because the words look so familiar, knowing the meaning of the parts does not necessarily aid comprehension

Status
Not open for further replies.

diamondcutter

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 21, 2014
Member Type
English Teacher
Native Language
Chinese
Home Country
China
Current Location
China
(1) Phrasal verbs are not unique to English, but they are different enough from verbs in many languages of the world, and common enough in English, to pose a significant learning challenge. Perhaps the most challenging dimension is in the meaning, for while there is some semantic systematicity, there's still enough idiomaticity to cause difficulty for students.

(2) Furthermore, the meaning of idiomatic phrasal verbs is not only obscure, it is often deceptive because while one expects to be able to figure out the meaning because the words look so familiar, knowing the meaning of the parts does not necessarily aid comprehension. In other words, part of the challenge of a phrasal verbs is recognizing when you're dealing with compositional as opposed to noncompositional meaning.

Source: The Grammar Book--An ESL/EFL Teacher’s Course, the second edition, Marianne Celce-Murcia and Diane Larsen-Freeman

It seems that the second sentence has a mistake because the while-clause doesn’t have a main clause. I’d like to know whether “knowing” should be changed to “and they will know”.
 

5jj

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Oct 14, 2010
Member Type
English Teacher
Native Language
British English
Home Country
Czech Republic
Current Location
Czech Republic
Furthermore,
the meaning (of idiomatic phrasal verbs) subject is verb not only obscure,
it subject is verb often deceptive
because
(while one subject expects verb to be able to figure out the meaning
[because
the words subject look verb so familiar]),
knowing (the meaning of the parts) subject does not necessarily aid verb comprehension.
 

jutfrank

VIP Member
Joined
Mar 5, 2014
Member Type
English Teacher
Native Language
English
Home Country
England
Current Location
England
No, it's grammatical as it is. Your amendment would be ungrammatical.

I can't work out which part you don't understand. Can you see that knowing the meaning of the parts is the subject of does not aid comprehension?
 

diamondcutter

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 21, 2014
Member Type
English Teacher
Native Language
Chinese
Home Country
China
Current Location
China
I thought "knowing...comprehension" was a present participle phrase as a whole. Now I know "knowing...parts" is the subject of "does not necessarily aid comprehension".
 

diamondcutter

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 21, 2014
Member Type
English Teacher
Native Language
Chinese
Home Country
China
Current Location
China
I think the "while" in the second sentence means "although" not "when". What do you say?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top