On Ed Vavra: By now we should expect him to be uncivil in his
commentaries. He appears to be impervious to correction. I have said on
more than one occasion that one does not leap from analyzing simple
sentences to analyzing complex ones in a single bound. Grammar teaching
has to take place over the long haul. As with any analytic system, it
is best to start with simple examples and, when comfort is gained with
those, move on to more-complex ones.
We will have an answer to his question of whether or not students can
find grammatical constructions and elements in their own writing this
quarter, as I am planning to test mine. It will be only a single,
anecdotal example, but one is enough to shoot down his theory. We just
finished our first week, however, so you will all have to be patient.
If students can't analyze their own writing grammatically, it is
because they haven't had enough training and practice yet. And some
number never will, because they just don't have the aptitude, just as
some people can't draw, carry a tune, or do advanced math. I must have
said a million times by now that _you cannot teach this stuff in one
semester_, and probably not in one year. That leaves many, many of us
in a huge bind, but that is my strong belief. It's why I support
continuous, incremental grammar instruction. As to confusing teachers
on this list, the situation on the ground is that teachers are being
asked to teach a subject in which they themselves have insufficient
training. I often ask my classes how many of the students have had more
than one marking-period of grammar instruction. The few who raise their
hands went to the few schools where a lot of grammar is taught, or are
over 40. And most of them are headed into teaching. I doubt that many
younger (35 and younger) teachers had much, if any, grammar.
On terminology: I agree with Paul. If a teacher is competent, and
students are motivated and of at least normal intelligence, they should
be able to handle differences in terminology. I don't know too many
people who have trouble understanding that some people call a
collarbone a clavicle, or that "inflection" is popularly understood to
mean "melody of the voice", while in linguistics it means "marking of
certain meanings via affixes". And again, long-term training is
necessary to assure lack of confusion. Anyone will be confused if they
have only brief, yet varied, exposure to a subject, with different
teachers using terms differently.
On "that"-clauses modifying adjectives: I generally use a meaning basis
to identify adverbial function. If the item answers "when, where, how,
why", it is functioning adverbially.
1 - I am happy [about your amazing success]. Prep. phrase, adverbial;
modifying "happy" - answers "why" I am happy
2 - I am happy [that you have succeeded so amazingly]. Clause,
adverbial, modifying "happy" - answers "why" I am happy
Qualifiers/intensifiers do not answer any of the above questions. They
answer "how much", "to what degree":
I am very happy. (to what degree am I happy?)
On fuzzy categories: I'm sure children can understand this concept even
at young ages. It seems to be one major organizing principle of concept
storage. It just hasn't been made explicit, and traditional grammar is
fuzz-adverse. Just get a group of kids together and ask them to
describe a "typical" nerd, jock, or stoner; or gather pictures of
chairs: a regular old chair with a flat seat, 4 legs and a straight
back; a bean-bag chair; a hanging-basket chair; a papa-san chair; a
dentist's chair, a bar stool, a potty chair, an electric chair, and a
king's throne. Ask them which one is the best example of a chair. (Just
make sure they don't think you mean "best quality", which will get the
throne, I suppose.)
Dr. Johanna Rubba, Associate Professor, Linguistics
Linguistics Minor Advisor
English Department
California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
Tel.: 805.756.2184
Dept. Ofc. Tel.: 805.756.2596
Dept. Fax: 805.756.6374
URL: http://www.cla.calpoly.edu/~jrubba
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