Because of our recent Chinese New Year sale, I had to explain to many potential students why building an overall grammatical framework for English -- although it is a process that takes more analysis and effort upfront -- is very important for their effective systematic learning going forward, both in terms of consolidating grammatical knowledge as well as learning other things that can only be learned through aware exposure, like words, expressions, or choices of tense forms for different contexts, etc.
In one of these explanations, I happened to use an example involving the verb “dispose” when it expresses the meaning of “處理/扔掉某東西.” I wanted to share the example here with you -- but of course, any example, literally any example from any sentence, works, because the idea is that the framework helps you analyze and learn systematically from any sentence you encounter.
The example is very simple. A student who is not yet enrolled in our foundational course asked me about the verb “dispose”:
He asked me to dispose of his wardrobe.
他叫我處理掉 / 扔掉他的衣櫃
Specifically, he asked why the verb “dispose,” when it expresses this meaning of “throwing something away,” has the word “of” following it -- like “dispose of his wardrobe” here -- instead of just “dispose his wardrobe*” like in the Chinese equivalent.
Well, here’s how an overall grammatical framework for English and a meta-linguistic view of language would help him understand this example and learn systematically from it:
First, if he knew that this is a correct and natural sentence from a credible source, he would not need to ask “why” it is “dispose of his wardrobe” and not “dispose his wardrobe*”-- because he would know that every verb has a specific set of structural requirements and characteristics when it is expressing a specific meaning.
So, looking at this correct sentence, he would simply draw the systematic conclusion that the verb “dispose,” when expressing this meaning of “throwing something away,” does not just have the “thing being thrown away” right after it -- because it is not “dispose the wardrobe*” here.
In the grammatical framework he built, he would know that some English verbs that have “recipients” in meaning express their recipient with a direct object, that is, a noun phrase right after it -- like “fill the cup” -- while others express their recipient in other grammatical ways, including with specific modifier phrases.
He might make a mental note at this point that the verb that expresses the same meaning as “dispose” in Chinese -- “處理掉 / 扔掉” -- does express the recipient as a direct object -- like “處理掉他的衣櫃,” but this would not baffle him, because he would have the meta-linguistic awareness to understand that different languages and their verbs can express the same meanings with different grammatical means.
If anything, he would specifically make a mental note to be aware that the English verb “dispose,” as shown in this correct example, does not express its recipient as a direct object, knowing that this is an easy mistake for Chinese speakers used to the Chinese equivalent. He could make a mental note of not saying “dispose his wardrobe*” just from this example alone.
Then, he can put the sentence into his grammatical framework to analyze in order to learn specific things about this verb from it. Namely, if it does not express its recipient as a direct object, how does it express its recipient structurally?
He asked me to dispose of his wardrobe.
他叫我處理掉 / 扔掉他的衣櫃
If he just analyzed part containing the verb “dispose” -- the infinitive phrase “to dispose of his wardrobe” -- he can already draw the conclusion that the verb “dispose,” when expressing this meaning of “throwing something away,” requires a specific modifier phrase for its “recipient.”
This modifier phrase happens to be a prepositional phrase with the specific preposition “of.”
In his framework, he would already know what prepositions and prepositional phrases are, both structurally and functionally, so he would not need to worry about what “of his wardrobe” is. He would only need to learn from this specific example that the verb “dispose” requires a specific prepositional phrase with “of” to express its recipient for this particular meaning.
He would also not need to ask “why it is ‘of’” and not some other preposition -- because he would know that a lot of English verbs are completed in meaning by specific prepositional phrases – without those prepositions being tied to their respective original meanings.
And, he would know that a preposition forms a prepositional phrase with a noun phrase -- like “of his wardrobe” -- so he can easily understand that, in order to express this meaning with “dispose” accurately going forward, he would only need to form a prepositional phrase with “of” and the noun phrase of the “thing being thrown away” -- like “dispose of the trash,” “dispose of a valuable possession,” or whatever it is.
Everything we have mentioned above can be called “receptive” knowledge, because it involves this student learning the grammatical characteristics of this verb from this example.
Now, he can go one step further to turn this into “productive” knowledge systematically.
For example, next time, if he needs to express this meaning with the verb “dispose,” he would know to form a prepositional phrase with “of” and the “thing being thrown away” to complete it.
From the same framework, he knows how all English noun phrases are formed, and so he is ready to express meaning about “disposing of” virtually anything he needs to express.
For example, “處理掉 / 扔掉我老闆去年買的工作辦公桌” would be:
“...dispose of the desk [ that my boss bought last year ]”
處理掉 / 扔掉我老闆去年買的工作辦公桌
The adjective he needs to describe “the desk” involves an entire action with a subject, so it can only be expressed as a relative clause. From the framework, he would know how to form the relative clause [ that my boss bought last year ] correctly as an adjective to “the desk.”
Then, the whole noun phrase “the desk that my boss bought last year” forms a prepositional phrase with “of” -- “of the desk that my boss bought last year” -- to complete the verb “dispose.”
Then, of course, he would also know how to form whatever sentence he needs in context with his framework. For example:
I disposed of the desk that my boss bought last year.
我已處理掉 / 扔掉我老闆去年買的工作辦公桌
I need to dispose of the desk that my boss bought last year.
我需要去處理掉 / 扔掉我老闆去年買的工作辦公桌
Disposing of the desk that my boss bought last year was very difficult.
處理掉 / 扔掉我老闆去年買的工作辦公桌很困難
With his framework, he would know how to change the verb “dispose” into any finite or non-finite form to form correct sentences to express what he needs to express.
The point is that, with an overall grammatical framework in place, this student could extrapolate all of this knowledge systematically from one single example sentence alone.
I took some time to verbalize every step of the process in this email -- but, in reality, once you have a framework, and after some practice, all of this thinking takes place by default in your head as pretty much a passive, automatic process.
If you want to start building your framework today, you can learn more about our foundational course “Core Concepts of English” here:
由於最近農曆新年優惠的關係，我需要向很多潛在學生解釋，為甚麼建立一個整體的英文文法框架——雖然在一開始需要花較多分析和心力——對他們之後有效而有系統地學習是非常重要的，無論是在鞏固文法知識方面，還是在學習其他只能通過有意識接觸才能學到的東西方面，例如生字、表達方式，或者在不同語境中選擇 tense 字形等等。
在其中一次解釋中，我剛好用了動詞「dispose」在表達「處理／扔掉某東西」這個意思時的一個例子。我想在這裡跟你分享這個例子——但當然，其實任何例子，真是任何一句句子中的任何例子，都可以，因為重點是：這個框架能幫助你有系統地分析並從你遇到的任何一句句子中學習。
這個例子很簡單。一位還未報讀我們概論課程的學生問我有關動詞「dispose」的問題：
He asked me to dispose of his wardrobe.
他叫我處理掉／扔掉他的衣櫃
具體來說，他問的是：為甚麼動詞「dispose」在表達這個「扔掉某東西」的意思時，後面會跟着 「of」 這個字——就像這裡的 「dispose of his wardrobe」——而不是像中文對應那樣直接說 「dispose his wardrobe*」。
那麼，一個整體的英文文法框架，以及「退後一步」看語言的 meta-linguistic 視角，會如何幫助他理解這個例子，並有系統地從中學習呢？
首先，如果他知道這是一句來自可信來源、正確而自然的句子，那他其實就不需要問「為甚麼」是 「dispose of his wardrobe」而不是 「dispose his wardrobe*」——因為他會知道，每一個動詞在表達某一個特定意思時，都會有一套特定的結構要求和特徵。
所以，看着這句正確的句子，他只需要得出一個有系統的結論：動詞 「dispose」 在表達這個「扔掉某東西」的意思時，不是直接把那個「被扔掉的東西」放在它後面——因為這裡不是 「dispose his wardrobe*」。
在他的文法框架裡，他會知道：有些英文動詞在意思上有對象時，會以 direct object 方式來表達那個對象，也就是直接在後面有一個名詞組——例如 「fill the cup」；但也有些動詞是以其他文法方式來表達其意思上的對象的，包括以特定的修飾語組去表達。
在這個時候，他可能會在腦中記下一點：中文裡表達跟 「dispose」 同樣意思的動詞——「處理掉／扔掉」——是以 direct object 來表達對象的，例如 「處理掉他的衣櫃」；但這不會令他感到困惑，因為他會「退後一步」，以 meta-linguistic 意識理解，明白不同語言及其動詞，是可以用不同的文法方式去表達同一個意思的。（這點我在很多email 中都說過）。
所以在這裡，他反而會特別記下一點：英文動詞 「dispose」，正如這個正確例子所示，並不是以 direct object 方式去表達它的對象——要特別記下是因為他知道，對於習慣了中文對應動詞的中文母語人士來說，這是一個很容易犯的錯誤。單靠這一個例子，他已經可以記住不要說 「dispose his wardrobe*」。
然後，他便可以把這句句子放進自己的文法框架裡再分析，從中學到這個動詞在這個例子中所顯示的具體特徵。也就是說：如果它不是以 direct object 來表達其對象，那它在結構上是怎樣表達這對象的呢？
He asked me to dispose of his wardrobe.
他叫我處理掉／扔掉他的衣櫃
如果他只分析包含動詞 「dispose」 的那一部分——即基本動詞組 「to dispose of his wardrobe」——他已經可以得出結論：動詞 「dispose」 在表達這個「扔掉某東西」的意思時，會需要一個特定的修飾語詞組來表達它的對象。
而這個修飾語詞組，剛好是一個有特定介詞 「of」 的介詞組。
在他的框架中，他已經知道介詞（preposition）和介詞組（prepositional phrase）在結構和功能上是甚麼，所以他根本不需要擔心 「of his wardrobe」 是甚麼。
他只需要從這個具體例子中學到：動詞 「dispose」 在表達這個特定意思時，是需要一個由 「of」開始的特定介詞組，來表達對象。
他也不需要再問「為甚麼是『of』而不是其他介詞」——因為他會知道，很多英文動詞在意思上都是由特定的介詞組來完成意思的，而那些介詞並不是一定跟它們各自原本的意思直接有關。
而且，他也會知道，一個介詞會跟一個名詞組一起組成一個介詞組——例如 「of his wardrobe」——所以他很容易便能明白：如果他之後要準確地以 「dispose」 去表達同樣這個意思，他只需要以 「of」 和那個「被扔掉的東西」的名詞組形成一個介詞組就可以了——例如 「dispose of the trash」、「dispose of a valuable possession」，或任何其他東西。
以上提到的所有東西，都可以稱為 「接收性 receptive」的知識，因為這涉及這位學生從這個例子中學習這個動詞的文法特徵。
然後，他還可以再進一步，把這些接收性知識有系統地轉化成「生產性 productive」的知識。
例如，下次當他需要以動詞 「dispose」 去表達這個意思時，他便會知道要以 「of」 和那個「被扔掉的東西」（的名詞組）去形成一個介詞組來完成它。
從同一個框架中，他也知道所有英文名詞組是怎樣形成的，因此他已經準備好去表達幾乎任何他需要表達的「dispose of 甚麼」。
例如，「處理掉／扔掉我老闆去年買的工作辦公桌」便會是：
“...dispose of the desk [ that my boss bought last year ]”
處理掉／扔掉我老闆去年買的工作辦公桌
他需要描述 「the desk」 的形容詞，涉及一整個有主語的完整動作（我老闆去年買的），所以一定要由 relative clause 關係子句去表達。透過這個框架，他會知道如何正確地形成 [ that my boss bought last year ]，作為修飾 「the desk」 的形容詞。
然後，整個名詞組 「the desk that my boss bought last year」 便會跟 「of」 一起形成一個介詞組——「of the desk that my boss bought last year」——來完成動詞 「dispose」結構所需和意思。
然後，當然，他也會知道如何利用他的框架，在語境中組成任何他需要的句子。例如：
I disposed of the desk that my boss bought last year.
我已處理掉／扔掉我老闆去年買的工作辦公桌
I need to dispose of the desk that my boss bought last year.
我需要去處理掉／扔掉我老闆去年買的工作辦公桌
Disposing of the desk that my boss bought last year was very difficult.
處理掉／扔掉我老闆去年買的工作辦公桌很困難
透過他的框架，他會知道如何把動詞 「dispose」 變成任何限定或非限定字形，去形成正確的句子，表達他需要表達的意思。
重點是：當一個整體的文法框架已經建立好之後（或在建立的同時），這位學生便可以單憑這一句例子句子，有系統地延伸出以上所有這些知識。
我在這封 email 中花了一點時間，把整個過程的每一步都說出來——但其實，當你有了框架，再加上一定練習之後，這一切思考過程在你的腦中基本上會變成一種被動而自動的過程，預設地發生。
如果你想今天就開始建立你的框架，你可以在這裡進一步了解我們的概論課程 Core Concepts of English：