COURSE TITLE:
GENERAL ENGLISH IV
COURSE CODE:
GSE 221
GRAMMAR
(A) Direct and Indirect Speech
Meaning of direct and
indirect speech: Direct speech refers to the exact, original words of a
speaker. The words are those actually used by the speaker, which have not been
changed. Example: Bukola Said, “I am very happy about your success”.
Indirect Speech: When someone
reports direct speech, he tells another person what someone else said or what
he, himself said. In this case, all the actual words of the direct speech are
not used. Some modifications occur. It is called indirect speech or reported
speech.
Example: Bukola said that she was very happy about
my success.
Main points to remember.
1. Direct speech should be placed between the inverted commas
and begins with a capital letter.
Example: Amaka said, “ I want to study medicine”
2. No inverted commas and comma are used in indirect speech.
Example Amaka said that she wanted to study medicine.
3. The tense of the reporting is not changed
4. A conjunction is used after the reporting verb in indirect
speech. Example she told me that she would assist me.
5. Tense/pronouns/words indicating nearness of time and
position are changed. Example Bukola said to me, “I waited for you here today”
Bukola told me that she waited
for me there that day.
Reported speech must be in line with the modified
time and place as thus:
Direct
speech indirect speech
This
That
These those
Now
then
Ago
before
Last
night the
previous night
The
night before
Next
day the
following day
The
day after
Today
that
day
Tonight
that
night
Yesterday the previous day
The
day before
Tomorrow
the next day
The following day
The day after
The day after tomorrow the day after the next day
or in two days
Next week the following week
Just then
Here there
Thus so
PRONOUNS IN
INDIRECT SPEECH
1. Pronouns of the first person are changed into the pronouns
of the subject of the reported speech.
2. Pronouns of the second person are changed into the pronouns
of the object of the reporting verb
3. Pronouns of third person remain unchanged.
|
Direct
speech
|
Indirect
speech
|
||
|
|
Masculine
|
Feminine
|
Plural
|
|
I
|
He
|
She
|
They
|
|
You
|
He
|
She
|
They
|
|
You
|
Him
|
Her
|
Them
|
|
Your
|
His
|
Her
|
Their
|
|
Me
|
Him
|
Her
|
Them
|
|
My
|
His
|
Her
|
Their
|
|
Myself
|
Himself
|
Herself
|
Themselves
|
|
We
|
None
|
None
|
They
|
|
Us
|
None
|
None
|
Them
|
|
Our
|
None
|
None
|
Their
|
B. AMBIGUITY
Ambiguity is anything that
can be understood in more than one way. Something that has double, multiple or
dubious significance. It is something that is vague. As a linguistic concept,
ambiguity refers to a lexical item or grammatical unit with more than one
possible meaning or interpretation. It can also be referred to the state of a
word or an expression being difficult to understand, owing to many sense to it.
Ambiguity in language and
communication result in a word or an expression having more than one possible
meaning, interpretation or explanation. Sometimes a language user fails to
communicate his/her meaning effectively because of ambiguity.
KINGS OF
AMBIGUITY
There are five kinds of ambiguity;
namely phonological, morphological, structural, lexical and semantic ambiguity.
1. Phonological
Ambiguity: Some words in English have the same sounds or pronunciation as
others, but different meanings. Those words are technically called homophones.
In speech, they present problems of aural-oral discrimination because what the
listener hears may not be what the speaker means. Exdependant and dependent
have exactly the same sound and even the same stress pattern.
2. Morphological Ambiguity: In the formation
of words affixes are attached to roof words. Affixes can be in the form of
prefixes and suffixes. These grammatical forms can give rise to ambiguity, when
for instance, a prefix that has the same spelling and sound can mean
differently when affixed to different words. A typical example is the prefix
un-which can function as a negative and reversative prefix respectively.
In
words such as unripe, unexpected, undecided, unattractive etc. The prefix Un =
is negative – meaning the opposite or not”
Unripe
mean not ripe
Unexpected
means not expected
Unattractive
means not attractive
The same prefix un-in words
such as undress, unzip, unwrap, unwind are reservative, meaning to reverse or
undo the action described by the verb.
3. Structural
Ambiguity: This kind of ambiguity concerns some phrases constructed or
structured in a way that more than one meaning can result from them. Consider
the following sentences.
(a) The
kite is set to fly
This
may be interpretated as:
(i) the
kite will fly on its own soon
(ii) somebody
will fly the kite
(b) researching
students can be interesting
This
may be interpreted thus:
(i) Students
who are engaged in research can be interesting
(ii) To
do research on students can be interesting
Lexical Ambiguity: When a single word has more than
one meaning or sense, the result is that confusion arises if the word is not
used in a specific context. This is because, used in isolation such a word can
be interpretated in more than one way. Two lexical items that can be sources of
lexical ambiguity include:
(a) Homograph: a word that is spelt the
same as another word, but has a different meaning and pronunciation Bow-to bend
the head or body as sing of respect. Bow- a weapon for short arrows.
(b) Homonym: a word that has the same
spelling and same pronunciation as another word but has a different meaning
from it. Many verbs and nouns in English are homonyms as some have several
meanings. Example
Row (verb) to propel a boat, using oars.
Row (noun) – a number of people or things arranged
in a line, e.g a row of seats.
5. Semantic Ambiguity: There is a sense in
which all kinds of ambiguity are semantic. The essence of discussing semantic
ambiguity as a separate kind, therefore, is to examine a situation where a
single complete sentence can convey two or more possible meanings leading to
ambiguity. This could arise when there is a misplaced determiner in a sentence,
as in other situations.
Consider the following sentences:
(a) I
have not heard from him
This
could be interpretated as:
(i)
he has not spoken to me
(ii)
he has not written to me
(iii)
he has not replied to my message
(b) Mr.
Okpara is not on seat
Could
be interpretated thus;
(i)
Mr. Okpara is not in the office
(ii)
He has not come to work
(iii)
He has left his seat
(iv)
He is not prepared to attend to visitors
VOCABULARY
(a) Colloquial
Expression: The term colloquialism refers to an informal word or expression
that is used mainly in conversation. Such a word or an expression is not considered
good for formal speech or writing. Therefore any word or expression that does
not conform to the contemporary formal English usage is a colloquialism.
Colloquialism
can be taken as informal language, where informal refers to a spoken form or
style of language that has a simpler grammatical structure and simpler
vocabulary that is colloquial in nature or even slang. English is
conversational, informal and interpersonal. So to attain mutual
intelligibility, formal patterns most often is abandon in preference for
informal speech, which a times make them more intelligible. The result is that
everyday conversations are held, using jargon, slang, cliché, acronyms, vulgar
language, abbreviations, contractions among other informal speech pattern .
Jargon:
these are words or expressions used by a particular profession or group of
people and which are difficult for others to understand. Most jargon has Latin,
Greek or French origin, a factor that partly sets them from formal,
conventional English words and expressions.
Slang:
Slang is very informal words and expression common in spoken language,
especially used by a particular group of people eg. Children, criminals,
soldiers etc. Slang is difficult to understand by people outside the
user-group. Sometimes, slang may be a word or an expression that actually
exists in English language but into which meaning has been forced by the group.
Examples: sorting (lecturer) Egunje, bush meat, colonize a babe, shack etc.
Vulgar
language: vulgar language originally referred to rude, impolite language,
likely to offend the person to whom it is directed. Currently it refers to
popular street language, language of motor park- of touts and of desperate
passengers, language of the market place etc, all of which may be impolite,
abusive and so on. The following sentences contain vulgar language.
1.
You monkey!
2.
You are a nonentity
3.
Fuck up! You hopeless vagabond
4.
Get out here! Idiot of no use
5.
Vamoose, you bloody fool
Contractions: Contractions as a
linguistic term refers to short forms of words. Those forms are found in
informal speech. The under listed sentences contain contractions and are
informal:
1.
I’ll leave for Lagos
tomorrow
2.
We’ve waited for ages for our stipends
3.
she won’t listen to you if you’re not a born-again
ABBREVIATIONS
AND ACRONYMS
Whereas an abbreviation is a short form of a word or
word groups, an acronym is a word formed from the first letters of the words
that make up the name of something.
Examples of abbreviation are thus:
i.e - that is
e.g - for examples
viz - namely
etc - and other things
etal - and others
a.m - before noon
p.m - after noon
NB - note well
Prox - next month
Examples of
acronyms
UNO - United Nations Organization
NGOs - Non- Governmental Organizations
E-mail - electronic mail
FORMAL SPEECH
PATTERN
Formal speech pattern is the
official, non-personal mode of communication in contra-distinction to the
informal pattern which is personal and unofficial. Unlike the informal pattern,
the formal pattern has no room for the emotional or sentimental expression that
depicts the intimacy between interlocutors. The formal speech pattern is
straight forward, very grammatical and rule conscious. It has no respect for
waste of space and time due to ornamentation, wordiness or superfluity that
characterize informal speech pattern.
Formality or informality of speech is determined by
there essential factors; namely the decoder (audience) subject matter (topic of
discuses) and environment (setting)
Audience: The audiences are the people
who listen to speech. If the gathering is formal, as in a courtroom, a board
meeting, in a conference etc, the audience calls for formal speech. But if it
is a gathering of a family a group of people in a market place etc the choice
of speech is informal. Therefore audience influence choice of speech medium and
words too.
Subject Matter: The subject matter, topic or area of
discourse influences the choice of words and the speech pattern. At a seminar,
a lecture, workshop, a symposium, a conference, formal meeting etc. speakers
choose formal words and expressions appropriate to their topics, as in informal
discuses such as midnight tales, where a mother and her children sit round the
fire to listen to folktales, among other traditional oral forms.
Environment: The environment or setting
also influences choice of speech mode. In a formal environment such as lecture
theatres, courtrooms, legislative chambers, conference halls, press centre or
campaign grounds, speakers resort to very formal speech patterns, using
appropriate diction to persuade the audience. In an informal environment such
as motor parks, bus stops, market places etc, the speaker is likely to use
informal speech patterns.
The
important thing is that words chosen should be relevant to the audience’s
taste, appropriate to the subject mater of discourse and mindful of the setting
whether it is physical or spatiotemporal.
REGISTERS
Meaning of
Register
Registers refer to words or vocabulary
associated with certain field of human endeavour. The language registers of
particular field or disciplines are their trade mark, they are the specialized
words or expression used in discuses in those fields or profession. For
instance a member of the discipline of law is expected not only to be well
acquainted with the language of law and justice, but also to use, those
specialized words aptly in communication, especially with his colleagues in the
law profession.
As
language register words that literally mean other things in general English
have different meanings. They acquire technical sense or meanings. Therefore
the need for knowledge of language registers is very important.
CRITICAL
ANALYSIS AND APPRECIATION
This is a technique of reading in which the
reader becomes fully involved in the text. He is not only looking for
information or trying to grasp the main ideas of the text for simplification
for less informed readers or audience, but also penetrating the intentions, the
heart-beat of its creator making a constructive assessment of the material.
According
to Chukwuma and Otagburuagu, “Critical reading is concerned with weighing up
the writer’s total argument, assessing it for its strengths and weaknesses and
making connections between it and related ideas.
The
critical reader is faced with the task of totally unraveling the meaning
believed the writer’s ideas, even discovering the intentions underlying certain
linguistic and literary technique applied by the writer or the character or
appraising the situations and episode.
Main points to
note in critical analysis and appreciation
i.
The writer’s choice of words in relation to situations, audience etc.
ii.
The kinds and types of sentences used by the writer and their functions
and effects on overall meaning in a text.
iii.
Levels of language deployment formal or informal and reasons for such.
iv.
The reasons for such
v.
The background of the writer which may provide a due to the content or
form of his writing
vi.
The need to sift facts from opinions of either the author or his
characters.
vii.
Other vital stylistic techniques that help to make the work critical
analysis and appreciation.
NARRATIVE
WRITING
A
narrative writing is one in which the writer tells or relates (narrate) a story
or a tale. It may involved giving account of an incident or event in which
somebody was involved to an audience that has not experienced it or to people
who were not there when it took place.
In
narrative writing it is always a good idea to present events or episodes in
chronological or sequential order. This will make the writing clear and
straight forward, thus preventing mix-up in the story being presented.
TENSE OF VERB
TO BE USED
An important element in narrative writing is
the tense. It is important to decide from the start what type of tense one is going
to use. More often that not many people mix up their tenses. The present is
usually mixed with the past. This is wrong. Usually the tense of the verbs in
narrative writing is simple past tense.
Guidelines on
narrative writing in the life of a person
(a)
Date and place of birth of the person, parentage and family
(b)
The person’s early life and education
(c)
His or her profession and how he has fared
(d)
Service to his community and humanity in general.
(e)
His or her notable achievements.
(f)
Commendable aspect of his life, worthy of emulation.
(g)
His or her death (if dead) and the effect of this.
(h)
Conclusion-lessons than be drawn from his or her life
Descriptive
Writing:
Descriptive writing is a writing that requires the writer to describe things,
places and person. The subject of description could be an object, a person, a
place an animal, a scene or an incident. The main preoccupation here is to
describe.
Points to note
when embarking on a descriptive writing.
(a)
the writer must be a good observer
(b)
he must be quite familiar with what he is describing
(c)
the recognition of the audience to whom we are describing the place,
scene, person, incident etc.
(d)
the purpose of writing is also another factor to note.
Formal letter
writing
Formal letter: This is a
letter that is written to government offices, or departments, cooperation,
business firms, public organizations, institutions of learning and editor of
newspapers, journals or magazines. They include applications for jobs, letters
of inquiry, request and complaints. Formal letter is also referred to as
official or business letter. The relationship between the writer and receiver
is strictly official.
Features of
formal letters:
1.
Two addresses; the address of the writer and the address of the
receiver
2.
the date is written on the next line below the address of the writer
3.
Reference number, in certain cases the letter requires reference
number.
4.
The salutation, after the receiver’s address comes the salutation.
5.
the heading or title, formal letter do have title or heading
6.
The body of the letter, in formal letter we go straight to the main
point of writing.
7.
Paragraphing, the normal
paragraphing rules have to be strictly observed.
8.
Language of the letter; it is important to write as clearly as
possible, simple, straight forward and correct sentences.
9.
The subscription, here the signature is appended and the full name of
the writer will then follow.
Informal letter: This is the
type of letter that is written to parents, friends, relatives and acquaintances
in their private capacities. In other words, the relationship in this type of
letter is an informal one.
Features
1.
the address, that is a single address
2.
the date
3.
the salutation
4.
the body of the letter
5.
the subscription
Phonetics and
phonology of English
The study of speech sounds is divided into
two closely related and overlapping sub disciplines-phonetics and phonology.
Phonetics
is the study of language sound production, the quality of sound produced in
terms of phonetic environment in which they occur and the perception of such
sounds. Meanwhile there are three branches.
1.
Articulatory phonetics:- This is the study of language sound production
(articulation)
2.
Auditory phonetics, this branch is concerned with the perception of
language sounds.
3.
Acoustic phonetics, this deals with the qualities of language sounds
acquire in t he process of production.
Phonology on the other hand,
is the study of the patterning of language sounds. It is primarily concerned
with the acceptable sequence or arrangement of the speech sounds of a
particular language.
Classification
of English Sounds
There are forty-four sounds units in the
English languages these sound units are also called phonemes.
In
transcription, letters of the English alphabet and some conventional symbols
are used to represent the sound units. These symbols are union as phonetic
symbols. The forty-four sounds of English have been classified into vowels and
consonants.
Listening
Listening is a major
language skill. It is a practical exercise involving the intentional hearing
and understanding of speech sounds. As one hears speech sounds, one attaches
meaning to the sounds in its different forms. Therefore listening also involves
discrimination of sounds, especially the sounds of different languages.
Types of
Listening
Listening has two broad
types; namely extensive and intensive listening:
i.
Extensive listening means listening to a wide rang of materials over a
period of time. The listener gets information, ideas or main points form the
materials he listens to. The piece of information or ideas a listener gets
depends on his purpose for listening.
ii.
Intensive Listening: This concerns listening for details of specific
materials or items. Example, one listening to a particular lecture is doing an
intensive listening. The same applies to one who listens to news broadcast, an
announcement etc.
Listening
Defect
Listening is defective when the listener fails to
achieve the purpose for listening i.e. when he fails to understand the ideas or
information given in the materials he listens to. So the causes of this failure
are referred to as listening defects. Some of the causes of this failure are
briefly discussed below;
(a)
Lack of listening Readiness: some listeners may be physically and
intellectually ready to listen, but emotionally ill-prepared to benefit from
the materials they listen to. Tiredness,
sickness, absence of motivation, hearing problem etc, can be the cause.
(b)
Ambiguity: Listening failure may be caused by ambiguous expression. The
material may be too vague to allow comprehension. This may be due diction,
difficulty of subject matter, poor delivery of speech, defect in audio devices
(eg microphone, radio, tapes).
(c)
Unconducive Listening Atmosphere: This may occur due to the factors
related to the environment in which listening is talking place. The atmosphere
may be noise, the sitting arrangement may be poor and poor lightening and sound
effect may contribute to listening failures.
Speaking
Speaking involves the sue of speech sounds or
the sounds of a language to communicate meaningfully. The speaking and
listening exercise and the repetition or imitation of what is said is called
oral drill.
READING
Various
definitions have been given about reading. But according to the new lexicon
Webester’s dictionary of English language, reading is defined as “to understand
the meaning of symbols, signs, gesture etc, by looking at them and assimilating
them mentally”. A learner’s ability to tell the difference between the printed
symbol is the gateway to his understanding of the symbols. Effective
understanding of those symbols shows that reading has taken place. Thus the aim
of reading is to derive meaning from printed symbols or page.
Two types of reading are thus:
Intensive and
extensive reading
i.
Intensive reading: intensive reading places emphasis on improved
reading skills with corresponding understanding of a text.
ii.
Extensive reading: These concerns reading many kinds of texts, ie wide
variety of materials are used over a period of time.
Meanwhile, there are two
kinds of reading – techniques, namely skimming and scanning.
Skimming implies quick
reading for the main idea of a text. The reader does not read everything in the
text rather he strives to get the general points or ideas contained in the
text. He skims the text by taking a purposeful look at the important elements.
Scanning as a technique of
faster reading involves quickly searching for specific pieces of information in
a text. The reader is only concerned in picking out certain items in a text. He
is neither interested in details nor general idea.
WRITING
Introduction
Writing as a language skills
concerns shaping the letters of the alphabet or knowledge of the right
combination of letters to realize meaningful codes-words or expressions.
Writing could be said to be the graphic representation of speech sounds of a
language, using the alphabets of that language.
PUNCTUATION
MARKS AND ITS FUNCTIONS
Punctuation is a vital
aspect of writing which writers must not neglected. Because if a sentence or an
essay is not well punctuated, expression is usually very poor. And the meaning
many likely be distorted.
Punctuation
is done, using some conventional marks or symbols called punctuation marks. Punctuation
marks in English are:
Punctuation Mark
or Symbol
i. Full
stop (period) - .
ii. Question
mark - ?
iii. Exclamation
mark - !
iv. Comma
- ,
v. Semicolon
- ;
vi colon
- :
vii hyphen
- _
viii dash - ____
ix Ellipsis
- …..
x Caret
- Û¸
xi Apostrophe - Û¥
xii Quotation
marks - “
“
xiii Parentheses - (
) or { }
(a) The full stop. This indicates a long pause or a complete
statement or the end of a sentence.
(b) The Questions marks end direct questions
(c) The exclamation mark ends expression of sudden feeling of
happiness, of anger, of sorrow, or surprise etc.
(d) The comma generally shows a slight pause in speech. It also separates
a relative/ subordinator clause which comes before the main clause.
(e) The semicolon is a lesser stop than the full stop.
(f) The colon is used to introduce a list
(g) The hyphen is used to form compound nouns. After certain
prefixes. To form compound adjective.
(h) The dash is used to mark sudden change of thought before and
after a phrase added to a sentence.
(i) Ellipsis are used to show that some words or expression are
omitted from quoted or paraphrased ideas.
(j) The caret is used to show what is missing from a text. It is
put in the gap where a word or an expression is missing
(k) The apostrophe is used to show the possessive case of nouns or
indefinite pronouns.
(l) Quotation marks generally show the beginning and end of a
quotated word, expression or passage.
(m) Parentheses are also called brackets in British English. They
are put round a word or group of words which interrupts, explains or add to a
sentence.
DRAMA
Drama
is a genre of literature which thrives in action rather than narration. Drama
could be tragedy, comedy, tragic-comedy, melodrama.
The
major feature of drama is action. Then the basic elements of drama are plot,
characters, actions, act scenes and setting other features of drama include
cast, playwright, dramatist, dramatis personae, tragic flaw etc.