An Error Analysis on the Use of Gerund Among the Fourth Semester Students of English Department of Unnes in the Academic Year of 2006/2007

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

An Error Analysis on the Use of Gerund Among the Fourth Semester Students of English Department of Unnes in the Academic Year of 2006/2007 AN ERROR ANALYSIS ON THE USE OF GERUND AMONG THE FOURTH SEMESTER STUDENTS OF ENGLISH DEPARTMENT OF UNNES IN THE ACADEMIC YEAR OF 2006/2007 A Final Project Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Pendidikan in English by ARTIN FERIANA ARJATI 2201403521 ENGLISH DEPARTMENT FACULTY OF LANGUAGES AND ARTS SEMARANG STATE UNIVERSITY 2007 APPROVAL The final project was approved by the Board of Examiners of the English Department of the Faculty of Languages and Arts of Semarang State University on September , 2007. Board of Examiners 1. Chairperson, Drs. J. Mujiyanto, M.Hum. NIP 131281221 2. Secretary, Dr. Dwi Anggani L.B., M.Pd. NIP 131813665 3. First Examiner, Drs. Warsono, M.A. NIP 130350484 4. Second Advisor as Second Examiner, Drs. L. Elyas Nugraha, M.A. NIP 130812912 5. First Advisor as Third Examiner, Drs. Suprapto, M.Hum. NIP 131125925 Approved by Dean of Faculty of Languages and Arts, Prof. Dr. Rustono, M.Hum. NIP 131281222 PERNYATAAAN Dengan ini saya: Nama: Artin Feriana Arjati Nim : 2201403521 Prodi / Jurusan: Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris / Bahasa dan Sastra Inggris FBS UNNES menyatakan dengan sesungguhnya bahwa final project yang berjudul: AN ERROR ANALYSIS ON THE USE OF GERUND AMONG THE FOURTH SEMESTER STUDENTS OF THE ENGLISH DEPARTMENT OF UNNES IN THE ACADEMIC YEAR OF 2006/2007 Yang saya tulis dalam rangka memenuhi salah satu syarat memperoleh gelar sarjana ini benar – benar merupakan karya saya sendiri yang saya hasilkan setelah melalui penelitian, pembimbingan, diskusi, dan pemaparan / ujian. Semua kutipan, baik secara langsung maupun tidak langsung telah disertai keterangan mengenai identitas sumbernya dengan cara sebagaimana yang lazim dalam penulisan karya ilmiah. Dengan demikian walaupun tim penguji dan pembimbing penulisan final project ini membubuhkan tanda tangan sebagaimana keabsahannya, seluruh karya ilmiah ini tetap menjadi tanggung jawab saya sendiri. Jika dikemudian hari ditemukan ketidakberesan, saya bersedia menerima akibatnya. Demikian, harap pernyataan ini dapat digunakan seperlunya. Semarang, Agustus 2007 Yang membuat pernyataan The writer Yesterday is a history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift that is why we call it the present. To My beloved family; my father and my mother. My brother and his wife. My lovely ‘Maz’. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, the writer would like to express her greatest gratitude to Allah the Almighty for the blessing and inspiration leading to the completion of her study. In this opportunity, the writer would like to express her gratitude to the people who helped her in finishing her final project. Here her greatest gratitude goes to: 1. Drs. Suprapto, M.Hum., her first advisor, for his patience in providing continuous and careful guidance as well as encouragement, indispensable suggestion and advice. 2. Drs. L. Elyas Nugraha, M.A., her second advisor, for his patience in giving guidance and supports for the finalization of the study. 3. H. Eko Yulianto, S.S., M.Hum., who has permitted her for conducting a try- out test in his class. 4. Drs. Warsono, M.A., who has permitted her for conducting the research in his class. 5. Her beloved family and her best friends in campus who always give their love, pray, and support her to finish her final project. i Finally, the writer realizes that the study is still far from perfect. She has great expectation that this final project would be useful for further study. Semarang, August, 2007 The writer ii ABSTRACT This final project mainly aims at determining the main error and finding out the causes or sources of the errors in using gerunds made by the students of the fourth semester of the English Department of UNNES in the academic year of 2006/2007. This study was conducted under the consideration that gerund has a number of types in the theory so that it is possible that the learners find it difficult to learn the grammatical structures. A test method was used to gather data. The test used consisted of two kinds, i.e. completion test and translation test and had been tried out before it was used to collect the data. The main purpose of conducting the try out was to measure the validity and reliability of the instrument. The reliability of the test was 0.376 based on the Spearman- Brown formula. The test result was then analyzed by using percentage to determine the main error and find out the causes or sources of errors. The errors were classified on the basis of six types of gerunds. After computing the percentages of errors of each heading of gerund, it was found that the dominant error most often made by the students of the fourth semester of the English Department of UNNES is the use of gerunds in the negative adjective ‘No’ which occurred 129 times (69.39%) caused by false concept hypothesized. This means that the mastery of using gerund in the negative adjective ‘No’ is still low because the errors were still high. In conclusion, errors on the use of gerunds were still made by most students of the fourth semester of the English Department of UNNES in the academic year of 2006/2007. In relation to this, it is suggested that the English learners should be more careful in using grammar. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS................................................................................... i ABSTRACT.......................................................................................................... iii TABLE OF CONTENTS..................................................................................... iv LIST OF APPENDICES ................................................................................... viii LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................... ix CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of the Study................................................................................... 1 1.2 Reason for Choosing the Topic......................................................................... 5 1.3 Research Question............................................................................................. 8 1.4 Purpose of the Study ......................................................................................... 8 1.5 Significance of the Study .................................................................................. 9 1.6 Outline of the Thesis ....................................................................................... 10 II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE 2.1 The Importance of Learning Grammar ........................................................... 11 2.2 The Analysis of Gerund ……………………………………………………. 14 2.2.1 The Definition of Gerund ……………………………………………….... 14 2.2.2 Gerunds as Subject …………………………………………………….…..15 2.2.3 Gerunds as Direct Objects …………………………………………………16 2.2.4 Gerunds as Subjective Complements …………………………………….. 19 2.2.5 Gerunds as Objects of Preposition ……………………………………...…19 2.2.6 Gerunds Used in the Negative Adjective ‘No’ …………………………... 21 iv 2.2.7 Gerunds Used after Possessive ………………….…...................................21 2.3 The Comparison between Gerund and Infinitive …………………………... 23 2.4 The Comparison between Gerund and Present Participle ...............................27 2.5 Errors and Mistakes ………………………………………………………….29 2.6 Error Analysis ................................................................................................ 30 2.7 The Sources of Errors ..................................................................................... 32 2.7.1 Interlingual Error ………………………………………………………..... 32 2.7.2 Intralingual Error …………………………………………………………. 33 2.7.2.1 Overgeneralization ………………………………………………………33 2.7.2.2 Ignorance of Rule Restriction …………………………………………...34 2.7.2.3 Incomplete Application of Rule ………………………………………... 35 2.7.2.4 False Concepts Hypothesized ……………………………………..…….35 III METHOD OF INVESTIGATION 3.1 Object of the Study ......................................................................................... 36 3.2 Population and Sample 3.2.1 Population ………………………………………….. …………………….36 3.2.2 Sample ……………………………………………..................................... 37 3.3 Instrument for Collecting Data ....................................................................... 39 3.4 Type of Data ………………........................................................................... 40 3.5 Construction of the Test Instrument................................................................ 40 3.6 Preparation of Test 3.6.1 Test Items..................................................................................................... 41 3.6.2 Arrangement of the Test Items..................................................................... 41 v 3.6.3 Administration of the Try Out ..................................................................... 42 3.7 Item Analysis 3.7.1 Validity ………………………………………………………………….... 43 3.7.2 Reliability of the Test …………………………………………………….. 44 3.7.3 The Index Difficulty of the Test ………………………………………….. 46 3.7.4 The Discriminating Power ……………………….......................................46 3.8 The Administration of Real Test ……………………………………………47 3.8.1 Revision of Arrangement of Test Items ………….......................................47 3.8.2 Real Test …………………………………………………………………...49 3.9 Method of Collecting Data …………………………………………………..49 3.10 Method of Analyzing Data ………………………………………………... 49 IV DATA ANALYSIS 4.1 Statistical analysis........................................................................................... 51 4.2 Nonstatistical Analysis...................................................................................
Recommended publications
  • Ed 205 72 Th 810 457
    DOCUMENT RESUME ED 205 72 TH 810 457 AUTHOR Mullis, Ina V. S.: Mellon, John C. TTTL2 Guidelines for Describing Three.Aspects of Writing: .Syntax, Cohesion and Mechanics. INSTITUTION Education Commission of the States, 'Denver, Colo. National Assessment of Educational Progress. SPONS AGENCY, National Inst. of Education (ED1, Washington, D.C. REFORT NO NAEP-10-W-50 PUB DATE Jun 80' GIANT NIE-G-80-0003 NOTE 44. EDP! pPicr HF01/PCO2 Plus Postage. .D17SCRIPTORS Elementary Secondary Education: Essays; *Evaluation Methods: National Competency Tests: *National Programs: Scoring: *Writing Evaluation: *Writing Skills IDENTIFIEPS *National Assessment of Educational Progress: *Third Writing Assessment (19791 ABSTRACT The approaches used by the National Assessment of rducational Progress (NAEP1 to characterize syntax, cohesion and mechanics are described. These approaches are different fLom the Primary Trait System,-a scheme used by NAM) for rating essays. Part one of the publication describes the procedures NAEP used to characterize differences in syntactic structures. This Approach is bssed bn an analysis of the grammatical forms in which sentences are cast. Part two describes the procedure used to rate the cohesiveness of each essay. This approach is concerted with the number and variety of devices used to link-and7carry forward developing ideas. Part three,presents the procedures NAEP used to characterize writing mechanics. This approach accounts for matters of manuscript form. The systems used to tally error rates are essentially unchanged from those used in earlier assessments, with some.refinements, (Author/GKI 'Procedures (Analysis)(Conceptual) .1 *******************t************************************************ * 'Peproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can .be made .from *he original document.
    [Show full text]
  • CHAPTER Nouns and Modifiers
    Ch14_pp152–162.qxd 6/13/06 9:43 AM Page 152 CHAPTER 14 Nouns and Modifiers Overview This chapter deals with many ways to modify a noun. It begins with the terminology “adjective” and “noun”; then it shows that a noun can modify another noun. Students learn the order of nouns and their modifiers, some of which come before and some of which follow the noun. Next, students practice using multiple modifiers and learn some new vocabulary. This is followed by practice with phrases of quantity that modify nouns. Students then study how to solve subject-verb agreement problems that arise when they use these phrases. Indefinite pronouns and the use of every follow. Finally, students are introduced to the way adjectives are used with linking verbs and how common adverbs are contrasted with adjectives. □ EXERCISE 1, p. 405. Noun and adjective practice. This exercise is a quick review of what students already know about nouns and adjectives. It can be done in class. Its purpose is to check on students’ understanding of the grammar terms “noun” and “adjective” before proceeding with the chapter. ANSWERS: 3. ADJ 4. NOUN 5. NOUN 6. NOUN 7. ADJ 8. NOUN 9. ADJ 10. NOUN 11. ADJ 12. NOUN CHART 14-1: MODIFYING NOUNS WITH ADJECTIVES AND NOUNS • The word modify is explained in Chart 6-2, p. 161, in the student book. • One unusual feature of English is that a noun can modify another noun. These nouns are called “noun adjuncts” and do not add any letters or sounds. Call attention to the incorrect example in (c) where the modifier has been given a plural form.
    [Show full text]
  • Structural Grammar* *เนื้อหาทั้งหมดของ Structural Grammar คัดลอกมาจากเ
    EFL-200: Analysis of the English Word and Sentence Structure / Page 1 Structural Grammar* *เนื้อหาทั้งหมดของ Structural Grammar คัดลอกมาจากเอกสารประกอบการสอนรายวิชา 2202326 วากยสัมพันธ์ภาษาอังกฤษ (English Syntax) (Chapter 1 Structural Grammar, หน้า 1-16) เรียบเรียงโดย ผศ.ดร.น ้าทิพย์ ภิงคารวัฒน์ และ ดร.รักสงบ วิจิตรโสภณ ภาควิชาภาษาอังกฤษ คณะอักษรศาสตร์ จุฬาลงกรณ์มหาวิทยาลัย In Structural Grammar, groups of words can be analyzed based on the relationship they hold. This can be represented in terms of structures and their major components. There are five main types of syntactic structures: 1. Structure of Modification: Head + Modifier M H H M H M Ex: large / house sing / sweetly the boy / who cried 2. Structure of Predication: Subject + Predicate S P S P S P Ex: they / left your brother / came yesterday It / is marvelous 3. Structure of Complementation: Verbal element + Complement VB C VB C VB C Ex: seems / a good place kept / it a secret give / him a call 4. Structure of Subordination: Subordination + Dependent Unit SUB D SUB D SUB D Ex: owing to / the delay in / the room after / they left 5. Structure of Coordination: 2 or more conjoins with a coordinator CN CO CN CO CN CO CN CN CN CO CN Ex: you / and / me neither / by bus / nor / by train read, / write / or / edit In the following sections, each of the five structures will be presented in terms of its major components, the principal pattern of order and a range of functions that it may hold. Structure of Modification A structure of modification consists of a head (H) and a modifier (M). The head carries the principal meaning while the modifier serves to describe, limit, intensify the meaning of the head.
    [Show full text]
  • Present As a Noun in a Sentence
    Present As A Noun In A Sentence anyIs Lovell hollands. tricyclic Interurban or priest-ridden Tammie when chaw drabble or Gnosticize some steersome peptonized ecclesiarch dankly? flip-flap, Ethelbert however remainslong-drawn unconscientious Barry excommunicating after Johnny glidingly syncs girlishlyor trauchling. or crinkling The noun as in present a sentence, it contains two people or an instrument is Email id below show a single sentence, sentence as a present noun in later in. Present Definition of mixture at Dictionarycom. Working was a group of four people five, could each pool member the custody of collecting one document each. One noun in present tense forms of nouns we presented at present? Not in sentence as nouns form of added at the reader to be presented itself from one that they function of the working together all the. The answer prove that row is the lens object enter the sentence. Time period still be past present income future formed with their VERB-ing. If they are you can i believe that you! Is there any other details about me that you would like to know? Sarah was afraid that she had provoked a wild goose chase. Effective Writing excellent Science at Scitable Nature. Compound Adjectives English Grammar Grammar CL. When two actions occur at the same time, and are done by the same person or thing, we can use a present participle to describe one of them. And the alternative evils are ambiguity and artificiality. What is verb example of subject noun in such sentence? Also called a noun adjunct. Share the roles in present participle modifies an action or edit sentences to suggest that? It warm the simplest, the sanest and it sounds most pleasant.
    [Show full text]
  • Chapter Ii Review of Related Literature
    CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE This chapter discusses some theories related to the topics. It comprises the discussion of syntax, structure of modification, part of speech, phrase, genre, report, and previous study. A. Syntax Syntax is determining the relevant component part of sentence. It also means as describing these parts gramatically (Wekker, 1985:5). This definition of syntax implies that we start from what is regarded as the largest unit of syntactic description –the sentence- and proceed until we arrive at the smallest meaningful unit. This is called a ‘top to buttom’ analysis. The units smaller than the sentence will be referred to as clauses, phrases, words and morphemes respectively. However, instead of saying that a sentence can be broken down into smaller constituents, we might also look at the sentence the other way round –that is, ‘from bottom to top’ –and say that constituents at different levels can combine to form increasingly larger units: then proceed from the morpheme to the sentence as a whole. Constituents are like building blocks which pattern in certain ways to form larger units, and the largest unit being a sentence. In another word a phrase or sentence is always formed from the words which are organized by a certain rule. In English, the main device for showing this relationship is word order; for example, “The boy loves his dog” follows 9 10 standard subject-verb-object word order, and switching the order of such a sentence would change the meaning or make the sentence meaningless. If a word is combined in other words in English language and form of syntactic structure, there will be a wide range of structures with various groups that make up the structure of the word.
    [Show full text]
  • Conjunction in Meta-Restriction Grammar
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Elsevier - Publisher Connector J. LOGIC PROGRAMMING 1986:4:299-328 299 CONJUNCTION IN META-RESTRICTION GRAMMAR LYNETTE HIRSCHMAN D This paper describes Meta-Restriction Grammar for parsing coordinate conjunction in English. Meta-Restriction Grammar consists of Restriction Grammar, a logic grammar implementation of Sager’s String Grammar, plus a metagrammatical component that automatically rewrites “base” grammar rules into more complex rules to handle coordinate conjunction. The approach resembles Sedogbo’s approach of “empty elements” or “holes.” This avoids the combinatorial explosion due to backtracking in the treatment of Woods, Sager, and Dahl and McCord. Restriction Grammar is well suited to metagrammar extensions, because the absence of parameters in grammar rules facilitates the statement of metarules. The metagrammati- cal component generates grammar rules specifying allowable conjoinings at limited types of nodes, to reduce redundancy. Meta-Restriction Grammar represents both the surface structure and a regularized structure (via pointers to elided elements) for efficient computation of selectional restric- tions. This approach is sufficiently powerful to handle a number of complex phenomena, such as conjunction with comma (as distinguished from the appositive construction), paired conjunctions such as both . and, either.. or, and scoping of left noun modifiers under conjunction. One of the great attractions of the metagrammar approach is that the grammar can be translated and compiled, resulting in an efficient treatment of conjunc- tion (parse times of 1 to 3 seconds per parse). This contrasts with the interrupt-driven approach, where an interpreter generates rules for conjoin- ing structures on demand, making it impossible to compile the complete grammar.
    [Show full text]
  • Chapter Ii Review of Related Literature
    CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE To conduct this research, there are some concepts that have to be considered such as pre-modifications and other notions related to the problem discussed in this thesis. The concepts are based on several ideas from some experts in the field of translation. 2.1 Translation The term translation is defined differently by many experts in translation. Larson simply defines translation as a transfer of meaning from source language into the receptor language (in Wuryantoro, 2005: 131). Thus in translation, there is not merely a process of transferring meaning of two different language systems from two different languages (SL into TL) but also a process of finding the equivalence of SL in TL. Nababan (2003: 21) gives a detail definition about style. Style in translation is focused on the correspondence of language formality level between the source text and target text. In other words, a translator has to determine what kind of language variety which fits the kind of text being translated. For instance, if a translator translates a scientific text, he/she must use scientific language variety. From the definitions above, it can be concluded that translation is the process of transferring message from source language into target language. Finding the closest natural equivalent of the source language message becomes the main problem of translation. Besides, language variety used in translation must agree with the type of text being translated.The meaning equivalence is involved by, at least, language. The system of rules in one language, which is different from other language, will have role for the translator in his or her decision making in the process of translation.
    [Show full text]
  • Linguishtik Review
    LinguiSHTIK Review Sentences: The player who rolls the dice must declare the type of sentence to be used that game. 1. Simple Sentence: A single independent clause. Examples: Sam likes pizza. The dog ran away from home. 2. Compound Sentence: Has two or more simple sentences joined together with a conjunction like FOR, AND, NOR, BUT, OR, YET (FANBOYS) Examples: John ate the pizza, but Eliza ate the hotdog. Ms. Shipley sang a song, and the dog ran away from her. 3. Complex Sentence: Has one main simple sentence and at least one subordinate clause (cannot stand alone). A subordinate clause often starts with since, although, until, however, therefore, or because. Examples: The boy wanted the football because it was his birthday. Since it is not a school night, you may stay up later. 4. Compound-Complex Sentence: Has two simple sentences with one subordinate clause. Examples: Because my homework was difficult, I had to get help, and I stayed up late. Remember: Sentences must begin with a capital letter, end with the correct punctuation. The word in the challenge MUST be underlines and spelled correctly. Demands: There are three types of demands: 1. Type: Part of Speech: noun, verb, adjective, adverb, pronoun, interjection, conjunction, preposition. 2. Function: Usage of the part of speech Examples: noun must be the predicate nominative, noun must be an object of the preposition, abstract noun. 3. General: This demand can be almost anything: must be a palindrome, must be an animal, etc. Part of Speech: Nouns Noun: a word that names a person, place or thing.
    [Show full text]
  • English for Practical Purposes 9
    ENGLISH FOR PRACTICAL PURPOSES 9 CONTENTS Chapter 1: Introduction of English Grammar Chapter 2: Sentence Chapter 3: Noun Chapter 4: Verb Chapter 5: Pronoun Chapter 6: Adjective Chapter 7: Adverb Chapter 8: Preposition Chapter 9: Conjunction Chapter 10: Punctuation Chapter 11: Tenses Chapter 12: Voice Chapter 1 Introduction to English grammar English grammar is the body of rules that describe the structure of expressions in the English language. This includes the structure of words, phrases, clauses and sentences. There are historical, social, and regional variations of English. Divergences from the grammardescribed here occur in some dialects of English. This article describes a generalized present-dayStandard English, the form of speech found in types of public discourse including broadcasting,education, entertainment, government, and news reporting, including both formal and informal speech. There are certain differences in grammar between the standard forms of British English, American English and Australian English, although these are inconspicuous compared with the lexical andpronunciation differences. Word classes and phrases There are eight word classes, or parts of speech, that are distinguished in English: nouns, determiners, pronouns, verbs, adjectives,adverbs, prepositions, and conjunctions. (Determiners, traditionally classified along with adjectives, have not always been regarded as a separate part of speech.) Interjections are another word class, but these are not described here as they do not form part of theclause and sentence structure of the language. Nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs form open classes – word classes that readily accept new members, such as the nouncelebutante (a celebrity who frequents the fashion circles), similar relatively new words. The others are regarded as closed classes.
    [Show full text]
  • A Grammar for Writing Across the Curriculum
    A Grammar for Writing across the Curriculum What’s in a name? Nouns, pronouns and noun phrases What’s in a name? Nouns, pronouns and noun phrases Most students, and indeed teachers, would be able to tell you that a noun is a ‘naming word’ (or words) denoting, for instance, a person (John, Aysha, Jacqueline Wilson, Isaac Newton) place (Great Britain, London, Tower Hamlets, the car park) thing (table, building, hospital), animal (black Labrador, elephant) or idea (truth, feminism, austerity). These examples above do not provide a complete definition of what a noun, or a ‘noun phrase’ is, as we will see… Noun phrases A ‘noun phrase’ is a broad term used to encompass: •single word nouns •pronouns (words that stand in place of nouns, such as it, this, that, her, him, them) •multi-word nouns (i.e. phrases) We’ve already looked at some examples of nouns that are comprised of more than one word (e.g. the car park, Tower Hamlets). Already, we can see that nouns phrases can contain words that are not nouns… the car park A determiner: a word A noun adjunct: a noun A noun which tells us if the noun behaving like an adjective (e.g. is specific or general (e.g. school pupil, chicken soup) a, an, the, their, our) Building noun phrases Noun phrases can be expanded (in theory, infinitely!) to incorporate many kinds of words and linguistic structures. Notice how, in each of these phrases, it is essentially the same thing (the car park) that is being named… the car park the dilapidated car park Here, an adjective adds more information to the noun phrase.
    [Show full text]
  • Read Book a Rational Grammar of the English Language (1899)
    A RATIONAL GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE (1899) PDF, EPUB, EBOOK William Bramwell Powell | 324 pages | 10 Sep 2010 | Kessinger Publishing | 9781164347811 | English | United States A Rational Grammar of the English Language (1899) PDF Book Retrieved 19 May Past participles are verbs that often end in "-ed" but they can be formed irregularly, as is the case with the word "eaten. English Grammar What Is Propaganda? In the English language, articles such as "the," "a" or "an" definitely or indefinitely define an object. In the example here, "wrote" is the active transitive verb and "letter" receives the action. I did not find this helpful. In certain cases, extraposition of a modifying clause is prohibited. Take for example:. Grammar Test! Many words, including mine, each, herself and which, are pronouns that can be used to substitute nouns in a sentence. Nonetheless, disputes can sometimes arise: for example, it is a matter of some debate in India whether British, American, or Indian English is the best form to use. Scroll To Start Quiz. All languages change over time, and there can be many different reasons for this. Two thousand and sixteen was an eventful year in politics. Some countries use a combination of these depending on context Canada, for example, uses all three, depending on who is the recipient of the communication. For example, a given construction will often be seen as too formal or too informal for a situation. Possessives are used as adjectives to describe nouns, but they do not always accompany nouns. ThoughtCo uses cookies to provide you with a great user experience.
    [Show full text]
  • Grammatical Structures Written at Three Grade Levels
    DOCUMENT REM.ME ED 113 735 CS 202 321 a AUTHOP Hunt-, Kellogg' W. TITLE Grammatical Structures Written at Three Grade Levels. NCTE Research Report No. 3. INSTITUTION c National Council of Teachers of English, Champaign, '.;11; SPONS AGENCY Off ice of Education ( DREW),- Washington, D.C. ,Cooperative Research Prograrm. PUB DATE -65 NOTE 176p.; Revision of CRP No. 199& EDRS PRICE NE-$.0.76 HC-$9.51- Plus Postage DESCRIPTORS *Composition (Literary) ;Elementary Secondary Education; English Instruction;, AGrammar; *Language pevelogment; Language Research; Language Skills; *taugualje Usage; *Sentence Structure; Syntax;' Writing Written Language . A-BSTRACT The purpOses thit study were (1) to provide a method for the quantitative -study of grammatical: (syntactic) . structures which is coherent, tystematic,,and- broad, yet capable of refinement to-accbmmOdate.-detaila, and (2) topearch for the developmental trends in the frequency of variousgrammatical structures written by students of average intelligenceArQs ranging from 90-110) in the fourth, eighth, and tWelfth grades. Nine boys and Aline girls were selected from each of thethree grades, and close to 1O0( Wordt of writing were obtained:from. each 'student. The writing was done in -plats without alteration by anyone other than the writer, and the subject-matter irat-not Controlled by the investigators-1 In addition to, sentence length, clause length, subordination ratio, and the -kinds of clauses, tee, study analyzesstructures within a clause: coordinated structures, notinals, the verb autiliary, main verbsand complements, modifiers of verbs, and predicate adjectives. The resuitt of this study are discusied at length, and tables proVide additional information about the procedures used and' data obtained.
    [Show full text]