How often do one hear people speak and annoyingly recycle the phrase ‘join together’. Whether in the street, or at social gatherings, especially at weddings, for example, the officiating clergy man announces to the delight and standing ovation of the appreciative crowd, after the exchange of rings, ‘I now join together Mr. and Mrs. John Johnson as husband and wife’, and to sum it up, ‘in fact, the newest couple in town’, the presiding official will humourously thunder.
But then, it’s time to drop one for the other, or use them separately when it becomes necessary to engage them. Let’s again refresh our minds to avoid making the mistake of what the masters and purists of English describe as linguistic redundancy, simply defined as tautology. Some standard dictionaries refer to tautology as the redundant repetition of a meaning in a sentence, using different words.
This is common in everyday spoken or written English, especially so for the home grown and invented English. Severally, I have brought this to the fore in my regular conversations, not to abuse and misuse the language to suit one. The Nigerian coinage, in whatever guise or form, is never accepted or tolerated as Standard English. Go by the laid down rules and standard. Don’t add or subtract to the detriment of the reading and listening publics.
There are many redundancies in the language that pass through the table of the editor, and whoever is in charge of editorial matters, including the presenter and subeditor unnoticed. It could be ascribed to the carelessly and the carefree attitude exhibited by some gatekeepers working in the media houses to allow such errors slip by. Could it still be the devil’s print at work whenever and wherever they rear the proverbial ugly heads? The answer is simply ‘no’ because somebody somewhere has refused to do the right thing.
Having an eye for details, is a newsroom parlance that is religiously followed. Some others would even go a step further to argue that the dictionary and other reference materials are there to guide one. Yes, the dictionary can guarantee you one thing, how to check spelling errors and synonyms in most cases but won’t teach you how to write or put together these words to make a clear and flawless sentence.
And so, one must begin to learn the intricacies of conforming to the Standard English, mostly through hard work and not relenting to strive to break new grounds. As one of the observers of the development of the language in Nigeria succinctly express it, ‘Nigeria read’, making a mockery of the lack of and near absence of reading culture, especially among the growing population of our youths.
The euphemism that appears to ridicule the lack of reading culture among Nigerians holds sway thus, and to paraphrase: If one wants to hide his or her money and keep away the thief, hide it in a book and go to sleep knowing full well that nobody will touch it. It’s that bad. Now to the subject we are about to breakdown, ‘join together’ phrase that is common place, invented and promoted in Nigeria, among the learned and the not too sophisticated persons.
Just note that one can correctly write or speak, for instance, ‘I join Mr. and Mrs. John Johnson as husband and wife’. The expression ‘join’ means the same thing as ‘together’ statement. It is therefore tautologous to write or speak ‘I join together Mr. and Mrs. John Johnson as husband and wife’. One can ‘bring together’ people of diverse interests’. Not ‘join together’ people of diverse interests.
Another frequently abused and misused statement that figuratively aches my ear, just like those of the language pragmatists, is the tautology, ‘return back.’ One returns to his or her home from overseas trip or after holidaying in Lagos. Never write or speak, ‘he or she return back home from overseas trip’. One will be committing blunder by saying the same thing, using different words. That is tautology ignorantly displayed. One may get away with it, but the harm has been done.
