Everything that has been posted about this topic over the past few days
underscores the importance of talking about language in terms of function
and not form.
This point was driven home to me this week as I talked with my students
about adjective clauses that begin with words normally thought of as
adverbs: "where," "when," and "why." I think a good case can be made for
regarding them as functioning pronominally (is that a word?) in these
particular constructions.
With most adjective/relative clauses, the relative pronoun refers to a
specific noun in another clause. Thus, in the sentence "She is the woman
whom I met at a party," a traditional diagram would show a dotted line
connecting "whom" in the relative clause to "woman" in the main clause. The
reader, upon seeing the clause "whom I met at a party," thinks "woman I met
at a party."
It stands to reason, then, that "where," "when," and "why" function more
like pronominals than like adverbs in cases where the adjective clause
starts with one of those words.
I am a huge fan of Martha Kolln's Understanding English Grammar. Martha, in
your diagrams of such clauses (adjective clauses launched by an adverb), you
show the adverb on a straight line under the verb of the adjective clause.
But could we not treat the "where," "when," or "why" as if it were the
object of a prepositional phrase with an elliptical preposition? The
prepositional phrase as a unit functions adverbially in its own clause, but
the word itself functions nominally in its relation to the other clause-as a
replacement for the word to which we say it is connected.
Take this sentence, for example:
This is the house where I was born.
The dotted line connecting the adjective clause "where I was born" to the
main clause would connect "where" to "house." "Where" acts just like a
pronoun; that is, when we read that adjective clause, the meaning conveyed
is "I was born [in] house" or "I was born [in] where."
My students were inclined to treat these words as objects of prepositional
phrases with elliptical prepositions because earlier in the text, they were
taught that words like "yesterday" and "tomorrow" and "Friday" are
diagrammed as objects of prepositional phrases with elliptical prepositions.
And I have implored them so often to think in terms of a word's function and
not its form that they were comfortable seeing "when," "where," and "why"
functioning pronominally in these particular cases.
When they are trying to figure out how a phrase or clause is related to the
rest of a sentence, my students get the best results when they ask
themselves "What question does this word/phrase/clause answer?" If we ask
ourselves what question "where" answers in its own clause (not what question
does the entire clause answer-that would be "which house?"), we would answer
"where I was born." But the answer to the question "where was I born?" is
"in house," not simply "house."
I'm not sure I'm being clear here. I should have learned by now not to post
to this very intelligent group late at night! But the bottom line is this: I
am much more concerned that my students are thinking about and recognizing
the relationships among words, phrases, and clauses than I am that they be
able to put words in form classes-a frustrating if not completely futile
exercise. I am convinced that as they get better at recognizing the
functions of words in a construction, they become clearer thinkers and more
precise writers.
Nancy
Nancy L. Tuten, PhD
Professor of English
Director of the Writing-across-the-Curriculum Program
Columbia College
Columbia, South Carolina
<mailto:[log in to unmask]> [log in to unmask]
803-786-3706
_____
From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Castilleja, Janet
Sent: Wednesday, October 10, 2007 9:30 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [BULK] A new question was The necessity for classification was:
Those old transitivity blues was Help for a puzzled teacher
One of my former students sent me an email asking this question: I have a
grammar question I have yet to find an answer to, and I thought, "Who better
to ask than Janet?" So, regarding the use of the word 'wondering', I would
like to know if I should use a question mark at the end of a sentence such
as: "I was wondering if you are going to the store?" or "I wonder why it
rains?" My first inclination is that these are statements, not questions.
However, I have run into question marks at the end of such sentences
frequently of late. I must know the truth!
I believe I would treat this as reported speech not requiring a question
mark. What do others think?
Janet Castilleja
-----Original Message-----
From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Ronald Sheen
Sent: Thursday, October 11, 2007 6:20 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [BULK] The necessity for classification was: Those old transitivity
blues was Help for a puzzled teacher
Importance: Low
Craig writes:
When classification becomes an end in itself, the living,
dynamic language gets left behind.
This may be so in the case of purely linguistic analysis. However, I do not
agree that this reflects the recent comments related to the ESL context.
Therein, assuming that one is adopting an explicit approach to explaining
the difference between phrasal and prepositional verbs, first, one has to
have a means of classifying the two, and second, one has to provide the
students with a clear way of distinguishing them.
Ron Sheen
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