Nan Connolly

Stephanie Lancaster

Emily McLoughlin

Andrew Shaheen

MORPHOLOGY PRESENTATION

24 year-old student pursuing a Master’s degree in Construction Engineering and Management

Lived in Tehran, IranFluent in Farsi and French Intermediate speaker in English and Japanese

ABOUT THE PARTICIPANT

ANALYSIS OF MORPHOLOGY

Function Inflectional Affix

Present in Transcript?

Usage Issues?

Plural -s Yes Yes

Possessive -’s Yes No

Third Person -s Yes No

Progressive -ing Yes Yes

Past Tense -ed Yes No

Past Participle -en/-ed No N/A

Comparative -er Yes No

Superlative -est Yes Yes

INFLECTIONAL AFFIXES PREVIEW

USAGE OF THE PLURAL -S

“We are going to install some sensors on construction equipments.”

“I’m really busy with my works.”“Our homeworks are […] increased from Iran’s schools.”

 “Civil engineering, uh, its deals, um you know, that uh, everyone knows civil engineering for building and constructing.”

USAGE OF THE THIRD PERSON SINGULAR –S

Incorrect Usage Examples“For fun, I playing santur. It’s a musical… Iranian musical

instrument--traditional instrument.”“They helped us for uh, finding a house and renting.”

Correct Usage Examples“…They are coming to visit me in the United States.”“He’s studying mechanics in Iran…”

USAGE OF THE PROGRESSIVE -ING

“…This semester she transferred to UCF.”“I went to University for undergrad and then applied for

construction engineering and management…”“It helped me.”

USAGE OF THE PAST TENSE -ED

“I bought a car and now it’s easier to have fun.”“…Maybe here or a better university in terms of civil

engineering.”

USAGE OF THE COMPARATIVE -ER

“Our class all were coed but just up to the highest school they are separate because of their religious beliefs.”

“The longest time that I was far from my mother or my father was a week.” 

USAGE OF THE SUPERLATIVE -EST

Relating to…

SYNTACTIC/GRAMMATICAL

ANALYSIS

"I’m from Iran. [...] It's in Middle East and it's the first from Iraq."

Correction: It's in the Middle East and is east of Iraq. The first from Iraq is vague, and could indicate lack of a more suitable word. He may also mean that Iraq is the first country one travels through when heading west.

"After that, I went to university..."

Correction: "After that, I went to the university..."

In British English, saying "I went to university to study biology" is acceptable. In American English, although it is acceptable to say "I went to school", it is not common to say "I went to university."

DEFINITE ARTICLES

"Most of people don’t distinguish between Iran and Iraq"

Correction: Most people don't distinguish between Iran and Iraq. Could have meant to say Most of the people or Many of the people.

"We have 8 years war between Iran and Iraq."

Correction:

There have been eight years of war between Iran and Iraq.

Or:

Iran and Iraq have fought for eight years.

The speaker is likely using "we" to indicate that he is a part of the cultural identity of Iran. He may have meant to say We [i.e. speaker and other Iranians] have fought Iraq for eight years.

PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES

"I’ve grown up in Tehran, the capital of Iran."

Some people would not think of this as a grammatical error, but it is worth noting. Using the past tense, we generally have the following options in terms of this sentence:

1. I grew up in Tehran [Simple past tense, most commonly used]2. I have grown up in Tehran [Present progressive, version used above]3. I had grown up in Tehran [Past perfect simple]

The present progressive tense is normally used to show what has happened in the recent past, leading up to the present. For instance, if you say "I have gone to Wal-Mart," it would indicate that you had recently gone to Wal-Mart and have now returned. The test for this would be to say, "I have just grown up", which does not make any sense to native speakers, because it is a process, not a concrete action. Option 1 would have been a better choice.

VERB TENSE

"I was my father and my mother student."

Possible Corrections: 1. "I was a student of my father and mother." [Best option]2. "I was my father and mother's student." [Single apostrophe shows joint possession]3. "I was my father's and my mother's student." [Double apostrophe shows separate possession]

In choice 1, by reversing word order and switching from passive to active voice, the sentence becomes more concise and avoids ambiguity. It also conveys the meaning of the sentence clearly and avoids the issues surrounding possessive apostrophes. In choices 2 and 3, we can see distinctions in writing/speaking style. Choice 2 is the more acceptable form according to the Chicago Manual of Style, but all options are grammatically correct. Native English speakers would also more likely say, "my mother and father" instead of "my father and mother."

FORMING POSSESSIVES OF NOUNS

 ”I like to have a dog but […] I’ve never had any pets.” “If we didn’t have our friends here, then

things were difficult.”

Correction: “I would like to have a dog…”“…things would be difficult.”

Conditional sentences are problematic for many English language learners. Note that the first example is not a conditional phrase, as it must contain an if-then clause.

MODALS/CONDITIONAL PHRASES