A balance between prescriptive grammar and descriptive grammar
Keep a balance between prescriptive grammar and descriptive grammar It is widely accepted that language is constantly changing in phonetics, morphology, semantic, syntax, and other components (Yule, 2006). Language is so emotive that brings out two opposite views-traditional and current. Traditional view argues that language is given, static and regularized by rules, like a machine. Correctness and purity are of most concern and change is corruption. On the contrary, current view states that language is organic, like a growing tree. It is largely arbitrary rather than being given. Meanings are constructed and negotiated. We describe rules based on authentic language in real life and focus on acceptability, therefore changes are welcome. Traditional view and current view correspondingly lead to prescriptive grammar and descriptive grammar. Prescriptive grammar is a set of rules for the proper use of language decided by some influential grammarians (Yule, 2006). It emphasizes on correctness and purity. In contrast, descriptive grammar is fluid and organic. It describes reality from authentic data and is up-to-date. Prescriptive grammar and descriptive grammar oppose to each other in many aspects and yet also complement each other. Following are three examples which reflect different approaches to grammar. The first example is the preposition after 'different'. In the light of
An Investigation of the Holophrase
Question 7 - Look at some data for a child at the one-word stage of development (this could be video data for the CHILDES database, or observational/diary data you have collected from a child to whom you have access; the contextual function of one-word utterances can be hard to perceive in transcript-only data). Apply Greenfield and Smith's analysis, based on the uses of holophrases, to this data. Remember that this analysis is focused on what a child is using their one-word utterances for, i.e. what the holophrases are used to accomplish. Does your data show (some of?) the same functions for holophrases that Greenfield and Smith observed in their study of two children? . Introduction This report will be focusing on child language acquisition at the one word stage of development. It will look at data, using the CHILDES database. Firstly, I will give some background information as to what holophrases are, and their important role within language acquisition. My research into holophrases will then provide a solid background in which to answer the question and to explain the results that I have acquired from my data. I will then discuss my methodological technique, in which I will explain specifically what I will do to look at holophrases in the database and consequently answer the question successfully. Following this, the report will have a results and analysis section,
What was the impact of the First World War on the Police and Policing in Great Britain?
What was the impact of the First World War on the Police and Policing in Great Britain? When Britain went to war with Germany in 1914, it impacted immediately upon the Police and Policing in Great Britain. The war had both short-term and longer-term impacts. In the short-term there was an extension of duties and responsibilities and later in the war there was an obvious drop in police morale over conditions which led to a greater sense of militancy and unionism and eventually the strikes of 1918 and 1919. The war also brought a role for women, though the significance and success of this is arguable, as will be discussed. In the longer-term, changes were made to administration and organisation of Police Forces and the Home Office. This essay will attempt to analyse these in order to reach a conclusion as to how the First World War impacted upon the Police and Policing in Great Britain in the short-term and long-term. The First World War had a noticeable impact straight away. In 1914 the Police forces of England and Wales amounted to just over 53,000 men, most of whom were of military age. By the end of the first year of the war about one man in five had gone from provincial forces to the military. In the Metropolitan police this diminution of manpower was even greater with around one man in four recruited to the military1. This left behind huge gaps and an ageing Police
Literacy Practices
3. 'Literacy is a social activity and can best be described in terms of the literacy practices which people draw upon in literacy events' (Barton 1994: 34). Discuss, with reference to your own literacy practices. Table of Contents . Introduction 3 2. Defining terms 3 3. How do literacy practices describe a given domain's literacy? 5 3.1 My literacy practices... 5 3.1.1 ...when attending a lecture 5 3.1.2 ...when revising between lectures 5 3.1.3 ...when revising before assessment 6 3.1.4 ...when being assessed 6 3.2 Discussion 7 4. Conclusion 9 5. Reference list 10 . Introduction Literacy is an extremely broad concept. All theorists have their own views and opinions about its definition, which tends to change according to context. One all-encompassing definition of literacy is Street's: '... the social practices and conceptions of reading and writing' (1984: 1) Barton (1994, 2002) writes that people's literacies vary depending on the domain they find themselves in. The home, the workplace and the school are all domains of life. He states that literacy is situated: it cannot exist outside of a social context. In this essay, I will look at literacy from a sociocultural perspective. I will start out by defining relevant terms, and will go on to discuss the following quotation: 'Literacy is a social activity and can best be described in terms of
Merchant of Venice
Assessment 1: Shakespeare Short Essay Shylock amongst Christian: Is The Merchant of Venice an anti-Semitic play? Discuss, making reference to the text of the play as well as your mandatory and recommended readings to support or offset your views. Critiques of William Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice have, since the play's debut, argued about its anti-Semitic content. While there is valid textual support for both sides of the argument, what is important to consider is whether Shakespeare's intention was to write an anti-Semitic play, or rather, to raise questions about racial prejudice and religious persecution. Shakespeare's works are renowned for allowing multiple readings of the same text, depending on the readers' perspective or director's interpretation. Therefore, while the play exhibits strong anti-Semitic content through the juxtaposition of the Christian and Jewish characters, it is designed to focus on the irrationalness of racial and religious intolerance. Shakespeare's intentional lack of judgement about the characters, and their religiosity, forces readers to draw their own conclusions about his intended message. Shakespeare's own beliefs are not easily deciphered from the text itself, or wider historiography of his life and works. However, the non-prescriptiveness of Shakespeare's writing does not mean he did not intent to challenge his audience's preconceived
Sociology of Crime and Control - Crimes against women: The pornography debate.
SC242 Sociology of Crime and Control CLASS PRESENTATION: CRIMES AGAINST WOMEN: THE PORNOGRAPHY DEBATE The Pornography Debate This presentation was a follow-up on the SC242 lecture week eleven on crimes against women but the main focus to be concentrated on the subject of pornography. We chose pornography, as it is a subject of great controversial debate in contemporary societies. Our presentation was divided into two parts, with myself starting the presentation concentrating on anti- pornography and the reasons why it should be censored if not completely banned. My partner then went onto discuss the argument against censorship and individual choice within the pornography industry. We chose to carry out the presentation in this way portraying both arguments in pornography as we thought this would be the most effective way of generating an argumentative debate. The presentation lasted for about twenty minutes and then for the rest of the time a chance was given for the class to voice their opinions and to ask any questions. Whilst preparing for the presentation, I found there to be extensive amounts on literature on the arguments for the censorship of pornography. The following part of this report is the points I used to portray my argument in the presentation. I started by discussing how many feminists have identified pornography as the "nerve centre of patriarchy."
Explain and discuss how metaphors work. Do you agree with the claim made by Lakoff & Johnson (1980, Metaphors We Live By) that we live by metaphors?
Seminar Leader: Ms. Nicola Schmidt-Renfree Graham Buchanan gb219 20th January 2009 School of European Culture and Language Studies English Language Unit LZ327 Understanding Language Explain and discuss how metaphors work. Do you agree with the claim made by Lakoff & Johnson (1980, Metaphors We Live By) that we live by metaphors? In its most generalist sense metaphors are, as stated by Lakoff (Lakoff & Johnson, 1981), 'understanding and experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another'. They are different from techniques such as similes as instead of saying one thing is like another we are saying it is the other. However metaphors are very complex, there being many different forms of metaphors used in different environments and to achieve different effects. Metaphors can essentially be split in the two major groups, the figurative metaphors and dead metaphors. The figurative metaphor is what most people think of as the conventional metaphor and usually the only one. The linguistic I.A Richards (Richards, 1936) set out the basic model for a metaphor to be compromised of a tenor, being the subject, which is described in terms of the vehicle, being the object, through the copula (the coupling verb). This can shown graphically as A = B. However there cannot be a straightforward link between the two items such as in 'a spoon is a piece of cutlery'. There are in fact
saintpatrick
La Saint Patrick est d'origine irlandaise et se fête le 17 mars... Saint Patrick's Day is of Irish origin/originally from Ireland and is celebrated on the 17th march... Saint Patrick, patron des Irlandais et des ingénieurs, serait né en Ecosse ou au Pays de Galle Saint Patrick, patron saint of the Irish people and shepherds, was supposedly born in Scotland or in Wales (certains historiens disent en France !), vers 385. Vers 16 ans, il aurait été enlevé et réduit en (some historians say in France !), around 385 A.D. Around/at about 16 years old, he may have been abducted and taken into esclavage par des pirates Irlandais, durant 6 années. Il vécut en Irlande comme berger jusqu'à slavery by Irish pirates, for six years. He lived in Ireland as a shepherd until he was l'âge de vingt ans puis devint chrétien. Un jour, après une apparition de Dieu en personne qui twenty then became a Christian. One day, after an appearance from God in person who advised him to lui conseilla de fuir pour regagner sa terre natale, il retourna chez les siens mais se rendit flee in order to get back to his native land, he went back to his family but he realized that compte qu'il ne se sentait pas chez lui. He did not feel at home. Il voyagea beaucoup pour finalement se retrouver en Irlande où il s'installa définitivement ; il He travelled much/widely/a lot and
Language and Social Power
Language and Social Power The relationship between language and social power can be observed across numerous areas of society, from the realms of politics, marketing, the workplace, education, the media, to interaction between people of different identities. This paper will illustrate and then analyse various examples of language and social power within the following contexts: * Gender (more specifically, male-to-male interaction) * Legal writing * Politics * Advertisements One example I have noticed amongst friendship groups of men in relation to gender and social power is the attempts to put each other down, whether it is subtle or intentionally obvious. For instance, this conversation took place between two of my male friends: Male 1: Halo: Reach was fucking shit. How the fuck did it get 10/10 on IGN when Metal Gear Solid only got 9.8? Male 2: There's a reason why it got 10/10. I personally thought it was ace. Male 1: Were you even playing the same game? Seriously... If you had actually played the game, you would have seen how everything was flawed. There are no redeeming aspects of this game whatsoever! Male 2: Why were you even playing the 360 in the first place, Mr. PS3 fanboy? Context: Male 1 was complaining about the high ratings that the game Halo: Reach received on a review website (IGN, UK) after having played the game. Male 2 states a different opinion
Investigating the grammatical features of a child(TM)s language and influences in a three year longitudinal study
Introduction Investigating the grammatical features of a child's language and influences in a three year longitudinal study The topic under investigation is child language acquisition. I plan to use home videos of myself at the ages of three through to five, studying the linguistic features of my spoken language. I am interested in seeing how my language developed throughout this time; beginning at playschool and ending in having started school. Carrying out a longitudinal study will be beneficial when researching language development, as it will give the opportunity to demonstrate how a child's language improves and develops over time; any mistakes that become inevitably rectified, and how the language develops from simple sentences, to complex structures. I am also interested in looking at child directed speech; that is, how others direct their speech at a child. According to Frank Myszor in his book 'Language Acquisition,' there are three purposes of child directed speech and thirteen methods that can be used to demonstrate these purposes. Part of my study will involve looking at how a caregiver (i.e. parent) and sibling affect and/or influence the way a young child uses language themselves. Will I copy my brother/mother/father? Will I react to what they say to me? Will my language become dependent on their languages choices? The source of the idea for this piece of work