It's really nice to hear from teachers out there in the K-12 trenches on
what they need and want to share.

About the terminology thing: I don't think there would be all that much
change. Here's a list of terms I use in my linguistics classes, with
examples: (Sorry for the weird spacing, this is from a web document)

Noun
                          dust, figure, idea, flute,
                          happiness
Verb
                          dust, figure, fail, know,
                          reciprocate
Adjective
                          tall, unknown, flimsy, gleeful,
                          blue
Adverb
                          slowly, soon, carefully, down,
                          first


Closed Class = Closed System =  Function Word = Grammatical Word

 Preposition
                            in, at, above, for, down, near,
                            up, between
 Proform
                            we, she, there, then, so, like
                            that
 Determiner
                            a, the, some, my, his, all, that,
                            those
 Qualifier
                             (aka Intensifier;
                            Degree-word) very,
                            somewhat, quite, rather,
                            really, hardly

 Conjunction
                            and, but, or, for, because,
                            although, while
 Particle
                            pick up, turn on, drop off, fool
                            around
 Expletive (aka Dummy
 subject)
                            it, there
 Interjection
                            Rats! Dang! Wow


'Expletive' is used differently; and there are more distinctions within
the 'article' category, etc. And terms that aren't on this list -- such as
subcategories like count/mass noun, in/transitive verb,
attribute/predicate adjective, etc. Are still either widely used or widely
understood in linguistic work.

I think the bigger challenge will come when the _way_ terms are used is
negotiated: I had pretty serious arguments with teachers at a workshop
last September over whether the 'diamond' of 'diamond ring' should be
called an adjective or a noun. I was going with the 'absolute' category of
'diamond' as a noun, and most of the teachers were going with its
'modifier of noun' function, which is usually accomplished by adjectives.
I think it's in details like this that the devil, as Ed has said, lies.

Some hints of other potential difficulties were mentioned in my last
posting, viz., saying that pronouns replace nouns. The definitions of the
above would also be a point of contention. TG (trad. grammar) holds that a
noun 'is a name of a person, place, or thing', which is true, but not
sufficient to define all nouns. I would go with a form-based definition,
such as 'a noun is a word which can stand alone after <the>'. I believe
that all noun, and only nouns, in the English language (except proper
nouns of course) are covered by this definition. It works great for my
students, once they  learn to trust their unconscious native-speaker
knowledge of English.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Johanna Rubba   Assistant Professor, Linguistics              ~
English Department, California Polytechnic State University   ~
San Luis Obispo, CA 93407                                     ~
Tel. (805)-756-2184     Fax: (805)-756-6374                   ~
E-mail: [log in to unmask]                           ~
Office hours Winter 1999: Mon/Wed 10:10-11am Thurs 2:10-3pm   ~
Home page: http://www.calpoly.edu/~jrubba                     ~
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