Welcome to J09W.com | Somar Mowakket

Tag: syntax

  • Question Tags, they are dispensable in ESL teaching, aren’t they?

    Tag questions are considered to be a noticeable feature of modern spoken English. A tag questions is short question attached to a statement. The understanding of tag questions is vital in Second Language Learners effective communication. Despite the presence of tag questions variants in other languages (in German nicht wahr?, French n’est-ce pas?, or Spanish verdad,)  some Second Language Learners are still finding some difficulty in understanding the form , the use, and the meaning of tag questions. Factors like polarity, affirmative versus negative, and intonation add an extra challenge for non-native speakers. Therefore, and in the course of English as Lingua Franca, or English as an international language, many linguists consider tag questions to be a disposable element for Second Language Learners. R. Quirk (1982) proposes the concept of Nuclear English in which he introduces simplified forms of native Standard English. Those forms help easier learning of English, especially after stripping off features which can be “dispensable” and “disproportionately burdensome.”

    One of the challenges that Second Language Learners usually face is the first language (L1) interference, or transfer, in their learning process. When it comes to tag questions, many languages lack this element, or they have a different way in expressing the meaning intended by tag questions. For example, Arabic uses totally new items in the tag question in order to express different meaning of the tag questions. Learners may cease to use structures learned before because they are not fully integrated into their interlanguage systems[i]. They may even rely on one highly frequent tag question (isn’t it? For example) and over use it in most cases to produce ungrammatical utterances[ii]:

    * You are coming today, isn’t it?

    The technique of making tag questions is not a simple one. It requires a full understanding of forming questions, understanding the operator function, awareness of the difference between affirmative and negative tag questions, marked and unmarked tag questions, polarity, and the placing of a new lexical item which may not exist in the original statement.

    Probably the most important element regarding the use of tag questions is intonation. The meaning of tag questions differs as there are two possible intonations patterns. The rising-falling intonation pattern is the most common one as it is used to seek confirmation, making a point, agreement, or sure of the statement:

    The rising intonation is used when seeking to elicit a no or yes answer, being unsure, or seeking further clarification[iii]. 

    Second language learners have some difficulty controlling the intonation. Thus, the whole purpose of question tag, which is better communication, can be lost easily.

    There is no shred of a doubt that when linguists consider question tags “dispensable” feature in teaching English as a Second Language, they take into consideration the complexity and the intricacy of their use, meaning, and the difficulty of forming them.  Nevertheless, using tag questions can enhance the communication between English speakers, and I think that this element should be taught at a certain stage where the English learner is able to fully command them and use them in the proper way.

    [i] Lightbown, P.M , Spada, N. (2006) How Languages are Learned Oxford University Press

    [ii] Celce-Murcia, M. Larsen-Freeman, D. (1999) The Grammar Book Second Edition, Heinle and Heinle Publishers

    [iii] Shepherd, J. Rossner, R. Taylor, J (1985) Ways to Grammar Macmillan Publishers LTD

    Published 23/10/2011

  • Present and Past Tenses… and the idea of time!

    Present and Past Tenses… and the idea of time!

    Any given language consists of three systems: words system, sound system, and grammar. English grammar has two distinctive tenses: Present and Past tenses. A Tense would be the syntactic identification of event’s location in time. This is done by the speaker deciding the event time according to their world experience . Most of grammarians and linguists agree that there is no direct relation between the “form” of the verb and the “tense” of the action. The issue of time-form is the backbone in categorizing the verbs into finite and non-finite verbs: Non-finite verbs show that a verb does not indicate tense. This is the reason why tensed verbs are considered to be central members of the verb lexemes. This is mainly due to their inflectional paradigms and the functional potential of their forms that non-finite verbs lack . These verbs show what is known as syncretism.

    Present tense, in general terms, denotes an action that happens in present time. This statement proves to be inaccurate. Present tense can be used to denote past actions as in I have met David Beckham. The present perfect can be used for a past happening which is seen in relation to a later event or time. It means “past-time-related-to-present-time ” as in He’s been in France for ten years. Present tense also can be used to refer to an action that will take place in the future I am flying next week to Bangkok. We can also use the present (instead of the past) to tell a story. It helps the action seem more direct, as it is happening now: I’m standing outside the bank, and a man comes up to me and grabs hold of my arm. We also use the present for actions in films, plays and books Macbeth murders the King of Scotland, who is staying at his castle .

    While past tense in English locates an action or a state in the past and situates them at a “temporal distance” from the moment of speaking, yet the past tense can refer to time frames other than past. Closed conditional exhibit the potential present reference of past tense as in If we had enough time… Other hypothetical subordinate clauses like He talks as if he owned the place and I often wish I were someone else also have present reference despite the use of past tense. We often use the past tense in polite requests in order to distance the action in order to make the impact on the listener less direct: Did you want to speak to me now? And I wondered if you need anything now. As many other languages, English language has the grammatical categories of past and present tenses, future time, and different aspects. All these concepts encourage the false assumption that that present tense talks about present events or states and so on. Unfortunately, this assumption is wrong. It is obvious that there is no one-to-one relation between time and tense, nor time and form of the verb.

    Published on 18/05/2011