Transcript Grammar - Hawaii2010

Grammar
Rebecca McFarlan
Indian Hill HS
Cincinnati, OH
[email protected]
Three Categories of Verbs
• Voice (Active/Passive)
• Tense
• Mood (Indicative – Imperative – Subjunctive)
•
•
Why are Verbs Important?
Verbs have more personality than any other part of speech. They have voice, mood, and
tense.
Passive voice can be a problem for writers who don't have a clear focus. The extra words give
the writer time to think of his or her next point.
–
•
•
•
•
In modern prose, the active voice is usually preferred because it is clearer and creates a livelier narrative pace than
does the passive voice.
·
Accomplished writers and orators, however, do consciously choose the
passive voice for intended purposes, for example:
o
Politicians distance themselves from acts with the passive voice.
o
If the result is more important than the action, the passive voice emphasizes
the effect rather than the cause. Scientists use the passive voice to detail their experiments
because their findings are more important than their actions.
o
Passive voice creates psychological distance.
Why Verbs are Important
• Create and control a sense of time and narrative
pace: Verb Tense
• Create and control distance from the speaker and
subject: Active/Passive Voice
• Create tone and mood: Verb Mood (Indicative,
Imperative, Subjunctive)
Passive versus Active Voice: Principle Part of
the Verb
Present
See
Go
Say
Call
Smiled
Past
Saw
Went
Said
Called
Smiled
Past Participle
Seen
Gone
Said
Called
Smiled
Active or Passive?
• Test 1: A form of “to be” + past participle = Passive Voice
– Jim was seen at the movie.
– Jim saw the movie.
• Test 2: Ask whether the subject completes the action or is
acted upon.
– John was called by Joni
– John called Joni.
Why Do We Care?????
• Passive voice can be a problem for writers
who don't have a clear focus. The extra words
give the writer time to think of his or her next
point.
• In modern prose, the active voice is usually
preferred because it is clearer and creates a
livelier narrative pace than does the passive
voice.
My fellow citizens, for the last nine days, the
entire world has seen for itself the state of
our Union—and it is strong.
Tonight we are a country awakened to danger
and called to defend freedom. Our grief has
turned to anger, and anger to resolution.
Whether we bring our enemies to justice, or
bring justice to our enemies, justice will be
done.
•
George W. Bush, excerpted from: "An Address to a Joint Session of Congress and the American People,"
September 20, 2001; http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/09/print/20010920-8.html
.
March 13, 2005
Verb Tense
Past
Present
Future
Simple
Went
Go
Perfect
Had
gone
Have gone Will have
gone
Progressive Was
going
Is going
Will go
Will be
going
Verb Tense Controls Time
• Simple Tense – Action or being tends to be
more immediate and of shorter duration than
that of the perfect tense.
• Perfect Tense – Action or being tends to be of
longer duration than that of the simple tense.
• Progressive Tense – Can convey an unfinished,
continuing or a more temporary action than
either the simple or perfect tense.
Tense and Time
Past
Perfect
Past
Present
Perfect
Present
Future
Perfect
Future
Verb Mood
• Indicative – fact
– I ran home.
• Imperative – command
– Run home now.
• Subjunctive – possibility, wish, or potential
– If I run, I might be home on time.
Examples
• Would she were mine.
• If she be not for me, what care I how fair she be?
• Be he dead or be he alive, I’ll grind his bones to
make my bread.
• If it were done when ‘tis done, then ‘twere well/It
were done quickly.
» Macbeth
Present Indicative vs. Subjunctive
I am
You are
We are
You are
(S)he,it is They are
I be
We be
Thou be
Thou be
(S)he,it be They be
Present Subjunctive – To Have
I have
We have
Thou have
Thou have
(S)he,it have
They have
Is it essential that he have a witness?
Is it essential that he have a witness?
Present Subjunctive – Regular Verbs
Drop the “s” on 3rd person singular
If a man die, shall he live again?
Past Indicative vs. Subjunctive
I was
We were
I were
We were
You were You were
Thou were Thou were
It was They were
It were
I wish he were coming
They were
POTENTIAL SUBJUNCTIVES
CAN/COULD
SHOULD/WOULD
MAY/MIGHT
In the normal course of events, Presidents come to this
chamber to report on the state of the Union. Tonight, no
such report is needed. It has already been delivered by
the American people…
We have seen the state of our Union in the endurance of
rescuers, working past exhaustion. We have seen the
unfurling of flags, the lighting of candles, the giving of
blood, the saying of prayers—in English, Hebrew, and
Arabic. We have seen the decency of a loving and giving
people who have made the grief of strangers their own.
My fellow citizens, for the last nine days, the entire world
has seen for itself the state of our Union—and it is
strong.
Tonight we are a country awakened to danger and called to
defend freedom. Our grief has turned to anger, and
anger to resolution. Whether we bring our enemies to
justice, or bring justice to our enemies, justice will be
done.
George W. Bush, September 20, 2001
• Nouns and verbs are the building blocks of our
language.
• Nouns name our world and allow us to communicate
with others about it.
• Nouns help identify main ideas and themes.
• Vague nouns do not usually add much depth to
writing.
• Concrete nouns create pictures.
Nouns
Nouns that name
People
Nouns that Name
Things/Objects
Nouns that Name
Places
Nouns that Name
an Idea
Student Directions
• Identifying and analyzing nouns are an excellent
reading strategy. They will help you focus on the
main ideas. Listen for nouns as I read the poem "My
Papa's Waltz" to you. As you hear a noun, write it in
the proper column. After I finish reading the poem
two times, your grammar squad will have five
minutes to compile a team list and answer the
following questions. Your team will receive one point
for each correct noun.
My Papa’s Waltz
Was battered on one knuckle;
The whiskey on your breath
Could make a small boy dizzy;
But I hung on like death:
Such waltzing was not easy.
We romped until the pans
Slid from the kitchen* shelf;
My mother's countenance
Could not unfrown itself.
The hand that held my wrist
At every step you missed
My right ear scraped a buckle.
You beat time on my head
With a palm caked hard by dirt,
Then waltzed me off to bed
Still clinging to your shirt.
Nouns that name
People
Boy
Nouns
Nouns that Name
Things/Objects
Nouns that Name
Places
Nouns that Name
an Idea
Whiskey
Breath
Countenance
Knuckle
Buckle
Pans
Palm
Ear
Shirt
Bed
Head
Hand
Dirt
Shelf (could
also be an
object)
Time
Death
Waltzing
Step
Waltz
Nouns – Parts of the Sentence
Subject
Direct Object
whiskey
waltzing
countenance
hand
ears
boy
wrist (object of
the relative
pronoun “that”
buckle
time
Object of the
Preposition
(on your) breath
(on like) death
(until the) pans
(from the kitchen)
shelf
(on one) knuckle
(at every) step
(on my) head
(with a) palm
(by) dirt
(to) bed
(to your) shirt
Adjective
kitchen
mother’s
So What?
•
•
•
•
Who is the poem about?
Why is the setting important?
What is the significance of the objects?
Why do you think Roethke uses the noun kitchen as an
adjective to modify the noun shelf?
• What is the poem’s theme?
• What is Roethke’s tone?
• Write a thesis statement.