Research Korner: Grammar and Usage

VERBS

VERBS   Action Verbs The main word in the predicate is the verb.   A verb is a word that can show action.   When a verb tells what people or things do, it is called an action verb.   Helping and Main Verbs A verb may be more than one word.   The main verb is the most important word.   The helping verb comes before it.   Some Common Helping Verbs     <ul style="margin-top: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in" type="disc"> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph"> am</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph"> is</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph"> are</li> </ul> <ul style="margin-top: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in" type="disc"> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph"> was</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph"> were</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph"> will</li> </ul> <ul style="margin-top: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in" type="disc"> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph"> has</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph"> have</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph"> had</li> </ul>                   Subject/ Verb Agreement A verb in the present tense must agree with the subject of the sentence.   Singular Subjects: When the subject is a singular noun or he, she, or it, add s to the verb.   Plural Subjects: When the subject is a plural noun, or I, we, you, or they, do not add an s to the verb.   Subject/ Verb Agreement Samples   Singular Subjects Plural Subjects The boy runs. The girls run. The horse gallops. The horses gallop. Sally sings. Sally and Mary sing.   he, she, it I,  you, we, they He plays baseball. I play baseball. She reads books. You read books. It barks loudly. They bark loudly.   Present, Past, Future   A verb tells when something happens. The tense of a verb lets you know whether something happens in the past, present, or in the future.       Present   walk   laugh   touch       Past   walked   laughed   touched       Future   will walk   will laugh   will touch         Spelling Present Tense   <ul style="margin-top: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in" type="disc"> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph"> For most verbs, add s.</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph"> For verbs that end with s, x, z, ch, or sh, add es.</li> </ul> For a verb that ends with a consonant and y, change the y to an i and add es.   Spelling Present Tense Samples   For verbs that end with s, x, z, ch, or sh, add es.   For a verb that ends with a consonant and y, change the y to an i and add es.   push --- pushes        dry --- dries brush --- brushes     fly --- flies miss --- misses         study --- studies   Spelling the Past Tense For most verbs, add -ed.   Verbs ending with e, drop the e and add -ed.   Verbs ending with a single vowel and a consonant, double the consonant and add -ed.   Verbs ending with a consonant and y, change the y to an i and add -ed.             Spelling the Past Tense Samples   For most verbs just add -ed.   For verbs ending in e, drop the e and add -ed.   talk - talked                like - liked play - played                         bake - baked call - called                save - saved   Verbs ending with a single vowel and a consonant, double the consonant and add -ed.   Verbs ending with a consonant and y, change the y to an i and add -ed.   hug - hugged                        study - studied hum - hummed                    fry - fried hop – hopped                       hurry – hurried

VERBS

VERBS Action Verbs The main word in the predicate is the verb. A verb is a word that can show action. ...

Grammar Essay

Grammar Essay   Q1: a) Prescriptive grammar is a book of rules governing the socially correct usage of the English language. It can be categorized as an ‘applied’ grammar since it is very much grammar in everyday use. However, despite its common use and application in everyday language, many educationalists and linguists see prescriptive grammar, including its cult of correctness, as problematic. Problematic in the sense that is has been criticized for not taking account of language change and stylistic variation, and for imposing the norms of some groups on all users of a language (1998), particularly the use of the English language. In addition, educationalists and linguists questioned whether isolated instruction in the rules of language use and the names of the parts of language transfer into an ability to write clearly and fluently. It has been discussed by linguists as exemplifying specific attitudes to language and usage (1998). Somehow, the classic trivium of grammar, rhetoric, and logic has lost much of its power. In addition, problems can be encountered in terms of pronunciation and grammar. The underlying rationale is that some people speak the ‘correct version’ of the language, and that other people speak a dialect, such as of diglossia, or the division of a language in ‘high’ and ‘low’ forms to be used by people of high and low status respectively. As it is taught in the classroom, an emphasis on accuracy in the fluency of language instruction is first achieved. In other words, the students are encouraged to speak first to develop confidence, and then to examine errors later. This has often been accompanied by a perception that standards of written and spoken language are falling since measurements of language performance is often done in relation to accuracy rather than fluency or creativity in language use (2007).   b) Both prescriptive and descriptive types of grammar, among other types, are used in discourse. As mentioned earlier, prescriptive grammar is the grammar applied in everyday use. It establishes a ‘correct’ way to speak or write, and is based on an appeal to ‘logical principles’ and Latin grammar in the guise of English. In addition, prescriptive approach is easier to teach, as it there is always one right answer ( 1993), thus, is explicitly taught in schools. It has been reported that this type of grammar is an account of a language that sets out rules or prescriptions for how it should be used and for what should not be used, based on norms derived from a particular model of grammar (1998). This approach insists that however many variables might be found, there are better and worse choices, and it will specify at least which is most appropriate, more likely which is acceptable, or, in its most rigorous application, which is correct ( 1993). On the other hand, in comparison to prescriptive grammar, descriptive grammar is also an applied grammar, which represents an approach that describes the grammatical constructions that are used in a language, without making any evaluative judgments about their ‘correctness’ or otherwise. It attempts to precisely describe the linguistic processes a particular user employs, and does not tell the user how to speak or understand. In descriptive grammars, there is no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ ways to speak or write. This type of approach may offer several possible answers, each appropriate in one or another context. Even in spelling and pronunciation, where prescription may seem less problematic, description may sometimes be more nearly accurate. Prescription says judgment is the correct spelling, but description accurately points out that even Edited English considers judgement correct too ( 1993). Another example or application of this difference can be observed in the use of the Microsoft Word program of computers. The Microsoft Word program automatically marks and/or corrects the typewritten word, phrase, or sentence, which it believes not to comply with the English standard. In this regard, the type of grammar being used in the Microsoft Word program is the prescriptive grammar, thus, if a descriptive grammar or approach would be used, then it will be marked or automatically changed by the program itself.   Q2: It has been reported that register is an important term in stylistic analysis, as it refers to a distinctive style of utterance that is related to the context of that utterance. In stylistics and sociolinguistics, it refers to a variety of language defined according to its use in social situations. In  grammar, the term is seen as specifically opposed to varieties of language defined according to the characteristics of the user. In this regard, it can be understood that register in this sense also refers to the style of language a user employs in order to express a certain message (2007). As such, a number of factors must be taken note off in order to be able to convey and express a certain message. Such factors influence a particular writer or speaker, as these factors serve to motivate, hinder, limit, encourage, and feed the amount and type of information or style one is supposed to be using in expressing a message. These factors are primarily social factors, for social factors emphasizes the fact that human beings are social beings, thus, speaking and listening cannot solely be done individually. This stresses the fact that users of any language need a listener, to which the message is intended to be conveyed.             Social factors include the receiver of the message or the person a user is talking to, the origin, ethnicity or the nationality of the speaker and the listener or receiver, the topic of the conversation, the purpose of the discussion or conversation, and the location from where the speaker and the listener is. Such social factors are important in determining the choice of language or style/register one would be using. Anyhow, one can switch from one language code or style to the other depending on the estimation of how effective a particular code or style will serve a particular purpose. For example, such choose of register or style is important in the use of a particular language in Hong Kong, particularly in terms of linguistic repertoire, or the notion that all language users have a variety of ways of expressing themselves in speech or in writing. Each of these ways of using language is associated with a particular social context or social meaning. In Hong Kong, since there are many bilingual and trilingual language users, there are many interesting and characteristic ways in which Hong Kong people use different languages, and often in the same conversation. In societies like Hong Kong where multilingualism is the norm, different languages acquire different social meanings, and switching between them is an important communicative strategy. In terms of the user and the receiver of the language or message, the style or language to be used depends upon the comfortable language used by both speaker and listener. If the speaker knows how to speak two languages or more, he or she must use the style or language that must be understood by the receiver or listener. In terms of the origin or ethnicity of both the speaker and the listener, one has the option to speak his or her ‘mother tongue’ in expressing or conveying a particular message. The language and style to be used is also dependent upon the purpose and the topic of the discussion, thus, becoming important social factors in terms of using a particular style or language. Equally important is the location from where the speaker and the listener are. For example, one might speak Cantonese socially, use English and Mandarin at work, and sometimes use Malay in telephone calls to friends in Singapore. This is important in the relevant existence of the speech community, which is defined by the common patterns of language use in a particular community. Cantonese speakers in Hong Kong form a large and influential local speech community, but the existence of a number of speech communities in Hong Kong makes it a multilingual community. In addition, interlanguage or pidgin language also exists in Hong Kong, which is neither a standard form of the mother tongue nor a standard form of the target language to be learned. The pidgin language develops between people who do not have a common language, but it is not a learner’s language. It has no native speakers and has a narrow range of functions, usually in trade. ‘Chinglish’ or the mixture of Chinese and English used by early traders in Hong Kong is an example (2007).   Q3: It has been reported that if there is cohesion and coherence in a written text, then the sentences display some kind of mutual dependence. Words, phrases, and sentences do not occur at random, thus, eliciting the expression or conveying the message effectively and efficiently. Coherence is achieved by the information structure in a text. It refers to the way the ideas and concepts in a text are similarly connected together, and thus, is related to the concept of cohesion, which refers to techniques and devices that an author or speaker uses to ‘glue’ a text together (2007). In this regard, the concept of coherence is determined as the ‘glueness’ or sticking together of the texts in order to convey a particular meaning. On the other hand, the concept of cohesion is determined as the different means in order for texts to be connected to one another. In addition, the way in which an author develops the topic or topics in a text is also an important part of the information structure of the text. Topic development is often revealed by the use of linking words such as, ‘first’, ‘next’, and ‘finally’. In between paragraphs, topic development is an important feature of text cohesion. As such, it can be perceived that good cohesion is evident when the interpretation of one feature is clearly dependent upon another elsewhere in the sequence (2007).             In relation to such concepts, two linguists, namely,  have written extensively about cohesion in texts in 1989, and have identified several types of cohesive devices, which can be used in order to observe and analyze the cohesion and coherence in a sentence. These cohesive devices include conjunctive relations, coreference, substitution, ellipsis, repeated forms, lexical relationships, and comparison, and would be discussed in detail. Conjunctive relations is a type of cohesion device, which determines that what is about to be said is explicitly related to what has been said before, through such notions as contrast, result and time. Conjunctive elements are not devices for reaching out into the preceding or following text like reference, ellipsis or substitution. Rather, they are cohesive by virtue of their specific meanings. In a specific grammar book of Mandarin Chinese, the function of conjunction is called ‘sentence linking’, with two kinds, namely, forward-linking and backward-linking. The positions of the linking elements in Chinese can be unpredictable (2004). In this sense, it can be perceived that the conjunctive linking in the English and the Chinese languages are not similar. Using conjunctive devices in the English language would produce a different meaning in the Chinese language. Another cohesion device is coreference, which refers to features that cannot be semantically interpreted without referring to some other feature in the text. Anaphoric or backward interpretation and cataphoric or forward interpretation must be recognized in order to produce the right meaning. This emphasizes the relationship between two items in which both refer to the same person or thing and one stands as a linguistic antecedent of the other. The third cohesion device is substitution, which replaces a previous expression with another. Ellipsis on the other hand is a piece of structure that is omitted, and can be recovered only from the preceding discourse. It is very common in both spoken and written English. Repeated forms are expressions repeated in whole or in part. This is used in order to repeatedly refer to the topic or subject talked about in the sentence or conversation. Lexical relationships establish semantic, through synonymy, paraphrase and collocation, and pragmatic or presupposition connectedness, in which it operates over larger stretches of text since it establishes chains of related references. In this regard, one lexical item enters into a structural relationship with another. The last form of cohesion device is comparison, in which a compared expression is presupposed in the previous discourse (2007).             From the model of cohesion and its underlying devices, it can be understood and perceived that this model is an important aspect in the analysis of sentences and texts. This is because through this model, one would be able to realize and examine the cohesion and coherence of words, phrases, and sentences that would be essential in providing meaning and relevance to the speaker and listener. In addition, this model would serve to be an excellent guide, which would serve to provide information and knowledge on any human being, willing to learn and understand a specific language. In today’s generation, communication and interrelationship are one of the most important aspects in terms of improvement and development, thus, the model of cohesion would be an edge for any individual, who aims to communicate effectively. Another importance of knowing this model is the appreciation that would follow if a particular individual knows how to interpret, translate, and understand texts. As such, new knowledge and skills are gained, which can be used in one’s advantage.

Grammar Essay

Grammar Essay Q1: a) Prescriptive grammar is a book of rules governing the socially correct usage of the English language. It can...

Write an essay analyzing the 4 most prominent phonological problem for a tape record segment of speech from a non-native speaker of English

4 Most common Phonological problems from Non-native English speaker         Before we understand some basic problems in phonology let us first understand what it is all about. Phonology - is the science of speech sounds including specially the history and theory of sound changes in language or in two or more related language.  From this point of view we can easily understand that there may be many possibilities that there will be more phonological problem that may arise from different linguistic and cultural background.  But for now we are going to focus from variation of 2 phonological problems that we may encounter when, let us say talk to a foreigner or non native English speaker like Chinese or maybe Japanese or Koreans which may hinder the meaning of the languages they may have spoken. This may bring unintentional misunderstanding in communication since problem in linguistic approach and usage differs from their respective way and cultural upbringing Let us identified the problem. The samples below may not imply a thorough study of the subject matter but will just set samples. ·         First is the segmental - problem which pertains to linguistic, noting or pertaining to the discrete elements of sequential speech, as consonants and vowel. Any discrete unit can be identified as physical or auditory in the stream of speech. Let us say that we talked to Chinese student who speak Cantonese, thus we may say that the first problem we may encounter maybe 1. Vowel Phonemes The narrow divisions of vowel phonemes in the sound system of English makes great demand upon the Cantonese learner. Cantonese only has 3 vowels compare to 5 in English.      2. Consonant  phonemes, because of absence of initial from the range of Cantonese phonemes there may not be able to pronounce such words or letter like B, D, G and the letter V, W, and Z. this means that they are going to experience a difficulty in unfamiliar sounds since they may not heard such letters. Example: tied and died or sink and zinc. Occasionally the letter F will be replaced with V and or the substitution of V to W may take place .Another example of segmental problem is the absence of S the confusion of said and shed or shame or same. Another there is the absence of many consonants like  b, d, and g. The Interchangeability or a change of language like weary to fairy there may not be enough examples to that will constitute such differences or it required a thorough study.   ·         Second is the Supra segmental – Is a vocal effect that extends over more than one sound segment in an utterance. Example is 1.Stress is the relative emphasis that maybe given to certain syllable in a word or to certain words in phrase or sentence. The term is also used for similar patterns of phonetic prominence inside syllable. The word accent is also used with this sense. It is a common for stressed and unstressed syllables to behave differently as language evolve. Example the word volver has the form volvi in the past tense but vuelvo in the present tense. 2. Vowel reduction is any of the various changes in the acoustic of quality of vowels which are related to changes. Examples may be. Marry, merry, mary. You can feel the reduction of contrasting sound when you pronounce the word.             To give solutions to all this barriers you will need to have a translation of your language to English language you may want to use the website www.translate.google.com  since languages are written according to aborigines if they are going to introduce English in their own language they must design a conventionally ways to conform their indigenous norms and ways to make it a reality learning it easily. English language is universal language that is why this is a powerful means of communication and you must have to learn this language in order for you to communicate among nations. The process of learning requires much harder in non-English speaking nations. The time to start is today. You may want to consult professional help or hire a tutor, enroll in an English class or join the Online English course which many Koreans is doing. You may always want to have a book about translation of your language like Japanese – English dictionary or Arabic-English dictionary etc. Generally the language barrier from other nations so as to speak differently does not really depend on the cultural manifestation but on your desire to learn.

Write an essay analyzing the 4 most prominent phonological problem for a tape record segment of speech from a non-native speaker of English

4 Most common Phonological problems from Non-native English speaker Before we understand some basic problems in phonology let u...

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