Foxy
- 2016-10-18
Unfortunately, Chinese language education is based on written exams. Language majors in
Western universities write papers and have oral exams. Chinese teachers of English are
loathe to grade papers. Grammar rules make wonderful multiple choice exam questions for
lazy teachers.
Sad, but true. Chinese English textbooks are riddled with grammatical errors too. The other day, I picked up an IELTS textbook and began flicking through the pages. On one of the first pages I read the following -
'I used to enjoy going to the movies, but now I watch movies at home because it's much comfortable.'
'People in Northern China will often chose rice as part of their main meals.'
Whose name is printed all over such rubbish as this? None other than 'Global IELTS'.
amused
- 2016-10-18
Milton’s Paradise Lost: “..the fruit of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste brought death into the world…"
Although 'whose' is grammatically correct as the possessive form for inanimate objects, I believe its use is now poor writing.
There are many ways to avoid using 'whose' for objects: The car with the broken tinted windows. The house hovering over the messy garden. The book covered in green.
The car whose windows are tinted' / 'The house whose garden is messy' /
'The book whose cover is green'
For spoken language, native English speakers never choose awkward grammatical constructions. Spoken language quickly sheds anachronistic language usage. Good writing should follow suit by evolving. We should not get hung up on retaining 'hanged'.
Unfortunately, Chinese language education is based on written exams. Language majors in Western universities write papers and have oral exams. Chinese teachers of English are loathe to grade papers. Grammar rules make wonderful multiple choice exam questions for lazy teachers.
I'm probably the first person in a long time to ask a direct question pertaining to our beautiful language, but please indulge me.
I'd be one of the first to admit that a decent Chinese English teacher could possibly teach English grammar better than many NES simply due to the pragmatic way in which they have learned English. However, what is grammatically correct is often different to common usage or what many NES consider to be naturally-sounding phrases.
Case in point - The word 'whose' is most often used as the possessive adjective of 'who', yet the grammar police won't arrest anyone who uses it as the possessive adjective of 'which'.
So, do the sentences 'The car whose windows are tinted' / 'The house whose garden is messy' / 'The book whose cover is green' etc, sound 'natural' to you?
'The club whose members are over 70' sounds natural enough, but probably because 'club' can be used to talk about a building OR a group of people.
This subject was discussed at length tonight between 2 NES and 3 Chinese English teachers. The Chinese teachers were essentially arguing that it's OK to teach students this, while the NES were essentially telling them that if students use it in a NES country, they're likely to be ridiculed since many NES would consider it to be wrong.
The fact remains that it's NOT wrong, well, not grammatically anyway, but to me it just SOUNDS 'wrong'.
Are there any NES on here who would consider the use of 'whose' as the possessive form of 'which' as sounding natural?