Scott: 

 

I think 7th-graders are easily able to handle the basic notion of a
form/function distinction - after all, kids have a lot of practice doing
things like taking an old burlap sack and deciding to use it as second
base in a baseball game. "It's basically X, but we'll use it as a Y"
isn't too much of a problem if it doesn't get bogged down in too many
technical terms.  Pronouns are lexical chameleons anyway - they show up
for noun jobs, and they show up for determiner jobs. Nouns usually do
noun jobs, but they can fill in for adjectives as needed, etc.  You
don't say that someone who is a plumber isn't one anymore if s/he mows
the lawn. 

 

The problem I've seen with traditional approaches is that when they
conflated form and function, they'd create contradictions - if a pronoun
is a part of speech, and an adjective is a part of speech, then pronouns
can't be adjectives. But adjectives modify nouns, and "my" modifies
nouns, but "my" is a pronoun and.... (at this point, if the teacher were
an android, we'd have a "smoke coming out of ears" scene). 

 

Bill Spruiell

Dept. of English

Central Michigan University

 

From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Scott Woods
Sent: Wednesday, February 20, 2008 5:02 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: possessive adjective/determiner/pronoun

 

Does anyone have any thoughts on teaching the distinction between
pronouns and possessive adjectives/determiners/pronouns to bright 7th
graders? 

 

Is this a useful distinction to make? 

 

 Does it matter down the road?  

 

Is it better to treat them the same now and to make a distinction later?


 

What decision processes do others use when making decisions about what
to teach about language/grammar?

 

Scott Woods 

  

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