A seasoned writer and literary art promoter, BM Dzukogi, revisited an old argument three days ago when he wondered aloud what was wrong in saying ‘I saw your missed call.’ Because the poser came in a Facebook post, it generated considerable interest, with a good number of people sharing with him the belief that the expression ought to be grammatically acceptable.
He wrote: “What makes ‘I saw your missed call’ a wrong expression when I actually saw it in my call log? I am tired of that illogic from many people.”
Well, we thank Dzukogi, a former National Secretary of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), with Midnight Lamp and These Last Tears (both poetry,) among other works, to his credit. He inspired today’s topic, which borders on the validity or otherwise of ‘I saw your missed call.’ However, our position is that the statement harbours at least two grammatical issues. This is largely in line with the submission of one of those who commented on the post, Usman Baba Isah. We shall identify the issues and compare the expression with its correct counterpart: I missed your call.
Ambiguity
The first major problem with ‘I saw your missed call’ is that it is pregnant with ambiguity, a situation in which an expression can be interpreted to mean two or more things. To understand this, we need to ask: Who missed the call? Whose missed call are we talking about? By saying ‘I saw your missed call’, are we referring to some other call made/missed by the caller or the one missed by the intended receiver who is now talking? The context should, of course, show who missed the call; yet the sentence primarily remains ambiguous.
Also, the statement could refer to the calls the listener missed in a situation you are looking through his call log (on his phone) and discover he truly missed some. To avoid the confusion, therefore, it is better to tell the fellow: I missed your call.
This is how Isah put it (stet):
Sir, let me attempt to answer ur tricky question, from my perspective.
In the Nigerian context, “I saw ur missed call” is in order, however, logically, it is not.
It’s not even a matter of grammar.
If u miss someone’s call, it is recorded on ur phone as a missed call. It is u that missed the call, not the caller. So u can correctly say “I missed ur call”, but when u say “I saw ur missed call, u are simply saying u had access to the caller’s phone and saw the mised call recorded on his phone. That way, u are no longer talking about this call that u missed, but a different call recorded on the callers phone.
I hope my turenchi has not failed me here.
Redundancy
The second issue with ‘I saw your missed call’ is that the adjective ‘missed’ (a verb now functioning as an adjective) is redundant in the phrase, ‘missed call’. If you simply say, ‘I saw your call’, you would still have made your point as it is understandable that it is the missed call you are referring to. In other words, ‘I missed your call’ is cool, while ‘I saw your call’ is also devoid of ambiguity and redundancy.
On phone or on the phone?
This is one of the elements we treated on November 4, 2024 in a topic identifying phrases in which article ‘the’ is compulsory. We had observed thus: When an ongoing call prevents you from attending to another matter, and you need to state the reason, the standard thing to say is you are/were ‘on the phone’, not on phone:
Sorry, I was on phone when you entered. (Wrong)
Sorry, I was on the phone when you entered. (Correct)
Note that someone can also be on call, but the meaning is different from being on the phone. It means be ‘on duty’:
The nurse is not on call tonight.
Answer your call or answer the phone?
Both are correct. They mean to pick up the telephone when it rings. Also, you can answer the door to mean open the door when someone knocks or rings the bell.
I can hear you, not I’m hearing you
We have discussed this in this class on a number of occasions. The correct statements are: ‘I can hear you’ ‘Can you hear me’ etc., not ‘I am hearing you’ or ‘Are you hearing me’. Why? Because ‘hear’ is an example of stative verbs which describe a state, condition, or perception, rather than an action. Unlike action verbs, they are not normally used in the progressive/continuous form. Other examples are see, smell, think, feel, believe, seem, remember, like and love:
Badoo is on the line, but I am not hearing him well. (Wrong)
Badoo is on the line, but I cannot hear him well. (Correct)
The network was bad. He kept asking me: ‘Are you hearing me?’
The network was bad. He kept asking me: ‘Can you hear me?’
I’m liking you. (Wrong)
I like you. (Correct)
The Australian is not knowing the meaning of japa. (Wrong)
The Australian does not know the meaning of japa. (Correct)
