Profesorado de

Inglés

Gramática Inglesa I

Consider the following generic categories of the passage below:

- Text type: descriptive report
- Participants: writer - general audience
- Subject: object of study of sociology
- Setting: the text was taken from the ICE corpus (W2A-015)
- Purpose: to introduce and describe the subject matter of sociology

Go through the extract of the introduction and answer the prompts

SOCIOLOGY: ITS SCOPE AND CENTRAL CONCERNS

1 If one were to ask the majority of sociologists to define the scope and
2 substance of sociology in a few sentences, they most likely would reply in
3 something like the following terms. Sociology is a social science devoted to
4 the study of human groups of all kinds and all sizes.
5 A group may be defined as two or more interacting individuals. The
6 interaction of individuals gives rise to a variety of social relations and social
7 processes such as cooperation, competition, conflict, and domination. The
8 full range of human behavior and relations is the subject matter of sociology.
9 We call sociology a science because our main intellectual aim is to
10 comprehend and explain the workings of the social world.
11 Like all sciences, sociology pursues truth and knowledge by employing
12 methods of inquiry based on logic and evidence and by subjecting theories
13 and findings to an ongoing critical examination. However, the statement we
14 have placed in the mouths of our colleagues tends to exaggerate their unity
15 of outlook.
16 The differences among sociologists are often as significant as their common
17 ground. Some sociologists imitate the methods of the natural sciences and
18 see themselves working in close parallel with physicists and chemists; other
19 sociologists believe they share the aims of novelists and poets. Between
20 those extremes there is a wide range of research methods, techniques, ideas,
21 and just plain notions. Nevertheless, the several different sociologies do have
22 something in common that may be called the sociological perspective or
23 approach.
24 The essentials of the sociological approach are best conveyed by introducing
25 the student to the pioneers of sociological theory and analysis who wrote in
26 the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Their works are now
27 regarded as the classic tradition of sociological thinking because they have
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28 stood the test of time. We refer to these writings again and again; we rely on
29 pioneers' theoretical ideas; we employ their concepts; we continue to
30 investigate questions they raised; and, finally, we emulate their intellectual
31 craftsmanship. In a word, the classic tradition provides the theoretical
32 foundations of the sociological perspective.
33 In this introduction we cannot fully convey the intellectual riches of that
34 tradition, nor can we dwell on the specific works and ideas of the thinkers
35 who contributed to it. Those are among the tasks of this book as a whole.
36 All we can do here is to provide a general idea of the tradition's significance.
37 Not all sociologists would agree on the thinkers to be included in the classic
38 tradition. Some of our colleagues would have longer lists than others.
39 However, most lists would have to include at least three of the masters who
40 receive detailed consideration in this book: Emile Durkheim, Karl Marx, and
41 Max Weber. Although the names of these men are not likely to mean
42 anything to the beginning student, we mention them here and postpone
43 introducing them until the appropriate contexts in the following chapters.

1. Take a look at the verbs below extracted from lines 1-15 from the text. Then
answer the questions.
were to ask - to define - would reply - is - devoted - may be defined - gives - is -
call - is - to comprehend - explain - pursues - employing - based - subjecting -
have placed - tends - to exaggerate
a. What do the following three verb phrases have in common? What do
the two first have in common?
i. would reply
ii. may be defined
iii. have placed

2. Identity the verbs from line 16 to line 23. Complete the chart below according
to the semantic domains they belong to.

Activity

Mental

Communication

Existence

Occurrence

Causative

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 Aspectual

3. What’s the use of the auxiliary do in line 21?

4. Identify the valency patterns in the following sentences from the text,
a. Sociology is a social science devoted to the study of human groups of
all kinds and all sizes.
b. The full range of human behavior and relations is the subject matter of
sociology.
c. Nevertheless, the several different sociologies do have something in
common that may be called the sociological perspective or approach.
d. Some of our colleagues would have longer lists than others.

5. From the semantic domains of the verbs from the previous question and the
valency patterns they take, what can you infer about how definitions are
provided and characteristics expressed?

6. Take a look at the nouns below extracted from lines 1-15 from the text. Then
answer the questions.
majority - sociologists - scope - substance - sociology - sentences - terms -
Sociology - social science - study - human groups - kinds - sizes - group -
individuals - interaction - individuals - rise - variety - social relations - social
processes - cooperation - competition - conflict - domination - range - human
behavior - relations - subject matter - sociology - sociology - science - aim -
workings - social world - sciences - sociology - truth - knowledge - methods -
inquiry - logic - evidence - theories - findings - examination - statement - mouths
- colleagues - unity - outlook
a. Do most nouns refer to concrete or abstract entities?
b. Do most nouns express personal or non-personal gender? Are
personal nouns dual, feminine, or masculine?
c. Are most nouns singular or plural and countable or countable?
d. What do the characteristics of the nouns suggest about the text?

7. Who do the proper nouns in the text make reference to?

8. What may be the reasons for the staggering difference between the number
of verbs and the number of nouns in the text considering the first 15 lines?

9. What are the derivational endings for the nouns of lines 1-15? Are the forms
of the nouns typical of the text register?

10. Take a look at the adjectives from lines 24-43 from the text. Then answer the
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 questions.
sociological - sociological - late - early - classic - sociological - theoretical -
intellectual - classic - theoretical - sociological - intellectual - specific - general -
classic - longer - detailed - likely - beginning - appropriate - following
a. Can you identify the central adjectives?
b. Are the adjectives used in attributive or predicative position?
c. Are any of the adjectives in comparative or superlative degree?
d. Which are the most common derivational endings of the adjectives
from lines 24-43?
e. Are there any participial forms?
f. How can we confirm that subjecting (line 12), findings (line 13), ongoing
(line 13) are a verb, a noun, and an adjective respectively?

11. Take a look at the adverbs from lines 24-43 from the text. Then answer the
questions.
best - now - again and again - finally - fully - here - However - at least - here
a. Do the adverb forms roughly correspond to the typical ones found in
academic texts?
b. What’s the relationship between the number of adjectives and adverbs
and the number of nouns and verbs?
c. What are the syntactic roles of the adverbs from lines 24-43?
d. What are the semantic categories of the adverbs from lines 24-43?

12. What are the reference types of the phrases below?

a. the scope and substance of sociology (line 1)
b. The interaction of individuals (line 5)
c. The full range of human behavior and relations (line 7)
d. their unity of outlook (line 14)
e. those extremes (line 20)
f. this introduction (line 33)

13. Do a quick ctrl + f search for the demonstrative determiners. Are the
numbers representative of the register?

14. What are the referents of the following pronouns?

a. We (line 9)
b. we (line 13)
c. it (line 35)
d. they (line 19)
e. they (line 30)
f. them (line 42)
g. themselves (line 18)
h. others (line 38)

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 i. one (line 1)
j. those (line 35)

15. Why did the author decide to use two indefinite pronouns (one of them
occurring in two different instances) in the text?

16. Is following (line 3) being used as a preposition?

17. Underline the complements of the prepositions in bold in the text.

18. Are the following examples of prepositional verbs or phrasal verbs? How can
you tell?
a. rely on (line 28)
b. dwell on (line 34)

19. What elements are the following conjunctions coordinating? Transcribe

them below and determine the categories and syntactic roles.
a. and (line 1)
b. and (line 4)
c. and (line 10)
d. or (line 5)
e. or (line 22)
f. nor (line 34)

1. How many lexical and function words are there in the sentence below?

Sociology is a social science devoted to the study of human groups of all kinds and
all sizes.

a. Lexical words:
b. Function words:
2. What morphological processes have the words below undergone?
a. majority:
b. sociologists:
c. following:
d. interaction:
e. intellectual:
f. longer:
g. provides:
3. Identify the class and role of all the verbs in the sentence below:
a. Nevertheless, the several different sociologies do have something in
common that may be called the sociological perspective or approach.

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4. Determine the valency patterns of the verbs (sentences) below by asking
yourself the following questions:
a. Who or what is involved in the going-on/happening? Who or what is
“doing” something? Who or what is being impacted by the going-on?
Who or what is receiving the product of the going-on?
b. What is going on/happening?
c. When/where/how/what with/who with/what for?
d. Sociology is a social science devoted to the study of human groups of
all kinds and all sizes.
e. The full range of human behavior and relations is the subject matter of
sociology.
f. In a word, the classic tradition provides the theoretical foundations of
the sociological perspective.
g. Some of our colleagues would have longer lists than others.
h. We mention them here.
5. Are there examples of multi-word lexical verbs in the following passages
from the text? If so, underline them.
a. Sociology is a social science devoted to the study of human groups of
all kinds and all sizes.
b. A group may be defined as two or more interacting individuals.
c. The interaction of individuals gives rise to a variety of social relations
and social processes such as cooperation, competition, conflict, and
domination.
d. Nevertheless, the several different sociologies do have something in
common that may be called the sociological perspective or approach.
6. Which of the following nouns from the text make reference to a human?
a. sociologists
b. sociology
c. scope
d. groups
e. individuals
f. methods
g. physicists
7. What’s the difference between central and peripheral adjectives? Provide
two examples for each from the text.
8. Consider the text type, its audience, the subject matter, and the purpose.
Would you say that it’s a formal or informal text type? In which of the
registers dealt with in class (conversation, fiction, news, academic prose)
would it most easily fit? Is the distribution of adjectives in their attributive
and predicative roles typical of the text type? Calculate the percentage based
on this sample paragraph from the text.
A group may be defined as two or more interacting individuals. The
interaction of individuals gives rise to a variety of social relations and social
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processes such as cooperation, competition, conflict, and domination. The
full range of human behavior and relations is the subject matter of sociology.
We call sociology a science because our main intellectual aim is to
comprehend and explain the workings of the social world.