Study of cognitive linguistics

Study of cognitive linguistics Before we go to cognitive linguistics, we should answer some questions, which are very important to those who make a study of linguistics. Everybody knows that there are many rules in language. à ¥Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ «, for example, is used to show our warmth to people: à ¥Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ «Ãƒ ¨Ã‚ ¯Ã‚ ·Ãƒ ¨Ã‚ ¿Ã¢â‚¬ º, à ¥Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ «Ãƒ ¨Ã‚ ¯Ã‚ ·Ãƒ ¥Ã‚ Ã‚ , à ¥Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ «Ãƒ ¥- Ãƒ ¦Ã‚ Ã‚ ¯Ãƒ ¦Ã‚ °Ã‚ ´, à ¥Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ «Ãƒ ¥- Ãƒ ¦Ã‚ Ã‚ ¯Ãƒ ¨Ã…’ ¶, à ¥Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ «Ãƒ ¥Ã‚ Ã†â€™Ãƒ ¤Ã‚ ¸Ã‚ ªÃƒ ¨Ã¢â‚¬ ¹Ã‚ ¹Ãƒ ¦Ã… ¾Ã…“à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ However, à ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã‚ ¢is used to indicate goodbye: à ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã‚ ¢Ãƒ ¨Ã‚ µÃ‚ °, à ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã‚ ¢Ãƒ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã‚ ¢Ãƒ ¥Ã‚ Ã†â€™, à ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã‚ ¢Ãƒ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã‚ ¢Ãƒ ¥- , à ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã‚ ¢Ãƒ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã‚ ¢Ãƒ ¨Ã‚ Ã…  , à ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã‚ ¢Ãƒ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã‚ ¢Ãƒ ¥Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¾(Cantonese), à ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã‚ ¢Ãƒ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã‚ ¢Ãƒ ¥Ã… ½Ã¢â‚¬ ¹(Cantonese, said to someone who goes cycling), etc. Because these rules in Chinese do not exist in English, we cannot say *Come in quickly, *Sit down quickly, or *Walk s lowly. Rules like this are concerned with use of words. At the same time, there are rules in grammar. In English, for example, I is followed by am, and you by are, and he by is. 1) Are such rules in language formed gradually through everyday use or prescribed by linguists? (It is very important for us to answer such questions correctly before we are engaged in making a study of linguistics.) 2) All language users can speak their mother tongue correctly, fluently and appropriately. An illiterate woman in Guangzhou, for example, can speak Cantonese correctly, fluently and appropriately. Do you think she knows Cantonese grammar? 3) Some people, even some university teachers say that many great scholars have made a lot of research and published many books on linguistics and grammar. These people think that the famous scholars have solved all language problems and theres nothing left for us to make a study. Whats your opinion about this? 4) Language is always changing. It is one of the properties of language. Do you think it is possible to avoid its change or it is necessary to do so? 5) There are many linguistic schools studying language in the world. Can you explain why there are so many schools? (Cognitive linguistics is one of the so many schools. I dont know if you are interested in it or not. For me, I firmly believe it and also interested in it, because it can explain many phenomena in language. The explanations from the perspective of cognitive linguistics help us know about how language is formed and why it is formed in this way instead of the other way. Most importantly, such explanations can help both teachers teach foreign languages and learners learn them effectively.) 6) Where is meaning? In order to understand these sentences we must call upon our knowledge about the world, which does not reside in the sentences or in any of the words of the sentences. (Scollon Scollon 2000: 7) à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦we tend to look for meaning in words themselves, but we are incorrect if we think that words possess meaning. It is more accurate to say that people possess meaning and that words elicit these meanings. (Samovar et al 2000: 123) Language does not itself do the cognitive building-it just give us minimal, but sufficient, clues for finding the domains and principles appropriate for building in a given situation. Once these clues are combined with already existing configurations, available cognitive principles, and background framing, the appropriate construction can take place, and the result far exceeds any overt explicit information. This fundamental property of language is counterintuitive: In our folk theory, it is the words that carry the meaning: We say what we mean, we put meaning into words, and so on. The difference between the folk-theoretic conception and the actual (backstage) reality goes unnoticed for very interesting reasons. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ We notice only the tip of the iceberg-the words-and we attribute all the rest to common sense. (Fauconnier 1994: xviii) Language does not carry meaning, it guides it. As Mark Turner felicitously put it: Expressions do not mean; they are prompts for us to construct meanings by working with processes we already know. In no sense is the meaning of (an) à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ utterance right there in the words. When we understand an utterance, we in no sense are understanding just what the words say; the words themselves say nothing independent of the richly detailed knowledge and powerful cognitive processes we bring to bear (Turner 1991: 206) Language, as we use it, is but the tip of the iceberg of cognitive construction. As discourse unfolds, much is going on behind the scenes: New domains appear, links are forged, abstract mappings operate, internal structure emerges and spreads, viewpoint and focus keep shifting. Everyday talk and commonsense reasoning are supported by invisible, highly (p. xxii) abstract, mental creations, which grammar helps to guide, but does not by itself define. (Fauconnier 1994: xxiii) On this view, words do not really have meanings, nor do sentences have meanings: meanings are something that we construe, using the properties of linguistic elements as partial clues, alongside non-linguistic knowledge, information available from context, knowledge and conjectures regarding the state of mind of hearers and so on. (Croft Cruse 2004: 98) The core idea in Cognitive Linguistics is that meanings are mental entities in conceptual space. Meanings are in peoples minds. They are not independent entities in the external world, as is the case in objectivist models. The external world is only indirectly relevant in that meanings are constrained by how human beings perceive of the world. The second question concerns the relation between lexical items and meaning. Lexical items map on to concepts, and meaning is the relation between the lexical item and the domain matrix that it activates. Lexical meaning is constrained by encyclopaedic knowledge, conventionalized mappings between lexical items and concepts, conventional modes of thought in different contexts and situational frames. (à ¥Ã… ½Ã… ¸Ãƒ ¦Ã‚ ³Ã‚ ¨Ã‚ ¼Ã… ¡In cognitive approaches to meaning, all linguistic expressions are profiled according to a base (Langacker 1987a), or a frame (Fillmore (1982), an idealized cognitive model of a situation (Lakoff 1987) or a cycle of contextualization and decontextualization of word meaning based on linguistic and encyclopaedic knowledge (Warren 1999). All these constructs represent presupposed information in an expression that the speaker infers in situations. In my model the appropriate construal is employed on the basis of such knowledge. See also Croft (forthcoming) for a similar approach to verbs.) Meanings are thus not inherent in the lexical items as such, but they are evoked by lexical items. Moreover, there is no purely linguistic level of representation that is intermediate between concepts and lexical items, and there is no static one-to-one relationship between lexical items and meanings. (à ¥Ã… ½Ã… ¸Ãƒ ¦Ã‚ ³Ã‚ ¨Ã‚ ¼Ã… ¡This is the case in approaches to meaning that assume a lexicon consisting of formal features, e.g. Bierwich Schreuder (1992), Levelt (1989), Pustejovsky (1998), Borschev Partee (2001), Jackendoff (2002).) Multiple readings are natural and expected in a dynamic usage-based model. The components of the framework are shown in Figure 1. The third question concerns the dynamics of language in terms of synchronic flexibility and diachronic change. Different readings in different contexts emerge from the intention that activates the expression or the wish to interpret the expression in a relevant way in order to obtain socially viable (capable of working, functioning, or developing adequately; capable of existence and development as an independent unit) mappings between words and concepts. In other words, cognitive processes (construals) operate on the conceptual structures on all occasions of use. These operations are the source of all readings, conventional as well as ad hoc (used for specific or immediate needs) contextual readings, and possible lexical change takes place through new conventional, entrenched links between linguistic expressions and conceptual structures (Paradis 2003b). (Paradis, 2004: 53) The precise semantic contribution of any word is a function of the utterance context in which it is embedded, and, moreover, the sorts of (conceptual) knowledge these lexical entities provide access to. In other words, words dont have meanings in and of themselves. Rather meaning is a function of the utterance in which a word is embedded, and the complex processes of lexical concept integration. (Evans, 2006:492) More recently, a number of scholars have suggested that in fact word-meaning is less a discrete body of circumscribed knowledge. Rather, words serve as points of access to larger-scale encyclopaedic knowledge structures, which are potentially vast in scope as argued in detail below. On this view, words provide access to what I will refer to as a semantic potential, with different sorts of knowledge being potentially activated. (Evans, 2006: 493) One way of thinking about the meaning of words is to see them as tools for causing speakers to access specific parts of their knowledge base (Moore Carling 1982:11, quoted in Lee, 2001:5). At any given moment, individuals have a huge store of knowledge available to them (Lee, 2001:5). Meaning is not a property of utterances but a product of the interaction between an utterance and a human beings knowledge base (Lee, 2001:12). The function of the noun cat in the utterance The cat wants something to eat is to cause the addressee to home in on (meaning to find) a very specific region of that knowledge base-specifically on those neural structures that constitute her store of knowledge concerning cats in general and the family cat in particular. (Lee, 2001:5) Meaning in language can be summarized as: 1) To understand words or sentences is to call upon the knowledge about the world. 2) The knowledge does not reside in the sentences or in any of the words of the sentences. That is, words do not possess meaning. 3) People possess meaning and words as tools elicit meanings. 2. What is cognitive linguistics? 2.1 The importance of cognitive linguistics Cognitive linguistics is expected to be one of the most important approaches in the field of linguistics in the 21 century. Some linguists even say that the 21 century will belong to cognitive linguistics. Cognitive linguistics originated from America in 1970s the last century. Many linguists in China have turned to cognitive linguistics. Papers about cognitive linguistics, papers introducing cognitive linguistics and papers analyzing language structures with cognitive approaches can be found in almost every academic journal or magazine related to language study in China in recent years. If we pay little attention to this approach, we are sure to lag behind. That is why we offer you the course of cognitive linguistics. 2.2 The definition of cognitive linguistics As you know, each linguistic school has its own attitudes towards language and its own approach to language. So does cognitive linguistics. According to this textbook, cognitive linguistics is an approach to language that is based on our experience of the world and the way we perceive and conceptualize our experience of the world (p.F36). (Who would like to explain conceptualize our experience? When we say conceptualize our experience, we mean that we have the idea for our experience or that we form concepts of our experience.) 2.3 The objective of cognitive linguistics The objective of cognitive linguistics is to investigate and to study cognitive or mental structure and organization by analyzing cognitive strategies used by humans in thinking, storing information, comprehending, and producing language. (Bussmann, Hadumod. 2000. Routledge Dictionary of Language and Linguistics. p.80. Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press Routledge) 2.4 Two different meanings of the term cognitive linguistics It is very important to notice that cognitive linguistics has two different meanings, which come from the word cognitive. It has the following two meanings: 1) cognitive related to knowledge (This is the logical view. This view accepts logical rules and objective definitions.) 2) cognitive related to human experience based on practical and empirical knowledge.(This is the cognitive linguistics we mean. Such cognitive linguistics includes three views or approaches: the experiential view, the prominence view and the attentional view.) 3. Experiential view: Different explanations of Our car has broken down 3.1 Traditional explanation Traditionally, most teachers use the following methods in class: 1) paraphrasing the meanings of words 2) analyzing the clause pattern 3) discussing the use of the present perfect tense How do you help your students with this sentence? Talk about your teaching, please? If someone does not know the word car, the teacher just tells him that it means 4-wheeled motor vehicle. Usually the teacher takes into consideration the so-called difficult points. In this sentence, the difficult point may be the phrasal verb break down, which has at least as many as 35 meanings according to a dictionary. The first four meanings are: 1) to become separated into pieces or fragments 2) to become cracked or split 3) to give way; collapse 4) to become unusable or inoperative/stop operating or functioning e.g. The television broke down. The 4th meaning is suitable to explain the phrasal verb break down, so the teacher chooses stop operating or functioning to replace the original phrase, such as Our car has stopped operating or Our car has stopped functioning. 3.2 Explanation with the logical view (of modern linguistics) In the logical view, some objective semantic features must be found. The following are a set of objective semantic features of car: 1) inanimate 2) concrete 3) movable 4) self-propelled The meaning of car in this explanation equates objective features. This explanation seems to be cognitive, because it is related to knowledge. But it is not the cognitive linguistics we are studying. The cognitive linguistics we mean is not based on logical knowledge, but on practical and empirical knowledge. The logical view cannot explain the phrasal verb break down, because the phrase is used as a metaphor, which is excluded from the study of the logical view. 3.3 Explanation with the experiential view 1) Meaning is in our experience. a. attribute Before we explain this sentences with the experiential view, we must first pay special attention to the term attribute, which is frequently used in cognitive linguistics so it is a very important term in cognitive linguistics, especially when we explain language with the experiential view. Simply to say, attribute is characteristic of an entity (Word Web) What are the attributes of car? The answer is on P. F37, where you can see that the concept car has 9 attributes in all. Both our communal experience and personal or subjective experience are related to the word car. Of the 9 attributes, some are shared by most peoples experience and some others are very personal and subjective. The attributes of first love affair and injury are very personal and subjective. The meaning of car in this explanation is communal experience + personal (subjective) experience. These two types of experience equate attributes in all. b. Two important aspects of attributes a) Attributes are from laypersons We should notice that such attributes are collected from laypersons (common people/ persons who are not trained in linguistics) instead of dictionaries or scholars. So to a great extent, these attributes can reflect the way every language user perceives the world and interacts with it. b) Attributes help identify similar objects To every word dictionaries give definitions which are sometimes not helpful. The word car, for example, is defined as 4-wheeled motor vehicle. This definition cannot help people identify a 3-wheeled motor vehicle when they see such a vehicle for the first time. But it is obvious that attributes from laypersons can do that. People can identify it as a car because it agrees with some of the attributes. That is why the experiential view is superior to the logical view. 2) Meaning in figurative language. The original meaning for break down is fall apart, collapse. When it is used to express the event that the car suddenly stops working, it is a metaphorical use because the car does not become separated into pieces or fragments. Metaphor is no longer regarded as just a rhetorical device. In logical view, metaphor is excluded from the study of linguistics. But the fact is that metaphor is frequently used by everyone in their utterances every day. It goes without saying that heart as in Beijing is the heart of China is a metaphor. So is the eye of heaven in Sonnet 18 by Shakespeare. Everybody can identify this kind of metaphor. But metaphor in cognitive linguistics is in a much broader sense. The following are also examples of metaphor: (1) You appear at the head of the list. (2) the leg of a table (3) He got into trouble yesterday. In literature, get into trouble is no metaphor at all, but in cognitive linguistics it is because trouble is regarded as a container. Actually, people tend to make use of metaphor. In a metaphorical way it is easier to express abstract ideas or unfamiliar things. So concrete concepts are used to express abstract concepts and familiar things are used to indicate unfamiliar things. We can say, metaphor is pervasive in language, that is to say, figurative language is everywhere in language. If a linguistic theory pays no attention to metaphor or figurative language, such a theory can be said not to be immature. A good linguistic theory should explain every phenomenon in language. Cognitive linguistics is such a linguistic theory which makes a study of every aspect of meanings in language. 4. Prominence view The prominence view concerns the selection and arrangement of the information that is expressed. It is actually an explanation of how the information in a clause is selected and arranged. Compare the following pairs of examples: (4) a. The garden is swarming with bees. b. Bees are swarming in the garden. In traditional grammar, the two sentences are regarded as the same in meaning. But in fact they do not mean the same because prominence in the sentences are different. (4a) means that there are bees everywhere in the garden, but (4b) means that there are bees in part of the garden. 5. Attentional view The attentional view is an approach based on the assumption that what we actually express reflects which parts of an event attract our attention (p. F39). That is, an utterance reflects what is paid attention to. In language the same event can be expressed in different ways because of our different attentions. Take learn and teach for example: (5) a. Xiao Li learned English from Mr. Smith. b. Mr. Smith taught Xiao Li English. When the speakers attention is on Xiao Li, he uses the first sentence, but when his attention is on Mr. Smith, he uses the second one. In paraphrase, we usually tell the students that the two sentences are in the same meaning, but in the attentional view, their meanings are in fact different. 6. The contents of this book 1) This book contains six chapters, with Chapters 1, 2, 3 introducing the experiential view, Chapter 4 dealing with the prominence view, Chapter 5 discussing the attentional view and Chapter 6 briefing iconicity, grammaticalization, lexical change and language teaching. 2) This book talks chiefly about the three views of cognitive linguistics. It is important for you to make clear the three views first, because they are initiated by cognitive linguistics and therefore they are basic theories of cognitive linguistics. And then you should also go on to study iconicity, grammaticalization, lexical change and language teaching. Though iconicity and grammaticalization are not initiated by cognitive linguistics, many scholars are working at them because the two approaches can also explain many language problems. The last section of this book also talks about foreign language learning and teaching. For us, this section may be helpful. But until now, few people have discussed this topic, so what is presented in the last section of this book is just the potential of cognitive approach to foreign language teaching. We can benefit from the discussion about foreign language learning and teaching in this book so as to begin with our own researches of English teaching and learning. Exercises: What is cognitive linguistics? Whats the difference between the logical view and the experiential view? How do you understand the term attribute in cognitive linguistics? Talk about attributes of bicycle.

Who Is Responsible For The Columbine Killings? Essay -- essays researc

Cause – Effect   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Even since the shooting at Columbine High School caught the attention of America and all the world on April 20, 1999, high school shootings and other forms of violence at schools has been plaguing America during the last ten years. It is also found that most of the violence that occurs in high schools is caused by young men. Students aren’t feeling safe at school anymore and parents are enraged that students could bring the weapons to school in the first place. Many people have brought their own opinions into play about why violence in schools occurs. Such causes range from violence in the media, being treated poorly by peers and administrators in school, all the way to poor parental decisions. Although these are only a few of the possible causes for violence in schools, they are defiantly the most prevalent reasons.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Violence in the media has long been a possible cause for people to commit violent acts. Everyone has seen a violent television show, watched a violent movie or listened to music depicting graphic violence. These forms of media are available to people of all ages across the United States. A major cause of high school violence may be discovered here. Columbine high school shooters Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris were avid listeners to violent music such as Slipknot and KMFDM. Both groups feature very dark and twisted lyrics, which the shooters listened too without a doubt. Are the lyrics in the music to blame for the violent behavior of two of the group’s listeners? Another possible source of the hatred that some shooters have may lie in the television shows they watched. Violent television shows are everywhere today; many primetime or late night shows carrying â€Å"Parental Discretion Is Advised† disclaimers. In all honesty the disclaimers shown there are more likely to draw younger viewers in to watch the show, rather than keeping them away. â€Å"I don’t know if it made me want to watch it more, it’s just like, I don’t know it’s kinda like an advertisement for some cool shit [especially swearing and guns]† Bradley University Freshman Jim Hering said. It seems to be very clear that younger Americans are going to want to watch such shows, regardless of the warnings that the television station puts on before a particular show. Exposing young Americans to such violent shows as â€Å"NYPD... ...hool actually murdered his parents in an act of ultimate frustration. What would cause a boy to kill his own parents? A teenage boy craves attention, attention that only takes a few minutes for parents to give. His parents didn’t offer attention, much less offer help when he was struggling in school. The fact that the parents totally ignored their son had much to do with the shooting. The case with the Columbine shooters is quite similar. Klebold’s parents were fairly wealthy and felt that replacing their personal attention with toys, computers and other kinds of distractions would be good enough to satisfy their son. In doing this, they ignored his playing violent computer games, they ignored his enjoyment of violent music, they didn’t see that he was learning through the internet how to make high powered bombs and worst of all they didn’t know that he was stockpiling weapons and ammunition. One thing that is baffling is that Klebold was in possession of a Tec-9 machine pistol, a tough to find automatic weapon. How could the parents ignore such obvious signs that something was wrong with their sons? Before anything is blamed for a child’s actions, you need to look at the parents.

Human rights legislation Essay

The issue of implementing a widely accepted Human Rights policy has become a serious hurdle in recent years for many non Western nations like China Iran and Africa. Over the past couple of decades many nations in Asia Africa and the middle East have found themselves embroiled in human rights violation controversies and have been at the receiving end of Western based criticism for these policies. (D. Bell 1996), Some have often faced severe financial penalties and boycotts from the Western world which has effected their economic development these controversies have given birth to a new philosophical debate on Universalist stance on human rights versus the relativist stance. The debate centres on the precept of whether the western based human right theories can be implemented in culturally diverse nations at a universal level. The Universalist theory of Human Rights is predominantly derived from Western philosophy and places tremendous importance on the rights of an individual. This theory has its roots in Greek philosophy, principles of Christianity and the philosophical musings of European Enlightenment thinkers. (D. Bell 1999), The universalist approach to Human Rights propagates that certain basic human rights are inherent to safeguard the existence of every human and can be identified by using either religion nature or reason This theory holds the percept that all individuals should be granted certain rights by the very virtue of their humanity and that these rights cannot be conditioned by gender or national or ethnic origin. (Donnelly 1999) The Universalist theory also propagates that these rights exist universally across all diversities of culture race and religion and can not be subordinated to another person or an institution ( Cultural relativism on the other hand is based on the notion that there should not be the prevalence of an adherence to specific objective standards by which a person or a nation be judged. The debate between universalism and relativism was an old one but its extension to the realm of cultural relativism is comparatively new and was influenced by the work of cultural anthropologists who demonstrated that all different cultures are equally worthy and exercise their own views regarding the rights of an individual.. Theories propagating culture relativism holds the view that there is no universal meaning to a moral value and that these values are influenced by culture. The theories also establish that there are profound differences between western legal theories and cultures and those of Africa, Asia, India and Islam. (E. Charney 1999 ) Theoretically speaking, the debate between universalism and culture fluctuates on a spectrum varying from radical aspects of universalism that propagates strict adherence to certain standards and radical aspects of relativism which holds culture to be the sole source of judging the validity of a moral value. This debate first came to the limelight in the arena of world politics in 1993 during a UN Conference on Human Rights held in Vienna. It was in this conference that a delegation led by China, Syria and Iran officially challenged the universality of Human Rights. These countries put forward some essential causes for their discontentment with the prevailing practice of adopting universality to Human Rights. This included the central percept that universal theories of Human Rights were not universal at all in their scope and were based on concepts and theories of Western morality. (T. Franck 2001 pg 91), They argued further that these human rights theories should not therefore be imposed as norms on non-western societies in disregard of those societies’ historical and economic development and in disregard of their cultural differences and perceptions of what is right and wrong. Furthermore they held that such imposition of ones own understanding and cultural interpretation of human rights on another culture without understanding the values of that culture is entirely unjust and reflects an imperialist attitude. The debate between these two perspectives examines the inherent strengths and weaknesses of both stances towards human rights. However when looking at the merits and de-merits of these two approaches it is essential to stay away from a philosophical discussion of the intrinsic value of each perspective and focus on the practical translation of these two stances and how each of them are used in modern day practice. The greatest strength of universalism is that it institutes a fundamental system of rights that guarantees the protection of individual’s basic freedoms from any government policies that might seek to constrain this to propagate their own doctrines. Most of the formal legislation on human rights propagates the existence of â€Å"negative† rights which seek to limit the interference of government in the lives of individuals and guarantee that an individual has certain basic freedoms that the government cannot infringe upon. Commonly defined these include the freedom to maintain ones privacy, freedom to speak freely without ear of persecution, freedom to hold exercise religious beliefs , freedom to hold and subscribe to opinions that may be political in nature and finally the freedom to associate with anybody that the individual desires to. Any government policy which seeks to infringe on these beliefs can be deemed unconstitutional and can be revoked by law. (D. Bell 1999), Perhaps the biggest weakness of universalism is that it is rooted and stems from Western belief and practice and works best with political system that are fashioned on western models of democracy and capitalism. ( An-Na’im, 1991 pg 22) There is no disputing the fact that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is tailored and customized by western nations. It included the representation of only four African nations (An Naim 2001 pg 88). The majority of the drafts of the declaration are written in English. In fact all the legislation on Human Rights including International Bill of Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights heavily derives their content from the work of European Enlightenment philosophers namely Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau. The belief that there are certain freedoms which the government cannot and shouldn’t interfere with underlies the political system of many modern western countries. It has been the underlying belief of the US Constitution and the US Bill of Rights as well as the French Constitution. Since the majority of Human rights legislation shares affinity with the believes propagated in the founding principles of many western democracies many believe that there is a close interdependency between instituting universal human right concepts and maintaining Western models of democracy. (M. Winston 2000) This has lead to the widespread Western ethnocentrism when it comes to the application of Human rights principles in countries which harbour different systems of government based on different religious beliefs

A While vs Awhile

A While vs Awhile A While vs Awhile A While vs Awhile By Ali Hale One of our readers, Robert, wrote to ask Daily Writing Tips: Heres a couple of words I use all the time interchangeably. But are they? a while vs. awhile Help me out, o oracle! No problem, Robert! This one’s pretty easy to grasp: A while is a noun meaning â€Å"a length of time† â€Å"I slept for a while.† (compare with â€Å"I slept for a bit† and â€Å"I slept for three hours†) â€Å"I was away from my desk for a while.† (compare with â€Å"I was away from my desk for two minutes†) Awhile is an adverb, meaning â€Å"for a time,† or literally, â€Å"for a while†. â€Å"I slept awhile before dinner.† (compare with â€Å"I slept deeply before dinner† and â€Å"I slept badly before dinner†.) As you can see, the words can be used almost interchangeably in some cases – but a while needs to be accompanied by a preposition, such as â€Å"for† (â€Å"I slept for a while†) or â€Å"ago† (â€Å"I left work a while ago†). Awhile always means â€Å"for a while†. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Misused Words category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Comparative Forms of AdjectivesThe Difference Between "will" and "shall"Shore It Up

A Raisin in the Sun Analysis Responses Essay

A Raisin in the Sun Analysis Responses Essay A Raisin in the Sun Analysis Responses Essay Ryan Pagois A Raisin in the Sun Literary Analysis Questions Question #1: Beneatha’s two suitors, Asagai and George, both contribute very opposing viewpoints of American life and propose entirely different things as Beneatha’s suitors. Asagai reflects on his African heritage with honor and hopes to save Beneatha from becoming an â€Å"assimilationist† in this American society and instead wants her to embrace her ancestral past, and even invites her to move back to Nigeria with him. He teases her with questions about her hair, asking her why she â€Å"mutilate[s] it every week† and refuses to wear it naturally (62). As he presents Beneatha with Nigerian robes, she begins to see her heritage as a beautiful and more majestic idea, and not so much as something to move past or forget about. She later takes Asagai’s words to heart and cuts her hair, which shows the amount of influence that he had on Beneatha’s views on both her past and her present. Along with this, Asaigai sees Beneatha as a very beautiful woman, and a valuable partner, and someone to stand by his side. He views the idea of education as invaluable, and necessary in order to fully understand the ways of the world. George, on the other hand, resents his connection to Africa and focuses more on the present and moving on into the future. He is quite rude and outspoken against Beneatha’s views on assimilationism and her African heritage. When she bri ngs up the subject, he mocks her with sarcastic comments toward the â€Å"great Ashanti empiresÍ ¾ the great Songhay civilizationsÍ ¾ and the great sculpture of B à © nin† and the â€Å"poetry of the Bantu† (81). Along with being a total assimilationist, George views women as someone to support a man and obey him rather than be his partner. He holds education in a high regard, yet he believes more in money than in knowledge. These beliefs enrage Beneatha, and in the end, she rejects George, calling him a â€Å"fool† and resenting both him and his beliefs. Question #2: When Mr. Linder appears at the Youngers’ home, he is initially able to disguise his intentions and hide his racist and offensive proposal to make his idea of having a neighborhood â€Å"a certain kind of way† seem much more reasonable. At first, Mr. Linder pleases the Younger family with his seemingly kind intentions as he talks about how people misunderstand each other much too often and it is simply because â€Å"people just don’t sit down and talk to each other† (116). This peaks the interest of the Youngers as they continue to listen intently to Mr. Linder’s presentation. Soon, however, the Younger family sees through Linder’s careful word choice and come to realize the true purpose of his visit. Linder begins to speak of the people of Clybourne Park having a â€Å"common background† and wanting their neighborhood a specific way. Linder then lets his true intentions shine through as he tells the Younger family that the citizens of Clybourne Park, â€Å"rightly or wrongly†, believe that â€Å"Negro families are happier when they live in their own communities† (118). The Youngers react defensively by expelling him from their home. Despite the negative atmosphere around Linder’s visit, it results in the furthered and strengthened desire to defy society’s expectations and carry out their plan to move into their house in Clybourne Park, and it also helped bring the family closer together as they continue to bond over their experiences as they have been throughout the play. As for Linder and his desire for a perfect neighborhood, his intentions are not completely astray. The inhabitants of a neighborhood have the right to control aspects of their community to an extent. The line is drawn, however, at the point where a person’s way of life is threatened or challenged. Physical features of the neighborhood can be altered, but the inhab itants themselves should not feel pressured into changing their lifestyle to match that of the neighborhood. Question #3:

Tesco Company Structure and Leadership Assignment

Tesco Company Structure and Leadership - Assignment Example All these executive staff reports to the Group CEO and the Board of Directors. TESCO has very many executive positions a fact that reflects the group’s complex operations. Tesco is organized hierarchically with and its organizational structure takes the shape of a very tall pyramid. The Tesco could not have chosen a better leader that Philip Clarke to head the world second largest grocery chain in the competitive business environment. Clarke began his career at Tesco in 1974 and has developed his leadership skills in the Tesco management training programme (Tesco PLC 2014). His wide experience in Retail management is one of his greatest strengths as the CEO of Tesco. Since his appointment as the CEO in March 2011, Tesco revenue has grown substantially and the supermarket has overtaken Carrefour to occupy the position of world largest retail chain by revenue collection and profitability. Tesco offers its customers a range of products and services and has come with several new Store concepts in the UK and in other locations where it operates (Lowe and Wrigley 2009). Tesco today offers a cheap alternative and premium quality good in its own-label product range. Tesco’s finest line of food labels offers the best quality products at the highest level (Humby, Hunt and Phillips 2008). Tesco’s main revenue bases have been mainly food items but they have recently diversified into the non-food market. Recently, retail chains have realized that non-food items have higher profit margins than food items (Seth and Randall 2001). By 2004, Tesco was earning 20% of their sales revenue from non-food items (Humby, Hunt and Phillips 2008). Clothing is among the fastest growing Tesco revenue streams with Cherokee, Florence and Fred capturing more than 4 percent market shares in their first year of introduction (Ma, Ding and Hong 2010).

The Retention of Students in Higher Education Research Paper

The Retention of Students in Higher Education - Research Paper Example In such a context it is imperative that providers and students understand the factors which can help or hinder student success, so that time and energy are not wasted on negative outcomes and experiences. An important way of measuring student (and by implication also provider) success is to examine retention rates and explore reasons why some courses are, by this measure at least, more successful than others. This method has the advantage of being quantitative in terms of providing the raw data for the study, and qualitative in terms of exploring the underlying reasons for trends in this data. Criminal justice programmes are among the most popular choices for undergraduate students and they are offered in a wide range of public and private college and university settings. Popularity has its disadvantages, however, in that larger numbers of students can mean more pressure on resources, lower retention rates, and considerable wastage in the system. The purpose of this empirical study is first to gather data on the range of criminal justice programmes available in the UK and to analyze rates of retention on a comparative basis. This will establish a quantitative basis for further examination of underlying trends in this area and will highlight any variations that emerge. This factual information will be obtained from Funding Council records, department Chairs, and publicly available information from university and other websites and databases. The gathering of data alone provides only part of the picture, namely what is actually happening in terms of student retention on Crim inal Justice Courses in the UK.