IA902 Practical Description of English : Session 6
A dark dark story
Once upon a time, there was a dark dark country; and in the dark dark country, there was a dark dark
forest; and in the dark dark foest, there was a dark dark lake; and near the dark dark lake, there was a
dark dark tree; and next to the dark dark tree, there was a dark dark house; and in the dark dark house,
there was a dark dark hall; and through the dark dark hall, there was a dark dark room; and in the dark
dark room, there was a dark dark cupboard; and in the dark dark cupboard, there was a dark dark box;
and in the dark dark box, there was…
Patterns of the Verb Phrase
Subject
Noun
phrase
Verb Phrase
modal
The tree
The tree
The tree
The tree
The tree
The tree
The tree
The tree
The tree
The tree
The tree
The tree
The tree
The tree
The tree
The tree
perfect
aspect
progressive
aspect
Adjunct
Adverb
Phrase
passive
voice
might
had
was
was
might
might
might
have
be
be
had
had
might
might
might
might
have
have
be
had
have
been
was
been
been
been
been
being
been
being
being
being
main verb
shook
shake
shaken
shaking
shaken
shaken
shaking
shaken
shaking
shaken
shaken
shaking
shaken
shaken
shaken
shaken
violently
violently
violently
violently
violently
violently
violently
violently
violently
violently
violently
violently
violently
violently
violently
violently
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
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(Culpepper et al,2009 p.145)
IA902 Practical Description of English : Session 6
Nouns
Do you consider any of the following uses of COFFEE to be incorrect?
big coffee
female coffee
make coffee
small coffee
Vietnamese coffee
take coffee
black coffee
English coffee
coffee-making facilities
brown coffee
cappuccino coffee
coffee machine
strong coffee
a cup of coffee
iced coffee
sweet coffee
a lot of coffee
coffee freezer
sour coffee
instant coffee
very coffee
expensive coffee
fast coffee
a coffee
quick coffee
quickly coffee
2 coffees
What criteria did you use to judge the examples above as correct or incorrect?
Do the following dictionary entries help clarify any contentious issues from the previous task?
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(from Oxford Dictionaries Online : http://english.oxforddictionaries.com/)
IA902 Practical Description of English : Session 6
(from Cambridge Learner’s Dictionary : http://dictionary.cambridge.org/)
coffee noun
ADJ. strong | weak | black, dark a mug of strong black coffee | milky, white She drinks very milky
coffee with lots of sugar. | frothy | sugary, sweet | bitter | hot, steaming a pot of piping hot coffee He
brought in two mugs of steaming coffee. | lukewarm, tepid | cold | iced | fresh The others will be back
soon?I'll go and make some fresh coffee. | excellent, expensive, good | decaffeinated | ersatz | filter,
percolated, real | instant Would you like real or instant coffee? | Irish (= with whiskey
added), Turkish (= very strong, black and sweet)
QUANT. cup, mug, pot
VERB + COFFEE drink Do you drink coffee? | have I had two coffees while I waited. | take ‘How do
you take your coffee?’ ‘Milk, no sugar, thanks.’ | sip, take a mouthful/sip of He took a sip of his coffee. |
drain, drink up, finish | stir | pour (sb) | go for Let's go for a coffee when you've finished your essay. |
brew, make freshly-brewed coffee I'll make some coffee for breakfast. | grind a packet of freshly-ground
coffee
COFFEE + VERB get/go cold | be laced with sth coffee laced with cognac
COFFEE + NOUN cup, mug | machine, percolator, pot | dregs | break
PREP. in your ~ I have milk but no sugar in my coffee.
PHRASES an aroma/a smell of coffee An inviting smell of coffee wafted into the room. | coffee-making
facilities Tea and coffee-making facilities are available in the kitchen.
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(from Oxford Collocations Dictionary)
IA902 Practical Description of English : Session 6
Countability
Students are often introduced to a word like COFFEE as an uncountable noun (or mass or non-count
noun). How, then, can we explain the fact that in an English-speaking environment, students may well
find themselves invited for “a coffee”? Which of the following options do you consider to be the most
satisfactory explanation?
a) It’s ellipsis. People mean “a cup of coffee”, but they just don’t say “a cup of”
b) All nouns can be either countable or uncountable.
c) Homonymy! The countable form of coffee is one noun, and the uncountable form is another.
They’re two different words.
d) It’s not useful to think about countable and uncountable nouns. It’s much better to think about
countable and uncountable contexts.
e) A product that you can buy in a shop is always countable. The ingredients are uncountable.
f) It’s too difficult to explain.
Countability and Articles
Is the article system in English so complex that it is impossible to learn? Is it impossible to teach? Can
we even begin to describe it? (see Peter Master’s chapter in Odlin, 1994)
Yule (1998):
INDIVIDUATION :
“the key to the use of the indefinite article in English” (p.30)
Indefinite article (a /an) is for individuation
Zero article (Ø) is for non-individuation
“The distinctive conceptual properties of an individual unit are that it has clear boundaries and that no
part of the unit equals the whole” (ibid)
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Yule goes on to argue that the acts of CLASSIFCATION and IDENTIFICATION in communication determine
whether the indefinite or definite article is used. Yule explains the use of the zero article as an indication
that the choice between classifying and identifying is irrelevant.
IA902 Practical Description of English : Session 6
Given a set of rules, could a machine be taught how to use English articles correctly?
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from Yule (1998)
IA902 Practical Description of English : Session 6
NOUN PHRASE HEADS
We saw earlier that VERB PHRASES and NOUN PHRASES have HEADS. These are easy to identify when
the phrase consists of just one word (e.g. WAKANA and MIHO in sentences 2 and 5 below, MAKES and
SINGS in examples 1 and 3), but many NOUN PHRASES consist of several words.
1. Melody makes easily the best soup in Colchester
2. Wakana did not kick the poor innocent kitten.
3. Cissy sings beautifully.
4. Unfortunately, Evangelia has recently discovered the truth about English food.
5. Miho was recently interviewed by a fashion magazine.
Identify the head nouns in the following NOUN PHRASES:
1. Language use
2. Language learners
3. Users of the language
4. Learning a second language
5. the language learning process
6. the role of the language teacher
7. second language learner attitudes
8. The transcript conventions discussed earlier in this chapter
9. The challenges posed by researching something as ephemeral as speech
10. The emergence of new varieties of English associated with communities of English-users
11. Behaviour considered ‘exceptions’ to the stereotype in the cultural description methodology
12. A quick check of a small sample of applied linguistics articles published in academic journals
13. A distinction between societies oriented towards the ‘individual’ and those that prioritize the
‘collective’
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(adapted from Hunston and Oakey, 2010)
IA902 Practical Description of English : Session 6
Adding more context
The following NOUN PHRASES are all taken from the abstract of an article published in the journal
System: Trebits, A. 2009 “The most frequent phrasal verbs in English language EU documents – A corpusbased analysis and its implications” System37 pp.470-481. Try to identify the head noun in each phrase,
and then check the abstract to see if context confirms your answers.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
EU documents
some instructional activities
written academic English
the top 25 phrasal verbs
The purpose of this study
the pedagogical relevance of the findings
The most frequent phrasal verb combinations in EU documents
an EU English Corpus of approximately 200,000 running words
texts which are representative of the fields of activities of the EU
the use of phrasal verbs in English language documents of the European Union (EU)
Abstract
This study explores the use of phrasal verbs in English language documents of the European Union (EU)
as part of a larger-scale project examining the use of English in EU texts from various aspects including
lexical, lexico-grammatical and textual features. Phrasal verbs, known to represent one of the most
difficult aspects of learning English, are highly productive and widely used by native speakers. The
purpose of this study is to identify the most frequent phrasal verb combinations in EU documents. To this
end, an EU English Corpus of approximately 200,000 running words was built using texts which are
representative of the fields of activities of the EU. The analysis revealed that the top 25 phrasal verbs
account for more than 60% of all phrasal verb constructions in the corpus. The results also show that in
terms of the frequency of phrasal verbs, EU documents show some similarity to written academic
English. The paper also illustrates some instructional activities and the pedagogical relevance of the
findings.
Modification of the Head
insect
computer
drinking
office
repellent
virus
fountain
manager
“Teachers sometimes refer to the modifying noun as an adjective, but this may confuse learners”
(Parrot, 2010)
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Do you agree with Martin Parrot? Is it confusing to describe the words in the left-hand column
as “adjectives”?
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IA902 Practical Description of English : Session 6
Compound nouns
How many compound nouns can you create from the words in the box below?
A
computer
know
rain
warning
risk
girl
petrol
hair
junk
head
video
window
orange
sports
grey
B
sign
taking
coat
juice
friend
all
box
station
virus
hound
centre
ache
food
shop
fall
dryer
1. Would you classify all of the words above as NOUNS?
2. What do notice about the pronunciation of the compounds you produced?
car park
headteacher
that government report
The London Underground
bus stop
a fur coat
Prime Minister
bathroom door
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Narita Airport
8
3. Are the following all compound nouns?
IA902 Practical Description of English : Session 6
Further considerations (email if you’d like to discuss any issues here further)
Partitive Expressions
Can you think of three different nouns that complete each of the partitive expressions below? (it might
not always be possible)
A piece of
A loaf of
A slice of
A bar of
A bit of
A stroke of
A spell of
A spoonful of
Try www.thesketchengine.co.uk for further exploration…
Collective nouns
Do you consider the following nouns to be singular or plural?
the government
Manchester United
a committee
my family
the company
the majority of people
Can you think of any nouns that would complete the following collective terms?
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A herd of
A flock of
A litter of
A pride of
A murder of
IA902 Practical Description of English : Session 6
Phonological issues (adapted from Roach, 2009, pp.111-116)
Compare:
compact
and
compact disc
Thirteen
and
thirteenth place
Westminster
and
Westminster Abbey
Do you notice anything interesting about the pronunciation of the nouns on the left when they appear ?
Assimilation
What happens to pronunciation when the noun phrases below are formed?
Final consonant Initial consonant
that man
meat
that
bright
quite
card
green
ten
lots of
waste of
OBSERVATIONS
ðæpmæn
pie
case
colour
good
game
paper
girls
them
money
word boundary
Final consonant Initial consonant
--------- Cf Ci --------word boundary
Regressive assimilation:
Cf changes to become like Ci
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Progressive assimilation (coalescence): Ci changes to become like Cf
IA902 Practical Description of English : Session 6
Linking
What happens to the pronunciation of these individual words when they are produced together within a
NOUN PHRASE?
four
law
Formula
too
eggs
and order
One
easy
Juncture
Are there any significant phonological differences between the pairs of expressions below when
produced in connected speech?
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might earn
might rain
all the time after the day
trail ending
I scream
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my turn
my train
all that I’m after today
tray lending
ice cream
IA902 Practical Description of English : Session 6
References and further reading
Biber, D. et al. 1999 Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English, Longman
Biber, D. et al. 2002 Longman Student Grammar of Spoken and Written English, Longman
Carter, R. and McCarthy, M. 2006 Cambridge Grammar of English, Cambridge University Press
Cowan, R. 2008 The Teacher’s Grammar of English, Cambridge University Press
Culpeper, J. et al (eds) 2009 English Language: Description, Variation and Context. Palgrave Macmillan
Hunston, S. and Oakey. D (eds) 2010 Introducing Applied Linguistics, Routledge
Lewis, M. 1993 The Lexical Approach, Thomson Heinle
Lewis, M. 2000 Teaching Collocation, Thomson Heinle
Odlin, T. (ed) 1994 Perspectives on Pedagogical Grammar, Cambridge University Press
Parrot, M. 2010 Grammar for English Language Teachers (2nd edn) Cambridge University Press
Roach, P. 2009 English Phonetics and Phonology : A Practical Course. 4th Edn. Cambridge University Press
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Yule, G. 1998 Explaining English Grammar, Oxford University Press