Re: History of French

From: Ruud Harmsen (realemailseesite01_at_rudhar.com)
Date: 09/15/04 

Date: Wed, 15 Sep 2004 12:17:31 +0200

Wed, 15 Sep 2004 00:09:40 GMT: Nathan Sanders
<nsanders.DIE.SPAM@wso.williams.edu>: in sci.lang:

>For example, schools don't have to teach native Enlglish speakers
>which prepositions go with which verbs because they already know
>before they get to school. However, it takes years of deliberate
>memorization for a non-native speaker to learn, while native speakers
>pick it up naturally and can use the correct prepositions with no
>conscious effort.

O yes. I'm still hesitating about such things as I write. This is
horribly difficult. And I have a native language that has similar
prepositions, so I only have to deal with the slight differences. But
there are many.
Now imagine someone whose native language does not have prepositions
at all.
Similar example: articles. Notice any Russian or Polish
second-language learner of English. Even if they have near native
command, this is where they will inevitably fail sooner or later.
Because the rules are so complicated. But native speakers think it's
easy, it's just 'the' or 'a'. What could be difficult about that?
Yeah, right. 

-- 
Ruud Harmsen - http://rudhar.com

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Universal grammar
    ... prepositions, for correct grammar, also for slang words ... eg Brit 'at school' vs US 'in school'. ... Tools don't replace the human hand, ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Re: History of French
    ... >> which prepositions go with which verbs because they already know ... >> before they get to school. ... now you're just flat-out lying. ...
    (sci.lang)
Quantcast