We start the lesson with this question: The court has served the Central Bank Governor with a …
(a) summons (b) summon (c) summoning (d) summonses
I hope you understand the message the statement is conveying. It means the court has ordered the CBN Governor to appear before it. Now, what is the correct option for the gap?
I will not be surprised if, like many other people, you vote for ‘summon’ – the court has served him with a summon. After all, the presence of ‘a’ in the clause suggests that a singular noun is required. This is, however, not correct because when indicating a court invitation, ‘summons’ bears -s though it is not plural. A judge issues a summons, not a 2 summon:
- The Lagos High Court did issue the police commissioner with a summons.
- The chief has received a summons to appear in court.
- Summons outside court
But ‘summons’ is relevant outside the court situation too because it also refers to an official order to come and see someone:
- The Senate has served the contractor with a summons.
- The CBN Governor has reacted to the summons served on him by the Senate.
- The commissioner appeared before the Kwara State House of Assembly on Thursday based on a summons he got.
Summonses
Interestingly, ‘summons’ is a countable noun that can be pluralised. In other words, the Senate can summons different people to come before it about the same time. In that wise, it served summonses on them. No matter how awkward it sounds, it is one summons, two summonses:
The Senate served two summons on two ministers last week. (Wrong)
The court served two summonses on two ministers last week. (Correct)
Consider the past tense too:
The court summonsed the minister yesterday.
The ‘other’ summon
The above analysis notwithstanding, ‘summon’ is also an acceptable verb within and outside the court context. But unlike ‘summons’, it normally operates as a verb, not a noun. It (summon) means to order someone to be present at a particular place, to officially arrange a meeting or to command by service of a summons to appear in court:
The National Assembly may summon the CBN Governor.
It occasionally summons officials it believes has a case to answer.
Last year, the court summoned the pension commission during the proceedings.
The police team summoned more hands as the crisis thickened.
The governor summoned the management of the polytechnic over the alleged corruption.
Jide said he and his colleagues were summoned to the INEC office.
Summon courage
Another meaning of summon is to increase one’s courage or strength, especially with effort:
The situation looked hopeless in the first half of the game but West Ham summoned courage to get a draw against Arsenal.
Other singular nouns that appear to be plural
You need to watch out for other singular nouns that end with -s, the plural marker. Don’t drop the letter; rather treat the elements as singular nouns.
Examples: United States, Brussels (Belgium’s capital), news, billiards, linguistics, classics, acoustics, diabetics, means, species, electronics, genetics, economics, rabies and rickets:
The United States is a powerful country.
However, when ‘United States’ refers to the country’s national football team, a plural verb may follow it. Sportswriters particularly love this version:
The United States are leading by two goals.
Other examples:
Economics is one of the courses he is considering.
Diabetics puts pressure on patients.
NOTE: Some of the -s singular words can attract plural verbs when used countably:
Statistics is not an easy subject.
Statistics show the party is doing better than it did in the last election.
