ENG 1100 English Grammar Worksheet 12
1. Comment on the difference in form and meaning between the two members of the pairs below.
A1 Did he remember to send the letter? 2 Does he remember sending the letter?
B1 Since Brussels have accepted the application, we can start planning for 94/95 2Since Brussels accepted the application, we have been planning for 94/95.
C1 You’ll see that he is a very kind man. 2 You see, he is a very kind man.
D1 She only wrote what we had expected. 2 She only wrote, which we had expected.
E1 For some reason she didn’t understand, she hated him. 2 For some reason, she didn’t understand she hated him.
F1 The rumour that she had told him the secret was not true. 2 The rumour that she had told him was not true.
G1 I understand John to want to do it himself. 2 I understand that John wants to do it himself.
H1 She looked about her slyly and pointed to the safe. 2 She looked about her slyly, pointing to the safe.
I1 I know that Nancy has written a letter. 2 I know about Nancy’s writing a letter.
J1 Why did you speak to him? 2 Why don’t you speak to him?
K1 How were they discouraged? 2 How discouraged they were!
2. Read the following text and answer the questions below.
1 At the roots of much of our cultural thinking is our actual experience of speech.
2 In Britain the question of good speech is deeply confused, and is in itself a
3 major source of many of the divisions in our culture. It is inevitable, in modern
4 society, that our regional speech-forms should move closer to each other, and
5 that many extreme forms should disappear. But this should be a natural
6 process as people move and travel and meet more freely, and hear
7 speakers in films, television and broadcasting who speak differently. The
8 mistake is to assume that there is a ’correct’ form of modern English speech,
9 which can serve as a standard to condemn all others. Actually, ‘public-school
10 English’, in the form many have tried to fix it, cannot now become a common
11 speech-form in the country as a whole: both because of the social distinctions
12 now associated with its use, and because of the powerful influence of
13 American speech-forms. Additionally, many good forms of modified regional
14 speech are in practice emerging and extending. The barriers imposed by dialect
15 are reduced, in these forms, without the artificiality of imitating a form remote
16 from most people’s natural speaking. This is the path of growth.
a Analyse the sentence at line 1 in terms of clause elements. Why do you think this order of elements has been chosen? b Explain the exact meaning of the underlined occurrences of should at lines 4 and 5. c Deeply (line 2), freely (line 6), actually (line 9), and additionally (line 13) all belong to the class of adverbs. Explain fully how they differ with respect to meaning and function on the clause level. d Identify the anticipatory subjects at lines 3 and 8. What are the notional subjects they anticipate? What determines the choice of anticipatory subject? e There are two instances of the progressive aspect in this extract. Identify them and explain why the progressive has been chosen. f Who (line 7) and which (line 9) both introduce relative post-modifiers. Why is who chosen in the first and which in the second and why does one have a comma in front? Identify two other post-modifiers in the last five lines which can be expanded into full relative clauses. g Is the style of this piece formal or informal ? Refer to language choices, both grammatical and lexical, to support your characterisation.