Notes from my class

MANDATIVE SUBJUNCTIVE

2013-05-26T21:03:00.000-07:00

Present Subjunctive is a formal expression used to express a circumstance which is desired. It is usually marked with the words: ask, demand, determine, insist, order, recommend, request, require, or suggest; followed by (that)+infinitive.

Example:

The President demands that everyone own an ID card
It is required that you be there before 6 pm.

Pay attention to those sentences. Infinitive verbs are used regardless of the subject pronouns.

The Present Subjunctive is used mostly in formal speech and writing, more often in American English than in British English. In British English, the insertion of “should” is used.

The President demands that everyone should own an ID card.
It is required that you should be there before 6 pm.

Present subjunctive also occurs after adjectives such as IMPORTANT, ESSENTIAL, VITAL etc.

It is vital that everybody wear a mask.
It is desirable that the cars be parked outside.
It is important that he be here when the officers come.
It is essential that she send the documents today.
It is imperative that products be packed properly.

Special Uses of "it" (Dummy Pronoun)

2012-05-13T22:19:00.000-07:00

Pronoun "it" is usually used when you refer to something, for example: It is my home. So, when you say, "It is my home", you can show me which house you refer as "it". However, there are cases when you use "it" when you are not actually refer to anything, you can not show the thing you refer as "it". This is called "Dummy Pronoun". There are three major non-referential uses of the pronoun "it" (as a "dummy pronoun").

a. empty subject
Empty "it" occurs when there are no participants to fill the subject slot. Usually when you refer to weather condition, time, or distance, for example:
- it is raining
- it is five o'clock
- it is a long way from Quebec to Florida.

You can also find "it" as empty objects.

b. Anticipatory subject/object
"it" is inserted as a subject when a clause has been extraposed, for example:
- It would be fun to see a movie after work.
- It is amazing that you are finally married.

c. Subject in cleft constructions
It is found in cleft constructions, when you want to put an emphasize on a particular element in the clause, for example:
- It is the key that you are looking for, isn't it? (means "you are looking for a key, not a pen, right?")
- It is tonight that I will leave. (I will leave tonight, not tomorrow.)

Sentence vs Proposition

2012-02-10T07:53:00.000-08:00

Sentence : a grammatically complete string of words expressing a complete thought (at least contains a verb).

I saw a book on the table is a sentence.

Book on the table is not a sentence.

Proposition :Part of the meaning of the utterance of by declarative sentence that describes some state of affairs.

Example:

Take a look at this picture. You can describe this scene by:

A cat eats a mouse.
A mouse is eaten by a cat.

Those two different sentences belong to the same proposition. All those utterances can be analyzed as consisting of a predicate naming an event or state and on or arguments naming referents that participate in that event or state.

- The activity is eat

- The agent is cat

- The patient is mouse

Propositions, unlike sentences, cannot be said to belong to any particular language. Sentences in different languages correspond to the same proposition, if the two sentences are perfect translations of each other.

Look at this sentences:

I love you (English)

Aishiteru (Japanese)

Wo ai ni (Chinese)

We call them as different sentences and language, but they refer to the same proposition: I love you.

Predicate and predicator

2010-09-07T00:48:00.000-07:00

Predicate : any word (or sequence of words) which (in a given single sense) can function as the predicator of a sentence.
Hungry, in, crook, asleep are all predicates.
Predicator : A word that does not belong to any of the referring expressions and which, of the remainder, makes the most specific contribution to the meaning of the sentence.
- asleep is the predicator in Mother is asleep.
- Love is the predicator in The tall boy loved the Japanese girl.
- Standing is the predicator in James was standing there.

The verb be in its various forms (is, was, are, were, am) cannot be a predicator.
The term predicate identifies elements in the language system, independently of particular example sentences. Predicator identifies the semantic role played by a particular word (or group of words) in a particular sentence. It is possible to show the predicator of a sentence, but impossible to list the predicators of English. A simple sentence only has one predicator, although it may contain more than one instance of a predicate.
A tall, handsome stranger entered the shop.
This sentence have only one predicator enter, but the sentence also contains the words tall, handsome, stranger, and shop.

Referent vs Reference

2010-09-07T00:40:00.000-07:00

Reference vs. referent
Reference: relationship between piece of language and the things in the world.
Referent: A referent is concrete object or concept that is designated by a word or expression.
Example:
Princess Diana is the referent of Rose of England.
The relationship between Princess Diana and Rose of England is called reference.

Sense and Reference

2010-09-07T00:36:00.000-07:00

Reference : relation between piece of language and the things in the world. A referent is concrete object or concept that is designated by a word or expression, for example :
Historically, there was only one person called George Washington, the first president of US, but he can be referred to in a text in many ways, such as:
- the president
- Mr. Washington
- he
The different reference can have the same referent.
Example : morning star and evening star, both of which refer to planet Venus.
Sense : its place in a system of semantic relationships with other expressions in the language. Sense consists of 'semantic properties'. Example:
Woman has a sense of animate, female, married.
Girl has a sense of animate, female, unmarried.
To know what a woman means, you have to know what a girl means, so that you get the idea why a woman is different from a girl.
To make it simple, sense is the meaning of an expression, and if an expression refers to something, it has reference.

Speech Act Theory

2010-08-27T02:23:00.000-07:00

People can do many things with speech. They can make promises, lay bets, warnings, offer congratulations, or swear on oath. When you say, “Be careful! Mr. Potter is in his office.” you not only say something, but you also warn someone.

The study of how we do things with sentences is the study of speech acts. In studying speech acts, we are dealing with the context of the utterance. “Mr. Potter is in his office.” may be a warning, but in some cases, the same sentence may be a promise, or merely information, depending on circumstances.

Speech act theory aims to tell us when we appear to ask questions but actually we are giving orders, or when we say something with special intonation and mean the opposite. Thus, when your friend says, “Excuse me, but you sit on my book,” he actually means “Don’t sit on my book!” It is not merely information, and you will not say “Thank you for informing,” without doing anything.

Normally, the speech act is a sentence, but it can be a word or a word or phrase as long as it follows the rules necessary to accomplish the intention. When one speaks, one performs an act. Speech act stresses the intent of the act as a whole. According to Searle, understanding the speaker’s intention is essential to capture the meaning. Without the speaker’s intention, it is impossible to understand the words as a speech act.

John R. Searle (1983) says that there are three types of speech act:

Locutionary acts
Illocutionary acts
Perlocutionary acts

Locutionary act is an act of saying something with the utterance’s exact meaning. Sometimes, locutionary act is merely called the act of saying something. In locutionary act, the speaker’s intention is not important. Thus, “I’m thirsty” is mere information to the hearer that the speaker is thirsty.

Illocutionary act is an act of doing something with a certain intention and function. Illocutionary act is sometimes called the act of doing something. When someone says “I’m thirsty.” he actually requests the hearer to take him a drink.

Perlocutionary act is an act to give an influence to the hearer. Sometimes, it is called the act of affecting someone.

Searle classifies illocutionary acts into five categories:

Assertives

An act in which the speaker commits to the truth of the corresponding proposition (i.e. He asserts the proposition), such as: stating, suggesting, complaining, claiming, and boasting.

Directives

Any illocutionary act which essentially involves the speaker trying to get the hearer to behave in some required way, example: ordering, commanding, requesting, advising, recommending, etc.

Expressives

Any illocutionary act to express the speaker’s psychological expression towards something, such as: thanking, congratulating, pardoning, blaming, condoling, etc.

Commisives

Any illocutionary act which essentially involves the committing to behave in some required way

Declarations

An act which relates the utterance with some state of affairs, for example: resigning, dismissing, naming, appointing, etc.

Actually, every utterance is some kind of speech act, even when there is no explicit performative verb. In “It is raining,” we recognize an implicit performance of stating. On the other hand, “Is it raining?” is a performance of questioning, just as “Leave!” is a performance of ordering.

References:

Fromkin, V, et al. 1990. An Introduction to Language. Australia: Hancourt Jovanovich Group

Hurford, James. R. 1983. Semantics: A Coursebook. England: Cambridge University Press.

Leech, Geofrey. 1983. Principles of Pragmatics. Edinburgh: Longman Group Limited.

What a good idea!

2010-02-14T21:32:00.001-08:00

The most common mistake I find among non-native English speakers when they pronounce the word "idea" is that they put the stress on the first syllable. They say "/AYdie/" instead of "/ayDIE/". If you consult the dictionaries, the correct pronunciation should be "/ayDIE/". Now practice these words:

> idea: /aiDIE/
> good idea: /gud aiDIE/
> what a good idea: /wat e gud aiDIE/

Keep practicing!

Variations of metonimy

2010-02-09T17:03:00.000-08:00

Since there are a lot of associations between objects, there are several variations of metonimy.

1. The sign for person/ thing symbolized.
Example:
> You must address The Chair.
(The Chair represents "The Leader")

2. The container for the thing contained.
Example:

> The cattle boils. (Of course, what boils is the water inside the cattle, not the cattle itself)

> The whole city went out to see the President. ("the whole city" means "all of the citizens")

> He was dead because he had drunk the fatal cup. (i think none would like to drink a cup. What he drank was the content inside the cup)

3. The instrument of the agent.
> The pen is mighter than the sword. (A pen is an instrument for writing, so it means that sometimes words can do something a sword can't)

4. The author for his works.
> I am reading Shakespeare. (means: I am reading one of Shakespeare's works.)

5. The name of a feeling or passion for the object.

> Oh my love, you are so beautiful. (The speaker mentions his feeling, "Oh my love," to address his lover.)

Neither- nor

2009-09-12T21:03:00.000-07:00

“Neither” is a singular adjective and can be paired with “nor”. When using neither-nor, you are saying that not the first object and not the second object are behaving in a certain way.

Example:

-Neither Larry nor Suze went to the beach. (Larry didn't go to the beach, Suze didn't go to the beach)

- For some people, going to the local library is neither interesting nor enjoyable. (going to the local library is not interesting and not enjoyable)

X: I don't like broccoli

Y: Neither do I (means: “I don't like broccoli too”. You may hear some people say “Me neither,” this is colloquial and not grammatically correct. You wouldn't say “Me don't like broccoli”)

Usually, either-or and neither-nor are used for mentioning two items, but sometimes they appear with three items.

- Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat can stop me.

An older form for this correlative was nor-nor:

- Nor sun nor wind will ever strive to kiss you. (Shakespeare)

You can use “nor” independently. Examples:

- She will not go to university, nor will she look for a job.

- I have never seen him since then, nor do I expect to see him again.

- I didn't murder anybody, nor will I.

Take a look to the examples above, auxiliary verbs are placed before the subjects. Therefore, you wouldn't say “I will not go to the dentist, nor I will go shopping.” Instead, say “I will not go to the dentist, nor will I go shopping.”

Sometimes instead of “neither”, a negative form may function with the first item. In such case, “or” or “nor” may appear with the last item.

- Bella owns no money (n)or jewelry.

Using “never”, “seldom”, or “rarely” in the first clause:

- He has never (or “seldom”, “rarely”) spoken a bad word to his wife (n)or to anyone else.

The use of “nor” in the sentences above reinforces the negation.

Either- or

2009-09-12T20:57:00.000-07:00

Either means “one or the other, but not both”.

- She wanted to eat either spaghetti or steak. (She wanted to eat spaghetti or steak, but not both)

- I can't remember if either Fred or George stole a car. (One of the boys stole a car, but not both)

Whether-or is sometimes used instead of either-or.

- Whether out of avarice or out of need, he asked for a much higher price for his property than it was worth.

If two singular subjects are connected by neither-nor or either-or, match the verb with whichever subject it's closer to.

- Neither Olive nor the boys eat mushrooms.

- Neither the boys nor Olive eats mushrooms.

- Either one rat or several mice are eating everything in the cupboard.

- Either several mice or one rat is eating everything in the cupboard.

Critical Age Hypothesis

2009-09-07T04:18:00.000-07:00

Children under 12 years old will be able to learn any languages like the native speakers. When an American family lives in France, for instance, then they have a baby who then socializes with his French friends until, say, 7 years old, he will be able to speak French like a native speaker. This happens because in children under 12 years old, there is no lateralization. That is, the two hemispheres are not “separated” yet to be given their own function. They both are flexible, they can accept any commands. That is why patient with stroke under 12 can get 100% recovered in acquiring language, while adults just have little chance to get 100% recovered.

After 12, lateralization process begins. The brain will not be as flexible as before. Ability to speak like a native will decrease. That is why an adult learning foreign language will almost sound like a foreigner, even though he stays for a long time in the country where the language is used in everyday life. He may master the grammar rules, but still his accent will sound like a foreigner.

Participial phrase

2009-08-19T19:23:00.000-07:00

Introduction

- Participle: a verbal that functions as an adjective.

- A participial phrase is a participle and its accompanying word or words.

Examples:

Interesting teacher : a teacher who is interesting

Interested student : a student who is interested

- There are two types of participles: present participles and past participles. Present participles end in -ing. Past participles of regular verbs end in –ed.

-Why using participial phrase?

The participial phrase is just another way to compound sentences. It provides a variety of sentence style to avoid producing boring paragraph.

Examples:

-The old man is my professor.

-He is carrying a brown bag.

You want to say that there is a man who is carrying a brown bag, and he is your professor. You can add “who is” to connect the sentences:

The old man who is carrying a brown bag is my professor. (you got a “complex sentence”)

Or, you can omit the “who is” and taa-daa... You created something called “participial phrase”.

The old man carrying a brown bag is my professor.

Now, take a look to these sentences:

-I walked into the room
-I found that everything was in a mess.

You wanted to say that you walked into a room, and when you got there, you found that everything was in a mess. To combine these two sentences, you may use a conjunction “and” , and you got a compound sentence:

I walked into the room and found that everything was in a mess.

Or change “walked” into “walking”, remove the first subject, and you got a participial phrase:

Walking into the room, I found that everything was in a mess.

Note:

to produce a participial phrase, use the same subject between the clauses, otherwise, you will produce a dangling construction.

Meaning:

Cause

Bewitched by his charm, I lost my words.

Not wearing the uniform, he is not allowed to enter the class.

Time

after: Having finished his job, he went out for coffee.

when: Opening the window, Lois was shocked by a green figure.

Placement

A participial phrase is flexible, a structure that can be placed at the beginning, middle, or end of a sentence. However, don't place it too far from the word it modifies. In order to prevent confusion, a participial phrase must be placed as close to the noun it modifies as possible, and the noun must be clearly stated.

Entering her house, Susan found a dead body.

Susan, entering her house, found a dead body.

But consider what happens when the participial phrase moves to the end of the sentence:

Susan found a dead body entering her house.

Punctuation

When a participial phrase begins a sentence, a comma should be placed after the phrase.

Arriving at the store, I found that it was closed.

- If the participial phrase is a restrictive phrase, no commas should be used:

The boy wearing the Dracula costume is my cousin.

(“the boy” may refer to any boy, so “wearing the Dracula costume” is attached without comma to point out which boy is the speaker’s cousin)

- If the participle or participial phrase comes in the middle of a sentence, it should be set off with commas only if it is non-restrictive phrase.

Sam, smelling something strange, asked Dean to call the police.

(“smelling something strange” is not used to point out which Sam is asking Dean to call the police)

If a participial phrase comes at the end of a sentence, a comma usually precedes the phrase if it modifies the first subject in the sentence, but not if the phrase directly follows the word it modifies.

Clark nervously gazed the woman, attracted by her beauty.

(The participial phrase modifies Clark, not woman. If the comma is omitted, the participial phrase will modify the woman, not Clark)

Paradigm

2009-08-19T19:09:00.000-07:00

Paradigm is a pattern of substitional relationship of a set of linguistic units in a particular linguistic context. Based on the definition, paradigm has three main points, those are:

system of substitutional relationship
System of a s of linguistic unit (linguistic unit: morphemes/words)
System in particular context

(Don’t think too much about them. You don’t need to memorize those confussing words above. It’s more important for you to see paradigm in real sentence)

A. Paradigm in word

-s, -ion, -ed, -or in the word “act” are one paradigm since if those suffixes are added to the word “act”, the words will be grammatical. In this case, you can subtitute –s with -or, -ed or –ion (the meaning is different of course, but in paradigm, we are not talking about meaning. It’s about grammatical or not.). You will understand the meaning of acts, actor, action, and acted. But you can’t add suffix –ment to the word “act” (you won’t say “actment”). So suffix –ion, -s, and –ment are not paradigm. Do you get it?

Acts, action, actor, and acted are called paradigm set, which means “a set of words that have the same stem”. In this case, the stem is “act”.

B. Paradigm in sentence:

The pronouns you, we, and they can replace each other. If you replace “you” with “they” or “we”, the sentence will be grammatical, but if you replace “you” with “I” or “he”, the sentence will be ungrammatical. You can’t say “I are walking” or “He are walking”. So, in this sentence (remember, in this sentence!) “you”, “we”, and “they” are not paradigm with “I”, “he”, and “she”.

But “I”, “you”, “she”, and “he” are paradigm in this sentence:

If you have got the idea, now take a look to this sentence:

She is teaching.

Of course you know that the word “teaching” can be replaced by “cooking”, “painting”, or “writing”. But what if you replace “teaching” with “beautiful”, or “betrayed”? Of course the sentence will be grammatical, but they don’t belong to the same class of word. So, are they paradigm? The answer is yes. Once again, it’s about grammatical or not.

Take a look to the picture below.

“sleep”, “talk”, and “watch” belong to the same class of word. “Sleeping”, “talking”, and “watching” belong to the same class of word. However, “sleep” and “sleeping” don’t belong to the same class of word although they belong to the same part of speech, i.e verb.

Class of word that has the same paradigm is called as form class. Therefore, in this sentence, “sleeping”, “talking”, and “watching” are form class. But “sleeping” and “clever” are not form class although they are paradigm in this sentence since “clever” and “sleeping” don’t belong to the same class of word.

Plural nouns

2009-08-19T19:07:00.000-07:00

A. Regular Plurals

The plurals is regularly formed by the addition of suffix -(e)s, which is pronounced:

/z/ for the words end in / b g d v ð m n ŋ r l ə y w h/

cub /kΛb/ ==> cubs /kΛbz/

key /ki:/ ==> keys /ki:z/

/s/ for the words end in / p t k f θ /

cup /kΛp/ ==> cups /kΛps/

cat /kæt/ ===> cats /kæts/

/iz/ for the words end in /s z ž š č ĵ /

glasses /glæ:s/ ==> glasses /glæ:sis/

/iz/+ a change of final consonant of the stem
-/s/ ==> /z/ in one word only:

house /haUs/ ==> houses /haUzIz/

-/f/ ==> /v/ in about a dozen words

knife /naif/ ==> knives /naivz/

wife /waif/ ==> wives /waivz/

/θ/ ==> / ð/ in about eight words

path /pǽθ/ ==> /pǽðz/

growth /grouθ/ ==> /grouðz/

B. Irregular Plurals

1. Vowel Change

man – men

woman – women

foot – feet

goose – geese

2. adding -(r)en

child – children

ox – oxen

3. Consonant change

calf – calves

knife – knives

shelf – shelves

Some words ending in -f take -ves in the plural, as shown above. The majority, including all nouns ending in -ff, take regular plural endings:

beliefs, chiefs, puffs, reefs, roofs, cliffs, etc

There is variation with a few forms:

dwarf – dwarf/ dwarves

hoof – hoofs/ hooves

wharf – wharfs/ wharves

4. Latin and Greek Plurals

a. Latin nouns ending in -us

alumnus – alumni

calculus – calculi

locus – loci

terminus – termini

b. Latin nouns ending in -um

aquarium – aquaria

stratum – strata

memorandum – memoranda

millenium – millenia

c. Latin nouns ending in -a

alga – algae

antenna – antennae

larva – larvae

d. Latin nouns ending in -ex/ -ix

appendix – appendices

index – indices

There is variation with the plural of index, usually correlating with a difference in meaning: the bibliographical meaning takes -es, while the mathematical meaning takes -ces:

- Citation indexes are a widely used method of tracking down other, later papers relevant to a query.

- The algebraic indices would be relatively easy to apply.

e. Greek nouns ending in -is

axis – axes

crisis – crises

oasis – oases

thesis – theses

f. Greek nouns ending in -on

automaton – automata

criterion – criteria

phenomenon – phenomena

ganglion – ganglia

Criteria and phenomena are occasionally used as singular forms:

The criteria is that the songs have to have a character.

However, criterion and phenomenon are the preferred singular forms.

C. Zero Plurals

Some nouns have a zero plural, i.e. they have no overt plural ending, though they have plural meaning and concord. It usually happens to the words for some animals.

Sheep, deer, buffalo, trout, fish, salmon, grouse.

The zero plural is also regularly used for dozen, hundred, foot, mile, thousand, million preceded by numerals:

two dozen people, five thousand dollars, 40 million ants, two foot square strips, a three-mile-square area

but:

dozens of people, millions of share

references:

-Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English, 1999, Doughlas Biber, et.al, Person Education Limited, England

-An Introduction of Descriptive Linguistics

Parallelism

2009-08-19T19:04:00.002-07:00

In order to make your ideas in your sentences clear and understandable, words, phrases, and clauses should have parallelism –that is, the sentence structures should be grammatically balanced. A parallel construction is the repetition of grammatical patterns within a sentence or a series of sentences. By using similar grammatical form to express equal ideas, your sentences will flow smoothly, and your writing style will improve.

Use similar grammatical structures to balance your writing. If the first structure is a noun, make all of the other nouns; if it is a phrase, make all of the others phrases; if it is a clause, make all of the others clauses.

Incorrect : A student needs textbooks, notebooks, and he needs pens.

Correct : A student needs textbooks, notebooks, and pens. (Balance noun with nouns)

Incorrect : A student who does well in exams attends class, reads the textbooks, and he reviews the notes.

Correct : A student who does well in exams attends class, reads the textbooks, and reviews the notes. (Balance clause with clause)

Using parallelism

Conjunction (and, or, but)

Words, phrases, and clauses that are joined by and, or, and but are written in parallel form. Notice the parallel structures joined by conjunctions in the following sentences.

People accused him of being a magician and that he was a fraud. (incorrect)

People accused him for being a magician and a fraud. (Correct)

Correlative conjunctions

Correlative conjunctions are placed differently before the elements they join in the sentence.

Both … and …

Congress has provided the means for both regulating pesticides and ordering their removal if dangerous.

Either … or …

She wanted to eat either spaghetti or steak.

Neither … nor …

Neither Spiderman nor Tarzan went to the party.

Not only … but also …

At the present time, air pollution is controlled through laws passed not only to reduce the pollutant at their sources, but also to set up acceptable standards of air quality.

Comparisons (than, as)

Than

Incorrect : Sleeping is much better than to work overtime.

Correct : Sleeping is much better than working overtime

Correct : The members of the US House of Representatives are elected by district as the members of the British House of Commons are.

By repeating the preposition, the articles, or the subordinating conjunctions, the parallelism becomes clearer and more effective.

I believe that eating chocolate makes you fat and that eating apples keeps you slim.

All the words in the first parallel structure do not have to be repeated in the second. You may repeat all or some of the words, depending upon what you wish to emphasize.

Before you write a paper a paper or (before) (you) take a test, you must organize your thoughts.

Not only ... but also ...

2009-08-19T19:04:00.001-07:00

When you use the conjunction “not only … but also…” to join independent clause, the word order sometimes causes problems. Here are some guidelines to help you.

If not only comes at the beginning of the first clause, use auxiliary verbs right after not only.

Not only does she come from a rich family, but she is also very beautiful.

Not only will you see beautiful scenery, but you also get new experiences.

If not only doesn’t come at the beginning of the first clause, use statement word order, and:

Place not only before main verbs

She not only comes from a rich family, but she is also very beautiful. (not only is placed before main verb comes)

Place not only after to be or auxiliary verbs.

Examples:

He is not only the most popular boy at school, but he also won last year science competition. (not only is placed after to be)

My mother can not only cook well, but she is also a good listener. (not only is placed after modal)

When but also appears in a clause with a form of the verb to be, or with auxiliaries or modals, the word also comes after the verb form.

She can not only make a good poem, but she can also write a novel. (also comes after modal)

She has not only learned to speak four languages, but she has also taught literature at Harvard University for five years. (also is placed after auxiliary)

When but also appears in a clause with a simple present or simple past tense verb, the word also comes before the verb.

He not only works full-time, but he also takes a course at night school. (also comes after the verb takes)

He not only ran his own business, but he also opened a school in Africa. (also comes after the verb opened)