Aboriginal Literature essays

Aboriginal Literature essays Native traditions and history were passed down through the generations using the art of storytelling. Storytelling was not only useful for Natives in this way but became a part of the tradition and history they passed down to their children. Unlike Euro-Canadian people, Aboriginal people did not put their oral traditions into writing but have increasingly begun to do so in the present day. This may keep these traditions from dying out as many already have, but this may also destroy the showmanship and meaning of Aboriginal storytelling. This is one of the most important critical debates pertaining to Native literature; is the written word destroying the effect of Native oral tradition or is it saving it? This essay will show that translating and converting Native oral stories to text may keep them alive longer than those who tell them, but the written word will never capture the full effect of Native oral storytelling. In the past, Native people did not document their history or traditions on paper. When the Europeans came, their traditions were disregarded because of this fact. This, and the fact that oral traditions were easily lost with the death of a particular culture or language, is the reason why Natives have lost so much of their history. As the ethnographer A.F Chamberlain wrote of the Indians of Scugog Island: These stories are only known to the older generation...and will soon be lost to oblivion if not taken down at once (Clark xii). Since the younger generations of Natives had less interest in their oral traditions the only way to save the traditions was to write them down; and this began the trend of Native written literature. In this way the Native traditions would live on even if they were not passed on orally. Unfortunately, the text versions of the stories do not convey everything that the oral stories themselves were intended to. When Native oral traditions are collected and transcribed,...

Definitions and Examples of English Usage

Definitions and Examples of English Usage Usage refers to the conventional ways in which words or phrases are used, spoken, or written in a speech community. There is no official institution (akin to the 500-year-old Acadà ©mie franà §aise, for example) that functions as an authority on how the English language should be used. There are, however, numerous publications, groups, and individuals (style guides, language mavens, and the like) that have attempted to codify (and sometimes dictate) rules of usage. EtymologyFrom Latin,  usus  Ã‚  to use Observations This usage stuff is not straightforward and easy. If ever someone tells you that the rules of English grammar are simple and logical and you should just learn them and obey them, walk away, because youre getting advice from a fool.  (Geoffrey K. Pullum, Does It Really Matter If It Dangles? Language Log, Nov. 20, 2010)The thoughtful, nondichotomous position on language depends on a simple insight: Rules of proper usage are tacit conventions. Conventions are unstated agreements within a community to abide by a single way of doing thingsnot because there is any inherent advantage to the choice, but because there is an advantage to everyone making the same choice. Standardized weights and measures, electrical voltages and cables, computer file formats, the Gregorian calendar, and paper currency are familiar examples.  (Steven Pinker, False Fronts in the Language Wars. Slate, May 31, 2012) The Difference Between Grammar and Usage In this book, grammar refers to the manner in which the language functions, the ways that the blocks of speech and writing are put together. Usage refers to using specific words in a manner that will be thought of as either acceptable or unacceptable. The question of whether or not to split an infinitive is a consideration of grammar; the question of whether one should use literally in a nonliteral sense is one of usage.  (Ammon Shea, Bad English: A History of Linguistic Aggravation. Perigee, 2014) Arbiters of Usage The present-day scholarly concept of usage as a social consensus based on the practices of the educated middle class has emerged only within the last century. For many people, however, the views and aims of the 17th-18c fixers of the language continue to hold true: they consider that there ought to be a single authority capable of providing authoritative guidance about good and bad usage. For them, the model remains that of the Greek and Latin, and they have welcomed arbiters of usage such as Henry Fowler who have based their prescriptions on this model. In spite of this  ... no nation in which English is the main language has yet set up an official institution to monitor and make rules about usage. New words, and new senses and uses of words, are not sanctioned or rejected by the authority of any single body: they arise through regular use and, once established, are recorded in dictionaries and grammars. This means that, with the classical model of grammar in rapid decline, the us ers of English collectively set the standards and priorities that underlie all usage.  (Robert Allen, Usage. The Oxford Companion to the English Language, ed. T. McArthur. Oxford University Press, 1992) Most of the little manuals which pretend to regulate our use of our own language and to declare what is and what is not good English are grotesque in their ignorance; and the best of them are of small value, because they are prepared on the assumption that the English language is dead, like the Latin, and that, like Latin again, its usage is fixed finally. Of course, this assumption is as far as possible from the fact. The English language is alive now- very much alive. And because it is alive it is in a constant state of growth. It is developing daily according to its needs. It is casting aside words and usages that are no longer satisfactory; it is adding new terms as new things are brought forward; and it is making new usages, as convenience suggests, short-cuts across lots, and to the neglect of the five-barred gates rigidly set up by our ancestors.  (Brander Matthews, Parts of Speech: Essays on English, 1901) Usage and Corpus Linguistics English is more diverse than ever in all hemispheres. Research into new Englishes has flourished, supported by journals such as English World-Wide, World Englishes and English Today. At the same time, the quest for a single, international form for written communication becomes more pressing, among those aiming at a global readership...Many kinds of resource have been brought to bear on the style and usage questions raised. The Cambridge Guide to English Usage is the first of its kind to make regular use of large databases (corpora) of computerized texts as primary sources of current English. . . . The corpora embody various kinds of written discourse as well as transcriptions of spoken discourseenough to show patterns of divergence between the two. Negative attitudes to particular idioms or usage often turn on the fact that they are more familiar to the ear than the eye, and the constructions of formal writing are privileged thereby. Corpus data allow us to look more neutrally at the distributions of words and constructions, to view the range of styles across which they operate. On this basis, we can see what is really standard, i.e. usable in many kinds of discourse, as opposed to the formal or informal.  (Pam Peters, The Cambridge Guide to English Usage. Cambridge University Press, 2004) Linguists and Usage As a field of study, usage doesnt hold much interest for modern linguists, who are drifting more and more toward qualitative psychology and theory. Their leading theorist, Noam Chomsky of MIT, has acknowledged, with no apparent regret, the pedagogical irrelevance of modern linguistics: I am, frankly, rather skeptical about the significance, for the teaching of languages, of such insights and understanding as have been attained in linguistics and psychology ... If you want to learn how to use the English language skillfully and gracefully, books on linguistics wont help you at all.  (Bryan A. Garner, Garners Modern American Usage, 3rd ed. Oxford University Press, 2009) Correctness In the past, unproven ideas about the Standard have often been used to forward certain social interests at the expense of others. Knowing this, we do not describe the misuse of the conventions of punctuation in some students writing as a crime against civilization, although we do point out the mistakes. What interests us far more is that these apprentice writers have interesting ideas to convey, and manage to support their arguments well. They should be encouraged to turn to the task of writing seriously and enthusiastically rather than be discouraged because they cannot punctuate a restrictive clause correctly. But when they ask, Does spelling count? we tell them that in writing, as in life, everything counts. For academic writers, as for writers in a wide variety of fields (business, journalism, education, etc.), correctness in both content and expression is vital. . . . Language standardization may have been used as a tool of social oppression, but it has also been the vehicle of broad collaboration and communication. We are right to treat usage both warily and seriously.  (Margery Fee and Janice McAlpine, Guide to Canadian English Usage, 2nd ed. Oxford University Press, 2007)   Usage is trendy, arbitrary, and above all, constantly changing, like all other fashionsin clothing, music, or automobiles. Grammar is the rationale of a language; usage is the etiquette.​  (I. S. Fraser and L. M. Hodson, Twenty-One Kicks at the Grammar Horse. The English Journal, Dec. 1978)   E.B. White on Usage as a Matter of Ear We were interested in what Dr. Henry Seidel Canby had to say about English usage, in the Saturday Review. Usage seems to us peculiarly a matter of ear. Everyone has his own set of rules, his own list of horribles. Dr. Canby speaks of contact used as a verb, and points out that careful writers and speakers, persons of taste, studiously avoid it. They dosome of them, because the word so used, makes their gorge rise, others because they have heard that we sensitive litry folk consider it displeasing. The odd thing is that what is true of one noun-verb is not necessarily true of another. To contact a man makes us wince; but to ground a plane because of bad weather sounds all right. Further, although we are satisfied to ground a plane, we object to garaging an automobile. An automobile should not be garaged; it should either be put in a garage or left out all night.The contraction aint, as Dr. Canby points out, is a great loss to the language. Nice Nellies, schoolteachers, and underdone g rammarians have made it the symbol of ignorance and ill-breeding, when in fact it is a handy word, often serving where nothing else will. Say it aint so is a phrase that is right the way it stands, and couldnt be any different. People are afraid of words, afraid of mistakes. One time a newspaper sent us to a morgue to get a story on a woman whose body was being held for identification. A man believed to be her husband was brought in. Somebody pulled the sheet back; the man took one agonizing look, and cried, My God, its her! When we reported this grim incident, the editor diligently changed it to My God, its she!The English language is always sticking a foot out to trip a man. Every week we get thrown, writing merrily along. Even Dr. Canby, a careful and experienced craftsman, got thrown in his own editorial. He spoke of the makers of textbooks who are nearly always reactionary, and often unscholarly in denying the right to change to a language that has always been changing ... In this case, the word change, quietly sandwiched in between a couple of tos, unexpectedly exploded the whole sentence. Even inverting the phr ases wouldnt have helped. If he had started out, In denying to a language ... the right to change, it would have come out this way: In denying to a language that has always been changing the right to change ... English usage is sometimes more than mere taste, judgment, and educationsometimes its sheer luck, like getting across a street.  (E.B. White, English Usage. The Second Tree From the Corner. Harper Row, 1954) Pronunciation: YOO-sij

Physical Challenge Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Physical Challenge - Essay Example The purpose of the empirical study is to analyze the data and to know and explore more. It also helps to get to know how the movement of data is from one dimension to another either when answering or when asking questions (Leslie 56) Lonergan is the founder of the cognition theory which helps us to understand three things. What am I doing when I am knowing, which is the cognitional and psychological question. The other one is why is doing that knowing, which is an epistemological question. And the last one which is what I know when I am knowing, which is a metaphysical question. Those are the three that make the cognitional theory. They are all dependent and none is independent on itself. Epistemology depends on cognitional theory and metaphysics depends on epistemology. Lonergan comes up with the procedure that deals with the empirical variation and names it generalized empirical method. The generalized empirical method deals with the human awareness. It deals with the formation of the mind and how it is able to think based on understanding, questioning and formulating and the making of judgment. The general empirical deals with the consciousness of the data and the empirical method goes for the data that is th e data of the sense. The data that we are toking about in the human sense is different from the data that is found in the natural sciences. Epistemology asks for the answer to the question. The generalized empirical method helps to come up with the lonergan’s philosophy of knowing (Leslie 164). Francis Beacon from England tried to review how the human mind at its normal state is overcome by ignorance and self-deception. He discovers that the mind should not be left to be at its natural mode. He tries to reason empirically. When it comes to science most of the people are advised to always ask questions on what they think. The scientists are advised to think and take the

Global operation and risk management of Qinetiq Group plc 01303 Essay

Global operation and risk management of Qinetiq Group plc 01303 - Essay Example The company holds a business portfolio of military weapons and systems within mode of travelling including land, air and sea (QinetiQ, 2015b). In 2003, LTPA was made with the agreement of providing all means weapons and system to MOD for next five years. In 2006 company repurchased its stakes from the Carlyle group and get IPO status. Value development flow for the business till becoming an IPO entity is depicted below. Currently company is dealing globally for its business and mainly generates revenue from UK and US via generating a strong existence in US market as well. QinetiQ is considered for the assessment of performance and risk management due to its declining performance over last three years and a highly exposed to risk business model in the underlying document. After developing basic grounds of study via reviewing the business and market trends as well as financial performance indicators, an assessment of risk and performance management skills of the company will be presented with proposed recommendations. Understanding the sensitivity-level of the business category, the company operates with the strategy namely â€Å"Organic-plus† strategy with considering customers, people, innovation and productivity as core drivers (QinetiQ, 2014). Reported financial trends of key indicators in the annual report for the year 2014 (QinetiQ , 2014) depict a continuous decline in revenue generation for the company with fluctuations in other drivers as well. However, company claims to be strongly operating and increasing dividends continuously as depicted above. Dealing with two main divisions, company categorizes its revenue generation in three categories namely EMEA, US and global product. EMEA is the leading business and revenue generation unit with UK as the largest geographical and customer country of the business as depicted below. According to the Aerospace and defense industries

Medea Greek Mythology Essay Example for Free

Medea Greek Mythology Essay When Medea decides to take matters in to her own hands, about punishing the people who have done wrong to her, she is accused of wanting not justice—vengeance. Because I am not a native of neither Corinth nor Colchis, I have my own view about her motives. However, I would agree with the Corinthian Women, Medea is seeking vengeance; not justice. Some people might argue that Medea is seeking justice. When in actuality, Medea wants vengeance. The opposition would say justice took place because the Gods allowed Medea the time to perform her various acts. Although these things happened Medea turned to vengeance when she took it upon herself to kill Creon and his daughter Creusa. Even the chorus, the â€Å"ideal spectators†, implies that Creon is a poor king when, after he banishes Medea, the First Corinthian Woman sympathizes, â€Å"I am of Corinth and I say that Corinth is not well ruled. †(1. 214-216). This quote gives us proof that Medea has some sort of reason to seek revenge on Creon. However she lets her hatred exceed its boundaries and allows herself to take the lives of the King of Corinth and its Princess all because they chose Jason over her. In addition, her actions all prove that she wants Jason to do more than pay for hurting her. She wants him to suffer at the fate of her own children. Her revenge was selfish. Medea involved the two things she knew would hurt Jason the most—her own children. According to the First Corinthian Woman, â€Å"It would be better for you, Medea if the earth opened her jaws and took you down into darkness. But one thing you will not do, for you cannot, you will not hurt your own children, though wrath like plague-boils aches, your mind in a fire-haze bites the purple apples of pain. No blood-lapping beast of the field, she-bear nor lioness, nor the lean wolf-bitch, hurts her own tender whelps; nor the yellow-eyed, seythe-beaked, and storm shouldered eagle that tears the lambs has ever made prey of the fruit of her own tree. †(2. 115-126). Keep in mind that the Corinthian Women are the conscious of Corinth. Through this quote the First Corinthian Women has stated that Medea could not harm her own children. She even gives examples of the most dangerous predators that don’t even harm their own young. This is evidence that Medea went beyond the state of justice; but she went well into the state of vengeance. Medea knew what she was doing and quite frankly she could care less about anything other than what she thought of what was seeking revenge on Jason. In conclusion, vengeance was sought by Medea. She went above the fact of teaching Jason a lesson; she even stated she hated Jason more than she loved her children. Answer this question is what Medea has done entertaining or morally instructive?

Lord Of The Flies Essay -- essays research papers

Essay on Lord of the Flies   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The novel, Lord of the Flies, was written by William Golding. William Golding was born on September 19, 1911. His literary ambitions began at the young age of seven. He received his Bachelor of Arts from Oxford University in 1935. His novels explore characters and situations. In Lord of the Flies, it is a time of war. A group of English schoolboys are on a plane, when they are attacked and they have to evacuate their aircraft. They find themselves on a remote island, somewhere in the Pacific Ocean, without any adult supervision. A boy named Ralph takes charge and forms a crude society, with a democratic type of government. Then, a boy named Jack decides to break off and form his own society, with him being the leader, governing with a dictatorship type of government, causing Ralph’s society to crumble and fall apart. William Golding believed that the defects of a society could be traced back to the flaws of the human nature. These societies were very differ ent from each other because the individuals were very different.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ralph’s society was based on everyone having a say in the government. Ralph was kind and good to the people of his society. He let them have freedom and liberties which was not go for his society because they abused their freedom and became lazy and irresponsible. His society did not have their priorities in order because Ralph did not stress that the rescue fire and the ...

Review of “Methods of Resolving Interpersonal Conflict”

Review of â€Å"Methods of Resolving Interpersonal Conflict† Mark R. Long Morris Graduate School of Management Review of â€Å"Methods of Resolving Interpersonal Conflict† The article (Burke 1969) describes a number of methods for negotiating and handling conflicts. In this article the author describes both effective and ineffective methods ranging from force to withdrawal. Each method is defined by a number of examples. The most effective technique, Confrontation Problem Solving, is identified and described in terms of its characteristics. The second best resolution technique defined in Table 1 is Forcing while the worst technique was also Forcing. Forcing was the second best resolution technique under the Effective Resolution column at 24. 5%, following the best technique at 58. 5% Confrontation Problem Solving. Forcing also was the worst resolution technique at 79. 2% under the Ineffective Resolution column. Forcing was seen to be effective by the â€Å"winners† of a win-lose conflict. It was seen by â€Å"losers† of a win-lose conflict to be ineffective. Forcing is perceived as an effective method of resolving conflict by the victor, but not by the vanquished. From the first four examples in the text (Burke 1969) the best example is number 4. This example highlighted the fact that through problem solving both parties can benefit. Working through their differences they reached a solution that was optimal to both of them. This created a win-win scenario. With neither side feeling the â€Å"victim†, a better resolution was discovered. They can now build on this success to resolve the next problem without any carryover of negative history between the parties. From the remaining examples in the text (Burke 1969) the worst examples are numbers 5, 6, 7. All three illustrated Forcing as a method of conflict resolution. A win-lose situation is created. In each of the cases the superior prevails over the subordinate. This creates a win-lose situation where only one side perceives the outcome as positive. Win-lose outcomes are less likely to be accepted voluntarily. One person gets what they want and feels vindicated, while the other person loses out and feels cheated or a failure. The outcome is that future conflict resolution will be prejudiced and may not lead to an optimal resolution. To summarize the thirteen characteristics of Confrontation as a conflict-resolving you first need to recognize that Confrontation is a conscious and systematic attempt to maximize the goals of both parties through collaborative problem solving. The conflict is seen as a problem to be solved rather than a war to be won. The important distinction is to view this as both parties versus the problem, rather than one party versus the other party. This method focuses on the needs and constraints of both parties rather than emphasizing strategies designed to conquer. Full problem definition, analysis and development of alternatives precede consensus decisions on mutually agreeable solutions. The parties work toward common and super-ordinate goals. These goals can only be attained by both parties pulling together. There is an emphasis on the quality of the long term relationships between the parties, rather than short term accommodations. Communication is open and direct rather than secretive and calculating. Threat and coercion are proscribed. The assumption is made that integrative agreements are possible given the full range of resources existing in the relationship. Attitudes and behaviors are directed toward an increase of trust and acceptance rather than an escalation of suspicion and hostility. The Confrontational approach requires a very high degree of patience and skill in human relations and problem solving. The article concludes that conflict is not a bad thing in contrast to the text (Meredith and Mantel 2009) concerning the win-win approach to negotiation. The article suggests that a more realistic approach to conflict views conflict as necessary. That conflict can be used to define a problem more accurately and used to seek the best alternative for resolution of the problem. Without conflict there is no change. Change implies conflict because vested interests are challenged. Win-win outcomes occur when each side of a problem feels they have won. Since both sides benefit from such a scenario, any resolutions to the conflict are likely to be accepted voluntarily. The process of integrative bargaining aims to achieve, through cooperation, win-win outcomes. Conflict is an inevitable fact of human existence. If we work to understand and manage it effectively, we can improve both the satisfaction and productivity of our social relationships. Effective conflict management is indispensable if coordinated efforts and productive results are to be achieved. Since conflict may have functional as well as dysfunctional consequences, it is essential that individuals explore various methods and techniques of conflict management. Individuals that can increase their use of problem-solving in interpersonal conflict can create a better working experience and achieve more constructive consequences. References Burke, R. J. 1969, Methods of Resolving Interpersonal Conflict, PM Network, Personal Administration, July-August 1969, International Personnel Management Association. Meredith, J. and Mantel, S. 2009, Project Management: A Managerial Approach, (7th Edition), John Wiley and Sons