Re: Grammar in HS (Was: Re: Argument Structures)

On Wed, Aug 23, 2000 at 04:05:48PM -0400, Yoon Ha Lee wrote:
[snip]
> YHL
> wondering what others' experiences are, and wishing she had more formal
> grammar (I learned more English grammar from taking French, like what
> this infinitive thing is, than from taking 12 years of English classes)
Did you learn English here or in Korea? I learnt English when I was still
in Malaysia, and boy were we drilled with English grammar :-)

I can almost picture my old English teacher rambling on about infinitives
in class... though that was covered only at form 5 (equiv grade 11 here).
I distinctly remember being rather amused at attaching "to" to verbs to
turn them into infinitives... "so was it `to sung' or `to sing'?" :-)

Though I also have a similar experience as your learning French -- I had
also somewhat acquired a "gut feeling" for English and wasn't exactly
clear on many grammatical points, until I took a course in classical
Greek. I had never differentiated gerunds from participles until I learned
the difference in Greek.... :-)


T