Date:  Thu, 17 Aug 1995 20:07:00 CDT

From:  "Donald M. Lance" <ENGDL[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]MIZZOU1.MISSOURI.EDU>

Subject: Re: help on linguistic terminology



I have only a couple of suggestions regarding grammatical terms.

Rather than "relative clause" why not use the old term "adjective clause"?

Your engineers will know something about adjectives and nouns.



And I don't think English lit majors would cotton to heavy discussion of

"complement" any more than engineers. Work out ways of getting your

engineers to do some problem solving, not just labeling, as they work

with the morass of structures that linguists (but not English lit majors)

call complements.



As for "phrase" and "clause" point out that a clause has a verb in the

present, past or future tense and a phrase doesn't. Make that the

beginning point. Don't start by talking about "subject and verb." Tense

is the crucial element.



Just some comments off the top of my head. Good luck.

    DMLance