SAMPLE 1: “If NLC cannot back the police to investigate a crime bothering on national security...
you need to stand on the ruling of the National Industrial Court...
” (If NLC can’t back police to probe Ajaero...
Opera News, August 20, 2024) The word whose form and meaning are striking is bothering which occurs in the following context: “a crime bothering on national security...
” This is a strange piece of communication and the strangeness derives from the more than curious use of the lexeme bothering in the context. It is obvious that the reporter has betrayed a failure to differentiate usefully between the lexemes border and bother, a failure emanating from a glaring pronunciation weakness. This is not the first time we have complained about our public writers’ inability to effectively differentiate between the sound represented in writing as –th and that represented as –d.
It is this failure that lies at the heart of their failure to differentiate between border and bother. What is the difference between these words? The word bother, let us note, has to do with emotional trouble, distress of the soul, anxiety about a person or thing. Please read the following sentences: 1) Many parents are bothered when their children do not seem to be making satisfactory progress in their academic work.
2) The miserable state of power supply in Nigeria should bother any responsible government. 3) I have deliberately refrained from bothering you with my financial challenges. 4.