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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