Transformation terminology

[Andrew Patterson]

One of the things I do to help my students do transformations for the FCE exam is to tell them that usually only part of the sentence is involved in the transformation.

I tell them to first locate the parts that aren't involved, and to write any of this that they can in the gap. Then to transform the part that remains.

I call the part of the sentence that don't in the transformation
"the dead part of the sentence" (prepositional phrases are often "dead".)
I call dead parts that still need to be written in the gap "undead",
and parts that change in the transformation "live".

For instance,

Complete the second sentence so that it has a similar meaning to the first sentence using the word given. Do not change the word given. You must use between two and five words, including the word given.

1 Where are you going to spend your holidays this year?
planning
Where ______________________________ your holidays this year?

"Where" and "to spend your holidays this year" are dead,
"to spend" is undead and needs to be written in at the end,
"are you going" is live and transforms to "are you planning".

I find this technique very useful in teaching transformations, but I don't know if I'm using the right terms.

Andrew Patterson.

[Bo]

I think that's actually quite a good tip. Well done, Andrew. I like the terminology also, although I've never heard it before. You coined it! A very good and useful tip indeed! Thanks!

B.