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DOCUMENT RESUME ED 347 533 CS 213 423 A1THOR Bailey, Charles-James N. TITLE Why More English InstructionWon't mean Better Grammar. Grammar Series No. 1. REPORT NO ISBN-1-881309-01-0 PUB DATE 92 NOTE 42p.; Published by Orchid LandPublications. AVAILABLE FROMOrchid Land Publications, Kea'au,HI 96749-1416 ($2.60 stitched, including postage). PUB TYPE Viewpoints (Opini'm/PositionPapers, Essays, etc.) (120) -- Guides- Classroom Use - Teaching Guides 1 (For Teacher) (052) 411 EDRS PRICE MF01/PCO2 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Elementary Secondary Education;*English Instruction; *Grammar; *Instructional Effectiveness; *Instructional Improvement;*Language Usage; *Traditional Grammar IDENTIFIERS Grammaticality ABS4RACT Written for the educated readercognizant of ordinary grammatical terminology or ableto look it up in a dictionary,this booklet discusses whygrammar seems so intractable. The booklet begins by offering two reasons why more diligent instructionin English grammar will notimprove students' knowledge: (1)what is presented as Englishgrammar bears little relation to theway fe.shionable young people speakand write; anC (2) manyanalyses are wrong, or fail to capture fundamentalprinciples that reveal the natural systematicity of Englishgrammar. The booklet then presents an extended discussion of thesetopics using as examples avariety of grammatical rules and how those rulesare and should be taught. The tooklet concludes thatteaching grammar using theprinciples discussed in the booklet wouldpermit teachers to covermore ground, would yield a betterunderstanding of the systematicityof grammar, and would therefore generate both greater rapport betweentaught and teacher and greater sympathy for the subject. An appendixdiscussing how certain grammaticalconcepts are used in the bookletand a corrigenda list are attached. (RS) *********.A************************************************************* Reproductions supplied by EDRSare the best that can be made from the original document. ***** ****************************************************************** WHY MOREENGLISH INSTRUCTION WON'T MEANBETTER GRAMMAR Char lee-Jamea N. Bailey Grammar aeriesno. 1 PERMISSIONTO REPRODUCE U 8. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION MATERIAL HAS THIS ()dice of Educational Rasearch and Improvement BEEN GRANTEDBY EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (MCI . 40"Thm document haS been reproducedas received DOM the person Or organization Originating it r Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction Quality TO THE EDUCATIONAL Points of vie* or opinion* slated in this docu INFORMATION RESOURCES ment do nOt neC*Scartly represent edictal CENTER IERICI- OEM position of policy OmannLAND PuBLICATIONS BEST COPYAVAILABli PlIOTOCOPYING. In the USA: Thispublicationis registered at the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 2"/ Congress Street,Salem, MA 01970.Authorizationtophotocopyis grantedfor personalorinternaluse,including classroom anthologies, on condition of paying the appropriate fee directly to the CCC. Information on the fee can be obtained from the CCC by telephone (1+508+744-3350) or FAX (1+508+141-2318). In other countries: Permission to copy should be requested from Orchid Land Publications, POB 1416, Kea'au, 96749, USA.; FAX 1+ 808+982-5603. ISBN 1-881309-01-0 (Grammar Series ISBN 1-881309-00-2) 1992, Orchid Land Publications Kea'au, III 96749-1416, USA FAX 1+808+982-5603 The logo of Orchid Land Publications on the preceding page is protected by 1991, Orchid Land Publications WHY MORE ENGLISH INSTRUCTION WON MEAN BETIERGRAMMAR Charles-James N. Baiky (i) The attentiongiven by the mediato the deteriorating situation in the schools educational of most of thepredominantlyEnglish-speaking countries has beenwidely echoed by Prince of Wales concerned laypersonsfrom the to the parents inone's neighborhood andexperts as well. But the prescribedand well-meantcure, to teach English more diligently, cannot lead grammar to the desired improvementof students' knowledge of Englishgrammar for two simple presented as English reasons:(I) Whatis grammar bears little relationto the way fashionable young people speak and write (English differsfrom other languagesin that theyoung set the fashions); and(2) nuttiy analyses this writing will are wrong, as show, andwhat isworst of allthey failto capture fundamental principlesthat would revealthe natural English systematicity of grammar. This is principallybecausc, they don'thave in their arsenals a number ofhelpful models thatwould enable them reveal that systematicity. to and and The current, almostaleatoric picture ofEnglish grammar is unlearnable by theungifted; the gifted worth it has and perceie how little get turned off by it. Thefollowingpages attempt to bring out,for educatedreaderscognizantof ordinary terminology or able granunatical to look it up ina dictionary and ableto grasp a few new but simple technicalconcepts, w hy Though most technical grammar seems so intractable. details are eschewedhere,the reidermay be assured that theyare as convincingas I hope s/he will find the exposition of' the problem. following A brief glanceat examples of intoand at the problem prepositions before relative of placing and interrogativepronouns willplunge us into the subjectat once. Readers should has to check what theirfavoritegrammar say about contrasts betweenin and into likethose illustrated in the following: Sheput her money in her She fell in the hole, purse but into stocks andbonds; but into a frenzy (orswoon); When the the window, he flew ball fiew in into arage; The burglar broke inthe house, and then he broke intoa smile; They wrote it in the and I'll !ook in the guest book, but intola w gunge but into thosearrangements. One ismore likely tocome across a partly imaginaryrule relating vs. a change of place; but to a stationaryevent this misses the realnature of the difference, ks4 12 for important categoriesof expressions,inrealEnglish usage. The prescription is often combined witha vague disclaimer to the effect that the rule is"often" (randomly?) disregardedas thoughthe data were simply a problem for the analysis ratherthan being counterexamples to it.Itislittle better with between andamong. A false impression is conveyed that grammar is unsystematicnotthe most systematic activity, except for mathematics, that human beings (whether theyhave high or not very high lQs) are capable of. Astrictadherence tothegrammarians'ruleforplacinga preposition directly before its relativeor interrogative pronoun object also leads to strange results. A sampling of thesestrange results includes That's in what she's interested and Aboutwhat is your book?as well as 'The question is on what her book is (twodescriptive grammatical rules are violated in this example) and They're wondering abouton what her speech will be (three rulesare violated here)to say nothing of examples like To what are they up? The quite complexdescriptive rules for putting a preposition before a relative or interrogitivepronoun are evidently not known to the writers ofgrammars or the teachers of English.t They admit that speakers "often"say who for whom, but they don't list the conditions, grammaticalor stylistic, governing the variants,letalone axplain why the attestedusages exist. All of this makes such treatments more than a little unhelpful. I'll take my hat off to thebrammar that gives a convincing explanation (thoughit's not that difficult) for the difference between theone he did it for and the one far whom itwas Anthinkable (withforatthe beginning oftheclause).A similar explanation holds for the difference between thematter (or danger) that they were involved in anda scenario in which the danger is great, etc. Most of the rules involvegreater structural conditioning than what the preceding difference (mainly semantic) callsfor. Details on other aspects of the problem are available in the author's"Where English cannotput the preposition beforea relative or interrogative pronoun" (in The English reference grammar, ed. G. Leitner [1986, Narr,pp. 156-117]; this analysis is improved on in the Middigramniarreferred to in n.1).Prepositions derived from participles (e.g. during and except)have to be clause-initial. Current materials aremore misleading than helpful. The fact is that when we hear wham in mostcontexts, we recognize that the speaker is either foreignor what linguists call a lamean unfashionable, bookish speaker who if: not participating in (isout of touch with) the on-going creation of the English language. Canyou imagine a native-speaking advertizer writing "Whom wouldyou choose to build your car?" Howmany grammars bother to tell us that English Who? resemblesits equivalents inthe Romance languagesinhaving (with onevery circumscribed exception in fashionable English usage)but a single form for the different 3 case functions? These functions will be takenup later in this section. For the moment, let the discussionrest with the writer's expressionof' doubt that your favoritegrammar will shed much lighton the difference between ''ergative" who in thenawspaper, who attacked themayor and °inert" which in thenewspaper, which is lying thereon the table. Typical of the grammars'misunderstandings of grammaticalforms and usesis their vague and unhelpfulcriterionfor the use of the misnamed "present-perfecttense," viz. "relevance to thepresent." But can anyone really believe that a plainpast form like won isn't relevantto the speaker's present wealthin I'm rich now because Iwon the lottery yesterder? (Havewon is not grammatical here!) If it isnot true that the past form won is
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