My e-primbon Part 2

The Definition and Purpose of Descriptive Text

Descriptive Text is a text which say what a person or a thing is like. Its purpose is to describe and reveal a particular person, place, or thing.


The Generic Structure of Descriptive Text

Descriptive text has structure as below:
Identification; identifying the phenomenon to be described.
Description; describing the phenomenon in parts, qualities, or/and characteristics.


Features

* The topic is usually about the attributes of a thing.
* Third person pronoun forms are used.

Example :

Cleopatra was legendary. She was famous not only for her breathtaking beauty but also for her great intellect. She had brown eyes and they were shaped like cat eyes. Her skin was in fact an olive shade, darker than Hollywood actress Liz Taylor who potrayed her in the film 'Cleopatra' in 1963. She had medium dark brown hair, about to the middle of her shoulder blades. She had a reputation as an extraordinarily sensuous woman.

Cleopatra was a woman of remarkable poise and unusual intelligence. She was highly educated. She spoke proficiently in nine languages and also skilled in mathematics. She is often considered to be a stunning seductress though she was studying to be a nun. Cleopatra was a very intelligent queen and a politician with a great charisma.

A. To understand this lesson is easy.

B. It is easy to understand this lesson.

In this pattern, it has no meaning. It is used only to fill the subject position in the sentence. Thus, it is called introductory “it”.

A and B mean the same thing, but sentence B is more common and useful than A. A was introduce mainly to make the meaning of C easier to understand.

Introductory “it” can fill the position both of the subject and object.

Introductory “it” as a subject:

To watch musical programs is pleasant.

It is pleasant to watch musical program.

To play football must be fun.

It is fun to play football.

• Description of News Item

News Item is a factual text which informs the readers about events of the day which are considered newsworthy or important.

• Function of News Item

Social Function of News Item is to inform readers, listeners or viewers about events of the day which are considered newsworthy or important.

• Generic Structure of News Item

- Newsworthy event(s) : recount the events in summary form.
- Background Event(s): elaborate what happened, to WHOM, in WHAT circumstances.
- Sources: comments by participants in, witnesses to and authorities’ expert on the event.

• Significant Grammar Features

- Short, telegraphic information about story captured in headline
- Generally using Simple Past Tense
- Use of Material Processes to retell the event
- Using Action Verbs, e.g.: were, run, go, kill, etc.
- Using Saying Verbs, e.g.: say, tell
- Focus on Circumstances
- Use of projecting Verbal Processes in Sources stages

There are some rules that can help to make newspaper headlines more comprehensible.

1. The passive voice is used without the appropriate form of “be”.

Example: Town ‘Contaminated’

Complete Sentence: Town is contaminated.

2. It is unusual to find complex forms, generally the simple present form is used

Example: Fire Destroys over 2,511 acres of Forest in 2003-2004

Complete Sentence: Fire has destroyed over 2,511 acres of forest in 2003-2004.

3. The present progressive tense is used, usually to describe something that is changing or developing, but the auxiliary verb is usually left out.

Example: World Heading for Energy Crisis

Complete Sentence: The world is heading for an energy crisis.

4. To refer to the future, headlines often use the infinitive.

Example: Queen to Visit Samoa.

Complete Sentence: The Queen is going to visit Samoa.

5. Headlines are not always complete sentences.

Example: More earthquakes in Japan.

Complete Sentence: More earthquakes happened in Japan.

A finite verb is a Verb that is inflected for person and for tense according to the rules and categories of the languages in which it occurs. Finite verbs can form independent clauses, which can stand by their own as complete sentences.

Every grammatically correct sentence or clause must contain a finite verb; sentence fragments not containing finite verbs are described as phrases.

Some interjections can play the same role. Even in English, a sentence like Thanks for your help! has an interjection where it could have a subject and a finite verb form.

In English, as in most related languages, only verbs in certain moods are finite. These include:

• the indicative mood (expressing a state of affairs); e.g., "The bulldozer demolished the restaurant," "The leaves were yellow and stiff."
• the imperative mood (giving a command).
• the subjunctive mood (expressing something that might or might not be the state of affairs, depending on some other part of the sentence); nearly extinct in English.

A verb is a word that expresses an occurrence, act, or mode of being. Finite verbs, sometimes called main verbs, are limited by time (see tense), person, and number.

A noun phrase is other a single noun or any group of words containing noun or a pronoun that function together as a noun or pronoun, as the subject or object of averb.

For example, ‘they’ , ‘books’, and ‘the books’, are noun phrases, but ‘book’ is just a noun, as you can see in these sentences (in which the noun phrases are all in bold)

- Structure of Noun Phrases:
• A beautiful old painting on the wall

When you use a noun in front of another noun, you never put adjectives between them, you put adjectives in front of the first noun.
Example : We just spoke with a young American boy

Noun phrase can be in form of gerund (base + ing) or gerund and other nouns compounding.

Simple Future Tense is used to describing job or action that will to do (happened) at future.

Formula :
1. Positive
(+) S+ shall/will +V1
Ex : - I shall clean the room
- We will go to school

Or

(+) S+ be + going to + V1
Ex : - I am going to play tennis
- He is going to write a story

2. Negative
(-) S + shall/will + not + V
Ex : - I shan't buy a shirt
- He won't clean the room
Or
(-) S + be + not + going to + V
Ex : - I am not going to give a present


3. Interrogative
(?) Shall/will + S + V ?
Ex : - Will we play tennis ?
Or
(?) Be + S + going to + V ?
Ex : Is she gong to write story ?

Notes :
Shall just can use for subject I and We

Will digunakan pada :
- sesuatu yang belum pasti
- spontan diputuskan
- Membuat janji

Be going to digunakan pada :
- Prediksi dengan bukti yang kuat

The expression of “ Would you like....”is normally used for offering something to someone.

Ways to say it :

* Would you like a cup of coffee, Mr. Ardi?
* Should I get you a bottle of water?
* Could I offer you a glass of milk, Mr. Rio?
* Would you care some salad?

Ofering to friends:

* Want some?
* Have some?
* Chocolate?
* Grab some for yourself

Less formal expressions:

* Would you like to have a pancake?
* Why don't you have some lemonade?
* What can I get for you?
* What will you have?

Declining an offering :

* No, thanks.
* No, really won't, thanks
* Not for me, thanks.

Accepting an offering :

* Thank you.
* Yes, please
* I'd like it very much
* That would be very nice