causes and effects, comparing and/or contrasting, defininga term or con-
cept, and dividingsomething into parts or classifyingit into categories.
4 Argumentative writingattempts to support a controversial point or
defend a position on which there is a difference of opinion. ESL writing
programmes have often been based on the assumption that novice
writers should begin with the simplest mode – the descriptive essay – and
gradually move to learning the most difficult – the argumentative one.modificationn
a type of communication strategyin which a speaker simplifies or
elaborates a normal discourse pattern in order to make a message more
accessible to a listener.
modified inputn
discourse addressed to second language learners and young children that
has been adapted or “simplified” to make comprehension easier, such as by
using comprehension checks, clarification requests and self-repetitions.
modified speechn
a term used by linguists to describe speech which is deliberately changed
in an attempt to make it sound more educated or refined. The change is
usually temporary and the speaker lapses back to his or her normal speech
pattern.
modifier nmodificationnmodifyv
a word or group of words which gives further information about
(“modifies”) another word or group of words (the head).
Modification may occur in a noun phrase^1 , a verb phrase, an adjec-
tival phrase, etc.
a Modifiers before the head are called premodifiers, for example
expensive in this expensive camera.
b Modifiers after the head are called postmodifiers, for example with a
stumpy tailin The cat with a stumpy tail.
Halliday restricts the term “modifier” to premodifiers and calls post-
modifiers qualifiers.
In earlier grammars, the term “modifier” referred only to words, phrases,
or clauses which modified verbs, adjectives, or other adverbials, but not to
those which modified nouns.
modularity hypothesisn
see module^2
modification