EXPLICIT TEACHING OF CONCEPTS - THE MERRILL-TENNYSON MODEL

Definition Name:
Prototype Example:
Verbal Description:
Positive Instances

After
Making
Love We
Hear
Footsteps
After Making Love We Hear
Footsteps
Galway
Kinnell, 1927
Galway Kinnell, 1927
For I can snore like a
bullhorn
For I can snore like a bullhorn
Negative Instances

or play loud music or play loud music
or sit up talking with
any reasonably sober
Irishman
or sit up talking with any reasonably sober Irishman
and Fergus will only
sink deeper
and Fergus will only sink deeper
Interrogatory Instances
Borderline Cases Is this an example of the
Concept or NOT?
into his dreamless
sleep, which goes by
all in one flash,
into his dreamless sleep, which goes by all in one flash,
but let there be that
heavy breathing
but let there be that heavy breathing
or a stifled come-cry
anywhere in the
house
or a stifled come-cry anywhere in the house
Attribute Elaboration

and he will wrench and he will wrench himself awake






himself awake
and make for it on the
runas now, we lie
together,
and make for it on the runas now, we lie together,
after making love,
quiet, touching along
the length of our
bodies,
after making love, quiet, touching along the length of our
bodies,
Definition Name: METONYMY
Prototype
Example:
When you say the pen is mightier than the sword, to express the idea
that writing is more powerful than warfare, you are using two metonyms.
Verbal
Description:
A figure of speech that replaces the name of one thing with the name of
something else closely associated with it. (Oxford Dictionary of Literary
Terms)
Positive Instances

Example 1.: He had a problem with the bottle.
Example 2.: The White House called for a full UN investigation.
Example 3.: As he swung toward them holding up the hand/Half in appeal, but half as
if to keep/The life from spilling - Robert Frost, Out, Out, Out.
Student Example:
Negative Instances

Non-Example 1.: He was fishing for information (metaphor)
Non-Example 2.: Some unpoliced fingers scratched the match into flame. (synecdoche)
Non-Example 3.: Feeling nearly faded as my jeans. (simile)
Student Example:
Interrogatory Instances
Borderline Cases Is this an example of the
Concept or NOT?
Borderline
Example 1.:
Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears. Shakespeare, Julius
Caesar
Borderline
Example 2.:
His wife had left him two weeks earlier, and today he was looking pretty
down.
Student Example
Attribute Elaboration

Statement 1.: A metonym establishes relations of contiguity between two things, where
a metaphor establishes relations of similarity between two things.
Statement 2.: Metonymy associates ideas within a domain of usage (pearl-fishing);
metaphor translates associated meanings to a new domain (fishing for
information).
Statement 3: A metonym relates two separate ideas within a domain; a synecdoche
indirectly refers to a single idea by reference to a part of it.