Azu’s Notes

There are three main types of sentences:

•     Simple sentences
•     Conjoined sentences (also known as compound sentences)
•     Complex sentences

SIMPLE SENTENCES

Simple sentences contain only one idea

E.g.

• Zubair fell.

Simple sentences comprise only one idea, clause and verb group. We say verb group (instead of verb) because a verb group itself can consist of one word (fell, assembled, cooked, won) or more than one word (will buy, had put, should have believed).

In short, simple sentences have:

•     subject and verb (and object/adjective/adverb)
•     only one idea
•     only one clause

e.g.

• He is happy. (Subject + verb + adjective)
• She runs fast. (subject + verb + adverb)
• They read books. (subject + verb + object)

CONJOINED SENTENCES

Conjoined sentences have two (or more) clauses joined together using coordinating conjunctions (and, but, or …)

E.g.

• Zubair fell and twisted his ankle.

In short, conjoined (compound) sentences have:

• two ideas joint by a coordinator/conjunction (e.g. and, or, so, but, yet …)
• two clauses

e.g.

• He is happy and excited.

(= He is happy. + He is excited.)

• She ran fast because she was scared.

(= She ran fast. She was scared.)

• They borrowed books from the library but didn’t read them.

(=They borrowed books from the library. + They didn’t read the books.)

COMPLEX SENTENCES

Complex sentences have embedded clauses. i.e. one clause is incorporated into another one

E.g. The clause

Zubair fell

can be incorporated into another clause to produce the sentence -

• Latheef said Zubair fell.

Unlike in conjoined sentences, complex sentences contain clauses of unequal status. i.e. one clause is subordinated into another and functions as a grammatical part of it. The subordinate clause is called an embedded clause and the clause in which it is embedded is called a matrix clause.

Every subordinate clause is embedded in a matrix clause and serves a grammatical function in it.

In short, complex sentences have:

• two (or more) clauses
• a subordinate clause ( a clause embedded in the main/independent clause)
• subordinate clauses begin with subordinate conjunctions (e.g. since, when, because, although, despite, as, while …)

e.g.

• She was eating when the telephone rang.
• My teacher is angry because I didn’t do my homework.

The infinitive with ‘to‘ is used to talk about people’s purposes, the reasons why they do things.

• Sara is going to the shop to buy a new CD.
(= because she wants to buy a new CD)

• I’m going to Africa to have a vacation.
(= because I want to have a vacation)

DO NOT USE “for” before the infinitive of purpose!

• Sara is going to the shop for to buy a new CD. *
• I’m going to Africa for to have a vacation. *

Not all languages have inflectional morphology.  Some languages have little or no morphology. Still other languages have relatively complex words with distinct parts, each representing a morpheme.

Traditionally these 3 types of languages have been identified as :
Inflectional
Isolating
Agglutinating

Inflectional Morphology

In such languages:
• each word tends to be a single isolated morpheme
• Lack both derivational and inflectional morphology
Chinese is an oft-cited example of a language with isolating morphology. Chinese uses separate words to express certain content that an inflecting language can do only by inflection
E.g.

English permits both inflectional possessive
the boy’s hat
and what is called an analytical possessive
hat of the boy
Chinese permits only the equivalent of hat of the boy
Isolating Morphology

Chinese also lacks tense markers and does not mark gender, number or case distinctions on pronouns:
E.g.

Wŏ gāng yào gĕi nĭ nà yì bēi chá
I just will give you that one cup tea
“I am about to bring you a cup of tea”
Agglutinating Morphology

In these languages:
• Words can have several prefixes and suffixes
… but characteristically they are …
• distinct and readily segmented into their parts
Greenlandic Eskimo is an example of an agglutinating language
E.g.
qajar-taa-va   asirur-sima-vuq
kayak-new-his break-done-it
“His new kayak has been destroyed”

Objective tests measure one’s ability to remember facts & figures understanding of course materials. These tests are often designed to make test-takers think independently. Good objective tests require test-takers to employ high level critical reasoning and make fine discriminations to determine the best answer
Objective Tests. ‘

The most common objective test questions are:

•     multiple-choice
•     true-false
•     matching items
•     cloze

The most common is the multiple choice question (MCQ) test where students must select the correct answer from a number of possible answers.

The incorrect answers in MCQs are termed distractors.

Distractors should cotnain:

•     misconceptions
•     partly correct answers
•     common errors of fact or reasoning (these distract students who are not well prepared for the test from giving the correct answer)

MCQs are usually used to test the test-taker’s ability to:

•     recall information
•     interpret data/diagrams
•     analyse/evaluate material

Main strengths of MCQs:

•     test a wide range of issues in a short time
•     assessment is not affected by a student’s ability to write
•     can be reliably marked as all answers are predetermined
•     can be quickly marked by computer
•     computer marking gives easy access to an item analysis of questions to pinpoint problem areas for students
•     a large bank of questions can be built up to reduce future preparation time
•     can be used for quick revision at the start or end of a class and marked by the students

Main weaknesses of MCQs:

•     do not test the student’s ability to develop and organize ideas and present these in a coherent argument
•     takes a long time to write plausible distractors (especially in cases where higher order cognitive skills are being tested)
•     restrictions are placed on the test-taker’s answers as they must select from given alternatives
•     guessing may result (but plausible distractors will result in intelligent guessing)
•     questions are often re-used which means special attention to security
•     questions need to be pre-tested and items reviewed to ensure the validity of the items

Writing MCQs is a relatively difficult task. However, the effort expended in item construction is rewarded by the ease and reliability of marking

MCQs must have:
a clear and unambiguous stem
a correct answer
several (usually 3 or 4) distractors which appear plausible to students who do not know the correct answer
coherence to the content matter to be examined

E.g.

Tips for constructing MCQs:

•     use simply worded stems
•     present only one issue in the stem
•     avoid use of negative premises (may especially disadvantage ESL students)
•     ensure that the answer to one question cannot be obtained from another
•     Keep the distractors brief and as homogeneous as possible
•     ensure the distractors are plausible (i.e. common errors made by students)
•     use at least 3 distractors (reduces chance of guessing the correct answer)
•     avoid distractors that provide clues (e.g. phrases from text books)
•     group similar types of MCQs together
•     avoid using a pattern for the position of the correct response

Phrase structure rules are ‘formulae’ that describe a given language’s syntax. Phrase structure rules break a natural language sentence down into its constituent parts (also known as syntactic categories. Phrase structure rules are usually of the form:

meaning that the constituent A is separated into the two sub-constituents B and C

E.g.

This means that a sentence ‘S’ is separated into the two sub-constituents NP and VP in the order shown. Sub-constituents that are optional within a constituent is indicated in brackets:

E.g.

This means that an ‘NP’ may be separated into the sub-constituents DET, AP and N; and that they would appear in that order if they do.