Scott,
The key part of your question is making the facts clear to 7th
graders. The problem arises because we have two words spelled the same
and apparently having the same morphological analysis. The roots of these
words have meanings as verbs that are different from the meanings they have in
compound prepositions. Would it be possible to present them as part of a
lesson on morphological derivation and productivity? We can add –ness
to lots of adjectives and get nouns that are semantically transparent, that is,
the word becomes a noun that names the quality described by the adjective.
But adding –ant or –ent to a verb produces adjectives that
frequently are not semantically transparent, that is, that don’t simply
treat as a quality or characteristic the meaning of the verb. Consider abound/abundant,
compete/competent, confide/confident, ignore/ignorant, etc. In these
cases, whether because the stem vowel changes or because the meaning of the
derived adjective is not predictable from the combination of stem plus suffix,
the derivational morphology is not productive. Obviously this presentation
is a little dense for 7th graders, but I suspect it could be
simplified, and in the process they’d learn something of word derivation
and the concept of productivity.
Herb
From: Assembly for the
Teaching of English Grammar [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Scott
Woods
Sent: Sunday, October 07, 2007 6:06 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: preposition versus present participle
Listmates,
In a number of texts (Greenbaum's, Kolln & Funk's,
Warriner's, among others), several -ing ending words which seem to be
participles of verbs are listed among the prepositions. These include according
to, concerning, considering, following, failing, and including. What
is the distinction between prepositional phrases beginning with such words and
participial phrases beginning with similar -ing participles? Can the same
word function as either a preposition or a participle, depending on how it is
used? Are there any suggestions for how this might be explained to bright 7th
graders?
Thanks,
Scott Woods
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