Andrushka

Last week and this week we've been covering questions in the simple past tense in my ELL class. Generally speaking, the formula is regular, you just have to remember the rules. 1. If a sentence uses a modal, auxiliary, or to be, simply invert subject and verb. "Kilroy was here" becomes "Was Kilroy here?" "We could smile" --> "Could we smile?" 2. If the sentence contains only an action verb, it needs do for support. "We went to purgatory" --> "Did we go to purgatory?" 3. If you employ a question word (wh-word), then the formula is "wh- + do/be + subject + verb (if be, then +ing; if do, then use base form) + optional components" In these cases, the wh- takes the place of the direct object. "I went to MalWart" --> "Where did you go?" "You are stupid" --> "What are you?" 4. I won't go into tag questions or questions that have no grammatical change, only inflected vocalization because we haven't studied these in class. This can get confusing though, as it did last night, because who and what questions have two common forms (it's possible with the other question words, but less common), one if you are inquiring about the subject and the other if you are asking about the direct object. Take, for example, "Natasha helped Boris catch Moose and Skwirrel." If you ask about the direct object you get "Whom did Natasha help catch Moose and Skwirrel?" and if you inquire regarding the subject, it is "Who helped Boris catch Moose and Skwirrel?" (Wh- + tensed verb + subject + optional components.) The same rule applies to questions about non-human subjects. "The squirrel flew" --> "What flew?" You never need do support if you are asking about a subject. For some reason though, no matter how many ways I explained it, it took people a long time to catch on. And then the book gave us examples that ended in prepositions. Ugh. I try to make sure the students know the "rules" but also how people actually speak, so I explained that who almost always replaces whom and that ending sentences on prepositions is discouraged in formal situations. "I talked to the Queen" --> (normal) "Who did you talk to?" --> ("proper") "To whom did you talk?" Strangely, after the whole direct object vs. subject tribulation, they picked this one up right away. What I dislike about Ms. Azar and this book in general is that they do this to me all the time. They insist on using examples of things without explaining them. Another rough day was when they decided to use some phrasal verbs out of the blue and I was stuck explaining them even though the students shouldn't have to face down that particular monster at this level. My point (and I do have one): We need to go back to Middle or Early Modern English. You know, like Shakespeare. Back then, do support was rare and optional. You could make a negative statement without it. Today we have to say, "I didn't go on a mad shooting spree," while back then they could say "I went not on a mad shooting spree." And you could ask the question, "Went you postal?" "Did you go postal?" is just so cumbersome. Simple subject/verb inversion. That's all I'm asking for. Other Germanic langauges managed to keep it simple, why not English?

Posted by Scott on 03 November 2005 at 11/03/2005 10:30:00 AM | Permalink