89. Cohesion and Coherence

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Now, these are two terms everybody is afraid of: how are you going to prove that your line of thought is coherent if you don’t express your ideas one after the other while following a pattern?

But wait: whose pattern is it? Is it yours, in the sense that it unfolds in the same order as in your mother tongue? Well – no. It will be – again – a superordinate rule which requires Word Order according to the rules of English (in this case) and the elements that make information meaningful. To cut a long story short: if you choose to express the ideas at random, as they occur to you through a kind of ‘automatic dictation’ disregarding what an English pattern asks for, your final text will make no sense, or it will finally mean something else than you intended to convey.

Then again, there is a kind of ‘sticking together’ of the elements you use in every sentence /utterance which makes it understandable and ensures that what you expressed at the beginning of the sentence is consistent with all the other elements. Let’s say you refer to a film you’ve seen recently. It would be, in very schematic terms, something like:

‘I’ve just seen a very good film starring Javier Bardem. It is called ‘Biutiful’, and it is the gripping story of a man living in Barcelona, the father of two children. His ability to talk to THE DEAD makes people invite him at wakes and funerals so that he may pass on messages to them from THE RECENTLY DECEASED.’

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Of course you may go on and on; or you may re-write the text taking care of each structure and expanding, or compressing it. The better you are at handling each structure, the easier it will be for you to say exactly what you mean.

Still, looking back at the paragraph above, you may notice that quite a few of the words have been highlighted. Follow the colours, or else the marking pattern and you’ll see what I mean. What enters first is resumed later at a point which makes it useful and meaningful.

On this particular occasion, let’s have a look at those small words with big meanings that represented the title of the previous post. When you have studied the table, you may pass on to practice and then check in the key:

 

Use&omission of articles

88. Small Words with Big Meanings

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I had this idea once: provided that a sheet big enough were found to take up all the structural possibilities of English, all the teaching activities would unfold as an intricate mandala – all starting from a core and creating a 3D-network. Taking the paths that are forming from the core would lead anyone to progress, and at the same time would make learning something tangible and finite. Well, the ‘good news’ is that I’m not the only one who would like to find a solution to what in fact keeps someone studying for years and years. The ‘bad news’ is that it would hardly be of any use to master structures alone – simply because the meaning of structure is relative.

Where does the structure get formed and where does lexis stop exerting an influence?

1. Harry’s doctor vs. Harry’s a doctor

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Do you recognize the combinations in the example?

Is any of them a structure? And, if so, which one?

How many differences can you find?

What are the questions you would ask so as to receive them as answers?

2. Verb Meanings

The verb strike is polysemous – a very common phenomenon in all the world's languages. In its second sense, it is close to hit, or attack somebody /something:

[adapted from Oxford Dictionary of Collocations]

a.     He struck her hard across the face.

b.    The German army struck deep into northern France.

c.     Lightning struck the old oak.

d.     The remark struck home.

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Which sentence presents /sentences present the literal meaning? Is any of them an expression that should be understood figuratively? If so, which one(s)?

3. The same verb, in its second sense, means ‘come into your mind suddenly/give an impression. What this means is that you should expect certain adverbs to appear in sentences in which this sense is used (the examples are taken from the same source):

a.     It suddenly struck me how we could improve the situation.

b.    An awful thought has just struck me.

c.     Joan was struck by the forcible silence.

d.     He struck me as being rather slow-witted.

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The thing is, how do you decide on the meaning to be applied in these sentences? What is there that directs you towards this other sense?

When you’ve read the answers, I hope you’ll see what I mean. And agree with me that you can hardly ever convey any meanings (in English, in this case) without constructing those meanings from some linguistic material arranged in a structure and having a phonological support. So, back to the starting point.    

87. 'The more the merrier'

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Who might claim that we don’t manufacture our own idealized model of ‘being’, or ‘acting’? Consciously or unconsciously, we’re constantly trying to look better, taller, more interesting; or else seem more intelligent, better prepared, richer, healthier…It’s absolutely natural to try to improve and embellish our domestic affairs and the world we’re adjusting to against our potential, while actualizing it: it’s the essence of human nature.

Hm. No sooner said than done! One needs some solid knowledge of adjective and adverb formation to do that successfully. While expressing ‘positive’ values, there doesn’t seem to be too much trouble paying attention to such…static, uninteresting affirmations as My car is bigger, faster, and more expensive than his; but in order to make the discourse unfold while you speak you must know that adjectives and adverbs are a somewhat unsettled category which shaped asymmetrically in English. 

In the first place, let's consider that there are two main categories following two different rules:

One-syllable adjectives like fat, big, and coarse - but also two-syllable adjectives ending in -y, such as easy, healthy and happy take suffixes  when forming the comparative of superiority: fatter - bigger - coarser; and easier - healthier, happier, respectively; then again their superlative forms are: the  fattest, the biggest, the coarsest and, correspondingly, the easiest, the healthiest and the happiest are their superlative forms. 

The remaining two-syllable adjectives and the multi-syllable ones follow the more/less and the most/least rules: more/less expensive; the most/least expensive.

But that's NOT all. There is a third category fluctuating between the two. Adjectives like clever, stupid, tired, shallow may appear in either of the above mentioned patterns. It’s also true that one can use I feel more tired / tireder today than yesterday (though tireder is hardly ever heard these days). Again, this should make us think about exceptions, in the first place the irregular forms.

Here they are:

good /well > better > the best
bad /ill > worse > the worst
much /many > more > the most
little > less  >the least
far > farther > the farthest (in space)
far > further > the furthest (in time)
late > later (time)// >> the latest (the most recent) 
                                        >> the last> (in a series)
      > latter (the second of two entities) < >former (the first of two entities)

And something must be said about the conflicting adjectives that have replaced adverbs in General American, like Now I want you to move real (=really) slow. Then again, a lot can be said about How are you? ~ (AmE) I’m good (BrE=fine /(very) well) or I’m trying hard – never hardly. 

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Yet there are still those trustworthy cases in which you simply can’t say *Everything is more easy today: it’s still easier that represents the established norm.      

HOW TO EXPRESS PROGRESSIVE/PARALLEL INCREASE OR DECREASE IN QUALITY OR NUMBER

A.  Progressive increase /decrease

You can express these linguistic aspects by placing the corresponding adjective or adverb after the verb – reduplicating it and uniting them by and.

It goes without saying that the use of progressive tenses is not a grammatical, but a logical, consequence:

Thomas smokes more and more.

Your niece studies less and less.

Well, that is the ideal case. It’s just that by no means are adjectives and adverbs in English so easy to transform. The ones above are special forms whose ‘positive’ variants cause a lot of trouble when you want to quantify or qualify nominals: it’s all a matter of number, i.e., singular (Singular Countable and Singular Uncountable/Quantity) and plural. ‘More’ will refer to either (Aff.) ‘a lot (of_)’ or (Neg.) and (Aff-? /Neg.-?) [not] much/many [?]. So, if you wonder what the previous affirmations look like in the positive, you’ll have to consider:

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Thomas smokes a lot / *a lot of cigarettes. (nobody says that about the default case, that is cigarettes; only if Thomas smokes cigars, or a pipe – otherwise there’ll be no mention)

Your niece studies little. (how strange that both smoke and study  should be free from expressing the Direct Object, don’t you think? Someone studies ‘something’ anyway!)

Let’s say that a schematic visualization would look like this:

adjetive[-er] and adjetive[-er]

It was getting colder and colder.

You are coming home later and later.

She’s getting fatter and fatter.

Analytic adjectives and adverbs do use more+adjective /adverb and less+adjective/adverb, respectively:

more and more + adjective less and less + adjective

The film became more and more interesting.

She was becoming less and less interested in his speech.

“What time shall we leave?” ~ ”The sooner the better.(=as soon as possible)

“What sort of box do you want? A big one?” ~ “The bigger the better”. (=as big as possible)

When you’re traveling, the less luggage you have to carry the better. (=it is best to have as little luggage as possible).

Note word order in the structure with two comparatives:

The younger you are, the easier it is to learn.

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What this means is that you aren’t allowed to leave the subject and the verb out of the expression, and that they follow the normal Word Order.

Still, the forms of to be are omitted when the correlated sentences require the same verb form:

The more expensive the hotel [is], the better the service [is].

Exercise 1. Use the Word(s) in brackets (in the correct form) to complete the sentences:

1. I like warm weather. The warmer the weather, … (feel).

2. I didn’t really like him when we first met. But the more I got to know him,… (like) him.

3. If you’re in business, you want to make a profit. The more goods you sell,… (profit/make).

4. It’s hard to concentrate when you’re tired. The more tired you are,…. (hard/to concentrate).

5. She had to wait a very long time. The longer she waited,… (impatient / become)

6. Old people are wise, or at least that’s what they say… (be old /become wise)

B.  Parallel increase/decrease

Here, it’s the lexical unit the that solves the problem. Mind you, we’re far away from the definite article; we should go back in time to important changes that took place in Middle English to know why this happened. For the present purpose, it would be easier to accept it as it is and…move it right along!

Again, the adjectives we used above will prove of great help:

The more John studies the more he learns.

Or the opposite:

The less John studies the less he learns.

(I wouldn’t discard ‘The more John studies the less he knows’)

The fatter Sam gets the uglier he becomes.

The more famous she became the sadder she seemed to be.

The less notice she takes of him the more he tries to please her. 

Make complete sentences of the following prompts:

1.      I / try/explain / her /difficult /be / convince her

2.    Old /one /get / one / little /seem / willing to change

3.    You / move / a lot /it /hurt / a lot

4.    You /lenient /become /people around you try /impose / you

5.     He /listen / her /little /she / insist / a lot

6.    Few students /there / to be /in class / often / be asked

7.     You have your say /little / often /bad / be / everybody

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8.    One / buy / little / one /save / a lot of money /

B.  Parallel increase/decrease

Here, it’s the lexical unit the that solves the problem. Mind you, we’re far away from the definite article; we should go back in time to important changes that took place in Middle English to know why this happened. For the present purpose, it would be easier to accept it as it is and…move it right along!

Again, the adjectives we used above will prove of great help:

The more John studies the more he learns.

Or the opposite:

The less John studies the less he learns.

(I wouldn’t discard ‘The more John studies the less he knows’)

The fatter Sam gets the uglier he becomes.

The more famous she became the sadder she seemed to be.

The less notice she takes of him the more he tries to please her. 
The more, the merrier (exercises)

86. Just In Time for Clustr Maps' 1st Anniversary

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If you please glance at the Clustrmaps widget on the right: you’ll soon see that it’s its first anniversary. Of course it doesn’t coincide with the date when I created the blog; I wish it did!

Thank to all those who, after stumbling upon my ‘creation’, chose to visit more than once.

So, back to the starting point – in the absence of a decision, still posting until numerology gives me a clue.

EXPRESSING PURPOSE

Needless to say, words are more often than not misleading.  Suppose you want to express what the intended result of your actions is: as soon as you try, you will see that cause (why) and purpose (what for) are very close to one another in the expression of their possible initial questions, yet not so in the linguistic structures you must use when answering:

Why did you do that? ~ Because I thought I would help.

What did you do that for? ~For you to stop worrying.

-->Case One. If the subject in the newly created clause of purpose is the same as the one in the main clause, AND the latter is in the affirmative, then the connectors to be used are:

to + Infinitive                            so as to + Infinitive                    in order to + Infinitive

Dylan lit a cigarette to smoke it.

The Smiths are saving money so as to buy a new house.

Eugene is learning languages in order to travel around the world.

If the subject is the same in the main clause and in the newly created clause of purpose BUT the latter is in the negative, you can only use the following:

so as not to + Infinitive                             in order not to + Infinitive

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You must have already observed that you can’t use the negative Infinitive ‘not to do’, simply because it is specialized in expressing prohibition, and it works wonderfully in Indirect Speech – but not here!

Donald put his wallet into his inner pocket so as not to lose it.

Laura drove her car slowly in order not to have an accident.

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-->Case Two. The subject of the subordinate clause is different from the subject of the main clause. This means that someone does (or did) something with the purpose of obtaining something (else) from a different person (or entity).

Here, consider two possibilities.

(a) With a subordinate clause of purpose expressing a present or future intentionality, the verb in the main clause is expressed in a present or future tense, or an Imperative. The connectors to be used are so that or in order that and the verb form can be will/can/may + [not] Infinitive, depending on what you mean to say.  

Bring the dead tiger here so that/in order that everybody will/can/may see it.

Mrs. Fleming has bought the newspaper so that/in order that her husband will/can/may read it.

I'll draw a map so that/in order that you can't/won't/may not get lost.

(b) With a subordinate clause of purpose which refers to the past, the verb in the main clause is expressed in a past tense. The connectors to be used are so that or in order that and the verb form can be would/could/might + [not] Infinitive, depending on what you mean to say.  

I left the room so that/in order that they could/might speak freely.

I switched on the radio so that/in order that we would/could/might listen to the news.

The murderer disguised himself as a priest so that/in order that the police wouldn't/couldn't/might not recognize him.

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-->So that can also be used when both the main clause and the subordinate clause have the same subject, yet in these cases  so as to, in order to and to-Infinitive are by far more frequent.

AMBIGUITY

The expression of a subject and a direct object by animate entities (i.e., persons) in the main clause leads to misunderstanding: we don’t know whether the purpose refers to the subject or to the direct object.

Lily sent her grandson to the garden to rest a little.

Which of the two are supposed to rest – Lily, or else her grandson?

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(a) By using so that, the subject of both clauses is the same:

Lily sent her grandson to the garden so that she could rest.

(b) By using for + Accusative + to + Infinitive, the direct object in the main clause is the subject of the subordinate clause:

Lily sent her grandson to the garden for him to rest.
But frst let's have a go for some exercises:

Expressing purpose: exercises