How often do we express
our thoughts and ideas
wrapped in phrases that
are among what the
pragmatics of the language refers to
as index of forbidden expressions?
There are in their legions but for now
I will expose just the few of them that
we regularly recycle in the spoken
and written word. As a reminder here
are those words and expressions that
pop up on our media channels, radio,
television and the newspapers day
in day out that are now considered
forbidden; enabling environment, face
the wrath of the law, Nigerians in the
Diaspora, stakeholders, role model,
NGO, giant of Africa, sensitize and
people oriented.
We have discussed some of them in
our previous English lessons. ‘Face
the wrath of the law’ statement is the
most abused of them all because it has
become too familiar with the writer,
journalist and reporter, and even our
learned friends so much so that you
hear it voiced and written daily on the
broadcast and in the print media. This
has rendered the phrase weakened,
redundant and blunt to the extent
that some serious media outfits now
classify it among the index of forbid-
den phrases.
For those of us who may not under-
stand the argument and the message
I want to pass across, we can do
without the expression ‘face the wrath
of the law’ when we mean to say the
culprit or violator of the law should be
punished in accordance with the laid
down rules and regulations. In other
words we can say it in different ways
and not to restrict oneself to ‘face the
wrath of the law’ phrase that would
not add value to that information we
want to vividly state or push out to the
reading and listening publics. Perhaps,
some of us are carried away by long
winding expressions, again, to impress
rather than express ourselves we forget
to employ simple, direct and function-
al English such as the word ‘punish’ to
tell our story better. Enough of ‘face
the wrath of the law;’ keep it short and
simple-KISS, the acronym that guides
the writer’s conduct in carrying out his
or her duties.
There are many ways we can say it
as I noted in the beginning and throw
away the over recycle ‘face the wrath
of the law’ statement. For example,
‘The murderer, according to the police,
will be punished in line with the laws
of the land,’ or better still, ‘The police
say the murderer will face the law at
the end of investigation.’ One can also
put it this way ‘The murderer will be
subjected to the law of the federal
republic of Nigeria at the conclusion
of investigation.’ Note that there are
no limits to which we can navigate the
language to give a fresh angle to our
report or story. Monotony kills interest
because the reader or listener would
have predicted in advance ones style of
writing or reporting. Surprises make
the reader or listener hunger for more.
Today in our English lesson some-
thing different came to my mind and
I know many do find it difficult to
differentiate the words, I often see as
slippery and an albatross to writers
and even persons who English is a
second language, all starting with
the letter ‘L,’ lose, loose and loss not
ignoring their correct pronunciation.
The verb ‘lose’ rightly pronounced ‘luz,
looz’ is indicative that something is
taken away from one. The past tense of
it ‘lost’ as in a football match. One can
correctly report that ‘Eyimba football
club today lost to Akwa United foot-
ball club by 2 goals to nothing.’ Where-
as, the adjective ‘loose’ pronounced
‘lus, looss’ shows that the cork of the
wine is not firmly in place or tightly
fixed. It can also be related to someone
speaking carelessly or what is regarded
as loose or indiscreet talk.
On the other hand, the word and
noun ‘loss’ voiced ‘loz’ has to do with
the death or loss of a dear one. It could
also be the loss of an amount of mon-
ey. Mostly used when announcing the
passage of or death of someone. Now
that you know the difference, engage
them appropriately rather than go on
confusing the three closely related
words but differs in meaning and pro-
nunciation, lose, loose and loss.
