Language Agenda: Executive Error of Concord

The Author

Introduction
In a TV discussion on Ghana's legal victory in the maritime dispute with Ivory Coast, a legal luminary makes the following statements:

● "There IS some technical DIFFERENCES ..."

● "...The ULTIMATE legal CONCLUSION."
While the entire submission of the law guru is a reflection of legal excellence, the above statements have been attacked by some grammatical viruses. Yes! The first structure is fractured by the Error of Concord (in relation to the subject-verb agreement.) The second one is contaminated by the virus of tautology. Below is the justification of claim:

Justification
In line with the Rule of Concord, a singular subject agrees with a singular verb, and a plural subject agrees with a plural verb. The subject of the first structure is "DIFFERENCES", which is plural. The corresponding verb in the structure is "IS", which is singular. Clearly, the situation is a violation of the Rule of Concord. Two things may account for the error. These are the technique of inversion - by which the verb "IS" comes before the subject "DIFFERENCES" - and the emphatic element known in the grammatical parlance as "EXISTENTIAL THERE."

As stated earlier, the second structure contains two words of similar meanings that make it tautological. Indeed, "ULTIMATE" and "CONCLUSION mean the same thing although they belong to different lexical categories. "ULTIMATE", an adjective - in this context - means "FINAL". "CONCLUSION", a noun, means "FINALITY."

Correction
The first structure can be corrected in the following ways:

● There ARE some technical DIFFERENCES...(Here the plural subject "differences" agrees with the plural verb "are.")

It is instructive to state that the structure can be written without the word "THERE." In that case, it will be:

● Some technical DIFFERENCES ARE...
The correction of the second structure is relatively simpler. It is just a matter of deleting "ULTIMATE" from the structure, and the result would be:

● ...Legal CONCLUSION.
Conclusion
Dear reader, as you enjoy this discourse, you should be wary of temptations to use more words to express a few things. Those temptations may expose a text or a speech to the grammatical viruses of tautology and subject-verb mismatch.

Dedication
This discourse is dedicated to the team of legal minds and experts of maritime-related disciplines who have secured, for the Republic of Ghana, the historic victory in the dispute between Ghana and Ivory Coast... May Ghanaians learn from the unity that has provided the basis for this victory.

Allah is the Best Grammarian.
Dr. Abubakar Mohammed Marzuq Azindoo
Lecturer, University of Applied Management, Germany - Ghana Campus, McCarthy Hill, Accra.