How can he marry a wife?

Poor command of English shown by the teachers/writers is alleged and the benefits of having a good command of English are advocated in the articles mentioned in my blog below; and that has inspired me to write my said blog.

I reproduce below the entire article "How can he marry a wife?" apart from my blog and a sentence (capable of suggesting that he can marry a wife) recently discovered by me in a grammar book.

Sunday, September 10, 2006

MIND OUR ENGLISH Thursday August 31, 2006

How can he marry a wife? (Your questions answered by FADZILAH AMIN)

I CAME across an objective question in my student’s English exam paper recently. I’m his tutor.

The question is:

He married a

a) girl b) woman c) wife

My student answered b) but his teacher marked it wrong and circled c) as the correct answer.

My student is studying in a Chinese school. I can understand why the answer is “wife” as it is coming from a direct Chinese translation.

From the English language point of view, won’t it mean he is married to someone’s wife? What’s your comment? – JT

A man is usually said to marry a woman. She only becomes his wife after he marries her. You are right. If he married “a wife”, it does look as if he was marrying a woman who already had a husband, and this won’t be allowed in most societies!

Of course, a man may also marry a girl, if someone who is 17, say, is considered a girl and not quite a woman yet.




Mind Our English
Posted by: Kengt_Penang, 10-Sep-2006

The two articles entitled 'How can he marry a wife?' and 'High time we realized' in My Our English of STARTWO dated August 31 have given me the inspiration (boosted by 'Think global, master English' opined by Sylvia Hsu Chen Yip, Canberra, Australia in the Opinion Page of THE STAR of September 6) to write this message.

The situation (which is clearly due to ignorance) mentioned in the first article is really pathetic that warrants immediate improvements on the part of the teacher and school concerned.

I agree in toto the statement in the second article reading, "The Star is a national daily, and it plays a pivotal role in educating the nation, including on the correct use of English."

Apart from the error stated in such second article, the following common mistakes can often be noticed:-

Ambiguity arising mostly from the avoidance of repeated use of nouns;

2. Nouns/pronouns and verbs disagreement (though sometimes permitted by modern usages);

3. Incorrect use of present participle (in active voice) for past participle (in passive voice) and vice versa;

4. Incorrect use of who for whom and vice versa; and

5. Two distinct sentences/statements linked by a simple comma (comma splice).

It is a well-known fact that all students are encouraged to read newspapers to improve their English apart from updating themselves about the current events and happenings.

I think everybody will agree with me that the above shortcomings are not due to ignorance but to oversight because of tight schedules.

No stones should be left unturned to reduce or minimize such occurrences for the good of all.

Kengt_Penang

In OUTLINE OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR (REVISED EDITON) IN FIVE PARTS BY J. C. NESFIELD, M.A., AUTHOR OF ‘ENGLISH GRAMMAR PAST AND PRESENT HISTORICAL ENGLISH AND DERIVATION,’ ETC. MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED, ST. MARTIN’S STREET, LONDON 1925 PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN, it states that when two nouns in the gentitive case are in aposition the apostrophe s is added either to the first or last, but not to both and gives one of the examples as “HEROD MARRIED HIS BROTHER PHILIP’S WIFE”.