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PRESENTATION SKILLS
Grammatical Pitfalls
OUTLINE
I. WHAT IS GRAMMAR?
I. WHAT IS GRAMMAR?
1.Grammar as a book of rules: formal;
explicit; external; pedagogical; prescriptive
2. Grammar as a system of rules which
speakers use: informal; tacit; internalized;
human child as a grammarian
3. Linguists Grammar: explicit & formal
description of how people use language
Lexical Knowledge
Knowledge of words:
Pronunciation (speaking): phonology
Spelling (writing): orthography
Word-formation: morphology (prefix, suffix)
Part of Speech: grammar/syntax
Meaning: semanitcs
Lexical Knowledge:
Parts of Speech
Nouns
Pronouns
Adjectives
Verbs
Adverbs
Prepositions
Conjunctions
Interjections
Nouns
UNCOUNTABLE
plural nouns
What about the following nouns?
police, cattle, people, personnel
(a) Do they have plural forms?
(b) Can we use the singular form of the verb?
The police are/is investigating the matter.
Skilled personnel are/is not available.
singular nouns
Do nouns like babble (a confused
sound), fillip (a push) have plural forms
or are necessarily singular?
There was a babble of voices
A drop in the interest rates gave a
welcome fillip to the housing market.
Adjectives
Most adjectives can be used before a
noun:
The tall person
And also in the predicate of a sentence:
The person is tall.
Attributive adjectives
Predicative adjectives
Now, look at adjectives such as asleep,
rife
Children are asleep.
Corruption is rife (=widespread) in this
country.
try to use them before a noun, and you get
ungrammatical sentences.
Verbs:
transitive & intransitive
Compare:
She drives fast. INTRANSITIVE
She drives a fast car. TRANSITIVE
She gave me a book. DITRANSITIVE
(INDIRECT & DIRECT OBJECTS)
Verbs:
stative & dynamic
Most verbs in English can be used in the
progressive/continuous tenses:
I listen to music.
Im listening to music.
But, can we use the verb hear in the
continuous tenses?
I hear a sound.
=>
Passive: The house was built by a rich family.
The house was
built
by a rich family.
S
be-tensepast MV-en
by-NP
Grammatical pitfalls
1. incomplete/fragmentary sentences
(a)All sentences must have
SUBJECT & VERB
(Imperative sentences have an implied
subject.)
(b) Sentences with transitive verbs must have
SUBJECT, VERB & OBJECT
(c) Sentences with verbs of incomplete
predication must have
SUBJECT, VERB & COMPLEMENT
(d) Complex sentences must have a main clause
1.
incomplete/fragmentary sentences:
examples
Grammatical pitfalls
2. no agreement between subject and verb
NOTICE that in English particular attention
needs to be given to the verb forms only in
the PRESENT TENSE and in the THIRD
PERSON SINGULAR (gender does not
play a role in English syntax):
I/We/You/They conduct an experiment.
He/She/It conducts and experiment.
In the Past Tense there is only one form (ed) conducted for all the persons and
numbers.
The only exceptional verb is to be.
Grammatical pitfalls
3. Problems with the verb to be
PLURAL
PRESENT
PAST
I am
I was
We are We were
You are You are You were You were
He
He
She is They are... She was They were...
It
It
Grammatical pitfalls
4. errors in parallel constructions
*We made two suggestions: a. the
purchase of laptops and b. add a scanner.
What is wrong with this sentence?
Correction:
=> We made two suggestions: a. the
purchase of laptops and b. the addition of
a scanner.
OR
=> We made two suggestions: a.
purchase laptops and b. add a scanner.
Grammatical pitfalls
5. use of pronouns
The members of the committee informed
all the organizations that they had did not
have time to consider the matter
thoroughly.
What does the pronoun they refer to? the
members or the organizations?
Grammatical pitfalls
6. use of collective nouns
Nouns like series, variety, combination,
couple are mostly viewed as a single unit
and therefore a single form of the verb is
used (collective singular):
The series demonstrates that