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Name: ___________________________________________ Course/Year/Block: ________________

Subject: __________________________________________ Date: ____________________________

Module 5 - 6 (Week 5 & 6)

DESCRIPTIVE LINGUISTIC

I. Learning Outcomes:
At the end of this learning module, the students should be able to:
1. Understand the nature of descriptive linguistics
2. Explain role of grammar in language learning
3. Apply the accurate grammar through the learning exercises

II. Rationale

This module presents the descriptive linguistics (language structure and function), and its basic
components such as universal grammar, the nature of grammar in language learning; the difficulty of
teaching and learning grammar, as well as a focus on or about words.

III. Content/Learning Experiences/Assessment

SYNTACTIC STRUCTURE OF A LANGUAGE

(GRAMMAR AND WORD OPERATION IN A GIVEN LANGUAGE)

DESCRIPTIVE LINGUISTICS DEALS WITH describing the system of a given

language and "how" it operates on that particular given language. For the descriptive approach,
the individual who is analyzing the language is not interested in what is correct or incorrect, or
what should or should not be said, but rather in what actually is said by the speakers of a given
language or dialect. There is no value judgment about what one hears, although one realizes well
the speakers of that language make them all the time. One tries to describe as accurately as one
can what the speakers of this language say and by analyzing all the sounds, forms and structures
one hears, regardless of how these are subjectively regarded by the speakers themselves.
Linguists like Charles Fries uses this approach especially in knowing, for instance, how Spanish
speakers actually speak their language today and what sounds an English speaker who studies
Spanish must learn in order to sound like a native Spanish speaker. Linguists believe that almost
anything a native speaker say is "correct” 'in a certain sense. They also believe that the so called
"errors" the native speakers made in his/her own language are almost never the same real errors a
foreigner makes when she/he learns to speak the language. A non-native Spanish speaker, for
instance, mixes up the verb “ser" with "estar" (both verbs equivalent in English verb "to be"),
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and is confused with using the “imperfect" and the “preterite" (this is the English “past tense"
form of the verb), or forgets whether "caro” (a car) is pronounced with a single tap /r/ or the thrill
/rr/ sound. Note: carro is "expensive" in the Spanish language and it is considered as an
"adjective” and pronounced with a thrill /rr/.

On the other hand and regarding the English language, linguists such as William Labov
has investigated the syntactic structures of several languages, one of them is that of the Black
English. Linguists who have been studying Black English realize that it is not slang but a dialect
with an origin and structure different from that of Standard English (Diller 1977). It has a rich
vocabulary and a system of forms and tenses as “logical” as those of Standard English. However,
low-income black children whose primary language is Black English have consistently
performed below the expected norms on standardized tests of vocabulary and reading readiness.
For this reason in the early 1960s, some psychologists and educators planned a program to
remedy what they considered a language deficit in these children.

The Nature of Grammar in Language Learning

CHILDREN AND ADULTS LEARNING a language gain their linguistic competence

with intriguing and yet amazing differences: children are not conscious of the grammar, while
adults, especially those learning a foreign language, exert so much effort learning the grammar of
"that" language. Grammatical combination used by children in the language in their "first" or
native language) is innate on their mind and they can easily communicate without "formal"
grammar, whereas adults learning a foreign language will ask the "in" and "out" of how a
grammatical structure in the language could be formed into a sentence. Language learning can be
magical on the part of children: their linguistic feats seem without reasonable explanation, and
thus, their language learning is the predestined unfolding of innate grammar structures. Learning
a language is not only a matter of utterances like saying: "Good morning," "How are you?"
"Thank you" "See you" and "Goodbye!" which are more accurately analysed as single words than
a productive grammar or speech.

To most linguists, grammar serves to understand and describe the systematic properties
of the linguistic code for the varieties of every language. Some define grammar as a set of
elements and rules from which the sentences of a language can be generated. Linguists conceive
of several grammars for each language, one for every social or regional variety having its own
set of rules. The linguists hold that if a sentence conforms to the rules of any variety of English,
then it is grammatical in English, though not necessarily intelligible or acceptable in a particular
context.

A perfect grammatical sentence can distract, confuse, and deceive, or communicate

directly, truthfully, even very elegantly. Nor a sentence that is grammatical in one kind of
English necessarily grammatical in other varieties. "Him and me played badminton together
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when we was in college" is ungrammatical in Standard English. Because it cannot be generated

by the grammar of Standard English, traditionalists call it "ungrammatical," whereas linguists
prefer to designate it as "inappropriate" when used in a context calling for standard usage.

According to linguists, it is inaccurate to say "Him and her were friends” is "incorrect" or
"ungrammatical.” In contrast, "Him and were her friends” is ungrammatical because no variety
of English has rules that will generate. Similarly, both "He doesn't want any" and "He don't want
none" are grammatical, though only the former is Standard English. The absence of the copula in
the variety of American English known as Black English or Black English vernacular "They my
books" instead of "They are mine" can be considered illogical because "the relationship between
subject and complement is implicit, and knowledge of the conventions of a variety (or a
language) ensures complete, unambiguous interpretation" (William Labov, The Logic of
Nonstandard English, 179-215).

Grammar operates at two levels: morphology and syntax. Morphology deals with
combining the smallest units of meaning (morphemes) into words. The word car is a morpheme,
since it cannot be decomposed into smaller units. The plural marker-s is also a morpheme, for the
same reason. Syntax, on the other hand, is the combination of words into phrases ('on my way'),
clauses (because the car broke down'), or sentences (I'm now on my way although because the
car broke down, I'll be two hours late'). In the case of children, they typically begin combining
two word morphemes to form a single word. Memorized plurals or past tenses obviously
don't count. The appearance of even rudimentary syntax signals the crossing of a linguistic
application because it makes the expression of complex meaning possible. Once a child could
only say "milk” – leaving his/her parents to figure out whether she meant "The milk spilled on
my shirt," "that's milk I'm drinking, all right," "You drink some milk with me," or "I want more
milk." Even a child's two-word utterance like: "Milk shirt," "Drink milk” or “More milk”
constitute a giant, though still incomplete, step towards disambiguating meaning. Not
surprisingly, when people ask, "Does your child talk yet?” they generally mean, "Does he/she
put words together?"

If babies never stop practicing the language, their parents also never stop trying to teach
them because they fulfill the role of a "language" teacher. After a couple of years the baby has
control of the language, if not most of the basic patterns of sound, form and arrangement in the
language. The baby, at this point, has almost the mastery of the language by the time he/she is
five or six. Universally speaking, in children (especially babies') speech, imitation is found to be
easier than comprehension, which in turn is easier than production (Harriot, Psychology of
Language, 115-117). Harriot emphasizes that imitation is easiest because it involves a
perceptual-motor skill only with reference to being involved. Whereas; both comprehension and
production require awareness of meaning; production demands utterances while comprehension
simply requires pointing.
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According to Eugene Nida, children in particular, utilize the parts of the sentence they
understand and ignore the rest. Nida points out the children's fundamental order in language
learning in her observation:

The scientifically valid procedure in language learning involves listening

first, to be followed by speaking. Then come reading and finally the writing of the
language. This is just the order in which a child learns his/her mother tongue -
first hearing, then speaking; and only after he has acquired considerable facility in
understanding and speaking, can he now then read and write (Nida, Learning a
Foreign Language 119-20)

Grammar is concerned with description and analysis of structures that maybe abstracted
from stretches of utterance. Traditionally the longest structure within which a full grammatical
analysis is possible has been taken as the “sentence.” By definition, a sentence is grammatically
complete. It may therefore, be preceded and followed by indefinite pause or silence, together
with those phonetic features associated in each language with pre-pausal position; it is usually
marked in writing by final punctuation, full stop, question mark, exclamation mark, or
semicolon, and in speech by a characteristic intonation tune. It has been said that the sentence is
the largest structure wholly describable in grammatical terms, or in “Bloomfield’s formulation
"an independent linguistic form not included by virtue of any the largest structure wholly
describable in grammatical terms, or in Bloomfield's grammatical construction in any larger
linguistic form” (Bloomfield, Language, 1935)

We have to use the word grammar in two ways: the first in reference to the grammar
speakers have in their brains; the second as the model or description of this internalized grammar
(Cole, 1975). Almost 2000 years ago the Greek grammarian Dionysious Thrax defined grammar
as 'that which permits us either to speak a language or to speak about a language". From now on
we will not differentiate these two meanings, because the linguist's descriptive grammar is an
attempt at a formal statement (or theory) of the speakers' grammar.

When we say that there is a rule in the grammar - such as "Every sentence has a noun
phrase subject and a verb phrase predicate" - we assume the rule in both the “mental grammar
(this as linguistic competence) and the model of it, which is called the linguist grammar. When
we say that a sentence is grammatical, we mean that it conforms to the rules of both grammars:
conversely, an ungrammatical sentence deviates in some way from these rules. If however, we
assume a rule for English that does not agree with your intuitions as a speaker, then the grammar
we are describing is in some way different from the grammar that represents your linguistic
competence; that is, your language is not the one we are describing.

Grammar is one essential and important language component other than sounds,
meanings, as do the phrases and sentences that the speakers construct using the "rules” of
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grammar. As said before, children already know a great deal about language natively, even if we
are sceptical about how much innate knowledge of language there is, there are all those questions
about what happens when children create new sentences and how they relate what they know
about the word/s to create or concretize them into sentences. Nevertheless, the psychology of
learning does have something to say about how children acquire language (on Chapter about
Psycholinguistics).

The word "grammar” has a variety of meanings, one of which is a relatively complete
and systematic description of a language. Among linguistics of the transformational-generative
school, a "grammar" describes the internalized, psychological system of elements and rules
underlying the use of one's native language. Or grammar may suggest a code of good conduct
regulating spoken and written language. The kind of grammar taught in school is absolute: ain't
is wrong: as is the right conjunction, like is wrong; whom is correct in this structure but not in
that one; use I not me in this phrase; verb "lie" and "lay" should be used properly;" and so on.

The term "usage" could be synonymous to the word "grammar" but usage refers to the
"complete set of lexical, grammatical, and phonological or orthographical occurrences in speech
and writing, that is, to everything that people say or write, with special reference to the way they
do it" (Finegan, Attitudes Toward English Usage, 13). For each debatable item or questionable
"usage," language guardians consider grammar as better or worse and hence to be preferred or
avoided, such as who for whom; different from/different than verb lay for lie: lend for borrow;
can for may, etc. etc.

We cannot hope to change the practice of a language; we can only help students to learn
what those practices are. Citing the confusion of lie and lay despite the prodigious energy
allotted to sorting them out, Charles Fries said that "We may not like it, but we can do absolutely
nothing effective about it. It's grammar" (Fries, The Teaching of the English Language, 289).
The great Danish linguist Otto Jespersen once said and addressed that:

We set up the best language that which is found in the best writers, and count as the best
writers those that best write the language (Jespersen, Mankind, Nation and Individual, 91).

The term "syntax" is claimed to be the most important part of grammar. The grammar of
language is one of the main ways by which people reason about relationship. Here we are
referring to grammar as syntax. We are not talking about the rules of grammar we learned in
school, but rather about the ones we figured out for ourselves putting the verb before the object
("Open your books. We will do the exercises") and adding -s for more than one are simple
examples.

Good language is gained only from interactive engagement: children/students need to talk
as well as to listen or hear. They need to play with words and reason with them. They need to

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respond to new words and stories to build a broad persona base of semantic meaning. They need
personal adult guides to provide good examples of grammar because word order or "syntax," is
the means by which they learn to analyse ideas and reason about abstract relationship (Healy J.,
88).

The ability to induce rules, for which human brain is noted, is probably the reason basic
syntactic abilities are said to be "experience expectant": we aren't born normally with
formal/book grammar such as noun and verb rules clinging to each other to form a sentence but
rather with an innate ability to figure out categories and apply principles that let us generalize
about the regularities in any domain of experience (Cohen, M. & S. Grossberg, 1-22). A young
child may become frightened by a dog, for example, and he/she may start to categorize all dogs
as "mean" until he or she broadens his/her rule system to include the word "friendly" as well as
"unfriendly" ones. When the child notices that adding -s makes more than one, he/she will apply
this rule to all words until he/she broadens a system concerning some "irregularities," i.e the
plural of "mouse" is "mice" and not "mouses” (Siegel, L. & E. Ryan, 28-37). In Spanish, for
instance, the definite article "the" is either "el/la/los/las" (el libro/la pluma/los libros/las plumas).

Therefore, learning language rules takes many individual experiences before the general
principle is finally internalized. The order of words in a sentence also conveys many important
conceptual relationships that become increasingly important for clear thinking, reading, and
writing after primary grades and carried through high school until grammatical rules are
embedded in the brain. Thus, the child/student's speech will have a series of grammatical
segments, which are ordered in certain sequences for the purpose of communication and giving
or receiving messages. The child/student now is able to manage many words, as well as the basic
syntactic (grammatical) patterns.

The Killer Grammar

SYNTAX WILL ALWAYS RELATE TO one important and essential part of speech,
which is “verb." If words can help, the use of verb is more than helping: it is always an "action
word." Without a "verb," a sentence is rendered useless; any message of the sentence will
"confuse" or "distract” the message-receiver. There will be misunderstanding from what the
speaker intends to say or tell since the sentence lacks the full expression of meaning. It can be
difficult just figuring out the "meaning" with an ungrammatical sentence(s); there is no sense of
listening attentively and the incorrectness of the use of grammar can make your mind ask and
wonder "what is it that he/she really means?"

It pays to know the system or characteristics of the "verb". There will always be the kinds
of verb (regular and irregular); the tenses of the verb (the present, past and future); the mood of
the verb (indicative, subjunctive, imperative); as well as its “proprieties" established as
grammatical unit for use and investigation. Words in the sentence may be used correctly;
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however, grammar may be "incorrect," "wrong," or "inappropriate" especially in the use of the
"verb". This will suggest that usage, rather than fix rules determines "propriety" or
"improprieties" in the language. Going back to what was said by Bloomfield, a "sentence by
definition is (or should be) grammatically complete and correct." What is incorrect is ambiguous
that can lead to confusion, distraction, deception, or "miscommunication" of any form.

The verb is always present in a sentence. If you're eating now at the moment of reading
this book, the verb "to eat" can be expressed in several ways according to various circumstances,
i.e., "ate, shall/will eat, can eat, have eaten, shall have eaten, should have eaten, may have eaten,
might have eaten, and so on. In the process of using the verb "to eat", it can also be used or
classified into being a “performative, attitude, or an operative verb." It will also use another
helping verb or what we call as "auxiliary" verb -to have, essential to using it with “present, past
and the future" participle form in forming compound sentences. A verb can also be "active" and
"passive": active in which any action is being received, and passive in which the receiver of the
action is passive or "does nothing." These verb characteristics mentioned are what we may
consider the "killer" part of language learning.

Bear in mind that the verb in the sentence should be used with greatest care to avoid
errors in point of meaning. Language, as a means of communication, must be regarded and used
with a sense of mastery. When we fully understand the language that we are using can we have
full command of the quality and direction of our life and experience, which, in the words of
Benjamin Lee Whorf, "language shapes the way we think, and determines what we can think
about."

One of the killer parts of the verb and the trickiest of them all is the verb "to lie" and "to
lay." Lederer and Dowis in their book "The Write Way" explain it:

"These two verbs may be the most frequently confused pair in the English language.
Here's the problem: Lie is a strong, irregular verb that conjugates lie, lay, lain. Lay is a weak,
regular verb that conjugates lay, laid, laid. Because lay is both the present tense of to lay and the
past tense of to lie and because the weak, regular verb pattern has become dominant in English,
many speakers and writers use lay – as "I like to lay in my hammock” (quite a trick) - when they
should use lie.

Lederer and Dowis further explains that "the most useful way to sort out lie and lay is to
bear in mind that lie is an intransitive verb that means "to repose," while lay is usually a
transitive verb that means "to put." Lay almost always takes an object, lie never. Something must
be laid and nothing can be lied. Or try visualizing this cartoon, a man says to his dog, "Lay
down!" and the dog rolls over on its back. Then the master says, "Speak!"- and the dog says, "it's
lie." (Lederer and Dowis, The Write Way, 1995, pg.136-137).

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LEARNING ACTIVITY 1

Implication 1: Direction: Read the following sentences. Answer the (X) with the proper form of
lie or lay: (Remember the forms: Lie: lie, lay, lain, lying/Lay: lay, laid, laid, laying)

1. The school children are (X) the books on the floor.

2. She's tired and she would like to (X) down for a while.
3. Now I (X) me down to rest when the rain started.
4. There he was (X) in the couch.
5. We had just (X) down to rest when the rain started.
6. He had a stroked and for a several weeks my friends (X) in deep coma.
7. (X) your head upon my shoulder!
8. He (x) the work aside for a few days.
9. The books are (X) on the table in the study room.
10. For several days, the books has (X) on the shelf.

LEARNING ACTIVITY 2

Implication 2:

Direction: There's always a delight in the sensation of drinking something very cold. Read the
following "Cold Orange Juice," where you are given a description, in detail, as a rhetorical
device. Be able to write the correct answer for the (X).

Possible answers: to select from: licked/ slid/ picked up/gulp/ warm/ passed/ melt/ tingled/
sucked in/ squint/ popped/

1. I was so thirsty that I could really taste the orange and feel the cold go down my throat.
My mouth started to water when I (X) the glass.
2. As the cold numbed my fingers, I felt the frost (X) under them.
3. I took my first bite.
4. It was also cold that I had to (X) my eyes.
5. My teeth (X).
6. The tiny fruit cells (X) against my tongue and filled my
7. mouth with acid sweetness. A piece of ice (X) down.
8. leaving my mouth numb and my throat aching. I (X) in air to make my throat
9. warm again and (X) my teeth
10. to (X) them, too.

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LEARNING ACTIVITY 3
Direction: Read the following sentences. Lest we should imagine that such exercises belong to a
"distant past". Decide and underline the correct alternative to complete the sentences.

These exercises illustrate the central role of drilling 'correct' forms, of learning grammar
by heart as if it were a set of unchanging facts about English. Students may lack the necessary
knowledge of the rules of grammar; the gaps should therefore be filled where the language
teacher's role is to help our students polish and straighten out language deficiencies. It should be
noted too, that the exercise is a test of whether students avoid double negatives. Double
negation is "ungrammatical" although it is a standard feature of many modern dialects of
English. (Carter,1977.pp. 20). Carter exemplified in his book:

Haven't you (any/no) shoes my size?

There are (any/no) shoes your size.
There is anything/nothing) left.
We haven't (anything/nothing) left.
There were (any/none) of the books I wanted.
They didn't have (any/none) of the books I wanted.
Isn't there (anyone/no one) here to help?
There is (anyone/no one) here to help.
-Ronald Carter, Discourse Analysis
***************************

On or About Words
WORDS ARE ESTABLISHED AS GRAMMATICAL units for the language under
investigation, as part of grammatical analysis. They are in fact linguistic figments which
according to Bloomfield are "the minimum free form of a language as a special application of the
criterion of stability; the sentence is a free linguistic form, and the word is its minimal version"
(Bloomfield, Language, 177-81). Most languages contain both variable and invariable words.
Variable and invariable words can be used in the language. They are called as variable because
the order and regular series of grammar are found in the words. However, some parts remain
relatively constant and the variations in the other parts are matched by similar variations in other
words. The English word laugh, laughs, laughed, laughing, open, opens, opened, opening, etc.
and book, books, house, houses etc. are variable words and the ordered series of forms are called
"paradigms."

Words appearing in only one form are invariable words, such as English since, when,
seldom, often. There is the presence of an affix in a word -- a useful term for the recurrent
formative morphemes of words other than roots, and which may divided formally into three

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major positional classes according to the position they occupy in relation to the root morphemes:
prefix and suffix. Prefix and suffixes may be readily illustrated from English re-, de-,con- , per,
and pre-, as in the word receive, remove, deceive, deranged, conceive, contain, perceive,
perform. Suffixes are the plural formatives such as -s, -en, and so are the verb paradigm affixes -
ing, -t, -d, -ed, etc. as in slept, walked, called, wanted.

If syntax is claimed to be the most important part of grammar, there is however, a conflict
between syntactic and morphological classification because syntax is almost accorded
precedence. This is illustrated by the English word (adjectives) in pretty, hot, and big which are
paradigmatically alike (prettier, prettiest, bigger, biggest, etc). The adjectives beautiful is
invariable in its degree and in the formative adverb ending -ly (beautiful, more beautiful, most
beautiful, and adverb "beautifully”). Pretty girl and beautiful house, big house and sizeable
house, colder climate and more temperate climate, are examples of the same English
construction or syntactic grouping of words. One can say in English, this is a house, this is a
pretty house, this is a beautiful house, this is a prettier house, this is a more beautiful house, and
likewise this is the prettiest house, or this is the most beautiful house.

Among the invariable words of a language different word classes must often be set up or
recognized, where their syntactic behaviour shows regular differences (Salvin & Perchonok,
1965). Thus among English invariable, some words (at, with, from, of) precede nouns to form
groups substitutable for adverbs, words like quickly, then, often, etc., thus he came with speed, he
came quickly; we will discuss it at supper, we will discuss it when he comes from Japan; or he
comes often during summer vacation.

Sentences can also end with a preposition, the most common one: where have you come
from? Than saying from where have you come? Who is America at war with? Other examples
like what are you at? and what are you up to? have no alternative forms at all. Other invariable
words in English (called conjunctions) precede word groups that could other otherwise constitute
complete sentences, and produce groups substitutable for a single adverb, such as in: he will have
it if he sees it; he will have it then; he came home because he felt ill; he came home quickly.

In terms of a grammatical analysis of the utterances, one principal characteristic is the

infrequent appearance of function words (among infants/children) such as article, preposition,
auxiliary verbs and modals will and can. In the Pilipino language this is exemplified by two year
old Nini, a great grandchild of my brother's family saying: "Ain tayo iti at wenswayrs sa
Bowni?" (Are we going to eat spaghetti and french-fries at Brownie's Restaurant?)

The child should have uttered, up-front and grammatically correct sentence in
Tagalog/Pilipino language as: "Kakain ba tayo ng spaghetti at french-fries sa Brownie's?"
Therefore, it would be strange indeed, in whatever language to find a child whose first words
were anything like we, to, are, a, at, is, with, etc.
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Verb Classification
In any kinds of languages, or in saying something, it is very important to know how to use
properly the verb classification and these are the following:

Performative Verbs: promise, intend, believe, know, understand, doubt, remember, expect,
intend, suggest, urged, support, apologize, guarantee, swear, refuse, decline, order, advise

Attitude Verbs: love, hate, prefer, detest, resent, overlook, warn + negative, tell positive

Thinking Verbs: decide, realize, discover, identify, recognize

Operative Verbs (positive): recommend, nominate, appoint, name, elect, hire, admit, promote,
propose, dedicate, proclaim, assign, relegate, give, offer, grant, accept, acquit

Operative Verbs (negative): degrade, demote, fire, suspend, refuse, reject, arrest, sentence,
condemn, indict, ex-communicate

LEARNING ACTIVITY 4

More Activity Enhancer: This is an exercise on grammar with expansion of vocabulary range for
adjectives and adverbs.

Direction: You will read a set of sentences and you will fill in the blanks with a variety of
adjectives and adverbs used in contexts.

1. When faced with the need to identify an odor (smell), people are imprecise and
_______________________
* inconsistent/surprisingly

2. The experiment that resulted in a ________________ low identification of 20 recognizable

smells required participants to note as many ______________ odor as they could.
* unfamiliar/rather

3. Even with corrections from the experimenters, the probability that same ______________
familiar smell would be recognized remained _____________
* vaguely/low

4. ______________ the most ___________________ change in the US economy over the past
six decades has been the ____________ importance of international trade and finance.
* increasing/dramatic/perhaps

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5. ______________ progress has also led to growth in trade in ______________ materials (such
as steel) and __________goods (such as foods) by making transporting goods less
_________________________.
* perishable/costly/raw/technological

6. Goods produced by __________________ technology are often__________________ and

easy to transport because they have ________-weight size.
* relatively/low/light/modern

7. ________________, international trade policies of a _____________ country also affect

_________________and ______________ decisions made by its government and often lead to
important changes in the market place.
*particular/ clearly/ financial/ political

The syntactic function of adjectives, therefore, is to modify nouns and noun phrases, and
adverbs similarly modify verbs, adjectives, another adverb or the entire sentence. However, those
descriptions do not convey the complexities (L2) second language learners or writers encounter
with actual uses of adjectives and adverbs in contexts. Research has shown that (L2) writers
often employ adjectives and adverbs in ways that are not congruent with the norms of formal
academic and professional writing (Hinkel, Teaching Academic ESL Writing, 2004).
Furthermore, Hinkel gave the following summaries:
1. Students need to learn the most common adjectives and adverbs and understand how
and where to use them.
2. Students can tell adverbs from adjectives by asking whether a particular word or
phrase answers the questions where, when. How and "how often/long", and, if so, then
this word/phrase is an adverb.
3. The comparative and superlative degree in adjectives and adverbs should be taught
accurately to our students.

Reading Selection:
The "in" and "on" of English By Leandro V. Coronel. (This article which appeared in
Philippine Daily Inquirer, presents and describes the difficulties of using the correct English
preposition, as an important part of speech of the language).

WHERE HAVE ALL the grammarians gone? Why aren't they up in arms against the
atrocities being inflicted on English?
George Bernard Shaw once remarked that England and America were two countries
separated by the same language. The British author was referring to the contrasting idioms of the

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two countries that otherwise share several common traits and histories. The British, after all,
founded America.
One recalls Shaw's comment because the Filipinos also use different English. Since it's
not our indigenous tongue, we often stumble in our use of it. Ironically, because we've come to
prefer to use this foreign language, we've become strangers to our own language(s), and are not
able to speak or write well in the vernacular either.
However, we've not justified our colonial mentality by excelling in spoken English. We
have a dearth of good public speakers in English. Even Raul Manglapius seem to have been
slowed down by time.
Among the current aspirants to the presidency, Miriam Defensor-Santiago has the
quickest tongue and richest vocabulary, while Bobby de Ocampo has the calmest and smoothest
delivery. An early writing mentor of mine, the communication guro Raul S. Gonzales, points out
that Fidel Ramos is a very grammatical president.
In the past, Filipinos spoke English well, of which they were proud. Today, Filipinos can
speak English good, something they're proud of. These two sentences illustrate the Filipinos' past
and present way of constructing English.
Today, we use a peculiar kind of English. For example, we like to say “push through"
when “go ahead" is more simple and easier to understand. I know of no other English-speaking
society that uses “push through" in this sense. We, especially media pundits, also use "quite,"
"quite a lot." Perhaps believing the word makes what they are saying sound quite emphatic.
But the word that seems to get us (including this writer) in trouble most, but probably
without knowing it is the preposition "in". I see "in" used when "on" is the proper word, and vice
versa.
The most common misuse of "in" is "in the list." It should be on the list (unless the word
"included" precedes it). One of the main definitions of "in" is "that is located inside or within." It
is therefore incorrect to say "in the list" because it is not possible for someone or something to be
inside a list but rather on one.
The same thing with "court" which is normally a flat surface and therefore has no inside.
While we say "in the Supreme Court," the Americans or British would say "on the court."
Similarly, Westerners say "on the board of directors," or "on" the Inquirer while we use "in."
And we say "in the west Coast" instead of "on the coast." It is not possible to be in a coast.
The worst use of "in" I've heard was on (not "in") a flight from Jakarta to Manila.
Noticing an island below, I asked a flight attendant if she could identify it. She retired to the
cockpit check and then came back to inform me that we were now "in Palawan." Of course, she
meant "over" Palawan.
Conversely, we use "on" or "at" when appropriate word is "in." "Stay at the back,"
parents would instruct a child getting into an automobile. Since the back is inside the car, correct
phrase is in the back.” Signs at shopping malls advise that such and such store is "at second
floor." Since the floor is elevated, preposition should be "on."
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I often hear Filipinos say "I'm in my desk," "I'm eating in my desk.” A cockroach is small
enough to eat in a desk, but a human being is too big to fit inside a normal desk; person can only
at his or her desk (unless of course, the office manager frowns on such eating habit). As the
Australians would say: "It's not on," meaning "it's not right or proper."
One can point out many more peculiarity about our use of English. In daily journalism,
grammatical errors abound like weeds; it's helpless to keep score anymore. Where have all the
grammarians gone? Aren't they up in and against the atrocities being inflicted on English? Could
it be they've given up on (I almost use "in) fighting the constant assault on language and don't
even read the newspapers anymore?
What we need is a SWAT team to curb our misuse of English, a language police.

LEARNING ACTIVITY 5

Direction: Read the following sentences and select the best answer. Write them on the blanks
provided. Sentences are taken from Edgar Allan Poe's short story, "The Black Cat." The
prepositions may seem confusing to you, but try and there's no harm in trying.

1. Pluto followed me all (under, on, at, around) the house.

2. I hurt them (in, on, at) any way I could
3. (from, among) with my actions.
4. My soul seemed to fly (away, out, from) my body.
5. I took a small knife (in, out, from) of my coat and opened it.
6. It ran (from, out, by) me whenever I came near.
7. One day (in, on, at) cold blood, I tied a strong rope.
8. (over, under, around) the cat's neck.
9. I touched it (by, with, from) my hand and petted it, passing
10. my hand softly (to, in, along) its back.
11. I offered to buy it (with, from, through the innkeeper, but he claimed he had never seen the
animal before.
12. I cut (over, out, in) one of its fear-filled eyes!
13. When I stood (on, up, over) it got
14. (below, among, between) my feet and nearly made me fall.

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LEARNING ACTIVITY 6

Same direction as the activity above. This item is recalling the famous lines of poetry "I
Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" by William Wordsworth.

a. I wandered lonely as a cloud _________________

b. That floats (in, on) high o'er vales and hills _________________
c. When all at once I saw the crowd _________________
d. (at, beneath) the lakes, (beside, on) the trees. _________________
e. Fluttering and dancing (on, in) the breeze _________________
f. Continuous as the sun that shine _________________
g. And twinkle (in, on) the Milky Way. _________________
h. For oft, when (on, in) my couch I lie _________________
i. (On, in) vacant or (on, in) pensive mood _________________
j. They flash (into, upon) that inward eye _________________
k. And because I’m happy I dance and sing _________________
l. They think they had done me no wrong injury _________________
m. And are gone to praise God and His Priest and King _________________
n. Who makes up a heaven of our mystery _________________

LEARNING ACTIVITY 7

General Study Guide (Descriptive Lingustics)

1. What do you remember best about your school experience learning grammar and the
language itself? On this basis, what advice are you going to give to someone who is
trying to start a new school from scratch?
2. Regarding the importance of language development for a wide variety of academic and
personal skills, which of these skills might be especially important for today’s younger
generation of students?
3. To what would the role of grammar be addressed and what should be the focus of the
language learner?
4. Would you consider Taglish (combination of English and Tagalog) as a dialectal form of
the Pilipino language or a language change? Is it more beneficial or not for our students?
What advantage (or disadvantage) do people get from using it?

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Conclusion
(Descriptive Linguistics)

Descriptive Linguistics (language structure and functions) is defined by a purpose

- for our students to learn many rules (syntactic and semantic) if one wants to speak a
language correctly, that is, the way a native speaker speaks it. One learns language rules,
which the native speaker knows unconsciously and never violates. Language is focused
on mechanics, the forms, the structures, and the patterns which constitute the given
speech system. Language messages serve simply as devices to reveal the nature of the
system. There's something particularly useful about speaking and writing correctly and
precisely because language is always there as foundation beneath what is going on, which
helps communication and mutual understanding among human beings.
Grammar structure may be introduced but practiced in the classroom with
enjoyment for the student to understand the essential grammatical principles
indispensable for effective comprehension. Some linguists, however, have suggested that
the analysis of communication can be the source of grammatical structure. A general
form of the proposition was stated by Evelyn Hatch (1978): "One learns how to do
conversation, one learns how to interact verbally, and out of this interaction syntactic
structures are developed." Hatch's speculation, shared by many, was that somehow,
linguistic structures could be found in the context of the give-and-take of conversation,
which is the realm of language in practice.
Regarding words, they can always be a source of inspiration. It was Alex Magno
who said of Pope Francis, when the pope visited the Philippines lately:
He speaks softly, sometimes almost inaudibly. His words are simple, never in
undue abundance.... But he always speaks with his totality, with his eyes, his heart, his
whole being. He speaks with sincerity. When he opens his mouth to speak, you witness his
soul. That is eloquence. It is a gift." (Magno, 'First Person' in the Philippine Star, January,
2015 Issue).
There is more to language than meets the eye. Language will always remain alive
because the speaker (or the writer) can and must, within the framework of "accepted”
grammar and syntax, produce a "style" that is his/her own. There is a pleasure in using,
speaking and writing words, which abide by the rules and in expressing oneself with
perfect lucidity and symmetry just what people want to express.
Regarding the concern for teaching grammar, logic and rhetoric, as they have
been with "good usage," Kenneth Oliver, an American professor of English and
Comparative Literature said that: By the age of three most children are not only speaking
in sentence patterns, but are creating sentences, which, they never heard before. Long
before they know what grammar is, they are saying whatever they want to say - or at
least they think they - and they are using every, or nearly every, basic sentence pattern
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that exists. Should we then use valuable school time to teach grammar? (Oliver. A Sound
Curriculum in English Grammar, 1)
In short, language is learned in operation where students meet to share their
encounters with life and they may do this effectively as they move freely through daily
conversations or what is in store of their shared experiences. The language they use is
where they are and how it functions in their representational world with society and life's
reality. Everything that matters is operational by means of language and communication.

IV. Materials

INTRODUCTION TO LINGUISTICS: Open Blinders to Language and Communication, Renato de

Guzman Rosales. Published by Jimczyville Publications, 2015 Edition.

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