opinion

Bloopers in English pupil's book

by A.F. Dawood

Having gone through the English Pupil's Book (Grade Eleven) and the English Work Book, first published in 2007 by the Educational Publications Department, I found that there are fallacious grammar contents, despite the fact that the contents and material for the two books under review have been prepared, compiled and approved by a panel of writers, some of whom are assistant teachers from Colombo schools, two project officers from NIE, a retired English Director from the Ministry, an Assistant Director, English Unit and an Assistant Commissioner of Educational Publications.

The Chairperson of the Panel is an English Consultant from the Ministry of Education. In addition to the Panel of Writers there is a Board of Editors comprising two English lecturers from the University of Kelaniya and University of Sri Jayewardenepura, and two directors of English from the Ministry of Education and National Institute of Education.

The preface in both books by W.M.N.J. Pushpakumar, Commissioner General of Education, contains a mistake 'carrier' in the sentence - "The Government of Sri Lanka provides about 95 titles of text books free to you throughout school carrier from Grade One to Eleven. The correct word should be 'Career'. I wonder how this mistake escaped the eyes of the Board of Editors and the Proof Reader, a former lecturer at the College of Education, Paththalagedara. The two books under review give two different versions on prepositional phrase. According to Pupil's Book page 29, a Prepositional phrase consists of a preposition followed by a prepositional complement, and according to English Work Book page 9, a preposition with a noun following it makes a prepositional phrase.

The first definition is completely wrong without any trace of doubt and the second definition is partially correct as I would substantiate my contention with classic examples. A prepositional complement does not arise in a prepositional phrase but a complement arises in the analysis of a sentence which contains a prepositional phrase. Therefore, a broader understanding of preposition, prepositional phrase and sentence is essential for anyone who engages in the realm of Grammar exercise.

What is a preposition? A preposition is a word used before a noun or pronoun to indicate its relationship to another word in the sentence (Oxford Dictionary, seventh edition) High School English Grammar and Composition by Wren and Martin defines preposition as a word placed before a noun or pronoun to show in what relation the person or thing denoted by it stands in regard to something else as illustrated in the four examples below, and the words in italics show the relationship to each other.

(i) The cow is in the field (noun and noun), (2) He is fond of tea (adjective and noun), (3) The cat jumped off the chair (verb and noun, (4) The children are fond of him (adjective and pronoun). Now the question arises what is a prepositional phrase? A group of words beginning with a preposition and ending with a noun or pronoun is a prepositional phrase. The following examples lucidly illustrate this. (1) in the morning, (2) on the roof, (3) with honour, (4) on a windy day, (5) near the house, (6) from Peter, (7) towards us.The words in italics at the end of the prepositional phrases are common noun, proper noun, abstract noun and pronoun, and these prepositional phrases do not end with a prepositional complement as erroneously stated in the book.

In order to illustrate what is a prepositional complement, the Pupil's Book (Grade Eleven) on page 29 gives the following example. "She is at the bus stop. and names 'at' as preposition and 'the bus stop' as complement. This is correct in respect of this sentence as far as analysis is concerned, but all prepositional phrases do not end with a prepositional complement. Now consider the following three sentences to prove my point. (1) I saw her at the bus stop. (2) He came to the bus stop. (3) I took her from the bus stop. In the above three sentences, the parts in italics with the preposition are verbal modification because they answer the questions - saw where?, came where? and took from where?, and the "bus stop" is not a complement. Therefore, the Panel of Writers have blundered by defining the prepositional phrase as a preposition followed by a prepositional complement.

In page 74 of the book under review, the Panel of Writers list 15 items as phrases for exercise and request the pupils to list the words contained in the phrases under separate headings as adjectives, nouns and verbs, but three of the 15 items are sentences as evidenced below: (1) a balanced diet, (2) a high calories food, (3) some calories, (4) He invented it. (5) many nutrients, (6) surgical instruments, (7) a bad infection, (8) a wound, (9) He discovered germs., (10) an injured soldier, (11) It stores energy. (12) a good surgeon, (13) the wounded man, (14) bad hygiene, (15) a strong infectant.

It would be noted that the numbers (4), (9) and (11) in italics are simple sentences, number (8) is a noun phrase and the balance eleven are adjectival phrases. I cannot understand by any stretch of imagination how the Panel of Writers could include three simple sentences as phrases. There is a blunder in page 31 of this book which names the following simple sentence as complex sentence. "She came to the throne in 1837, after the death of her uncle." This is a simple sentence with one subject and one verb, and "after the death of her uncle" is a prepositional phrase used in this sentence as an adverbial phrase to modify the verb "came" - when she came? and not a subordinate clause as erroneously described by the Panel of writers.

I deem that the Panel of writers have trudged on the beaten track of grammatical blunders of the previous Panel of Writers of the book "The World Through English" - Book 4, introduced to Grade Nine in 1998. The book was a 'comedy of errors'. The book contained glaring grammatical howlers when it named a prepositional phrase "after the meeting" as adverbial clause (Unit 5 page 58); when it named present participle phrases "making brassware", "making furniture", "making pots" and "making flowers' as 'ing' clause, and the sentence "Hippocrates believed that illness was due to natural causes" as 'that' clause. This is a complex sentence with a subordinate clause joined to the main clause with the relative pronoun (RP) 'that;. I do not want to dwell at length on all the grammatical howlers contained in that book for want of space; neither do I want to vilify the present panel of writers who, I cannot help but conclude, show a radical lack of competence in the realm of English grammar, as it is crystal clear that the writers are in a confused state to analyse and distinguish between a phrase and sentence and a phrase and clause.

I am motivated to write this to attract the attention of the responsible authorities with a view to rectifying the grotesque blunders contained in the books.