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ajuma
Joined: 18 Feb 2003
Location: Anywere but Seoul!!
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 Posted: Mon May 26, 2008 11:20 pm Post subject: Grammar question |
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My HS grade 2 textbook has the following sentence:
Tomorrow, I will going some sightseeing.
Now, I know that it's "doing" some sightseeing, but why? I know you can say "I'm going sightseeing". What does the word "some" do to make it "doing" instead of "going"? |
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nobbyken
Joined: 07 Jun 2006
Location: Yongin ^^
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| Posted: Mon May 26, 2008 11:32 pm Post subject: Re: Grammar question |
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| ajuma wrote: |
Tomorrow, I will going some sightseeing.
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I hope the whole sentence is a typo. |
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nobbyken
Joined: 07 Jun 2006
Location: Yongin ^^
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| Posted: Mon May 26, 2008 11:40 pm Post subject: |
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I'm going sightseeing has no element of quantity in it.
Some sightseeing implies that it'll be for a certain period of time.
I'll go sightseeing.
I'm going sightseeing.
I'm going to do some sightseeing.
I'll do some sightseeing.
I'll be doing some sightseeing.
♪♫ Hi-ho, hi-ho, a sightseeing I will go ♪♫ |
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Thiuda
Joined: 14 Mar 2006
Location: Religion ist f�r Sklaven geschaffen, f�r Wesen ohne Geist.
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| Posted: Tue May 27, 2008 2:33 am Post subject: Re: Grammar question |
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| ajuma wrote: |
My HS grade 2 textbook has the following sentence:
Tomorrow, I will going some sightseeing.
Now, I know that it's "doing" some sightseeing, but why? I know you can say "I'm going sightseeing". What does the word "some" do to make it "doing" instead of "going"? |
Your question is somewhat difficult to understand, but I'll give it a try based on what I think you're asking.
The verb doing is in the progressive tense; following the modal auxiliary will, verbs take the infinitive form. Therefore the correct sentence would read, "Tomorrow, I will do some sightseeing."
The adjective some modifies the noun sightseeing, it does not determine the previous verb. It is the verb go, meaning here to proceed, that requires a prepositional phrase to follow it; your sentence would be correct if it read, "Tomorrow, I will go for some sightseeing." The verb do, meaning here to accomplish/achieve, doesn't require a prepositional phrase to come after it. |
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ajuma
Joined: 18 Feb 2003
Location: Anywere but Seoul!!
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| Posted: Tue May 27, 2008 3:07 am Post subject: |
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Oops!! I left out one word as I was typing. The sentence should read:
Tomorrow, I will be going some sightseeing. |
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Thiuda
Joined: 14 Mar 2006
Location: Religion ist f�r Sklaven geschaffen, f�r Wesen ohne Geist.
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| Posted: Tue May 27, 2008 6:08 am Post subject: |
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| ajuma wrote: |
Oops!! I left out one word as I was typing. The sentence should read:
Tomorrow, I will be going some sightseeing. |
This sentence is in the future progressive tense, but that doesn't change the fact that the main verb going requires a preposition to indicate the relationship between the main verb and the noun phrase that follows it - here the preposition identifies purpose, i.e. "Tomorrow, I will be going for some sightseeing." In contrast, the verb doing does not require a prepositional phrase to indicate the relationship between verb and object, as the purpose is semantically implicit.
Edited for clarity.
Last edited by Thiuda on Tue May 27, 2008 6:29 am; edited 1 time in total |
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ajuma
Joined: 18 Feb 2003
Location: Anywere but Seoul!!
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| Posted: Tue May 27, 2008 6:26 am Post subject: |
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| Thanks!! Now I can explain it to my boss!! |
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bogey666
Joined: 17 Mar 2008
Location: Korea, the ass free zone
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| Posted: Tue May 27, 2008 6:38 am Post subject: |
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| Thiuda wrote: |
| ajuma wrote: |
Oops!! I left out one word as I was typing. The sentence should read:
Tomorrow, I will be going some sightseeing. |
This sentence is in the future progressive tense, but that doesn't change the fact that the main verb going requires a preposition to indicate the relationship between the main verb and the noun phrase that follows it - here the preposition identifies purpose, i.e. "Tomorrow, I will be going for some sightseeing." In contrast, the verb doing does not require a prepositional phrase to indicate the relationship between verb and object, as the purpose is semantically implicit.
Edited for clarity. |
Christ, I'm impressed, but that explanation has also given me a headache.
Always hated grammar explanations and having to learn grammar terms and defining "relationship" between verb and object and like 
Good thing I've always been a voracious reader so grammar and structure is never an issue.
anyways.. just wanted to chime in
could you not say.
tomorrow I will be going to do some sightseeing?
It's clumsy and awkward sounding,. I'd never use it.. preferring to merely say tomorrow I will be going sightseeing. or out for some sightseeing.
but I don't think it's necessarily 'wrong'
I have a question on an unrelated matter.
singular and plural. I'm pretty old school with American English when it comes to this and if it doesn't end in an s.. and isn't man/woman or person iexception, it's singular to me. (apart from some other rare exceptions, pairs, etc)
but I think British English isn't quite as consistent.
for e.g. the word "media".
innately plural yet I treat is as a singular. ditto with the word "data".
yet this site does not agree:
http://englishplus.com/grammar/00000039.htm
Plurals That Do Not End in -s
A number of plurals, mostly derived from Latin, do not end in -s. Nevertheless, they are plural and should be treated as such. Words such as criteria, phenomena, memoranda, and media are plural. Their singular forms are criterion, phenomenon, memorandum, and medium.
The word data is also technically plural, but the singular form, datum, is rare in English, so using data as singular is tolerated, but not precisely correct. Say "a piece of data" or "item of data" for the singular if datum sounds too affected.
and this from the Economist (bes\t mag in the world, but obviously a British publication)
"..Propaganda looks plural but is not. Billiards, bowls, darts and fives are also singular. Data and media are plural. So are whereabouts. Teams that take the name of a town, country or university are plural, even when they look singular: England were bowled out for 56. .."
the last part has always driven me nuts.. because I have seen this in the Economist, but NEVER in an American publication
"England were bowled out etc" |
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Privateer
Joined: 31 Aug 2005
Location: Easy Street.
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| Posted: Tue May 27, 2008 6:57 am Post subject: |
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I always think of the verb in this case not as simple 'to go' but as 'to go sightseeing'. It belongs to a class of verbs for fun activities, mainly of the outdoor kind, e.g. 'go hiking', 'go skiing', 'go surfing', etc.
Despite being two words, as a single unit of meaning there is no more call to interpose other words between 'go' and '<insert activity name here>' than there is to between 'g' and 'o'. |
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bacasper
Joined: 26 Mar 2007
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| Posted: Tue May 27, 2008 7:11 am Post subject: |
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Going when followed by an infinitive or present participle is a future tense, e.g. going to sightsee, going sightseeing.
There is no such future tense as doing + a verb. In the phrase "doing some sightseeing," sightseeing is not a present participle but rather a gerund, which is a noun, and the direct object of doing.
You can use some here because sightseeing is a noun and not a verb in this case. |
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Thiuda
Joined: 14 Mar 2006
Location: Religion ist f�r Sklaven geschaffen, f�r Wesen ohne Geist.
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| Posted: Tue May 27, 2008 11:12 pm Post subject: |
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| bogey666 wrote: |
anyways.. just wanted to chime in
could you not say.
tomorrow I will be going to do some sightseeing?
It's clumsy and awkward sounding,. I'd never use it.. preferring to merely say tomorrow I will be going sightseeing. or out for some sightseeing.
but I don't think it's necessarily 'wrong' |
You're right, it isn't wrong. In your example to do has the same function as for - it specifies purpose.
| bogey666 wrote: |
I have a question on an unrelated matter.
singular and plural. I'm pretty old school with American English when it comes to this and if it doesn't end in an s.. and isn't man/woman or person iexception, it's singular to me. (apart from some other rare exceptions, pairs, etc)
but I think British English isn't quite as consistent.
for e.g. the word "media".
innately plural yet I treat is as a singular. ditto with the word "data".
yet this site does not agree:
http://englishplus.com/grammar/00000039.htm
Plurals That Do Not End in -s
A number of plurals, mostly derived from Latin, do not end in -s. Nevertheless, they are plural and should be treated as such. Words such as criteria, phenomena, memoranda, and media are plural. Their singular forms are criterion, phenomenon, memorandum, and medium.
The word data is also technically plural, but the singular form, datum, is rare in English, so using data as singular is tolerated, but not precisely correct. Say "a piece of data" or "item of data" for the singular if datum sounds too affected.
and this from the Economist (bes\t mag in the world, but obviously a British publication)
"..Propaganda looks plural but is not. Billiards, bowls, darts and fives are also singular. Data and media are plural. So are whereabouts. Teams that take the name of a town, country or university are plural, even when they look singular: England were bowled out for 56. .."
the last part has always driven me nuts.. because I have seen this in the Economist, but NEVER in an American publication
"England were bowled out etc" |
From a prescriptivist standpoint, plural nouns not ending in -s are treated as plurals regardless of whether one uses British- or American English. However, as is often the case, usage and grammatical rules do not necessarily agree with one another. So, while the Economist style guide instructs writers to insure subject-verb agreement with Latin/Greek plural nouns, speakers frequently use the singular form of the verb.
Here is a link to an American community college, advising it's students on the usage of Latin/Greek plural nouns: Capital Community College, Hartford, Connecticut
The Journalist's bible, the AP style guide, also advises writers to insure subject-verb agreement with Latin/Greek plural nouns |
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Thiuda
Joined: 14 Mar 2006
Location: Religion ist f�r Sklaven geschaffen, f�r Wesen ohne Geist.
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| Posted: Tue May 27, 2008 11:22 pm Post subject: |
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| bacasper wrote: |
Going when followed by an infinitive or present participle is a future tense, e.g. going to sightsee, going sightseeing.
There is no such future tense as doing + a verb. In the phrase "doing some sightseeing," sightseeing is not a present participle but rather a gerund, which is a noun, and the direct object of doing.
You can use some here because sightseeing is a noun and not a verb in this case. |
You're absolutely right. Well put. |
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Thiuda
Joined: 14 Mar 2006
Location: Religion ist f�r Sklaven geschaffen, f�r Wesen ohne Geist.
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| Posted: Sat May 31, 2008 4:13 pm Post subject: |
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| A more concise way of answering ajuma's question would have been to state: Go is a transitive verb that requires an oblique object (an object introduced by a preposition). |
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livinseoul
Joined: 28 Nov 2007
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| Posted: Sat May 31, 2008 4:41 pm Post subject: |
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| nobbyken wrote: |
I'm going sightseeing has no element of quantity in it.
Some sightseeing implies that it'll be for a certain period of time.
I'll go sightseeing.
I'm going sightseeing.
I'm going to do some sightseeing.
I'll do some sightseeing.
I'll be doing some sightseeing.
♪♫ Hi-ho, hi-ho, a sightseeing I will go ♪♫ |
ROFL  |
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cruisemonkey
Joined: 04 Jul 2005
Location: Hopefully, the same place as my luggage.
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| Posted: Sat May 31, 2008 6:30 pm Post subject: Re: Grammar question |
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| ajuma wrote: |
My HS grade 2 textbook has the following sentence:
Tomorrow, I will [be] going some sightseeing. |
This why I refuse to use the textbooks. 
Suddenly, I want to go to Lotte World to go viking and have some good Korean food... see you again later!  |
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