Has anyone else noticed that "first of all" has, for many students, morphed into "first off"? Peter Adams On Apr 19, 2009, at 8:20 AM, Craig Hancock wrote: > Scott, > It has been called "meta-discourse", discourse about the text as a > text. It orients the reader to the text itself (rather than the > subject.) My problem with "first of all" is that it tends to be used > mechanically. > I had a handful of students coming out of the same English as a > Second > language program in a New York city high school who used the term > "firstable". I thought that was conceptually interesting. Not > everything is able to be first. > Does being first mean most important? Is it background necessary > before > understanding the rest? A preliminary orientation? An arbitrary > starting point? I usually find it productive to ask those questions. > > Craig > >> > > > List, >> >> What would you call and how would you explain "First of all" (and >> similar >> constructions) as a sentence opener marking the relationship of the >> following sentence with a previous statement? >> >> Thanks, >> >> Scott Woods >> >> >> >> >> To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web >> interface >> at: >> http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html >> and select "Join or leave the list" >> >> Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/ > > To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web > interface at: > http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html > and select "Join or leave the list" > > Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/ To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or leave the list" Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/