scholarly journals Sinteze de limba română / Synthesis of the Romanian Language

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 577-578
Author(s):  
Agata Šega
Keyword(s):  
Traditional Grammar

The study Synthesis of the Romanian Language capitalizes on recent theoretical findings on Romanian grammar and seeks to provide a parallel between traditional grammar and the modern theories expounded in the new Grammar of the Academy (GALR) and the Basic Grammar of the Romanian language (GBLR). Through this work, Silvia Stoian Krieb highlights the main differences in interpretation between the two types of description: the traditional and modern.

Comparatives and Superlatives in the Romance Languages

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marleen Van Peteghem
Keyword(s):  
Romance Languages ◽  
Definite Article ◽  
Linguistic Differences ◽  
Equal Degree ◽  
European Languages ◽  
The Status ◽  
Comparative Constructions ◽  
Standard Of Comparison ◽  
Traditional Grammar ◽  
Standard Marker

Comparison expresses a relation involving two or more entities which are ordered on a scale with respect to a gradable property, called the parameter of comparison. In European languages, it is typically expressed through two constructions, comparatives and superlatives. Comparative constructions generally involve two entities, and indicate whether the compared entity shows a higher, lesser, or equal degree of the parameter with respect to the other entity, which is the standard of comparison. Superlatives set out one entity against a class of entities and indicate that the compared entity shows the highest or lowest degree of the parameter. Hence, comparatives may express either inequality (superiority or inferiority) or equality, whereas superlatives necessarily express superiority or inferiority. In traditional grammar, the terms comparative and superlative are primarily used to refer to the morphology of adjectives and adverbs in languages with synthetic marking (cf. Eng. slow, slower, slowest). However, while Latin has such synthetic marking, modern Romance languages no longer possess productive comparative or superlative suffixes. All Romance languages use analytic markers consisting of dedicated adverbs (e.g., Fr. plus ‘more’, moins ‘less’, aussi ‘as, also’) and determiners (e.g., Sp./It. tanto, Ro. atât ‘so much’). Superlatives are marked with the same markers and are mainly distinguished from comparatives by their association with definiteness. Another difference between comparatives and superlatives lies in the complements they license. Comparatives license a comparative complement, which may be clausal or phrasal, and which identifies the standard of comparison. As for superlatives, they license partitive PPs denoting the comparison set, which may be further specified by other PPs, a relative clause, or an infinitive clause. The Romance languages show many similarities with respect to the morphosyntactic encoding of comparatives and superlatives, but they also display important cross-linguistic differences. These differences may be related to the status of the comparative marker, the encoding of the standard marker, ellipsis phenomena in the comparative clause, and the dependence of the superlative on the definite article.

Can Traditional Grammar Be Modernized?

1958 ◽  
Vol 47 (4) ◽  
pp. 189
Author(s):  
David A. Conlin
Keyword(s):  
Traditional Grammar

scholarly journals Communicative Language Teaching Method in Teaching the Kazakh Language to Russian-Speaking Technical Students in Kazakhstan

2018 ◽  
Vol 27 (8-9) ◽  
pp. 152-158
Author(s):  
N. M. Aubakirov ◽  
A. A. Dolgopolova
Keyword(s):  
Teaching Method ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Adult Population ◽  
Communicative Language Teaching ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Foreign Languages ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
State Technical ◽  
Technical Students ◽  
Traditional Grammar

The article deals with the specifics of teaching Kazakh language to Russian-speaking technical students at Karaganda State Technical University, Kazakhstan, in the light of the nationwide trilingualism policies. The paper explains ineffectiveness of the traditional grammar-translation method used today in many educational institutions. It  has been hypothesized that Kazakh language teachers should use the  Communicative language teaching (CLT) methodology, which is rather popular in the West and widely used for teaching foreign languages, in particular English, with its adaptation for Kazakhstan’s conditions. The study  gives a model of a communication-based lesson and proves its effectiveness  in teaching Kazakh language to Russian-speaking students as well as  suggests the possibility of its widespread implementation for training adult population in Kazakhstan.

scholarly journals Task-Based Language Teaching With a Semantic-Centred Pedagogic Grammar

2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 88-108
Author(s):  
James W. Gray ◽  
Ryan W. Smithers
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Skill Development ◽  
Syntactic Complexity ◽  
Semantic Meaning ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Traditional Grammar ◽  
Pedagogical Grammar ◽  
Functional Support

Task-based language teaching (TBLT) is well known for providing authentic opportunities for second and foreign language (L2) skill development. However, for many learners the use of traditional grammar within TBLT lacks the functional support necessary to create accurate and fluent L2 output. The current study replaced traditional grammar explanations with a semantic meaning-order approach to pedagogical grammar (MAP or MAP grammar) as a means to bridge the language in tasks to their function and thereby strengthen form-to-meaning understanding. The study combined TBLT and MAP grammar to look for changes in the complexity, accuracy, and fluency of 127 L2 learners’ writings. The results showed TBLT and MAP separately increased syntactic complexity, whereas the combination of the two provided gains in accuracy and fluency. This was achieved by systematically directing learners’ attention to a sequence of functional choices thereby simplifying necessary metalinguistic explanations.

Concessive constructions in English business letter discourse

2008 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Carla Vergaro
Keyword(s):  
Genre Analysis ◽  
Specific Context ◽  
Text Types ◽  
Adverbial Clauses ◽  
Traditional Grammar ◽  
The Way

AbstractThis paper presents an analysis of the pragmatic use of concessive constructions in business letter discourse. In linguistics, concession has been analyzed primarily within concessive clauses, which have been widely studied, either alone or compared with other syntactic categories such as adversative, causal, or conditional clauses. The term ‘concessive’ itself belongs to the terminology developed within traditional grammar to classify adverbials and adverbial clauses. Heretofore, less attention has been paid to the pragmatic use of concession, i.e., the way in which concessive constructions strategically function within a specific context. The context under analysis in this paper is that of the ‘business letter’ genre. Analysis of a corpus of English business letters shows that concessive constructions are used in this genre both for propositional (or ideational) and procedural (or interpersonal) reasons. This paper considers only the second to be truly pragmatic. Preference for the first or second strategy depends on the text types belonging to the genre. When procedural reasons prevail, concession is mostly introduced for politeness reasons, politeness being one of the factors constantly at play in business exchanges.

Towards a typology of linguistic and stylistic errors in scientific abstracts written by low-proficiency geoscience and mechanical engineering doctoral students in France

Fachsprache ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 42 (3-4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony Saber ◽  
Audrey Cartron ◽  
Claire Kloppmann-Lambert ◽  
Céline Louis
Keyword(s):  
Doctoral Students ◽  
Writing Assessment ◽  
Mechanical Engineering ◽  
English Language ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Scientific Writing ◽  
Error Ratio ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
Traditional Grammar

To date, few studies have attempted to formulate typologies of errors by non-native speakers in English scientific writing. In this study of 123 doctoral dissertation abstracts written by doctoral students in France, we present a tentative typology of frequent errors that covers issues with general grammar, expert grammar and style. In order to specifically ascertain the errors made by students who experience very significant difficulties, the 123 items of our corpus were chosen after an initial review of 1018 abstracts because they demonstrated low linguistic and stylistic proficiency. The typology of errors was sought in support of an error identification exercise in the Scientific Writing Assessment Program (SWAP), an English language certification recently developed at ENS Paris-Saclay. Although some disciplinary variation was seen in the distribution of errors, a convergence towards six major error types (determiners, syntax, tense choice, compound phrases, collocations and lack of clarity) was observed (62.96% of all errors in geoscience, and 83.89% in mechanical engineering), suggesting that efforts to mitigate errors should primarily focus on these key issues. Another key finding was that, in contrast with previous studies, traditional grammar issues did not represent the bulk of overall errors (52.78% in geoscience and only 37.32% in mechanical engineering), while the overall frequency of stylistic errors was high in both corpora (30.25% in geoscience, 46.05% in mechanical engineering), showing the importance of errors in relation with genre-specific style. We propose a metric of error frequency, the Comprehensive Error Ratio or CER, to assess the overall quality of abstracts written by non-native speakers of English. In conclusion, we suggest that any typology of errors in ESP/EAP contexts results from a trade-off between seeking descriptive specificity and achieving the specific purposes for which a typology is developed.

scholarly journals A Comparative Study on Beliefs of Grammar Teaching between High School English Teachers and Students in China

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (8) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fangfang Deng ◽  
Yuewu Lin
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
High School Students ◽  
Teaching Beliefs ◽  
Teaching Behaviors ◽  
School Students ◽  
High School English ◽  
Grammar Teaching ◽  
Quantitative And Qualitative Research ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
Traditional Grammar

<p>Grammar is “a system of rules governing the conventional arrangement and relationship of words in a sentence” (Brown 1994) which can facilitate the acquisition of a foreign language and is conducive for cultivating comprehensive language competence. Most teachers regard grammar as a frame of English learning. The grammar teaching beliefs held by teachers can affect their practical teaching behaviors in class, thus can have different teaching results in the end. Therefore, through quantitative and qualitative research, this paper aims to investigate the present status of grammar beliefs of high school students as well as teachers’ beliefs and their grammar teaching behaviors, analyze and compare the similarities and differences between them. The result shows that teachers’ grammar teaching has the tendency of communicative teaching while students’ grammar beliefs have the characteristic of integration of communicative and traditional grammar teaching. Teachers’ grammar teaching behaviors can basically be consistent with their grammar teaching beliefs.</p>

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