ETL705 Week 6: Semantics and the Lexicon Key topics in Semantics Sense and reference Literal meaning Figurative meaning Lexical Semantics Speech acts Gricean maxims Reference presupposition Sense and reference Sense and reference, as we may simply say, are the two sides of a coin. Reference (Denotation) is the person, the object, or anything that we are talking about and has a reference in the outside world. Sense (Meaning) is related to the meaning, and the way the person or the object is referred to. Activity Identify the sense and reference of the word ‘unicorn’. Literal vs. figurative meaning The meaning that we draw ordinarily is called the literal meaning. The word ‘needle’ is literally defined as ‘a sharp instrument’. The non-literal meaning of ‘pain’ is not included in its dictionary definition. This is the connotative meaning that we get from ‘needle’. The denotation of the word refers (see reference in the previous slide) to the actual needle whereas the connotation, as one type of figurative meaning, is used for the sense (see sense in the previous slide). Figurative meaning or figurative language is used for different purposes; e.g., for exaggeration, for analogy, and for metaphors, among other things. In literature it is often known as figure of speech. Metaphors The sentence ‘He is the apple of my eye’ – doesn’t refer to any kind of fruit; there is, of course, no real apple in a person's eye. The "apple" is someone beloved and held dear. When we hear this statement, we interpret it metaphorically, that is, we go beyond the literal meaning. Other examples: a bubbly personality feeling blue a rollercoaster of emotions it’s raining men Since our daily use of language is full of metaphors, it is sometimes hard to draw a fine distinction between the literal and the metaphoric meaning. For this reason, some linguists prefer to consider them cognitively and not linguistically. Activity Think of 3 metaphors in English (or another language) and discuss Metonymy Metonymy is another kind of figure of speech which connotes habituality or association. e.g. ‘The pen is mightier than the sword’ What about these? The Crown The White House Dish Ears A hand Australia The semantics of homophony=homonymy Homonyms: When two words have the same spelling and pronunciation, but different meanings I went to the bank (by the river or to withdraw some cash?). This is an interesting case Activity Provide 2 homonyms. (If the spelling is different but the sound is the same, e.g sea and see, they are homophones) The semantics of polysemy Polysemy (adj polysemous): When a word has several meanings, such as the word ‘run’. Compare: He runs. The paint runs. The engine runs. He has a runny nose. The grass runs for a mile. He runs this business. The semantics of hyponymy The word ‘gum’ or ‘gum tree’ is one kind of tree. The general word ‘tree’ is superordinate or hyponymous to the word ‘gum tree’. Different t ...

1. ETL705 Week 6:
Semantics and the Lexicon
Key topics in Semantics
Sense and reference
Literal meaning
Figurative meaning
Lexical Semantics
Speech acts
Gricean maxims
Reference
presupposition
Sense and reference
Sense and reference, as we may simply say, are the two sides of
a coin.
Reference (Denotation) is the person, the object, or anything
that we are talking about and has a reference in the outside
world.
Sense (Meaning) is related to the meaning, and the way the
person or the object is referred to.
Activity
Identify the sense and reference of the word ‘unicorn’.

2. Literal vs. figurative meaning
The meaning that we draw ordinarily is called the literal
meaning. The word ‘needle’ is literally defined as ‘a sharp
instrument’. The non-literal meaning of ‘pain’ is not included in
its dictionary definition. This is the connotative meaning that
we get from ‘needle’. The denotation of the word refers (see
reference in the previous slide) to the actual needle whereas the
connotation, as one type of figurative meaning, is used for the
sense (see sense in the previous slide).
Figurative meaning or figurative language is used for different
purposes; e.g., for exaggeration, for analogy, and for
metaphors, among other things. In literature it is often known as
figure of speech.
Metaphors
The sentence ‘He is the apple of my eye’ – doesn’t refer to any
kind of fruit; there is, of course, no real apple in a person's eye.
The "apple" is someone beloved and held dear.
When we hear this statement, we interpret it metaphorically,
that is, we go beyond the literal meaning.
Other examples:
a bubbly personality
feeling blue
a rollercoaster of emotions
it’s raining men
Since our daily use of language is full of metaphors, it is

3. sometimes hard to draw a fine distinction between the literal
and the metaphoric meaning. For this reason, some linguists
prefer to consider them cognitively and not linguistically.
Activity
Think of 3 metaphors in English (or another language) and
discuss
Metonymy
Metonymy is another kind of figure of speech which connotes
habituality or association.
e.g.
‘The pen is mightier than the sword’
What about these?
The Crown
The White House
Dish
Ears
A hand
Australia
The semantics of homophony=homonymy
Homonyms:
When two words have the same spelling and pronunciation, but
different meanings
I went to the bank (by the river or to withdraw some cash?).
This is an interesting case
Activity
Provide 2 homonyms.
(If the spelling is different but the sound is the same, e.g sea
and see, they are homophones)

4. The semantics of polysemy
Polysemy (adj polysemous):
When a word has several meanings, such as the word ‘run’.
Compare:
He runs.
The paint runs.
The engine runs.
He has a runny nose.
The grass runs for a mile.
He runs this business.
The semantics of hyponymy
The word ‘gum’ or ‘gum tree’ is one kind of tree. The general
word ‘tree’ is superordinate or hyponymous to the word ‘gum
tree’.
Different types of gum trees like ‘red gum’ and ‘blue gum’ have
a co-hyponymous relation.
The whole meaning is known as hyponymy.
The semantics of meronymy
This is a part-whole relation. ‘pedals’ and ‘handles’ are parts of
a bicycle; therefore they are in meronymous relation to
‘bicycle’.

5. Activity 5.
Identify the lexico-semantic relation in the following and justify
this relation for an ESL student.
The kettle is boiling.
The semantics of synonymy and antonymy
Synonyms are the words that have a close relation in meaning.
There are no two words in any language that are practically
100% synonymous. The words ‘small’, ‘little’ and ‘short’ are
examples of synonymy, but there are contexts that only one of
these can be practically used.
Antonyms are the words with opposite meanings.
The opposite of tall is short. Antonyms can be either gradable
or non-gradable. Dead-alive are the non-gradable opposites.
Someone is either dead or alive although sometimes we hear ‘he
was half-dead’, which is taken non-literally. The gradable
antonyms are, on the hand, flexible. Exit is not exactly the
opposite of enter, or tie is not exactly the opposite of untie.
Speech acts
Speech acts: When speech is accompanied by action through
verbs. The verbs therefore are performing some action, hence
known as performative verbs.
I bet it will rain tomorrow.
Country X has declared war on country Y.

6. I promise to give you $20.
I pronounce you husband and wife.
In all these examples, an action is performed by the subject in
using the verb.
Some conditions have to hold for the verb to take place. If the
conditions are met, the act is felicitous, otherwise unsuccessful
and infelicitous. The conditions are preparatory (does the
person performing a speech act have the authority to do so) and
sincerity (the speaker is not lying) conditions.
Activity What are the felicity conditions for the verbs in the
previous slide?
Declarative, Interrogative, Imperative
Traditional grammar recognises three classes of speech act,
distinguishable in many languages on the basis of their form:
statements or declaratives
questions or interrogatives
commands or imperatives
Declarative:
Henry took her out.

7. Interrogative:
Did Henry take her out?
Imperative:
Take her out, Henry!
Representatives: speech acts that represent some state of affairs
assertions
claims
descriptions
Commissives: speech acts that commit the speaker to some
future course of action
promises
threats
vows
Directives: speech acts whose intention is to get the addressee
to carry out some action
commands
requests
dares
entreaties
Declarations: speech acts that themselves bring about a state of
affairs
marrying
naming

8. blessing
arresting
Expressives: speech acts that indicate the speaker's
psychological state or mental attitude
greeting
congratulating
thanking
apologising
Verdicatives: speech acts that assess or pass judgment
judging
condoning
permitting
Indirect Speech Acts
A ‘Would you like to meet for coffee?’
B ‘I have class.’
Grice’s maxims (Gricean maxims) or cooperative principles
Grice, a philosopher of language, proposed the following
qualities for communication. He said in order for a
conversation to be effective, these 4 maxims or cooperative
principles have to be observed.
Maxims of Quantity:
Make your contribution as informative as is required (for the
current purposes of the exchange).

9. Do not make your contribution more informative than is
required.
Maxims of Quality:
Do not say what you believe to be false.
Do not say things for which you do not have adequate evidence.
Maxim of Relation:
Be relevant.
Maxims of Manner:
Avoid obscurity.
Avoid ambiguity.
Be brief.
Be orderly.
Do Grice’s maxims have implications for TESOL?
Activity
Which of Grice’s maxims do the following violate?
Speaker 1:Isn't Larry the biggest jerk you ever met?
Speaker 2:Uh, it sure is nice for this time of year, eh?”
B) Miss Singer produced a series of sounds corresponding
closely
to the score of “Advance Australia Fair”
C) a. "John and Mary have 2 children”.

10. “Are they planning on having a third”?
“They already have a third child.”
Presupposition
This is another crucial issue in language. Often, when people
write, they presuppose their readers know the facts they are
writing, which is not true at times. Using determiner ‘the’ is a
case point.
Activity 12.
What is the presupposed information in the following?
Heat the coffee!
Where’s the salt?
ESL learners find ‘the’ very challenging and sometimes apply it
inappropriately.
Semantics!
“Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good
morning whether I want it or not; or that you feel good this
morning; or that it is a morning to be good on?”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit
“Arthur: If I asked you where the hell we were, would I regret
it?
Ford: We're safe.
Arthur: Oh good.
Ford: We're in a small galley cabin in one of the spaceships of
the Vogon Constructor Fleet.
Arthur: Ah, this is obviously some strange use of the

11. word safe that I wasn't previously aware of.”
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Semantics intersects with a number of language-related fields:
Lexicology
Etymology
Syntax
Pragmatics
Communication
Semiotics
….and don’t forget language teaching
The Lexicon
acronym dysphemism
backformation euphemism
blending hypocorism
borrowing idiom
calque loan translation
clipping narrowing and
coinage broadening of meaning
collocation reduplication
compounding taboo
Lexicon = our mental dictionary
What is ‘scuba’ ?
What about ‘OK”?

12. AIDS and NASA but not aids and nasa
The pronunciation of the above vs VCR and ATM?
What about ‘television’
Words often come into language with one particular word class
(e.g., n or v) and then other word classes are formed. For
example, the v ‘televise’ did not exist at the time the n
‘television’ entered English. The longer word ‘television’ was
shortened to form the v ‘televise’. Likewise, and on the basis
of analogy, the v ‘revise’ was derived from the n ‘revision’.
This derivation from longer to shorter form is called
‘backformation’.
Blending
Brunch?
Smog?
Motel?
Spanglish?
Borrowing: Do you know the origin of the following words:
Algebra
boomerang
caravan
caviar
Chicago
dingo

13. emu
kangaroo
Kayak
koala
pajamas or pyjamas
Texas
bungalow
Honeymoon from Spanish luna de miel {luna ‘moon’ and miel
‘honey’}
Pajamas from Persian päjäme {pä ‘leg’ and jäme ‘shirt’}.
Interestingly, the word traveled to other languages and
eventually came back to Persian with a slightly different
pronunciation; phonetically transcribed as both [piʒamϵ] and
[pidʒamϵ].
French gratte-ciel {grattoir ‘scraper’ and ciel ‘sky’} and
English skyscraper
This type of loan or borrowing is known as ‘loan translation’ or
‘calque’. The words are borrowed and translated into the target
language, unlike direct borrowing which keeps the original form
with a slightly different phonetic and phonological variation.
Clipping
Activity
fax is a reduced form of ……………….,
pub a reduction of ………………..,
flu a reduced form of …………..
and Mike, Rob, Sue, and Liz are shortened forms of …….,

14. …….., ………., and ……….. respectively?
Why do we clip words?
In Australian English there is a tendency to add a suffix –y or -
ie to the words after they have gone through the clipping
process. Words like hankie from …………., telly from
………….., brekky from …………, and bickie from ……….. are
examples of this type.
This process is called ‘hypocorism’.
But then why is it ‘arvo’ or ‘smoko’ ?
Creating new words is not an easy process in language.
Languages try to use the existing words and make some
alterations such as adding something to them, combining them
and so on to create novel words. Creating new words in various
forms is known as ‘coinage’.
These are updates from the Oxford English Dictionary for
February 2013. What word-formation features do you
recognise?
“Having a mare of a week? With hump day over, the weekend is

15. in sight and it’s time to start thinking about getting blootered on
appletinis! Or do you prefer to put on your schlumpy clothes
and curl up with a tray bake? My tortie has a more tweetable
Friday night than that. But you could take one for the team and
be our DD for the night; we’ll call you on your dumbphone
later. Thx!”
Compounding
bookcase = …….. + ………
textbook = …….. + ………
Combination of two nouns like the above is called
‘compounding’. Compounding is a common process in English.
Collocation
Activity
Some words are compatible with some other words but not so
friendly with others. A word like pen likes to sit close to paper,
hence pen and paper, salt and …….., fork and ……, up and
……. Such binomial combination is known as ‘collocation’.
Q. Why do you think this pairing occurs?
Euphemism
In Orwell’s 1984 the term pacifying when used by a dictator
leader can mean………...
a) pass away is a vp for the v ……..
b) bathroom is often used by Americans as a replacement for
………
What about the Australian word for b?

16. ……….
Sometimes out of anger or some similar moods, people might
swear and use words that are reverse to euphemistic
expressions. Words such as pig and bitch that are used for insult
and words like boghouse for toilet are referred to as
‘dysphemistic’ expressions.
Idioms
The meaning of kick + the + bucket is not the sum of meaning
of every word in this sequence. This and similar expressions are
somewhat fixed expressions whose meanings are not inferable
from the combination of the individual words forming that
sequence. This is referred to as ‘idioms’.
Can you think of three more idioms with their meanings?
……………….
……………….
……………….
When a brand word is created and used for some time, that word
may extend its domain
Hoover
Biro
Jacuzzi
What brand name is still used for tissue, photocopy and non-
sticky kitchen utensils?
This is referred to as ‘broadening’ or ‘extension of meaning’.

17. Narrowing
The word ‘meat’ was used at a time in English to mean food or
solid things. The meaning has now been narrowed to one type of
food (e.g. the meat of animals that is served in restaurants).
This is known as ‘narrowing’.
What do you think of the words holiday and cool?
Reduplication
Speakers of some languages prefer repetition of the same word
successively. Although this is limited in English, words such as
fifty-fifty and sometimes a slightly different phonological
combination like hanky-panky, teeny-…….., ……-……. or
nitty-……. are not uncommon.
This process is known as ‘reduplication’.
Different styles
A message in any linguistic form, being it a word, a phrase, or a
sentence, can be communicated in many ways. This ranges from
a very formalised or officialese style to a very unformalised
style including slang and taboo.
Compare the following sentences, taken from Newmark (1988):
The consumption of any nutrients whatsoever is categorically
prohibited in this establishment!
You are requested not to consume food in this establishment!
Eating is not allowed here!

18. You can’t feed your face here!
Lay off the nosh!
Lay off the fucking nosh!
All of these have the same meaning with the first one very
formalised, the last one ‘taboo’, and one to the last slang. Taboo
words or phrases are not recommended for use, and that’s why
most dictionaries, particularly those written for ESL learners,
put a danger or cautious sign in front of them. ESL students
should be alerted against the use of these words, as sometimes
unknowingly they may use these words in their speech or
writing.
A sample of new words and phrases from the OED 2011
auto-completen. A software feature that uses text already
entered in a given field to predict or generate the characters the
user is likely to enter next; familiar to anyone who has used
predictive text or search boxes on websites. [First recorded in
1992]
baben. Used to describe an attractive man [1973] and, in the
plural, as a familiar or affectionate form of address for a
person of either sex [1918].
brain candyn. Broadly appealing, undemanding entertainment
which is not intellectually stimulating. OED already has eye-
candy and ear candy. [1968]
environmentally unfriendly adj. designed, produced, or
operating in a way that causes, or does not minimize, harm to
the natural environment; opposed to environmentally friendly.
[1988]
green fueln. (a type of) fuel, esp. biofuel, which is regarded as
less harmful to the environment than conventional fuels. [1979]

19. to laugh it up at laugh v. Used in imperative (with ironic or
sarcastic force) to suggest an impending reversal of fortune:
‘laugh while you can.’ [1971]
urbn. An urban area, a city. Frequently contrasted with suburb.
[1952]
use it or lose it at use v
ETL705
Pedagogical grammar
Week 2
Grammatical metalanguage
Grammatical metalanguage
In order to be able to talk about language we need to be able to
describe its various elements
Each of the levels of language has its own metalanguage.
Morphology
Refers to the way words are structured
Morphemes - the smallest possible unit of meaning.
‘Banana’ - three syllables but one morpheme
‘bananas’ - two morphemes. The ‘s’ changes the meaning

20. Free morphemes, which can stand on their own (walk, doll,
pretty)
Bound morphemes which cannot (-ful, -est, -ed).
Bound Morphemes
Derivational Morphemes - prefixes such as un-, mis-, anti-,
and suffixes such as –iness, -ful, -ate (remember prefixes will
change meaning (happy/unhappy) and suffixes will change the
word class (happy/ happiness)
Inflectional Morphemes - additions to words that change words
according to tense, number, case, person etc
Some languages (eg Latin, Russian) are very highly inflected.
Adding inflectional morphemes is the principal way they change
meaning (think amo, amas, amat).
English does not do this very much but does do it in certain
circumstances.
the longest (contrived) word in Turkish is...
Çekoslovakyalılaştıramadıklarımızda nmışsınız
"You are said to be one of those that we couldn't manage to
convert to a Czechoslovak".
Morphology Word Classes
The Big Four
Nouns

21. Verbs
Adjectives
Adverbs
Carry most of the meaning in sentences/utterances
Open classes
Functors
Closed Classes
Auxiliary verbs (Primary and Modal)
Pronouns
Prepositions
Determiners
Conjunctions
These classes contain the most common words in the English
language
Interjections
Alas!
Oh my God!
OK
Doh!
Crikey!
They have no grammatical connection to the rest of the sentence
and are not governed by grammatical rules
Should we teach them?

22. However, words do not just fit neatly into one class and several
words belong to several classes
How many different classes can ‘round’ fit into
She’ll be coming round the mountain when she comes
Soccer is played with a round ball
Rafael Nadal got beaten in the first round.
Just round the price off to the nearest dollar.
I’ve got a nice bottle of red. Why don’t you come round
tonight?
Multiple words
If we look at meaning rather than form we can see that
sometimes two or more words are equivalent to one word
fed up – adjective (unhappy)
bring up – verb (raise)
with regard to - preposition (about)
At the drop of a hat (promptly)
Multiple words - verb forms
Verb forms are often made up of several words
to walk (infinitive)
have seen
were walking
had been working
Nouns

23. Semantic: Name of person, place, thing or idea
Structural: Derivational morphemes
-ity, -ness, -hood, -dom, -ion
Inflectional morphemes
plural -s
possessive ‘s
Role in sentence:
Subject of a sentence
Object of a sentence
Complement of a copular verb
Indirect object
Come after a preposition
A noun is often the head word of a noun phrase (NP)
accompanied by a determiner (det) and one or more adjectives
(adj)
A yellow submarine
Kinds of nouns
Proper Nouns
Johnny Depp, Melbourne, Tim Tam
Common Nouns
Countable Nouns
apple(s), guitar(s), photograph(s)
Uncountable Nouns
money, whisky, love (can they sometimes be countable?)
Collective nouns
family, team, government

24. …….is or are?
Difficulties for students
Irregular plurals
Men, children, sheep, people
Singular forms ending in ‘-s’
Mathematics, news, means
Nouns which are only plural (in English)
Binoculars, trousers, scissors
Collective nouns Singular? Plural?
The couple is/are very happy’. ‘The staff is /are all highly
qualified’
Inappropriate possessives and modifying nouns
the table’s leg, a flight of QANTAS, some pencils sharpeners)
Examples of student errors
I bought some furnitures for my room
I ate a lamb last night
Brisbane has a very nice weather.
My mother gave me several advices before I left.
She has a beautiful long hair.
Verbs
Semantic: Describing actions or states of being
Structural: Derivational morphemes: -ise (or –ize), -ate,
-ify
Inflectional morphemes:
3rd person singular: –s (He walks)
past simple tense: –ed (He walked)
past participle –ed, -n

25. (walked, shown)
present participle: -ing
(walking, showing)
Grammatical Function: The verb is the only absolutely
essential component of a sentence (at least in written English)
Verb types
Dynamic (action) verbs (doing)
Walk, fantasise, google, sleep
Stative (state) verbs (being)
Be, feel, know, have (meaning possess), understand
Stative verbs are not used in continuous tenses in unmarked
(neutral) contexts
We can’t say I am understanding you. I am having three
brothers.
- but what about ‘I’m hearing you…’ ‘I’m loving it…’
Verb types
Verbs can be
Transitive (has an object):
Ian McEwan wrote ‘Atonement’
Intransitive (has no object):
Something terrible happens in the story.
Ditransitive (two object verbs):
Robbie sent a letter to Cecilia.
Verb types
Copular verbs (Linking verbs or complement verbs)
They tell you more about the subject
The complement completes the meaning of the verb
Be, seem , look, smell, become

26. Ian McEwan is a fantastic writer.
Keira Knightly looks incredible in that green dress.
Verb types
Phrasal verbs
Made up of a ‘normal’ or common verb plus a particle (adverb
or preposition)
look after, log on, show off, put up with
Briony made up a story about Robbie (invent)
James McAvoy grew up in Glasgow.(spent his childhood)
My husband is trying to give up smoking. (quit)
Tense and Aspect
In English, verbs are only inflected for two tenses: present
simple and past simple.
We can also denote
The Perfect Aspect (whether something has been completed or
not)
The Continuous Aspect (whether an action is in progress or not)
English Verb Tenses
The form of the tenses in English is determined by two things:
Time Frame and Aspect.
There are three basic Time Frames: Past, Present and Future
There are four different Aspects: Simple, Continuous, Perfect
and Perfect Continuous.

27. English Verb TensesTIME FRAMEASPECT Simple Continuous
PerfectPerfect ContinuousPresentSimple Present
Walk/walksPresent
Continuous
Is/are walking Present Perfect
Has/have
walkedPresent Perfect
Continuous
Has/have been
walkingPastSimple Past
WalkedPast Continuous
Was walkingPast Perfect
Had walkedPast Perfect Continuous
Had been walkingFuture Simple Future
Will walkFuture Continuous
Will be walkingFuture Perfect
Will have walkedFuture Perfct Continuous
Will have been walking
Future
There is no such thing as a single future tense in English. We
talk about the future in several ways:
I will have a party next Saturday
I’m having a party next Saturday
I’m going to have a party next Saturday
There’s a party next Saturday
We’ll be having a party next Saturday

28. …and possibly…..there’s to be a party next Saturday
Teaching tenses
In what order do we usually teach the tenses?
Which would you teach first?
Which would you never teach?
Why?
On what do you base your choice? (Don’t say “the textbook”!!”
Voice
Verbs can be used in
The Active Voice
Roger Federer beat Andy Murray.
The Passive Voice
Andy Murray was beaten by Rafael Nadal.
Intransitive verbs cannot be used in the passive. We can’t say:
Something awful was happened to me on the way to work.
Participles
The –ing participle (so-called present participle) and the –ed
participle (so-called past participle) can also be used in
participial phrases
Driving to Lightening Ridge, we saw hundreds of kangaroos.
I collapsed in a heap, exhausted by my day’s hard work.
And as adjectives
‘Atonement’ was a very moving film. I was very moved by the
film.
-ing participle
The –ing participle can also be used as noun - called a gerund.
Gerunds behave exactly the same as nouns

29. They can be the subjects or objects of sentences
Shopping is her favourite hobby.
They can come after prepositions
I’m looking forward to seeing you.
They can be modified by adjectives
Eating biscuits is bad for you
Verb Chains
There are a number of verbs in English that tend to be followed
by other verb forms (called non-finite forms), forming verb
‘chains’.
Some are followed by the infinitive
I want to go home and just sit and read a book.
Australia has decided to postpone the cricket tour of Pakistan.
Some are followed by the gerund
I enjoy watching movies.
I’m afraid I keep talking about tennis.
Some can be followed by either
I love to stop and smell the roses.
I love stopping and smelling the roses.
………..is there any meaning difference here?
Learner Difficulties
Irregular past tense forms
Inappropriate verb chains (He made me to do it. I enjoy to go to
movies)
Question and negative forms
Stative/dynamic confusion
Participle confusion
Passive voice
TENSES in general

30. Adjectives
Semantic: describing words
Structural: derivational morphemes: -ful, -ive, -ish, -
able, -ent, -ant
inflectional morphemes: SOME adjectives inflect when
making comparatives and superlatives –er, -est. faster, stronger.
uglier,
Grammatical Function: adjectives come between a determiner
and a noun (attributive) a handsome young man
Or after a copular verb (predictive) Tom Hanks is
sensational in his new movie.
That curry smells delicious.
Order of adjectives
When we want to use more than one adjective before a noun,
what order should we put them in?
Are there rules?
Lists of more than 3 adjectives used together are rare in both
spoken and written English but the basic rules are worth
teaching.
Comparison of adjectives
Short adjectives (one syllable)
Add –er and –est
The superlative must have ‘the’
bigger, the brightest
Long adjectives (3 syllables and more)
Use ‘more’ or ‘most’ before the normal form
more excruciating, the most delightful
Two syllable adjectives
Most 2 syllable adjectives use ‘more’
more boring, more careless, more gorgeous
2 syllable adjectives ending in –y add –er and –est

31. lovelier, easier
A few can use either method
commoner, more common, handsomer, more handsome
Gradeable and non-gradeable adjectives
Most adjectives are gradeable. (hot, wet, interesting, jealous)
We can talk about the degree (or grade) of hotness or wetness.
We do this by using intensifying adverbs such as very, really,
fairly, incredibly, pretty, bloody
Some adjectives express extreme qualities (terrified, boiling,
starving)
With these adjectives (ungradeable) we can only use extreme
intensifying adverbs such as utterly, absolutely
Thus we say
I’m very hot
But I’m absolutely starving
Learner difficulties
Comparisons
Order of adjectives
Position of adjectives
Confusion between adjectives and adverbs
Gradeable vs non-gradeable
Confusion between participial adjectives (interesting/interested)
Adverbs
Semantic: describing direction, location, time,
manner frequency and degree
Structural:derivational: some –ly
Inflectional: a few inflect for comparative and superlative
Grammatical function: adverbs modify verbs She drives
carefully.
But they can also intensify adjectives You look absolutely

32. marvellous.
Other adverbs She works incredibly hard
Whole sentences Unfortunately, there’s no coffee left.
They can come initially, medially or finally in a sentence,
Learner difficulties
Confusion with adjectives
She speaks English real good. (There is a lot of slippage with
native speakers with this one)
I speak English easier than I write it.
Word order
She beautifully speaks English
I like very much Australian wine
Auxiliaries
Primary Auxiliaries
To be
To do
To have
Each of these verbs has a dual role, as a normal verb (to be is
also a copular verb) and as an auxiliary helping other verbs to
make other forms
To be is used
with the Present Participle to make the continuous tenses
with the Past Participle to make the passive
To do is used
to make questions and negatives in the present simple and Past
simple
To have is used
with the Past participle to make the Perfect tenses

33. Auxiliaries
Modals
Nine verbs: can, will, may, shall, would, could, might, should,
must (plus semi-modals need and ought to)
Used to express possibility, desirability, doubt etc.
Auxiliaries
Modals
They have their own rules
Take infinitive without ‘to’ (bare infinitive)
No special 3rd person singular form
Form negatives by adding ‘not’
Form questions by inverting
Limited in tenses
Cannot be preceded by another modal
Learner Difficulties
confusion between special rules for modals and rules for normal
verbs
multiple meanings and functions of modals (It may rain. You
may leave the room)
Pronouns
Pronouns stand in place of a noun
There are:
Personal pronouns (my, your etc)
reflexive pronouns (myself etc)
demonstrative pronouns (this, that)
relative pronouns who, which, that)
quantifiers (one, several, much etc) can be used as pronouns (I

34. haven’t got one)
‘’dummy’ subjects ‘it’ and ‘there’
Personal pronouns
Personal pronouns are the most highly inflected class in the
English language
They inflect for
Gender (he/she)
Number (I/we)
Case (I/me/mine)
Learner difficulties
gender, number and case inflections, (especially where the L1
does not have gender differentiation)
confusion between pronouns and determiners
Prepositions
Are followed by a noun, pronoun or noun phrase
Make connections between words
Can be
One word (by, with, from)
Several words (on account of, in the event of)
Learner difficulties
Minimal intrinsic meaning
Each one can have many different meanings
Illogical
Differences from L1
Difficult to hear in continuous speech

35. Determiners
Articles a, an, the
This/that/these/those (demonstrative adjectives)
My, your, his etc (possessive adjectives)
Quantifiers much/many/some/any/few/little etc
Numbers
Ordinals (first, last, next, thirty-first)
Determiners always come before a noun
Sometimes one or more adjectives can come between the
determiner and the noun
There cannot be two determiners together
Articles
(‘a’ ‘an’ ‘the’ and zero article)
Depend on whether the noun that follows is
Singular or plural
Countable or uncountable
General or specific
Learner difficulties
Everything to do with articles is problematic
Some languages do not have articles at all
Articles can be difficult to hear
Differences in meaning appear slight
Need to know about countability of nouns
Rules of usage very complicated

36. Conjunctions
Coordinating conjunctions (and, but, or)
Subordinating conjunctions (because, although, since, if, after)
Learner difficulties
confusion with prepositions
double conjunctions
sentence structure in general
Jabberwocky
'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
'Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!'
Guidelines – Please carefully read through ALL the
Guidelines.Assignment Header: Analysis of texts written by
EAL Learners
Description of the assignment
The Victorian Curriculum F-10 (replacing AUSVELS) provides
a framework for English as an additional language (EAL)
students to be assessed so that effective learning programs can
be developed accordingly. EAL students at high school age are

37. ranked from SL (with little knowledge of English) to S4
(Advanced Stage of English proficiency). Within each Stage,
three levels of Beginning, Progressing and Standard, are
recognised. It is important for an EAL teacher in Victorian
schools to assign each student to an appropriate stage and level.
This is partly done on the basis of the language that a student
produces, either written or spoken, at the commencement of
his/her enrolment in the school. EAL teachers need to be
familiar with the lexical and grammatical (lexicogrammatical)
features of language produced at each stage and level.
The Assignment Requirement-: Please analyse the two learner
texts provided (in List of Resources) for their lexical -
grammatical, and syntactical features. (These two texts are in
one file, 'Assessment Texts'). The second text is an example of
an IELTS writing task, written by an adult learner of English.
Look at each text and comment briefly on 3 grammatical areas
that seem to be under control, then identify 4 problem areas you
notice in their lexical-grammatical competence (one each out of
the following levels):
· Word classes or parts of speech
· Morphological relations and features
· Syntax (word order, phrase, clause and sentence structure)
· Discourse level grammar (textual cohesion) - this level of
analysis looks at how well the message is constructed, and
includes consideration of range of vocabulary, and connecting
devices.
NB - Punctuation and Spelling may be an issue to comment on,
but NOT to analyse. Many errors in these areas are 'slips'.
Then choose one of the problematic features at the syntactic
level (for example, a verb tense, use of prepositions, order of
adjectives), describe it in terms of Form, Meaning and Use, (if
all 3 are appropriate) and describe a short activity to teach and
practice it, with a rationale.
MORE GUIDELINES FOR THIS ASSIGNMENT:
This assignment, which is based on your study up to Topic 6,
involves examining student-produced texts at the various levels

38. of grammar- word, sentence and supra-sentential (discourse)
level. At word level you would focus on parts of speech or word
classes (noun, verb, adjective, adverb, determiner, pronoun, etc.
as well as morphological features). At sentence level you would
look at syntax, which involves the relationships of the elements
in a sentence, word order, verb/subject agreement, and clause
structures. At the supra-sentential level you would note features
of text cohesion, such as the use of pronoun substitution or
synonyms to avoid repetition yet maintain a flow of ideas,
linking words, and appropriate lexical (vocabulary) choices for
the genre/task.
· You need to show that you have understood the grammatical
features you have selected (e.g. different parts of speech/word
classes and morphological features, and clause structures.
· In the body of your essay, comment briefly on features that
show the EAL writer's competence or lack of it at the levels
mentioned above.
· The idea is to make a diagnosis of what an EAL writer can or
can't do competently. You need to show that you can use
appropriate linguistic language to explain areas of competence
or lack of it, and thus identify patterns. After the brief diagnosis
of 3 features, choose one feature for more detailed analysis. Are
there problems with using appropriate forms at word level? Are
word choices appropriate or too formal/informal? Is there
control over verb tenses? Which ones show lack of control? Are
there any problems with word order, appropriate linking words,
any other features of text cohesion? Choose one problem area
that stands out, analyse its features and discuss how you might
scaffold the learner to use the feature more confidently, by
suggesting a short activity that presents and practices the
feature.
· Finally, you need to present a brief discussion as to why and
in what way(s) you think this analysis will be useful for
learning in a TESOL/EAL context.
NOTE:
· You are not analysing the learner text simply for errors, which

39. is a teacher’s tendency when looking at their students’ work.
You are examining the texts for their language features, and
should also comment on areas of competence. Also, in the case
of errors, you don't need to present 'corrected versions' - the idea
is to analyse what is at the root of the problem with a particular
form. Examples ARE presented throughout the ppts.-
FORMAT AND PRESENTATION OF ASSIGNMENT
· to be included in the essay:
· A brief introduction to the essay, outlining its structure.
· A brief overview of the task of writing in a second or foreign
language. What does a language learner need to know in order
to produce a text?
· Evaluation of each of the learner’s work. What has she/he
done well? What does she/he need to work on? (only 3-4
problem areas)
· Choose one grammatical feature from the 2-3 above that
appeared to be problematic (in either or both texts), and
demonstrate your understanding of that feature in terms of
Form, Meaning and Use. As a guide for this you could look at
the slides -on Imperativesin the Week Three Power point.
· How might these learners be helped to develop their writing in
English in terms of the feature you have chosen? For this,
suggest a brief activity that could present the problem feature in
context and then practice it.
· Comment on the usefulness of this task in understanding more
about your learners’ English language development and what
you need to teach.
· A conclusion summarising what you have written about and
pointing to how useful your analysis will be in the context of
TESOL. Support your arguments throughout with scholarly
references.
The analyses/activity description would take up at least two-
thirds of the total word count. Appendices are not included in
the word count
Present your analysis in a format using headings and
subheadings as appropriate. Use the categories mentioned above

40. to guide you. After you have done this, summarise the patterns
you have observed in the texts and write on the implications for
language teaching in the EAL context. A brief introduction and
conclusion to the assignment will assist the reader in knowing
how you have organised your analysis and how you are
approaching this assignment.
· Appendices may include any tables you have used, and the
texts (only if you have annotated them to show your workings).
If you use appendices, please make sure to number them and
refer to them in the body of your assignment so that the reader
knows which appendix to refer to.
· Referencing is another important part of the layout of your
assignment. You should use the APA (American Psychological
Association) version 6.0 which is available electronically, to
reference your sources. As this is not a critical essay type of
assignment, references are not expected so much in the
grammatical analysis (unless you have referenced a particular
grammar reference work), but would be expected in the
discussion and rationale sessions.
ETL705 Pedagogical Grammar
Week 5
Phonology
Key words and conceptsPhonemes
Allophones
Syllables
Consonants
Vowels
Voicing quality
Suprasegmentals Connected speech
Word and sentence stress
Intonation
International phonetic alphabet

41. Markedness
(terms highlighted in red are relevant to the activities on the
next two slides)
What problems did these learners have understanding or
speaking English? What areas of phonology would they need to
practice?
Learner: Hey! You didn’t come to the movie last night!
Teacher: (didn’t hear): Sorry?
Learner: Oh! That’s OK. Don’t worry.
Area: ____________________________
Spanish learner to English teacher: We need help with our
pronunciation – we’re having trouble with our bowels
Area: ____________________________
Pronunciation is very impotent.
Area: _____________________________
What problems did these learners have understanding or
speaking English? What areas of phonology would they need to
practice?
A bus driver to a young Italian woman: are you in, love?
Italian to teacher later: Why did he ask me if I was in love?

42. Area: _____________________________
English speaker: Djuwannagofradrinklata?
Learner: ?????
Area: _____________________________
Sounds (Phonemes)
Individual sounds are the focus of the study of phonetics. In the
production of sounds, many organs are involved.
To classify English consonants, we examine the nature of the
disturbance in the airflow.
Where is the main disturbance taking place?
- lips
- teeth
- alveolar ridge
- hard palate
- soft palate = velum
- (uvula)
- (pharynx)
- (epiglottis)
- larynx / glottis
This is called place of articulation.
Phonemes
What sort of disturbance is occurring there?
- total block
- forcing the airflow through tiny gaps
- directing the airflow through a fairly small gap
- etc.

43. This is called manner of articulation.
The information on sound production in terms of place and
manner of articulation can be read from chapter 8 in Blake
Some consonant symbols
sound name symbol as in
theta θ third
eth ð them
eng ŋ thing
turned r ɹ or r rough
Sound name symbol as in
esh ʃ or š she
ezh Ʒ or ž measure
combined ‘d’ & ‘Ʒ’ dƷ jump
combined ‘t’ & ‘ʃ’ tʃ chess
IPA vowel chart
(N.B. imagine square
brackets around all
these symbols
– e.g. [i])

44. Some vowel symbols
Sound name symbol as in
Schwa Ə about
open E ɛ ten
alpha α or a barn
upsilon Ʊ cook
turned a ɒ of
Sound name symbol as in
open o ɔ all
glottal stop Ɂ bottle
reversed open E ɜ nurse
combined ‘a’ & ‘e’ æ cat
lamda or wedge Λ muscle
Semi-vowel:
[j] j yes
[ju] ju you
Some key concepts in phonology
Phonology deals with:
The system of sound patterns of language
Phonemes, allophones, minimal pairs, and minimal sets
Morphophonemics
Stress patterns in words and utterances
Intonation
Connected speech

45. Phonemes
What’s a phoneme?
Minimal pairs
Minimal sets
Difference between phonemes and phones
/p/, /b/, /m/, /t/
Pin, bin
Can you name some more? ………………
Mean, teen
You name more ……..………..
Morphophonemic
This word is a combination of morph, and phoneme. The rules
that bind these two are known as morphophonemic rules. Think
of plural forms in English. There are three suffixes that are
attached to count nouns for plural. These are /s/ as in 'cats', /z/
as in 'dogs', and /Əz/ as in 'churches'.
Activity 1.
Please provide some words for each phoneme/sound in the
spaces below please.
/s/ ............................................
/z/ ............................................
/Əz/ ..........................................

46. Now, try to write a rule for each sound. These rules that you
created are called morphophonemic rules.
Allophones
Allophones are variations of a phoneme which are shown in
detailed phonetic transcription. Phoneme /p/, for example, can
be pronounced as [ph] in 'put', with an aspiration or puff of air
but [p] in 'spill' which is unaspirated (pronounced with
reduction or absence in puff of air). You may hold your palm in
front of your mouth and say the two words to experience the
puff of air. We say these two are the allophones of the same
phoneme. The allophones do not make a difference in meaning.
Q. 1. How many allophones are there for /t/?
[................]
Q. 2. How many allophones for /d/?
[................]
Q. 3. What about /p/ and /k/?
[................]
phonological theory
Consider these three phonemes of English:

47. /t/ /p/ /k/
[ t ] [ p ] [ k ]
[ t̚ ] [ p
̚ ] [ k
̚ ]
[ th ] [ ph ] [ kh ]
The symbol that represents each allophone is called diacritic.
Allophones of /t/
Aspirated [ th ]
[thɔl thɪk thim]
Unaspirated [ t ]
[stɔl stɪk stim]
No audible release [ t̚ ]
[wit ̚ wit ̚ bɪks nɒt]
Absent [ ]
often, apprentice
Dental [ t̪ ]
[eɪtƟ]

48. Tap [ ſ ]
letter, gotta
Affricated [ tʃ ]
tune, virtually
Allophones of /d/
'Plain' [ d ] (fully voiced alveolar stop)
childish, indent
No audible release [ d
̚ ]
[wid, nɒd]
Can we distinguish (a) 'wheat' from (b) 'weed', and (c) 'not'
from (d) 'nod' when the stops have no audible release?
Occasional allophones of /d/
Nasal release [ dn ]
hidden, sudden
Lateral release [ dl ]
middle, saddle
Affricated [ ʤ ]
[ʤuli]

49. Dental [ d̪ ]
[wɪdƟ θaʊzəndθ]
Tap [ ſ ]
border
Partially devoiced [ do ]
Deck the halls...
Absent [ ]
[fʌnəmɛnəl]
Did you ever think there would be so many allophones for each
of these English phonemes?
Word stress
Attributive and predicative forms
Indoor vs. Indoors
An outdoor life is very healthy
Famers live mainly outdoors
Overseas
An overseas student is unlikely to get government benefits
We’re travelling overseas next month
Everyday vs. Every day
An everyday activity
I work out every day

50. Accentual alterations – mark the stress in the following words
Apply – application
Democracy – democrat – democratic
Allergy – allergic
Prefer – preference – preferential
Legislate – legislation – legislative
Vary – variable – variation
Rely – reliable – reliability
Declare – declaration
Demonstrate – demonstrative – demonstration
Accentuation of compound words
Baby sitter
Book seller
Car dealer
Pain killer
Ballet dancer
Taxi driver
Lie detector
Accentuation of compound words
Driving licence/school/test
Shopping bag/basket/centre/list/ street
Writing desk/ paper/ pad
Hearing aid
Boarding school
Parking zone
Waiting list
Freezing point
Steering wheel
Selling price
Swimming school

51. Two-word verbs which give origin to nouns
A hold-up
A let-down
A take-off
A walk-over
(exception: a lie-down)
Verb and nouns –accentual patterns
Increase (v)
Increase (n)
Import (v)
Import (n)
Object (v)
Object (n)
Insult (v)
Insult (n)
Exceptions: (comment – concrete – deposit – direct)
Double-accented compounds – mark the primary accent
Black market
Developing country
Vicious circle
Civil war
Best man
Prime minister
Alternative accentual patterns
Adult
Research
Detail
Controversy

52. Kilometre
Television
Sentence stress
(and markedness)
Mark the primary stress in the following sentences- any
problems?
There were no seats left
There’s been an accident
There’s someone at the door
There should be a thousand
I’ve been there before
Are these books yours?
More stress! (and more clauses)
Read the following sentences slowly first and then fast.
Try stress- and some intonation!.
1. You couldn’t give me a lift, could you?
2. I asked her for the best tickets they’d got left.
3. Next Friday, I’ll meet you around four by the bus station not
the art gallery, then we can collect Steve at five.
Connected Speech: What sound changes occur in the following?
In Africa an egg She’s ill
I’ll look big girl Peter’s sister
First page next week mashed potatoes
For ever their own my aunt boy and girl
do it!
I have to go does she? Is she?

53. Could you? Ten men
Consonant/vowel elision
Textbook
Clothes
Months
Last time
Cold day
It must be
Five past nine
Most people do
The second day
Try transcribing these as part of longer utterances. What is the
more natural pronunciation? It will vary:
-what are the teaching implications?
Let’s have
I’ll be going
Got to
There isn’t any
As usual
How are you?
Allright
You shouldn’t have
There were two of them
Intonation –voice going up or down
Rising intonation
Falling intonation

54. ------------------------- question tags ------------------
You went to the meeting, didn’t you?
It’s a nice day, isn’t it?
The communicative functions of intonation
Emotional
Grammatical
Information structure
Textual
Psychological
Indexical
David Crystal ‘The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language’
Intonation of questions with ‘or’
In questions with ‘or’ the intonation usually goes down at the
end.
Would you like veal or beef?
Would you like coffee or tea?
Would you like coffee, tea or milk?
What are the intonation patterns in the following?
What do you want?
Are they coming next week or the week after?
Would you mind putting it over there?
You were here yesterday, weren’t you? (not sure)
You were here yesterday, weren’t you? (sure)
Last week he went out with Susan, Hilary, Mary, and Jane.
Summary of issues connecting Grammar and Pronunciation (1)
The most common vowel in English is the unstressed schwa. It

55. occurs in many function words, so can be hard for learners to
notice
Vowel or consonant elision in connected speech can also make
some grammatical features hard to notice (try saying: he walked
down the road)
Summary of issues connecting Grammar and Pronunciation (2)
Word stress may often give clues about word class
Sentence stress can help identify content (and if used
incorrectly can obscure meaning)
Intonation: utterances that are grammatically correct can be
rendered inappropriate without awareness of intonation patterns
Discussion
What are the implications for teaching all the aspects of
phonology mentioned in this session?
In other languages you know, are there similar or different
rules?
Pedagogical Grammar
Week 3
THE THREE DIMENSIONS OF GRAMMAR
Plus SYNTAX and its METALANGAUGE
The Three Dimensions

56. Form
How a particular grammar structure is constructed
Spelling (and sound)
What inflectional morphemes are involved
What grammatical metalanguage is involved
Meaning (Semantics)
What semantic contribution does it make
Most meaning is conveyed through the lexicon
‘walk’ is different from ‘run’
Some essential meaning is grammatical
‘walk’ is different from ‘walked’
Use (Pragmatics)
When is it used?
Why is it used instead of another structure?
What functions does it serve?
In what social contexts would it be appropriate?
The three dimensions

57. Larsen Freeman
Sometimes the boundaries between the three dimensions are
fuzzy
Useful conceptual Framework for teaching grammar
Students need to learn to use structures
Accurately
Meaningfully
Appropriately
Celce-Murcia
Imperatives- an example: Form
Stem (bare infinitive) form of verb
Be quiet! Stop! Come here!
No obvious subject
Usually you understood
Occasionally you is present ‘You be quiet!
Tenseless
Take no modals
Usually followed by an exclamation mark
Negative
Do not run!, Don’t run! Don’t you run! (occasionally)
Imperatives: Meaning
Getting someone to do something
That someone is usually the ‘you’ present in the environment
(either singular or plural
Other addressees can be specified (vocative)
Striker, come!

58. Everybody, put down your pens!
Imperatives: Use
Commands
Speaker has the power to order or command the listeners
Present arms!
Other functional uses
Mae West
“Come up and see me sometime!”
Invitations
Prohibitions
Don’t walk on the grass!
Offers
Have another Tim tam
Warnings
Mind the doors!
Advice
Don’t forget your umbrella!
Procedures
Add 2 teaspoons of sugar
Directions
Turn left at the end of George St
Wishes
Have a nice day!
Imperatives Use
Politeness

59. Addition of ‘Please’
Please give me a glass of water
Addition of modals
Could you give me a glass of water
Pragmatics
Pragmatics involves three major communication skills:
Using language for different purposes -- such as greeting,
informing, demanding, promising, and requesting;
Pragmatics……
Adapting or changing language according to the needs or
expectations of a listener or situation -- such as talking
differently to a baby than to an adult, talking differently in a
classroom than on a playground. (Tenor- a feature of Functional
Grammar)
Pragmatics…..
Following rules for conversations and narrative (e.g., telling
stories, giving book reports, recounting events of the day); there
are rules for taking turns in conversation, introducing topics of
conversation, staying on the topic, rephrasing when
misunderstood, and telling a story. There are also rules for
appropriate use of nonverbal signals in conversation: distance
between speaker and listener, facial expressions, and eye
contact. Rules may vary depending on language and culture.
Syntax
My speciality engineering hydraulic. Engineering hydraulic
very important new science. Using engineering hydraulic in the

60. future will a modern communications system develop my
country. Will profit everyone. Will construct a glorious future
engineering hydraulic. Recently expanding this field of science.
In the future I will with great pleasure give to my country.
Word Order
Because English is not a highly inflected language, a great deal
of meaning is conveyed through word order.
The meaning can alter fundamentally if the order varies
Hawks crush Magpies
Magpies crush Hawks
You are married.
Are you married?
Driving up to Toowoomba I saw a kangaroo.
I saw a kangaroo driving up to Toowoomba.
There are rules forbidding certain word orders
I went to Stradbroke on Sunday NOT I to Stradbroke on
Sunday went.
I like Australian chardonnays very much. NOT I like very
much Australian chardonnays.
He explained the rules of cricket to me. NOT He explained me
the rules of cricket
……..or is this last one acceptable?
Sentence elements
We need a metalanguage to talk about the elements in a
sentence and the order they come in.
Traditional sentence analysis identifies five different sentence

61. elements
S Subject
V Verb
O Object
C Complement
A Adverbial
Can you match these terms with their definitions?
Subject
Verb
Object
Complement
Adverbial
Gives further information (or completes what is said) about
some other element
Identifies who or what is the topic of the clause and/or the agent
of the verb
Adds extra information about the time, manner or place of the
situation.
Identifies who or what is affected by an action
Expresses an event action or state
SubjectVerbObjectAdverbialNoun PhraseVerb PhraseNoun
PhraseNoun Phrase
Prepositional phrase
Adverbial phraseCristiano Ronaldoscoreda goalin the match
against Germany.He
That energetic highly intelligent soccer player
That energetic highly intelligent soccer player with kangaroo
skin boots

62. has scored
could have scored
had scored
didn’t score
might not have scoredan absolutely spectacular goal
an absolutely spectacular goal that should never have been
allowed last year
in Stuttgart
in the World Cup
seemingly effortlessly
with consummate ease
The Verb(V) is the only part that MUST exist in a sentence
V
Shoot!!
However most sentences have got a Subject (S) and a Verb (V)
S V
/Steve Irwin /died./
Objects (O)
Many sentences also contain an object
S V O
/Colin Firth/won /an Oscar/

63. Some sentences contain two objects - an Indirect(IO) as well
as a Direct object
S V IO
Paul McCartney /had to pay/ his ex-wife, Heather Mills
O
/ $48 million./
Complement(C)
Verbs like ‘to be’ and other ‘copular verbs’ are not followed by
an object but by a complement (C)
The complement tells us more about the subject
S V C
/Novak Djokovich/ is /the best tennis player in the world./
S V C
/The Bulldogs /looked /red hot./
Adverbials (A)
Adverbials tell us where when or how things happen
S V A
/I /was born /in Malawi/.
S V A
/My daughter /was born/ in 1980/.
S V O A
/Muhai Tang/ conducted /the orchestra /beautifully/.
Sentences can have any number of adverbials
S V O
A

64. /Supermare Makybe Diva/ won/ the 2005 Melbourne Cup/ in
magnificient
A A
style /at Melbourne's Flemington Racecourse/ on Tuesday,
November 1 /
Order of the elements
Can V ever come before S? If so when?
Can O ever come between S and V or before S?
Where can As go in a sentence? Can they ever come between
SVO?
Sentence structure in other languages
Look at these word-for-word translations from different
languages. In what way does the basic syntax of each of these
languages appear to differ from English syntax? What is the
significance of this for the teacher of English?
Arabic:
Kataba al-mu’allimu al-darsi ‘ala el sabburati.
Wrote the teacher the lesson on the board.
The teacher wrote the lesson on the board
Hindi:
kalam mez par nahin hai.
Pen table on not is.
The pen is not on the table.
Spanish:
Tu no lo nos prestas nunca.
You not it us lend never.

65. You never lend it to us
Turkish:
Ahmet begun sehirde bana hikaye anlatti.
Ahmet today town-in me-to a story told.
Ahmet told me a story in town today.
German:
Wir haben es nicht gekauft, weil es zu teuer war.
We have it not bought because it too expensive was.
We didn’t buy it because it was too expensive.
French:
J’aime les films de science-fiction bien faits.
I like the films of science- fiction well made.
I like well made science-fiction films
Variants to Word Order
Question Forms
Yes/No questions
Type 1 Verb ‘to be’ : invert S and V
Are you a tennis fan?
Type 2 Verb phrases including an auxiliary verb : S comes
between the auxiliary verb and the second half of the verb.
Can Murray win the Australian open?
Has Murray ever beaten Djokovich?
Is he going to reach the finals at Wimbledon?
Type 3 Single word verbs in simple present or simple past
tense: Insert the dummy auxiliary ‘DO’ before the S
Does the Australian government make good policy?
Do most Melburnians like VB beer?
Did you watch the game last Friday?

66. ‘wh-word’ questions (open questions)
All of the above three types can have a question word (wh-
word) inserted before them to make open questions
Why are you unhappy?
What have you been doing?
Where did you go last night?
Type 4 The question word is the subject of the sentence:
maintain S + V + O or C order
What has happened?
Who is the fairest of them all?
Who shot John Lennon?
Learners often confuse the two types of ‘wh’ word questions
Who loves Brad Pitt?
Who does Brad Pitt love?
Other question Forms
Negative questions
Not as neutral as Yes/No questions. Can be asking for
confirmation of a positive belief and you are expecting the
answer yes

67. Didn’t Sandra Bullock win the Oscar last year?
Wasn’t it a fantastic match on Friday?
But they can also often be used to seeking confirmation of a
negative belief and can show that the speaker is surprised.
Didn’t you watch the game?
Aren’t you interested in football?
The difference is usually clear from the context and the
intonation.
These kind of questions are very problematic for learners,
particularly the second kind, not least because the negative
response seems to be illogical. (We can’t in English say “Yes, I
didn’t watch the match”). Most EAL teachers learn to rarely use
them with second language learners
Question tags
The form is very complex
It’s a lovely day, isn’t it?
I’m not totally crazy, am I?
You’ve lost weight, haven’t you
You haven’t brushed your teeth, have you?
You like Jude Law, don’t you?
You watched the match last week, didn’t you?
……….And then there’s meaning and use!!
Should we even attempt to teach them?
Other variants to word order
Certain negative or limiting adverbials ( e.g. never once, on no
account, rarely, only occasionally) can change word order.
When we front these we change the order of the following
(auxiliary) verb and subject just as with questions
Hardly ever before has there been so much rain in February.

68. Only rarely do Australian men seem more interested in poetry
than football!
Fronting (theme/rheme)
For stylistic reasons or for emphasis native speakers can use
unusual or ‘marked’ word order.
A right mess you’ve made of this!
In this very street lived the first convicts who were transported
to Queensland.
Once in royal David’s city stood a lowly cattle shed.
At what stage, if ever, would you teach these marked forms?
Problems for learners
SVOCA orders that are different from learners’ L1 – more a
problem of production than of comprehension and will depend
very much on L1 patterns. Typical errors will be:
Position of adverbials between S and V or V and O or within the
verb phrase
She opened with difficulty the door
I in the middle of the night woke up
I like at the weekend to play soccer.
I have this week been watching soccer.
Learner problems
position of direct objects between auxiliary verbs and main
verbs:
I’m sorry. I have my homework forgotten.
Position of adjectives within a noun phrase
It was a game most exciting.
She has black long lovely hair

69. Learner problems
Omission of the verb ‘to be’ ( Not necessary in some languages
and not always salient in English)
Ricky Ponting the best Australian player.
Omission of the subject (again not necessary in some languages)
Is very funny man.
Confusion between direct and indirect objects
I sent a letter my mother
I sent to my mother a letter
Confusion with adjective phrases as complements (often
adverbs are used instead)
You look beautifully in that dress.
Problems with Question Forms
It is very common for learners to ask questions without making
the necessary changes (or additions) to word order
When she came?
How you can say that?
What is doing your sister?
Do you can speak English?
What did happen in the game? (possible but with an unusual
(marked) meaning)
Questions
Australia won the match? with upward intonation (Can be

70. interpreted as querying or checking information or expressing
disbelief rather than a straight question)
Negative questions
Haven’t you done your homework?
Question tags (both form and use)
You live in Brisbane, isn’t it?