Functional English Grammar: An Introduction for Second Language Teachers

Functional English Grammar An Introduction for Second Language Teachers Functional English Grammar An Introduction for Second Language Teachers Mr Trương Văn Ánh Unit 2 Representing things Countabilit[.]

Functional English Grammar:

An Introduction for Second

Language Teachers

Mr Trương Văn Ánh

Unit 2

Representing things Countability

Mass and count nouns

Mass nouns have only one form while count nouns have two forms: singular and plural

1 2

Baggage a pen, pens

Water a river, rivers

Milk a cup, cups

Nouns which are both count and mass

In a shopping center:

Ex: I would like to buy a dozen of eggs She bought a kilo of oranges

Coffee is sold in packets

The farmer raises many chickens

At a party:

Ex: Would you like some egg?

She ate some orange

Waiter, a coffee please!

He eats some chicken

We should not classify nouns into count or mass, but we should classify their uses into count or mass

Invariable plural nouns and collective nouns

Some nouns have only plural forms They have symmetrical parts

Ex: trousers, scissors, pliers, glasses, etc

Collective nouns are called plural when they are considered individual members They are called singular when they are thought of as a whole

Ex: Our family is happy.

Our family go to work and school in the morning

Noun groups

Noun groups can be considered expanded nouns Ex: Milk is sweet

The milk in this glass is tasteless

Prem Head Postmodifier

In a noun group, the structure includes premodifier, head and postmodifier

Functions within noun groups

Ex: The three extremely angry factory workers from welding workshop who have been treated badly

The functions are analyzed as follows

The referring

three quantifying extremely angry describing

factory classifying

who have been treated badly qualifying

Referrers

There are four main kinds of Referrers:

Articles: a, the, ZERO (no expressed Referrer)

Demonstratives: this, that, these, those, such, the same, etc

Possessives: my, your, Mary’s, etc

Inclusives: all, either, both, each, every, no, etc

* They are mutually exclusive

Backward-pointing reference

There is a student in the class The student is from Binh Dinh

Forward-pointing reference

The rivers in South Vietnam

Outward-pointing reference

The Prime Minister visits Vung Tau today

The reference is outside the context

Besides, there is another kind which is called generic reference indicating a whole class of things or animals For example, the working class suffer from the oppression of the employers Insects may cause serious diseases for human beings

Other parts of speech may be used to indicate nouns They are called the nominal

Ex: The poor face many difficulties

Swimming makes us strong

Would you like brown hat or black hat?

The brown one

Decide which of the following words are not nouns, and state, as explicitly as you can, how you reached your decision in each case: nation, listen, kingdom, liked, never, ability, of, development, useless, happiness, careful, quickly, and,

The following nouns are often used both as count nouns and as mass nouns In each case think of a context in which the noun could be used as a count noun and a context in which it could be used as a mass noun (e.g., coffee in a shop and in

a café)

What generalizations can you make about the differences in meaning between the count and mass uses of these nouns?

cheese chocolate experiencewine

life kindness metal noisebusiness

cake war work egg time

Think of a context in which all or most of the nouns used would be count nouns and a context in which all or most of the nouns used would be mass nouns How can these contexts

be exploited for teaching purposes?

Suggest some activities for advanced students

to sensilize them to differences in meaning between the same nouns treated as mass and treated as count

Good luck!