Page 251 - English - Teaching Academic Esl Writing

ADJECTIVES AND ADVERBS 237
Why do you think Sentence (3) does not make much sense even when Sentence (1) seems to be perfectly acceptable? Can you quickly formulate an explanation that students can use when working with sentence or word modifiers to reduced the number of similar ungrammatical constructions?
3. Can you explain why and how the placement of adverbials makes a great deal of difference in the following sentences?
The experiment was conducted, and the book was published later in 2003. In 2003, the experiment was conducted and the book was published later. In 2003, the experiment was conducted and later the book was published. The experiment was conducted in 2003, and the book was published later.
4. As noted, adjectivals and adverbials play different modifying roles and can describe different sentence elements such as nouns, verbs, adjec- tives, or entire sentences. Do you think it is always possible to identify the modifying functions of adjectivals and adverbials unambiguously? Can you come up with a few examples/ sentences in which it is hard to tell what par- ticular word or phrase is being modified? Can you also explain the reasons that make it difficult to clearly identify the function of these modifiers?
5. There is a certain intuitive order in which native speakers of English organize sequences of modifiers. For example, the sentence, The scientists conducted the experiment can be modified by means of the following adverbials:
at The Big University in 2002 with great fanfare
(a) What is the order in which these modifiers can be arranged? In the sen- tence-initial position? In the sentence-final position? What would happen if you add the adverb of frequency twice to the mix? If you add another adverb of manner brilliantly? If you add another place adverbial in Beautiful State?
(b) Can you formulate a rule that students can use when constructing sen- tences with multiple adverbials?
FURTHER READINGS ABOUT ADJECTIVES,ADVERBS, AND TEACHING
Duffley, P J. (1992). The English infinitive. London: Longman.
Halliday, M. A. K., & Hasan, R. (1976). Cohesion in English. London: Longman. Hinkel, E. (1997). Indirectness in L1 and L2 academic writing.Journal of Pragmatics,
27(3), 360-386.
Hoye, L. (1997). Adverbs and modality in English. London: Longman. Maynard,S.(1993).Discoursemodality: Subjectivity, emotionandvoiceintheJapaneselan-
guage. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
McGloin, N. (1996). Subjectivization and adverbs in Japanese. In N. Akatsuka, S.
Iwasaki, & S. Strauss (Eds.), Japanese and Korean linguistics ( p p . 187-199). Palo Alto, CA: Center for Study of Language and Information.
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