Class

Hansel and Gretel’s mother becomes a stepmother

The Grimms were told by friends that some of the material in the first edition [of Grimm’s Fairy Tales] was too frightening for children, and they did make a few changes. In a notable example, the first edition of “Hansel and Gretel” has the mother and the father deciding together to abandon the children in the woods. In later editions, it is the stepmother who makes the suggestion, and the father repeatedly hesitates before he finally agrees. Apparently, the Grimms could not bear the idea that the mother, the person who bore these children, would do such a thing, or that the father would readily consent.

ONCE UPON A TIMEThe lure of the fairy tale.
BY JOAN ACOCELLA
JULY 23, 2012

SVO vs SVC

S V  O
SUBJECT VERB OBJECT
The ant carries a kernel of corn.
S V  C
SUBJECT VERB COMPLEMENT
The ant seems industrious.

When students encounter Subject+Verb+Object and Subject+Verb+Complement sentences for the first time, they can have trouble telling the two apart.

Here is a test.

Change each sentence into passive voice, and see what happens.

Corn is carried by the ant. (CORRECT)
Industrious is appeared by the ant. (INCORRECT)

Subject-Verb-Object sentences can be turned into passive voice sentences.

Subject-Verb-Complement sentences can’t.

Source:
Grammar for English Language Teachers 2nd edition by Martin Parrott, p 301.

AND SEE:
• William J. Kerrigan’s X-1-2-3 method – all posts
• SVO v. SVC
• Class notes X-1-2-3
• 5 + 2: the 7 ‘canonical’ English sentences
• 10 basic sentence patterns in the English language
• SM’s sophisticated SVOO sentence
• DT’s astute observation (reflexive pronouns)

Laura Gibbs on Aesop

Passage from:  Aesop’s Fables. Trans. Laura Gibbs. London: Oxford University Press, 2002.

In fifth-century Athens, however, there were no books of Aesop to be thumbed through, since the first written collections of Aesop did not yet exist. It is very hard for us as modern readers to appreciate the fact that Aesop could still be an authority whom you had to consult, even if he were not an author of books to be kept on the shelf. To ‘go over’ or ‘run through’ Aesop meant to bring to mind all the many occasions on which you had heard the stories of Aesop told at public assemblies, at dinner parties, and in private conversation. Aesop’s fables and the anecdotes about Aesop’s famous exploits were clearly a familiar way of speaking in classical Greece, a body of popular knowledge that was meant to be regularly ‘gone over’ and brought to mind as needed.

Talking vs writing

One reason writing is so much harder than talking is that the grammar used by writers is quite different from the grammar used by talkers, as you can see in the conversation below. All native speakers of any language have had enormous amounts of practice using the grammar of spoken language.

We’ve had far less practice using the grammar of written language.

A sample stretch of talk

…speakers are sitting at the dinner table talking about a car accident that happened to the father of one of the speakers

< speaker 1 >  I’ll just take that off. Take that off.
< speaker 2 >  All looks great.
< speaker 3 >  [laughs]
< speaker 2 >  Mm.
< speaker 3 >  Mm.
< speaker 2 >  I think your dad was amazed wasn’t he at the damage.
< speaker 4 >  Mm.
< speaker 2 >  It’s not so much the parts. It’s the labour charges for
< speaker 4 >  Oh that. For a car.
< speaker 2 >  Have you got hold of it?
< speaker 1 >  Yeah.
< speaker 2 >  It was a bit erm.
< speaker 1 >  Mm.
< speaker 3 >  Mm.
< speaker 2 >  A bit.
< speaker 3 >  That’s right.
< speaker 2 >  I mean they said they’d have to take his car in for two days. And he says All it is is straightening a panel. And they’re like, Oh no. It’s all new panel. You can’t do this.
< speaker 3 >  Any erm problem.
< speaker 2 >  As soon as they hear insurance claim. Oh. Let’s get it right.
< speaker 3 >  Yeah. Yeah. Anything to do with
< speaker 1 >  Wow.
< speaker 3 >  coach work is er
< speaker 1 >  Right.
< speaker 3 >  fatal isn’t it.
< speaker 1 >  Now.
from:  Teaching about talk – what do pupils need to know about spoken language and the important ways in which talk differs from writing? by Ron Carter

AND SEE:
• Linguist Jim Miller on talking vs writing.

5+2: the 7 “canonical” sentence patterns of English

VOCABULARY:

I am using the word “canonical” to refer to the most basic form of the English sentence.

EXAMPLE:

“The dog chases the cat” is a canonical sentence.

Non-canonical forms of “The dog chases the cat” include:
The cat is chased by the dog.
It is the cat that is chased by the dog.

All three sentences are grammatically correct, but only “The dog chases the cat” is “canonical.”

The chart below appears in John Seely’s short, clear, extremely useful book, Grammar for Teachers, which is a 170-page distillation of Quirk and Greenbaum’s 1779-page A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language.

The 7 canonical sentence patterns:

S V    
SUBJECT VERB    
Elephants exist.
S V O  
SUBJECT VERB OBJECT  
Elephants like  grass.
S V  O  O 
SUBJECT VERB (INDIRECT) OBJECT  (DIRECT) OBJECT
Elephants give children rides.
S V C  
SUBJECT VERB COMPLEMENT
Elephants
Elephants		 are
are (not)		 animals.
animals.
S V  O C
 SUBJECT VERB OBJECT COMPLEMENT
Elephants make children happy.
S V  A  
SUBJECT VERB ADVERBIAL  
Elephants live here.
S V O A
SUBJECT  VERB OBJECT ADVERBIAL
Elephants thrust him away.

In these patterns, all of the “sentence slots” — S, V, O, C, and A — must be filled. If a slot is not filled, the sentence becomes “grammatically incomplete.”

I’ve written “5+2” in the title of this post because the final two patterns – SVA and SVOA – are, in Seely’s words, “much less common.”

As Seely puts it: “They only occur with a very small number of verbs, but they are important.”

NOTE: The basic patterns can be carved up in a few different ways. For a 10-sentence scheme, see this post on Martha Kolln’s 10 basic sentence patterns.

AND SEE:
• SVO v. SVC
• 5 + 2: the 7 ‘canonical’ English sentences
• Class notes X-1-2-3
• 3 ways to combine the 7 sentence patterns
• 10 basic sentence patterns in the English language
• SM’s sophisticated SVOO sentence
• DT’s astute observation (reflexive pronouns)
• A short overview of English syntax by Rodney Huddleston

Using the “so-what game” to write your conclusion

Good advice from University of North Carolina’s Writing Center:

Introductions and conclusions can be the most difficult parts of papers to write. While the body is often easier to write, it needs a frame around it. An introduction and conclusion frame your thoughts and bridge your ideas for the reader.

[snip]

Play the “So What” Game. If you’re stuck and feel like your conclusion isn’t saying anything new or interesting, ask a friend to read it with you. Whenever you make a statement from your conclusion, ask the friend to say, “So what?” or “Why should anybody care?” Then ponder that question and answer it.

Here’s how it might go:

You: Basically, I’m just saying that education was important to Douglass.

Friend: So what?

You: Well, it was important because it was a key to him feeling like a free and equal citizen.

Friend: Why should anybody care?

You: That’s important because plantation owners tried to keep slaves from being
educated so that they could maintain control. When Douglass obtained an education, he undermined that control personally.

You can also use this strategy on your own, asking yourself “So What?” as you develop your ideas or your draft.

You don’t need a friend to play the So-what game, and you probably shouldn’t wait ’til the end of your essay to play it!

“Syntactically ambiguous” news headlines

A syntactically ambiguous headline:

Killer Sentenced to Die for Second Time in 10 Years

syntax: the way words are put together in a language to form phrases, clauses, or sentences. “Syntactically” is the adverb form of syntax.
Source:
SIL International

ambiguous: open to or having several possible interpretations
Source:
Dictionary.com

The phrase “syntactically ambiguous” means that a sentence or expression is ambiguous because of its syntax. Change the order of the words, and the ambiguity is resolved.

e.g.:

“Enraged Cow Injures Farmer with Axe” could mean one of two things:

  1. An enraged cow used an axe to attack a farmer.
  2. An enraged cow attacked a farmer who was holding an axe.

Unless the axe is critical to the story, I would fix this headline by striking the last two words:

Enraged Cow Injures Farmer

EXERCISE: Syntactically ambiguous headlines

Created by Bucknell University’s Department of Linguistics, Culture, and Languages.

Quiz

My husband likes football more than I.
My husband likes football more than me.

Assuming that both of the sentences above are grammatically correct, what do they mean?

ANSWER

Source:
Choosing between pronouns such as I and me

AND SEE:

‘The sweaters Mom knitted for Victor and me’

for Victor and I
for Victor and me

Which one should you use?

Answer: for Victor and me

Here’s how to convince yourself that “for Victor and me” is right:

a sweater for me
a sweater for I
Which one sounds right?

a sweater for him
a sweater for he
Which one sounds right?

a sweater for her
a sweater for she
Which one sounds right?

sweaters for us
sweaters for we
Which one sounds right?

sweaters for them
sweaters for they
Which one sounds right?

It doesn’t change when you add “Victor”!

a sweater for me
a sweater for Victor and me

If you are a native speaker, the “object pronoun” (see the chart below) sounds right when you have just one OBJECT OF THE PREPOSITION. For some reason, though, the object pronoun stops sounding right to a lot of people when they add a second object of the preposition:

a sweater for Victor and _______ ??

Grammatically, nothing has changed; the preposition still takes an object pronoun!

A SWEATER FOR VICTOR AND ME
and
SWEATERS FOR HIM AND ME (not “sweaters for he and I”)

Here’s the test. Cross out the other object (or objects) and ask yourself which form of the pronoun sounds right.

Mom knitted a sweater for Victor and I.
Without “Victor” in the sentence, “I” is clearly wrong. So use “me.”

If you’re still feeling doubt, run the same test in reverse:
Mom knitted a sweater for Victor and me.
Without “Victor” in the sentence, “me” is clearly right. So use me!

More t/k.

AND SEE:
• A question most students missed
• Langan on pronouns
• My husband likes football more than I/me.
• HANDOUT: Pronoun case guidelines from Tidewater Community College (pdf file) – very short and clear
• HANDOUT: Diana Hacker on Choosing between pronouns such as I and me (pdf file)

Langan on pronouns

In another post (t/k) I will explain why ‘me’ is the correct pronoun in “The sweaters Mom knitted for Victor and me are too small.” But first, by way of introduction, here is what John Langan has to say about pronouns in general.

From Chapter 29 : Pronoun Agreement and Reference (p. 513):

Nouns name persons, places, or things. Pronouns are words that take the place of nouns. In fact, the word pronoun means “for a noun.” Pronouns are shortcuts that keep you from unnecessarily repeating words in writing. Here are some examples of pronouns:

Eddie left his camera on the bus.
(His is a pronoun that takes the place of Eddie’s.)
Elena drank the coffee even though it was cold.
(It replaces coffee.)
As I turned the newspaper’s damp pages, they disintegrated in my hands.
(They is a pronoun that takes the place of pages.) [color & emphasis added by CJ]

4 common types of pronouns – Chapter 30: Pronoun Types (p. 518):

demonstrative pronouns: pronouns that point to or single out a person or thing. The four demonstrative pronouns are this, that, these, and those.

object pronouns: pronouns that function as the objects of verbs or prepositions. Example: Tony helped me.

possessive pronouns: pronouns that show ownership or possession. Example: The keys are mine.

subject pronouns: pronouns that function as the subjects of verbs. Example: He is wearing an artificial arm.

AND SEE:
• Langan on pronouns
• the sweaters Mom knitted for Victor and me
• “My husband likes football more than I/me.”
• Pronoun case guidelines from Tidewater CC (very short and clear)
• Diana Hacker on Choosing between pronouns such as I and me

A question most students missed

In class on Wednesday, just about everyone missed the first question in Activity 1, p. 518 (College Writing Skills with Readings 8th Edition by John Langan):

The sweaters Mom knitted for Victor and (I, me) are too small.

The correct answer is me! The sweaters Mom knitted for Victor and me are too small.

Not: The sweaters Mom knitted for Victor and I are too small. I explain why in another post (t/k).

Given how few people seem to know this rule these days, I have to assume it’s in the process of dying. If so, then at some point “the sweaters Mom knitted for Victor and I” will be considered grammatically correct. Nevertheless, for the time being the rule is alive and well in the minds of college professors – and quite possibly in the minds of your future employers – so it’s just as well to learn it now and begin to use it. To a person who knows – and hears – the difference between “the sweaters Mom knitted for Victor and me” versus “the sweaters Mom knitted for Victor and I,” the 2nd version really is jarring, and you don’t want to jar your professor or your boss.

AND SEE:
• Langan on pronouns
• the sweaters Mom knitted for Victor and me
• “My husband likes football more than I/me.”
• Pronoun case guidelines from Tidewater CC (very short and clear)
• Diana Hacker on Choosing between pronouns such as I and me

Conceding a point, part 2

Excerpt from a New Yorker post on the possibility that President Obama is “too cool” for ordinary Americans:

“Obama is cool,” Ron Lloyd, a commenter from Walla Walla, Washington, wrote at Politico. “The Sinatra of politics.”

[snip]

Notwithstanding [Mr. Lloyd’s positive review], it remains to be seen how Obama’s latest media appearances will go down in places like [Walla Walla]. For all his smarts, he needs to be a bit careful. Americans like having a funny, articulate, and modern President. But they don’t want somebody who is too cool for school.

April 30, 2012
MR. COOL: OBAMA AND THE HIPNESS FACTOR
Posted by John Cassidy

Writer’s argument: “Middle Americans” are likely to be put off by President Obama’s “cool.”
Point conceded: Some Americans from out-of-the-way places like President Obama’s cool.

Writer John Cassidy uses the word notwithstanding to concede, or acknowledge, the fact that his argument is not true of all Americans.

AND SEE:
• Concession words
• What is a concession relation?
• The reader over your shoulder

Conceding a point

The first 2 paragraphs of Why Trial Lawyers Say It Better by Adam Freedman:

“Does it sing?”

At my old law firm, that was code for “Is your brief finished?” Admittedly, if you’re not a lawyer, the prospect of a singing legal brief will probably leave you cold. But there’s truth to the musical metaphor. An elegant legal brief (a written argument submitted to a court) has all the harmony of great prose.

Here, Adam Freedman is conceding a point — or, more accurately, acknowledging an objection.

He is saying that he knows full well many of his readers are not going to think legal writing ever “sings” – he “admits” it!

Then he goes on to assert that in fact elegant legal writing does sing: elegant legal writing has the “harmony of great prose.”

Summing up:
Writer’s argument: Elegantly written legal briefs have the harmony of great prose.
Point conceded: A lot of people would disagree.

AND SEE:
• The reader over your shoulder
• Concession words

Concession words

Words we use to concede a point while making our case (I’ll link to examples as I come across them – complete list of concession-word posts here):

after all
although
although it is true that
at the same time
admittedly
alternatively
at any rate
besides
but still
conversely
granted
however
I concede that
in any case
in any event
in contrast
in spite of
instead
it is true, but
meanwhile
nevertheless
nonetheless
naturally
no doubt
notwithstanding
obviously
of course [it is true that]
on the one hand…on the other hand
otherwise
still
that said
to be sure
true, … but
yet

AND SEE:
• “The reader over your shoulder” | 4/29/212
• Conceding a point | 4/29/2012
• Conceding a point using notwithstanding | 5/1/2012
• Conceding a point using on the other hand | 8/25/2012
• MO’s paragraph expressing concession | 4/29/2012
• Concession words in Ben Bernanke’s speech | 8/31/2012
• Roddy Doyle uses “admittedly” to un-concede a point | 9/8/2012
• Helen Keller uses “although” to concede a point | 9/8/2012
• SI uses nevertheless to concede a point | 10/1/2012

M.O.’s paragraph using a transition that expressions ‘concession’

The Grimms made their tales more violent in the second edition. For example, they increased the punishing of evildoers: the step-sisters have to cut off their heels or toes to make the shoe fit. They also increased cartoon violence, with the step-sisters having their eyes taken out by birds. Although they increased cartoon violence and unrealistic violence, they reduced realistic violence, taking out the story of the starving children whose mother wants to eat them to survive.

AND SEE:
• The reader over your shoulder
• Concession words

“The reader over your shoulder”

On making concessions, a skill novice writers typically have yet to develop:

Although as writers it is important to construct a strong argumentative thesis and develop it over the course of an essay, it is equally important to avoid tunnel vision and to take into account positions on the issue in question that do not necessarily agree with our own. In a book called The Reader over Your Shoulder (1943) by Robert Graves and Alan Hodges, the authors urge that writers should always compose their argument as if they had a crowd of people reading over their shoulders and asking questions. In other words, writers should try to be cognizant of possible weaknesses or omissions in their logic and should anticipate what a “devil’s advocate” might point out about their argument. This approach to writing will encourage you to shore up your weaknesses and foresee any possible objections to your line of thinking.

Opposing Opinions and Making Concessions (password protected)

AND SEE:
• Concession words & examples