Gack --  I meant "Brett," not "John" at the beginning of that.
Meta-apologies! --- Bill Spruiell

 

From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Spruiell, William C
Sent: Thursday, May 14, 2009 7:26 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Suffix-dropping

 

John,

 

Apologies - I didn't even notice that my first example could be read as
a passive construction. Substitute "I was mow the lawn" and it'll work,
I'm thinking. 

 

Bill Spruiell

 

(yes, "I'm thinking" was intentional. Honest! No, really).

 

From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Brett Reynolds
Sent: Thursday, May 14, 2009 6:52 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Suffix-dropping
Importance: Low

 

 

On 14-May-09, at 6:41 PM, Bill Spruiell wrote:

	 

	 

	What I'm seeing, though, are forms like "I was read this book"
or "These short story are...."; they're in papers written by native
English-speakers who don't speak any of the dialects that would normally
drop those suffixes, and the same students do use the suffixes in speech
(it's exactly the reverse of the usual situation, in which students
don't know they have to write bits that they don't say). If I draw
attention to a line in which there's a missing -ing, etc., the students
frequently *can't* see anything unusual about it;

 

I'm afraid I can't see anything unusual about your first example either.
What am I missing?

 

Best,

Brett

 

-----------------------

Brett Reynolds

English Language Centre

Humber College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

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