(plural).The singular form is DATUM. It is very rare to read articles from Ghanaian journalists without finding mistakes. Most of them cannot write English.
Excellent analyses under all criteria Prof. Azindoo!
Thanks a million for this enlightening piece.
Azindoo must give Francis Kwarteng some free lectures on English grammatical, because he (Kwarteng) is a big victim of grammatical assult.
Professor Abubakar Mohammed Marzuq Azindoo,
Maybe you will descend this time to argue your case, some, if you cared to read comments about your previous essay.
ITEM: Looks like you took what is essentially a secular tas ...
read full comment
Prof Lungu, you can also assist Francis Kwarteng to better his English grammatically because he in most casse copy and pastes, he amalgamates sentences and paragraphs trying to use some gargantuan words he himself don't under ...
read full comment
Thanks to all contributors to the article of mine, particularly Dr. SAS, whose comments are more encouraging. Hahahahaha! Also, I find Prof Lungu's comments very interesting. In fact they do not only constitute thoughts of a ...
read full comment
Prof Lungu is simply asking what God and your faith have to do with the wrong use of "criteria" and it's correction. What has God got to do with realising your mistakes and learning from them?
I think Prof Lungu is right i ...
read full comment
Thanks, INXS!
The opportunity is, we believe that all of us have a responsibility not to confuse students and the young, if they are under our "tutelage", and are not our own children.
Singapore could never develop tha ...
read full comment
Neither does he write Annual Reports or issue statements of account - lol.
We understand that as a practicing Muslim, Abubakar Mohammed may precede all his pronouncements with a reference to God - ordinary letters, deeds, ...
read full comment
Enough of your diversionary posture, Prof. Lungu!
Instead of dwelling on Prof. Azindoo's sound grammatical exegesis, you have chosen to focus on his last sentence,"God is the Best Error Analyst" to distract yourself and ot ...
read full comment
That was a good one SAS. Lungu would have certainly praised Azindoo had he substituted "God" with Nkrumah. Like Kwarteng, Nkrumah is Lungu's Robitussin that cures every political and economic ailments in Ghana and Africa at l ...
read full comment
YOUR: "...Lungu would have certainly praised Azindoo had he substituted "God" with Nkrumah..."
OUR COMMENT: Not!
Your are the Thurgood Marshall School of Law lawyer!
It is you who can decide best what relevance "God is the Best Error Analyst" has at the closing of an essay on a mundane concept that has precious with little public pol ...
read full comment
I wonder, when we are going to be on ourselves as intelligent black people who God has divinely endowed us a lot of potential than the white men.
English as a language, number one it is a slave language which makes us blac ...
read full comment
So what is your point? Why don't you stop using all western inventions because they are also slave inventions?
If you are suggesting that we develop one of our indigenous languages as a national one like the countries you ...
read full comment
Thanks Dr. SAS. Your response to the gentleman wallowing in Anglophobic nonsense is most appropriate. He has forfotten that we are now in a global society where languages must compete in the global affairs and order. His fail ...
read full comment
Correction: forgotten NOT forfotten. Sorry for the textual virus. Hahahahaaa!
Japanese,Koreans,and the Chinese developed/created their own alphabets/characters.We never developed our own.Are you prepared to ditch the "Slave Latin Alphabet" as well? I think you/we should forever be grateful to Johann G ...
read full comment
To me, few things are more annoying than someone who nitpicks about grammar. Grammar is important, to be sure, but how much does it really matter if your sentences are grammatically “correct,” as long as your message is c ...
read full comment
So, why don't you wait for the time to tell. But for grammar, you wouldn't have known similar words like datum and data and their origin. In any case, the adjective "important" is relative. What is important to you is unimpor ...
read full comment
Your question as to how important grammar is is as naive as asking how much important proficiency in any language is. Grammar is at the cornerstone of every language and facilitates content, style and even intelligence in the ...
read full comment
Thanks a lot for your observation. Language they say is the soul of a people. Africans as a whole are lot for ever if we decide to forever use these foreign languages.
To Jimmy
Thanks for your observation. Language they say is the soul of a people. We will be lost forever if we decide as Africans to continue to use these foreign languages. I am surprised people are not coming to terms with what you ...
read full comment
Words like MEDIA and STADIA ought to have been mentioned. These are plural
nouns; they have to agree with plural verbs. It is therefore wrong to write or say "news media is" instead of "news media are." Stadia becomes the pl ...
read full comment