Search results for 'tag:Sentence structures tag:Relative pronouns' matching tags 'Sentence structures' and 'Relative pronouns'

Re: Is "There is the ..." an exceptional use?

jazzmaster — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 22:27:58 GMT

CalifJim

Probably not. There may be a better way to finesse this with a different wording.
Yes, but from the viewpoint of the authors and the teacher, this may be considered a harmless "white lie".
Out of curiosity, does the book actually use the words, "serious grammatical error"? Or is that your impressionistic paraphrase?

Thanks CJ

"Serious grammatical error" is my paraphrase. But when and if ESL students start to expressly state "this IS an exceptional usage", I suppose that means "these is a set rule on this and no one can break that in any shape or form".

"the simplification of the grammar at the beginning makes it much easier for them to navigate the language with confidence in the beginning stages" ... I fully concur with your view here. This indeed is the ideal way of teaching something to someone, I would say. However, the reality is that they will soon start feeding what a SVOC is, along with modifier/qualifier, the difference between a relative pronoun and adverb and all that good stuff to students who even cannot pronounce the word "English" correctly yet. I have an impression that they do present "grammatically acceptable" sentence structures, rock-solid rules and what not all at once. It is not a fun way to learn a foreign language. That is why some students grow not to like the subject after short while.

Let's say you are in a store with a hardcore grammatical ESL student, and you say:
*&@!#% !! I just realized I left my wallet home!!
... in stead of saying "It's all right, CJ, here, take $100. You can pay me back tomorrow.", (granting that he/she understood what you said), the ESL student will be too busy thinking "Why did he not say "I HAD left my wallet"? Because he is describing an event that happened obviously prior to the moment "he realized", it should be the past perfect tense, thus "I HAD left". It could be an exceptional use of the "realize ... that ...." structure but I am not sure. Or should I just point out his grammatical mistake?" ... this is the mentality of students who are being taught by those hardcore grammar books, and I am not exaggertating even a bit.

Thanks.

Re: vocabulary + "it"

komountain — Wed, 26 Oct 2005 09:07:41 GMT

(A knock on the door)

Mr. Ko: Who is it?

(No answers. Mr. Ko opens the door and finds no one at the door, so he closes it. A little later, he hears another knock on the door.)

Mr. Ko: Who is it?

(Again, he opens the door and finds no one out there. A minute later he hears yet another knock.)

Mr. Ko: Who is it, knocking the door again and again?

...........................

Put in an indirect question, the last sentence above will be something like:

I really can't tell who it is, knocking the door again and again.

Rather than considering 'it' part of a cleft sentence structure, I'd see it as a demonstrative pronoun.

However, if you add 'that is,' the sentence will be:
I really can't tell who it is that is knocking the door again and again. (Still makes sense, wordy as it is.)

In this case, the functional status of 'it' becomes ambiguous, at least to me. Would it be part of a cleft sentence going together with its partner 'that', or just a demonstrative pronoun, with 'that' being viewed as a relative pronoun whose referent is 'who'? I am not so sure.

Re: Subject and Verb

Mister Micawber — Tue, 21 Jun 2005 01:25:08 GMT

1-- 'that' is the restrictive relative pronoun, not a demonstrative. It heads the adverbial clause modifying the verb 'dig' (='understand).

2-- I suppose so; the original has some structural problems-- you have miscopied or the original is wrong.

3-- 'them' refers to funerals. 'Price' is the subject of 'has'. It is not a particularly clearly written sentence, Jack.

4-- 'Interface' is the delayed subject of 'has'.

5-- The underlined portion is a prepositional phrase acting as a sentence adverbial. 'It' refers to Linux. I admit that the sentence structure is not of the best, but it is reasonably intelligible.

PS: the underlined part may be a nonfinite clause rather than a long prepositional phrase (in which case I don't really know what to call the 'with')-- but the result is the same.