Changing meaning
Kelli, blogging about her experiences teaching English in South America, wrote about the perils of teaching “regret” this week. She quite rightly says that contexts and examples are the key.
It got me thinking about the number of times I’ve taught “regret” as one of those verbs that we use to show how meaning can change if you follow it with a gerund or an infinitive.
The other verbs usually grouped with it in this category are “stop”, “remember” and “try”.
So how can we explain the difference to our students between “I stopped smoking ” and “I stopped to smoke”, or “I regret to tell you” and “I regret telling you”?
Plenty of different examples in different contexts is definitely key. I often use a text, usually a story (it doesn’t take long to come up with one containing a lot of examples contrasting use), and after some initial scene setting and text comprehension, start focusing on form and meaning of the different examples.
And it’s at this point that I find teachers diverge on what’s best - the question being how far to go in to the “first action”, “second action” aspect. For example:
“He stopped to smoke” - we can imagine someone walking down the street, stopping what she is doing and then lighting up. Chronologically, “stop” is clearly the first action” and “smoke” is the second.
“He stopped smoking” - well, here, we can imagine someone smoking a packet a day for 20 years, and then deciding to quit. “Smoke” is the first action chronologically, “stop” the second.
It’s the same thing with “remember” or “regret”…
“I remember buying the flowers” - first you buy them, then you remember the fact that you bought them. “I remembered to buy the flowers” - first you remember that you have to do something, then you do it.
“I regret to tell you that you have failed the exam” - first you have a regret, then you tell the person. “I regret telling him that he failed” - first I told him, then I regretted this action.
…and so on.
The problem is that although this seems to make sense logically (and might therefore appeal to the theorists among your students, who like rules and clear, logical explanations), the contexts in which we set these examples differ quite widely - a man walking along the street and stopping to light up is difficult to contrast with the much more general and long-term context of someone quitting smoking. Similarly, remembering to do something is about reminders; remembering doing something is about memory.
The other problem, of course, is that with “try”, the first action, second action trick doesn’t apply. “I tried to cook the lasagne” suggests that it was difficult, and might be followed by “but I couldn’t do it”, whereas “I tried cooking lasagne” suggests some kind of experiment and might be followed by “but I didn’t enjoy it”.
So, first action, second action, or not? Tell us what you think…
