CHAPTER FOUR
PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS
OF DATA
4.1 Introduction
This chapter gives the analysis and
discussion of the data collected for the study. The frequency of occurrence was
established from the number of grammatical errors gotten from the newspapers
studied. The data collected were categorized into four groups according to the
error types. These were used to answer the research questions of the study.
The analysis presented below was used to
determine the grammatical error types which was consistently used in the
selected Nigerian newspapers.
Table 1
S/N
|
Grammatical Error Type
|
Frequency of Occurrence
|
Relative Frequency Percentage Average
|
1
|
Concord
Group A
|
16
|
19.4%
|
2
|
Punctuation
Group B
|
8
|
11.1%
|
3
|
Tense
Group C
|
4
|
7.3
|
4
|
Preposition
Group D
|
1
|
2.7
|
Grammatical
Errors and Frequency of Occurrence
The table above reveals that concord and
punctuation have the highest frequency of occurrence in the newspapers. This is
closely followed by tense while the preposition error type has the lowest
frequency of occurrence.
Grammatical
Errors in Group A
Group A (Concord error) was used to
collect data on concord errors in the newspapers studied.
As stated in chapter two, collective
nouns or plural verbs depending on the sense intend by the writer, if the nouns
are used in a singular sense, it takes a singular verb but if it is used in the
plural sense, it takes a plural verb.
It was discovered that the Nigeria
Journalist sometimes get confused and find it difficult to determine which
sense is intended in some sentences. In such cases, we discovered that they
indiscriminately used plural verbs thereby creating a difference in number
between the subject and the verb. This is exemplified with the sentences below.
Example
1: The club is among the teams featuring
in the N.F.A pro-league this season.
The collective noun ‘club’ was used in
the singular sense in this sentence, it was used to refer to an organization as
single unit and not the individual members of the organization and as such
should be used with the singular verb “is” not the plural verb “are”.
Thus the sentence is rewrite as:
The club is among the team featuring in
the NFA pro-league this season.
Example
2: Lazio were on top throughout the game at
the Olympic Stadium and might have led at the break.
The main ‘Lazio’ is the name of a club
which comprises various individuals.
However, it was used by the writer to
refer to the team as a single unit and not the individual members. Since it was
used in the singular sense, it should take a singular verb. Good English
demands that the sentence should be rewritten as:
Lazio was on top throughout the game at
the Olympic Stadium and might have led at the break.
Example
3: England has a 90% record at Thickenham
but a 43 percent record away from home.
The noun England was used as a collective
noun in the sentence in two ways. It was used to refer to a country and a team.
But a critical analysis at the sentence reveals that the subject (collective
noun) was used in the singular sense to refer to a single unit and as such
should be used with the singular verb ‘has’ and not the plural verb ‘have’. The
correct version of the sentence is:
England has a 90% record at Twickenham
but a 45% record among from home.
Furthermore, it was stated that whenever
a collective noun is used with a pronoun, they must agree in number, gender and
person. It was discovered that this rule was often breached by Nigeria writers.
Example
4: Eight member of the Nigeria volleyball
federation (NUBF) HAS BEEN NAMED the main organizing committee (MOC) for the
hosting of African Nations Cup Volleyball Gala Championship stated for Abuja in
July.
The presence of the intervening phrase
in the sentence about the grammatical subject of the sentence which should
determine the form of the verb required. As a result, the verb of the sentence
was matched with the corrective noun which make up the intervening phrase
instead of the grammatical subject of the sentence which is ‘eight members’.
Since eight is more than one (plural), it should be used with a plural verb.
The correct version of the sentence should be:
Eight members of the Nigerian Volleyball
Federation (NVBF) as named the Main Organizing Committee (MOC) for the hosting
of African Nations Cup Volleyball Gala Championship State for Abuja in July.
Example
5: Kings College, one of the first
generation schools in the game, have two wins from three matches while St.
Gregory’s College Lagos and British International School are place third and
four respectively.
In this sentence, the writer matches the
verb with a word in the intervening phrase and neglected the grammatical
subject of the sentences, which is King College’ because King college is a name
of a single school, seen as a single unit. It should be used with singular verb
thus the sentence is rewritten as:
King College, one of the first
generation schools in the game, has two wins from three matches while St
Gregory College Lagos and British International School are placed third and
fourth respectively.
Example
6: A recent survey showed that Nigeria
besides South Africa and South Korea were the most active international side of
the world last year.
It was discovered that Nigeria
newspapers reporters find it difficult to choose the subject which should
determine the form of the verb required because of the presence of conjunctions.
The rule governing the use of
correlative conjunctions such as besides in addition along with, accompanied by
etc states that the first subject, that is the number of the subject before the
correlative conjunction is used to determine the form of verb required.
Consequentially, the sentence above is not grammatical in English language. The
correct version of the sentence is:
A recent survey showed that Nigeria
beside South Africa and South Korea was the most active international side of
the world last year.
Group
B
This group dealt with punctuation
errors. As stated in Chapter two, punctuation mark should be used only when
they are necessary and there must be a good reason behind out choice at any
time. The main purpose of punctuation mark is to help to present your ideas
clearly and effectively.
The rule of punctuation states that we
should use a few punctuation mark as necessary, be able to justify each mark
and do not use punctuation mark to compensate for bad sentence construction.
Having gone through the written exercise
of the Nigerian Guardian newspaper, are discovered that they have not mastered
the rules of punctuation. They punctuate sentences indiscriminately. This is
exemplified in the sentences below
Example
1: Three Palestinian Terrorists were caught
and shot to death. We can see that the guardian makes catastrophic error in
their publishment November 4, 2013:refers to Palestinian Terrorrists without quotes.
The correct version at the sentence is:
Three Palestinian ‘Terrorists’ were caught
and shot to death.
Example
2: This is amazing!!!! Multiple punctuation
marks is not allowed in English language unless you want to sound like an
overly emotional teenager. Writing in formal, you should limit yourself to one
exclamation point, regardless of how excited you might be when writing that
sentence. The same applies to question and to the ellipsis (which should have
only three dots). Many of the newspaper reporters are not conscious of this and
this leads to error.
The correct sentence should be:
This is amazing!
Example
3: Before Juventus will retrieve the supersport
Cup they must work hard. The presence of the introduction at the first part of
the sentence which is subordinate clause, confuse the writer which lead to
missing comma in the sentence.
The sentence can be rewritten as:
Before Juventus will retrieve the super
sport cup, they must work hard.
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