Language Doctor

HIV-AIDS Once you are in a marriage stay within the 'passage' of your marriage Never allow your body to become a 'garage' where any Tom, Dick or Harry can explore, exploit and park their lorry. Do and enjoy sex on a moderate average. And for you who are not in a marriage but you forage for sexual venture be warned and desist from sexual rampage. Never allow anyone, no matter their stature, to use you for their promiscuous dressage adventure. Be wary of luring language and alluring facade. That man or that woman you lust for their body may be a carriage of your death sentence! (S)he aids you with AIDS and sends you to Hades Remember: No curative massage can manage the damage of HIV message. Spread this message and not the damage (the virus). ©adebesin (2018) in. 2018

According to Richard Nordquist, 'reduplicative' is a word that contains two identical or very similar parts. Such words are also called 'tautonyms'. Then, the process of forming reduplicatives is known as 'reduplication' and the repeated element in that process is called a 'reduplicant'. 'higgledy':                               reduplicant           (the individual element) 'piggledy':                               reduplicant           (the individual element) 'higgledy' + 'piggledy'     reduplication        (the process) 'higgledy piggledy':         reduplicative       (the product) Reduplication is a global phenomenon; it's found in several languages across the world. How...

My name is Tiwalola Smith, a 17-year old, Year 12 male student of Stellar College, one of the highly ranked secondary schools in Lagos. “Virtually throughout my first nine years of school, learning was really arduous for me.” I struggled academically, struggled to concentrate in class, struggled to understand what I was being taught, struggled to read well, and struggled to pass tests and exams.  However, during the first term of my 9th year, something life-changing happened. I had failed my exam, as usual, and when my Mum saw my report sheet, she cried, as usual. For the first time, I was touched by her tears and I too dissolved into tears. I apologized to her for making her cry again and I promised her I would change, though I had made that same promise many times before. This time, she knew that I really meant it. So, two months after what I had promised would be my ‘final failure’, she did something that amazed me: she resigned from her taxing but financially rewarding job; a j...

Since my both parents passed away – my father first, then, my mother – I had had to live with Auntie Adunni, my maternal aunt, one person in the world that my late mother trusted so much and would have willingly entrusted me in her care, if she had been alive. In Auntie Adunni’s house, I was more of a slave than the “adorable niece” she had always claimed I was, in my mother’s life. Since fate pushed me to her house in the city two years earlier, Auntie Adunni had never seen any need for me to continue schooling, though her hen-pecked husband,  Uncle Festus, later secretly registered me for the final year exam in one of the two private secondary schools in my village. I was about to complete my fourth year of secondary education and was doing very well, in the only public secondary school in my village before my mother’s death forced me out of the village.   However, in spite of my aunt’s devil-may-care attitude, I studied hard but secretly, reading well and wide, as if my li...

Shortly after Mr Paulinus left the principal’s office with his daughter, Annette, they both walked into the lobby, where they stood briefly. They were both seen chatting and frequently smiling. Vanessa was looking keenly at them, through the transparent glass wall. Mr Paulinus leaned over and gave Annette a light hug. Then, he fiddled with her hair as he seemed to be rounding off with his affectionate talk which was making her nod frequently. He finally patted her on the back and they waved at each other. She galloped out of the lobby and headed towards the gazebo, where she and her friend, Vanessa, had sat since the 40-minute break started. By the time she returned to sit beside Vanessa, it was still 30 minutes to the end of the break. “Who was that?” Vanessa asked, as Annette still had a broad smile stuck to her seraphic face. “Obviously, my dad.” She said with an exaggerated sense of pride. “Really? But you bear no resemblance whatsoever to him.” Vanessa sneered. “So? Oh… He’...