Can "School" be more than a noun?

 

In the VocabularySpellingCity offices, we have some exciting discussions. For instance, must the word “school” always be a noun?

What sort of bus? A SCHOOL bus!

I was in strong disagreement with an experienced English teacher (note, I have no such credentials). She argued “school” could only be used as a noun.

I spoke with some confidence: “What about school days, school bus, school boy, school books? What sorts of books would these be? They are school books. See, school can also be an adjective. Lets open up Merriam Webster and I’ll show you….”

Then, to my amazement: “Wow!….Merriam Webster lists school as a noun and a verb but not as an adjective!  OK, lets try another dictionary…”  The same thing!  I was stupified, stumped, flummoxed, and dumbfounded.

The first two dictionaries that I pulled up online both listed school only as a noun or a verb, (ie “Would you like to be schooled in the use of dictionaries?”). Neither of these first two dictionaries acknowledged the use of school as an adjective.

Dictionary.com 2nd Meaning

Finally, I found Dictionary.com which mentions three uses of the word “school”: noun, verb, and adjective!  While this seemed obvious to me, I was now aware that there was room for disagreement.

What to make of Merriam Webster? What do they think about the school bus?Merriam lists school bus as a noun. It seem that they consider these words – school days, school bus, school boy, school books – to be all open form compound word. An open form compound word?  Mostly, people think of compound words as being two words joined together with no spaces or hyphens between which makes them “closed form”. Examples include butterfly, shoehorn, and windmill.

Open form compound words are compound words that are not joined together like “closed form” compound words but have a space in them.   Some examples of compound words with a space in them: post office, real estate, fire engine, and light bulb.

Numbers, by the way,  are a really arbitrary combination of compound word types.  There’s seventeen (closed form). And twenty-three (hyphenated).  And three hundred (open form) but that is not my topic for today, let’s return to the question of:

When is a word a compound word and when is it just an adjective with a noun?

I like this definition of a compound word: When two words  form a new word with a new meaning. I think the functional part of this is the idea of a new meaning. For instance,  a business office is to me, just a type of office. Adjective. Noun.

School Desk, a type of desk?

But a post office is not really a type of office at all, it’s a type of retail outlet so it’s clearly a compound word and not an adjective noun combination.

Real estate. I would agree that real when used with estate forms a new meaning that is different than thinking of real as an adjective.  So it too is a compound word, not just an adjective in front of a noun.

But there are gray areas.  Is a green box just a box that is green? Yes. What about a weak box? A mail box? A strong box?

So, back to school:

Is a school bus just a type of bus?  IMHO yes. So adjective noun.
Is a school book just a type of book?  IMHO yes. So adjective noun.
What about a school desk, is it a type of desk?   IMHO yes. So adjective noun.
Is school work just a type of work?  IMHO maybe.
Is a school house just a type of house? IMHO NO, it’s not a house at all. It’s a compound word definitely.
School day? A type of day? Maybe.

So there’s some clear cases of school being used as an adjective such as with bus or book. There’s some compound words made with the word school such as school house. And there are some gray areas where I’m not sure and I’d have to consult greater authorities.  But, if Merriam Webster is unwilling to acknowledge that school could ever be used as an adjective then I (the Mayor of VocabularySpellingCity) am getting a little unsure of who this greater authority will be.  Maybe my mom or brothers, all of whom seem to know grammar so much better than me. I mean I.

Now, does any of this matter? Obviously, progressive education has de-emphasized naming parts of speech.  But in our gut, we all know that this sort of linguistic question being given its due is really the height of education and civilization.

Author Update – March 2018 – Noun Adjuncts

A few people have contacted me since this article was published and they have schooled me on the concept of “nouns being used as adjectives.” This is a well-known part of English which somehow, I had never learned. And I quote Wikipedia’s article on ‘noun adjuncts’: “In grammar, a noun adjunct or attributive noun or noun  modifier is an optional noun that modifies another noun; it is a noun functioning as a  modifier.”  As I read about this, I’ve learned that dictionaries and other authorities do not agree on the gray area which covers when:

• a noun is only a noun but can be used as a modifier as a noun adjunct
• a noun might have transitioned into also being considered an adjective because of frequent use as a modifier
• a modifier (either adjective or noun adjunct) used in combination with a noun blends together and becomes a compound word

So my school story turns out to be an illustration of this mysterious area of grammar. Thoughts?  By the way, many thanks to both GrammarGirl (Mignon Fogerty is one my heroes because of the consistently high quality of her writing @GrammarGirl  ) and Mary Norris (Confessions of a Comma Queen @MaryNorrisTNY) both of whom helped me understand.

April 2018 – I had some deep discussions with some educators and curriculum folk this week and I realized that I have never really gotten to the bottom of some basic student and teacher confusions. So I’ll try to spell out my question here as a step to answering it.

School is an example of a word with a single meaning  but which can be used in multiple ways.  School means the same thing whether we are using it as a noun, verb, or adjective.  In contrast, a word like scale is a genuine multiple meaning word.  To scale a mountain is quite different than the scale that we measure our weight on and both the first two meanings are distinct from the skin of the fish or the key to proportion on a map.  The latter example, scale, is a true multiple meaning word or homonym. But what do we call words like school that can be used in multiple ways albeit always with the same meaning?

Examples of homonyms used in sentences:

• I left my phone on the left side of the room.
• The baseball pitcher asked for a pitcher of water.
• The committee chair sat in the center chair.
• The crane flew above the construction crane.
• While they are at the play, I’m going to play with the dog.
• She will park the car so we can walk in the park.

Words that don't mean what they say

 

Tim Rasinski is a renowned professor of literacy education whose research on reading fluency and word study has made him a literacy hero to many. Below, he shares his thoughts on teaching idioms.

An idiom is an expression whose meaning is different from the literal meaning, like “It’s raining cats and dogs.” Find more idiom resources on VocabularySpellingCity.

Some of the most challenging words (and phrases) for students to learn are those that are metaphorical in nature – words not meant to be taken literally.  Idiomatic expressions, a type of figurative language, are among the most challenging words for students to learn. Expressions like going bananas, it’s raining cats and dogs, a chip on your shoulder, and it’s all Greek to me, are not to be taken literally.  The meaning of these expressions is hidden. It is up to the listener or reader to understand the underlying meaning of such expressions. Whether written or spoken, idiomatic expressions are common. Authors use idioms to make their writing more interesting and authentic.

Yet, unless the reader understands the hidden meaning of the idiom, s/he will have difficulty understanding the text in which the idiom is situated. Given the importance in understanding idioms, it seems reasonable to expect that figurative language, and idiomatic expressions in particular, be an integral part of a reading/language arts curriculum. However, if you take a look at reading and language arts instructional programs, you will find, at best, only a limited amount of coverage in any such topics. So what to do?

There are literally hundreds of idioms that are worth teaching. One approach that I might suggest is to teach idioms by themes or topics. At the beginning of the week, identify a theme that contains a number of idiomatic expressions. The website The Idiom Connection has organized expressions by theme. There you will find themes such as clothes idioms, animal idioms, number idioms, sports idioms, and more. Select (or ask your students to select) 8-10 idioms that belong to the chosen theme. Display these idioms on a chart along with their underlying or hidden meaning. Below is a chart for dog idioms.

Keep the display up throughout the week and encourage students to use the displayed expressions in their own oral and written language. For example, you might ask students to use at least one idiom in their personal journal at the end of each day. Of course, if you want students to use the expressions, you’ll need to find ways to use them yourself. For example, if a student provides an incorrect response to a question, you might say that he’s “barking up the wrong tree,” or if you don’t think the school principal will like an idea you might say, “well you just can’t teach an old dog new tricks,” or if you have a group of students who are “hounding” you with a request, you might tell them to “call off the dogs.” As you can probably see, finding ways to use these expressions is a fun challenge for both you and your students.

After having playfully used the idioms throughout the week students will probably have a good understanding of them. But if you want to take it one step further, at the end of the week ask students to work by themselves or with a partner to write a paragraph or two that summarizes the work done over the week or the plans students might have for the weekend and embed as many of the week’s expressions as possible. Here’s an example of what one student wrote recently:

“My sister and I have been hounding our parents to take us to the high school football game this weekend. Since he didn’t want to be in the doghouse, Dad finally told us to call off the dogs –  he agreed that he would finally take us. However, since it is supposed to rain cats and dogs this weekend, we think we might ask Dad to let sleeping dogs lie and wait for another day to take us to a game.”

Can you imagine the fun of having students read and discuss their short compositions with their classmates on a Friday afternoon? Moreover, you can save the very best essays to share with students in the following school years. Learning to read and learning words should be fun. Bringing idioms into your classroom is sure to add joy and authentic learning to your classroom experience.

Other Idiom Resources:

• VocabularySpellingCity – A great resource for finding and using idiomatic expressions with students.
• Go Figure! Exploring Figurative Language -Instructional activities for teaching idioms and other forms of figurative language. Features texts containing targeted words and expressions.
• Idioms And Other English Expressions – Strategies and suggestions about how to introduce idioms and incorporate them into your language and writing instruction. 
• Tim Rasinski’s website – Find blog posts and resources that feature idioms.

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Tim Rasinski is a professor of literacy education at Kent State University. His research on reading has been cited by the National Reading Panel and has been published in journals such as Reading Research Quarterly, The Reading Teacher, Reading Psychology, and the Journal of Educational Research. Read more about Rasinski here, or connect with him on Twitter @timrasinski1. 

For more from Tim Rasinski, continue to follow us for his exclusive VocabularySpellingCity blog series and be sure to watch a video recording of his webinar “Automaticity (Fluency) in Word Learning Improves Comprehension”

Rasinski’s research on word fluency is cited in the report, “Applying Best Practices For Effective Vocabulary Instruction,” written by VocabularySpellingCity in partnership with McREL International.

Any port in a storm

 

Any Port in a Storm!

Now that Hurricane Irma has past, I’m riding home to Ft Lauderdale. VocabularySpellingCity is headquartered in South Florida so we shut the office last week and everyone scurried like ants to safety.  In my case, my  “port”  was a dog-friendly motel in Alpharetta, Georgia.

For some reason, this idiom – “Any Port in a Storm” – kept playing in my head like a brain worm.  One reason the expression kept playing is that I’ve been thinking about how we can help students learn idioms and figurative language.

English literacy is a challenge for many reasons, one of which is the constant use of figurative language. The typical elementary student is very literal and can have trouble absorbing some of the metaphors that we typically use. A 2nd grader might “raise their eyebrows” when I respond to a question about whether I like the motel with: “I love it, any port in a storm. I’m not going to look a gift horse in the mouth.”

For ELL students, many American idioms are both obscure references and rely on cultural references that can be hard for them to relate to. Imagine how an ELL student might struggle when the teacher, encouraging her before a performance, says: “You’re on deck, soon up at bat, so get in the zone. I’m sure you won’t strike out.” Would words like that be as clear as mud to a recent immigrant?

VocabularySpellingCity Animal Idioms

On the other hand, much of our vocabulary has figurative origins that make the words easier to learn and remember if the teacher highlights these origins. For instance, knowing that the word “lousy” originally literally meant “lice-infested” makes ” lousy” a  much more dramatic expression. And on the subject of lice, what other expression derives from dealing with those annoying infestations? (The answer of course is nit-picking. Nits are the little lice eggs that have to be painstakingly picked out of the hair.)

A few things about teaching idioms.

1. Teaching idioms should be fun. Want an idea: Have a different student each day be responsible for teaching a new animal-based idiom to the class. Once you start to exhaust animal based expressions, you can pivot to sports idioms.
2.  VocabularySpellingCity can help. Our lists can use not just words, but short expressions (up to 4 spaces are allowed. So “smart like a fox” will work!)
3. There’s every reason to make a point of out using idioms when talking as long as you take the time to highlight and clarify them.  It also makes sense to have a time during the day when all the students are urged to talk with idioms.
4. The VocabularySpellingCity teaching resources includes preconfigured figurative language lists of several types:

Hyperbole – exaggeration used to emphasize a point or to add excitement or humor. Examples:

Figurative Language Types

• I can smell my mom’s brownies a mile away.
• I have a ton of homework.
• I’ve seen this movie a thousand times.

Idiom – expression in which the intended meaning is different from the literal meaning. Examples:

• Don’t judge a book by its cover.
• It’s raining cats and dogs.
• Who let the cat out of the bag?

Metaphor – direct comparison between two dissimilar things.Examples:

• Her voice was music to my ears.
• You are my knight in shining armor.
• Snow covered the streets in a white blanket.

Personification – literary device used to give human characteristics to nonhuman objects. Examples:

• The palm trees were dancing in the wind.
• The carved pumpkin smiled at us.
• The car’s engine coughed its last breath.

Simile – comparison between two unlike things using the word “like” or “as.”  Examples:

• The teenager is as hungry as a wolf.
• The old man is as wise as an owl.
  

  Guess that Idiom #1

• The new dad is as proud as a peacock.

And as icing on the cake, I’ll point out the figurative language materials on our site are correlated to each state standards (also to Canadian and Australian standards). Using the CCSS a starting point, proficiency standards are defined as of 3rd grade.

Common Core State Standards Related to Figurative Language

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.3.5
Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships and nuances in word meanings.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.3.5.a
Distinguish the literal and nonliteral meanings of words and phrases in context.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.4.5.a
Explain the meaning of simple similes and metaphors (e.g., as pretty as a picture) in context.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.4.5.b
Recognize and explain the meaning of common idioms, adages, and proverbs.

One of the most exciting things about teaching idioms is that each student can research idioms around their own interest: animals, cooking, sports, and so on.

So is teaching idioms as easy as pie?  Do you know your  types of idioms like the back of your hand?  With this head start, are you ready to knock it out of the park with your teaching?  Don’t be a stranger, tell me what you think. Comment below, tweet to me @VSpellCityMayor, or Facebook me on our Facebook page.