We all listened with great interest to the speaker criticizing the new book.

[5jj]

No. You've probably let your ESL teachers deceive you. Most of them don't know what gerunds are.

I think that most of the hundreds of EFL/ESL teachers I've worked with in the fifty[three years since I started in this line would be bemused by your ignorance of what they know and don't know.

 

[Phaedrus]

I think that most of the hundreds of EFL/ESL teachers I've worked with in the fifty[three years since I started in this line would be bemused by your ignorance of what they know and don't know.

Would their bemusement be comparable to my bemusement by your own ignorance (or stubborn unwillingness to concede the obvious) in this regard? When I teach ESL grammar courses at the college at which I am an ESL professor, I explain the mistakenness of the textbook when we get to the topic of gerunds; then I go ahead and use the word "gerund" as the textbook does, but in scare quotes, having explained why verbs are not nouns even when the verb phrase functions as a substantive!

 

[Phaedrus]

Also, those are not the only grammarians in the world. I believe that none of them acknowledges the distinction between noun phrases and determiner phrases.

That is not relevant to our present discussion.

On the contrary, Piscean, it is very much relevant to our present discussion. See Stephen Abney's doctoral dissertation, The English Noun Phrase in Its Sentential Aspect.

 

[emsr2d2]

OK, the United Nations is stepping in now. This is descending into a slanging match. It doesn't matter what section of the forum it's in, it's unnecessary and it's not helping learners. If anyone would like to continue this discussion, please do so by PM.

Thread locked.