SAMPLE I
“Is live theatre really booming in Nigeria?… Life theatre in Nigeria is not alive… They were in the habit of sponsoring life performance every year. If you go round the whole country with life theatre performances, you talk of funding, taking care of all the artistes, their well-fair and so on… What people really need are the kind of life theatres that matter, that appeal to them… If that friction can be removed, we will breath a fresh sigh of relieve” (It’s Twilight on Stage, The Nation, Sunday, 20 March, 2011).
So numerous are the blemishes in this relatively short excerpt that it’s such a hard job deciding where to start from. Anyway, we start by determining the status of the word life which our writer has quite interestingly presented as a variant of live.
The first time we encounter the word theatre, we see it being modified by the word live so that we have live theatre. The modifying item suddenly changes thereafter from the form live to life. That is what we have in: life theatre in Nigeria; life performances; life theatre performances and life theatres that matter. The word life appears so consistently as a modifier that one gains the impression that its first appearance as live must have been an error.
Indeed if frequency of occurrence is anything to go by, we must believe that the writer is convinced that the form life is at least “more correct” than live in the context under consideration. In any case, there is strong evidence that the writer is in confusion, making blind choices rooted in deep ignorance.
We cannot do better today than reproduce our earlier discussion on the grammatical and usage differences among the various forms of the word life: (1) Shakespeare lived about three centuries ago. (2) People here live on vegetables. (3) I live in Ibadan. (4) Nigerians lived in luxury during the oil boom era.
The verb live used in the four sentences above denotes the process of existence, being alive, having life. We can understand its meaning if we note that its partial antonym is to die.
Life (noun): (1) The early man lived a happy life. (2) I have lived here all my life. (3) There is not much life in the society. (4) The boy has been exposed to life. (5) There is but one step between life and death. (6) Death means absence or cessation of life. (7) Life begins at forty.
Basically, the noun life refers to existence in the biological sense. It is from this sense that all other senses such as the quality of that existence, animation, active movement, experience of the activities of the world, etc. derive. In Shakespeare’s personification, “Life is but a walking shadow”, the noun refers to the experience of the person who lives that life. Note that in sentences (1) – (7), we have used the noun life as a singular or uncountable noun. Suppose we want to pluralise the word, what form do we use? This leads us to another form of the word.
Lives: (1) Our lives are different from theirs. (2) Ten lives were lost in the accident. (3) Their lives were in danger.
It is evident from the constructions above that the form lives is the plural of life. It will be well to note that the plural form of life is not *lifes. It is also important not to confuse this plural form – lives – with the present singular form of the verb live we discussed earlier.
Compare the sentences below: (1) John lives in Ibadan. (2) The security of their lives depends on where they live.
In sentence (1), the word lives is a verb in the present everyday tense. It takes s because the subject John is in the third person singular form. In the second sentence, the word lives is the plural form of the noun life. The distinction is very important. That the two words have similar forms is only a coincidence. Confusion should not arise if you are able to know how a verb and a noun behave structurally. Accurate pronunciation is also helpful.
Live (Adj./Adv.): (1) Policemen are not expected to use live ammunition when quelling riots on university campuses. (2) He stepped on a live wire and died. (3) The magician was carrying a live snake. (4) The programme will be broadcast live. (5) It is a live commentary.
Note: Although we have the adjective lively, we do not have the form *liveless. The right word is lifeless.
Living: (1) A dog is a living thing. (2) He has a living faith in God.
The adjective living is similar in meaning to alive.
Note: The noun life discussed above can be used attributively as follows: (1) The murderer was given a life sentence. (2) What is the life expectancy in Nigeria? (3) He was sentenced to life imprisonment. (4) Chief Augustus is a life member of the society.
The following sentences contain most of the forms discussed above: (1) John lived all his life on that lively mountain where he caught many live snakes. (2) His grandson still lives there because the family has been granted life membership of the lively community.
It should not be difficult for you to grasp the senses and meanings of the various forms of the word life as used in the two sentences above. Take another look at those two sentences, paying special attention to the different forms of the noun life. Take an inventory of those forms and identify the word class (noun, verb, adjective, plural noun, singular verb form) each of them belongs to. Note that a crucial part of your knowledge of any word is your ability to identify its word class and your ability to put it in a sentence of your own.
Now read the following sentences: (1) Jonathan will leave Abuja for Cairo next week. (2) Jonathan is leaving Abuja for Cairo next week. (3) Jonathan leaves Abuja for Cairo next week. (4) Jonathan left Abuja for Cairo last week.
The four sentences above illustrate how the various forms of the verb to leave can be used. When we say that somebody leaves a place, we mean that he moves away from that place. The verb has to do with movement or departure. The forms will leave (1) and is leaving (2) are future expressions. Sentence (3), which uses the verb leaves in its everyday tense, is the type we encounter as newspaper headlines. Sentences (4) contains the past form of the verb – left.
These forms should not be confused with the verb to live discussed earlier. Now compare the following sentences: (1) He is leaving Ibadan tomorrow. (2) He will be living in Ibadan as from tomorrow. (3) Jonathan leaves Abuja tomorrow. (4) Jonathan lives in Abuja. (5) Jonathan will leave Abuja tomorrow. (6) Jonathan will live in Abuja as from tomorrow. (7) Jonathan left Lagos for Abuja. (8) Jonathan lived in Lagos.
The distinctions among the various forms of the two verbs have been demonstrated in pairs of sentence above: (1) and (2); (3) and (4); (5) and (6); (7) and (8).
Leaf/Leaves: (1) One green leaf fell from a mighty tree. (2) Give me one cheque leaf. (3) The trees shed all their leaves during the dry season. (4) He tore two leaves from the book.
The forms we have put in sentences above have to do with trees or plants. The singular form is leaf, the plural form is leaves. By extension, these forms are used for books. Sentences (2) and (4) illustrate this.
It is important not to confuse the plural form of leaf (i.e. leaves) with the third person singular forms of the verbs live and leave. Compare the following sentences: (1) Jonathan leaves Abuja for Lagos where he will be decorated with chieftaincy leaves. (2) He goes back to Abuja where he lives.
Now read the following sentences: (1) Her maternity leave has been approved. (2) Chief Oyedudu is entitled to a three-month leave. (3) When are you going on leave? (4) How much is your leave allowance?
The noun leave refers to an officially or statutorily approved break, which entitles a worker to be away from work for a specified period of time. Some other contexts in which the word leave occurs are leave of absence, annual leave, sabbatical leave. A slightly different but related sense of the word can be found in the following sentences: (1) You have my leave to stay away. (2) I will be absent with your leave.
In this context, the word means permission, authority or consent. From these contexts, it should become clear that the noun (which can also be used as attributive adjective) is different in sense and meaning from the verbs leave, live and the noun leaf.
From our discussion so far, it should not be difficult to see that the appropriate forms in all the contexts in which the word life appears is live: live theatre in Nigeria; live performances; live theatre performances; and live theatres that matter
Discussion of other issues arising from the excerpt continues next week.
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