tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30114385.post6271260487781904815..comments2023-12-20T08:35:04.633+00:00Comments on Lingua Frankly: The word is not the basic unit of language.Titchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03003350618976942468noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30114385.post-15423163038674722182013-10-26T19:52:04.053+01:002013-10-26T19:52:04.053+01:00Glad to hear it, Yousef. I've always felt that...Glad to hear it, Yousef. I've always felt that grammar awareness is a useful tool for learning, because once you can understand what's going on around you, it's so much easier to notice what's happening.<br /><br />When I try to tell people this, they generally say "Ah, but you like grammar, most people don't."<br /><br />The reason most people don't like grammar is because it is generally taught in a very abstract way that doesn't promote awareness and doesn't tie in to what you already know.<br /><br />To put it more simply:<br />All real learning is fun. If the students aren't having fun, that's because they don't understand what's happening, so they're not learning.Titchhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03003350618976942468noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30114385.post-68283099485820015672013-10-26T14:43:37.195+01:002013-10-26T14:43:37.195+01:00I actually tried some kind of verb valency exercis...I actually tried some kind of verb valency exercise in class yesterday. Got all the kids interested and participating!<br /><br />I think the idea of organizing levels of abstraction, even if it's impossible to make a it perfect, has practical applications for the class. It might be a good diagnostic tool when the students are having a hard time understanding something. Yousefnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30114385.post-1174195636545942392013-10-23T20:41:28.925+01:002013-10-23T20:41:28.925+01:00Yes, once you start adding those adverbials, you&#...Yes, once you start adding those adverbials, you're respecting the valency of the verb.<br /><br />I didn't mean to suggest that those were the <i>only</i> four levels of abstraction where meaning occurs -- my point was that there's <i>at least</i> four, so trying to identify a single "most important" is a fool's errand.<br /><br />I've always maintained that phrases aren't just a choice of words, but words and grammatical rules, so there's another layer. Unfortunately it doesn't fit so neatly on a hierarchy as phrases can use grammatical rules, but grammatical rules can also use phrases. The hierarchy was for demonstration only, not a definitive structure.Titchhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03003350618976942468noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30114385.post-54675400088869153302013-10-23T15:23:40.283+01:002013-10-23T15:23:40.283+01:00I remember hearing about an old Latin exercise whi... I remember hearing about an old Latin exercise which had a similar idea: You'd start with a simple phrase like your example "I sleep," and keep adding more adverbials, phrases and clauses until you get something like "I sleep badly whenever that darn cat comes by and makes a racket outside my window." Would something like that also be an example of valency?<br /><br />I like the idea of the four levels, and I would also make a case for having a good grasp of the morphemes of the language. Studying Russian at first was incredibly frustrating cause I found I could never remember the vocabulary I come across: words all seemed like they were just a string of nonsense syllables. Learning the affixes and roots gave me something logical to hook the meaning onto the words. And learning new words has become much easier. Great post!Yousefnoreply@blogger.com