The trouble with grammarians is that they love
grammar. They luxuriate in it. And they love to teach it. The fact that
their teaching of it does not seem to be at all effective doesn’t seem
to bother them. For fifteen years, as editor of Syntax in the Schools,
I attempted to convince them that the traditional approach to teaching
grammar does not work. But whether they try to teach traditional grammar,
or one of the new linguistic grammars, they still take the same old, ineffective
approach.
The Ants were spending a fine winter’s day drying grain collected in the summertime. A Grasshopper, perishing with famine, passed by and earnestly begged for a little food. The Ants inquired of him, “Why did you not treasure up food during the summer?” He replied, “I had not leisure enough. I passed the days in singing.” They then said in derision: “If you were foolish enough to sing all the summer, you must dance supperless to bed in the winter.”This is actually an 80-word, KISS Level Four exercise on verbals, but, as explained below, it can be used at Level Two. KISS Level One:
The following is the text as students might be expected to analyze it at KISS Level One: The Ants were spending a fine winter’s day (DO) drying grain collected {in the summertime}. A Grasshopper, perishing {with famine}, passed by and earnestly begged for a little food. The Ants inquired {of him}, “Why did you not treasure up food {during the summer}?” He replied, “I had not leisure (DO) enough. I passed the days (DO) {in singing}.” They then said {in derision}: “If you were foolish (PA) enough to sing all the summer, you must dance supperless {to bed} {in the winter}.”The preceding analysis suggests that students working at KISS Level One might be expected to explain 64 of the 80 words, or roughly 80% of it. That leaves only sixteen words unexplained. Thoughtful readers should have several questions about the analysis. For example, why isn’t “for a little food” marked as a prepositional phrase? And why is “enough” marked as an adjective the first time it appears, but counted as unexplained the second time? And wouldn’t most students underline “drying,” “collected,” and “perishing” as verbs? These questions are addressed below. Here we need simply note that in KISS students are always expected to make mistakes with constructions that they have not yet added to their analytical toolboxes.
KISS Level Two: Expanding the Basics At KISS Level Two, students are taught how to expand their analytical abilities to include a number of things that most grammars ignore. These questions all fall into two related categories—the complexities of S/V/C patterns, and the complexities of prepositional phrases. They include such things as palimpsest patterns, phrasal verbs, distinguishing finite verbs from verbals, the “to” problem, and alternate explanations. Not all of these appear in our sample text. The following is the text as students might be expected to analyze it at KISS Level Two: The Ants were spending a fine winter’s day (DO) drying grain (DO of "drying") collected {in the summertime}. A Grasshopper, perishing {with famine}, passed by and earnestly begged {for a little food}. The Ants inquired {of him}, “Why did you not treasure up food (DO) {during the summer}?” He replied, “I had not leisure (DO) enough. I passed the days (DO) {in singing}.” They then said {in derision}: “If you were foolish (PA) enough to sing all the summer, you must dance supperless (PA) {to bed} {in the winter}.”KISS Level Two gives students a short sequence of questions that they can use to distinguish finite verbs from verbals (verbs that function as nouns, adjectives, or adverbs). At this level, the purpose of this is simply to teach students not to underline such verbs twice. In our text, these words are “drying,” “collected,” “perishing,” and “to sing,” (Remember that I said above that this text could be used at KISS Level Two to teach students how to distinguish finite verbs from verbals.) In the table below, these five words are counted as “negatively explained verbals.” It is possible to teach students more about verbals at this level, but clauses (KISS Level Three) are more important. At Level Two, however, students can easily understand that verbals can have complements, so I have marked “grain” as explained. In the analysis for KISS Level One, I marked “singing” as explained—as the object of the preposition “in.” In working with students, you’ll find that even at KISS Level One, students will have almost no trouble with verbals that function as simple subjects, complements, or objects of prepositions. In the analysis for KISS Level One, I left “by” (in “passed by”), “for . . . food,” and “up food” as unexplained. In their study of phrasal verbs in KISS Level Two, students can be expected to see that the “passed by” means “passed by them.” Thus “by” is a prepositional phrase with its object left out. “By” thus functions adverbially, just as the prepositional phrase would. (I might note here, that in analyzing texts, students should not always be expected to go into this much detail.) “For . . . food” and “up food” are two good examples of why students need to study phrasal verbs (although they do not really need to remember that term). “He begged for a little food” can be explained in two ways (alternate explanations). “Begged for” means “requested,” so students can consider “begged for” a verb (phrasal) and “food” as its direct object. Equally valid, however, some people will prefer to see “begged” as the verb and “for food” as a prepositional phrase. In KISS, either explanation is acceptable. I have left “up food” for KISS Level Two because some students will thoughtlessly mark it as a prepositional phrase. In KISS Level One, this kind of mistake should be expected and ignored. But in KISS Level Two, students should no longer have to focus on simple subjects, verbs, etc., and having studied phrasal verbs, they should realize that “up” in “treasure up food” is part of a phrasal verb, not a preposition. Another construction that students will learn in KISS Level Two is the palimpsest pattern. This is not a construction that you will find in most grammar textbooks, but most textbooks do not even try to analyze real texts. “Palimpsest” simply means that one pattern is written over another. In “you must dance supperless to bed,” I have labeled “supperless” as a predicate adjective. In essence, “you will dance” has been written over “you will be supperless.” Note that some people will see “supperless” as an adverb to “must dance.” That is an acceptable alternate explanation in KISS, but either way “supperless” is now explained. Although some are defined negatively, twelve words have been added to our progress chart: Only four words are left to be explained—“Why,” “If,” the second “enough” and “summer.”
Having learned how to distinguish finite verbs from verbals, students are ready for the most important of the KISS Levels, Level Three—Clauses. A clause is a subject / finite verb / complement pattern and all the words and constructions that modify (chunk to) it. KISS Level Three: Clauses—Subordinate and Main The study of clauses does not add many words to the number analyzed, but it does bring together many of the words previously explained into an understanding of sentences. In KISS, we put brackets [ ] around subordinate clauses and a vertical line | after each main clause. The Ants were spending a fine winter’s day (DO) drying grain (DO of "drying") collected {in the summertime}. | A Grasshopper, perishing {with famine}, passed by and earnestly begged {for a little food}. | The Ants inquired {of him}, [DO “Why did you not treasure up food (DO) {during the summer}?]” | He replied, [DO “I had not leisure (DO) enough]. | I passed the days (DO) {in singing}.” | They then said {in derision}: [DO [Adv. “If you were foolish (PA) enough to sing all the summer], you must dance supperless (PA) {to bed} {in the winter}].” |Note that in KISS Level One, students are expected to be confused about the complements of words like “inquired” and “said” when those complements are clauses. This, of course, is easily cleared up in KISS Level Three. I have marked the “Why” after “inquired” as a subordinating conjunction. Within its clause, of course, it also functions as an adverb. In this passage, the only other word explained at Level Three is the subordinating conjunction “If.” KISS Level Three, however, is extremely important. (See the essay “The KISS Approach to Improving Writing and to Grammatical Errors.”)
KISS Level Four: Verbals—Gerunds, Gerundives, and Infinitives As suggested by Jerome Bruner’s idea of the “spiral curriculum,” at Level Four, KISS spirals back to verbals, explaining them positively rather than negatively. Here students learn to distinguish gerunds, gerundives, and infinitives. They learn more about the subjects and complements of verbals, and they can study what verbals add to style. Obviously, all of the exercises in KISS Level Four include verbals. As for our progress chart, we can now turn the negatively defined into positive understanding. Overall, however, in the KISS sequence verbals to not add many words to our chart. In the version below, the only word that has additionally been explained is the second “enough.” The Ants were spending a fine winter’s day (DO) drying grain (DO of "drying") collected {in the summertime}. | A Grasshopper, perishing {with famine}, passed by and earnestly begged {for a little food}. | The Ants inquired {of him}, [DO “Why did you not treasure up food (DO) {during the summer}?]” | He replied, [DO “I had not leisure (DO) enough]. | I passed the days (DO) {in singing}.” | They then said {in derision}: [DO [Adv. “If you were foolish (PA) enough to sing all the summer], you must dance supperless (PA) {to bed} {in the winter}].” |Many students can probably understand much earlier that the second “enough” functions as an adverb to the predicate adjective “foolish.” In the count, I have left it to Level Four because the infinitive “to sing” functions as an adverb to the adverb “enough.” At KISS Level Four, students will learn that “drying” can be explained in two different ways (alternatives). For one, it can be considered a gerundive to “Ants.” Alternatively, it can be considered a gerund that functions as a noun used as an adverb. (See Level Five.) “Collected” is a gerundive that modifies “grain,” and “perishing” is a gerundive that modifies “Grasshopper.” At this level, in other words, students learn what verbals are, and not just (as in KISS Level Two) what they are not.
KISS Level Five: Eight Additional Constructions The constructions in Level Five are here because
they are generally less important (and less frequently used) than the constructions
in the first four levels. Some of these constructions, like the Noun Used
as an Adverb, can be taught much earlier. As noted above, our text does
not include some of the important Level Five constructions, most notably
appositives, post-positioned adjectives, delayed subjects, and noun absolutes.
For more details on these constructions, see the “Overview of the KISS
Levels.”
One of the things that you may have noted is
that students are able to explain approximately 80% of the words in this
text at KISS Level One.! In some texts, working at this level, students
will be able to explain every word! With other texts, of course, the number
may be lower, but at Level One students are usually able to identify more
than 70% of the words in any text. Not only does KISS have a clear primary
objective—it enables students to accomplish more than half of it very quickly
and relatively easily. And nothing motivates students as much as success
does.
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