THE REDUCED GRAMMAR COMPANY
PRESENTS
THE COMPLETE HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
• THOUSANDS OF PATTERNS• ONE TEACHER• 25 MINUTES
FIRST, A QUESTION
• WHO WANTS TO BE A GRAMMARIAN?• • STUDENTS?• TEACHERS?• THE MAN OR WOMAN ON THE • STREET?
WE ALREADY ARE EXPERTS!
• HERE’S PROOF - TAG QUESTIONS
A TAG QUESTION CONFIRMS THE TRUTH OF A STATEMENT
• FOR EX, JOHN IS WASHING HIS CAR, ISN’T HE?
• WE CAN MAKE TAG QUESTIONS WITHOUT THINKING ABOUT IT. THEY COME FROM OUR DEEP IN-BORN KNOWLEDGE OF GRAMMAR
ADD TAG QUESTIONS TO THESE STATEMENTS.
• JOHN HAS FINALLY STOPPED SMOKING
• TIM AND JOE ARE GOOD CARPENTERS
• YOU DON’T LIVE IN NEW JERSEY
HOW DO YOU KNOW WHAT FORM THE QUESTION SHOULD TAKE?
• YOU WERE BORN WITH THE ABILITY TO MAKE SENSE OF LANGUAGE.
• BY AGE 5 YOU WERE AN EXPERT IN THE LANGUAGE YOU GREW UP HEARING.
THEN WHY DO WE NEED TO STUDY GRAMMAR?
• TO LEARN THE CORRECT WAY OF SPEAKING AND WRITING?
• TO BE ABLE TO DESCRIBE THE LANGUAGE PATTERNS WE USE?
• TO BE ABLE TO BUILD A CLOSET ORGANIZER FOR ALL OUR KNOWLEDGE SO WE CAN FIND THE BEST WAY TO CAPTURE MEANING?
WHAT IS GRAMMAR ANYWAY?
• IT IS SIMPLY A NET IN WHICH TO CAPTURE MEANING.
FROM WHICH COUNTRY SHOULD WE BUY OUR CLOSET ORGANIZER?
• SINCE WE SPEAK ENGLISH, OUR ORGANIZER SHOULD REFLECT THE ENGLISH PATTERNS ,NOT THE LATIN ONES.
• EIGHT PARTS OF SPEECH DON’T REFLECT OUR SPEAKING OR WRITING PATTERNS.
• THE IDEA OF FORM WORDS AND STRUCTURE WORDS DOES DESCRIBE OUR ENGLISH LANGUAGE, HOWEVER.
FORM WORDS
• 99% OF THE WORDS IN THE DICTIONARY ARE FORM WORDS.
• THEY CHANGE THEIR FORM – FOR EX. A NOUN ADDS “S” FOR PLURAL.
• THE CLASS IS OPEN – NEW WORDS ARE MADE EVERYDAY.
• THE FORM WORDS ARE NOUNS, VERBS ADJECTIVES AND ADVERBS.
STRUCTURE WORDS
• A CLOSED CLASS, THESE ARE THE WORDS WHICH HOLD THE SENTENCE TOGETHER AND SHOW RELATIONSHIP.
• SOME STRUCTURE WORDS ARE CONJUNCTIONS, AUXILIARIES, DETERMINERS, QUALIFIERS
• PREPOSITIONS AND PRONOUNS ARE BOTH IN THEFORM AND STRUCTURE CLASSES.
EVERY SENTENCE MAY BE DIVIDED INTO TWO PARTS
• JUST LIKE THE BICYCLE NEEDS TWO WHEELS, THE SENTENCE NEEDS TWO PARTS TO BE COMPLETE:
• THE WHO (SUBJECT) AND THE DID WHAT(PREDICATE).
THE VERB IS THE MAIN PART OF THE SENTENCE.
• SENTENCES MAY BE CLASSIFIED BY THE KIND OF VERB AND ALSO THE WORDS WHICH COME AFTER THE VERB.
• THE GRAMMAR RULER ILLUSTRATES THE 10 SENTENCE PATTERNS.
Group Activity: the living sentence
• 1. Volunteers each take a piece of poster board with a word on it.
• 2. Come to the front of the room and form yourselves into a sentence. 3. How can you do this? You are experts already! You know what a sentence should look like. 4. You can find subject, verb, and modifiers.
As grammar experts,
• we don’t learn grammar in class.• Instead, we learn how to use the• skills we already have!