Emelia EffendyMed TESL

University of Malaya

This paper is presented in partial fulfillment

of the requirements for the course

General Linguistics for TESL

Faculty of Education

University of Malaya

Dr. Jessie Grace U. Rubrico, Facilitator

PBGS 6304, Semester 2, AY 2009-2010

April 2010

INTRODUCTIONLINGUISTICSthe scientific study of human language.

COGNITIVE LINGUISTICS the branch of linguistics that interprets language in

terms of concepts.

is closely associated with semantics.

Generative Grammar

1) Linguistic structure can be studied independently of meaning.

2) Grammar is fully compositional.

3) Grammar is modular.

4) Grammar is innate.

Cognitive Grammar

1) Language is not an autonomous cognitive faculty.

2) Grammar is conceptualization.

3) Knowledge of language emerges from language use.

Croft & Cruse (2004)

COGNITIVE LINGUISTICS : GRAMMAR AND LEARNING

cognitive grammar extends the notion of symbolic units to the grammar of languages

linguistic structures are motivated by general cognitive processes

draws analogies between linguistic structure and aspects of visual perception.

Source: Unger & Schmid (1996)

THE RATIONALE Focus: structure, function, and meaning.

Language is presented in a more meaningful way.

This leads to meaningful learning.

Why SYNTAX? Need to have a structuralized form of writing sentences.

Most writing books do not specify what comes after the verbs.

Most present the subject + verb structures in teaching simple sentence structure.

Some present the SVO or SVC or SVE.

But these seem to be vague to the students.

Some just define complements are ‘the rest of the sentence’.

There seems to be a missing link between grammar, writing and meaning

SYNTAX AS VIEWED BY CG

Conceptual and linguistic completeness

Event schema

Agent Patient

TYPES OF EVENT SCHEMASSchema Label

“Being” schema Who or what is some entity (like)?

“Happening” schema What is happening?

“Doing” schema What is someone doing? What does he or she do?

“Experiencing” schema What does someone feel, see, etc? “Having” schema What does an entity have?

“Moving” schema Where is an entity moving?Where does an entity move?

“Transferring” schema To whom is an entity transferred?

LEARNERS’ BACKGROUND Low-intermediate level students.

Multi-national language speakers.

Mostly young adults and a few mature adults.

Have less than a year of English instruction.

BE-VERB PRESENTATION

FORM SUBJECT BE VERB Contraction EXAMPLE

affirmativesentences( + )

1st person I am I'm I'm here.

2nd person you are you're You're busy.

3rd person he is he's He's a friend.

3rd person she is she's She's a doctor.

3rd person it is it's It's cold today.

1st person pl. we are we're We're hungry.

2nd person pl.

you are you'reYou're

beautiful.

3rd person pl. they are they'reThey're asleep.

The primary concern in the above

and in most grammar books is

‘subject-verb agreement’.

What come after the verbs

are not clearly defined.

SENTENCE CONSTRUCTION

S

NP (SUBJECT) VP (PREDICATE)

V ??

NP

PP

AP

Subject + Verb + Object

Subject + Verb + Complement

Subject + Verb + Expansion

So, what’s the solution??

The “being” schema in CG Function: to relate a characteristic or any other

conceptual category to a given entity which does not apply a dominant role in the relationship.

The role of the main participant is described as a Patient, whereby the role of the patient is defined as the role which is least involved in any type of relationship.

The Patient in “being” schema can be related with different ways of “being”:

Dirven & Verspoor (2004)

It can be linked

o to an identifying element (1a)

o to a category or class (1b)

o to a characteristics (1c)

o to a given place (1d)

o to the notion of mere experience (1e)

1a) The place on the map here is the Sahara. Identifier

1b) The Sahara is a desert. Class membership

1c) The Sahara is a dangerous (territory). Attribution

1d) The desert is in the North Africa. Location

1e) There is a desert (in North Africa). Existential

Dirven & Verspoor (2004)

How do we go about using this in the classroom?

Identifier (to identify something)

These puppets are my favourite ones.

The place on the map here is the Sahara.

Class membership (being part of something)

A mule is not a horse and not a donkey.

A university is a learning institution.

Attribution (the condition of something)

Jason is two years younger than his sister.

New York is a busy city.

Location (where something is)

The Taj Mahal is in India.

The cats are in the sink.

Existential (to be present) There are nine planets in our solar system.

There are far too many problems around the globe.

Presenting the languageSubject (NP)

Predicate(VP)

Subject Verb Identifier Class membership

Attribution Location

Existential

NP V NP NP NP/AP

PP NP

The Sahara

is a desert

The Sahara

is in the North Africa

The Sahara

is a dangerous territory

Design 1: Deductive ApproachPresentation

Teacher presents the language structure

Teacher gives explicit explanation of the grammatical rules

Practice

Students are given sets of tasks to complete

E.g. word ordering

Write sentences based on the structures presented

Communicative Practice

• Students are given a picture & an 8-part sheet

• Students have to describe the picture using the structures they have learnt

e.g.

Design 2: Inductive ApproachPre-task

Get students copies of newspaper articles

Students are to find sentences which consist of the “be-verb” construction

While Doing Task

Teacher write the sentences on the board

Students try to guess the relationship between the subject and predicate (the link presented in the sentences) – hypothesis testing

Teacher presents the “rules”

Post-task

Application of the form in students writings

Write sentences using the structures learnt

Conclusion Presenting the be-verb using the ‘being schema’ is

more helpful for students in understanding the concept of the verb ‘to be’.

Students can grasp this part of grammar better as they know what the focus is and what it is about.

ReferencesCroft, W. & Cruse, D.A. (2004) Cognitive Linguistic. Cambridge :

Cambridge University Press

Dirven, R. & Verspoor, M. (2004) Cognitive Exploration of Language and Linguistics. (2nd Ed). Amsterdam : John Benjamins Publishing Company

Robertson, P. and Ellis, N.C. (eds.). (2008). Handbook of Cognitive Linguistics and Second Language Acquisition. NY: Routledge

Townsend, C. E. (2000) Linguistics and Language Teaching SLING2K Workshop retrieved from http://www.indiana.edu/~slavconf/SLING2K/pospapers/townsend.pdf on March 20,2010.

Unger, F. & Schmid, H. J. (1996) An Introduction to Cognitive Linguistics. London : Longman