posted
"Is 'indicative' the same thing as 'declarative'? i was also taught that exclamatory is a separate fourth 'mood' (i wasn't taught to call them moods, but i can't for the life of me remember what my teachers called them)."
You're thinking of sentence types, not moods. I believe that set is declarative, interrogative, exclamatory, and imperative. Those have more to do with the structure of the sentence.
Moods, on the other hand, have to do with meaning. They're kind of like tenses, but they express a "feeling" instead of a time.
"I think the best way to learn English is to just read, then you can really get a feel for how to effectively communicate."
Absolutely. Studies have shown that learning grammar has very little impact on how well someone communicates. Learning usage on the other hand, is very helpful. It'll help you learn why to do something, whereas grammar just tells you what its technical name is.
posted
Survivor~ alas, i enjoy many of those things (i've never tried pottery or woodcarving). my beef is that they can't be learned by reading a set of instructions, though i know that's asking a lot. but just because i despise how i must learn something doesn't mean i despise the activity itself. {reads back through post} i guess my PS made it sound like i loath the activities, sorry about the confusion.
posted
No problem, Cosmi. I really should de-lurk more often. I've become too addicted to the Hatrack River Forum, so I don't come here much. I just can't resist discussions about language, though.
Posts: 83 | Registered: Sep 2002
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posted
But of course. I was just being silly. On the other hand, you are being silly as well. In order for you to have truly "learned" anything, you must develop a "feel" for it (or to be more specific, you must develop those neural and nervous pathways that actuate the skill you are learning). That is what we mean by "learning" in the neurophysiological sense. It is impossible for a human (or other animal) to learn in any other way than by training the nervous system, since this is what we mean when we apply the term to an entity that uses a nervous system.
I do understand what you mean, though. You mean that a skill that seemingly cannot be fully described by a finite number of rules will always leave you "chasing a moving target" in your attempts to master it, and so no matter how much you enjoy the activity itself, you never feel satisfied by the learning process. Of course--again, I am just the opposite. Any finite learning process leaves me cold rather quickly
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