tailieunhanh - The grammar book teacher course part 28

Asking students to engage in particular tasks that require the use of certain structures is an implicit means of getting students to focus on and to practice form. In addition, a teacher might highlight properties of the grammatical structures by providing negative evidence—that is, helping students to see what is not possible in English. | Chapter 10 Negation 185 The choice of in- im- il- or ir-is phonologically conditioned by the consonant which follows it. In- is most common but im- is used if the following consonant is a bilabial 6 p m il- with a stem beginning with Z and ir-when the adjective begins with There is also a negative suffix -less which can be used to negate nouns by expressing their absence or nonexistence thus forming adjectives such as hopeless penniless speechless lifeless and shameless. Howell personal communication has pointed out that there is a similar suffix -free with a more positive connotation cf. careless vs. carefree - smoke-free workplace fat-free foods. Certain indefinite pronouns and an adverb beginning with no- can also be used to give a negative meaning no thing nothing Nothing has been done. no body nobody Nobody is home. no one no one two words 4 No one seems concerned. no where nowhere They were nowhere to be seen. However not all words can be made negative with the use of affixes. Lexical gaps exist some words have no single-word negative counterparts. For instance we say not unique not ununique. It works the opposite way as well. Some words exist in negative forms that have no affirmative counterparts as the following humorous excerpt from Jack Winter s essay in the New Yorker July 25 1984 volume 75 page 82 entitled How I Met My Wife makes clear It had been a rough day so when I walked into the party I was very chaiant despite my efforts to appear gruntled and consolate. I was furling my wieldy umbrella for the coat check when I saw her standing alone in a comer. She was a descript person a woman in a state of total array. Her hair was kempt her clothing shevelled and she moved in a gainly way. Other formally negative items are the negative adverb of frequency never not ever the negative coordinating conjunction nor and not and the negative correlative conjunctions neither. nor not either . Functional items that are not formally marked for negation but that