Understanding Must, Adjectives, and Language Competence
What is the past of must? Must does not have a past form, but we can use two structures instead. The structure we use depends on whether we want to express obligation or if we want to say how certain we are about the probability of something happening. To express obligation, we use the structure: had + infinitive. For example: “They had to sleep.” To express a personal opinion in the past, we use the structure: must + have + past participle. For example: “They must have arrived late.” Why can you say ‘I’m completely sure’ but not ‘I’m completely angry’? It is not correct to say “I’m completely sure” because sure is a non-gradable adjective. This type of adjective cannot vary in intensity or in grade. They are already extreme, absolute, or classifying. In the case of the first sentence, sure would be classifying. Angry is a gradable adjective; those adjectives can vary in intensity or in grade. When do we double the last consonant of a verb when adding –ing or –ed? When adding a suffix to the verb, we must take into account if the last syllable is the stressed one or not. If it is the stressed one, then we must pay attention to the word ending because if it ends with a consonant-vowel-consonant structure, then the last consonant must be doubled. Begin + ing = Beginning. Swim + ing = Swimming. Stop + ed = Stopped. What is linguistic competence? Why is it important for the teacher-learner of English? Linguistic competence is the system of linguistic knowledge. It also enables speakers to produce and understand an infinite number of sentences. It is useful for distinguishing grammatical sentences from those that are ungrammatical. A teacher has to know how to use the language and how to explain it to his/her students so they can obtain linguistic competence. What is metalinguistic awareness? Why is it important for the teacher-learner of English? Metalinguistic awareness is about being aware of language structures and being conscious of the use of those structures. (It is about making explicit what we know in an implicit way.) For the teacher of English, being aware of the language he or she is using and how that language works is basic because it helps explain it to his or her students. For the learner of English, it is important because the more aware of the language and its functions someone is, the better use they will make of it. What is language standardization? Do you know any institution concerned with language standardization? In order to understand what language standardization is, we must know that the differences that appear between diverse varieties of a language cause many practical problems. To avoid that, one of the varieties is chosen as the main variety for communication, and then a process of setting down explicit codification and a set of linguistic norms starts. The result of this process will be the standard form of the language. What is the best English variety you can think of? In what sense is it better than other varieties? It is important to know that there are no varieties that are better than others in English. Any variety of English spoken by a large community of people follows the same linguistic rules and can be considered an accepted variety. However, from a prescriptive point of view, there is only one variety that is grammatically correct or better than others; this variety is called, “Standard English,” “Oxford English,” “BBC English,” or “Queen’s English.” Voiced Consonants: b, d, th (then), v, l, r, z, j. Voiceless Consonants: p, t, k, s, sh, ch, th (thing). Voiceless Alveolar: t. Voiced Alveolar: d. Voiced Alveolar Nasal: n. Voiceless Alveolar Nasal: n. Alveolar Ejective: t. Voiced Alveolar Implosive: (not specified). Voiceless Alveolar Implosive: (not specified).