Ebonyi Journal of Language and Literary Studies 1 (2) April 2018
Volume 1 No. 2: 162 -174 (2018) ISSN 9091 4582 7142
PLEONASM IN WRITTEN ENGLISH AMONG SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN ONITSHA, NIGERIA
Bridget Ngozi MADU [email protected] Department of English Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University, Nigeria
Abstract This study investigates Senior Secondary School students’ ability to identify various forms of pleonasm in written English. . Pleonasm is the use of more words or parts of words than necessary within a context. The theoretical framework used in this study is Error Analysis, which is a technique for identifying, classifying and systematically interpreting the deviations from the established rules. Data were obtained from ten selected Senior Secondary Schools in Onitsha North L.G.A., Nigeria. A questionnaire which has 30 items on pleonasm was used as an instrument for data collection. The study adopted descriptive survey research design. The t-test statistics were used for analysis. Result shows that most students identified occurrences of syntactic and semantic pleonasms but could not do same for pleonastic use of foreign words, idiomatic expressions and acronyms. Finding further shows that there is no significant difference in the mean responses of male and that of female students. It is therefore recommended that secondary school students should be taught to keep abreast of local and international acronyms in the language, so as to avoid pleonasm. Good language/linguistic dictionaries, and thesaurus should be provided in school libraries. The right use of foreign words and acronyms, and idiomatic expressions should be properly taught in secondary schools so as to avoid pleonastic statements. Keywords: Pleonasm, written English, senior secondary school students in Onitsha, error analysis, pleonastic use
Introduction: Pleonasm is the use of too many words to express a meaning within the same context. Agbada (1999, p.108) defines it as: “unnecessary repetition of words having the same meaning in a sentence”. This is the use of more words than are necessary to express a meaning in a sentence. Crystal (2008, p.35) views pleonasm as “a term used in grammar for one element which repeats or anticipates some other element in a sentence and thus semantically redundant”. Agbada (1999) sees pleonasm as tautology which is: energy wasting because it involves the repetition of words of the same idea, sometimes in the same sentence. In order words, these tautological words do nothing but echo other words already found in the same sentence. Most commonly, this happens when a second language user of the English language, in an attempt to express his/her ideas, uses more words than necessary. When such errors occur, many would like to think that as long as the facts are correct, it does not matter if the grammar is bad. Grammatical errors, no matter how negligible they might seem portend grave consequences. On this, Betty, (2010, pp.16, 117) warns “poor grammar reflects badly on you – you might miss out on a job opportunity, you might not be taken seriously when making a complaint, you could even put off a potential inherent date…”. Findings of Mac Arthur (1995) also reveal that ‘a speaker’s underlying knowledge of the rules of grammar and their use in socially appropriate circumstance is of paramount importance’. Pleonasm occurs at semantic, syntactic, and lexical
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(acronyms, foreign words) levels. It also manifests in Biblical references, stylistic preferences or idiomatic expressions.
Pleonasm may however be employed to achieve linguistic, poetic and literary effects. They are used as a rhetorical repetition, they are helpful for reinforcing a contention, an idea or a question rendering the expression easier and clearer to understand. Also, they serve as a part of idiomatic language, professional and scholarly writing (Mac Arthur, 1995). However, once pleonasm is not for poetic, literary effects and so on as stated above, it becomes an error. Among the students of secondary schools in the area covered by this study, it has become fashionable to use chat orthography/language in conveying their thought, so much so that there seem to be no boundary to their employment of such informal writing pattern. Also, because of the pervasive employment of the short-hand chat writing system, it often becomes difficult to determine when some deviations from the norm of writing found in students’ writings are cases of error or mistake. Particularly, pleonasm has become a common occurrence in students’ speeches and writings. This is worrisome considering that pleonasm is a barrier to a good writing. Besides adding bulk to sentences, it enshrouds meaning or promotes lack of clarity. As a teacher of English, it became very compelling to investigate the phenomenon of pleonasm among the students of the area already defined. The primary aim of this study is to determine the extent to which the occurrence of pleonastic expressions as observed in some tests or writings are cases of error or mistake. Specifically, the study seeks to find out whether the students can identify pleonasm in writings or not; if they do, it would be taken that the uses are cases of mistake or style, but if they do not, it would be taken that the uses are cases of error. To this end, the study adopts the distinction already set up in the literature between error and mistake. Mistakes are seen to be an attribute of both native and non-native speakers, not usually systematic, and not a function of incorrect learning, hence can be self-identified and self- corrected. On the other hand, errors are systematic and are symptomatic of second language learners’ speech/writing; they cannot be self-identified nor self-corrected by the person who committed them. They are indicators to the learner’s lack of proper grammatical knowledge.
Types of pleonasm: There are basically two types of pleonasm: Syntactic Pleonasm and Semantic Pleonasm. Other sub- types including Pleonastic Acronyms, pleonasm in Stylistic Preferences/Idiomatic Expression, and Pleonasm in Foreign words also exist. These concepts are operationally explained below: Syntactic pleonasm: Syntax is the arrangement of words and phrases following some set rules to create well-formed sentences in a language. In a syntactic construction, every word or phrase deployed must have an identifiable function and when a word or phrase is engaged more times than is required for the function it performs, it becomes syntactically pleonastic. This is what is referred to in this work as syntactic pleonasm. There are three Types of Syntactic Pleonasm: Multiple Negation, Multiple Affirmation, and Double Possession. Multiple negation is the use/occurrence of more negators than is necessary to form a negative clause. In the English language, only one negative marker is required to turn an affirmative clause to negative. For example, in “I don’t want no guns here”, only don’t or no is required to turn the sentence negative but, instead, both are used, thus incurring an error of pleonasm. Multiple Affirmation means to reply ‘yes’ or express agreement. Its opposite is negative. For example, in “I do love you”, “I love you” is already in the affirmation. The additional word “do” is a multiple affirmation in the sentence. The multiple affirmation is unnecessary, and therefore pleonastic. Double Possessions are double genitives in grammar in the form of either a noun, pronoun, or an adjective that are used to show possession or close connection between two things. For example,
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in “Tochukwu is a classmate of ours”, “classmate” and “ours” in the same clause are double possessions, i.e., both of them express the same close connection. Semantic Pleonasm: Semantic pleonasm is a repetitive usage of same words within a context. According to Palmer (1976, p. 59), it means “sameness of meaning”. Grammatically, when words that have same meaning are used within a context in a stretch of writing or speech, it becomes pleonastic. For example, in “The best graduating student from PMES received a Laptop as a free gift from the president of the Old Boys Association”, the words “free” and “gift” convey sameness of meaning. Pleonasm in Acronyms: Acronym is a creative process in language formation. It is a word formed from the first letters of the words to make up names of something – (New Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary – Seventh Edition). Okoh, (2010, p.42) also defines acronyms as “an abbreviation involving the selection of the first letters of the key words in a title”. This creative process gives rise to an acceptable structure. Pleonasm in acronyms is therefore repetition of a word that is already abbreviated in an acronym. For example, in “She is infected with HIV virus disease”, the “V” in “HIV” means “virus”. So, to have the word “virus” again in the sentence is pleonastic. Pleonasm in Foreign words: Redundancies are sometimes seen in foreign words whose meanings are repeated in the same context. Foreign words are those that are imported from other languages (like L1). Pleonasm in foreign words is therefore repeating a word that is already expressed as a foreign word in the same sentence or utterance. For example, in “My father employed an experienced chauffeur driver recently for our school bus”, the word “driver” is a repetition of the foreign word “chauffeur”. Stylistic Preferences/Idiomatic Expression: Idioms add beauty and charm to the language. English language is rich in idioms used in either spoken or written form. But the use of these idioms with their meanings in an utterance can make it redundant and clumsy. Stylistic Preferences/Idiomatic Expression, therefore, refers to a situation/the act of using idioms as well as their meanings in an utterance. For example, in “I can’t teach Okechukwu because he is a dull blockhead”, the use of “dull” and “blockhead” in the same utterance is pleonasm in idiomatic expression.
Theoretical Framework The theoretical framework adopted for this study is Error Analysis (EA). EA is one of the diagnostic tools in language teaching and learning. This is an applied linguistic principle by means of which, “the performance status of the language learner could be assessed and determined in terms of proficiency in the use of the linguistic codes that underlie the correct use of the target language” (Otagburuagu, 1977, p. 1; see also Otagburuagu, 1999; Otagburuagu & Okorji, 2004; Otagburuagu, Ogenyi, & Ogbodo, 2014; and Kadiri, Otagburuagu, & Aisha, 2015). This is a process of determining the incidence, nature, causes and consequences of unsuccessful language and it involves describing the learners’ inter-language itself by a comparison of the two languages to locate mistakes/differences. “EA is a technique for identifying, classifying and by systematically interpreting the deviations from the established rules” (Crystal, 2008). The major proponent of error linguistics is Corder (1967) who proposes a theoretical and a pedagogical justification that learners errors was a necessary step towards finding and eradicating them. EA arose as an alternative model to take into account the creative aspect of language and placed the learner at the centre of attention in the process of acquiring a second language. It was conceptualized and applied based on the behaviourist theory of language which implied that errors were signs that a language learner had simply not learnt the rules of the target language effectively. Corder classifies errors into intralingual and interlingual errors. Intralingual errors are ones which result from faulty or partial learning of the target language, rather than from language transfer. Intralingual errors may be caused by the influence of one target-language item upon another. For
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example, a learner may produce “He is comes” based on a blend of the English structures “He is coming” and “He comes”. Whereas interlingual error is error which results from language transfer, that is, which is caused by the learners’ native language. For example, the incorrect French sentence “Elle regarde les” (“She sees them”), produced according to the word order of English, instead of the correct French sentence “Elle les regarde” (literally, “She them sees”). In this study, pleonasm is considered an intralingual error. This is because the errors are ones which result from faulty or partial learning of the target language, rather than from language transfer.
Previous Studies Some research have been carried out in the area of learners’ errors in written English as it pertains to syntax, semantics, foreign words usage, idiomatic expressions and acronyms. Obiora (2012) undertakes a study on English language and literacy using the Nigerian population. He limited his study to tertiary institutions. He opines that anyone who is literate in English language should possess an internalized system of the grammar. According to him, the task of competence and performance in English language without pleonasm is a challenge for many Nigerian English students. He concludes by providing clues on how to integrate reading, writing, and speaking of English language towards achieving higher levels of literacy. In a study titled, The challenges of Teaching English in the Polytechnic, Anifowoshe and Omegwu (2011) uses a questionnaire designed for lecturers to assess the situation. The students of Kaduna Polytechnic were used. The study observes pleonastic problems in learning English as the target language among the participants in the study. Similarly, Catoh and Samuel (2013) evaluates the performance of PES students of Kaduna State College of Education, Kafanchan on written English. The study used a quasi group – the Primary Education studies students and a control group. Catoh and Samuel observes a poor performance of PES students in written English. In the same vein, Utazi (2015) carries out a study on ‘Teachers Continuous Assessment Practices in Essay Writing in Senior Secondary Schools in Nsukka Education Zone of Enugu State, and her work also identifies increased rate in the use of wrong choice of words. Okoh, (2010) carries out a book review on the use of acronyms and foreign words. The work reveales high rate of errors in written acronyms and foreign words. He states that many students who attempt to increase their word-stock tend to deviate from the correct structure of the language. As a result of the above reason, some ESL learners tend to have constructions with acronyms such as “AIDS syndrome is a deadly disease”. The work of Okoro (2008) on the effect of guided strategy on junior secondary school students also has some relevance in this study. She found out that teaching essay writing using guided method has a great positive influence on the students’ performance in English language. From her work, the students from the urban setting performed significantly better than their rural counterparts in essay writing. She holds that guided strategy helps students master and avoid unnecessary use of words in their writing good English. Akpan (2015) examines the Nigerian Experience in relation to the use of English for academic purpose and observes that despite the revered function assigned to English, the question that remains is how competent are Nigerian students and graduates in the English language? He observes that the use of English language in Nigerian schools today seems to stress knowledge about the language rather than using the language. Akani (2012) examines the issue of child development in the area of language acquisition focusing on three Nigerian languages: Igbo, Ikwerre and Khana. Result from his study depicts mistakes from the respondents which ended up turning out a different variety from the variety of English language. He rightly concludes that with the aid of good dictionaries as thesaurus, exposure to good English at an early stage (about 10 years of age), users of the English language can do better; and redundancies in written as well oral English could be minimized.
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Jowitt and Nnomonu, (2014) examines errors relating to grammar – verb forms, word usage, idiomatic expressions, repetition and so on, among ESLs in the United Kingdom. They observe some ‘errors of Lexis’, whereby words that are not suitable to the context were used. This means confusing two words that have similar meanings. They gave many examples in his text as a compendium of grammatical errors which are evident to second language learners. From the reported works reviewed above, it is evident that none of them reported any level of pleonasm. They rather looked at different types of performance errors and other issues. Therefore there is need for research reports in this area. Again, none of the studies were conducted in Onitsha metropolis of Anambra State, Nigeria, thereby living scholars in the dark on how the situation will be among such learners in Onitsha. The present study tries to fill this gap in knowledge. Therefore, the following research questions were formulated to guide the study:
i. To what extent could senior secondary school students in Onitsha North Local Government Area, Anambra State, Nigeria, identify syntactic pleonasm in written English? ii. To what extent could senior secondary school students identify semantic pleonasm in written English? iii. To what extent could senior secondary school students identify foreign words pleonasm in written English? iv. To what extent could senior secondary school students identify pleonasm in idiomatic expression in written English? v. To what extent could senior secondary school students identify pleonasm in acronyms in written English?
The significance of this study is that knowing the extent to which students can identify pleonasm at various linguistic levels will be of immense benefit to English language teachers, researchers, and curriculum planers who want to embark on reforms necessary for the improvement of English second language learning. On the part of the L2 learners, the findings of this study will enhance their written English in both internal and external examinations. The study will create a positive change towards the students’ correct usages of words, thereby avoiding redundancies in their English expressions. Finally, this study will be useful to the society in general through learners’ contribution to the development of the society. This is because education aims at making the learner become a functional member of the society, through effective communication.
Method Research Design This study adopted a descriptive survey design. The descriptive survey design was chosen because it enables the researcher to capture and discus events as they are without manipulating what caused an event or what is being observed.
Area of the Study The study was conducted in Onitsha North Local Government Area. Onitsha North Local Government Council is one of the 21 Local Government Areas in Anambra State, Nigeria. The Local Government Area is the commercial nerve centre of Anambra State and Nigeria in general because it hosts the biggest market in West Africa. There are sixteen (16) public (male and or female) secondary schools in the area. The area is densely populated with both civil servants and business people. The choice of the area was motivated by the fact that Onitsha North Local Government Area is an urban centre with many private, public and unity schools scattered all over the area. Considering the nature of business activities (international and local) going on in the area, all inhabitants are interested in education, especially the communicative and written abilities in the use of good English.
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Population of the Study The population of the study comprised eleven thousand one hundred and sixteen (11,116) respondents. This population consisted of all the sixteen public senior secondary school students (male and female) in Onitsha North Local Government Area. This number was based on the statistics collected from the Post Primary Schools Services Commission (PPSSC) in Onitsha Educational Zonal office as at October 2016.
Sample and Sampling Technique The sample for this study was one thousand (1000) respondents, representing roughly (10%) of the study population. The multistage sampling technique was adopted for the study. Multistage sampling technique was described by Cohen, Manion and Morrison (2007) as an extension of cluster sampling technique. It involves selecting groups/clusters and selecting individuals from groups/clusters. In practice, it involved selecting Schools, followed by classrooms and then students. The first stage involved selection of ten (10) secondary schools out of the sixteen (16) secondary schools in the area using the simple random sampling technique. The second stage was selection of five (5) boys and five (5) girls’ secondary schools purposively. The third stage was selection of 100 male and 100 female senior secondary school (SSS 2) students from each school selected.
Instrument for Data Collection The researcher developed a questionnaire on Pleonasm for data collection. Section one solicited demographic information of the participants. These include gender, location of school and class category. Section two consisted of thirty-item questionnaire which is to assess students’ abilities identify pleonasm. That is, they were asked to tick the option that best reflects the participant’s judgment on the extent of correctness of each item statement. The items on Section two were rated on a 4-point response scale of “Very high extent”, “High extent”, “Low extent” and “Very Low extent” with the ratings 4, 3, 2 and 1, respectively for correct responses. To ascertain the validity of the instrument, the title of the study, purpose of the study, research questions as well as copies of the questionnaire were given to three experts (i.e. two from English Language Department and one from the Department of Statistics of a university in Anambra State. These experts scrutinized the items in terms of its content relevance, clarity and appropriateness of items to the purpose of the study and coverage of the dimensions of the study. The suggestions and recommendations made by these experts were reflected on the final draft of the instrument. In order to further ensure the reliability of the instrument, Cronbach Alpha Coefficient was used. This measured the internal consistency of items in each subscale of the instruments. To do this, copies of the questionnaire were administered on 20 SSS2 students in the area but that were not included in the sample. The reason for using SSS 2 students from Onitsha South Local Government Area is because both local governments are in the same educational zone and they share every other feature in common. The researcher distributed the instrument to the SSS 2 students and collected the completed copies of the questionnaire for analysis. The responses were scored and analyzed using the Cronbach Alpha Coefficient. The questionnaire yielded Cronbach Alpha Coefficient values of 0.74, 0.72, 0.80, 0.76 and 0.71 for the subscales respectively. The reliability coefficients were considered satisfactory for the study since it conforms to the recommendation that a reliability coefficient of 0.60 and above is acceptable for a good instrument.
Method of Data Collection The instrument was administered to one thousand (1000) SSS 2 students selected for the study. This exercise was conducted by the researcher with the help of four research assistants. These research assistants were trained by the researcher, briefing them on the purpose of the study, the number of sampled respondents and how to administer and retrieve copies of the questionnaires immediately
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after completion. This exercise took a total of three weeks for completion in all the schools selected for the study. Copies of the questionnaire properly completed were collected on the spot while follow up visits were paid to retrieve copies of the instrument which could not be collected on the spot. In such cases, the researcher and her assistants went back the next day to collect the completed copies of the questionnaire; as a result there were one hundred percent (100%) collections.
Method of Data Analysis The data generated from the copies of the completed questionnaire was subjected to descriptive and inferential statistical analysis, using the SPSS statistical package. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions. Based on the four-point response scale of the study, the cut-off point for regarding a mean score as positive or negative was put at 2.50. Thus, any item with mean point of below 2.50 was regarded as a negative response while mean grade point of 2.50 and above was interpreted as positive response. T-test was used for analysis, testing for significant difference between the mean responses of males and females, since the sample size is large enough.
Result The data gathered using the questionnaire were analyzed and results presented as stated below.
Research Question 1: Below are the tables presenting the mean scores of males and females.
Table 1: Mean scores of students’ judgment on the extent of correctness of each of the syntactic pleonasm presented below. S/N Items Males: N=500 Females: N=500 X SD X SD Weighted Mean 1 There is no husband for the spinster. 3.24 1.13 3.22 1.22 3.23 2 The Peoples Club of Nigeria worldwide international held her 3.29 1.12 3.37 1.03 3.33 2015 annual conference. 3. He knows nothing about the robbery. 3.25 1.09 3.24 1.12 3.25 4 We didn’t had time to join the 3.69 0.91 3.66 0.96 3.68 team. 5 My close good friend visited us. 3.14 1.00 3.20 1.05 3.17 Total 16.61 5.25 16.69 5.28
The result in Table 1 shows that most male and female senior secondary students identified the use of syntactic pleonasm in written English, because all their mean responses were above 2.50. A t-test analysis also shows that the responses of males do not differ significantly from that of the females (t = 0.24, df = 998, p > 0.05).
Table 2: Mean scores of students’ judgment on the extent of correctness of each of the semantic pleonasm presented below. S/N Items Males: N=500 Females: N=500 X SD X SD Weighted Mean 168
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6 He suffered a fatal accident and was rushed to hospital. 3.27 0.99 3.21 0.99 3.24 7 The best graduating student from PMES received a Laptop as a free 3.32 1.08 3.29 1.00 3.31 gift from the president of the Old Boys Association. 8. All the invited guest should dress formal. 3.19 1.07 3.26 1.00 3.23 9 The teacher has a good valid reason for the punishment he gave 3.26 1.05 3.21 1.03 3.24 to the student. 10 Please proofread and scrutinize your work before submission. 3.35 1.06 3.30 1.07 3.33 11. As a very competent engineer, he is qualified for the job. 3.22 1.15 3.22 1.11 3.22 Total 19.61 6.40 19.49 6.20 The result in Table 2 shows that both male and female senior secondary students identified the use of semantic pleonasm in written English, because all their mean responses were above 2.50. A t-test analysis also shows that the responses of males do not differ significantly from that of the females (t = 0.30, df = 998, p > 0.05).
Table 3: Mean scores of students’ judgment on the extent of the foreign/imported words (from other languages) pleonasm presented below. S/N Items Males: N=500 Females: N=500 X SD X SD Weighted Mean 12 It is only the chief arch angle Michael that 1.83 1.55 1.88 1.79 fights wars in heaven. 1.86 13 Uche has a good benefactor who sponsors his university 2.14 1.64 1.80 1.79 1.97 education. 14 Jane is eating tuna fish burger which she 2.18 1.33 1.72 0.92 1.95 bought from ShopRite. 15 My father employed an experienced 2.24 1.76 2.12 1.78 2.18 chauffeur driver recently for our school bus. 16 We must always honour and remember 2.28 1.75 2.32 1.66 2.30 our alma mater as our mother institution. 17 Raymond went to the El Dorado meat shop 2.34 1.86 1.94 2.04 2.14 and bought pork meat.
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18. The Nollywood movie is playing at El 2.28 1.90 2.24 1.93 2.26 Captain theatre today. 19 The Sambisa wald forest is deep and dark. 2.42 1.94 2.12 1.14 2.27 Total 17.71 13.73 16.14 13.05
The result in Table 3 shows that male and female senior secondary students mostly could not identify the foreign words pleonasm, because all their mean responses were below 2.50. A t-test analysis also shows that the responses of males do not differ significantly from that of the females (t = 1.85, df = 998, p > 0.05).
Table 4: Mean scores of students’ judgment on the extent of each of idiomatic expressions pleonasm, presented below. S/N Items Males: N=500 Females: N=500 X SD X SD Weighted Mean 20 I can’t teach Okechukwu because he is a dull 2.32 2.01 2.24 1.93 2.28 blockhead. 21 The students ran helter- skelter in confusion at 2.12 2.03 2.22 1.83 2.17 citing ‘Aki na Pawpaw’ the film stars. 22 The school senior prefect tried to find out a universal remedy as a 1.88 2.05 1.84 2.10 1.86 panacea to all the political problems in the school. 23 Dan Eaves dropped to an ongoing discussion of his 2.12 1.89 2.28 1.88 2.20 parents. 24 His downfall has been alcohol and the bottle. 1.82 1.62 1.74 1.49 1.78 25 The school librarian was asked to manage the 2.32 1.88 2.18 1.88 2.25 books in a neat, clear and apple pie order. Total 12.58 11.48 12.50 11.11
The result in Table 4 shows that male and female senior secondary students mostly could not identify the use of idiomatic expressions pleonasm, because all their mean responses were below 2.50. A t-test analysis also shows that the responses of males do not differ significantly from that of the females (t = 0.11, df = 998, p > 0.05).
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Table 5: Mean scores of students’ judgment on the extent of each of the use of acronyms pleonasm, presented below. S/N Items Males: N=500 Females: N=500 X SD X SD Weighted Mean 26 She is infected with HIV virus disease. 2.14 1.87 2.12 1.94 2.13 27 The students lamented that the 2016 SSCE examination was 2.00 1.96 2.00 2.00 2.00 tough. 28 The Bank’s ATM machine has no network service. 1.96 2.02 1.96 2.02 1.96 29 The Central Bank of Nigeria has asked all customers to use their 1.82 1.89 1.88 1.78 1.85 BVN number in every transaction. 30 Kamsi forgot her PIN number at home. 1.98 2.02 1.98 2.04 1.98 Total 9.90 9.76 9.94 9.78
The result in Table 5 shows that male and female senior secondary students mostly could not identify the use of acronyms pleonasm, because all their mean responses were below 2.50. A t-test analysis also shows that the responses of males do not differ significantly from that of the females (t = 0.06, df = 998, p > 0.05).
Discussion The above results are discussed using the following subheadings: * Pleonastic errors on syntactic sentences. * Pleonastic errors on semantic sentences. * Pleonastic errors in foreign words. * Pleonastic errors in idiomatic expression. * Pleonastic errors in the use of acronyms.
Pleonastic errors on syntactic sentences The result in Table 1 shows that male and female senior secondary students mostly identified the use of syntactic pleonasm in written English. A t-test analysis also shows that the responses of males do not differ significantly from that of the female. This is pleasant to note, since Collins (2009, p. 223) emphasized that ‘order of words in an English sentence is very important and that a change in word order often results in a change of meaning’. One fundamental fact of learning grammar is that anyone who learns a new word has in a way mastered five different kinds of information regarding the word namely – the phonological, morphological, syntactic, semantic and pragmatic information. ‘When one learns a new word, one learns its parts of speech or word class’ (Ndimele 2009, p. 7). It is also noted that there is no gender difference in their performance. This observation aligns with those of Betty (2010) and Jowitt (2012).
Pleonastic errors on semantic sentences Table 2 also shows that the students mostly identified the use of semantic pleonasm in written English. A t-test analysis also shows that the responses of males do not differ significantly from that
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of the females. One would also be delighted to read this finding. The respondents could identify the use of semantic pleonasm in the written English text. They, for instance, were aware that the word ‘fatal’ could result to death and the sentence ending with the word ‘recovered’ is pleonastic. ‘Free gift’ ‘valid reason’ ‘proofread and scrutinize’, and ‘very competent’ were all redundantly used in the sentences where they occurred in the text. Obiora (2012) emphasized that every word has its own meaning. Learning a new word means mastering its meaning in isolation as well the additional meaning it may attract due to its association with other words in the sentence. Extensive use of words can affect semantic structures.
Pleonastic Errors in Foreign Words Table 3 shows that the participants in this study mostly could not identify pleonastic use of foreign words. A t-test analysis also shows that the responses of males do not differ significantly from that of the females. The respondents were not aware that pleonastic use of foreign words whose meanings are repeated in the same context/sentence are ungrammatical. They were unaware that ‘chief’ and ‘arch’, ‘good’, and ‘benefactor’; ‘tuna’ and ‘fish’; ‘chauffeur’ and ‘driver’; ‘alma mater’ and ‘mother institution’; ‘the’ and El’, and ‘wald’ and ‘forest’ should not be in the same syntagmatic relationship within a context. ‘Arch’ means ‘chief’, ‘tuna’ means ‘fish’, ‘chauffeur’ means ‘driver’, ‘alma mater’ means ‘mother institution, and ‘El’ means ‘the’. Okoh (2010) also pointed to this lack of knowledge among the participants in his study.
Pleonastic Errors in Idiomatic Expression Table 4 also shows that most of the students could not identify the pleonasm in idiomatic expressions. A t-test analysis also shows that the responses of males do not differ significantly from that of the females. Eyisi (2004) and Jowitt and Nnomonu (2014) had similar results in their studies. The respondents were not aware that idiomatic expressions do not permit the use of pleonasm. The use of ‘dull’, and ‘blockhead’, helter-skelter’ and ‘confusion’, ‘panacea’ and ‘universal remedy’, ‘alcohol and bottle’, ‘apple pie order’ and ‘neat and clear’ should not be written within a context. Every language has its own idioms or stylistic preferences and they are an integral part of the language. They add beauty and charm to the language, but the use of these idioms with their meanings within the same context make them redundant and clumsy.
Pleonastic Errors in the use of acronyms Table 5 also shows that the respondents mostly could not identify pleonasm in the use of acronyms. A t-test analysis also shows that the responses of males do not differ significantly from that of the females. Okoh (2010) also observed a similar response among the participants in his study. The respondents are not aware that ‘HIV’ and ‘Virus’, ‘SSCE’ and ‘exams’, ‘ATM’ and ‘machine’, ‘BVN’ and ‘number’, and ‘PIN’ and ‘number’ when used within a context depict pleonasm. Acronyms are creative processes in language formation. It involves abbreviation involving the selection of first letters of the key words in a title. These abbreviations so formed are usually pronounced as a word. They increase the word-stock of English and enriches the language. The repetition of the last letters in the acronyms are pleonastic and not acceptable in English language.
Conclusion The result of this study shows that the participants in this study mostly identified pleonasm in the use of syntactic and semantic expressions in written English. Contrary to that, most of them could not identify pleonasm in the use of foreign words, idiomatic expression, and acronyms (respectively). The responses of males did not differ significantly from that of the females. The study is however limited since the author used a questionnaire to collect the data, instead of asking the students to write an essay on a given topic, and from what they wrote, find out
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pleonastic errors in their essays. Whatever the author analyses in the study would then be products of natural occurrence. The items on the questionnaire used in this study are rather hypothetical, hence the author may have produced unnatural data and used same to elicit responses. This may limit, to an extent, the validity of the results. Further studies need to use data collected by asking students to write a passage themselves and pleonastic errors in them analysed. The study is also limited in the sense it concentrated in Onitsha North Local Government Area of Anambra State, Nigeria, which is an urban area. Further studies need to be carried out in a rural area to find out if similar results would be got. The above limitations of study need to be taken care of in future studies.
Recommendations To address the areas of deficiency identified by this study, the following need to be done: Secondary school students should be taught to keep abreast of local and international acronyms in the language, so as to avoid pleonastic statements. Good language/linguistic dictionaries, and thesaurus should be provided in school libraries. This is because they represent a rich storehouse of English language elements, features and uses. The wrong use of foreign words and acronyms should be addressed properly by instructors of English in secondary schools. English teachers should also properly teach students how to use idiomatic expressions and acronyms without pleonastic errors. The limitations of study outlined above need to be taken care of in future studies.
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