Grammar for Teachers: A Guide to American English for Native and Non-Native Speakers

454 Pages·2008·6.16 MB·English

Grammar for Teachers
Andrea DeCapua
Grammar for Teachers
A Guide to American English for Native
and Non-Native Speakers
Author
Andrea DeCapua, Ed.D.
College of New Rochelle
New Rochelle, NY 10805
Preface
Grammar for Teachers: A Guide to American English for Native and Non-Native
Speakers is a result of my frustrations over many years of teaching graduate-level
structure courses and not being able to find an appropriate grammar text for the
pre- and in-service teachers enrolled in these classes. The students in these courses
have represented a variety of teaching backgrounds: ESL and EFL teachers, native
and non-native speakers of English, and mainstream content-area teachers with ESL
students in their classes, to name a few. Some of these students have had a strong
knowledge of English grammar, but often have difficulties in applying their knowl-
edge to real-life discourse. Other students’ exposure has been limited to lessons in
“correctness,” and are generally unaware of which language features are central to
teaching ESL/EFL learners. Some students are resistant to taking this course, but
are required to do so, whether to satisfy specific degree requirements, for state or
professional certification, or for other reasons. A few students have had some lin-
guistics, many not. The challenge has been finding a way to convey the essentials of
American English grammar clearly, to engage students actively in their own learning
and understanding of grammar as applicable to ESL/EFL learners, and to motivate
them to undertake perceptive analyses of grammatical elements and structures, and
of ESL/EFL learner needs and difficulties.
The overall aim of Grammar for Teachers is to make grammar accessible and
comprehensible. The text assumes no prior knowledge and can be used with active
and prospective teachers who have little or no background in grammar, linguis-
tics, foreign languages, or other related fields. It is also intended for those users
whose exposure to English grammar has been primarily limited to prescriptive rules
of what speakers should say and write with little or no consideration of the con-
cerns and problems ESL/EFL learners face in learning and using English. The text
encourages users to develop a solid understanding of the use and function of the
grammatical structures in American English so that they may better appreciate the
language difficulties of ESL/EFL learners. The underlying premise is that teachers
of ESL/EFL learners need to understand how English works from a practical, every
day approach of “What does the learner need to know in order to produce X.” When
teachers understand the grammar of American English and the problems and needs
of ESL/EFL learner, they are in a better position to teach and explain elements of
grammar.
v
vi Preface
The text reviews essential grammar structures clearly and concisely, while avoid-
ing jargon or technical terms. The text approaches grammar from a descriptive rather
than a prescriptive approach and focuses on the structures of grammar of greatest
importance to ESL/EFL learners. Grammar for Teachers encourages users to tap
into their own, generally subconscious, knowledge of the grammar of English and
make it a conscious knowledge that they can apply to their own varied teaching
settings. The text strives to make the study of grammar interesting and relevant
by presenting grammar in context and by using authentic material from a variety
of sources. Discussions of areas of potential difficulties for ESL/EFL learners are
included throughout the text. Grammar for Teachers also explores differences in
forms accepted in formal versus casual or informal writing and speaking based on
the types of questions and concerns learners are likely to have.
In each chapter, users of the text work through numerous Discovery Activities
that encourage them to explore for themselves different elements of grammar and
to consider how these elements work together to form meaningful discourse. Addi-
tional Practical Activities at the end of each chapter provide more practice on struc-
tures presented in that chapter. Included in the Practice Activities are samples of
relevant learner errors and error analysis exercises. These exercises expose users
to authentic ESL/EFL learner discourse at different levels of proficiency and from
many different native languages, and afford them opportunities to practice focusing
on specific errors at any given moment.
Acknowledgments
I especially thank the students at New York University, The College of New
Rochelle, New York and Long Island University, Purchase Campus who used vari-
ous drafts of the text over the years and provided feedback. Special thanks are due
to Helaine Marshall, at Long Island University, Purchase, New York Campus and
Will Smathers, New York University who piloted earlier versions of the text. Their
comments, insights and suggestions were invaluable. Thanks also to Judy Hausman,
Susannah Healy, Betsy Reitbauer, Cheryl Serrano, and Walter Oerlemann for their
help and encouragement.
vii
Contents
1 What is Grammar? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Grammar as a Set of Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Discovery Activity 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Language and Change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Discovery Activity 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Linguists and Grammar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Language is Rule-Governed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Discovery Activity 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Language as a Set of Rules versus Language as Rule-Governed . . . . . . . 9
Prescriptive versus Descriptive Grammar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Prescriptive Grammar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Descriptive Grammar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Discovery Activity 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Discovery Activity 5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Practice Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Answer Key: Chapter 1 Discovery Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2 Morphology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Section 1: Word Classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Discovery Activity 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Context and Function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Word Plays and Context: An Additional Illustration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Discovery Activity 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Discovery Activity 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Parts of Speech or Lexical Categories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Open Word Classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Discovery Activity 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Closed Word Classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Discovery Activity 5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
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x Contents
Overview: Major Parts of Speech . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Nouns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Adjectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Verbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Adverbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Section 2: Morphology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Discovery Activity 6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Bound and Free Morphemes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Derivational and Inflectional Morphemes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Derivational Morphemes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Inflectional Morphemes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Redundancy in Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Discovery Activity 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Practice Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
3 The Noun Phrase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Section 1: Identifying Nouns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Context and Function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Semantic Clues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Structural Clues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Derivational Clues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Morphological Clues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Section 2: Different Types of Nouns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Count and Noncount Nouns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Discovery Activity 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Discovery Activity 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Discovery Activity 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Crossover Nouns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Discovery Activity 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Section 3: Structure Words that Signal Nouns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Discovery Activity 5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Discovery Activity 6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Demonstratives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Discovery Activity 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Discovery Activity 8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Quantifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Discovery Activity 9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Discovery Activity 10 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Section 4: Pronouns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Discovery Activity 11 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Types of Pronouns by Function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Subject Pronouns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Object Pronouns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Possessive Pronouns and Possessive Adjectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Contents xi
Discovery Activity 12 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Reflexive Pronouns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Indefinite Pronouns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Practice Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Answer Key: Chapter 3 Discovery Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
4 Adjectives and Adverbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Section 1: Adjectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Identification of Adjectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Semantic Clues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Discovery Activity 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Morphological Clues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Derivational . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Discovery Activity 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Inflectional . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Discovery Activity 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Structural Clues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Discovery Activity 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Discover Activity 5: Identifying Adjectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Order of Adjectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Adjective Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Discovery Activity 6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Special Types of Adjectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Nouns Functioning as Adjectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Discovery Activity 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Participial Adjectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Discovery Activity 8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Section 2: Adverbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Discovery Activity 9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Different Subclasses of Adverbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Frequency Adverbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Discovery Activity 10 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Time and Place Adverbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
The “Other” Adverbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Discovery Activity 11 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Discovery Activity 12 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Practice Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Answer Key: Chapter 4 Discovery Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
5 Introduction to Verbs and Verb Phrases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Section 1: Identifying Verbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Semantic Clues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121