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Question #1 —------> What are the most interesting concepts about English syntax  that you have taken away from this week's readings/videos? Explain why. How do the concepts in this unit present a language learning challenge? Give specific examples

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I found it fascinating that syntax is something we all know and do every day unconsciously. According to Curzan and Adams, “Knowing, understanding, and practicing this ordering of words, even if we do it unconsciously, is knowing syntax” [2012, p. 130]. This means we know the rules of English but cannot always state what they are and why we do them. My main takeaway from Chapters 5 and 6 is understanding the difference between “I just know it sounds right” versus “I can teach you why it sounds right.”

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Form versus function is another significant takeaway. Form is what kind of word it is, and function is what job it does in a sentence. I understood the connection when Curzan and Adams used the analogy of an economics textbook being used as a doorstop [2012, pp. 130–131]. The textbook did not change form, but it was being used in a different way than it was intended for. I now see that linguists cannot rely on semantic meaning but must put words into lexical categories based on morphological and syntactic criteria [Curzan & Adams, 2012, pp. 129–132, Table 5.1].

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Another example is the fast car versus the company car [Curzan & Adams, 2012, pp. 130–131]. We know fast is an adjective describing the car. In the company car example, company has the meaning of a noun but functions as a noun modifier. Fast can morph into comparative and superlative forms by adding -er and -est [faster, fastest], but company cannot become companier or companiest because its form is still a noun.

 

A final example is how tomorrow can belong to two lexical categories [Curzan & Adams, 2012, p. 130]:

Tomorrow as a noun: Tomorrow is my birthday.
Tomorrow as an adverbial: I hope I will receive lots of presents tomorrow.

 

This presents a language learning challenge because students learn that adjectives describe nouns, then are confused when a noun like company describes a noun. This week when I began showing my students the difference between form and function using the economics textbook analogy from Curzan and Adams [2012, pp. 130–131], it finally clicked for them. They finally started to understand why it sounds right instead of just knowing it sounds right.

 

Reference

Curzan, A., & Adams, M. (2012). How English works: A linguistic introduction (3rd ed.). Pearson.

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