Worksheet 2 Alejandro Fuentes

8/8/2019 Worksheet 2 Alejandro Fuentes

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Worksheet 2

1.Target language

2.An auxiliary verbAuxiliary verbs are verbs, like be and can, that have a

grammatical function. They therefore contrast with lexical verbs,

such as go, eat, steal, etc. There are two types in English: the

primary auxiliaries, be, do, andhave; and the secondary, or

modal auxiliaries, such as will, would, may, might, etc. The

primary auxiliaries serve to express aspect and voice (i.e., active

and passive). For example:

Someone has stolen my bik

e (= perfectaspe

ct)My bike was stolen (= passive voice)

(Compare: Someone stole my bike.)

The primary auxiliaries change their form according to tense,

number and person:

Someone had stolen my bike (= past tense)

Both my bikes were stolen (= plural)

Someone has stolen my bike (= third person)

Auxiliary verbs can occur incombination, as inMy bike has been

stolen and My bike must have been stolen, but only the first

auxiliary is the operator.

y Negation: using not: My bike was not(or wasnt) stolen.y Inversion: with the subject to form questions: Has

someone stolen my bike?

y Emphasis: the operator can be stressed to emphasize thatthe clause is positive: My bike WAS stolen.

y Ellipsis: the operator can stand in for a whole clause: Mybike wasnt stolen but my helmetwas.

y (Related to the above) the operator can form questiontags: My bike was stolen, wasntit?

Ina sentence where there is no auxiliary verb (such as Someone

stole my bike), the above operations are performed using the

dummy operatordo/did:

Ben didnt steal my bike (= negation)

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Did someone steal my bike?(= inversion)

Someone DID steal my bike! (= emphasis)

Who stole my bike? Ben did. (= ellipsis)

Someone stole my bike, didnt they?(= question tag)

Note that auxiliaries often have unstressed (or weak) or stressed

(or strong) forms: My bike was [/wz/] stolen. (No, itwasnt).

Im telling you it WAS! [/wz/]. Alternatively, they can be

contracted: My bikes been stolen.

Not being a highly inflected language, English relies on the

auxiliary system to do a lot of its grammar work. To many

learners, the system seems somewhat obscure, especially the use

of thedumm

y operator

.It

isnot he

lpe

dby the f

act th

atauxilia

ries

are oftenunstressed or contracted, and therefore difficult to spot.

Teachers need to make a special effort to help learners notice

them. Teaching the termauxiliary verb (or helping verb) at an

early stage can help.

3.A determinerWords like the, her, many, and this belong to the word class of

determiners. These words come before nouns, and their function

is to limit the meaning of the noun in some way. So, in the

exchange What have you got? ~ Apple, the word apple is not

limitedinany way, compared to, say, an apple, some apples, my

apple, these apples, all six apples, etc.

There are various sub-categories ofdeterminer:

y Articles: such as a, they Demonstratives: this, thaty Possessives: my, theiry Quantifiers: some, few, noy Numerals: including cardinal numbers: one, two, etc, and

ordinal numbers: first, second, etc.

y Wh-determiners: what, which, whose.The choice of determiner can depend on whether the noun that

follows is countable or uncountable. Thus, there wasnt much

foodvs there werent many guests.

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There are also constraints in the order of determiners. Central

determiners, such as the articles, demonstratives, and

possessives, can be preceded by predeterminers like all and

both, as in all the pretty horses, both my sons, but never by

another central determiner: the my son. They can also be

followed by postdeterminers, such as numerals: her two films,

the third man. In the order of elements in a noun phrase,

determiners always come first: my other red sports car; all the

many different French cheese. Many determiners are also

pronouns, as in all of my children; Would you like some and

Whats that?

Countability and word order, as well as the wide range of

meanings they express, make the learning of determiners

problematic. This is especially the case for learners whose firstlanguage uses a very different way of limiting the meaning of

nouns (such as Russian or Turkish). One approach, initially, may

be to learndeterminers as a part of fixed phrases, such as all the

time, the other day, no problem, any day now, a few too many,

etc.

4.A complex sentenceAcomplex sentence is one that contains amain clauseand one

orm

ore subordinate clauses.

(The rela

tion

between

the twoclauses is calledsubordination).

This is the house [= main clause] that Jack built [=

subordinate clause].

Jack and Jillwent up the hill[= mainclause] to fetch a pail

ofwater[=subordinate clause].

Compare this with acompound sentence, which contains only co-

ordina

teclau

ses.

(The rela

ti

on

between

the twoclau

sesi

scall

ed

co-ordination):

Jack fell down and broke his crown.

He putin his thumb and pulled out a plum.

5.Verb aspect

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In English, the grammatical labels past and present do not

necessarily correspond to time in the real world, but rather togrammatical features of the verbs. Eventsoftendo not fit neatly intocategories of past, present, and future time. English usesa variety ofstructures to express different time references.

One important structure that functions together with tense is aspect.

Aspect is a grammatical category that indicates temporal featuressuch as duration, frequency,andcompletion.Aspect is indicated bycomplex tenses that are composed of an auxiliary verb + a mainverb.

There are two different aspects in English: the progressive and the

perfect. In the previous chapter in our discussion of the auxiliary

verbs haveand

be, we saw how these two

auxiliaries he

lp

mainverbs. When be combines with main verbs, the verb phrase shows

theprogressive aspect.

We use the labelprogressive because the verb phrase describes the

ongoing nature of an event or action. A progressive verb phrase

consists of the auxiliary be in either present or past tense + the

present participle of the main verb.

Progressive aspectSubject Auxiliary be Present

participle (verb

+ -ing)

Time

reference

John is walking PresentJohn was Walking Past.

Whenhavecombines with amain verb, the verb phrase shows the

perfectaspect. The perfect aspect describes the relationship between

an earlier event or action with alater event or action.A perfect verb

phrase consists of the auxiliary havein either present or past tense +

the past participle of the main verb.

Perfect aspectSubject Auxiliary have Past participle

(verb + -ed)Time reference

JohnJohn

John

hashadhad

walked.walked.written.

PresentPastPast irregular


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Because the regular past tense ed and the past participle ed

inflections look identical, some grammar books refer to the past

participle inflectionas the en inflection to differentiate it from the

past inflection. This reference is derived from the fact that anumber

of common irregular words take an en inflection on the past

participle, e.g. eaten, driven, and written.

6.A noun phraseAnoun phrase is one of the five types of phrase in English, and

typically forms the subject, object or complement ofaclause.

The whole towns talking. = (subject)

She wore a yellow ribbon. (= object)

Iw

as a fugi

ti

ve from a chai

n gang (=c

om

pl

em

en

t)Noun phrases consist of an obligatory head that is the main

wordin the phrase and optional elements that go before or after

the head. The head is either anoun or a pronoun. The elements

that go before it include determiners, adjectives and other nouns.

Those going after include prepositional phrases and relative

clauses:

Pre-modification Head Post-modificacion

GigiMy beautiful Launderette

Duck SoupRosemarys Baby

Father Of the brideThe Bridge On the River KwaiThe Spy Who came in from the

coldThose magnificent Men In their flying machines

7.A

n intransitive verb: TRANSITI

VITYTransitivity refers to the capacity ofa verb to take an object: such

verbs are calledtransitive verbs: I come to bury Caesar, not to

praise him. How dearly he adores Mark Antony! Transitive verbs

can be used in passive constructions: She shallbe buried by her

Antony. Iwas adored once too.

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Intransitive verbs, on the other hand, have subjects but do not

take objects: Look, my lord, it comes! To die to sleep. To sleep

perchance to dream. Mywords fly up, my thoughts remain below.

Intransitive verbs cannot be made passive.

Some verbs can take two objects: a direct and indirect object.

These verbs are called ditransitive. Lend me your ears. You

should read us the will. Give me some light!

Some verbs can be used both transitively andintransitively, as in

Ill break my staffandWhat light through yonderwindow breaks?

Or In winterwith warm tears Ill melt the snowandO , that this

too too solid flesh would melt. These verbs are sometimes called

ergative verbs.

Linking verbs, such as the verbs be, feel and seem, take

complements, not objects, so they are not transitive: Brutus is an

honourable man. Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?

8.A dynamic verb: STATIVEVERBVerbs canalso be classifiedaccording to whether they are stative

or dynamic. Stative verbs refer to:

y States: I am curious. Its a wonderful life.y Inactive emotional, cognitive, or perceptual processes:

Gentlemen prefer blondes. Iwant to live! Iknowwhat you

did last summer.

Dynamic verbs, on the other hand, refer to actions and events:

Guess whos comming to dinner?The postman always rings twice.

I shot Jesse James. Stative verbs cannot normally be used in the

continuous: Gentlemen are preferring blondes. However, many

verbs such as smell, look, see, think - have both a stative anda

dynamicuse: You look nice. Whar are you looking at?It is perhaps

more accurate, therefore, to talk about stative anddynamicuses,

rather than stative anddynamic verbs.

9.A non-finite verb form: FINITEVERBVerbs may be either finite or non-finite.Finite verbs show that

they are related to a subject by having a person, number and

tense. For example, Bradworks for his uncle. Theywork together.

Before that Bradworked for his father.Non-finite verbsdo not

show these person, number and tense contrasts: Before working

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for his uncle, Brad used to work for his father. The infinitive (with

or without to) and the present and past participles are non-

finite. Clauses whose main verb is finite are calledfinite clauses:

Before he worked for his uncle Clauses whose main verb is non-

finite are callednon-finite clauses, e.g.Before working for his

uncle When there is more than one verb ina verb phrase, the

finite verb comes first: He has been working for his uncle for a

year now.

10. A functional exponent: FUNCTIONALSYLLABUS

A functional syllabus is a syllabus basedaroundalist oflanguage

functions, such as asking for information; making requests;

greeting people; making, accepting and refusing invitations. Eachfunction is realized by one or more functional exponents. So,

functional exponents for the function ofmaking requests include

Can you? Could you? Would you mind -ing?(There is usually

more than one way of expressing a function, and any one

grammar structure can express a wide variety of functions).

Functional syllabuses were first developed to support a

communicative approach. In contrast to the prevailing

structural syllabuses of the time, they were meaning-, rather than

form-, based. They were oftencombined with language notions toform to form what was called a functional-national syllabus. In

practice, the distinction between functions (such as past-ness)

became rather blurred. The purely functional syllabus was

relatively short-lived. It soon became apparent that the criteria for

the selection and grading of functions were rather arbitrary.

Coursebook writers tended to order the functions according to the

kinds of grammar structures that were typically associated with

them. Moreover, functional exponents lack generalizability in the

way th

at gr

ammar str

uctures

are ge

neraliza

ble.

So there was

always the problem of function-based courses becoming nothing

more than an elaborate list of expressions to remember, rather

like a phrasebook. If functional syllabuses have survivedat all, it

is usually as one strandinamulti-layered syllabus.

11. A gerund: -ING FORM

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The ing formis formed by adding the ing suffix to the base form

of the verb (andmaking any necessary spelling adjustments), as

walk J walking, smokeJsmoking, stopJ stopping, travel J

traveling/travelling. There are some ing words that have no

related verb, but insteadare formed fromnouns or adjectives, and

verbalized through the addition of ing, e.g. neighbouring,

balding, enterprising, and appetizing. All ing forms express a

sense of ongoing activity.

The ing formis the term that is now generally used to describe:

(1) what are also called present participles, as in Who is

smoking?or a smoking gun, where smoking has properties of both

verbs andadjectives

(2) what were once calledgerunds (as inSmoking is bad for you;

No smoking) where smokingis more noun-like. (The term gerund

may still be foundin some grammars andcoursebooks)

The reason for collapsing the participle-gerunddistinction is that

there are many instances of ing forms that do not fit comfortably

into either of these two categories. It is perhaps more accurate to

think of ing forms as covering a spectrum ofmeaning from the

purely noun-like to the purely verb-like. For example:

NOUN A painting of Browns

The painting of Brown is a skilful as that of

Gainsborough.

Browns deft painting of his daughter is a delight to

watch.

I dislike Browns painting his daughter.

I dislike Brown painting his daughter.

Iwatched Brown painting his daughter.

The silently painting man is Brown.

VERB He is painting is daughter.

12. An intensifierIntensifiers are words like very, rather, absolutely, that modifyadjectives, adverbs and verbs by heightening or lowering their

intensity: Howwas the film? ~ Itwas rather / quite / extremely /

totally boring. Ikind of / really / absolutely hated it. In informal

speech, some prefixes, like super-, and mega-, function as

intensifiers, too: The film was mega-boring. Intensifiers are

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particularly common in spoken language, and they fulfill an

interpersonal function, i.e., they signal high involvement on the

part of the speaker.

13. A modal verbThe most common way of expressing modality in English isthrough the use of modal verbs. Modal verbs are ac class of

auxiliary verb. There are nine pure modals: can, could, may,

might, will, would, shall, shouldandmust. They are pure in the

sense that they fulfill the formal requirements ofauxiliary verbs:

e.g. they form their negatives with not (You mustntwrite) and

they form questions by inversion with their subject (Can I go?).

Modal verbs do not have infinitive forms, participles, or third

person s. they are always placed first in the verb phrase: It mayhave been raining.

Each modal verb can express two kinds ofmeaning:

(1) Likelihood, possibility (calledextrinsic meaning)(2) Range of meanings to do with the speakers attitudes,

wishes, etc. (intrinsic meaning).

The mainmeanings expressed by the modal verbs are:

Can Theoretical possibility Grammar can be fun

Ability Can you speak French?Permission Can we take photographs?

Could Possibility It could be fun.

Ability We could see the top.

May Possibility It may rain.

Permission Youmay go innow.

Might Possibility It may rain.

Permission Youmay go innow.

Will Prediction/predictability It will be anice day.

Volition Boys will be boys.Ill give youa hand.

Would Predictability He would say that.

Volition Would youlendme the car?

Shall Prediction We shall overcome.

Volition Shall we dance?

Should Possibility It should be a nice daytomorrow.

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Obligation You should try harder.

Must Logicalnecessity Youmust be exhausted.

Obligation I must phone Dad.

In addition to the pure modals, there are a number of other

single-wordandmulti-word verbs that combine with other verbs

to express modal meaning, and are known as semi-modals or

marginalmodals. The main ones and the meanings they most

commonly express are:

Ought to Obligation You ought to phone herNeed

(to)

Necessity I need to see the supervisor

Have

(got) toLogicalnecessity Youre got to be jockingObligation I have to feed the baby.

Be able

toAbility Will he be able to walk?

Be going

to

Prediction Its going to be crowdedVolition Im going to complain.

Used to Habitual past It used to be cheap here.

Because of the wide range ofmeanings especially interpersonal

that they convey, modals allow speakers to express a variety of

functions, such as asking permission, making requests,

giving advice, andmaking offers. They also express a variety

ofnotions, such as obligation, necessity, ability, futurity, andpossibility. Not surprisingly, language syllabuses include modals

almost from the outset, especially the most frequent and the most

versatile, such as can, could, would, will, have toandgoing

to. However, modals present anumber of problems for learners,

such as:

y Problems of form: the pure modals are not inflected (hecans), nor followed by to + infinitive (he can to play), nor

can they combine with other auxiliaries (they dont can);

the semi

-m

odal

s, however,do

allthese th

ings: he has toplay, he doesnt have to play. Some modals are defective,

that is, they have no past or future forms, so that, for

example, the past of I must work is I had to work.

y Problems of meaning: Inmany cases the meanings of thedifferent modals are similar or overlap (Itwill rain. Its going

to rain), but inmany cases they are not (Ill phone you. Im


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going to phone you). It is sometimes the case that

affirmative forms are similar inmeaning, but negative forms

are not, as in You must dress up / You have to dress up

versus You musnt dress up / You dont have to dress up.

y Problems of use: Because modals express inerpersonalmeanings, they are sensitive to context factors. Some

modals are avoided where they may risk causing a threat to

face (politeness). For example, I think you ought to do Xor

Iwould do Xare less face-threatening thanYou must do X.

Some modals, sush as shall, are rarely or never used in

some varieties of English.

The modifier inanoun phrase adds further information to (or

modifies) the main word of the noun phrase (the head). The

modifier can go before the head, andafter any determiners,

in which case it is calledapremodifier. Or it can go after the

head, in which case it is calledapostmodifier. For example:

Determiner premodification Head postmodification

1 the white peacock2 animal farm3 Portnoys complaint4 the electric, kool-aid,

acid

test

5 a room with a view6 lord of the flies7 streetcar nameddesire8 the spy who lovedme

The premodifier is typically anadjective or adjective phrase (as

in 1 in the table above); or anoun, in which case it is calleda

noun modifier (as in 2); or apossessive form (genitive) as in

3; or any combination of these (as in 4). The postmodifier is

typically aprepositional phrase (as in 5), an of-construction (asin 6), anon-finite clause (as in 7) or a relative clause (as in 8).

Modification of the noun phrase is an important way of building

complex noun phrases in English. These in turn are a generic

feature of certain text-types, especially journalism and technical


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or academic writing. For example (the noun phrases are

underlined):

Police investigations that preceded the collapse of the trials

of two royal butlers were fundamentally sound, an external

review publishedlast week concluded.

Previous studies of content-based second language (L2)

programs have shown that students learning their L2

through immersion develop high levels of comprehension

skills as well as considerable fluency and confidence in L2

production.

14. An adverbialAnadverbial is one of the five possible elements ina clause or

sen

tenc

e.

It func

ti

on

sli

kean

ad

verbin

tha

t:(1) It contributes circumstantial information to the clause orsentence, or

(2) It serves to comment on what is being expressed, or(3) It links clauses or sentences to some other component of the

text:

Circumstance comment link

In winter, generally speaking, it freezes. As a result, the

pipes b

urst

.

Adverbials canconsist ofa single word (She phoned yesterday),

or a phrase (She phoned on Tuesday) or a clause (called an

adverbial clause: She phonedwhen she heard the news).

The most common way of forming adverbialare:

(1) Adverbs and adverb phrases: She ran fast. She ran fasterthan the others.

(2) Prepositional phrases: she ran up the stairs.(3) Some noun phrases: she didnt run this morning; and(4) Clauses:As soon as she heard the explosion, she ran.Note that a sentence can consist of several adverbials, and in

several different positions: As soon as she heard the explosion,

she quickly ran up the stairs.

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All the above examples demonstrate the way that adverbials

functionas part of the internal structure of the sentence: in this

respect they are called adjuncts.But some adverbials act as if

they stoodapart from the sentence, and were commenting on it:

Not surprisingly, the shops were closed. Itwas not cheap, to putit

mildly. These adverbials are calleddisjuncts. They often express

the speakers attitude, or stance. There is a third class of

adverbials, called conjuncts that link clauses, sentences, and

whole paragraphs: Allin all, itwas a real bargain On the other

hand, the service was excellent.

Where there is more than one adverbialat the end ofa sentence,

the preferred order is represented by the letters M P T, where M

stands for manner (or movement), P stands for place and Tstands for time: She ran quickly (M) up the stairs (P) when she

heard the explosion (T).

Adverbials are seldom labelled as such in language teaching

materials, and their importance is therefore often overlooked. Yet

they present an enormous challenge to learners, not least because

many adverbials are formulaicand therefore have to be learned

from scratch, as it were (from scratchandas itwere being two

typical examples).

15. AquantifierQuantifiers are words or phrases which specify quantity or

amount. They either precede nouns (as determiners) or stand

on their own (as pronouns):All of me; Every breath you take;A

piece of my heart; The two of us. (Some grammars reserve the

term quantifier for only those combinations with of(a few of, most

of, lots of, both of, etc), while single words, like few, most, both

are labeleddeterminers.)

The choice of quantifier is oftendetermined by whether the noun

that follows is countable or uncountable, andifcountable, whether

it is singular or plural:

Countable uncountable

Singular Plural

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Each childEvery child

(not) many children(a) few childrenFewer childrenAnumber ofchildren

(not) much information(a) little informationLess informationAnamount ofinformation

Quantifiers can be categorizedas being:y Inclusive: all (of), both (of), each (of), every, the wholey An indefinite quantity: some (of), several (of), any (of)y A large quantity: most (of), much (of), lots of, a lot of,

loads of, plenty of

y A small quantity: a few (of), a little (of), a bit of, a coupleof

y A comparative quantity: more (of), less (of), fewer (of)y Negative quantities: no, neither (of), none (of)y Numbers: one (of), two (of), hundreds ofy Partitives: a piece of, a group of, a litre of, a bottle of, etc.

Note that some quantifiers are used mainly in negative

constructions or in questions:

There isnt anyinformation. I havent got much time.

Have you got any children?Howmuch time have you got?

The variety

andsubtlety (

com

pare, for e

xample, A fe

wof thechildren were there. Few of the children were there.A few children

were thereandFew children were there) mean that quantifiers are

difficult to learn, andmost learners acquire only a small subset of

them. Like the noun phrase, of which they forma part, quantifiers

are generally under-represented inmany course book syllabuses.

They are typically introduced in the context of food and drink.

Many are associated with fixed expressions, and this may be a

good way ofintroducing them. For example: most of the time, all

the way, a little advice, in a couple of days. They canalso be put

to gooduse in reporting the results ofclass surveys: Most of the

class thinkSome students saidOne of the girls disagreed, etc.

16. Aquestion tagA question tag (or tag question) is a kind of yes/no question that is

added to a statement: Itwont hurt, will it? They shoot horses, dontAn A-Z


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they? The tag consists of two words: a subject pronoun and an

auxiliary verb (or a form of the verb to be). The subject pronoun

matches the subject of the statement It wont hurt, will it? And the

auxiliary matches the auxiliary in the statement, except that if the

statement is positive, the tag is usually negative, and vice versa. If

there is no auxiliary in the statement the operator do is usedin the tag.

Youve been to Hong Kong, havent you?

Its not raining, is it?

Chris and Robin live together, dont they?

I couldnt use the phone, could I?

The function of question tags is to invite the addressee to respond to the

statement. This may be because the speaker is uncertain, in which case

a rising intonation is used. Or it may be because the speaker expectsthe addressee to agree, in which case a falling intonationis used:

Youre from New Zealand, arent you?(= I dont know, tellme if

Im right).

Youre from New Zealand, arent you?(= I know this, but I want

you to confirmit)

There are occasional exceptions to the positive-negative, negative-

positive r

ule,

as whe

nche

ckin

g theaccu

rac

y ofa

guess:

Thisis your

seat, is it?or to show surprise: You speak Swahili , do you?There are

also some exceptions to subject-subject agreement in the statement

and the tag: Stand up, will you? Lets go, shall we? Everyone knows

that, dont they?

Question tags almost only occur in spokenlanguage (or indirect speech

in written texts).Although they are common, there is acase to be made

for not teaching them except to the most advancedlearners. For a start,

they are notoriously difficult for learners to formulate accurately. A

number of operations have to be performed simultaneously, and anappropriate intonation contour has to be chosen. All-purpose

alternatives, such as no? right? am I right? Are also available:

Youre from New Zealand, right?


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17. StyleStyle is a (usually deliberate) choice of a

particular way of saying or writing

something. There is often more than one

way of conveying the same message. The

choice is determined by:

(1) Specific contextual factor, suchas the degree of formality that is

required, or

(2) A particular effect that theperson wants to achieve.

In both cases, the choice is a stylistic one. With regard to the first kind

ofchoice, the following example (heard onanairplane) shows amarked

shift in style:

We are ona taxiway, so it is essential that you remain seated with

your seatbelts securely fastened... Excuse me, could you sit down

please? ... Sit down!

The style changes fromformal to informal, as the situation becomes

more urgent. Other terms that are used to identify different context-

dependent styles include frozen, casualandintimidate.

An example of language being used to create a particular effect is this

Valentines day message:

To Wee Pig from Big Pig. Grunt Grunt!

Here the writer has chosena style associated with childrens literature.

The study of style, in this second sense, is calledstylistics.

Style choices affect both grammar and vocabulary. Words that are used

only incertain styles are often identifiedas such indictionaries. Stylesinclude literary, old-fashioned, humorous and medical. Thus

bonkers HUMOROUS; lunaticOLD-FASHIONED; bipolarMEDICAL. Styles

that are related to particular fields, such as medicine or journalism, are

also calledregisters.

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y Formaly Informaly Frozeny Casualy intimidatey Neutral


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18. RegisterRegister is the way that language use varies according to variations in

the context. It is a term that is used particularly by proponents of

systemic functional linguistics. They argue that there is a systematic

correlation between the forms of language and features of the social

context. In other words, the choice

of linguistic form is not arbitrary

but is governed by a

configuration of cultural and

contextual factors. Key factors are

the field ofdiscourse, (what is being

talked or written about), the tenor

(the relationship between the

participants), and the mode of thediscourse (whether, for example, the

language is written or spoken).

Together these features constitute

the register variables ofa situation.

Texts whose contexts of situation

are the same are said to belong to

the same register. Thus, three

holiday postcards written by three different people each to aclose friend

will have in common the same field, tenor andmode settings. Hencethey can be said to share the same register.And, because they share

the same register, they will have meanings in common, which will, in

turn, be realized by similar grammatical and lexical features. The

formulaHaving a wonderful time, wish you were here, for example, is so

indicative of postcard register! That it has become a clich. On the

other hand, a travel feature ina womens magazine, while sharing the

same field as the postcards (i.e., leisure travel), differs in both tenor

andmode. It therefore belongs to adifferent register. This difference, in

turn, willdetermine differences at the level of grammar and vocabulary.The concept of register is auseful way of explaining and predicting the

relationship between features of context and features of text. It is of

particular relevance on the teaching of genres, as when teaching

business or academicdiscourse.

19. Syntax

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Key factors:

y Field ofdiscourse (whatis being talked or written

about)

y The tenor(relationshipbetween participants)

y The mode of discourse(language written or

spoken)


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Syntax describes the rules for sequencing words so as to show their

relationships ofmeaning within sentences. For example, in English the

rules of syntax permit the placing of two nouns together, so that one

modifies the other: fruit juice, bus stop, table tennis. In other

languages, like French, the rules of syntax do not allow this, so, not

fruit jus butjus de fruit, arrt dautobus, tennis de table, etc. Likewise,

the basic order of clause elements in English is subject-verb-object

(SVO), as inThe table tennis players drank fruit juice. In some other

languages, such as Japanese, the preference is for an SOV order.

Syntaxcontrasts with morphology, which is the study of the structure

of words, such as the way different endings or word forms canchange

the tense of a verb: play, played; drink , drank. Together, syntaxand

morphology make up what is conventionally knownas grammar.

Syntax was traditionally taught by the process ofparsing sentences.

Parsing involves dividing up sentences into their constituent parts, and

identifying each part. More engaging ways of teaching syntax include:

ordering cards, on which are printed words and phrases, so as to make

meaningful sentences; expanding very simple sentences so as to make

them longer and more complex; or the opposite: reducing complex

sentences to their most simple form by eliminating words or phrases,

one at a time; or contrasting sentences such as:

The singer that my father likes sang a song.The singer sang a song that my father likes.

The singer that likes my father sang a song.

Or disambiguatingambiguous sentences, such as:

I try to avoid boring students.

Brad showedTom a photo of himself.

20. SemanticsSemantics is the study ofmeaning, including the way words relate to

the things that they refer to in the real word (reference). Of relevance to

language teaching is the meaning relationships between words what

are called semantic relations (or sense relations) such as similarity

(synonym) and oppositeness (antonym). Semantic meaning is often

contrasted with pragmatic meaning, the former being the literal

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meaning ofa sentence, such as Bobs your uncle, and the latter being

its use incontext to create acertain effect (pragmatics).

21. PragmaticsPragmatics is the study of how language is usedand interpreted by itsusers in real-world situations. For example, it attempts to explain how

the following exchanges might make sense to the people who are

engagedin them:

1. AHow do you like the soup?BIts nice and hot.

AWhats wrong with it?

2. AAre you the fish?BNo, Im the meat balls.

As second remark in the first exchange is explained by the co-

operative principle. She infers that Bs response to her first question

is less than entirely informative, and therefore that he must mean

something else, i.e., he doesnt like it. Exchange 2 is explained by

reference to the context (a restaurant) and the speakers roles (waiter

andcustomer). Ofcourse Bis not literally the meat balls, andnor does

she intendA to think as much. In both instances, contextual factors rule

out aliteralinterpretation of these two sentences. Its nice and hot. Im

the meat balls. Instead, they are interpreted pragmatically.

The fact that semantic meaning (i.e., the literal meaning of an

utterance) and pragmatic meaning (or intended meaning) may not

correspond is central to the study of pragmatics. For example, a

sentence like Thank you for not smoking might appear to be an

expression of thanks, but inits context ofuse (e.g.as a signina taxi) it

functions as a request or evena prohibition.

Pragmatic competence is the knowledge that language users have

that enables them to take contextual factors into account whenusing

and interpreting language. Even in native speakers this ability takestime to develop, as the following exchange demonstrates:

George (a six-year-old, answering the phone): Hello?

Caller Hello, George. Is your dad there?

George Yes.

(Longing pause)

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Caller Well, can I speak to him?

Georges literal interpretation of the callers questionnearly resulted in

pragmatic failure. In fact, most adult learners ofa second language

are able to transfer their L1 pragmaticcompetence to their L2 without

too much trouble: we are used to having to read between the lines.

However, differences in cultural conventions may lead to

misunderstandings. In some cultures, for example, it is customary to

decline an offer several times before accepting.But if the first refusalis

taken literally, and the offer is not renewed, ill-feeling might result a

case of what is calledsociopragmatic failure.

The main effect that pragmatics has had on language teaching, apart

fromconfirming the importance ofcontextualizing language, is to show

how a speakers intentions can be expressed ina variety of ways, not

all of them to be takenliterally. This has implications on the teaching of

politeness, for example. Its less threatening to say Its a bitwarm in

here, isntit?thanDo you think you could open the window?

22. Vague languageVagueness is a common feature of spoken language. It performs an

important interpersonal function in that it allows speakers to avoid

either committing themselves to a proposal, or sounding too assertive.

In this extract ofauthentic talk, in which two womenare talking about

weddings, the vagueness expressions have beenlabelled:

Di Id like to just go out and findsomething1a bit2unusual that wasntoff the rack of sixty3 of the samedress and do like my sister did thedress that she wore, something likethat4, andum standing out ina fieldor something5, you know? Just anicesetting, you know?

1. Indefinite pronoun2. Vague quantifier3. Round number

(approximatenumber)

4. Vague tag5. Vague tag

Jess Mmm

Di And go back to somebodys6 placeand have a cup of tea or scones orsomething7.

6. Indefinite pronoun7. Vague tag

Jess Right, yes.Di You know? None of this hooha8... 8. General termJess Quite sort of9 simple and... 9. hedge

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Other common ways of expressing vague quantities include loads of, a

lot of, a bit of, umpteen, some, several, a few. Numbers can be made

vague by adding ish, or or so: fortyish, forty or so. Other vague tags

include, and things; and all that sort of thing, orwhat have you. Other

general terms include words like stuff and thing: these are highly

productive in that they can substitute for almost anything. Another

vagueness device is the use of placeholder words such as thingy,

thingummy, whatsisnameandwhatsit, which are used to substitute for

more specific terms that the speaker either has forgotten or doesnt

want to mention.

For language learners vague language such as the use of words like

stuff and whatsit has an obvious attraction, as it allows them to

compensate for gaps in their lexical knowledge. In this sense,

vagueness devices are ausefulcommunication strategy.

23. EllipsisEllipsis is the leaving out of elements of a sentence because they

are either unnecessary or because their sense can be worked out

from the immediate context. For example, the secondutterance in

the following exchange is elliptical, andits missing element (i.e., at work

today) can be recovered only by reference to the previous utterance:

AIs Rob atwork today?BNo, but Jan is.

Ellipsis is very commonin spokenlanguage. Ellipsis of function words is

also acommon feature ofcertain text types, where brevity is a priority,

as in postcards (Having a wonderful time. Wish you were here) or

instructions: Remove from container. Boil 2-3 minutes. Serve hot.

Learners, too, tend to omit function words, as inJan not atwork, or

I having wonderful time, but this is a consequence of development

processes and is less ellipsis than omission (error). (Note, also, that

ellipsis shouldnt be confused with elision, which is the omission ofsounds inconnected speech).

24. The bare infinitive (the base form): INVERBSVerbs are members of the wordlass that typically express a process or

state: It happened one night. Some like it hot. Verbs have different

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forms to indicate contrasts of tense, aspect, person andnumber. The

four forms of regular verbs in English are the following:

y Base form: The form that is listed in a dictionary; with to thisforms the infinitive (to) happen, (to) like.

y The s form: used for the third person singular in the present: Ithappens, ... she likes you.

y The ing form, also called present participle: Whats happening?Liking Paris as much as I do...

y The ed form: used for the past tense and the past participle:Whatever happened? Ive never really liked oysters.

25. A conjunctionConjunctions are members ofa wordclass whose function is to join

together words, phrases, clausesandsentences. There are two

types of conjunction: co-ordinating and subordinating. Co-

ordinating conjunctions, such as andandbut join equivalent units,

such as two clauses of equal rank:

The catwill mew, and dog will have his day.

O, banish me my lord, butkill me not.

And so he goes to heaven, and so am I revenged.

Subordinating conjunctions, such as if, becauseandwhen, joina

subordinate clause to amainclause.

No longer mourn for me when I am dead.

If music be the food of love, play on.

As Caesar loved me, Iweep for him.

Because I love you, Iwill let you know.

The number of conjunctions in a test is one measure of the texts

complexity.

26. A multi-word verb: in PHRASAL VERBA phrasal verb is acombination ofa verb and one or two particles. The

particle is either an adverb or a preposition, or both, as in

(respectively): look up (a word in the dictionary), look after (the

children), look up to (someone you respect). Sometimes the term

phrasal verb is reserved for verb + adverb combinations (like look

up), while verb + prepositioncombinations (like look after) are called

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prepositional verbs, andverb + adverb + prepositioncombinations

(like look up to) are calledphrasal-prepositional verbs. They are also

allcalledmulti-word verbs.

Phrasal verbs are different from verbs that happen to be followed by a

prepositionas in I looked at the painting. Sometimes the difference isnot always clear, as some words can be both a preposition and an

adverb, depending on their functionin the sentence. For example:

1. Ivanlookedup the chimney.2. Ivanlookedafter the children.3. Ivanlookedup the word.4. Ivanlookedup.

In sentence (1) up the chimney is aprepositional phrase, andup is

the preposition that forms aninseparable part ofit.Up the chimneyis a

single syntactic unit, and forms a sentence adverbial, answering the

questionwhere?It could be moved to another positionin the sentence,

as inUp the chimney Ivan looked. (Or, more plausibly, Up the hill Ivan

ran). We could also insert an adverb between looked and up: Ivan

looked carefully up the chimney.But we cannot say Ivan looked the

chimney up. Finally, in the question, What did Ivan look up?(Answer:

the chimney), the stress is on look. For all these reasons, the

combination of look and up is not a phrasal verb, but simply a verb

followed by a preposition.

In sentence (2) afterbehaves like a preposition in that it has anoun

complement (the children) from which it cannot be separated: Ivan

looked the children after.But nor can we say After the children Ivan

looked or Ivan looked carefully after the children. Nor can we ask

Where did Ivan look?andanswer After the children.All this suggests

that look andafter forma tighter combination that lookandupdo in

sentence (1). Therefore, look after qualifies as a phrasal verb (or

prepositional

verb,in

som

e gramma

rs).

In sentence (3) up functions as anadverb. It does not meet any of the

preposition testsabove. We cannot say Ivan looked carefully up the

word. Nor Up the word Ivan looked.But we can say Ivan looked the

word up. In this sentence, the verb is looked up, and the word is its

object, answering the question What? And, in the question What did


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Ivan look up? (answer: the word) the stress is on up. For all these

reasons, upis anadverb, and forms the particle of the phrasal verb look

up.

Finally, in sentence (4) upis clearly not part ofa prepositional phrase: it

is closely tied to the verb. It is also anadverb, andlook up, in this case,is a phrasal verb too. But, unlike look up in sentence (3) which is

transitive, look upin sentence (4) is intransitive it takes no object.

What about meaning? In sentence 1, lookandupcomprise two separate

units of meaning. But, in sentence 2, look after is a single unit of

meaning, meaning something like take care of. Likewise, look up in

sentence 3 is a single unit ofmeaning and one, moreover, that is not

entirely literal (Ivan didnt literally look up). The meaning of many

phrasal

verbsis

idioma

tic

in

this w

ay: the

irm

eanin

gis

not s

imply

a

combination of the meanings of their component parts: They dont get

on. The plane took off. Do you give up? But there are many verb +

adverb combinations that are not idiomatic, such as sentence (4): Ivan

looked up, so idiomaticity s not as reliable a test ofa phrasal verb as

syntaxis.

Taking into account all of the above, phrasal verbs are customarily

dividedinto four types:

Type Syntax Examples1 (prepositionalverbs)

Verb + prepositionparticle + object

Can youdeal with it?I ran into Jacobyesterday.Imlooking for my keys.

2 (intransitivephrasal verbs)

Verb + adverbparticle

A storm blew up.It pays to shop around.How do the two of them getby?

3 (Transitivephrasal verbs)

Verb + adverbparticle + objectVerb + object +adverb particle

Can you write down youraddress?Ill pick youup at eight.Well have to put thewedding off.

4 (phrasal -prepositionalverbs)

Verb + adverbparticle + preposition+ object

Weve run out of gas.You should cut down onfats.


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Note that in Type 1 phrasal verbs, the particle cannot come after the

object (it is inseparable), whereas in Type 3, the particle can be

separated by the object (andmust be separated by the object if the

object is a pronoun), hence it is separable.

Due to the complexity of their grammar, phrasal verbs present

enormous problems to learners. The fact that so many are idiomatic

does not help either.And, on top of that, many are restrictedin terms of

style, tending to be informal or even slang (such as faff about, nod off,

chill out). Not surprisingly, many learners avoidusing themaltogether.

Traditionalapproaches to the teaching of phrasal verbs tend to focus on

the syntax rules, i.e., whether they are transitive or intransitive, and, if

the former, whether they are separable or not. These rules are often

quite mystifying for most learners, (andmany teachers!). Phrasal verbs

are also often groupedaccording to their lexical verb: get up, get back,

get off, get over, etc, and exercises are designed to test the learners

knowledge of the difference. This may seem systematic but it can easily

lead to confusion, since the verbs are so similar in form.Analternative

is to focus on the meanings of the particles.A focus on particles aims to

sensitize learners to the sharedmeanings ofa group such as carry on,

drive on, hang on, go onandcome on.

It may be the case, however, that phrasal verbs are best learned onan

item-by-item basis, and preferably in short contexts that demonstrate

their syntactic behaviour. The teacher can increase the probability of

learners coming across phrasal verbs by providing texts that are likely

to have a high frequency of phrasal verbs in them. Some books on

phrasal verbs present theme-related sets of verbs in specially written

texts. This, a text about relationships may include such phrasal verbs as

go outwith, get on with, fall out, split up, make up, get back together,

etc.Alooser andmore natural relationship may be more effective, such

as the way words occur inauthentic texts. In this example, a restaurant

review, the phrasal verbs are underlined:

Rocket is one of those places that you just keep coming back to.

Its secluded location tuckedaway inacharming cobble-stonedlane in Mayfair ensures you feel a world away from central

London. And dont be put off by the expensive-looking dcor:

Rockets menu is sensitive to the needs of budget diners and the

portions are huge. We started off with a generous serving of

parmesanand garlic pizza bread (2.50), then I ordereda goats


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cheese, courgette and sundried tomato pizza (7) while my friend

went for the spicy couscous-crusted chicken, served up with

French beans and squash (8). We washed it all down with a

bottle of Chileanmerlot (De Gras 1999, 12) and the whole bill

came to less than 15 each. Provided youre dressed to blend in

with posh city folk, then give Rocket a try.

To exploit such a text andassuming basiccomprehension of the text

has first been checked learners could search for and underline the

phrasal verbs. They could then check their understanding of them by

searching for a synonym in the dictionary. They could thenclassify the

verbs (according to the chart above). Finally, they could write their own

text (about a restaurant of their choice, for example), trying to include

as many of the phrasal verbs as possible.

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Worksheet 2 Alejandro Fuentes