University Degree: Argumentative or Persuasive Essays

The word formation process. Analyse the importance of word formation mechanism in maintaining the vitality of language

If we take the word "gay" for example, its meaning has changed. It no longer means what it used to mean some years ago. "Happy", "jovial", "cheerful" were the meanings of gay. But in present times, the word "gay" is connoted to "homosexuality". "If a [...] word [...] is used by many speakers of a language, it will probably survive and it can happen that one day, it becomes an everyday word and enters our dictionaries" (Wagner 2010) . This is exactly what happened with the word "gay". People started associating it with homosexuality, and today, in some 2011 dictionary editions, the word "gay" means "h********l".

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Argumentative Essay: Video games, beneficial or detrimental?

However, video games are a real brain workout that invokes abstract and high level thinking. These skills are usually not taught in school, but they are prevalent in most video games. Some of these mental skills include: problem solving and logic, hand-eye coordination, quick thinking, making fast analysis and decisions, strategy and anticipation, perseverance and inductive reasoning and hypothesis testing. According to researchers at the University of Rochester, Led by Daphne Baveler, a cognitive scientist, games simulating stressful events such as those found in battle or action games are a good training tool for real world situations.

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Bilingual language aquisition

The children in the different language groups also came from different social classes. The bilingular children in this research often came from immigrant families who were less educated. This is in strong contrast to recent research. Now, linguistic researchers have found evidence supporting the opposite allegation. Simultaneous bilinguals have an advantege over the one native language-speaking, in many linguistic areas. Whether to believe in this or not is up to each individual. A lot of professionals in psychology are still in belief that bilingualism may be damaging for the cognitive development of children.

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Major Essay: Obesity Discussion, DavidZinczenko's "Don't blame the eater".

Encourage children to play outside instead of watching TV after school. David Zinczenko makes considerable points about the health effects of obesity. Zinczenko talks about diabetes and how it has been such an issue with its high rise. He points out that diabetes has risen since 1994; that it has risen 25%. From what he's saying I can understand that obesity has surely grown and it has cost a major toll on many Americans. Currently, more than 65% of Americans are overweight or obese.

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Evolution of language. Humans exclusively use language, however communication is used by various species through repetitive songs, calls, or gestures. This evolutionary gap is what distinguishes humans from all other forms of life on the earth.

Language can be seen as an evolutionary adaptation, which is basically a change in a process over time, experienced by a population to better survive. This ties language into the theory of natural selection, the idea being that language was created to help humans survive. However, Noam Chomsky, the world's best-known linguist, and Jay Gould, the world's bet-known evolutionary theorist, suggest that language may not be a product

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It may be easier for infants to communicate in a visual method such as sign language as opposed to spoken language, but what difference, if any, is made in the long term? Teaching typically developing infants to sign as an aid has been known to be success

Through this conclusion, parents were encouraged to play classical music for their babies, to help enhance spatial-reasoning and memory. The "Mozart Effect" was controversial, as there were many attempts to replicate the results of the original test, but most were unsuccessful. Another controversial topic was the claim of a "window of learning" for infants. Scientists once believed that there was a window of opportunity from when a child is born until about the age of three, to learn certain skills and abilities proficiently. It was also believed that a child's brain is fully developed by birth, and although most of the brain's cells are formed before birth, most of the connections among cells are actually made during early childhood (O'Connell).

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Is human language the distinguishing feature of our species?

(CS212OC M1,L1, F, 2011) Human beings are the only known species that communicate in this form of language. Linguists, including Naom Chomsky, suggest that humans are born with a natural knowledge of language, which he refers to as the "language faculty." According to Chomsky, (1996) This "language faculty" is seen as a biological system in the brain that "has an initial state which is genetically determined, like. . . the kidney, the circulatory system, and so on" (p.13). Chomsky started this revolutionary idea that language is biological, and the existence of a "universal grammar".

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Analyse the text (Reid, 2007) in terms of its cohesive systems. Look for the various cohesive chains that operate throughout the text - minor ones as well as major - and check the cohesive links from one sentence to another.

Analysis Firstly, the opening sentence contains an exophoric reference as it says, "It is standard tourist advice", which may or may not be common knowledge to the reader, yet the author assumes the reader knows this and therefore simplifies the information provided. Further examples of exophoric references are found beginning with the reported video showing the watch disappearing from the Presidents arm leaving the reader to accept there is a video or allowing them to do their own research. With the inclusion of "the US Embassy" the author is relying on the reader to know there is an embassy in Tirana; this is a typical assumption.

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Changing our bodies, changing ourselves? From Popular culture: A users Guide written by Susie OBrien and Imre Szeman is an excerpt which comes from a chapter in the Identity and the Body textbook. The textbook d

The dualist philosophy described as "I think therefore I am" (Descartes's famous formula) through "...overlapping oppositions- spirit vs. matter, mind vs. bod, reason vs. passion, nature vs. culture - ... map out relations of being ...and relations of power" (Susie O'brien and Imre Szeman, 2). This suggests that the body and mind are connected to represent the identity of a person, it can be proven that the modification to the body is a way of changing one's identity. The authors describe and question the different ways in which postmodernism has affected the world, these include the human body being either natural or cultural, physical capital and social status, enhancing the healthy body and transcending the body.

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Language Universals and Learning a Second Language.

When examining the acquisition of a second language, the same criterion of grammar components applies with consideration given to the possible influences of the learner's first language. Kinds of Universals Language universals can be classified as absolute, statistical and implicational or non-implicational (Linguistics for Non-Linguistics, p 83). Absolute universals comprise those aspects of language which find expression in every single known human language. For example, all languages have vowels and consonants. While statistical universals reflect repeated trends that are found predominantly in parts most of the languages of the world, but not necessarily in all (Eifring & Thiel, 2005, p.2).

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The Development of Old English. Differences between Old and Modern English

This was the Modern English (MnE) period where 'lexical growth took place; existing words were synonymised to provide stylistic variation and syntactical structures standardised' (Kemmer, 2005). Differences between Old and Modern English The transformation of English through times is evident in these differences: 1. Inflections OE was a highly inflectional language. It had different systems of case inflections classified according to the gender of a noun and whether it was 'strong' or 'weak'. Four grammatical cases were presented to indicate the subject, direct and indirect object and the possession of a noun.

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Plastic surgeries: a way to become more beautiful, or someones unhealthy idea?

In society today people have been supposedly brainwashed to believe that in order for a person to look beautiful they must look like the images seen on T.V., in the movies, and on covers of magazines. Throughout history, members within some cultures have deliberately altered their body's natural appearance (Figueroa-Haas 16). In fact, society today accepts plastic surgery if not even supports it so how is there a difference from someone trying to lose weight to fit the socially acceptable body image.

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Discuss the implications of the global spread of English for the learning and teaching of the language.

Unlike any other language, past or present, English has spread to all five continents and has become a truly global language'. Word Count: 175 Standard English is the type of English that is in its grammar, syntax, spelling system and lexis the systematized form in speaking and writing. It lays out agreed standards of usage, conventionally set out in dictionaries and grammars, for a diverse 'range of purposes such as education, government and science' (Leith & Graddol, 2007, p.83). Standard English is considered a synonym for superior, right, proper or correct English usage by some people, whereas others use the

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Examine the extracts below of conversations between a two-year-old child and an adult friend. To what extent do these extracts illustrate features typical of adult-child interaction? In what ways does the adult contribute to the childs learning of

It will be shown how adults contribute to a child's language development. It will then be shown how little children overextend words until they learn the correct names of objects. Finally, the stages of early grammar development of a child will be highlighted. The extracts (1-3) of a conversation between a child, Cindy and an adult, Patsy, could be described as typical of an adult-child interaction occurring when the child is still too young to go to school. It shows in detail how the child, Cindy, is beginning to develop her vocabulary through the pattern of communication.

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Baynham and Maybin (2007, p. 123) assert that ...electronic means of communication seem to have shifted the relationship between speech and writing. Discuss this statement, using brief examples of your own to illustrate your points.

Word count: 202 Informalization is a term used to define the breaking down of divisions between formal public use and informal private use of English. Some linguists believe that the boundaries between language forms conventionally used for close relationships and 'those reserved for more formal situations are becoming blurred' (Goodman, 2007, p.205). English, nowadays, is becoming more informalized in many public and professional contexts. According to Goodman (2007, p.206) 'Institutions, such as the state, commerce and the media, are increasingly using less formal, more conversational styles'.

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The Origin and Development of the English Language in Barbados

conquerors reported their finding of and disembarking on Barbados in the early sixteenth century, it was a party of English mariners, led by Captain John Powell, who were the first to claim possession of the island upon their arrival on 14 May 1625. Two years later, on 17 February 1627, John Powell's younger brother, Henry Powell, arrived with four vessels containing some eighty colonists and a smaller number of slaves. The slaves were primarily youngsters from England and Ireland, but approximately a dozen had been captured in Africa.3, 4 The party was organised and financed by two British brothers, Sir Peter and Sir William Courteen.

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Describe and discuss the geographical, social and contextual factors which influence the way you personally speak English.

In the first example sure is pronounced /??/ but in the second sure is pronounced /???/. One of the strongest geographical factors influencing my speech would be the place I live. Having lived in Wolverhampton for fourteen years I have found that my speech is influenced heavily by Black Country dialect. In my speech I use Black Country idioms, some of which are mentioned in Ed Conduit's The Black Country Dialect (2007) like, for example, 'all round the Wrekin' and 'kick the bucket'. Page 38 of The Black Country Dialect has a table of Black Country negative contractions.

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English 1110 Essay #3. Being in only my first year of university, I have joined the ranks of those who once deluded with the thought that the amount of effort put into my high school essays was good enough.

This plague gets even worse when you add yet another variable to represent the other teachers and individuals outside the walls of the school who obviously are not concerned with their speech at all. This war of grammatical confusion is not fought in secondary school alone, but has its origins in elementary school and can leave one unprepared for opportunities to write later on. Elementary school may have started this mess, but high school can make up for it. Maybe after that than the essays to given in post secondary institutions will cease to be the same level of difficulty.

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U211 TMA02

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Conversation Analysis. In the conversation transcript there is a particular style of speech demonstrated by the actor Patrick Stewart as he using pauses and emphasis to highlight particular points that he wishes to make. In line 1 he pauses twice whilst

NO Speaker Utterance Comment 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 PS KK LP PS LP KK LP Klause,(.) er do you allow (.)for the audience interaction with what you are doing (.)and with what the mechanics are doing? Er to a certain extent yes but erm (.) but your very much being moved. Its, its not like in other emersive workswhere people are erm taking their own routes. We are definitely moving you on a route Oh, and it does give you a sense that we're all juddering slowly towards a tomb on routes we do not know (...)

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In describing the history of the English Language, two kinds of evidence are used: the linguistic history (internal evidence) and the non-linguistic history (external evidence). Use examples to discuss the role of these two kinds of evidence in the develo

The standardising process has four stages to it, Selection, Elaboration, codification and Implementation. The selection of a language is required to form a base for the standardisation, an accepted norm that everyone could use. The variety of language that was selected was normally from those social circles that were deemed influential or powerful. The process of elaboration was to ensure the use of this standardised language could be used by many functions such as science, government and education. There was then a need to codify this language usage with the use of grammars and dictionaries to find what was the correct use of grammar and vocabulary.

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In my essay I am going to analyse the 2001 first inaugural speech by George W. Bush and the 2009 inaugural address of Barack Obama. I have chosen these particular speeches because Bush and Obama had very different policies, thus I assume it should be real

Obama says: 'The words have been spoken during rising tides of prosperity and the still waters of peace. Yet, every so often the oath is taken amidst gathering clouds and raging storms.' By saying that, he reminds that newly elected American presidents have often taken the office during harsh times, and he is one of such examples (he became the president during a financial crisis). Other examples of an antithesis: 'The instruments with which we meet them may be new. But those values upon which our success depends ... are old' (Obama); '... the stakes of our debates appear small.

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Language shift is generally a positive thing, leading to self-betterment and liberation?

'Diglossia' is the term given to a country which has two official languages; one is seen to be on a higher class than the other as it is used in literature and formal education, whereas the other is seen as a lower, more-common language which is used in everyday vernacular. An example of a previously-Diglossic country would be Greece, whose two languages were Modern Greek and Katharevusa. A country with diglossia is not to be confused with a bilingual country as bilingualism refers to the individual and diglossia refers to the society.

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A sociolinguistic study on Singaporean teenagers use of language on Facebook a research on gender as a sociolinguistic variable in teenagers use of English through the social networking platform of Facebook

Since the start of the Internet, new varieties, in this specific case, English, have been arising with the computer keyboard as the factor mediating conventional speech and writing conventions, thus leading to the existence of computer-mediated communication (CMC). (Ooi, Tan & Chiang, 2007) CMC is commonly regarded as a totally different medium of communication, unlike the conventional mediums of speech and writing; the electronic medium is almost a combination of both. This topic aims to analyse how the variety of spoken English used in Singapore, known as Singapore Colloquial English, has been modified to be used in the electronic medium by the teenagers, with special emphasis on the sociolinguistic variable of gender.

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