Herb,
It would be interesting to add a third kind of sentence to your first
exercise:
1) You seem to shift topics too quickly. I want to hear more, but you
move on.
2) This sentence doesn't seem to fit.
3) This doesn't seem like something the character would actually say.
4) I think the emphasis is on the wrong words.
5) I think this sentence is important, but you could say it in a lot less
words.
6) This seems worth more attention than it gets in the middle of this
long sentence in the middle of this long paragraph.
7) This isn't clear.
8) I felt irritated that you are telling me how to feel.
My opening move in a writing OR grammar course is often to talk about
THREE kinds of lenses: not just "correct" or "grammatical" (the two
competing lenses you are laying out), but "effective."
I tell them "a sentence is not a complete thought," and that seems to
get their attention. Sentences can vary widely in the amount of
information they contain and in the ways that information is organized.
We can declare a sentence grammatical or "correct" on the basis of the
isolated sentence. But we can't make judgements about the
"effectiveness" of a sentence until we see its place within the
discourse. We have to look at the sentences before and after and make
inferences about the writer's evolving purposes. When we do, we begin
to notice aspects of syntax that participate in this effectiveness.
Effective writers make choices on the basis of their rhetorical goals.
We don't notice them if we never think to look. It's a dimension of
grammar that is routinely shortchanged, and this accounts in part for
the disconnection between reading, writing, and grammar. Observing that
a writer's sentences are grammatical or correct doesn't get us very far
toward finding the meaning. >
It's not that "correct" or "grammatical" are not important, but they
seem to me an incomplete perspective, and when they conflict, as they
often do, there's no easy way to resolve the difficulties. A
descriptive grammar that simply calls the prescriptive into question
doesn't give us final answers. And it leaves us on the margins of
English studies, not in the center, where we should be.
Craig
Christine,
>
> I missed your original request. I don't remember what level you teach,
> but I filled in last week for an out of town colleague in the first
> meeting of her Language and Society and English Linguistics classes. I
> used the exercises below for group work and discussion of topics that
> would orient the students to the course content. I don't know if this
> is at all like what you're looking for.
>
> Herb
>
> The first exercise creates two broad categories that are critiqued later
> in the course, but it gets students thinking about them.
>
> Social Vs. Linguistic Rules of English
>
> For each of the following statements fill in the blank with "S" if it is
> a socially imposed rule and "L" if it is a rule imposed by the English
> language.
>
> _____ 1. Don't use "ain't."
> _____ 2. Subjects usually come before verbs.
> _____ 3. If your voice goes up at the end of a sentence, you've
> probably asked a question.
> _____ 4. Always mention yourself last in a series.
> _____ 5. Never end a sentence with a preposition.
> _____ 6. Tense is shown on verbs.
> _____ 7. Standard English is correct; street language ain't.
> _____ 8. Always separate month and day from year by a comma, as
> in "February 8, 1999."
> _____ 9. Canadians spell "color" as "colour."
> _____ 10. In a main clause, the direct object comes after the
> verb.
>
>
> The second exercise is something of a setup, comprising, as it does, the
> chapter topics from Bauer and Trudgill's Language Myths, which they will
> be reading in Language and Society. But it prepares them for further
> discussion of those and similar topics.
>
> Survey of Language Facts
>
> Mark each of the following statements as true or false.
>
> ___ 1. The meanings of words should not be allowed to vary or change.
>
> ___ 2. Some languages are just not good enough.
>
> ___ 3. The media are ruining English.
>
> ___ 4. French is a logical language.
>
> ___ 5. English spelling is kattastroffik
>
> ___ 6. Women talk too much.
>
> ___ 7. Some languages are harder than others.
>
> ___ 8. Children can't speak or write properly any more.
>
> ___ 9. In some parts of Appalachia they still speak Shakespeare's
> English.
>
> ___ 10. Some languages have no grammar.
>
> ___ 11. Italian is beautiful; German is ugly.
>
> ___ 12. Bad grammar is slovenly.
>
> ___ 13. Black children are verbally deprived.
>
> ___ 14. Double negatives are illogical.
>
> ___ 15. TV makes everyone sound the same.
>
> ___ 16. They speak really bad English down South and in New York City.
>
> ___ 17. You shouldn't say "It's me" because "me" is objective case.
>
> ___ 18. Some languages are spoken more quickly than others.
>
> ___ 19. Aborigines speak a primitive language.
>
> ___ 20. Everyone has an accent except people I grew up with.
>
> The third exercise, for the English Linguistics class, invites students
> to explore the meaning of "ungrammatical".
>
> Types of questionable sentence
>
> Read each of the following sentences, decide whether it is an acceptable
> sentence in English, and, if it isn't, explain why. Be specific in
> identifying what might be amiss.
>
>
> 1. The policeman the boy the dog bit called came.
>
> 2. "Colorless green ideas sleep furiously."1
>
> 3. Me and Bill went fishing last weekend.
>
> 4. The Sears Tower was a building higher than which no other had
> ever been built.
>
> 5. That ain't no house I'd want to live in.
>
> 6. The guard couldn't have been not sleeping.
>
> 7. Upon were a there time three once bears.
>
> 8. "Then I pray all them that shall read in this little treatise to
> hold me for excused for the translating of hit."2
>
> 1Chomsky, Noam A. 1957. Syntactic Structures. The Hague: Mouton.
> 2Caxton, William. 1490. Prologue to his translation of Eneydos.
> Reprinted in W. F. Bolton, ed, The English Language: Essays by English
> and American Men of Letters 1490-1839, Cambridge: Cambridge University
> Press, 1966. (Spelling modernized.)
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Eduard C. Hanganu
> Sent: Monday, August 28, 2006 7:26 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Defining Traditional Grammar
>
> Good idea!
>
>
>
> On Mon, 28 Aug 2006, Christine Gray wrote...
>
>>Edmond, actually I dislike the word "whatever" for the reason you
> mention:
>>it dismisses a topic or debate.
>>
>>I do understand, though, that many here are involved/interested in
> the
>>debate over noun-ness.
>>
>>But I am weary of the topic. I have been reading/following it for
> weeks
>>now--I think it's been going on for weeks.
>>
>>Last week, I asked what people do in the first day of class, which
> for me is
>>today. No one responded. I would like to have heard from others,
> for, I
>>believe, the first class sets the tone for much of the semester.
>>
>>I'm returning to my warm, dark, damp lurker hole.
>>
>>Christine
>>
>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar
>>[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Edmond Wright
>>Sent: Monday, August 28, 2006 7:03 AM
>>To: [log in to unmask]
>>Subject: Re: Defining Traditional Grammar
>>
>>> Dear Christine,
>>
>>Interesting that you use the word 'Whatever' to express your
> dismissal of
>>the debate, for 'whatever' suggests a complete disinterest in
> joining in the
>>game of distinguishing one entity from another.
>>
>>Edmond
>>
>>
>>Whatever . . .
>>>
>>> Christine
>>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar
>>> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Edmond Wright
>>> Sent: Monday, August 28, 2006 5:27 AM
>>> To: [log in to unmask]
>>> Subject: Re: Defining Traditional Grammar
>>>
>>
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