THE REDUCED GRAMMAR COMPANY

PRESENTS

THE COMPLETE HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

• THOUSANDS OF PATTERNS• ONE TEACHER• 25 MINUTES

FIRST, A QUESTION

• WHO WANTS TO BE A GRAMMARIAN?• • STUDENTS?• TEACHERS?• THE MAN OR WOMAN ON THE • STREET?

WE ALREADY ARE EXPERTS!

• HERE’S PROOF - TAG QUESTIONS

A TAG QUESTION CONFIRMS THE TRUTH OF A STATEMENT

• FOR EX, JOHN IS WASHING HIS CAR, ISN’T HE?

• WE CAN MAKE TAG QUESTIONS WITHOUT THINKING ABOUT IT. THEY COME FROM OUR DEEP IN-BORN KNOWLEDGE OF GRAMMAR

ADD TAG QUESTIONS TO THESE STATEMENTS.

• JOHN HAS FINALLY STOPPED SMOKING

• TIM AND JOE ARE GOOD CARPENTERS

• YOU DON’T LIVE IN NEW JERSEY

HOW DO YOU KNOW WHAT FORM THE QUESTION SHOULD TAKE?

• YOU WERE BORN WITH THE ABILITY TO MAKE SENSE OF LANGUAGE.

• BY AGE 5 YOU WERE AN EXPERT IN THE LANGUAGE YOU GREW UP HEARING.

THEN WHY DO WE NEED TO STUDY GRAMMAR?

• TO LEARN THE CORRECT WAY OF SPEAKING AND WRITING?

• TO BE ABLE TO DESCRIBE THE LANGUAGE PATTERNS WE USE?

• TO BE ABLE TO BUILD A CLOSET ORGANIZER FOR ALL OUR KNOWLEDGE SO WE CAN FIND THE BEST WAY TO CAPTURE MEANING?

WHAT IS GRAMMAR ANYWAY?

• IT IS SIMPLY A NET IN WHICH TO CAPTURE MEANING.

FROM WHICH COUNTRY SHOULD WE BUY OUR CLOSET ORGANIZER?

• SINCE WE SPEAK ENGLISH, OUR ORGANIZER SHOULD REFLECT THE ENGLISH PATTERNS ,NOT THE LATIN ONES.

• EIGHT PARTS OF SPEECH DON’T REFLECT OUR SPEAKING OR WRITING PATTERNS.

• THE IDEA OF FORM WORDS AND STRUCTURE WORDS DOES DESCRIBE OUR ENGLISH LANGUAGE, HOWEVER.

FORM WORDS

• 99% OF THE WORDS IN THE DICTIONARY ARE FORM WORDS.

• THEY CHANGE THEIR FORM – FOR EX. A NOUN ADDS “S” FOR PLURAL.

• THE CLASS IS OPEN – NEW WORDS ARE MADE EVERYDAY.

• THE FORM WORDS ARE NOUNS, VERBS ADJECTIVES AND ADVERBS.

STRUCTURE WORDS

• A CLOSED CLASS, THESE ARE THE WORDS WHICH HOLD THE SENTENCE TOGETHER AND SHOW RELATIONSHIP.

• SOME STRUCTURE WORDS ARE CONJUNCTIONS, AUXILIARIES, DETERMINERS, QUALIFIERS

• PREPOSITIONS AND PRONOUNS ARE BOTH IN THEFORM AND STRUCTURE CLASSES.

EVERY SENTENCE MAY BE DIVIDED INTO TWO PARTS

• JUST LIKE THE BICYCLE NEEDS TWO WHEELS, THE SENTENCE NEEDS TWO PARTS TO BE COMPLETE:

• THE WHO (SUBJECT) AND THE DID WHAT(PREDICATE).

THE VERB IS THE MAIN PART OF THE SENTENCE.

• SENTENCES MAY BE CLASSIFIED BY THE KIND OF VERB AND ALSO THE WORDS WHICH COME AFTER THE VERB.

• THE GRAMMAR RULER ILLUSTRATES THE 10 SENTENCE PATTERNS.

Group Activity: the living sentence

• 1. Volunteers each take a piece of poster board with a word on it.

• 2. Come to the front of the room and form yourselves into a sentence. 3. How can you do this? You are experts already! You know what a sentence should look like. 4. You can find subject, verb, and modifiers.

As grammar experts,

• we don’t learn grammar in class.• Instead, we learn how to use the• skills we already have!