{"id":115,"date":"2012-09-04T15:32:00","date_gmt":"2012-09-04T15:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/monkeygrammar.org\/index.php\/2012\/09\/04\/grammar-of-spoken-english-1\/"},"modified":"2020-04-16T11:41:36","modified_gmt":"2020-04-16T11:41:36","slug":"grammar-of-spoken-english-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mindpowerasia.org\/grammar-of-spoken-english-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Grammar of Spoken English (1)"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n


\n<\/span><\/span>
\n<\/span><\/span>
\n
\n<\/span><\/span>Most of us (whose mother tongue is not English) have been learning English for years. <\/span><\/span>
\nBut sometimes there are questions to which we <\/span><\/span>don’t know how to explain<\/span>. <\/span><\/span>What questions<\/span> am I talking about?  <\/span>For example, everyone knows that ‘<\/span>take your time<\/span>‘ is polite, right.  <\/span>But the <\/span>question<\/span> is: why<\/span>? <\/span>
\n
\n<\/span><\/span>
\n<\/span><\/span>
\n<\/span><\/span>
\n<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/div>\n
\n

\n<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

\n<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
Why<\/span> is it <\/span>polite<\/span>?  <\/i><\/b><\/span><\/span>I came up with a little theory<\/span><\/span> to explain it.  <\/span><\/span>Before you get to the theory, read 2 examples:<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n


\n<\/span><\/p>\n


\n<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span>
\n<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span>
\n<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span>
\n<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span>
\n<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span>
\n<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span>
\n
\n<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span>
\n<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span>
\n<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span>
\n<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span>
\n<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span>
\n<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span>
\n<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span>
\n
\n<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span>
\n<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

A. Example 1<\/span><\/i><\/b>: Take a seat.  <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n

    <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n

<\/a>When a woman asks you to ‘take a seat’, do you really TAKE the seat<\/span> with your hands<\/span>?  <\/span>No, of course <\/span>not<\/span>!  What do I mean?  I mean when your friend says ‘Take the handbag for me’, you will carry<\/span> the handbag, right?<\/span><\/p>\n


\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>But it is a different ‘story’ for ‘take a seat’.  I guess nobody will really hold or carry a chair<\/span> on hearing ‘take a seat’, right?<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>Why?  <\/span>There is a <\/span><\/span>mismatch<\/span> between the verb ‘take’ and the action ‘sit’, as shown below: <\/span>Take<\/span><\/b> VS <\/span>Sit<\/span>.<\/b>
\n
\n<\/b>
\n<\/b>
\n<\/b>
\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

  <\/span>VERB        <\/span>ACTION<\/span><\/o:p><\/span><\/h3>\n
<\/div>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

        <\/span>take                  <\/span>sit <\/span><\/div>\n


\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n
\n<\/span>What do I mean by ‘mismatch<\/span>‘?  Move on to example 2.<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

B. Example 2: <\/span>Do something<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n


\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/div>\n

        <\/span><\/b><\/span>VERB           <\/span>ACTION <\/span><\/b><\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

        <\/span>do                   <\/span>do         <\/span><\/span><\/span>
\n
\n<\/span><\/span><\/span>
\n<\/span><\/span><\/span>
\n<\/span><\/span>
\n
\n<\/span><\/span>In this example, there is <\/span><\/span>a match<\/span> between ‘do’ and ‘do’.  <\/span>That is ‘<\/span>the verb <\/span>=<\/span> <\/span>the action<\/span>‘. <\/span><\/b>In this case, it is an <\/span>order<\/span> <\/span>(<\/span>impolite<\/span>).<\/span>
\n
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>There are lots of examples regarding this ‘match’:<\/span>
\n
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Give<\/span> me the details<\/span>. ( <\/span><\/span>at your office<\/span>)<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. Take<\/span> that chewing gum out of your mouth.<\/span> (at your school<\/span>)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n


    \n<\/span>
    \n<\/span>
    \n<\/span><\/p>\n

    C. A Little Theory<\/span><\/h2>\n
    <\/a><\/div>\n

    So what is the little theory? <\/span>
    \n
    \n<\/span>When there is a match<\/b><\/span> between the verb and the real action, it is impolite, as shown in ‘<\/span>Verb<\/span> = Action<\/span> —————> <\/span><\/span>impolite<\/span>‘.   <\/span>
    \n
    \n<\/span>
    \n<\/span>
    \n<\/span>
    \n<\/span>
    \n<\/span>
    \n<\/span>So according to the above little theory, ‘take your time<\/span>‘ is <\/span><\/b><\/span>polite<\/b><\/span>.<\/span>
    \n
    \n<\/span><\/span><\/span>
    \n<\/span><\/span><\/span>
    \n<\/span><\/span><\/span>
    \n<\/span><\/span><\/span>—————————–<\/span><\/span><\/span>
    \nPic Sources<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

    http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/salty_soul\/<\/span><\/span><\/span>
    \nhttp:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/kudumomo\/<\/span><\/span><\/span>
    \nhttp:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/aheram\/<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Most of us (whose mother tongue is not English) have been learning English for years.  But sometimes there are questions to which we don’t know how to explain. What questions am I talking about?  For example, everyone knows that ‘take your time‘ is polite, right.  But the question is: why?  Why is it polite?  I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":233,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/mindpowerasia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/girl_reading-unsplash-1-e1561948930851.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mindpowerasia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mindpowerasia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mindpowerasia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mindpowerasia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mindpowerasia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mindpowerasia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":785,"href":"https:\/\/mindpowerasia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115\/revisions\/785"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mindpowerasia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mindpowerasia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mindpowerasia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mindpowerasia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}