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Questions of use, abuse and style

“The Hindu was prescribed as a textbook for English learning in the early era and especially in the small towns and villages of India,” says A.V. Raman, a Ph.D. scholar at the University of Warwick, U.K. The paper is falling into a rut, says Raman, who will be in India till March 2009 on a research project. The English, “especially in the inner/mofussil pages is horrible.” The desk has to be alert, eliminate phrases and words that have no bearing on the report, and make it readable and grammatically correct. If this is done, The Hindu can reclaim its right to be a textbook for English, he adds.

Raman’s is not a lone voice. Among the others, K.R. Menon (Thiruvananthapuram), who has figured in these columns, has an interesting analysis of the malaise and a prescription to cure it. In a note he sent some time ago, he says The Hindu has fewer errors than other English dailies, and the mistakes can be attributed to (1) a fall in the standard of English, aggravated by cyber language, (2) the “don’t care” attitude of the staff, (3) a lack of accountability, (4) not aiming at excellence, and (5) reflection of society at large. His remedy includes (a) serious and effective training of every recruit, (b) inculcating values such as integrity, duty and accountability in every staff member, (c) encouraging staff members to read the paper fully, with rewards offered for spotting errors, (d) sufficient staff for the workload and (e) nipping in the bud scepticism over errors.

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That such monitoring and mentoring is urgently needed becomes evident from what appears in the paper daily. The errors vary in nature and the causes are many. One basic reason is an inadequate grasp over the language. The samples cited here point to this.

First, a few headlines:

“Subbarao takes charge of the Governor of the RBI.” (N.K. Nihalani, Aurangabad).

“Vegetable prices turn dearer.”

“Spacecraft flys by asteroid.” (Keerthi Vasan, Chennai).

“Students dabble in music and dance.” Reader P.K. Visveswaran (Chennai) says dabble is pejorative. Not exactly, the word means doing something superficially, while the report said the students had lively discussions.

“The Hindu employees elect a new union.” V. Sethuraman (Chennai) points out they elected new office-bearers.

“Most important milestone.” Milestone is something important, significant.

Now from the text of reports.

A story on English teaching had these: “(he) taught … from 1960 till and retirement in 1992 … Amongst the former pupils that took place were prominent alumni.”

What is “ladyfingers”? According to Wikipedia, they are a light and sweet sponge cake, roughly shaped like a large fat finger. The vegetable, dealt with in the report, is lady’s finger. (V. Pichumani, P.S. Raghunandanan, Chennai).

“Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and Trinamool Congress chief Mamta Banerjee who held talks on the Singur issue failed to reach a consensus.” Consensus is general agreement among a number of people; for two people, it is just agreement.

“Evidences” and “speculations” make frequent appearances. As Tommy Wright (Cuttack) points out, these are collective nouns and do not require “s” for the plural.

“Celestial view of aesthetic import which will not offer an encore for 14 years hence.” It should be “for the next 14 years” or “another 14 years” (R. Ramachandra Rao, Hyderabad).

“Apology over publication of an objectionable photograph of Jesus Christ.” K.C. Rajaraman (Chidambaram) points out photography made its appearance in the late 19th century.

“Kamarajar implemented total probation in the State.” That should be Prohibition (J. Sunder Ram, Salem). And Kamarajar is how it is written in Tamil, not English.

“(Mumbai) has a population of about 15 million and where out of every 1000 men 875 are women.” G. Radhakrishnan (Thiruvananthapuram) is unable to solve this conundrum.

And Elango (Murrumbeena, Victoria, Australia) is unable to understand a report that had expressions like “additive added premium petrol and diesel that costing more … further worsen the survival of this industry … creating a scope for scarcity, consumers expressed fear.”

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What follows is not an error, but a question of usage. An article on the Op-Ed page had the expressions, “Pakistan-administered side of Kashmir” and “Indian-administered Kashmir.” V.V. Srinivasan (Hyderabad), who worked with me on The Hindu desk and is still a stickler for the correct expression, questioned this usage, but his objections were dismissed as “ultra patriotism” and “strange reaction to the writer’s considered use.” I do not agree, for these terms question India’s territorial integrity and official policy. By the same argument, would a map with similar markings have been used?

One more issue of usage. What is the criteria for using “dead” and “passes away” in headlines? They mean the same thing, but have different gradations. A reader vehemently protested over the heading “Head of Sivananda Ashram dead.” It was disrespectful, he said. Two days later a headline read “Scientist passes away.” That brings me back to my pet subject: the need for a stylebook.

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In my column, “Pitfalls, barriers and suspicions” (August 4, 2008), I wrote: “The first duty, according to me, is to readers.” That, according to two readers, is wrong usage. N.K. Vijayan (Kizhakkambalam, Kerala), who has “always admired (my) language skills” says this shows “poor stylistic sensibility”, is “not good English” and is “looked down upon by eminent grammarians.” S. Hariharan (Bangalore) said it was the second time I wrote like this. It should have been “in my opinion” as “according to” can be used only for some one else. My thanks to both of them. The learning process never ends.

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Readers have questioned the use in The Hindu of the picture of the 10-year-old eyewitness to the Delhi blasts of September 13. Some papers did not publish it and some TV channels masked the face. The Hindu published a couple of letters to the Editor rightly objecting to the picture. An editorial acknowledgement would have been appropriate.

readerseditor@thehindu.co.in

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