Lexico-Grammatical Problem No:____

Error No.: 3

Error: Periphrastic topic-constructions

Some common examples

1. *According to Tung Chee Hwa, he said that $2 billion would be set aside for education reforms. 2. *In a reliable report, it says that 300 cases have been reported to the police. 3. *Based on the book, it says you need at least 3 hours to complete the project. 4. *In my own opinion, I think you need to add one more paragraph here. 5. *Based on this article, it describes two ways to solve the problem.

Core grammatical problem

The source noun phrase in a fronted adverbial phrase of source is repeated unnecessarily as the subject pronoun of the sentence. The anomaly is most commonly associated with the following adverbial phrases:

According to XXX, Based on XXX, In XXX, In XXX’s opinion, e.g.,

*According to Tung Chee Hwa, he said that $2 billion will be set aside…

Probable causes of this structural problem

L1-related factor: The periphrastic topic-construction structure, though anomalous in English, is acceptable in Cantonese, e.g.,

根據董建華, 佢話會預留二十億元作教育改革用途.

(i.e., *According to Tung Chee Hwa, he said that $2 billion would be set aside for education reforms.)

L2-related factor: Lack of awareness that periphrastic topic-constructions are unacceptable in English. Correction procedure

To help students (Ss) overcome the structural problem such as

*According to Tung Chee Hwa, he said that $2 billion would be set aside … teacher (T) can go through the following procedure with students (Ss):

1. T presents a sentence with periphrastic topic-construction structure, e.g.,

*According to Tung Chee Hwa, he said that $2 billion would be set aside …

2. T asks Ss to identify the subject of the sentence and underlines it for later demonstration.

3. T asks Ss what the subject pronoun refers to. [Answer: the source noun phrase] 4. T writes the source noun phrase above the subject pronoun.

Tung Chee Hwa *According to Tung Chee Hwa, he said that $2 billion would be set aside …

5. T asks Ss to read the sentence, replacing the subject pronoun with the source noun phrase. 6. T asks Ss to identify the problem in the sentence. [Answer: redundancy] 7. T tells Ss that the source cannot be repeated as the subject in the main clause. 8. T crosses out the subject pronoun and then replaces it with the noun phrase of source.

*According to Tung Chee Hwa, he Tung Chee Hwa said that $2 billion would be set aside …

9. T tells Ss to cross out the adverbial phrase of reference,

*According to Tung Chee Hwa, Tung Chee Hwa said that $2 billion would be set aside …

10. T tells Ss that if they want to keep the adverbial phrase of reference, they will need to cross out the subject pronoun, the reporting verb and the relative pronoun that , e.g.,

Follow-up exercise Correct the following sentences. 1. According to a book, it says that you can now download files from the Net. 2. According to a report, it describes 5 popular types of entertainment. 3. Based on their study, it describes five advantages for using verbal reports. 4. In Jane’s opinion, she sees that the crucial problem is time.