Re: ``Ken and I being on the radio together''

In article <25q175-fat.ln1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
Adam Funk <a24061@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On 2008-01-28, Peter T. Daniels wrote:

[AF]
Maybe we should stop teaching English in high schools, abolish usage
guides, and just tell everyone to transcribe whatever comes out
naturally!

Maybe we should teach Starndard English according to the facts of
Standard English and not according to the facts of Classical Latin.

I agree! All I'm saying is that it's worth teaching the young'uns
that a verbal "-ing"-noun and a verbal "-ing"-adjective may look the
same in isolation but don't have the same functions in sentences.

I'm not sure I understand the point of teaching the difference to
anyone. What kind of error are you supposing that an ESL learner
would make if they weren't taught the difference?

Native English speakers won't make an error, because they have already
internalized the difference. It doesn't need to be taught to them,
because they don't need conscious awareness of it to use -ing
"properly" (unless there's some difference between standard and spoken
English that you're thinking of that I'm unaware of).

Nathan

--
Nathan Sanders
Linguistics Program
Williams College
http://wso.williams.edu/~nsanders/
.

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