Subordinating and Coordinating Conjunctions

It is not usually the case that two are better than one.

I came across the following sentence in a reader’s letter published by a national English daily last week.

It reads, “Even though not all teachers are like that but there are some black sheep in the teaching profession.”

There are two parts in the sentence but are joined by two conjunctions: “Even though” (acting as a subordinating conjunction) and “but” (a coordinating conjunction) – a very common mistake.

Since there two parts only, they need be joined by just one conjunction in either of the following ways:-

1) Even though not all teachers are like that, there are some black sheep in
the teaching profession. [This has become a complex sentence having a
main clause (being the section after the comma) and a subordinate
clause (being the earlier section).]

2) Not all teachers are like that but there are some black sheep in the teaching profession. [This is a compound sentence having two separate sentences joined by the coordinating conjunction, but.]

Adjective Placement

Adjectives are words that are added to the name (or substitute/pronoun) of a thing including a living thing like (just to name one) a human being to describe the thing more fully or sometimes more beautifully.

If I want to use two or more adjectives in a description, how shall I determine the order of these adjectives?

Below is an article about Adjective Placement in English Grammar Lexicon - a blog (in Real Life Log ) providing ‏Grammar and Usage Guide (which is noted to have stopped publishing new articles since its last one on February 17, 2007) together with my comments.

Where To Place The Adjective?
Written February 01. 2007 in Uncategorized

Adjective Placement When using more than one adjective to describe a noun place the adjectives in the following order before the noun. NOTE: We usually use no more than three adjectives preceding a noun.

1. Opinion Example: an interesting book, a boring lecture

2. Dimension Example: a big apple, a thin wallet

3. Age Example: a new car, a modern building, an ancient ruin

4. Shape Example: a square box, an oval mask, a round ball

5. Color Example: a pink hat, a blue book, a black coat

6. Origin Example: some Italian shoes, a Canadian town, an American car

7. Material Example: a wooden box, a woolen sweater, a plastic toy

Here are some examples of nouns modified with three adjectives in the correct order based on the list above. Notice that the adjectives are not separated by commas.
· A wonderful old Italian clock. (opinion - age - origin)
· A big square blue box. (dimension - shape - color)
· A disgusting pink plastic ornament. (opinion - color - material)
· Some slim new French trousers. (dimension - age - origin)
Tags:
Comments
Kengt, Penang
Written February 01. 2007
Shown below is the order given by FADZILAH AMIN in THE STAR’S MIND OUR ENGLISH of Wednesday January 31, 2007 for comparison:-

Quote

Michael Swan in Practical English Usage gives the order in which the different kinds of adjectives should appear before a noun. His order is: 1. colour, 2. origin, 3. material, 4. purpose, with other kinds of adjectives to go before those. The Collins Cobuild English Grammar (CCEG) uses different terms for the order, ie: 1. qualitative, 2. colour, 3. classifying. Your first sentence has therefore the correct order, according to these two books, i.e.: a) My uncle bought a beautiful antique Japanese wooden table. I will summarise what kinds of adjectives (according to Swan and CCEG, respectively) are in the sentence, to justify their order: 1. beautiful – other/qualitative 2. antique – other/classifying 3. Japanese – origin/classifying 4. wooden – material/classifying According to CCEG, the main difference between a qualitative adjective and a classifying one is that the first is gradable (e.g. we can say "very beautiful" or "less beautiful") and the second is not (e.g. we don’t say "very antique" or "less Japanese" or "more wooden"), although some adjectives can be either qualitative or classifying according to the context. Unquote

For order controversy, please refer to my earlier post of February 5, 2008 on "What’s the right order?".

"Traversing continents" and "expanding returns"

We’re redefining the boundaries of our minds. Traversing continents and expanding returns.

The above is taken from an advertisement in the STAR of February 4, 2008.

This part consists of a complete sentence and a phrase while the remaining parts of the advertisement are made up of complete sentences.

The sentence and the phrase can be combined in either of the following two way into a complete sentence with the correct grammatical construction showing the same meaning if not better:-

1. We’re redefining the boundaries of our minds traversing continents and expanding returns.
2. Traversing continents and expanding returns, we’re redefining the boundaries of our minds.
   

"Traversing continents" and "expanding returns" are dangling modifiers or misplaced modifiers.

See my earlier posts of February 4 on Faulty sentence and February 5 on Misplaced modifiers.

Ellipsis

I have come across the following sentence in a write-up on Health in the STAR of January 23, 2008. It is a statement made by Sonja Laemmel, a food economist with the German Allergy and Asthma Association.
It is reproduced here not because of its nutritional value but for the grammatical value of the sentence which says, "Fresh milk has a lot of lactose, yoghurt less, cheese even less, and butter hardly any at all."
Some words are purposely left out but many will understand the sentence perfectly. However, how many can know the reason behind their understanding?
This is the effect of ellipsis at work.
Ellipsis is defined in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary as the omission of one or more words that are obviously understood but that must be supplied to make a construction grammatically complete.

Phrase, Clause and Sentence

Reproduced below is an article which appeared in THE STAR’S MIND OUR ENGLISH on January 9, 2008. It teaches us to differentiate a phrase or a clause from a complete sentence.
Grammar Matters by Patty Gibbons Saunier
Finding Fragments
A fragment is a sentence look-alike. It begins with a capital letter and ends with a punctuation mark, but it does not express a complete thought. Can you spot the impostures? Which of the following are not sentences?

1. Don’t tell.
2. If you can’t stand the heat.
3. My cousin Kathy.
4. Because of the bad storm.
5. The people relaxing by the small, peaceful lake.

Answers: The only full sentence is #1. The rest are fragments.

Interesting new words and new terms

Below is an article worthy of reading. It not only tells you new words and new terms, but it also lets you know the events leading to the formation of such words and terms; and such events are notably some of the factors causing practically the bearish stock market conditions globally especially in the US in late 2007.
THE STAR'S MIND OUR ENGLISH Wednesday January 9, 2008
Taking a haircut and losing your shirt
By GRANT BARRETT
THIS past year, one of the biggest trends in language was related to real estate, housing, and home loans.
Oh, yes, those dry worlds turn out plenty of curious terms.
Probably the biggest winner in 2007 was subprime, a word that is not new but which, inexplicably, appears in none of the dictionaries I checked. I suppose that is because until this year, it was an intangible bit of euphemistic jargon.
But now, with financial crises popping up at all levels, pretty much everyone understands that the adjective subprime is used to describe a mortgage or home loan made to someone who does not have perfect financial health.
Some subprime loans are called no-doc loans, a clipping of "no documentation", meaning that the borrower had to provide only minimal proof that they could repay the loan.
Sometimes they are called stated income loans, since all the borrower had to do was to say that they made a certain income and the bank wouldn’t take any special effort to verify it.
Still other times, such loans are called liar’s loans, which puts the truth of the matter frankly. In order to get the loans, one could seemingly say anything the lender wanted to hear.
Yet another name for such loans is NINJA loans. NINJA is an acronym for "no income, no job or assets". It plays off the idea of darkly clad Japanese ninjas, insinuating that someone is up to no good under the cover of darkness.
Some subprime mortgages and loans are the ones that start well but end badly. In those cases, the borrower took out the loan in good faith, the lender verified all the details, and everything was done as risk-free as possible. But somewhere along the way, the borrower began to fall behind payments and the once safe loan became risky. These are known as scratch and dent loans.
The term refers, in part, to a common practice in American department and grocery stores, in which merchandise that has been damaged is sold at a discount. It could be anything: dented canned goods, stained clothing, or well-handled floor models (working examples of products that are set out for customers to examine in order to be sure that what they want to buy does what they want it to).
On Wall Street, investment companies figured out years ago that they could make safer investments out of these risky and scratch-and-dent loans by bundling them together and then retranching them. "Retranch", from the French retrancher, means "to recut".
In other words, investment companies take all the debt together and sell it to investors in a variety of new packages. That way, if any one of the risky mortgages failed to be paid back in time, the loss would be spread across many investors.
Of course, over the last two years, some investors have taken a haircut on these bundled investments, meaning they have had to bear large losses. They took what money they could get for them, but overall, they lost their gamble and get less back than they put in.
Of course, it isn’t just big faceless investment companies who are losing their shirts – going broke or going into debt. Homeowners are, too. Some of them are finding that their mortgages – another name for a loan against the value of a house – are exploding ARMs.
ARM is an acronym for adjustable rate mortgage, meaning that the percentage that the borrower pays to the bank above and beyond the amount originally lent can change depending upon market conditions or rates set by the government. ARMs "explode" when new interest rates are so high that the borrower can’t afford to make payments.
As more people have failed to pay their mortgages, there are now too many houses for sale and the value of all houses has dropped. Some homeowners find themselves upside down, meaning that the amount that they still have to pay for their houses was less than they could get for them if they tried to sell them.
Now the real battle comes in trying to sell a house for any amount at all. Some people used drama-pricing. It means to dramatically drop the price for which you’re selling your house.
The term first surged to popularity in 2006 as a kind of amusing little toy of a word, but last year, as the American real estate market began to take a dive (to fall rapidly in terms of number of houses sold and in the amount that they were selling for), the term took on all the more seriousness.
A less common synonym, trauma pricing, sounds to me like the perfect term for the tangled financial mess.
Grant Barrett is co-host of the radio show A Way with Words, waywordradio.org, and a lexicographer and writer living and working in New York City. His e-mail address is gbarrett@worldnewyork.org .

Gerunds

Below is an article about gerunds in English Grammar Lexicon - a blog (in Real Life Log ) providing ‏Grammar and Usage Guide (which is noted to have stopped publishing new articles since its last one on February 17, 2007) together with my comments.




Gerunds
Written January 28. 2007 in Uncategorized Gerunds A Gerund is a noun created from the -ing form of a verb; gerunds act as subjects and objects in sentences... Gerund phrase are phrases that begin with the -ing form of a verb and have objects and modifiers; a gerund phrase always acts as a noun in a sentence, not as an adjective... First and foremost, a gerund is the form of a verb, but it is not a verb. Second, it is a noun. And finally, it ends in "ing."..[In the following examples, the gerund is in italic and the verb is underlined.]..
Many local governments and school districts forbid releasing student information to any outside group, including the military, colleges or corporations.
First find the subject and verb: GOVERNMENTS and DISTRICTS are the subjects and FORBID is the verb. Is it an action verb? Yes? Do they forbid something? Yes. What? RELEASING. So, RELEASING is a direct object, which is a noun. A form of a verb that ends in ING and acts as a noun is a gerund.
.
Burning oil and smashing atoms are good for the environment.
First find the subject and verb: BURNING and SMASHING are the subjects and ARE is the verb. Therefore, BURNING and SMASHING are nouns. A form of a verb that ends in ING and acts as a noun is a gerund.
.
Coal mining yields 5,000 watts per square meter per day, and an oil field yields close to 10,000.
First find the subject and verb of the clause: MINING is the subject and YIELDS is the verb. Therefore, MINING is a noun. A form of a verb that ends in ING and acts as a noun is a gerund.
.
The story is the same for high-tech farming.
STORY is the subject. IS is the verb. FARMING is the object of the preposition FOR. An object is a noun. A form of a verb that ends in ING and acts as a noun is a gerund.
.
Kids enjoy surfing the 'Net, but it doesn't mean that their minds are engaged.
KIDS is the subject. ENJOY is the verb. SURFING is the direct object of the verb. An object is a noun. A form of a verb that ends in ING and acts as a noun is a gerund.
.
The study does not show a link between using computers and improving student performance
The subject is STUDY. The verb is DOES SHOW. USING and IMPROVING are objects of the preposition BETWEEN.
Comments
Kengt, Penang
Written January 29. 2007
For "forbid releasing student information" and "enjoy surfing the 'Net", shouldn't 'releasing' & 'surfing' be indirect objects, and 'information' & 'Net' direct objects instead?

Heteronyms and homonyms

Below is an article appearing in the Star worthy of taking note of:-

THE STAR'S MIND OUR ENGLISH Friday December 7, 2007
Sounds the same, sounds different
By STEPHEN KAU
ONE way to expand your vocabulary is to be aware of how often you use heteronyms and homonyms in your written work. I say “written work” because you probably use heteronyms and homonyms frequently in your conversations without realising you are doing so.
Heteronyms are words that have the same spelling but different meanings because of different pronunciations.
Examples include “bow” and “live”.
The former can mean an item of clothing worn on the head/below the chin, or a weapon to launch arrows with, when pronounced as “boe”. Or it can mean a respectful gesture of bending your body at the waist, or the front of a vessel, when pronounced “bau”.
The latter means to exist to do whatever with your life when pronounced “lif”, and means immediate, as in live telecast, when pronounced “lyv”.
Some heteronyms, as in the aforementioned examples, have clearly different sounds.
A few other heteronyms, however, have pronunciations that are so close to each other that you need to speak concisely (and listen intently) to pick up the difference.
And speaking of “close”:
It means to shut when pronounced with a lower tone as in “klohz”, and it means to be near when said with a higher cadence as in “clohs”.
Homonyms, in contrast, have the same spelling AND the same pronunciations but different meanings depending on the context of their usage.
A good example: “Time flies like an arrow but fruit flies like a rotten banana.”
In their respective cases in the sentence, the “flies” and the “like” are pronounced the same, but they clearly have different meanings. Otherwise, the sentence doesn’t make sense.
The first “flies” is a verb, the second is a noun (as in the plural of “fly”, the pesky insect).
The first “like” is an adjective meaning similar, and the second is a verb meaning to prefer.
There are more homonyms than there are heteronyms, as I’m sure you know, for English has a myriad of same-spelling-same-pronunciation words that mean different things, including “mean” itself.
Give yourself a pat if you can list 10 heteronyms and 20 homonyms.
Stephen Kau is a writer who lives in Sydney, Australia.

Omission of a Relative Pronoun

Below is my self-explanatory e-mail of December 17, 2007 to the Editor of The Star's Mind Our English, from whom I have yet to receive a reply:-

Quote

I refer to the sentence appearing in OVERVIEW of THE STAR of today under the headline "Porn ring smashed" reading, "A former police officer and two teachers are among six men police say are implicated in an Australian child porn ring." As "men" is already the object of the preposition "among", the relative pronoun "who" is necessary to link the rest of the sentence, while "police say" is just a parenthetical clause which does not have a grammatical function and which can be separated by commas or brackets. The sentence should have been : "A former police officer and two teachers are among six men who police say are implicated in an Australian child porn ring." Regards, Kengt, Penang
Unquote

Fun with grammar

The following article appearing in the Star is worthy of taking note of:-

THE STAR'S MIND OUR ENGLISH Wednesday December 5, 2007
Fun with grammar
By OH TEIK THEAM
LOOK at these little ‘stories’ and see if you can find a mistake in each:
The broken window
The mother blew her top when she found out that a window in the house had been broken. “Can’t you stay out of trouble for just one day?” she shouted at her son.
Thinking that he could make his friend the scapegoat, the little boy said, “The fault is David’s, who ducked his head when I threw a stone at him.”
The sentence The fault is David’s, who ducked his head when I threw a stone at him is awkward.
Possessives (except for independent possessives) function as adjectives. Strictly speaking, adjectives cannot be the antecedents of pronouns, especially relative pronouns. (An antecedent is the noun, noun phrase or noun clause that a pronoun refers to.)
Rewrite: The broken window is the fault of David, who ducked his head when I threw a stone at him. / David broke the window by ducking his head when I threw a stone at him.
The sentence “If you need a racquet, you may borrow Steve’s, which he bought a few days ago” is, however, correct. Here, “Steve’s” is an independent possessive, a possessive form that functions as a noun. There is an ellipsis of “racquet” in the antecedent (= Steve’s racquet), which the relative pronoun “which” refers to.
Other examples of independent possessives are “yours” and “mine”: My new cellphone is not as versatile as yours (= your cellphone), which is more expensive. / If you have mislaid your cellphone, you may use mine (= my cellphone), which is on the desk behind you.
The general opinion is that a possessive can be the antecedent of a pronoun as long as the meaning of the pronoun is clear and the sentence is not awkward:
The principal’s illness forced her to retire early. (Alternative: The principal decided to retire early because of her illness.)
Michael’s laziness made him lose his job. (Alternative: Michael lost his job because he was lazy.)
The rabbits
Two rabbits saw a pack of wolves a short distance away. The rabbits didn’t run because they were afraid.
After a while, one of the rabbits said, “If we get to work now, we can outnumber them!”
The second sentence in the first paragraph is unclear – it might mean that the rabbits ran, but not because they were afraid. For clarity, we sometimes put a comma before a because-clause that follows the main clause. (The Chicago Manual of Style)
Rewrite: The rabbits didn’t run, because they were afraid.
We can also let the because-clause begin the sentence: Because the rabbits were afraid, they didn’t run.

Why language is like cooking

The article below is worthy of taking note of. The writer is disagreeing to grammar being the most important area of language to nail down and saying that lexis is far more important.
THE STAR'S MIND OUR ENGLISH Friday October 5, 2007
Why language is like cooking
By TOM HAYTON
LEXIS is another word for “vocabulary”. The words you store in your head and pull out as and when you need them.
A lot of people with hang-ups about their language proficiency think that grammar is the most important area of language to nail down.
I disagree. Lexis is far more important. Here’s why.
1) Without lexis, you can’t say anything. It’s theoretically possible to know the rules of English grammar without being able to put a sentence together. However, if you know just one word, say, ‘‘water’’, then you can communicate, provided that you know the meaning of the word (more on this later).
2) Much of language is ready-made. It’s a lot quicker to take a packet of Maggi noodles off the shelf, add hot water and eat than it is to make the dough, toss the noodles, prepare the sauce and put it all together while following a recipe in a cookbook.
Similarly, when we utter phrases like ‘‘Good morning’’ or ‘‘I look forward to hearing from you soon’’, we are pulling ready-made phrases off the shelves of memory.
Of course, it is possible to generate these sentences from scratch by following a grammatical recipe (I get a lot of people asking me why we say ‘‘I look forward to hearing ?’’ as opposed to ‘‘I look forward to hear ?’’) but it is much faster and more efficient to memorise the phrase as a ready-made linguistic chunk.
3) Most sentences have been uttered before. Take this snippet of dialogue that just took place behind me:
A: Good luck, mate.
B: Thanks. See you later.
There is nothing unique about this dialogue other than the time and place when it was created. It was built entirely of ready-made chunks that the speakers retrieved without conscious appeal to grammatical rules. This leads us to the next point.
4) Most grammaticalisation (application of grammar) happens unconsciously. Otherwise, speech or writing becomes very slow as the user consciously joins words together. Over-focusing on grammatical accuracy can therefore damage fluency. You see this happening with the most fluent native speakers when they have to explain delicate points they have never articulated before – in debates, for example.
More experienced debaters, such as politicians, come across as more fluent and confident not because they have better grammar knowledge, but precisely because they have been in many debates before, and have therefore ‘stocked up’ on phrases they can use in times of difficulty. Stand-up comedians don’t make up jokes on the spot – they rely on canned material. Most of language is canned material.
5) Mastering English grammar takes an extremely long time for non-native speakers – of course, grammatical accuracy is important, but lexis should take priority if communication is your goal.
This view of language has become known as the Lexical Approach, a term coined by Michael Lewis in his book of the same name.
Practically speaking, it makes more sense to focus on acquiring natural-sounding chunks of language by listening to and reading the utterances of competent native speakers than it does to slave away with a grammar book.
Let’s say you want to learn how to write a report. You should take examples of best practice (say the annual reports of FTSE-listed companies) and underline the phrases that are used to express and link the main points. You will find chunks such as:
‘‘We experienced slow growth ?’’
‘‘We expect to bounce back ?’’
‘‘These results are encouraging.’’
And so on. Obviously you could sit around and pull apart the internal grammar of these sentences, just as you could analyse the chemical composition of Maggi noodles. But there is no need to do that if you just want to consume the product.
Just as in cooking, there are some linguistic recipes that are more complete than others. Maggi noodles just require hot water and a stir, just as “Good + time of day” just needs you to insert the time of day to get “Good morning”, “Good afternoon” and so on. Some phrases require no preparation at all, such as “How are you?”
The key thing that you need to ensure is that you are following the conventions for using chunks correctly. This includes the meanings of each chunk, its uses, its pronunciation, collocations (what you can combine it with), synonyms, antonyms and variations.
With the phrase
“We experienced slow growth.”
you need to realise that this chunk is used to refer to past performance. At this point, you might want to explore collocations such as
“We experienced slow growth in the first/second/third/fourth quarter.”
Or
“We experienced slow growth initially.’’
And so on.
Conversely, the chunk can be cooked up with slightly different ingredients to give a completely opposite meaning:
“We experienced rapid growth.”
Language proficiency involves stockpiling lexical ingredients. The key to mastery is to get cooking!
Tom Hayton is a Business Trainer with the Professional Development Unit (PDU), at the British Council Malaysia. The PDU offers a wide range of learning opportunities from management and communication skills training to developing English skills. Visit its website at www.britishcouncil.org.my or e-mail thomas.hayton@britishcouncil.org.my

One against he and whom against who

THE STAR NEWS
Nation Monday November 26, 2007
Author to give tips on the write stuff
PETALING JAYA: Researching, planning, drafting, revising and editing are said to be the important stages to producing a good piece of writing.
According to writer and author Anna Fung, 51, it was important to research the topic to be written, plan what to write, and proceed to drafting.
Fung, who will be speaking at The Star Learning Skills 2007 Business Writing Workshop on Nov 29, said: “One must always know who he is writing for and why he is writing it.
“The content of the message must be identified and the style and tone must be correctly selected, as each business report is different. Business reports are different from letters and proposals.”
Fung will also be giving tips on writing letters, proposals, minutes and reports at the workshop with fellow speaker Choy Tuck Onn.
Both Fung and Choy are authors of two books - Easy Steps to Report Writing and Easy Steps to Public Speaking, published by Marshall Cavendish.
The workshop also includes writing for the media. Kamatchy Sappani, who has been a journalist for the last 22 years in local and international organisations, will speak on dealing with the media and how to write press releases.
Kamatchy, who is currently in charge of training for journalists at The Star is a Fulbright fellow and has worked at news organisations such as Kyodo News Service, Radio Deutsche Welle and Dow Jones Inc, among others. She will offer tips on how to deal effectively with all media.
The workshop, to be held at Cititel Mid Valley, is organised by The Star.
After reading the above news item, I wrote (without receiving a response) to the Editor of The Star's Mind Our English on 26 November 2007 as follows:-
Quote
I refer to the item of news “Author to give tips on the write stuff” appearing in The Star of today.
It is reported therein that Fung said: “One must always know who he is writing for and why he is writing it.”

Shouldn’t what Fung said have been: “One must always know whom one is writing for and why one is writing
it” to be grammatically correct?

Regards.

Kengt, Penang
Unquote
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Comments




Teoh - Seeking the use of correc
My above writing has today been published by MIND OUR ENGLISH in ISSUES, STARTWO, Thursday 20 December 2007 together with the given answers.December 20 1:12:09 PM




Teoh - Seeking the use of correc
I have subsequently received an e-mail reply dated December 6, 2007 as follows:-

Quote

Fadzilah Amin answers your question(s):

I agree with you that if we begin a sentence with the indefinite personal pronoun "one", we should continue to use this pronoun and not switch to another, like "he", mid-sentence. Also, since "one" is formal, the use of the object form "whom" is appropriate here. However, in current British English, "who" is often used informally as an object pronoun, eg in "Who are you waiting for?"

Best wishes,Kee Thuan ChyeAssociate EditorEditor of Mind our EnglishThe Star

UnquoteDecember 07 4:51:39 PM

Inappropriate word used in overview

THE STAR NEWS Nation Wednesday November 14, 2007
Ex-teacher awarded RM450,000
By EMBUN MAJID
ALOR STAR: A former Quran teacher, who sued the Government over the HIV-contaminated blood she received during a transfusion seven years ago at Jitra Hospital, has been awarded RM450,000.
High Court deputy registrar Ruzita Md Lazim awarded Bashah Mustaffa, 54, the amount in chambers yesterday.
Bashah, her husband Abdul Halim Abdul Hamid, 52, and their four children had originally sought RM100mil in damages in their suit against the Jitra Hospital director and three others in 2000.
In June 2003, the hospital director admitted that his staff had been negligent in treating Bashah, but denied responsibility for her husband and children.
Their cases would be heard next month.
Bashah was warded at the hospital on April 28, 2000, for severe menstrual bleeding.
She was given two pints of blood and asked to return for a blood test a week later.
On May 8, she was told of the mistake.
The Kedah Health Department had said that the contaminated blood had been administered to Bashah before the hospital received the results of the blood screening as required by the World Health Organisation.
Yesterday, Bashah said she was happy that the case was over.
However, she said that she had not been feeling well after her free medication was stopped last July.
“I was told by a doctor that I will need to take new medication but so far I have received none,” she said.

The above news item has its overview on an earlier page as:-

Bashah Mustaffa received RM450,000 compensation over HIV-contaminated blood at the Jitra Hospital.

It can be seen that the word "received" used in the above overview could be inppropriate because it would take some time before the
money could be paid out and received; and it would be so only should there be no appeal.

Good to have checklist

Below is a news item showing good pointers for preparation of a holiday away from home.
THE STAR Nation Friday October 12, 2007
Good to have checklist
KUALA LUMPUR: The balik kampung tradition to celebrate Hari Raya with family and friends is something that most Muslims look forward to each year.
Yet in the excitement of returning to their hometowns, they may forget things that could sound petty but are important in ensuring peace of mind while they are away from home.
Before one embarks on the journey, several aspects like the safety of the property that one leaves behind and the elements of cleanliness should be noted.
Below are several pointers to be considered before making the trip:
> DISCARD all perishable food and ensure leftovers are cleared from the table and cupboards to keep away ants, flies and rats.
> IF you are planning to turn off your refrigerator, make sure you clean the inside using a mild detergent. Leave the door ajar to provide ventilation and to keep away fungi.
> WET clothes and mops breed germs, so make sure that they are dry and clean before leaving.
> EMPTY the dustbins and ensure that the waste has been collected by the rubbish disposal service before you leave home. If left outside in the dustbin, the foul smell will pollute the air.
> POUR cleaning liquid into drains and sinks, and leave it for a while before flushing with water. It will kill germs and get rid of grease and unwanted odour.
> MAKE sure your pet is sent to a care centre or to your friend so that it is well taken care of.
> DO not reveal your holiday plans to anyone or avoid leaving notes to dispatchers stating that no one is at home.
> CONDUCT last-minute checks to ensure all windows and doors are locked.
> WHETHER you are living in a gated community or otherwise, don't forget to ask your neighbours or someone you trust to keep an eye on your property. If you are planning a longer outing, make sure the lawns are mowed beforehand.
> ALSO if possible, inform the police of your absence so that they can keep an eye on your home. If there is a burglar alarm installed, let the police know who has the key to your house.
> DO not leave cash and valuables at home. Either take them along with you or leave them in a safe deposit box in a bank.
> CANCEL your newspaper subscription and also inform the milkman to discontinue supply for the time you are away.
If you take heed of these simple basic steps, you can certainly return to your kampung with a peace of mind. – Bernama

Inappropriate words and passive voice

THE STAR NEWS Courts Tuesday October 30, 2007
Karpal case: Dec 12 decision
PENANG: The bank manager who crashed his car into the back of a taxi carrying DAP national chairman Karpal Singh has admitted the offence.
Lau Yee Fuat, 44, pleaded guilty to the offence when his case was called up at the magistrate's court yesterday.
The case had originally been fixed for continued hearing.
Lau, represented by Bala Mahesan, was charged with reckless driving which had caused his car to crash into the taxi and injuring Karpal Singh, who is also Bukit Gelugor MP.
Lau was alleged to have committed the offence in Jalan Utama at 12.15am on Jan 29, 2005. The accident occurred outside Karpal Singh’s house.
Magistrate Ooi Sheow Yean, however, could not sentence Lau because his counsel objected to the prosecution tendering Karpal Singh's medical report.
Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Azizah Ahmad was submitting the facts of the case and was about to tender the medical report when Bala objected.
He said the medical report would prejudice the court.
Azizah said the medical report was important to show the consistency of the injuries sustained by Karpal Singh.
To this, Bala replied that the fact of the case was sufficient and the medical report was irrelevant.
Ooi then said it was the prosecution's prerogative whether to submit the medical report or not. She postponed sentencing to Dec 12.
THE STAR, WEDNESDAY 31 OCTOBER 2007 NATION
It's careless, not reckless, driving
REFERRING to our report 'Karpal case: Dec 12 decision' yesterday, it has been pointed out that bank manager Lau Yee Fuat was charged with careless and not reckless driving.
Also, counsel Bala Mahesan had stated that the medical report was inadmissible and not irrelevant as reported.
This second report is actually a correction message of the earlier report which contains inappropriate uses of words. The correction message is using a passive voice in its first paragraph not letting the reader know who pointed out and making the paragraph/sentence grammatically unsound.

Subject of a sentence in passive voice

THE STAR'S MIND OUR ENGLISH Friday September 14, 2007
Hiding behind the passive
By TOM PAYTON
THE passive is a grammatical structure of the form: object + [be] + past participle + [hidden subject].
It has several functions, but one of the main uses is to disguise the cause of an action.
For example:
Your loan has been approved
“Your loan” = object
“has been” = the third person present perfect form of the verb “be”
“approved” = the past participle form of the verb “approve”
We don’t know who approved the loan, or it isn’t specified, or we don’t need to know. The subject, or the “doer” of the action, is hidden.
Of course we can reveal the subject by adding “by + subject” to the sentence stem:
Your loan has been approved by the accounts department
The reasoning behind this is exactly the same reasoning that is used for passives in Bahasa Malaysia.
Take this sentence:
Nombor yang anda dail tidak dapat dihubungi
which translates as
The number you have dialled cannot be reached
In this case, there is simply no need to add the subject as the subject is you! It would sound very odd if you said, “The number you have dialled cannot be reached by you” or “nombor yang anda dail tidak dapat dihubungi oleh anda”.
There are times when we do reveal the subject, though. In this case we use a passive because we want to put the object at the front of the sentence to give it extra importance. For example:
Virgin Atlantic is owned by Richard Branson
We follow the same pattern in BM:
Virgin Atlantic dimiliki oleh Richard Branson
We also need to obscure things with the passive when we don’t want to assign blame or responsibility:
Your application has been rejected
If you send a message like this using the passive, you avoid attaching the action to an individual. Perhaps the person who was rejected isn’t too happy and might go looking for trouble!
Sometimes we are not aware of who performed an action, which also calls for the use of a passive structure:
My car was stolen last night
Obviously, I don’t know who did it – otherwise I would know where to look!
Tom Hayton is a Business Trainer with the Professional Development Unit (PDU), at the British Council Malaysia. The PDU offers a wide range of learning opportunities from management and communication skills training to developing English skills. Visit its website at www.britishcouncil.org.my or e-mail thomas.hayton@britishcouncil.org.my.
After reading the above article, I wish to make the following comments which were initially sent to the Editor of MIND OUR ENGLISH but withdrawn and posted here:-
I refer to the sentence, “Your loan has been approved”, mentioned in the article Hiding behind the passive of MIND OUR ENGLISH dated September 14, 2007.
‘Your loan’ being stated as object therein appears erroneous as the sentence itself will have no subject then and it is not an imperative sentence, the subject for which can be understood.
A sentence is defined as a grammatical unit that is syntactically independent and has a subject that is expressed or, as in imperative sentences, understood and a predicate that contains at least one finite verb (vide American Heritage Dictionary http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/sentence).
‘Your loan’ should instead be the subject in the said sentence which is in the passive voice with the doer of the action (if mentioned) being the object of the preposition ‘by’.
Now let me quote below the Definitions of subject from Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subject_(grammar)):-
Quote
The subject of a sentence is sometimes defined as the argument that generally refers to the origin of the action or the undergoer of the state shown by the predicate. This is a semantic definition. Such a definition is problematic for several reasons. In languages where a passive voice exists, the subject of a passive verb may be the target or result of the action. For example:
John was arrested.
The police arrested John.
In the first sentence (which is in the passive voice), John is the subject, while in the second sentence (active voice) the police is the subject and John is the object.
Unquote

Reading, reasoning and relating

The article below which contains a description of the requirements of thesis or dissertation for a PhD, is worthy of taken note of.
THE STAR'S MIND OUR ENGLISH Friday October 5, 2007
Reading, reasoning and relating
By YONG AH YONG
ONE way to find out whether a candidate understands a passage or not is to make him or her answer several questions based on the passage. In the examination, some questions require straightforward answers, some implicative answers, some inferential answers and some rational evaluation or judgment.
There are, in general, six types of questions.
The first type is about the main topic or main theme. The questions ask you about the central thought or significance of the passage. Sometimes, you may be asked to give a suitable title to the passage.
The second type asks for specific details or explicitly stated ideas.
The third type asks you to draw inferences. They ask for the intended meaning between the lines.
The fourth type concerns tone or attitude. The questions test your ability to sense the emotional state of the author.
The fifth type is about context meaning. The questions ask for the meaning of a word or phrase depending on the situation.
The final type asks for the method of organisation or the writing style of the author.
As you read a passage, use a pencil to underline the key ideas and make relevant notes. Give the exact answers according to the questions. If you give irrelevant answers, you will earn no marks even if your sentence structure is perfect.
Remember, all your answers must be written in full sentences. In this respect, do not write “Because ??????” You can write “It is/was because ???????”.
Read the following passage carefully:
There are in general two ways of getting the prestigious title ‘Doctor’ or ‘Dr’ in front of one’s name. The first is by graduating with a medical degree, and the second by earning a PhD.
The term of Doctor of Philosophy or PhD originates from Philosophiae Doctor in Latin, which means “a teacher of philosophy”. Here, “philosophy” is taken to mean all academic disciplines outside the fields of theology, medicine and law, following the practice and tradition of European universities in the Middle Ages while pure science is known as “natural philosophy”.
The degree of PhD is the highest degree awarded by a university. It is obtained by researchers in a wide array of disciplines in the sciences and humanities. The PhD has become a requirement for a career as a university professor or a researcher in various fields.
The detailed requirements for the award of a PhD degree vary from university to university. In general, a candidate must submit a thesis or dissertation involving an intensive original academic research. A PhD candidate must attend a viva voce or orally defend his or her work before a panel of expert examiners appointed by the university.
A PhD candidate has to undergo a prescribed minimum period of study ranging from one to three years before submission of the thesis. In addition, he or she may have to successfully complete a certain number of advanced courses relevant to his or her area of specialisation.
In recent years, several professional or vocational doctorates have been introduced, such as Doctor of Engineering (EngD), Doctor of Education (EdD), Doctor of Clinical Psychology (D Clin Psychol) and Doctor of Business Administration (DBA). These typically involve some specified coursework and a research component in the form of two or three smaller research projects, rather than a single dissertation focusing on one major topic, as well as a series of examinations where the emphasis is on breadth rather than depth of knowledge.
Another two to four years is usually required for the writing of a thesis which makes a substantial contribution to human knowledge. The dissertation in the social sciences and humanities is typically 100 to 450 pages in length. A PhD dissertation generally consists of a comprehensive literature review, an outline of research methodology, findings of previous related researches and in-depth scientific, social, historical, philosophical or literary analysis.
The US Department of Education and the National Science Foundation do not discriminate between various doctorates. Whether you hold a Doctor of Arts (DA), Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA), or Doctor of Education (EdD), you are given the same status and respect as a PhD.
However, there are doctorates not earned by academic research. They are known as higher doctorates, such as DLitt (Doctor of Letters) and DSc (Doctor of Science), which are granted on the recommendation of a committee of examiners on the basis of publications of research findings which have greatly made advances in human knowledge and skills.
Send the answers to these questions to me at ayyong2000@yahoo.com:
1. In what ways can we obtain the title ‘Dr’ in front of our name?
2. What do “philosophy” and “natural philosophy” mean according to the Middle Ages tradition in European universities?
3. What is viva voce? In your opinion, what is the purpose of viva voce?
4. What does a PhD thesis contain?
5. Explain the meaning of “breadth and depth of knowledge”.

The dangers of translation

Below is an article worth keeping for reference in case you need to do any translation
THE STAR'S MIND OUR ENGLISH Wednesday October 3, 2007
The dangers of translation
I’M writing in response to the articles From Malay to English (Aug 30), It’s a Malaysian thing (Sept 7) and Better translation (Sept 26).
I have to agree with J (It’s a Malaysian thing) that for the sentence “Comelnya kucing tu! Geram aku tengok!”, a better translation would be “That cat is so adorable!” rather than the more direct or literal translation provided by Fadzilah Amin – “That cat is so cute! I just love to see it!”.
One of the main requirements in any translation work is that the translation (the finished product) must sound natural. Students enrolled on the three-year translation programme at Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) are constantly reminded of this.
However, based on my own experience correcting translations made by students, I find that many have the tendency to translate in a literal manner. When translating from Malay to English or vice versa, they tend to replace the individual words in the source language with individual words in the target language as much as possible, sometimes without even taking into consideration the meaning of the sentence as a whole.
Students often say that they do so because they prefer to be faithful to the original. This sometimes results in translation which sounds unnatural and strange.
In my own translation class, I often give the following examples to illustrate the difference between a natural translation and one that sounds unnatural.
The French sentence “Défense de marcher sur le gazon” can be translated literally as “It is prohibited to walk on the turf” (défense = prohibited, marcher = walk, sur = on, le gazon = turf). The translation given tries to follow the word order of the original, and although the translation makes sense and can easily be understood, it does not sound natural in English.
A more natural expression would be “Keep off the grass”, which is a perfectly valid and acceptable English translation despite the fact that it does not follow the word order of the original sentence.
Another example is the German expression “Frisch angestrichen”, which can be translated literally as “Freshly painted” (frisch = freshly, angestrichen = painted). Again, this would sound rather stilted. A more commonly accepted phrase in English would simply be “Wet paint”.
In the field of translation, we call unnatural and strange-sounding language that is inadvertently produced in the course of translating from one language into another ‘translationese’.
This happens when a translator uses a literal approach in translating. The literal approach is also known as form-based translation, where the translator focuses on retaining the form of the original sentence.
To produce a more natural-sounding translation, translators should opt for what is known as communicative translation, also known as idiomatic translation or meaning-based translation, where the emphasis is on retaining the message, not the form.
A good example of meaning-based translation would be the sign many people using the Penang Bridge would have noticed. The sign says “Keep your distance” and the translation provided is “Jarakkan Kenderaan Anda”. In this case, the translation is indeed faithful to the original in terms of meaning, although not in terms of form.
Another important factor in producing a natural translation would be the human factor. Many translation scholars would agree that a translator must always translate into his/her language of habitual use. In the field of translation, this is known as “inbound translation”.
A translator who translates from a second language into his/her mother tongue would normally be able to translate naturally and would be able to produce a natural-sounding translation.
“Outbound translation” is when a translator translates from his/her mother tongue into a second language. This is often not recommended, and if it has to be done at all, the final draft of the translation should ideally be read by a reviewer who must go through the translation without recourse to the original text. This is to ensure that the translation communicates clearly, and that it sounds natural.
The following sentences demonstrate the danger of not taking the right approach. I have no idea what the original sentences are or whether they are indeed translations but if they really are, I suspect they must have been translated from the original language into English in a very literal manner, most probably by someone who is not a native speaker of English.
Seen in a Belgrade hotel elevator: To move the cabin, push button of wishing floor. If cabin should enter more persons, each one should press number of wishing floor.
Seen in an Austrian hotel catering to skiers: Not to perambulate the corridors in the hours of repose in the boots of ascension.
Seen on a slippery-when-wet sign, Beijing: TO TAKE NOTICE OF SAFE: THE SLIPPERY ARE VERY CRAFTY.
And my personal favourite has got to be the following:
Seen in a car rental brochure, Tokyo: WHEN PASSENGER OF FOOT HEAVE IN SIGHT, TOOTLE THE HORN. TRUMPET HIM MELODIOUSLY AT FIRST, BUT IF HE STILL OBSTACLES YOUR PASSAGE THEN TOOTLE HIM WITH VIGOUR.
– Dr Haslina Haroon, Translation and Interpretation Section, School of Humanities, USM, Penang

Causative form and possessive case

A good article showing how the above are to be used
MIND OUR ENGLISH



Wednesday September 19, 2007
Fun with grammar
By OH TEIK THEAM
LOOK at these little ‘stories’ and see if you can find a mistake in each of them:
The operation
“The surgeon made me laughed during my operation.”
“Really?”
“Yes, he had me in stitches!”
The first sentence should read: “The surgeon made me laugh during my operation.”
Certain causative verbs (make, let, have, etc.) take the bare infinitive. The causative verb is used when someone or something causes another person or thing to do something.
He let me join his group.
I had Lee wash my car.
The cold made me shiver.
(Make takes a to-infinitive in the passive voice: She was made to do it.)
Causative verbs can be used in a form similar to the passive:
My car was washed. (passive)
I had my car washed. (causative)
Some causative verbs require to-infinitives:
I told him to wash my car.
I got him to wash my car.
I persuaded him to wash my car.
Ref: www.answers.com
The ranch
The little boy had just returned home after spending a week at his aunt’s and uncle’s ranch. “Mum,” he said excitedly, “I even saw a man who makes horses.”
“Are you sure?” asked the mother, puzzled.
“Yes,” he replied. “I couldn’t believe my eyes. He had a horse almost completed when I saw him, and he was just nailing on the feet.”
At his aunt’s and uncle’s ranch should be at his aunt and uncle’s ranch. If two (or more) nouns or names have joint possession, only the second (or the last) noun or name takes the possessive form.
If the possession is separate, each noun or name takes the possessive form. (Partridge)
David, Jenny and Debra’s father have written a book.
Lauren and Emily’s joint birthday party will be held this Saturday.
John’s and Gary’s birthdays both fall in December.
He invited his son’s and daughter’s friends to the party.
The cat’s and dogs’ names were given by me. Source:StarTwo

Never use "Indon" to refer to Indonesians

Good advice about the subject
Nation THE STAR, Monday, September 10, 2007
Monday September 10, 2007
Envoy: Stop stereotyping Indonesian workers
MALAYSIANS need to change their perception of Indonesian workers as being good for only menial jobs before relations between the two countries suffer more serious damage.
Malaysian Ambassador to Indonesia Datuk Zainal Abidin Mohd Zin said the stereotyping of Indonesian workers and the abuse by some employers must stop immediately.
He also called on the Indonesian media to tone down their general perception of Malaysians being arrogant.
“With more than two million Indonesians working in Malaysia, legally or otherwise, there is bound to be problems and cases of abuse.
“But the thing is, if they happened, why are not these cases resolved. From the point of view of the Indonesians, we are practising double standards.
“They feel that when it comes to Indonesians committing a crime in Malaysia, justice has been swift but when it comes to Malaysians abusing their Indonesian worker, no action is taken,” Zainal Abidin told Malaysian media covering Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak’s three-day working visit to South Sulawesi yesterday.
The ambassador said there was also the concern of Malaysian employers withholding the passports of Indonesian workers, which, in the eyes of Indonesian activists, were against human rights.
Then, he said, there were cases of mistreatment and abuse of these workers which had been blown out of proportion by the Indonesian media.
Zainal Abidin urged Malaysians to erase from their vocabulary the term “Indon” used to refer to the Indonesians.
The Indonesians, he said, felt trongly about the word as to them it was a degrading term.
“The Information Department and Wisma Putra have already instructed the media to stop using the word to refer to Indonesians, but it is still largely used by the general public.”
The above is the news item from The Star worthy of taking note carefully especially its last paragraph.
However, following is the headline of a news item of September 23 in the newspaper not heeding the above advice:- "Fleeing Indon woman falls to her death" though in the news itself the word is not used.

Hypercritical criticisms - acceptable translations

What I have to say about the criticisms below
I refer to the message (It’s a Malaysian thing) in OPEN CHANNEL of MIND OUR ENGLISH of THE STAR of September 7, 2007.
The translations concerned (which are made in proper English) do not deserve such criticisms which appear hypercritical. At most, we can say they contain dialectic variations which exist everywhere (vide Merdeka English in MIND OUR ENGLISH of August 31).
The writer of Merdeka English has said, among other things, that there is no reason why the Malaysian dialect of English should be any less valid or “proper” than any other dialect. Furthermore, translation must take into account a number of constraints, including context, the rules of grammar of the two languages, their writing conventions and their idioms (according to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia).
__________________________________________________________________________________________

MIND OUR ENGLISH Friday September 7, 2007It’s a Malaysian thing
I AM writing this as a response to the article “From Malay to English” (Aug 30).
The translations by Fadzilah Amin have been done grammatically correct, but when I read them, I still had the feeling that it was really Malay, not English. The sentence structure in English tends to differ from that of Malay, and what have been published are very obviously direct translations from Malay.
For instance, people from English-speaking countries would more likely say, “This newspaper is from the day before yesterday” instead of “This is the day before yesterday’s newspaper” (Situation 1, Item 3). Get what I mean yet?
And with regard to Situation 7, Item 1 (Malay version: Comelnya kucing tu! Geram aku tengok!; Translation: That cat is so cute! I just love to see it!), I must make it clear to any readers out there who are aiming to improve their English through this section that the translated version will never, ever be heard, and should never ever be said if you are travelling overseas. It’s a Malaysian thing.
As I said, native English speakers organise their sentences differently. When talking about something else, they tend not to try to draw attention to themselves as well. For instance, they would probably say “That cat is so adorable!” or “That is an adorable cat!”. The focus is on the cat. They would never try to make themselves also a subject of the conversation by adding “I love to see it”.
Item 2 in Situation 7 (Eiii, geramnya aku kat budak rumah sebelah tu! Selalu sangat curi buah mangga aku! translated into Grrrr! I’m so angry with that boy next door! He’s always stealing my mangoes!) also reeks of a direct translation, but I can’t put my finger on it.
Perhaps anyone out there who feels the same could write in? – J, Penang
Source
StarTwo

Arrest decline in standard of English

My views (concerning the 3 messages below) published by THE STAR:-
Thursday September 20, 2007Arrest decline in standard of English
I AGREE with the statement that college-trained English language teachers in the 60s and 70s have a good command of English ‘Give English teachers a chance’ (The Star, Sept 13).
I have come across a few of these people who edit theses written by university students including those studying for the Masters of Business Administration.
I have also come across a number of present-day university graduates who are unable to write business letters in good English.
However, it was heartening to read, 'Give more importance to English (The Star, Sept 14) by a 14-year-old whose letter will put to shame most university graduates.
Equally heartening is the news of another 14-year-old Malaysian who beat more than three million other youngsters from around the world in an United Nations letter-writing competition (The Star Sept 10).
Hopefully, there will be more such youngsters who can help arrest/improve the declining standard of English in the country.

KENGT, Penang.
__________________________________________________________________________________________


THE STAR Monday September 10, 2007Malaysian beats 3 million in UN contest


PETALING JAYA: Assuming the mind of a tiger cub living in an endangered forest has won 14-year-old Lee Sze Ee a letter-writing competition organised by the United Nations.
She beat more than three million other youngsters from around the world who were asked to put themselves in the position of a wild animal whose habitat is threatened by environmental or climate change.
“I want to congratulate you all. Many of you have good education and live in your so-called world of modernisation.
“Does this mean that humans are civilised?” she wrote.
“Yet, why do humans still need to invade our jungle besides hunting us like in those primitive days?
“Dear People of the World, don’t burn our homes and occupy the area, our natural habitat. We have no other place to go.
“We are helpless. We depend on you – the People of the World to save us,” the letter concludes, winning unanimous praise from the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) jury.
It is the first time that a Malaysian has won the international competition sponsored by the UN Universal Postal Union (UPU) since it began in 1972.
The jury said: “With her sensitivity and imagination, the young Malaysian successfully conveyed the urgency of the situation and sent us a message: we must unite to save our planet.”
For next year’s 37th competition, the UPU is inviting youngsters to write a letter explaining why the world needs more tolerance, a particularly relevant theme in an age of globalisation, migration and other trends bringing ever more people from different cultures into contact with one another.
“Creating a world in which all people live in harmony is a noble goal to which each of us can aspire,” the UPU said.
Predating the United Nations by seven decades, the UPU was founded in 1874, the second-oldest international organisation after the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

THE STAR Opinion Thursday September 13, 2007Give English teachers a chance
IT IS absurd to say that a fresh graduate from any university in any discipline can teach English to secondary school students at tuition centres and college-trained English language teachers are not qualified to do so at these centres.
It is well known that our fresh university graduates are very poor in English. Most of them can hardly write an essay without making lots of grammatical and spelling mistakes!
It is high time officers in the department of private education realise the mistake in their rigid rules. Our country still needs these Senior Cambridge and MCE teachers who have a very good command of English to help improve the standard of English among our students especially those in the rural areas!
The majority of students in rural areas are poor in English, and so are their parents. So they need these qualified good English language teachers to help them especially in writing essays and summaries.
It is really sad to look at the essays of students marked by graduates who are teaching English at tuition centres! How are these graduates going to mark their students’ essays when they themselves are very weak in English.
College-trained English Language teachers in the 60s and 70s have a good command of English and we hope that the department of private education will allow these teachers, especially those retired English teachers and ex-teachers, to teach in tuition centres.
A COLLEGE-TRAINED TEACHER, Tg Karang, Selangor.
THE STAR Opinion Friday September 14, 2007Give more importance to English
I AM a 14-year-old student and I notice the fluency of the English language among students is not up to expectation. We all know English is an international language, but still there are students who do not know how to speak good English.
There is no need to provide the additional facilities and expensive space in schools when the students still do not know the basics of English usage.
Parents and teachers play an active role in encouraging students to speak English. Parents should bring their children to the library regularly.
Parents and children should also spend more time together reading, instead of spending so much time watching television. In school, teachers should organise language games and inter-class debates. Learning must be made fun.
Students who are weak in the language should take the initiative to practise speaking with other pupils.
In today’s world, English is probably the most important language. When we do business with other countries, English is used.
Remember, today’s youths are tomorrow’s leaders. We need outstanding leaders in future who can speak proper English.
NIREL KAUR HARBAN, Pontian, Johor.

There are future tenses

Have no faith in the future
There is no future tense in the English language.
By TOM HAYTON
A COMMON misconception is that English has many tenses. In fact, it only has two: the present tense and the past tense. There is no future tense in English.
When we speak of tenses, we are referring to the form of verbs and the way we change them to express a sense of connection to a particular time or time period. For example,
I have meetings nearly every day
uses the present form of the verb “have’’. This shows that having meetings is something I do in the present time. Perhaps not right now, but often enough (nearly every day) for us to say it’s something I do in the present.
In this example,
I had a meeting yesterday
we change the form of the verb to show that the particular action of having the meeting has now finished (just as yesterday has finished). Other examples of these changes include:
play to played
dictate to dictated
speak to spoke
think to thought
For those of you who want to believe in a future tense, tell me, what are the future tenses of any of these verbs? They do not exist. You won’t find them in any dictionary.
In English, we get round the problem by having several different ways of talking about the future. These include:
The present simple:
I fly to Singapore next week
This form is used when the action has been time-tabled. It sounds a little formal when used in the first person.
The present continuous:
I’m flying to Singapore next week
Adding “next week’’ anchors the concept to the future. This form is used when the action has already been arranged (with an airline and a client, in this case).
“Going to”:
I’m going to fly to Singapore
This is used to talk about personal plans that perhaps haven’t been arranged with anyone else.
Finally, we have “will”. I’m sure some readers have been told that “will” is the definitive future form but in fact, “will” has many uses. In future contexts, it is used to talk about spontaneous decisions:
A: “I can’t find my car keys.’’
B: “I’ll give you a hand.’’
Or predictions:
“I think we will lose earnings in the next quarter.’’
Or as part of an “if” clause:
“If we don’t cut overheads, we’ll slip into the red next quarter.’’
The future tense doesn’t exist – so don’t believe in it!
Tom Hayton is a Business Trainer with the Professional Development Unit (PDU), at the British Council Malaysia. The PDU offers a wide range of learning opportunities from management and communication skills training to developing English skills. Visit its website at www.britishcouncil.org.my or e-mail thomas.hayton@britishcouncil.org.my
The above article appeared in the MIND OUR ENGLISH section of THE STAR of September 7, 2007 and after reading that, I sent my following email on September 9 to the Editor of MIND OUR ENGLISH receiving no reply:-
Quote
I am rather surprised to read the statement, “There is no future tense in the English language” under the article titled Have no faith in the future in MIND OUR ENGLISH of Friday September 7, 2007.
There are (inclusive of future tenses) 16 tenses in the English language namely:-
1. Present simple 2. Present continuous 3. Present perfect 4. Present perfect continuous 5. Past simple 6. Past continuous 7. Past perfect 8. Past perfect continuous 9. Future simple 10. Future continuous 11. Future perfect 12. Future perfect continuous 13. Future simple in the past 14. Future continuous in the past 15. Future perfect in the past and 16. Future perfect continuous in the past.
Just like the present continuous which appears to have been acknowledged as a tense in the article, any future tense requires the accompaniment of one or more auxiliary or helping verbs in its formation.
All these can be confirmed in any book or website about English grammar.
Furthermore, from the sentences mentioned in the article - 'I'll give you a hand', 'I think we will lose earnings in the next quarter' and 'If we don't cut overheads, we'll slip into the red next quarter' - aren't these verbs (used therein which are underlined) in the simple future tense?
Regards,
Kengt, Penang
Unquote
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Teoh - Seeking the use of correc
I have chanced upon some sections of the Wikipedia and decided to place them hereunder to show that they are actually future tenses in the English language:-

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammatical_tense#English_tenses

Viewed in the strictest linguistic sense, English has only two tenses, marked in the verb alone: nonpast tense (present tense) and past tense. ........

Since will is a modal auxiliary, it cannot co-occur with other modals like can, may, and must. Only aspects can be used in infinitives. Some linguists consider will a future marker and give English two more tenses, future tense and future-in-past tense, which are shown by will and would respectively. Also, in nonlinguistic language study, aspects and mode are viewed as tenses.

Future tense in English

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_tense

In English, as in most Germanic languages, there is no simple future tense. Futurity is expressed either by using words that imply future action ("I go to Berlin tomorrow.") or by employing an auxiliary construction that combines certain present tense verbs with the stem of the verb which represents the true action of the sentence.

The tradition that English has a future tense traces to the period of 300 years, from 1066 to about 1350, when Anglo-Norman was the official language of England. Norman, unlike English, is a Romance language; and the Romance languages, unlike Germanic languages, do have a simple future tense.November 02 8:20:46 PM




Teoh
My above email was forwarded to the writer of the article with no indication to me and I received the following reply from him on September 20, 2007:-
Hi there Kengt
Thank you for writing in with comments on my article.
I am sorry to have to reiterate the fact that there is no future tense in English.
As I explained in my article, a tense is a form of a verb. There is no future form of any verb in English. ‘’will’’ is an auxiliary which *sometimes* (for example, in the contexts I gave as examples) expresses the idea of the future.
Some languages, for example, French, there is a future form.
I’m sure I don’t have to remind you of this but you shouldn’t believe everything you read in books! The reason why some grammars list a ‘’future tense’’ in English is a hangover from the days when Latin was taught as part of the school curriculum. It was then convenient, for the purposes of translation, to pretend that ‘’will+verb’’ and other forms that may be used to expressed the future under certain contexts of use, constituted a future tense. In many schools today, teachers continue to work on this basis, but linguistically speaking, it is incorrect.
If I haven’t made it clear, have a look at The English Verb by Michael Lewis. He devotes a whole book to the structure of English verbs, which he discusses lucidly and with humour.
Thanks again and I hope you continue reading the column. Feel free to drop me a line any time.
All the best
TomSeptember 21 6:22:01 PM

Comma Splice

My earlier posting touches, among other things, on two distinct sentences/statements linked by a simple comma (comma splice).
Such weakness appears to be plaguing many writers including experienced ones and editors.
Below are examples taken from newspapers:-
1) His body was covered with tattoos, many of them had religious themes. (This sentence needs to be separated into two sentences: His body was covered with tattoos. Many of them had religious themes.)
2) I have several friends who have had cancer, some have passed away while others have survived. (Similarly this sentence needs to be separated into two sentences: I have several friends who have had cancer. Some have passed away while others have survived.)
The amended sentences should, beyond dispute, be grammatically correct and conveying the meanings intended.

Simple Past Test vs Past Perfect

Further to my earlier posting on the above subject, I again sent an email on August 24 to The Editor of The Star's Mind Our English as follows receiving no response:-
Quote
The past perfect or pluperfect tense serves only to place a narration in the 'more distant past,' without determining its particular time or duration' as explained in http://www.reference.com/browse/wiki/Pluperfect_tense.
The above rule is often seen to have been violated in newspapers, and below is one of them.
The New Straits Times had on July 23 revealed that the judge had not provided written grounds of judgment in at least 30 criminal and civil cases (in NST Online » Frontpage 2007/08/23) where the 'had' immediately after 'The New Straits Times' should be redundant (since the action of revealing was done at a particular time in the past on July 23).
Shouldn't such rule be observed at all times lest the public especially students be misled?
Regards, Kengt, Penang
Unquote

Historical present vs Simple past tense

CLOVE, AUGUST 2007 within THE STAR of August 1, 2007.Letters to editor
Caring young citizens
It was re-asssuring to read Part-time Angels (Clove July 07) and learn that there are young women and men who find time to help worthy causes.
Hopefully there are many others like Wong Ee-lynn and Serena Pang, who are concerned not only with themselves but with making the world a better place.
These days, the younger generation seems to be interested only in having a good time and living beyond their means. This has become a worrisome trend.
National service is a good idea to instil discipline and make them more civic-minded.
If more youths can also be persuaded to take part in community service, problems such as rising crime, drugs and abandoned old folk and children can be lessened.

Concerned reader
Petaling Jaya

After reading the above letter, I sent an email as follows on August 3, 2007 to The Editor of The Star’s Mind our English receiving the following reply on August 6, 2007:-

My email

I refer to the Letter to editor under the headline, Caring young citizens, in CLOVE, AUGUST 2007 within THE STAR of August 1, 2007. May I compliment the writer on the writer's ability to make the message straightforward and simple! However, wouldn't it be better if the historical present (is) instead the simple past tense (was) were used in its first paragraph since it is still re-assuring to read Part-time Angels (Clove July 07)? In addition, past and present tense alternations tend to occur only between events that are markedly different. In other words, tense alternation usually does not occur when two verbs are viewed as belonging to one larger event as explained in http://www.bartleby.com/61/90/H0219000.html. Regards, Kengt, Penang

The reply

Thank you for pointing this out. I have sent your message to the editor concerned.

Best wishes, Kee Thuan Chye Associate Editor Editor of Mind our English The Star

Split infinitive

Below is my email of July 22, 2007 to The Editor of Mind our English of The Star with no reply received:-

Harry Potter and the ugly price warBy M. KRISHNAMOORTHY and MANJIT KAURKUALA LUMPUR: As avid fans of Harry Potter await the highly-anticipated finale scheduled to be released for sale at 7.01am today, a price war has brought about an unexpected twist – four major bookstore chains have decided to not sell the book.

The above is the headline and first paragraph of one of the news items frontpaged by the Star of July 21.
It contains a split infinitive with negation.In http://www.reference.com/search?q=split%20infinitive, it has stated that even those who are generally tolerant of split infinitives may draw the line at splitting infinitives with negations and that that appears to be because the traditional idiom, placing the negation before the marker negating the finite verb, remains easy and natural, and is still overwhelmingly the more common construction. As such, the above negation split can be easily circumvented - four major bookstore chains have decided not to sell the book.
Again the split infinitive with negation has been noted to have been used in the news Potter fans upset with bookshops’ decision
reported by the Star the next day (July 22): Shocked, angry and dismayed. These were some of the reactions to the decision by three major bookstores to not sell the final Harry Potter novel - but not the next paragraph reading, "MPH, Popular Bookstore and Times on Friday decided not to sell Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows after Carrefour and Tesco hypermarkets advertised that they were selling the books at RM69.90."
Regards,
Kengt, Penang