6th Grade Linguistics (1966)

a handful of red sand from the hot climb of Arab deserts brought within this glass becomes the Spy of time the minister of thought how many wor centuries has it been about those Des bone how many strange V vicissitudes has seen how many histories known perhaps the camels of ishite trample and pass it or went into Egypt from the patriarch site his favorite son they bore today's sixth grade Linguistics lesson deals with the negative negative and the question Transformations this lesson is taken from book six of the Roberts English series the teacher is Mr John J Mahoney consultant in English for the school department of harcour brace and world and onward and across the Setting Sun across the boundless plain calm in its spitter Shadow run till thoughts p p puse in vain the vision finishes these walls again shed out the lyc sun CH out the hot immeasurable plane the half half hour sand is run Kathy that was excellent reading thank you very much I think that by now boys and girls you're very familiar with the poem by the way Kathy what is the title of the poem you just read sand of the desert in an hourglass very good and Kathy who wrote WR the poem Henry wwth Bell excellent all right who remembers another poem that had some something about sand in it you read it not too long ago Janet aim mandus o amandus and Janet who wrote Oz amandus do you remember Percy V Shelly Shelly all right and should we ask you Janet uh do you know how to spell Shelly k s h e l l e y very good and recently class you also were asked to write a composition and in your composition you had to talk about some items in both of these poems Oz amandus and the Sand poem what were the compositions about what did you have to do in the compositions who can remember oh I see every hand up almost let's go way back to the rear mic what did you have to do in the composition we were supposed to write about um what we saw in that what you saw in what Mike in on the poem in the poem yes and more specifically Janet exactly what were you pretending to be we were pretending to be the sand telling what we had seen of ozy mandus right and in what stages did you see oam mandus or did you write about ozam mandus Liz in What stages uh in his development when he was I think it was when he was being built when he was new and powerful and now what you see the ruins all right and of course the ruins are where in the sand in the sand all right as I read over your compositions I selected three sentences which I have here on the chalkboard these are three sentences from three different compositions would you read the first one oh Josh can you read this first sentence up here please yes can we remember the ruthless power of these decayed remains all right and uh Beth would you try reading the second one have the Rope snapped under the string all right very good and David could you read the third as the sand all It All That Remains of his power is the sand All That Remains of his power very good who remembers what kind of sentences these are are these sentences have a special name I see a lot of hands how about it Scott what kind of sentences are these excuse me questions questions very good today we're going to talk about the yes no question transformation by the way who remembers what a transformation is a transformation Josh is a particular kind of sentence isn't it Josh what kind is it a transform a transform all right well a transform is a complex sentence all right it's a type of more complicated sentence what is the other kind of sentence that we've already studied Dave the kernel sentence so we work with the kernel and we manipulate with the kernel somehow or other and come up with a more complicated sentence called the transform all right and the process that we use is called the process of transformation now the negative transformation which we've already studied is very very similar to the yes no question transformation which will be new for us today would you open your books please to page 82 page 82 it begins there What sentences can we make negative by simply adding the word not in the predicate how about that Janet What sentences can we make negative this way uh the ones with tense modal and tense B and uh tense have very good all right the ones with tense modal tense have and tense B all right and David the next question where do we put the not in such sentences well you would uh put it right after the tense be tense have or tense model all right right after the tense modal will come the KN or the tense have will come the KN and the tense be will come the KN all right very good Scott in what kind of sentence must we do something more than just add the word not do you remember well in some sentences a tense verbal we had the word do for the not that's correct in some sentences we don't have a modal a have or a be we have a tense with a verbal a simple verbal and in that case we have to add the do all right Kathy would you please read this first line for us just read it for us NP plus T model plus X becomes NP plus tense modal plus not plus X all right and Beth would you look carefully at the secondine L please and read it NP plus 10 half plus X becomes np+ 10 half plus not plus X all right let's have a couple of boys way up back there Dave look at the third one please see if you can keep up with these girls how about reading the third one for us NP plus 10 B plus X becomes NP plus t b plus not plus X all right and Mike way back there how about looking at this fourth line and reading it NP plus tense plus verbal becomes NP plus tense plus do plus not plus verble excellent very good now boys and girls let's continue our review of the negative transformation would you open the workbooks please open your workbooks and we'll have an oral review from the workbooks page 63 the direction at the top of page 63 says transform the following strings into negative strings by inserting not in the proper place and as Mike referred to it before remember to insert do if necessary who would like to do the first one please all right well we were back in the back let's stay up in the back Liz would you please read the first one it isn't raining it isn't raining is that what you said Lizz read exactly what you see in the book beside number one it plus present plus May plus rain right it plus present plus May plus rain now that is called a morphine string Now give me the sentence form of that string it wasn't it isn't raining it isn't raining who can help her out a bit I see some hands I think somebody's going to disagree with you way down here aathy what's what's how would you render that it may not rain it may not rain is that an exact replica of the string as you see it in the book I'm only asking for the sentence of the string you see in the book it plus present plus May plus rain Beth can you help us out it may rain it may rain it may rain which one of these lines is this a sample of Dave which line noun phrase plus tense modal plus X all right it may rain and turned into a negative Josh what would that become what sentence would it become it would become it may not rain it may not rain all right you get the idea try number two uh may I ask Janet to please please read number two Lucy Plus past Plus have plus participle plus take plus it and translate into a sentence Janet that would be what Lucy had taken it Lucy had taken it and Janet into a negative statement Lucy had not taken it Lucy had not taken it which of these lines up here is this an example of Janet NP plus T half plus X all right very good and let's see number three now please Josh how about trying number three the plus school plus present plus b plus on plus M plus Street all right now Dave would you translate that please into a sentence the school is on Elm Street the school is on Elm Street all right and Scott would you turn that sentence of Dave's into a negative statement the school is not on own all right and Scott which one of these rules is applied here noun phrase plus tense B plus X excellent all right let's do number five now number five Liz would you try number five meta ran in the race all right first of all Liz please read the string as you see it in the book n NRA plus Pass Plus run Plus in plus the plus race very good now what is the sentence Liz is had N Run in the r no the sentence the exact translation of the string you see in the book oh Nedra the past of run is ran ran in the race in the race sure that's isn't that a good English sentence I just said that oh I'm sorry I didn't get away up here all right Nedra ran in the race now turn that statement into a negative statement N I hadn't run in the race all right right or what's another possible way of doing this had man well that's possible but David how would you do it Nedra had not run in the race Nedra had not run well I see some hands up here Kathy how would you do it Nedra did not run in the race Nedra did not run in the race now if we choose to do it in Kathy's fashion would one of these rules apply Kathy tell them which one would apply NP plus t plus CL verbal right and there's the verbal so when we have a verbal as you recall we end up over here with simply a tense and not and we call that a floating tense if you remember and whenever we have a floating tense we have to pull do in and use do all right let's take a look at the yes no question transformation here it's very very much like the negative transformation back in your textbook please close your workbooks still on page 82 of the textbook the second paragraph may I have a volunteer reader well I think the first hand over there was your hand Scott so I'm going to ask Scott to read for us the second paragraph please the sentences that you have studied so far have all been statements some have been affirmative statements and some have been negative statements a statement simply says that something is so or happens or isn't so or doesn't say or or simply says that something is so or happens or isn't so or doesn't happen at the end of statements we use a period all right thank you very much Janet would you please continue reading the next paragraph another cond of sentence is a question the question asks if something is so or isn't or happens or doesn't happen continue Janet please here's a statement that made into a question read it John plus present plus be plus hungry John is hungry becomes present plus be plus John plus hungry is John hungry all right then it asks Josh what noun phrase is the subject of the statement uh John all right and Kathy what word in the predicate expresses tense is is very good and Scott what change is made to turn the statement into a question that is what two morphemes change places with the subject tense and B all right tense and B change places with the subject instead of John is we have what Scott is John is John very good and David what punctuation mark is used at the end of a question a question mark very good and it concludes here by saying in the book we make a statement then into a question by changing the positions of the subject and a following tense plus b all right if you look up here at the board please I have a morphine string up here Kathy would you please read the string Sam plus Pass Plus can plus help very good and translated Kathy into a sentence how would the string read Sam could help Sam could help all right now who can transform this into a yes no question Liz back there I think I saw your hand first go ahead could Sam help could Sam help all right what morphes Liz did you move around here I changed the past plus can over to before Sam before Sam all right phrase very good so you brought the past plus can over here in front of Sam all right very good Janet transformed or converted into a regular sentence how would this string read they have finished they have finished all right now Mike can you transform this into a yes no question have they finished have they finished and Mike what more themes did you move around present plus have to the very good you put the present plus have where Mike in front of they in front of they all right very good Beth would you please read the third example everyone plus present plus b plus ing plus go very good and David would you please give us the sentence version of this morphe string everyone is going everyone is going and Kathy can you turn everyone is going into a yes no question is everyone going is everyone going all right and which Mor FES did you move around Kathy present plus be in the beginning of the sentence all right you put present plus b at the beginning of the sentence well now we can begin to fill in our chart over here for the yes no question can't we we found that when when we had a noun phrase plus a tense modal plus X that that is transformed into a t modal plus NP + x all right which of these examples over here illustrates this rule Josh can you tell us yes first one the first one Sam plus can plus P plus can all right how do you think the second rule is going to read up here now this chart is going to be very much like this chart when we're through oh I see quite a few hands way back there Dave how do you think the second Line's going to read noun phrase plus tense have plus X all right noun phrase plus tense have plus x t have plus noun phrase plus X plus X all right You' started here with a noun phrase and the tense have and you've inverted them and you end up with tense have plus noun phrase very good indeed who thinks he knows how the third line is going to be Janet will you try noun phrase plus tense B plus X right becomes noun phrase no uh tense B mm plus noun phrase plus X very good what did you invert what did you switch around Janet the subject and tense B all right the noun phrase and tense B you've ended with tense B plus the noun phrase all right take a look please at the fourth example I'm going to put on over here he plus watch oh let's do it another way he plus Pat plus watch plus television what have I just written up here what do we call this Scott what do we call it sentence Oh colel sentence well not exactly not in this form not quite in this form I have some plus signs in here when I write sentences you remember what we call this David do you remember well it's a morphine string a morphine string all right but it isn't complete what have I left out of this Beth what have I left out well you forgot to underline um each morphine I forgot to underline each morphine all right remember we said when we first studied morphemes that to indicate to us very quickly to our eyes that we're talking about a morphine we draw a line under it all right uh Janet would you please give us the sentence version of this morphine string he watched television he watched television all right now up here in the first three you have already explained to me how in this one we have a modal in this case can this one we have a have Plus Part the participle and in this one we have one of those forms of be followed by the in form do we have a modal a have plus part or a B plus ing anywhere at all in this fourth example scottt do we no we don't but Scott now look carefully at the fourth one what do we have in the fourth string that we don't have in the first three a tense plus verbal a tense plus verbal all right so we have to the left of the arrow an NP plus a tense verbal how would I say this string as a sentence once more Liz how would I say it as a sentence he watched television he watched television all right he watched television now class look very very carefully at both of the charts you will see that everything to the left of the arrow here the negative transformation is just like everything to the left of the Arrow here in the yes no question transformation isn't it and in the second line the same thing is true everything to the left of the arrow is the same as everything to the left of this arrow and the third line and our last line is the same also all right now think carefully does this sameness this similarity between the negative transformation and the yes no question transformation to the left of the Arrow does this give you any clue as to how we would transform he watched television into a yes no question now think carefully I see almost every hand up here what would he watched television become oh Big and Tall way up and back there Liz tense plus do plus noun phrase plus verbal all right and the English sentence itself would be not he watched television but did he watch television did he watch television all right Josh she's already told us what very important morphine did she add not a word now Josh not a word but which morphine did we did she add um not a word but which morphine was added to complete our formula over here tense well we we had tense here so we didn't add tense which morphine was added oh can you help him out Janet do the morphine do very good Josh how about coming on up here please and filling in the rest of our formula we have just said Janet has just explained that we have added do and that's that's a mighty mighty important morphine what do you want to do just want you to fill in the second part of this line here you can all right he has t plus ver all right thank you very much Josh there is a rhythm and a flow and a fluidity in our English language and I think that you will agree that the performance of our sixth graders today and the lesson you have just viewed will example the Rhythm and flow and fluidity that is also present in a typical lesson from the Roberts English series using the literature always as the starting point and in this case today long fellow's sand of the desert in an hourglass and Shell's Oz amandus having understood the meanings within the literature proceeding from this we used ideas to develop principles of composition and taking examples of sentences the boys and girls themselves had written we then began to develop another principle within the grammar today's lesson focused in on an extremely important principle that revolving around the yes no question transformation and having reinforced and reviewed the negative which is so similar inductively the students learned the similar principles of the yes no question transformation I think without difficulty and of course that's really what we're up to isn't it having studied the parts of the basic structures or the kernel sentences and proceeding from these to the ways in which we can manipulate the parts of the kernel coming up with the transforms the more complicated sentences we are giving them ways of providing more insights into their literary analysis and also into their areas of composition when they are faced and aware of the choices available to them I think this sixth grade class is well on its way toward achieving some of these goals Tex jel and graphic elements of this program are taken from the Roberts English series a Linguistics program book six by Paul Roberts copyright 1966 by harkort brace and world this is one of a series of demonstration lessons produced by the school department of harcour brayon world