Last June 22, 2017, we had our diagnostic test in our grammar class. It's a 25 items exam and in each sentence you must look for the mistakes. As an English majors, we are expected to know how or what words are right and applicable to use in a sentence because i guess, that's what grammar is all about.
1. Are any of the stationeries alright?
- As you can see, the mistake in that sentence is the word "stationaries". Why? because there is no such word. The correct word to use is "stationery" which is already in it's plural form.
2. I also learned that " irregardless" is actually a word. You might thought that it's not because of it's non-standard form but you can checked it in a dictionary and from their you can find the existence of the word irregardless.
3. We should remember that the use of "on" is when it tells an exact date or time while "in" if not.
4. The difference between biennial and biannual.
- Biennial happens every two years while ;
- Biannual happens twice a year.
5. Always look out for hyphenated words, as well as American and British spellings.
June 30, 2017
Let's talk about Language !!
What is Language ?
It is a system of arbitrary sound and symbols used in human communication which means it cannot be used by animals or any other creatures. It is a system because it follows set of rules. The arbitrariness of language are words that does not have any connection with the thing itself. And it is conventional because we follow a certain convention.
Grammar
It is a whole system of language that composed of many things. Phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics are all the components of a particular language.
Noam Chomsky conceptualized Universal Grammar : rules that are actually true in all grammars.
Descriptive Grammar or the Descriptivist : describes grammar
Prescriptive Grammar or the Prescriptivist : prescribes grammar and correct grammar depending on what is the standard english.
World Englishes - theory by Braj Kachru
" No One Nation Can Actually Claim English "
Inner Circle - English as 1st Language
Outer Circle - English as 2nd Language
Expanding Circle - English as their Foreign Language
Language is considered as 1st language when you are fluent in a particular language.
Grammaticality - correctness of a particular sentence
Acceptability - when a content in a sentence doesn't make sense.
That's all. Thank you :)
