Diploma in TESOL

by
Distance Learning
UNIT 2: SEMANTICS/LANGUAGE AWARENESS

Module 2 (2 of 4)

 Progressive and Perfect Aspects: form and meaning

 The Progressive Aspect and Stative Verbs
 Form and Meaning of the Perfect Aspect
 Sentence Structure: units of language, sentence elements
PROGRESSIVE AND PERFECT ASPECTS

In addition to the verb forms which grammarians refer to as tenses, there

are other forms made with auxiliaries which are referred to as aspect. Lewis
defines aspect as “a verb form involving the use of an auxiliary which allows
the speaker to interpret the temporal elements of an event.”

Form and Meaning

Form of Progressive Aspect

Self-check 1

Look at these examples of progressive aspect. Do they all contain the form
(be) + -ing ?

He’s sending an email.

I read a magazine while I was waiting
I’ve been learning Italian since October.
I’ll be studying all day tomorrow.
He must be trying very hard.
The plane is being checked tomorrow.

Meaning of Progressive Aspect

Batstone 1994 warns against the danger of teachers giving learners

idealisations in their statements about grammar. “If we were to say ´the
present tense is used for talking about present time`, we would, of course, be
making a vast idealization which would be of little practical value. The present
tense can signal future time, as with ‘when he arrives I’ll speak to him’, and
even past time, as with ‘At the bus stop this man comes up to me and he
says….’ So there are good grounds for giving our idealizations a sharper
focus”
He goes on to ask how sharply focused they should be. He takes Leech
1989´s description of the progressive form:

The progressive form usually describes a temporary happening, ie

something which happens during a limited period.

Unit 2 1 Module 2
“This formulation appears to be considerably sharper than the
aforementioned equation between present tense and present time. Yet we
can still find counter-examples”

Self-check 2

What counter-examples can you think of for the above idealisation?

Do you think these counter-examples are very common and/or important?
Would you be happy to use the above “rule” with your students?

Self-check 3

Does the following idealization have a sharper focus?

Leech and Svartvik (1975) “The progressive aspect refers to activity IN

PROGRESS, and therefore suggests not only that the activity is
TEMPORARY (i.e. of limited duration), but that it NEED NOT BE
COMPLETE. This element of meaning is most evident in the past tense, if
speakers say “I’m working at ….” or “I’m jogging every morning these days”,
they choose to use the progressive rather than simple present and by doing
so they are indicating that the situation is still in progress, but temporarily.

Self-check 4

Complete these exercises on the progressive aspect and then read the
corresponding notes from the teacher’s book (in the KEY). What is your
opinion of these materials? Do the writers’ rules correspond with those given
above?

Unit 2 2 Module 2
 (from “Proficiency Masterclass” Student’s book)

Unit 2 3 Module 2
FORM AND MEANING OF THE PERFECT ASPECT

Form of The Perfect Aspect

Self-check 5

Look at these examples of the perfect aspect. Do they all contain the form
(have) + past participle?

How long have you been here?

It’s been specially designed for the partially sighted.
There’s no problem; it’ll have been done in time for the match.
She’s been talking about it for weeks.
She can’t have known about it!
He must have had to wait.
You could have come earlier.
I’d seen it before.

Meaning of The Perfect Aspect

Self-check 6

Relate the following idealisations to the examples of perfect aspect above.

Which do you prefer, and why?

“The perfect aspect is used for a past happening which is seen in relation to a
later event or time. Thus the present perfect means ´past-time-related-to-
present-time. For example:
He was in prison for ten years. (= Now he’s out)
He has been in prison for ten years (= He’s still there)”
(Leech and Svartvik 1975)

“Its fundamental meaning is that the speaker is looking back.” (Lewis 1986)

“…indicating that the event occurred in the period up to a given point in time:
before-now, or before-then.”

(Penguin English Grammar)

Self-check 7

Complete these exercises on the perfect aspect and then read the
corresponding notes from the teacher’s book (in the KEY).
What is your opinion of these materials?

Notice the differences between American English and British English here.

Unit 2 4 Module 2
 (from “Proficiency Masterclass” Student´s book)

Unit 2 5 Module 2
SENTENCE STRUCTURE

Units of Language

“Linguists usually define the largest unit of language as ‘discourse’ or ‘text’;

but for most practical teaching purposes, the sentence is probably the most
convenient ‘base’ unit” (Ur, P 1994).

Ur goes on to define a sentence as “a set of words standing on their own as

a sense unit, its conclusion marked by a full stop or equivalent (question
mark, exclamation mark). In many languages sentences begin with a capital
letter, and include a verb” (This definition and those of the sentence
components below are from Ur, P 1994).

Components of a sentence include:

Clause: “a group of words which form a grammatical unit and which contain a
subject and a finite verb. A clause forms a sentence or part of a sentence.”

Phrase: “a shorter unit within the clause, or one or more words, but fulfilling
the same sort of function as a single word. A verb phrase, for example,
functions the same way as a single-word verb, a noun phrase like a one-word
noun or pronoun: was going; a long table.”

Word: “the minimum normally separable form: in writing it appears as a

stretch of letters with a space either side.”

Morpheme: “a bit of a word which can be perceived as a distinct component:

within the word passed, for example, are the two morphemes pass, and –ed.
A word may consist of a single morpheme (book).”

Self-check 8

Look at a sentence in another language you know. Can you analyse this
sentence according to the same components?

Unit 2 6 Module 2
Sentence Elements

Another way of analysing a sentence uses five different types of sentence

elements: subject, verb, object, complement, and adverbial (S,V,O,C,A)

Self-check 9

Do the following exercises on sentence structure in the simple sentence.

Unit 2 7 Module 2
Unit 2 8 Module 2
Unit 2 9 Module 2
 (from Thornbury - 1997)

Self-check 10

Do the following exercises on sentence structure in the complex sentence.

Unit 2 10 Module 2
Unit 2 11 Module 2
Unit 2 12 Module 2
 (from Thornbury – 1997)
Unit 2 13 Module 2
UNIT 2: SEMANTICS/LANGUAGE AWARENESS

Module 2 (2 of 4)

KEY TO SELF-CHECKS

Self-check 1

Yes

Self-check 2

Batstone’s examples:

We’re all getting older.

She’s always buying me presents.

Neither of these carries the idea of “temporary” or “limited.”

However, as Batstone says, “We can go too far in a quest for accuracy,
engaging in an on-going process of formulation and reformulation, as
counter-examples and more finely tuned accounts follow each other in an
endless pursuit for the perfect idealization. But there is no such thing.”
He concludes, “When we give clear-cut idealizations to our learners, we are
(of necessity) being economical with the truth.”

Self-check 3

Yes, the idea that the situation or action may not be complete.

Unit 2 14 Module 2
Self-check 4

(from “Proficiency Masterclass” Teacher´s Book)

Unit 2 15 Module 2
Self-check 5

Yes

Self-check 7

(from “Proficiency Masterclass” Teacher´s Book)

Unit 2 16 Module 2
Suggested Reading:

Lewis page 51 and chapters 10 to 12

Thornbury chapters 17 and 18

Self-check 9

Unit 2 17 Module 2
Unit 2 18 Module 2
Unit 2 19 Module 2
Self-check 10

Unit 2 20 Module 2
Unit 2 21 Module 2
Unit 2 22 Module 2
Unit 2 23 Module 2
Unit 2 24 Module 2
 (from Thornbury – 1977)

Unit 2 25 Module 2