The Building Blocks before the House; the Grammar before the Vocabulary
Ganiu Bamgbose, PhD.
The focus of this short piece is to address the desire of many speakers of English to use grandiloquent language or high-sounding words. This surprisingly is commoner among non-native speakers of the language who do not possess a spontaneous command of the language and who have earlier acquired a native language which comes to them more naturally. Beyond the fact that the primary essence of communication is to pass a message, there is a need for second language users of any language to learn, both formally and through constant usage, the rules which guide the use of a language. This body of rules which guides the formation of sentences in a language is called GRAMMAR. A good mastery of permissible structures and combinatorial possibilities of words in any language are essential prerequisites of fluency.
Vocabulary, in its simplest sense, means the words that a person knows and deploys correctly and appropriately in any language. It is essential to state that a wide vocabulary helps prevent boredom in communication. Therefore, it is crucial for everyone who uses a language to work delibrately towards widening her or his vocabulary, especially in a language such as English which serves as an official language in Nigeria. That notwithstanding, arbitrary deployment of words with no consideration for grammaticality, appropriateness and context is a worse linguistic pit than having a shallow vocabulary.
The situation is practically similar to the case of two persons where one has just few wears and takes a good care of them and the other has a full wardrobe of clothes but never keeps them clean or arranges them well. Having very few words that are always dexterously combined in one’s linguistic repertoire is better than having a very wide vocabulary with constant inappropriate usages and grammatical misapplication.
Since the egg must precede the chick, a mastery of the rules of language is more important than a robust vocabulary. The dictionaries, good textbooks and native speakers’ interactions are veritable means of mastering the right uses of words.
Do not purchase when you can simply buy, don’t be flabbergasted when you can simply be surprised, don’t call someone a flibbertigibbet when you can simply call them a silly person. Keep it short and simple because words are like leaves, where they most abound, much fruit of sense beneath is rarely found.
(c) 2020 Dr GAB
