Oman : Active Passives : A Semantic Approach to Teaching Voice  

Oleh:

Carroll, Donald Glenn

Jenis: Article from Bulletin/Magazine
Dalam koleksi: ENGLISH TEACHING FORUM (http://exchanges.state.gov/englishteaching/forum/archives.html) vol. 31 no. 1 (Jan. 1993), page 37-39.
Topik: ACTIVE; active passives; semantic; voice
Fulltext: Active Passive.pdf (65.81KB)

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Perpustakaan Pusat (Semanggi) Nomor Panggil: EE34.7 Non-tandon: 1 (dapat dipinjam: 0) Tandon: tidak ada

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In 1957 Noam Chomsky led a linguistic revolution when he introduced Transformational - Generative grammar. An entire generation of young linguists was quickly seduced by the mathematical precision and flexibility of TG. By the late sixties, the “standard” model, as laid out in Chomsky’s 1964 Aspects of the Theory of Syntax, had all but eclipsed other linguistic theories. As always, ELT methodologists rushed to incorporate, if only superficially, the trappings of TG. Unfortunately, as is frequently the case with complex theories, the popular adaptations were often simplistic. By the early seventies, however, theoretical linguists were already beginning to question the very foundation of TG - namely, its preoccupation with syntax rather than semantics (see Lakoff 1971). More and more, the search for linguistic truth was becoming inseparably linked to the concept of psychological reality (Steinberg 1982). Chomsky himself declared that linguistics was concerned with “the mental reality underlying [linguistic] behaviour” (Chomsky 1976). Nevertheless, TG and its later formulations, such as Government/Binding, remained distinctly “user - unfriendly.” Today it is generally acknowledged that semantic meaning and pragmatics must form the basis of any psychologically real language model. Yet, despite this fact, far too many language instructors and language textbooks continue to present structure in terms of traditional, syntax - dominated, transformational dogma. Nowhere is this more evident than in the usual handling of voice. Students are taught to convert active statements into the passive and vice versa, often becoming veritable wizards at the game. Yet the same students who master the transformation game may encounter extreme difficulties in producing meaningful utterances in the passive on their own. This is because the transformational approach completely denies the semantic basis of voice.

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