Sunday, September 23, 2012

Beginning with Prepositions


This past Wednesday, I announced on my other blog that I’d discuss diagramming and Latin here today. But upon reflection, I’ve realized that those two topics need underpinnings before exploration.
            So today, instead, I’ll share with you the far-distant beginnings of my delight in language. It was in the fifth-grade classroom at Saint Mary’s Grade School in Independence, Missouri, in 1946, that words and I became friends.


            Our fifth-grade English textbook presented us with five rows of prepositions listed in alphabetical order. Here are those forty-five words as I remember them:

about, above, across, after, against, along, among, around, at, before, behind, below, beneath, beside, between, beyond, by, down, during, except, for, from, in, inside, into, like, near, of, off, on, onto, outside, over, past, since, through, to, towards, under, until, up, upon, with, within, without

            Sister Mary McCauley, our teacher, challenged us to memorize all forty-five and to list them in less than a minute. One by one we’d stand beside our desks and spout them off. She’d reward us with stickers if we beat our previous time. Each of us repeatedly broke our records. Finally we were able to list those forty-five words in only a few seconds.            
            Once we’d memorized the prepositions, she’d give us a noun—perhaps “table”—and ask us how many prepositions we could use with it. For instance: above the table, across the table, against the table, behind the table, below the table, beneath the table, beside the table, inside the table, like the table, near the table, on the table, under the table, upon the table, without a table.
           On another day, she’d give us two nouns—perhaps “cat” and “bed”—and the verb “is” and ask us to form simple sentences using a preposition. A student might imagine the following: The cat is behind the bed, below the bed, beneath the bed, beside the bed, near the bed, on the bed, under the bed, upon the bed, without a bed.


            Ultimately, Sister Mary McCauley gave us three words: perhaps “cat,” “jumped,” “bed.” Once again, we’d stand, one by one, by our desk and, as rapidly as we could, spiel off our list. Someone might start with “The cat jumped behind the bed” and then proceed through the memorized list of prepositions until finally proclaiming,  “The cat jumped toward the bed” and “The cat jumped without a bed.”
            Thus, we learned to construct and claim sentences. Moreover we learned to recognize prepositional phrases, which at their most basic are formed with a preposition and a noun.
            The next thing we needed to learn was the adjectival and the adverbial use of these phrases. That is, whether the prepositional phrase told the listener or reader something about a noun or about a verb. That would come in sixth grade when Sister Mary McCauley began to teach us diagramming. Next Sunday, I’ll explain how she taught that.
            Learning how to diagram a sentence helped me dissect it into its elements. And this activity helped me think logically and write more clearly.
            One thing more: In high school, I discovered that English boasts more than 45 prepositions. Actually, Amazon now offers several books on prepositions with one at least listing 150 of them.
            Isn’t this just the way? You think you’ve learned something and then you discover you’ve just viewed the tip of the iceberg. So much lies beneath the water’s surface!

PS: Cast your eyes at that photograph from the television show “Friends.” Wow! The number of prepositional phrases you can make to describe that scene!

The “Friends” photo is from Wikipedia.

31 comments:

  1. Ruby and I so enjoyed reading this. Cade is driving and now we'll have something to do--diagram sentences about what we're seeing on the side of the road. ;)

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    1. Dear Elisa, how are you and Ruby coming along with your diagraming? I'm glad you enjoyed the post. I can hardly wait to see what I have to say next week! Peace.

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    2. Ruby's doing pretty well. At one point everything seemed to click for her. She was excited.

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    3. Dear Elisa, I'm happy for her. We all feel so wonderful when something "clicks" for us! Peace.

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  2. I am SO glad that we are not WITHOUT your posts!

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    1. Dear Fishducky, IN my mind, WITHOUT a doubt ,I'll be considering next wee'ks posting THOUGHOUT the coming week, FROM dawn TO dusk! Peace.

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  3. This is very interesting since I don't remember learning English this way. And I studied it both in Sweden and England. German, however, was another story and the first thought that came to mind when I saw the prepositions, was: an, auf, hinter,in, neben, uber, unter, vor zwischen and so on. I truly hated German in school, but I still remember the prepositions. English was my language of choice, so thank you, Dee, for this. I'm looking forward to the next installment.

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    1. Dear Inger, I'm glad you found the posting interesting. When you learned German did you study a listing of those German prepositions and memorize them? I think I can still recite the list of English prepositions pretty quickly. This morning I wrote them slowly, as I remembered them one by one. But now "I think I've got it!" as Henry Higgins would say to my fair lady! Peace.

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  4. You have an amazing memory! I love how Sister Mary McCauley taught it, as it was obviously something that stayed with her students.

    I am looking forward to your next installment. Diagramming sentences is a favorite of mine, even though it's not in our curriculum anymore. :(

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    1. Dear Shelly, I am blessed with a good memory. My brother's is even better. He can recall entire conversations on politics that he heard many years ago. I'm glad you, too, like to diagram. It's something else we have in common. Peace.

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  5. I don't remember ever having any kind of exercises like these while learning English as a child. It would have been fun! Maybe I would have been better with grammar all these years. ;)

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    1. Dear Rita, probably by the time you were in fifth grades--years later than I--the curriculums had been revised. You seem fine in grammar to me from reading your blog and your comments. Peace.

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  6. The English language just came to me, I believe I spoke it almost fluently before I even moved to London. Swedish was the same way, and French and Latin were good too. But not German. I spent over a month in Germany after studying the language for a year and it didn't even help. So, yes, I learned the prepositions by heart. Each group ruled something, I think there were three groups, another went something like this: aus, auser,bei, gegenuber,mit, nach, seit, von, zu. I can still rattle them off from memory and I can translate most of the words, but I have no idea what you are supposed to do with them in a sentence. I studied German for years and years, and no way could I put one single sentence together today. I had to learn my chemistry by heart too. Everything else I was pretty good at.

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    1. Dear Inger, I'm in awe of your studying so many languages and learning them all but German. What an accomplishment. The part of your brain that is able to learn language must be so highly developed. Peace.

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  7. Memorization is so helpful! I'm thankful I memorized the coordinating conjunctions. Knowing andbutforyetso has been the basis of understanding punctuation for me.

    Love,
    Janie

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    1. Dear Janie, what you said about punctuation and the coordinating conjunctions used in compound and compound/complex sentences is so true--they really do help us understand points of punctuation. Do you think that understanding has helped you write better????? Peace.

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    2. Yes, I do think my grasp of grammar makes me a better writer, or at least makes it easier to understand what I'm trying to say. However, I just noticed I left out ornor from the list of coordinating conjunctions.

      Love,
      Janie

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    3. Dear Janie, what's ornor compared to all the prepositions that weren't in that fifth-grade list!!!! I so like your words "at makes it easier to understand what I'm trying to say." I'm going to hold that in mind as I do the next couple of postings on parts of speech and diagraming! Peace.

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  8. Isn't it amazing the difference a good teacher like Sister Mary McCauley or you can make to our lives.
    Speaking of amazing teachers I recently read 'The Freedom Writers' Diary'. A young teacher, Erin Gruwell was given a class full of students who were expected to fail, which also set her up for failure. She had little confidence in herself either. The book details the way she engaged the attention of these students and empowered them to make some huge changes in their lives. For some it was to be the first family member to graduate, for others it was to find their voices and escape abuse. This book touched me, and inspires me to accept that each and every one of us can make a difference.
    PS: I am sorry for the long comment.

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    1. Dear EC, this doesn't seem like a long comment to me, simply an extremely interesting one. I'll see if the library here has "The Freedom Writers' Diary." Your description leaves me wanting to reads the book. Thanks for recommending it. Peace.

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  9. Well is raining here... guess I will watch the last season of friends once again. Missing my cats warming my feet

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  10. Hello Alex, how nice of you to stop by. I'm glad the posting has sent you back to the last season of "friends"! I live with three cats now and they warm my feet each night. I hope that happens for you too. Peace.

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  11. I like this way of teaching! I don't remember specifics of how language was taught in my school...only that I have always had a love for words.

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    1. Dear Linda, Sister Mary McCauley was a wonderful teach. She truly set me on the writing path. Who encourage the love for words that you have? Peace.

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  12. I love your last, well phrased, paragraph - You think you have learned something then you discover you have just viewed the tip of the iceberg. Isn't that a wonderful about life!

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    1. Dear Arleen, yes, that is one of the wonders of life--so much to explore and learn. So many ways to dive down into the waters and discover. Thanks for signing up as a follower, Arleen. I so appreciate that. Peace.

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  13. Interesting account of your English sentence diagramming experience. I had forgotten that was an activity in which we engaged, but do not recall being taught the parts of speech through the memorization process you describe. I can certainly see the advantages to having that exercise though I wonder if any students with learning problems found it to be quite a challenge.

    I admire Inger's command of so many languages. Our U.S. students would certainly benefit from having an opportunity to acquire another language, especially beginning in their early years. Brain plasticity up to puberty indicates that is an optimum time for learning another language.

    My mother's learning Latin in the early 1900's was certainly an asset to her all her life as she shared with me.

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    2. Dear Joared, I don't think we had anyone with a learning problem in our small class of twenty-six. One of my classmates thought more slowly than the rest of us, but he learned right along with us. And Sister Mary McCauley teaching us for four years knew just what each of us had learned and what we hadn't learned. So she was able to work with us just exactly where we were on the learning curve.

      I'm not surprised to learn that Latin was an asset to your mother. It certainly has been to me. Peace.

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  14. Well those kind of language lessons never appeared in my life time. I learned English as a second language at the age of eight. I loved to read and read every book in our school library when I was in grades 5 to 8. When a new book arrived I used to get it first. So I don't know what writing skills I poses or how they developed. I think I'm just a story teller.

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    1. Dear Heidrun, I think from the comments left here that many people did not learn this way--by memorizing prepositions. But oh, that learning made so many things apparent to me. I would imagine that all the reading you did taught you so much about language and about writing. And yes, I so agree with you--You are a STORY TELLER! Your blogs reveal that. Peace.

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