‘Centro de Estudios ECOEM, S.A, — Curso 2007/2008 EXPRESION DE LA ASERCION, EL ENFASIS "Y LAOBIECION. A._READER NO 2 assexttons. LE sung on ein woman EX Symuiceare ts eres santo, 2 enemas, SM pets ard esses 32 Tope ere. 33. Femena ik en 35 rang win so 36 Conamores 10) foseenenat or apo 38, enon. 5 laren 4 oniecrion. AD Coenen esos 32. oats B._RESOURCES, '. AIBLIOGRApIEY AND REFERENCES (TOPIC) Tene as, ._SUMMARY/CONCEPT MAP 10, CONCEPT MAP PLR Ee (EXPRESSION OF ASSERTION, EMPHASIS AND OBJECTION. —_] 1. INTRODUCTION. he oe rotons nasal ns ape earth ra en we laa psa atte apne” ed way hc rao one Ih the messoge Ue ay moon ce ena te nptesne y lage vty ma Tar frais sare, sec, nh a Senet sein of he noon a floes wi en Ulett pasts orl sgonrt wns low tha avensaan of he Seed mesg om te sear te the a The fra opens re useaty preea ay $bough eres oon ths serene Plan, eh 2. ASSERTION 24. PRESENTING AND FOCUSING INFORMATION. ‘The te asereln gusts mars esa aun facta ete ‘othe way nmin hvomaton stich neces theo opany eer Te ri mab wane of Inc sqm ad Oe oem whe ean ates tem Patna me (te nt ota te naracsn ftearane tom rena ssn 9 ‘lgemgrenting to maoral ino afeces aie i HN ede eat ot ‘tino the dese a Tht anaes by en wad cr hf ‘exogue rma the par of frat tt ws a eight ur ae, ‘Seon te prostng enogh satan al are at be menage score ‘foe momage 0, Oe Fahy abe mares by prone pomeanea: Bt en he ussoge wits shay raha rrt, he wr mas ll are he ‘Tiara ety fe hgh by nats Soo san eral ema pose Danner ration afoot sede fats re tre ear Be peng Screg emt fer er ten, te we ace 2.4.4, TOPIC AND COMMENT. ‘he sen de he Kt aucune wtne der Sole i her owe stein pees ei because opens towne oat et el ‘heute In Eg, pon (el romatan asus be ge el a pants corm) so presse nen nema sn tee pi oe hetopc eins feel poston ne etree er ery goat con, Trecomaong prt othe ssc clad he comment seit crtas ra bers ey and walter Basse feet Wi atone pe ond be Conner {edd ina aoe way oy te sear. The ope us eared oa be comma 3 ‘onthe tems tho nd en Stn tad pe an ema ae 2.1.2 GIVEN ANO MEW IUFORMATION 4s no Prato cvs srt s mast irogen 9 sso reesei formation fais (bres the nuleur era of ont ar), wee eect anceps nto eg rs tan pa iInglés, Tema 24 (Secundaria Pag. 3 formation does not. Naturally, personal pronouns and other substitute words, because they refer to something already mentioned or understood, normally count as old information. It should be noticed that given and new information are what the speaker presents as given and new respectively. What in fact the hearer knows or assumes may be a different thing. For example, a speaker might say: Margaret likes Picasso, | but Jane hates modern painting/ The position of the nucleus here means that the speaker assumes that the hearer knows that Picasso is a modern painter. But of course, the hearer might not have heard of Picasso, or might not regard him as a modern painter. 2.1.3. INFORMATION GIVEN BY SITUATION Given information suggests information which has already been mentioned or alluded to. But we may extend this notion to include information which is given-by the extralinguistic situa- tion. In this respect, given information is like definite meaning and there is indeed a strong connection between given information and definiteness. In the following examples, for which Leech and Svartvik (1975) give the most natural in- tonation, the definite items today, here, and mine do, not: ‘have a:nuclear stress because their meaning is given by the situation. In contrast, the items Saturday, factory, and father's are most likely to be new information, and therefore: receive nuclear:stress: What are you doing today? _.*What are you doing on Saturday? I work here. I work:in a:factory.”.... Mr. Smith is a friend of mine ith is-a friend of my fathers. But the definite items today, ‘here could:have nuclear stress if some contrast were im- plied: iF ue - I know what'you did: esterday, but what are you doing today? J used to;work in a factory, but now I work here. In other examples, the information given by the situation outside language is more a matter of what is expected in.a given context: The kettles boiling. The doctor has called. ods your father at home? Dinner's ready. Ina natural context, the final part of each of these sentences conveys little information, and therefore does not receive the nucleus. In a home, the one thing to announce about kettles is that they are ‘boiling’; and the one thing you expect the doctor to do is ‘call’, etc. Therefore the nucleus occurs, contrary to end-focus, on the earlier and more informative part of the sen- tence. In writing, you cannot point to important information by using intonation, so you have to rely on ordering and subordination of clauses instead. The general rule is that the most im- portant information is saved up to the end so that the sentence finishes with a sort of climax (in the following example underlined ): © ECOEM, S.A. — 902 930 870 — www.ecoem.es — central@ecoem.es Esta publicacién se encuentra registrada, estan reservados todos los derechos. Ni la totalidad ni parte de la misma puede reprodacitse! o transmitirse por ningdn Procedimiento electrénico o mecenlce) incluyendo fotocopia, graba- ont ln bo Intama da racunararién cin narmicn cerita da FCOFM. SA | 1 | | Inglés, Tema 24 (Secundaria) Pag. 4 Arguments in favour of a new building plan, said the mayor, included suggestions that if a new shopping centre were not built, the city's traffic problems would soon become unman- ageable, 2.1.4. END-FOCUS AND END WEIGHT. When you are deciding in which order to place the ideas in an assertion, there are two principles to remember: iL End-focus: The new or most important idea in a piece of information should be placed towards the end, where in speech the nucleus of the tone unit normally falls. This principle may be extended not only to a single piece of information, but to a whole sentence containing many pieces of information. This is because a sentence is generally more effective, especially in writing, if the main point is saved up to the end. 2. End-weight: The more ‘weighty’ part(s) of a sentence, should: be: placed towards the end. Otherwise the sentence may sound awkward and unbalanced. The ‘weight! of an element can be defined in terms of length:(e,g::number of sylla- bles) or in terms of grammatical complexity (number of modifiers, etc.). Both end-focus and end-weight are useful guidin have said, although end-focus is normal, youzare allowed earlier position in the tone unit, for Contrasts weight, as follows: ‘ ciples, not invariable rules. As we peech to: shift the nucleus to an imilarly;’ there are exceptions to end- My father owns the k sie betting-shop. in London. The largest betting-shop: ndon belongs to my father. In the first example,‘a long object phrase (the /argest betting-shop in London) follows a short subject (my father)and a short verb (wns). This sentence keeps to the principle of end- weight. But in the second’example, th ‘long noun phrase comes first. This sentence breaks the end-weight principle;-and ‘| atural than the former one, but it could easily be said by someone wanting to place the sof information on father. Generally, the two principles work together: it is usual. for a short element in a sentence (e.g. a pronoun) to have less information than a longer element. In the case of the last example, however, the two principles of end- weight and end- -focus ¢ SHnich due to the importance of emphasis. 2.2. SYNTACTIC MEANS TO EXPRESS ASSERTION. The topic is just referred to and the comment is asserted. However, the speaker may not-always be able to assert information about the topic (=assert the truth of the proposition), especially when he or she lacks the necessary information. For this reason, there are syntactic structures which typically serve to assert information and structures which cannot perform this function: . affirmative sentences are assertive: We own a flat at the seaside. . interrogative sentences are non-assertive Do you often play tennis? © ECOEM, S.A. — 902 930 870 — www.ecoem.es — central@ecoem.es Esta publicacién se encuentra registrada, estan reservados todos los derechos. Ni fa totalidad ni parte de la misma puede reproducirse o transmitirse por ningtin procedimiento etectrénico o mecanico, incluyendo fotocopia, graba- cién magnética, almacenamiento de informaci6n y sistema de recuperacién, sin permiso escrito de ECOEM, S.A.Inglés, Tema 24 (Secundaria) Pag. 5 . negative sentences are non-assertive (the same applies for sentences with words which have negative meaning, like ‘never’, ‘hardly’, etc.) He isn't playing tennis. J hardly ever see them these days. Apart from the type of sentence used, one can show oneself less assertive by using other constructions (even in an affirmative sentence), like: . conditional clauses I would buy some sugar if I had any money. . Putative should (to express a possible action or state) It’s strange that you should feel any pain... . comparatives He is as clever as any of bis brothers. ° relative defining clauses with condiiond meaning Students who have any complaints should raise’ their hands. The non-assertive character of:the above mentionéd constructions, together with inter- rogative and negative sentences, is:confirmed by the.presence of some non-assertive lexical and grammatical items, which have their assertive counterparts, like determiners and pro- nouns ‘any’ (non-assertive) and 'some’ (assertive): i Is.there any sugar? Yes, there is some in the packet. The following are some’ of'the’most important assertive and non-assertive items: e <. Some = any, in their pronominal or attributive functions, like in the previous ex- ampl Iso in compound pronouns (somebody, something, somewhere, etc.): Theres somebody in the car. Is there anybody in the car? ° Already — yet We have already finished. Have you finished yet? . Still - any more, any longer, yet She is still playing in her room. She isnt playing in her room any more. She hasn’t finished yet. © ECOEM, S.A. — 902 930 870 — www.ecoem.es — central@ecoem.es Esta publicacién se encuentra registrada, estan reservados todos los derechos. Ni la totalidad ni parte de la misma puede reproducirse o transmitirse por ningun procedimiento electrénico o mecanico, incluyendo fotocopia, graba- cién magnética, almacenamiento de informacién y sistema de recuperacién, sin permiso escrito de ECOEM, S.A. ingles, Tema 24 (Secundaria) Pag. 6 . As well, too — either She swims well, too. She cannot swim either. . Sometime — ever I would like to go there sometime. If I ever go there! ° Either The police did not arrest either. Finally, the appearance of non-assertive items depends on the scope of non-assertion in the clause, that is, whether the whole clause is affected or a part only,. For instance, negation does not always include the whole clause within its scope. One can’ listinguish two types of negation: . : . Clausal negation, which applies to the whole clause. It is the’case when the verb of the clause is negated, but also in many‘other cases, where the domain of the negative element can extend over the whole Clause. . . Sub-clausal negation, applicab! a part of’a:clause “or yet produce clauses which can be @ scope of negation, e.g.: Non-assertive items like any, evef,, either, ai considered grammatically correct only.if they fall within olleagues on the matter (did he?) talised:the company (didn’t he?) a. He at no time consulte b. He in no time completely 1 Example a. is a negative clause an instance of clausal, negation and b.: ith non-verb negation but clause b. is positive, a. being ) F sub-clausal negation. 3. 3.1. CONCEPT.AND RESOURCES ‘Orce that you put on a word or phrase in order to make it seem more nificant. English grammar has quite a number of sentence processes which help to arrange’ 1essage for the right order and the right emphasis. Emphasis, as we have seen in the previous-section while studying assertions, can be given by information focusing, which will-be further developed in this paper. But the language can also provide means of giving a unit purely emotive emphasis, by means of exclamations, the persuasive do in imperatives, in- terjections, expletives and intensifiers. A thorough study of emotive expressions would involve examining figures of speech such as simile, hyperbole, and irony. Emphasis by information focusing can be achieved by prosodic devices such as stress and intonation, and by grammatical aspects such as topic fronting, inversion, fronting with so, cleft sentences, passivization, postponement or extraposition, and others (Quirk et al., 1985). © ECOEM, S.A. ~ 902 930 870 — www.ecoem.es ~ central@ecoem.es Esta publicacién se encuentra registrada, estan reservados todos los derechos. Ni la totalidad ni parte de la misma puede reproducirse o transmitirse por ningtin procedimiento electrénico o mecanico, incluyendo fotocopia, graba- cidn magnética, almacenamiento de informacién y sistema de recuperacién, sin permiso escrito de ECOEM, S.A.ngs, Yen 24 Secunda Pia 32. TOPICOR THEME ‘he pinopes of endcis and newest mks teal poston Wa sere of cous tw bina runstrce Ie ot nga. at ha We oan po ‘Star conpreaon wei is the sng pont whl he paras TE ‘Beant pt fe serenes heh sama oor wre eae ge Ha ea hg een re rt (15) caw eames ese eng se coor are ‘any ase) be oe ate (183) be nent cad Pera by QUE ‘ht ates, hoe oF hae se jefe sec, be steely rata ni he ap des Pt ree os, bus asa ba ‘tas samen mei wa ass ee Have ou son BU He (= tape) os me eas inormatn fs) fu sonetines pad fomaten es cna ins cae th tpi ty + tage yu ta mga? B= and as) sre 8 ome 33, FRONTING {ea fhe set you may ako ach lar ep, by moving he ont oft mete. ntl nove gh ll bs ens tb > ‘teens! oaeurn me astute cee a oe oh "ee ors scot eg aerial lon eta tne ver, sh a ose af mane and in i ot ome eatin. ey yb oa ecard a oe tw Ia ero png ‘Th hit gs ror 5 Hn of eyepiece, and ha eae, Sia pine, cnr lp, nd een oe 1 heal amaton gute one fo apoio fos elo prin ty coven nds cuter Srey as png dae enpras, eee ‘Sok apie ment prensa ean tn a of hear 99 ‘Recnougc ‘the etimity spin uw dma ropa aged Sr, C0, ane va dead of eal rer te SVOC VOR em “he pe aloe ‘enamel ‘Bone dy ave hare 23:2. conrmastive Toric. tse De hating nbs w pa cron # crt nv te thegs meh teed rin ceo les wich er hve pre au Te bow SEDO E canon meager i Inglis, Tema 24 (Secundoria) ea. ses showcases nw he pes urcten as pepaston compar ec, aed, | ted eenpemon privy. Ths cnseucon ey com rn any fs ‘reo spon ie ato es trae tng et ner ot et ove tobe fret ‘Bis ney bbe ts ean Pa sree ype of tnt tame mare aa spay tn Ege exp ‘ton wt obs ons praetor ap, ape ‘nis pect tong 2kas mporae a site 9 ert oat ents can tat onthe ore ing en The ord fae a thse Sten reset te ond ‘ep srning fat conan en oman Neves topes nd a earings 34, InvERsrON. . veo aed a oat in ae | Jfoveo non ard se opt 13.4.4, SURIECT-VERB INVERSION Subj meron ry it 2s bw: L Thewebotrostonsststa ele verb wd. 2 Theverbis eeuarotte vb of poston (2, Sano, 02 var of o> tapfeme oe 3.» Tht somata herbi of pac er eta, 3 Thesis puso penn Awe ny they go (rat* how it ok ely te topic ome, bi he et peso rn: "amy go). ‘Theiss f Stet. reson nol sch ge en fons to th sc Thro cur Recs. Of poor te Seach am rg fot naar mae ey ye mae ttn gg ene 2 ‘hea te smn se ote rece po By met rns nd ‘Soh a changer aa pn a | ‘he shes a arty ame homonymous reuters, res SiR Sh — sR — mmc eN StearnInglés, Tema 24 (Secundaria) Pag. 9 "There are our friends vs. There are ‘too many people here The introductory subject there can bring about subject-verb inversion with some verbs in rather literary contexts: There rose in his imagination visions of a world empire. There may come a time when we are less fortunate. On the following day, there was held a splendid banquet. Occasionally subject-verb inversion occurs with a complement as topic when the com- plement expresses a comparison: For a long time he refused to talk to his wife, and kept her in ignorance of his troubles. Equally strange was his behaviour to his son. 3.4.2. SUBJECT-OPERATOR INVERSION This inversion takes place when a negative element has been fronted for emphasis. The dummy operator do is used for the inversion where there is no other Operator in the normal order sentence: They realized only later > Only later did. they realize Under no circumstances must the door be left unlocked. Little does he know how much-suffering he has. caused. Words of negative meaning, such as little in,the last example above, are neither, never, hardly, scarcely, few, little, seldom,iat (not) only... 3.5. FRONTING WITH."SO" iL. So is placed first as a substitute. form’ with the meaning of ‘addition’ and has subject- operator inversion‘in:sentences like: - I've seen the play. “=, «So have I. J enjayed:the ‘play and:so did my friends. 2. When so is fronted to express emphatic affirmation, though, inversion does not take place. The, so;here expresses the hearer's surprise at discovering that what the speaker says:is:true: - You ‘ve spilled wine on your dress. - Oh dear, so I have (= J have indeed). - It 5 raining heavily. - So it is (= it's raining heavily indeed). 3. When so introduces a clause of degree or amount, it can be fronted for emphasis, with subject-operator inversion: So absurd did he look that everybody stared at him. 3.6. CLEFT SENTENCES. The cleft sentence construction with introductory it is useful for fronting an element as ‘opic, and also for putting focus, usually for contrast, on the topic element. Cleft sentences are © ECOEM, S.A. — 902 930 870 — www.ecoem.es — central@ecoem.es Esta publicacién se encuentra registrada, estan reservados todos los derechos. Ni la totalidad ni parte de la misma puede reproducirse o transmitirse por ningun procedimiento electrénico o mecAnico, incluyendo fotocopia, graba- cién magnética, almacenamiento de informacién y sistema de recuperacién, sin permiso escrito de ECOEM, S.A. Inglés, Tema 24 (Secundaria) Pag. 10 particularly useful in written English, where we cannot mark contrastive emphasis by intonation. The emphasis is created by splitting the sentence into two halves, highlighting the topic by making it the complement of /t + be: - Would you like to borrow this book? - No, it's the other one that / want to read. For centuries, London had been growing as a commercial port of world importance. But it was in the north of England that industrial power brought new Prosperity to the country. The contrastive meaning of the topic can be seen if we make clear the implied negative in the two examples above: It's the other book, not that book that I want to read. But it was in the north of England, not in London that... There is another type of cleft sentence, that of the wi type which, like an écleft sen- tence, can be used to highlight one element for contrast. It can be either the ‘subject or the complement of the verb to be, the subject position being more common: Normal pattern: We need more time. Cleft sentence: 1. Jt type: ItS more time that we need 2. Wh- type: Subject:,What we. need: is. more time Complement: More. time is what we need. The wh- cleft sentence is more ‘flexible than:the /t type in these ways: 1. The wh- type can focus:on).the complement of a clause, where the /t- type nor- mally cannot: bet He is a genius > What he is is a'genius, but not * It 5 a genius that he is. 2. The. wh=type can,focus on the verb, by using the substitute verb do: He's, spoilt the. whole thing > What he 's done is spoil the whole thing, but not * It's. spoil the whole thing that he 's done. The complement: of a wh- type cleft sentence takes the form of a non-finite clause. The non-finite verb ‘can be a bare infinitive, a to- infinitive, a past participle, and a present participle’ (ing). The. bare infinitive is the most usual construction. The past participle is only acceptable after done, and the -ing participle has to be used only after doing, after which no other verb form is acceptable: What heil do is spoil the whole thing. What he's done is spoil /to spoil /spoilt the whole thing. What he's doing is spoiling the whole thing. © ECOEM, S.A. — 902 930 870 — www.ecoem.es — central@ecoem.es Esta publicacién se encuentra registrada, estan reservados todos los derechos. Ni la totalidad ni parte de la misma puede reproducirse o transmitirse por ningtin procedimiento electrénico o mecanico, incluyendo fotocopia, graba- cién magnética, almacenamiento de informacién y sistema de recuperacién, sin permiso escrito de ECOEM, S.A.Inglés, Tema 24 (Secundaria) Pag. 11 3.7. POSTPONEMENT OR EXTRAPOSITION. The introductory /t construction, which is not to be confused with the /t- type cleft sen- tence, is a means of postponing a clause to a later position in the sentence, either for end- weight, or for end-focus: That income tax will be reduced is unlikely > > It is unlikely that income tax will be reduced. The it construction postpones a whole sentence element, whether a subject (above) or object: You must find working here enjoyable > > You must find it enjoyable working here. This displacement must occur when the object clause is an infinitive clause: I il leave it to you to lock the door, but not * J 1/ leave to lock the door to you The introductory /t construction is not the off nay to postpone sentence elements. A part of a sentence element may also be postpanied, Fer iple by. ‘splitting an adjective from its modifier: : How ready are they to make peace.with their enemies? , to avoid the awkwardness of a long emphatic element coming in non-final position, par- ticularly when the rest of the sentence is short compared to the subject. The last example above is better expressed than:its. counterpart, followed by other pairs below: How ready to make peace with:their enemies are they? The time had. come:te.decorate the house for Christmas (better than: The time to deco- rate the house for Christmas had. come) The problem arose of what to:do with the money (Better than: The problem of what to do with the money arose). Other cases of postponement are the reflexive pronouns, when used for emphasis, and comparative clauses or phrases, often separated from the words they modify: John himself told me > John told me himself More ‘people own house these days than used to years ago (Not * More people who used to' years ago own houses these days. He showed less pity to his victims than any other tyrant in history (Not * He showed less pity than any other tyrant in history to his victims). 3.8. PASSIVIZATION. Another example of a grammatical process which changes the positions of elements in the sentence is the rule for forming passive sentences. The passive gives the sentence end- focus where the active would not (/t was made by your son), and end-weight where the active sentence would sound awkward: I was astounded that he was prepared to give me a job (Better than: That he was pre- el © ECOEM, S.A. - 902 930 870 — www.ecoem.es — central@ecoem.es Esta publicacién se encuentra registrada, estan reservados todos los derechos. Ni la totalidad ni parte de la misma puede rpeaae 9 transmitirse por ningun procedimiento electrénico o mecanico, incluyendo fotocopia, graba- cién macnética, almacenamiento de informacién y sistema de recuperacién, sin permiso escrito de ECOEM, S.A. i | | | Inglés, Tema 24 (Secundaria) Pag. 12 a pared to give me a job astounded me). The preposition by is omitted here because a that clause cannot be the complement of a preposition. 3.9. INTENSIFIERS. An easy way for secondary EFL students to express emphasis is by intensifiers. Intensi- fiers can be divided into three semantic classes: amplifiers, downtoners, and emphasizers. In- tensifiers are not limited to indicating an increase in intensity; they indicate a point on the in- tensity scale which may be high or low. Amplifers scale upwards from an assumed norm. They can be divided into maximizers, which denote the upper extreme of the scale (e.g. absolutely, altogether, completely, entirely, fully, quite, thoroughly, utterly), and boosters, which denote a high point on the scale (deeply, greatly, much, so, a great deal, a lot, by far, exclamatory how, more), Downtoners have a lowering effect on the force of the verb. Most of them appear in medial position, but can also occur finally. They can be divided into four groups: compromising, with only a slight lowering effect (kind of sort of quite, rather, more or less); diminishers (partly, slightly, somewhat, in part, to some extent, a;litt/e),and minimizers (/ittle, barely, hardly, at all), which scale down considerably, and approximators, which serve to express ap- proximation to the force of the verb (a/most, as ‘good a all bub): Emphasizers have a general heightening. effect. Most of them precede the item they emphasize, but for certain and for sure are exceptional in being postponed. Other emphasizers are actually, certainly, clearly, defini ly, lageed, obviously, Plainly, really, surely, of course, frankly, honestly, literally, simply, fairly, just. ~ 3.10. REINFORCEMENT. Reinforcement. is a feature of Colloquial style whereby some item is repeated (either completely or by pronoun substitution).< -or amplified, for purposes of emphasis. Its simplest form is merely the reiteration, with ‘heavy’stressing, of a word or phrase for emphasis or clarity: It.'sfar, far. too expensive. I agree with every. word you've said--every single word. In-very loose‘and informal speech, a reinforcing or recapitulatory pronoun is sometimes inserted within a clause where it represents an initial noun phrase. Quirk et al. (1985) call this pronoun proxy and spell it in inverted commas-'proxy’. (A proxy is literally a representative or delegate with authority to make decisions for someone who is not present, for example at a meeting). Examples of ‘proxy' pronouns are the following: This man I was telling you about, well, he used to live next door to me. The book I lent you, have you finished it yet? One more way to express reinforcement is by amplification, which Quirk et al. (1985) call amplificatory tags. In contrast to the fronting of items to be subsequently reinforced pro- nominally, an amplificatory phrase may be informally added after the completion of a clause structure which contains a co-referential pronoun: They're all the same, these politicians. © ECOEM, S.A. — 902 930 870 — www.ecoem.es — central@ecoem.es Esta publicacién se encuentra registrada, estan reservados todos los derechos. Ni la totalidad ni parte de la misma puede reproducirse o transmitirse por ningun procedimiento electrénico o mecanico, incluyendo fotocopia, graba- cién magnética, almacenamiento de informacién y sistema de recuperacién, sin permiso escrito de ECOEM, S.A.Inglés, Tema 24 (Secundaria) Pag. 13 I wouldn ‘t trust him for a moment, your brother in law. 4. OBJECTION. 4.1. CONCEPT AND RESOURCES. When you object to something, you express your opposition, dislike, or disapproval of it, or you present a dissenting argument which shows disagreement. Objections are descriptions or reports of some emotive behaviour. An emotive reaction to something can be expressed by prepositions or adverbs: I was against his behaviour. Determinism versus freedom. That comes in conflict with the company's interests. Some lexemes, like some prepositions, express objection by themselves: dislike, disap- prove, hate, dissent, disagree, protest, contradict, disallow, forbid, prohibit; veto, prevent, ar- gue, quarrel, deny, repudiate, reject, refuse, reject, defy, challenge, resist, avoid, dissuade, etc. are verbs which have their correspondent nouns and adjectives, whose use express objection per se. The list could be never-ending, either focusing.on verbs, as above, or on adjectives, stupid, unbearable, impossible, etc., on nouns, such as: suame, lie, problem, etc. or on adverbs, as we have seen above, rather, utterly, at all, Grammar also plays its part on objection’ Negation is the simplest form to express this concept and perhaps the first step to practice objection: with the EFL lower levels. Besides nega- tion, another resource is the progressive .aspect, which may indicate a negative connotation, either dislike, disapproval, or the like, especially when-adverbials such as always, all the time, night and day, still appear in the utterance, or: when the main verb is in the present participle following verbs that indicate repetition: No, Peter is not here. We hardly see.each other because he’s always working Don't pretend it's not.your. fault; You've been wasting your time all your life. He still says he's not to:blame and keeps/goes on inventing the usual stories. The use of some modal auxiliaries, like should(n't), need(n't), must(n’t), also means objection: fan iit You should study harder. You need to be punctual. You must dress more formally. You shouldn 't smoke so much You needn 't shout for me to hear you. You mustn ‘t walk barefoot. Conditional sentences are a useful way to express objection: If you do that again, you "Il end up regretting it. If I were you, I'd be more cautious. If you had told me before, I would have helped you. Had we presented the new project in time, the results would be otherwise. Imperatives are a straightforward way to express objection: Please, behave yourself Stop it! Don ‘ be silly. Let's not waste more time. © ECOEM, S.A. — 902 930 870 — www.ecoem.es — central@ecoem.es Esta publicacién se encuentra registrada, estan reservados todos los derechos. Ni la totalidad ni parte de la misma puede reproducirse o transmitirse por ningiin procedimiento electrénico o mecanico, incluyendo fotocopia, graba- cién magnética, almacenamiento de informacién y sistema de recuperaci6én, sin permiso escrito de ECOEM, S.A. coy ica 2+ \pecunuara Pag. 14 Other ways of influencing people or showing objection are by the use of advice, sugges- tions or any other indirect commands in the form of statement or questions: I d rather take the other flight. I suggest you tell me all about it. Shouldn't we be leaving by now? ~— Why don't you work for a change? How about rewriting it? You might as well listen to me. Exclamations are a common way to show objection, too: What a mess! Isn't that a dream! How daring of you! What an expensive bill! i Oh, my God! For God's sake! Please!!! Again! Phrases and adverbs of contrast are one more resource to express objection: \ In spite of all that, I’m not sure. Despite the rain, the. harvest was good. | Though he's ill, he's coming I was late; however, T missed nothing. | Notwithstanding the crisis, we were able fo achieve good production results. 4.2. TACTFUL DISAGREEMENT. : | When you deny or contradict what someone. alte fi hag ‘stated, ‘the effect is often impolite, | unless the denial is qualified in some way.You:can: qualify it-byan apology or by adjusting to the ‘speaker's point of view. Following are.suggested s some ways to object to two assertions: English is a difficult language and The:book is tremendously well written. . English is a difficult. languag e. Le Im-afraid I alssgree with you. Some languages are even more difficult, I think, 2... True, but the grammar is quite easy. 3e Yes, but it''s not so difficult as Russian. 4... Do you think so? Actually, I find it quite easy ° The book. is. tremendously well written. _Yes, well written as a whole. but there are some rather boring patches, wouldn't “t you a In discussion and argument, there is often a need to agree with one aspect of a speaker's view,. and to disagree with another. Here are some of the methods that might be used to express this sort of qualified agreement: Certainly it's true that ..., but on the other hand... I can-see that ..., but surely... I'm in total agreement with you/Mr Jones/etc. about ..., but we also have to consider ... Agreed, but if we accept ..., then it must (also) be true that... © ECOEM, S.A. — 902 930 870 — www.ecoem.es — central@ecoem.es Esta publicacién se encuentra registrada, estan reservados todos los derechos. Ni la totalidad ni parte de a misma puede reproducirse o transmitirse por ningun procedimiento electrénico o mecanico, incluyendo fotocopia, graba- cién magnética, almacenamiento de informacién y sistema de recuperacién, sin permiso escrito de ECOEM, S.A.Inge, Toma 24 (Socendris ig 1S 5. CONCLUSION. “The workin hi oper to congo be ond caus te st oy eA gon aso op otewnt ammo ampere aoe esas ‘love sapeclscomarcatn Ys vn sion & eager apps oO {Shs ed Scan Te ls etree ona pl ea oe mre eae en tyne ote tao anos oy pow oo ah ars Wu oy suerte ‘Severge sce gt ne TEFEN eae wi at fr wo ince ore ett WER tam oan the ots tt aH Ms See, RESSS'n tre ooccbges capt st communion pacing tet abate Shen {ca tance an be 9 ul ecm o mate sat aware ef th ro atts a2 ‘penetra way Som, dre etre tye se nade Te sxe ee {eo Ftc ore ant sone sors of oman od essa be depot to fee ves Inte carpesnce ners inglés, Tema 24 (Secundart Pi As BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES (TOPIC). + San, Metal 196, Pace Erg Usae Oda Urey Pr. Gains COAL eis amnar 1880 Cals. 1S Gier, 288 cary (205) Coinage Gamer o Eg. contige Sires Pes + Quine H 2a, 1905, 4 Gaprehersie Gamma of te Engin trae ara + ered eta, ortenzecay Lrgusts 1987. Longa. 1 sien,’ R S68 Eh Gromer a2 Outi carbge Use free + Relig a 1s. ni sr ann sh rnp Pets + chads ta 1952 Langman Cetera of anguage Tes nd Aoted + Wels fen, ex cena Ae Can Canbrne’Uesty + leh Jel 1952 Longman Deny of tanauage Tac a oped Tinga Longmen BIBLIOGRAPHY. +p star. amon at atin Set + Te cos ae LO RE y Lace) an ECEN Sela + lyme pts L008» LO, unin FCDEM, Sea, 207. 1 (Pn een 06 Papen ECE, Sv, 206 Levee aan do aati (6) Fara EE Seis, 208 1 Whos Asta: ly mcrae pre Dasara eFax Fabs. Fnacn ey, Se, 2007 + Beane ier. rane ae psa iin Foe +E Rit cog <2 dco ce tna pace Fin ees (fi spare Parc ECOEN, so 00, + fa Sea Gt hone ve se oy ey (i Pro pr Ee Me J tency Eeoey, Sv 207 ("in a y ae) + foe te atin pr a Cts Ba eet de + ios can Ber pra a Chins. Fandcn EOE, eta, 207 1 Giettone Breban fstsey oo in Puen cana boar une Mage ‘Roc eon Eetoras Seaa Funan ECOEM, Set, 27 + bara abu futde ye in Por, ims Ebr Unk Zegtt on cous Satna, Pain BE, Se 207 INTERNET LINKS. 4+ Gossary of linge terme / HL Intereationa jwialngsnsrceanrO oases + Tholmamet Grammar of engi / Untveraty Ctege London pions ocun/ecme-ganelosary + aw Language wer (eeton 3.0) = glossary! mike Gasser pi/wnindaraced snopesInglés, Tema 24 (Secundaria Pag. 17 9. SAMPLE SUMMARY. Introduction The three notions included in this topic, assertion, emphasis and objection are related to personal attitude of the speaker and the way in which information is conveyed in the message. Like any notion, these can also be expressed by a large variety of forms. Their analysis starts, therefore, with a semantic definition of the notion and it follows with explanations about possi- ble formal exponents which allow the transmission of the desired meaning from the speaker to the listener. These formal exponents are usually present on the level of syntax, although em- phasis often finds its expression on the level of intonation, as well. Assertion The term assertive in linguistics is related to the way in which information is structured in a message. The speaker needs to take into account whatever relevant knowledge his or her audience already possess, either because of their general knowledge or because of the context of the utterance. In English, old information (assumed to be old to all participants in communi- cation), tends to precede new information and it forms the topic of the.utterance. The topic occupies the initial position in a sentence: : My brother is a very good: The remaining part of the sentence is Galled the comment and it contains new informa- tion and whatever pieces are necessary oftold information..Now, the topic and the comment are treated in a different way by the speaker. The topic, is just referred to and the comment is as- serted. However, the speaker may not-always be able*to assert information about the topic (=assert the truth of the proposition); especially when he or she lacks the necessary informa- tion. For this reason, there are-syntacti ctures which typically serve to assert informa- tion and structures which cannot perform inction: °. affirmative ‘sentences are assertive: We own a flat at the seaside. ¢ © >. intetrogative sentences are non-assertive Do you often play tennis? ° negative sentences are non-assertive (the same applies for sentences with words which have negative meaning, like ‘never’, ‘hardly’, etc.) He isn’t playing tennis. I hardly ever see them these days. Apart from the type of sentence used, one can show oneself less assertive by using other constructions (even in an affirmative sentence), like: ° conditional clauses I would buy some sugar if 1 had any money. e putative should (to express a possible action or state) It’s strange that you should feel any pain. © ECOEM, S.A. ~— 902 930 870 — www.ecoem.es — central@ecoem.es Esta publicacién se encuentra registrada, estan reservados todos los derechos. Ni la totalidad ni parte de la misma puede reproducirse o transmitirse por ningun procedimiento electrénico o mecanico, incluyendo fotocopia, graba- cién magnética, almacenamiento de informacién y sistema de recuperacién, sin permiso escrito de ECOEM, S.A. angies, 1ema 24 (>ecundaria) Pag. 18 . comparatives He is as clever as any of his brothers. . relative defining clauses with conditional meaning: Students who have any complaints should raise their hands. The non-assertive character of the above mentioned constructions, together with inter- rogative and negative sentences, is confirmed by the presence of some non-assertive lexical and grammatical items, which have their assertive counterparts, like determiners and pro- nouns ‘any’ (non-assertive) and ‘some’ (assertive): Is there any sugar? Yes, there is some in the packet. The following are some of the most important assertive and non-assertive items: . some — any, in their pronominal or attributive functions, like in the previous ex- amples; also in compound pronouns (somebody, something Paes, etc.): There’s somebody in the car. Is there anybody in the car? . already — yet We have already finished. Have you finished yet? . still — any more, any longer, yet She is still playing in her room... She isn’t playing in her room-any:mi She hasn't finished yet. . as well, too — either She swims well, too.. She cannot swim either. . sometime — ever: Z I would like to go there! sometime: Only if I could ever go there! . either : The a did. el arrest either. Finally, die appearance of non-assertive items depends on the scope of non-assertion in the clause, that: whether: the whole clause is affected or a part only. For instance, negation does not always inclu he. whole clause within its scope. One can distinguish two types of negation? - . -clausal: negation, which applies to the whole clause. It is the case when the verb _ Of the:clause is negated, but also in many other cases, where the domain of the negative element can extend over the whole clause. . subclausal negation, applicable to a part of a clause only. Non-assertive items like any, ever, either, at all or yet, produce clauses which can be considered grammatically correct only if they fall within the scope of negation, e.g. (an example from Huddleston, p.145): a. He at no time consulted his colleagues on the matter (did he?) b. He in no time completely revitalised the company (didn’t he) Example a. is a negative clause with non-verb negation but clause b. is positive, a. being an instance of clausal negation and b. of subclausal negation. © ECOEM, S.A. — 902 930 870 — www.ecoem.es — central@ecoem.es Esta publicacién se encuentra registrada, estan reservados todos los derechos. Ni la totalidad ni parte de la misma puede reproducirse o transmitirse por ningun procedimiento electrénico o mecanico, Incluyendo fotocopia, graba- cién magnética, almacenamiento de informacién y sistema de recuperacién, sin permiso escrito de ECOEM, S.A.ems 26 (Secuntaria 19 mphacie es mma aoten,emohaas pc imarance gine. put of ara. inex beled ie ote oe aoa Sui eae on Eg cone oy roma ie wo ‘Snpaes eof rman, kod spaced We oneere™ [Ws wo rok ho ase, on eghasan) ‘hase ws ban by, Gist erp atonay one can 0 se 9 ng of eal re grea tens wc sete «ama papas of cmptaneng pars of pepsin, The lounge sae a he Wo Neue! te enaatea joe wert ope + agian a: ‘Riya oleor | + Tubing sets aes erent Rayer eeyba bana vi rum Nocera +n onus or deter eed haa + np a ope 8 ati Tate serge + idan aed tee ate Deal + Ramecort eth, oo yor, 1 fomthg ne etter dt commer rd gg romero wha wou ‘Swerbe ean ‘SMa rey + plate pat emp na on eth ape: reste tad carton wasted he + Shetek rondo we readin of new dae: 1s ging a ey he + Tavene sts ay oe a ave fhe ya kf hs ‘See sec ee evn a ay oe ‘Reunes bow te outer cout ae bebe are + Raggi wu postin atone wr pea aes: ‘Sencar or aa {ainved shale te rediatetbeenghase) Accter vay of ersing enon ba tana 2d sentence ses. E- phate ta eaten samy rated enon srs owas HS an ‘apc mene we ate nits ree Inglés, Tema 24 (Secunderia} ot] Inpro et races mod above Fees wih case eng ei fhe ruc tae om he ot eset worn sete herd Tider ti go (ith phe) Dutton wa go. (egos on MAT) + Beste opr reste empty ne muck ne begga fea ten targa one oy om EN {ated ore or rest on ie ear word or tog tess wr ‘remarry sh zor vont gtd empha ut dont WANT go (engi on WANT) + Mtoe mien een reat nots (pe er a Objection i Oe ees ect nen oe deste seg oda ee with se ‘tng, Forte pupae ass ne an dnc deer per of maring win ‘ek’ has eager peta, sy asm, Ta eos on e 1+ repr fom orm apse atl ip +l pate wth sch nat tae ope he ein, + getby eyeing cn hee penis st connon eth romeo enantio tet ran ten ein can ee + prow oy nears oon of sans nes, gg ne, (ropes ctton eel nb ‘orate aU aed ay he struc nos carol coo osertien Fete cf econ + SMT se space sre uo pes apc ‘Beet proves ts wa he ae ss ‘ear svay oon your hee! ow east ‘> Beso cad earthen 1 nour kes on ang nas ehaoe + Bea CHOIES. oy cong pute vb, rau,aencits oF ave sheycire coe Soro enoreream fea ss op anne fosaon nds mary acc as ae ae ares ‘estramesate sks Honea ton ate reedces gal a6 aye a ‘tetnorars on bof ath recog of atria sree ae (© ote han, enphss and byte ate resect agua wh ae ce SE ER re set pat ts re aa ‘sore ne Dong ssl Oat, wc tage ee ely ‘ust compat lon spenker ot eg Fay, ts necessary to pre bance ew of noon os ting fom and mean ng. cammunacv nde tacng sxe ood spr toc ets ‘engl ay eho pongo prt Psa erage pds bared03 ae Qe ie : (fo “P< ie ee.