Research Paper on a Tale of Two Cities

Formal Plot Summary Lucie Manette is a central character in the novel. She tends to affect the characters around her in a brightening manor. For instance she mends her father’s psyche through her unconditional love. Because of her ability to affect others in a liberating sense she attracts other characters such as Stryver, Charles Darnay, and Sydney Carton. She also is able to bring light to the life of family friend Jarvis Lorry. Another way Lucie is central is through her constant placement in â€Å"love triangles† the most obvious being Carton and Darnay. A second triangle she finds herself in is between Dr. Manette and Darnay. Sydney Carton is the protagonist of the novel. He dies by the blade of the guillotine to save Darnay. Carton is introduced in the beginning of the novel as an indifferent, drunkard of a lawyer. He seeks no true meaning to life or find pursuit in attaining any future goals. He is a complex character, because he ends up finding meaning, when he falls in love with Lucie Manette. He works early hours for Stryver while wearing sopping towels. He has thrown away much potential, yet he retains sympathy from people by fulfilling a promise to Lucie. Another dimension to Sydney Carton is that he is a social outcast. He has no place in the English class system. Yet, when Carton goes to Paris he becomes a new person. He finds fulfillment in life and in his death. Charles Darnay plays the role of romantic lead. He becomes the love interest and eventually the husband of Lucie. Darnay’s real name is revealed to Dr. Mannette in exchange for his daughter’s hand in marriage—his name is revealed to be St. Evremonde. Darnay is a symbol of sacrifice, when he gives up his home in France to pursue a life in England. He gives up his old privileges to become a tutor of the French language. Dr. Manette spent eighteen years in jail. To keep his mind in prison, he developed a skill in shoemaking. Dr. Manette suffers from spells of amnesia. Throughout the novel Dr. Manette grows as a character. He develops strength and confidence that he had lost in solitary confinement. An example of this is his ability to reason with the revolutionaries to keep Darnay alive. Five years later Charles Darnay is introduced on the stand of a court house. He is being tried for treason. Lorry and Lucie testify to save Darnay, but he saved by his Lawyer Stryver. The case that was made to save Darnay was that he could not possibly be spy because of his resemblance to Sydney Carton—an indifferent lawyer. As this is going on, Darnay, proposes to Lucie. They become engaged. Sydney Carton also reveals his love for Lucie. He understand that he cannot have her, so he promises to give his life for anyone sacred to her. While the marriage ceremony is commencing it is told to Dr. Manette that there were hidden papers found in a prison. This event sends Dr. Manette into shock for several days. Earlier in the day Darnay tells Dr. Manette his true name—Charles St. Evremonde. The French Revolution has now broken out, it is 1789. Defarge has lead an attack on the Bastille while his wife controls the revolutionary women. They burn down everything related with the St. Evremonde name. Gabelle, father of the killed child, is imprisoned. Darnay hears of this tragic event and rushes to France. While he is attempting to help Gabelle, Darnay is seized by revolutionaries as an aristocrat. Dr. Manette has much influence because of his time spent in the Bastille, he is able to visit Darnay, but no free him. Fifteen months later Darnay is brought up before the French Tribunal. As a result of Dr Manette and Gabelles’ testimonies he is set free. As Darnay is leaving, he is rearrested due to the efforts of Madame and Monsieur Defarge. Sydney Carton appears and informs Travis Lorry. Sydney Carton forces John Basard (he once testified against Darnay) to cooperate with him, or he’d reveal Basards illegal maneuvers of spying on prisoners. The following day Carton goes to visit Darnay, drugs him, and takes his clothes. Carton planned on fulfilling his promise to Lucie. Barsard rushes Darnay’s unconscious body out of jail to be with his family and flee safely. Madame Defarge goes to Manette’s apartment to kill Lucie, but meets Miss Pross. Miss Pross fights off Defarge who fires the pistol killing herself. Carton meets the guillotine. He is calm and is optimistic of his death. He dies with a face that is at peace. One major conflict in the novel is between Charles Darnay and his uncle. The conflict is external. There is a fight about Darnay selling the old establishment in France. Darnay’s uncle curses him. There is no resolution to this conflict, but Darnay’s uncle meets his demise when he is stabbed to death by Gabelle. One major internal conflict is between Carton and his inability to pursue any goals. He is revealed as a waste. He becomes the saddest story, when he is born with all the potential in the world but does nothing with it. The conflict is finally resolved when he keeps his promise to Lucie, when he takes his life for Darnay. He is able to come to terms and feel at peace. Sacrifice becomes a central theme in the novel. One example is when Darnay gives up his aristocratic lifestyle to pursue life in England. Another example is Carton when he sacrifices his life in order to save Darnay, so that Darnay can flee the country with Lucie. Another obvious them in A Tale of Two Cities is love and hate. An obvious example of love is Miss Pross protecting Lucie’s life by fighting off Madame Defarge. Miss Pross risks her own life to save another. The best example of love is Carton’s promise to Lucie. In order to promise his life to Lucie, he had to love someone more than himself. An example of hate is Madame Defarge’s attempts to kill those who had relations with Darnay. She wanted vengeance, which is a byproduct of hate. Her hate for aristocracy drives her to almost successfully getting Darnay killed by the guillotine. Another major theme which should be mentioned is death. Carton has to die in order for Darnayto live. Throughout the novel there is speak of death and violence. There were multiple descriptions in the novel of death by guillotine and scenes of the bloodshed due to revolutionary violence. One example I was able to clearly recognize was the guillotine. It symbolized death. Such as when it killed Carton. It also symbolized revolutionary violence. Evidence of this was whenever speak of revolutionary actions were shown, the guillotine was mentioned. Another example was Madame Defarge’s knitting. She would knit the names of the people she desired to kill. It was a symbol of their fate. Her knitting was a symbol of fate because every time she knitted someone’s name into her pattern, they would be marked to die. My personal reaction to the book was that it was very complicated to understand. Dickens’ word usage made simple sentences much too complicated to understand. I had to read the book with a dictionary. It took me from anywhere between twenty and thirty minutes to read eight to nine pages. Although I struggled much with the novel, I enjoyed it. My research paper will be concentrated on the complexity of Sydney Carton. He constantly changed my view of him in the novel. At one point I might dislike him, but then in another section I gained understanding for him. I feel that I will be centering my thesis on paralleling the lives and views of both Sydney Carton and Charles Dickens. Works Cited Dickens, Charles. A Tale of Two Cities. New York: Cassia Press, 1998.

The Relationship Between Man and Woman in Araby

Araby James Joyce, an icon of the modernist era had many works that were moving away from the classical styles of literature put before him. Joyce is known for leading his characters towards some kind of personal insight and on the surface, Araby seems to be only about a boy learning about the truth of capitalism. As you dive deep in to his words and meaning however, it is apparent that Joyce’s message is not as black and white as it appears on the surface. This story is also about the relationship between men and women.It is about how women are capable of influencing a man’s actions/behaviors and why men feel as if they need to exert their â€Å"dominance† over women. Joyce purposely makes the protagonist a young boy who chases after an older girl. He does this to elevate the status of the girl and portray her as larger than the boy. He is basically saying early in the story that woman has some kind of superiority over man. The beginning of the story is innocent enough, the boy explains how he plays in the street with his best friend (Mangan) and hides from his uncle so he doesn’t have to go in.This is where the girl is introduced. Neither she nor the boy has a name hinting that they are representative of all men and women. The boy is absolutely infatuated with the girl and it is apparent in the paragraphs right after she is introduced. He watches her from afar, has a certain routine so that he passes her every morning, and even imagines victory due to his love as he walks through his marketplace. She is the focal point of all his thoughts and it is shown that he is helpless to her influence when he utters â€Å"O love!O love! † over and over in private. He is but a helpless romantic during this point of the story driven by his undeserving love for this girl. Their only conversation is a brief, but huge one and what she says and how she acts says all. She plays with her bracelet, signifying the importance of materialistic ite ms in her life and communicating that she would love something from Araby by saying how she would love to go but can’t. The boy bites the bait hard and is hooked immediately to be drug around by the idea of pleasing the girl.Her influence over him increases exponentially after this as he says that he cannot think of anything except her. He can’t sleep, can’t think, can’t read, can’t focus in class and is consumed with the hope that this magical bazaar would grant him the key to the girl’s heart. All these things are clear signs that the girl holds control over him because he has lost all motivation for anything besides pleasing her. The story stays like this, with him obsessing over her until he actually gets to the bazaar as it is closing and his hopes start to fade.Araby is supposed to be this enchanted place with wonderful people and remarkable, exotic items but the boy finds that there is nothing but commonplace junk that he could get fr om his own marketplace. On top of that, he is met by a very distasteful sales clerk who seems very uninterested in him. In most analyses, this is the point of the boy’s insight to the nature of capitalism and realizes that not everything is as pretty as it appears on the surface. This is a very important lesson but it is not the only change that occurs in the boy.The last line of the story is â€Å"Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and anger. † Joyce definitely did not use passive words to describe the boy’s hurt but chooses a powerful, emotionally charged set of words that paints a very precise, borderline frightening image. He describes the boy as a creature, as if he has lost his humanity and been stripped down to a raw, instinctual beast. A desperate, pissed off animal driven by his feeling of worthlessness with eyes burning from anger and a feeling of deep heartache.These are not words usually used to describe an epiphany about the nature of the world. These are words used to describe the feelings of losing something great, of getting your heart smashed, chewed up and spit out. These are words describing a feeling that this boy will never again want to feel. He realizes that he has opened himself up to be hurt and he was undeniably crushed by his inability to get something that would please the girl his heart yearns for. Joyce was a master of idioms and word choice. He was easily one of the great writers of his time and will always be recognized as such.He is known for writing about how stages in life affect a person as a whole and Araby is no different. Being a great writer of his time he is also a creation of the era he lived in. During his life men believed that they were superior to women, that woman were weak and that they needed a man to support them. It was believed that women were home to weak emotions and men only had time for strong ones makin g them better than women. To say that Joyce wrote a story in which he acknowledges that women have some kind upper hand on men may seem inept but he does a good job of answering why men behaved and felt this way.His reason is that men cannot cope with these â€Å"weak† emotions so they shut them out. The boy in the story â€Å"Araby† is met with his first heartbreak due to the fact that he can’t please the girl that he so desperately desires and immediately becomes this inhuman creature full of anguish. In a time where men are supposed to be the bread-winners; strong confident figures that controls their household, these feelings are unacceptable. It is why men must exhibit nothing but â€Å"strong† emotions and exude their dominance over women, for the fear of being emotionally shattered in the face of them.

What cyber events could really cause terror in the Australian population?

The whole issue of cyber events such as attacks is complex with potential debates ranging from deployments by terrorist to disruption of information systems and computer viruses. The potential damages which can be brought by cyber events have drown concern from the government, media and the society at large. This paper seeks to explain the cyber events which are likely to cause terror in the Australian population. The efficiency and effectiveness of defense department of any country relies entirely on the effective of communication and data transfer.However, if the Australian defense communication system attacked by enemies through the interruption of the communication networks in the cyberspace and put under the enemies’ influence through remote control, it would be rendered ineffective and a threat to the national security. Further to this, radar stations would be paralyzed to a level where they cannot detect unauthorized foreign aircrafts from accessing the Australian space .In addition to this, the Australian fighter jets would become vulnerable to electronic attacks. This could result from harmful software which could be instilled in advance to the avionic systems by their enemies. In this context, such cyber events put threat to the national security of Australia. The increasingly high growing rate of cyber crimes poses a threat to the security of Australian commerce and banking institutions.This is evidenced by the Australian Security Intelligence Organization’s annual report which revealed that enemies were using the internet to access confidential business information. If these institutions were attacked, this would put the whole Australian banking system at risk of losing the investor’s confidence on keeping their financial statements confidential and subjecting them to enemies hence creating a loop hole for further attacks.Cyber attacks could also lead to access to confidential government, which could paralyze government operation s. This is evidenced by the attack of the government’s internet filtering system by enemies and the overload of the prime minister’s web side with information requests. The prime minister’s web site was also attacked and loaded with pornography information. Such events impose security threats to the prime minister and the whole population at large.

Civil engineering Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Civil engineering - Essay Example d maintenance of natural and physical built environment as roads, bridges, buildings, canals and dams A degree in civil engineering covers subjects in mathematics, physics, design, project management and specific topics in civil engineering. Civil engineers possess an academic degree with a major in civil engineering whose length of study varies from three to five years. After completion of the certified degree program, the engineer must satisfy the exam requirements and have work experience before being certified as a professional engineer. Certification means that the certified engineer may prepare, sign and submit engineering plans and drawings to a public authority for approval while abiding by the code of ethics set by the certifying bodies. The field is concerned with rocks, soils, highways, sewers and underground water systems, foundations of buildings and bridges. The professional engineer studies technical information obtained from material testing, sciences of geology and hydraulics to design foundations and structures while ensuring safety and economy of the project. This discipline is concerned with the science of waste management, water purification, cleaning of contaminated areas, industrial ecology and reduction of pollution. Policy makers rely on technical data obtained through environmental engineering to make environmentally related decisions. It deals with the management of quality and quantity of underground water and above ground water resources, like rivers, lakes and streams. It involves analyzing geographical areas to forecast the quantity of water that is likely to flow into and out of a water source. It deals with the design of structures to ensure that they are economical, safe for the users and serve the desired function. Loads acting on the structures and the stresses created due to these loads are identified in order to design a structure that withstands these loads. The structures include bridges, tunnels, highways, steel

International Business Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

International Business - Assignment Example advantages and better marketing position where as many firms have failed in their international expansion efforts as they didn’t heed the basic tenets ingrained in the critical business environments. In today’s increasingly competitive and international free market economy contexts, transnational exchanging of technology, infrastructure and demographic movement have become increasingly important (Johnson and Turner, 2003, p. 1). The ultimate outcome of this growing importance of international business is that a customer, no matter whether he lives in Europe, Asia, Africa or Australia, will be familiar with a large number of world-class brands like Apple, Cadbury, Coca-cola, Dell, Ford, HP, Nestle, Nokia, Toyota and so on. The effect of globalization is that new brands are seemingly born global, For this research paper, Apple Inc- specifically its Smartphone sector- has been chosen to conduct detailed analysis on the literature related to the international business and organizational factors. This research paper presents an analysis on internal and external environment of the chosen organization- Apple Inc and examines its strategies for international marketing in terms of effectiveness and usefulness for its international operation. Apple inc, founded by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne in the 1970s is one of the most internationally influential and highly successful companies of today. It is an American multinational company that designs, makes and markets PCs, portable music players, cell phones, software, computer peripheral and services. It markets through its own retailing, online stores and third party sellers (Sander and Slatter, 2009, p. 81, Linzmayer, 2004). Apple was the first mainstream marketer for personal computers and is still an important market player worldwide and it has become a niche player by setting the pace for ease of use, innovative design and customer loyalty. Apple’s story is that one off-hobby machines that a most

Health Policy Value Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Health Policy Value - Essay Example Quality is more important to patients than any other factor in regard to health care. Spirituality demands that the society should be able to take care of the underprivileged. Members of the society should not be left to die in the emergency room based on the fact that they cannot afford insurance costs (Porter & Teisberg, 2006). I personally believe that life is precious and costly beyond price. For this reason, I think that in spite of the cost constraints that exist in the healthcare setting, people should be served and lives saved at all possible costs. A good health care system is one that engages the community’s resources wisely and ensures that the coming generations will find the same resources for their good and development. American citizens do not get quality health care for their money. The health care system in America cannot be compared to those found in other countries. Health care leaders and institutions should be careful in the way they handle health care resources to ensure that clients do not continue paying high costs for medical care. Insurance has been the main issue concerning money in health care. Every individual in the society should not be forced to have health care insurance. Uninsured clients should not be left to suffer during emergency because they did not purchase health care insurance. It would be unethical not to take care of a bleeding patient in the ER since they do not possess health care insurance. Health care should be affordable to all citizens in America (Porter & Teisberg, 2006) Quality in health care should never be associated with cost reduction. Quality should be the determining factor in health care. Physician performance improvement in health care should be based on the significance of services they present to clients. There should be measures put in place to measure quality and improvement of quality. However, quality in health care remains to be

Beverlys Actions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Beverlys Actions - Essay Example As the discussion highlights the right people should be present and not just any number of people and the agenda should be tightly focused on what is the expected outcome of the retreat. This requires that each participant has done the basic ground work before going for the retreat. They should be well equipped with data for the proceedings of the meeting. They should also be in a position to have data that would help to review the achievements over the previous year. Then, the participants should not be involved in the organizational aspects of the retreat so that they are free to concentrate on the proceedings and the purpose of the retreat. This paper outlines that Second National Bank (SNB) is spending lot of time in preparing organizational mission statement, vision and aspirations but makes on effort to align the organizations with the values ad visions already in place. They have a vision, they create a vision but they have not become a â€Å"truly visionary organization†. Creating alignment itself is a two-part process – the first is to identify and correct misalignments and the second is to create new alignments. At SNB they have been able to recognize that they have not been able to implement their visions of the previous year but there are no efforts to correct them. At the same time, they have not created any new vision or alignment but have just decided to follow what they had decided the previous year. The top management including the VPs has not taken any initiative to follow up or align their goals and visions.

Merger, Acquisition, and International Strategies Essay - 3

Merger, Acquisition, and International Strategies - Essay Example They may vary from managerial, financial, marketing and the ownership ratios which define each entity’s roles and expected targets (Kesner, 2008 pp327-342). Acquisition on the other hand can be viewed as process in which a large company; a firm enjoying a large capital base, investment base, corporate and governance monopoly and/or with economies of scale, buys out new upcoming or underperforming firms with an aim of improving productivity, strengthening its market share and/or to redeem these underperforming firms out of bad debts and unemployment of resources. Acquisition should mutually benefit the acquirer and the target firm in that the acquirer is looking forward to strengthen either its market share, reduce its cost of production and efficient transfer of factors of production within the firm. On the other hand the target firm; the new, small or the underperforming firm which is bought out by the larger and performing firm, is entitled to full share of the buyout and ea ch shareholder given his share income as per the firms memorandum of understanding. International strategies can be looked at as management planning processes to expand local business entity into the foreign market. Depending with the firm’s activities, that is, if it’s a service providing firm and/or it’s a goods producing firm, strategies will differ and the company’s goals on the international market will also influence the strategies to be applied. Expansion of companies to new external markets will involve strategic management, forecasting and analysis of the new markets in that, the company must meet the consumer needs, change value, fight competition to get the market share without compromising the brand’s image. This is according to Kinnunen Jani’s fourth journal: real Options and Strategies (2011, pp117-141).With this in mind, acquisitions and/or mergers may be an appropriate model for easier penetration in to the new international market. To understand the concepts of Merger, Acquisition and International strategies, we shall look at the different merging and acquiring firms in terms of their performances when they were sole entities and after merging. In addition we shall evaluate the international strategies used by these firms; those that have expanded their operations outside the United States and evaluate those that have their operations within the United States, how they fair in the internal trade and possibly advise them on either to merge or to remain in sole proprietorship. We shall look at two telecommunication companies in the United States: AT&T and Comtech telecommunications. Question1. For the corporation that has acquired another company, merged with another company, or been acquired by another company, evaluate the strategy that led to the merger or acquisition to determine whether or not this merger or acquisition was a wise choice? AT&T is the largest provider of communication services and b roadband subscriptions television service. Providing both the mobile and fixed telephony services, it enjoys a commanding market share of 107.9 million mobile customers; the company has seen a lot of transformations in terms of operations ownership and expansion since its inception in 1885. AT&T acquired Bell Company in December 31 1899 for a legal lawsuit. Being a market leader after the invention of the

Dq -5-Terence Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Dq -5-Terence - Essay Example The discussion below elaborates and helps in understanding various aspects of research. Research questions that address a problem are concerned with quantitative research. In this case, the questions give an exact description of a phenomenon. Since it has to answer a question, control is exercised in order to eliminate any form of bias that may arise during the research. In most cases, the information under this kind of research relies on cross-functional approaches and the data reduced to numerical codes for easy analysis. On the contrary, questions that might be used in an interview heavily rely on qualitative research. This indicates that the information under such a research does not require discrete numerical data but only seeks for explanations about a phenomenon. However, since researchers determine what is asked, there is a likelihood of biasness because they decide how to fit the questions in a situation. These questions employ verbal, and in other cases, use pictorial descriptions for effective understanding and analysis. According to Palinkas et al. (2013), both qualitative and quantitative research methods have a trace of bias. It is extremely difficult to eliminate bias in research. Using the methods concurrently helps researchers to cub bias since both methods can be used in checking each other. They actually complement each other. By In terms of data preparation, both methods, in a unique way require the use of verbal descriptions. They are a great pillar in understanding in research. Researchers are increasingly finding it difficult using the methods independently because they are intertwined together and just separated by a thin line. An effective combination provides quality research findings that address the problem and offer solutions in a logical and acceptable manner. Questions that address a problem are objective in nature because they have

Persuasive speech Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 3

Persuasive speech - Essay Example They are made to think that they have to look a certain way and fit in a certain mold to be considered a real woman. (Wolf 89) Is this the kind of treatment that we really want? What will become of our society if we continue to feed such insecurities and impossible standards of beauty? Women should not be subject to any form of standard or expectation, because not only does it ruin their confidence in their own bodies, it also creates in them the idea that they are less human if they do not have thigh gaps. It is incredibly unfair to put these kinds of criteria on them, because it limits them from feeling beautiful just the way they are. It also creates in the female race a sort of discriminative separation between the thin and fat. What makes it worse is that the benchmarks of aesthetics never really lasts a long time. If these standards change, women must again adjust and change to fit the society’s new idea of beauty. A long time ago, there was a time when the plump women were considered the most beautiful girls. However, as hundreds of years have passed, we have seen a great shift in the perception of beauty. Now, stick-thin girls are being looked up to as models for aesthetic perfection – girls with twenty-inch waistlines, projecting collarbones, and apparent thigh gaps. (Blood, 11) As we have witnessed in the recent years, more and more young teenage girls have battled with multiple eating disorders, and mental or psychological problems because of the issue on self-image. There is an increasing number of girls today that are suffering from disorders such as anorexia and bulimia. Many have also resolved to cutting and even suicide because they can’t handle the bullying that happens in school and the pressure to look like what they see in these magazines, billboards and movies. (Goebels 5) Some girls have even lost their

Psychological Abuse Essay Example for Free

Psychological Abuse Essay Psychological abuse refers to â€Å"abuse that damages the psyche, or the mind. Psychological abuse happens when one person attempts to gain power and control over another.† It involves the deliberate infliction of pain or anguish to another person through verbal or nonverbal conduct designed to humiliate or threaten another person (National Committee for the Prevention of Elder Abuse). Psychological abuse if quite prevalent in the United States. Most of its victims are women. Indeed, it is estimated that about 1.5 million women get psychologically abused each year. Psychological abuse often leads to physical abuse, as well as domination of the relationship and isolation from friends and family (PsychAbuse.info, 2006).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Psychological abuse is dangerous because it poses many risks on the victim, such as acute stress, post traumatic stress disorder, and depression (PsychAbuse.info, 2006). The many documented effects of psychological maltreatment include: Other possible consequences of psychological abuse are emotional instability, low social competency, anxiety, and low academic achievement (Canadian Health Network, 2004).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Given the effects and signs of psychological abuse, the common victims are those who have no emotional or social support from family and friends. On the other hand, people who often have contact with vulnerable people are sometimes the ones who perpetrate psychological abuse. This group may include caregivers and even family members of the victim (National Committee for the Prevention of Elder Abuse).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   One important issue on psychological abuse involves neglect, particularly on children. Neglect involves the omission of protection and care needed by a child, which could lead to adverse consequences such as juvenile delinquency, aggressive behavior, and child deaths (Canadian Health Network, 2004). In this connection, the fact that many children become victims of psychological abuse is a very alarming issue, particularly because of the tender age of the victims. Moreover, it is observed that may victims of child psychological abuse are emotionally disturbed, mentally retarded, or physically handicapped, although the onset of these conditions may differ as to time (Wall, 1975).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Another important issue with psychological abuse is the fact that it is believed to be the â€Å"most under-reported form of abuse.† Thus, the prevalence rates reported periodically may not be accurate since they only include those incidences that have been reported (Canadian Health Network, 2004).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Another critical issue on psychological abuse is its pervasiveness in dating relationships. It is estimated that abuse during the courtship ranges from 20 to 50 percent of men and women. There is also another concern about the increased risk of abuse in a dating relationship due to the tendency of couples to prolong the dating relationship before marriage (Burke, Stets    Pirog-Good, 1988).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   All of these issues are worth exploring. Women and children appear to be at special risk given their vulnerability. Another vulnerable group is the aged, who have no support systems to rely on. References Burke, P. J.,   Stets, J. E.    Pirog-Good, M. A. (1988). Gender Identity, Self-Esteem,   Ã‚   and Physical and Sexual Abuse in Dating Relationships. Social Psychology   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Quarterly 51(3), 272-285.  Canadian Health Network. (2004). What is psychological maltreatment? Retrieved   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   February 24, 2008, from http://www.canadian-health- network.ca/servlet/ContentServer?cid=1069439898222pagename=CHN- RCS%2FCHNResource%2FFAQCHNResourceTemplatec=CHNResourcelan  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   g=En  National Committee for the Prevention of Elder Abuse. Psychological Abuse. Retrieved   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   February 24, 2008, from   Ã‚   http://www.preventelderabuse.org/elderabuse/psychological.html  PsychAbuse.info. (2006). Frequently Asked Questions. Retrieved February 24, 2008,    from http://www.psychabuse.info/Psychological_Abuse_FAQ.htm Wall, C. M. (1975). Child Abuse: A Societal Problem with Educational Implications.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Peabody Journal of Education 52(3), 222-225.

Financial accounting standards Essay Example for Free

Financial accounting standards Essay The income statement, which portrays the financial performance of the company, is also described in the financial statements elements. Income and expenses from ordinary activities are recognized as the main elements of such statement, which when matched result in a profit or loss for the period. Capital maintenance adjustments are also pointed out, which may effect the income statement. This arises from the restatement of assets and liabilities that may eventually influence the equity of the firm (International Accounting Standards 2000, p 61-64). The measurement bases utilized in order to compute the monetary amounts of the assets, liabilities, equity, revenue and expenditure noted above are also outlined in the framework. There are five main measurement bases recognized in the accounting framework, which are explained below: †¢ Historical Cost – such measurement bases states that assets are recorded at the historical, which is normally the date of purchase. This implies that the value of the asset at the date of acquisition is the one portrayed in the Balance Sheet. For example, if a motor vehicle costing $8,000 is bought. The $8,000 historical cost value will be adopted as its measurement bases. As regards liabilities, the amount of cash obligation arising at the inception of the transaction will also be utilized as the measurement means. Any payments that are eventually undertaken to cover such liability are diminished from that amount. This is most common method adopted in practice by business organizations. However, when the need arises, such measurement bases are promulgated with other methods in order to portray a more true and fair financial picture (International Accounting Standards 2000, p 70-71). †¢ Current Cost – as its name implies, assets are recorded at the current amount of cash and cash equivalents that would be required if a similar was going to be purchased. Under such measurement bases, liabilities are determined according to the undiscounted cash obligation necessary to settle such commitment (International Accounting Standards 2000, p 70). †¢ Realizable value – this method is similar to the current cost one, with the exception that assets value is computed in line with the equivalent price that the present asset can attain if disposed in the market. The value of liabilities under such measurement bases is the same to the historical cost one. That is liabilities are determined in line with their settlement value (International Accounting Standards 2000, p 70). †¢ Present value – this encompasses that assets are recording according to the present discounted value of the envisaged cash inflows that such asset will provide to the organization in its day-to-day business activities. Liabilities are also valued at the present discounted value of the expected cash outflows entailed in the foreseeable future (International Accounting Standards 2000, p 70). The concept of capital and capital maintenance is the last basic principle covered by the accounting framework. The principle of capital under a financial side comprises the invested assets by the owner, which are identical to the equity or net assets value. Under the physical concept of capital, it entails the operating ability. That is the productive power of the organization (International Accounting Standards 2000, p 72). The concept of capital mentioned in the previous paragraph leads to the proceeding concepts of capital maintenance:†¢ Financial Capital Maintenance – profit/loss is computed under such concept as the difference between the financial value of the net assets at the end of the year and the financial value of the net assets at the commencement of the financial year (International Accounting Standards 2000, p 72). The fair value measurement bases, which is a new valuation method abides with such concept. †¢ Physical Capital Maintenance profit in this case focuses on the productive ability of the corporation. That is the excess of physical production at the end of the year when compared with that of the beginning forms up the profit figure (International Accounting Standards 2000, p 73). 2. The principles outlined in the framework do not exercise a direct influence on the intended parties. It holds an indirect affect by affecting the accounting standards issued by the recognized accountancy board. Such accounting standard will then have a direct influence on the accounting treatment of specific items and on the presentation of accounting information. Indeed the framework acts as a yardstick that guides the development of accounting standards. It is a generic document that narrows the range of alternatives that can be adopted during the standard setting process (Foster M. J. et al 2001, p 1,2). Further more, the framework aids the communication process in the Financial Accounting Standards Board, both internally and externally. Through the adoption of a generally accepted accounting framework, the message of the Financial Accounting Standards Board would be more easy to be communicated to accountants in the respective industries (Foster M. J. et al 2001, p 2).

Chemicals in Food Production and Preservation

Chemicals in Food Production and Preservation Contents Introduction..2 Definition2 Situation.3 Problems.4 Solutions.6 Evaluations..7 Conclusions..8 Bibliography.8 Introduction In the past, almost all households bought foods from a farm nearby or grew foods in their garden and ate these foods. They were called locavores, which indicated people who ate only locally grown food. When people had a high standard for living, they had also a high demand about eating what sort of foods such as specialties from another area. Therefore, transportation developed greatly to ship fresh ingredients all over the place and the producer tried to make their food look tastier, bigger fruits. Along to that situation, people produced a number of foods to ship, which caused residual foods. For instance, between the year 1950 and 2000, the population of the world doubled, moreover, meat consumption increased dramatically five times (Bittman, 2008)(1). As a result, they invented fast food, convenience foods, frozen foods, etc. by adding an amount of chemicals substances into foods. This paper will mention about several drawbacks of chemistry in food production and a number of solutions to the problems will be suggested before they are evaluated to choose the optimal one. Definition Chemicals already exist in foods. All foods consist of many type of chemicals which are naturally and include nutrients, for example, vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates, protein, fibre, etc. that every healthy body definitely needs to absorb regularly. However, chemical substances created for adding into foods are very different from the natural one. According to European Food Safety Authority (2013)(2), â€Å"chemical substances†, are described as â€Å"food additives, flavorings, food packaging materials and containers such as bottles, cups and plates contain chemical substances like plastic, elements of which can migrate into food, chemicals can be used to fight diseases in farm animals or crops such as pesticides†. Each type has its own purpose in food production and preservation. Food standards agency (2012)(3) stated that â€Å"additives may be antioxidants (used in food prepared with fats or oils to protect them against deterioration caused by rancidity), preserv atives (used to keep food safe for longer), flavor enhancers (used to bring out the flavor of food without adding a flavor of their own), etc.† These chemicals used often in fast food, canned foods or junk foods with a fixed amount and must be first censored to ensure the safety for consumers. Situation When citizens in Viet Nam are getting busier than in times past, some of them choose to go to any grocery or fast-food restaurant, etc. to have immediately a quick meal just because of the convenience despite the fact that these foods do not include as much nutrients as fresh foods or home cook foods. This phenomenon means people absorb at least a fixed amount of chemicals into their bodies regularly day by day. Datamonitor (n.d.) (4), an international company providing market intelligence, claimed that the consumption of canned foods went up by 12, 9% for the year 2004 to the year 2009 in one-yearly interval. In a survey, Euromonitor International (2014)(5) claimed that the number of fast-food restaurants enjoyed the upward trend of approximately 16% each year such as KFC, Lotteria, Burger King, Subway, Jollibee, McDonalds†¦ According to that research, Lotteria came up with just over 160 restaurants and then KFC from United States was the most second popular with 140 restaurant s. Although Burger King just came into sight in the end of the year 2012, this brand at the present, own 20 restaurants at three cities namely Ho Chi Minh, Da Nang and Ha Noi (Euromonitor International, 2014)(5). However, most ingredients of these foods always imported to keep the same flavor as other restaurants from other countries. Therefore, food becomes big money, attracting more and more commercial interest from inside and outside the country and leads informally to a fierce competition between food business premises of Vietnam brand and foreign brand. Problems The issue of the usage chemicals in foods has led to several serious problems in Vietnam. Eating regularly fast foods, junk foods or convenience foods, etc. which are already throughout an assessment to ensure the safety for consumer still seriously damage people’s health. For instance, low nutritional value, the high fat, calorie and sodium content of these foods can lead to a variety of health problems such as weight gain, obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular and all-causes mortality (Lee Media, n.d.)(6) Nevertheless, this is not the only trouble that inhabitants in Vietnam have to face and mostly concern about. One of the major drawbacks of using chemical on foods is the phenomenon of using overbold or unknown chemicals into foods which can be harmful the consumers. Any chemical can be toxic if people eat, drink, or absorb too much of it. Even water are able to cause the death if people drinking too much and too quickly. Paracelsus (1500) (7) wrote that â€Å"all substances are poisons; there is none which is not a poison. The right dose differentiates a poison from a remedy.† Firstly, most of food business premises in Vietnam are small-scale such as family business, normally, they have to fight over budgets and compete with other opponents in the market. Moreover, these businesses are spontaneous, many of them attach merely important to the turnover and do not have the knowledge about food business. It can be clearly seen from the pie chart that most of objects involved were just complete the education program at secondary school and the proportion in which account for just over a half of the total, 51,2% (Huong, n.d.). (8) Secondly, people are able to find easily several types of chemical substances to use in foods, which not mention yet that these chemicals permitted or not. Even the consumers want to have a healthy dish, they still have to struggle on the market to determine which fruits, meats or vegetables, etc. are safe, not spoiled foods and had been throughout a chemical treat. Indeed, in Q1/2012, Branch Management city market in collaboration with the Department of Health and Peoples Committees of districts strengthen the inspection and control of the sale and usage of chemicals, flavoring malicious. They found out a number of chemical substances in Kim Bien market are traded illegal such as borax, formalin, Rhodamine B, etc. as well as spices and unlabeled food additives. More specific, 49 cases of illegal chemicals business, volume 450 tons, including 2.8 tons of counterfeit and smuggled 28 tons (Anon., 2012) (9). To illustrate these types of chemicals, for instance, Rhodamine B is a chemical used to dye clothes, prohibited in food and medicine. Dr. Huong (2014)(10), chairman of medicine Vietnam confirmed: â€Å"If people eat melon seeds dye Rhodamine for longtime will cause liver failure, kidney disease and cancer† Because even if people wear clothes that are still residual dyes can lead to skin cancer for the wearer. Therefore, the dye Rhodamine B deliberate on melon seeds or any other food is not acceptable (Huong, 2014)(10). In the same list with Rhodamine B, formaldehyde used illegal into noodles, vermicelli by some business premises. The World Health Organization (WHO) and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) (2012)(11) has identified formaldehyde is unsafe if putting into foods, sauces and beverages because this industrial chemical contains a lot of other toxic such as arsenic, lead and can accumulate in the liver, harmful the brain. As a result, Bureau of Food Safety (2011)(12) stated that Vietnam is a country has the high proportion about food poisoning in which food poisoning due to chemicals represent 25% of the survey. Solution The problem about safety and hygiene has a great deal impact on many fields such as economy, social life and tourism also. Eating healthy dish every day is able to improve people’s health, enhance labor and contribute the development of the country. Therefore, having several solutions to tackle these troubles above is requisite. By approaching every single problem, the first two solutions in the list is aim to the sellers who attach specially on the incomes by imposing the high taxes with the clients who purchase industrial chemicals but do not demonstrate clearly the purpose. Moreover, Government can also help the situation by raising the fines with the objects violate the law then banning the right of them in food business. If violation the law signifies losing more money than not, these obstacles probably, disappear day by day. In addition, a phenomenon such as smuggling in Vietnam needs to be stop by strictly control the sale of chemical items used in foods and the importation of foods into this country. On the other hand, another measure is carrying out mass media information and education to improve the way the food producers are thinking. For instance, opening free classes and guiding the food producers, the sellers and the farmers, etc. how to achieve success in food business, so they are able to harvest fruits but do not poison the consumers at the same time. Evaluation So are any in these solutions effective? For the first three solutions mentioned above, one of the major obstacles is the corruption phenomenon. It means that people give money to whose control them and let they do whatever they want, violate the law to get more money. In addition, for the third measure, the situation of a huge number of business premises become harder to control strictly the violations though these three methods is not costly and seems easy to apply. However, for the last solutions, educate to impact on what they are thinking and toward to another way to success in food business. Although this methods is expensive and require an amount of time but the result is quite impressive. For instance, a survey was be made after a several interventions in Quang Binh province in 2012 (Huong, n.d.). (8) Looking at an overall perspective, there was a great deal in the change in knowledge, attitude and application into food business. More specifically, the number of each sector rose by approximately 40%. As the benefits of this strategy are far outweighed by the drawbacks and stands out from others. So, personally, I believe that the reasonable suggest should be carrying out mass media information and education. Conclusion In a word, artificial chemicals first appeared for the good purposes and already take place an important role in life and in many fields such as food productions and food preservatives. However, abusing to much or even using unknown chemicals engenders a number of reverse effects on people’s health. For who works in the food business, as individuals and as a society, having a good vision at every single action is a necessary thing because there is none of a solution to eradicate such problems if people are unconscious. Bibliography (1)Bittman, M., 2008. Whats weong with what we eat. [Online] Available at: http://www.ted.com/talks/mark_bittman_on_what_s_wrong_with_what_we_eat/transcript [Accessed 2 December 2014]. (2)European Food Safety Authority , 2013. efsa. [Online] Available at: http://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/faqs/faqchemicalsinfood.htm [Accessed 31 October 2014]. (3)Food standars agency, 2012. Chemicals in food: safety controls. [Online] Available at: https://www.gov.uk/chemicals-in-food-safety-controls [Accessed 31 November 2014]. (4)Datamonitor, n.d. Thuc pham dong hop dung truoc co hoi lon. [Online] Available at: http://trungtamnghiencuuthucpham.vn/thuc-pham-dong-hop-dung-truoc-co-hoi-lon/ [Accessed 1 November 2014]. (5)Euromonitor International, 2014. Thi truong thuc an nhanh Viet Nam: The gioi tran vao, doanh nghiep noi lai tho o. [Online] Available at: http://www.tapchitaichinh.vn/Thi-truong-Gia-ca/Thi-truong-thuc-an-nhanh-Viet-Nam-The-gioi-tran-vao-doanh-nghiep-noi-lai-tho-o/52173.tctc [Accessed 2 November 2014]. (6)Lee, M. Media, D., n.d. Statistics of health risks from eating fast food. [Online] Available at: http://healthyeating.sfgate.com/statistics-health-risks-eating-fast-food-3290.html [Accessed 20 November 2014]. (7)Paracelsus, 2012. All in the dose. [Online] Available at: http://sciencelearn.org.nz/Contexts/Toxins/Science-Ideas-and-Concepts/All-in-the-dose [Accessed 12 November 2014]. (8)Huong, N.T., n.d. [Online] Available at: https://www.google.com/url?sa=trct=jq=esrc=ssource=webcd=2cad=rjauact=8ved=0CCEQFjABurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nutrition.org.vn%2FFileUpload%2FDocuments%2FLUAN%2520AN%2520Nguyen%2520Thanh%2520Huong-27-8.docei=CXScVIDMJOW_mwWjooG4Cgusg=AFQjCNE2jtxs_AQ [Accessed 20 November 2014]. (9)Anon., 2012. Bao dong nan kinh doanh hoa chat doc hai tran lan. [Online] Available at: http://vef.vn/2012-08-18-bao-dong-nan-kinh-doanh-hoa-chat-doc-hai-tran-lan- [Accessed 15 November 2014]. (10)Huong, N.X., 2014. Hat dua nhuom Rhodamine B cuc doc hai. [Online] Available at: http://www.tin247.com/hat_dua_nhuom_rhodamine_b_cuc_doc_hai-10-22754358.html [Accessed 16 December 2014]. (11)World Health Organization (WHO) and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) , 2012. Formol va suc khoe con nguoi. [Online] Available at: http://bacsytructuyen.com/diendan/baiviet/7414-formol-suc-khoe-con-nguoi/ [Accessed 15 December 2014]. (12)Bureau of Food Safety, 2012. chuong trinh muc tieu quoc gia. [Online] Available at: http://www.chinhphu.vn/portal/page/portal/chinhphu/noidungchuongtrinhmuctieuquocgia?_piref135_18249_135_18248_18248.strutsAction=ViewDetailAction.do_piref135_18249_135_18248_18248.docid=348_piref135_18249_135_18248_18248.substract= [Accessed 16 December 2014]. Huynh Ngoc Bich Diep 1

Western European Car Industries & Economies of Scale :: Business Economics Car Industry

Western European Car Industries & Economies of Scale There are a lot of factors that determines whether or not a company will be successful. These factors are usually derived from economics. One factor that I plan to focus on is scale economies or better known as economies of scale. Firms that have expanded their scale of operations to obtain economies of mass production have survived and flourished. Whereas smaller firms who have not been able to expand have usually ended up as high-cost producers. The topic discussed will be the Italian automotive industry and how it is affected by economies of scale. As the economic integration of Europe continues, it is likely that increasing international competition will affect firms in European industries. As other countries expand and have more trade worldwide, the more the European economy will be affected. The economy will tend to buy from outside of Europe due to taste and lower prices. There would be more firms to choose from decreasing Economies of scale are significant because motor vehicle manufacturing is an industry based on growth. Since the automotive industry being discussed is in Italy, it is based primarily around one company, Fiat. The majority of sales of automobiles in Italy are acquired by Fiat. The automotive industry constitutes a substantial part in the European economy because this industry makes up 10 percent of total manufacturing output. An economy of scale is an important factor within the Italian automobile industry. This is due to continuing European integration and that the Italian automobile industry is dominated by a company known as Fiat. Fiat was founded in July 1899. Fiat started with a plant in New York that manufactured then established relationships with other countries leading to exports to France, Austria, Great Britain and Australia. Since Fiat was called on for a lot of equipment during WWI, Fiat became well known throughout Europe. As years passed Fiat began to also acquire other automobile companies such as Lancia, Autobianchi, Abarth, Alfa Romeo, Maserati and Ferrari. In 1988, 59.9% of the vehicles sold and approximately 99.2% of the automobiles produced in Italy were made by Fiat. The company continued to enter numerous international agreements for the manufacturer of Fiat products and to expand its investments. This also lead to new factories that were built outside of Italy, which were South Afr ica, Yugoslavia, Argentina, Turkey and Mexico.

This is Your Brain on God :: Biology Essays Research Papers

"With all your science can you tell how it is, and whence it is that light comes into the soul?" ~ Henry David Thoreau Belief in God has long been held to be a superstition by the scientific community as the existence of such a higher power cannot be demonstrated through objective observation. While science is unable to prove whether or not God is real, the field of neurotheology has instead posed a new question that we can find answers to: is there activity in the brain specific to religious experience? Can science in fact shed light on Thoreau's question? Through the use of brain imaging technology, Dr. Andrew Newberg has conducted research in an attempt to find answers to these questions. The participants in his study were Buddhists well-versed in meditation. Newberg used a SPECT (single photon emission computed tomography) camera to make an image of the brain of an individual at the moment he reaches the climax of meditation. Such a picture would enable us to look at the brain as it "experiences God." The "peak" of meditation is clearly a subjective state, with each individual attaining it in different manners and having different time requirements. However, the sensation and meaning behind this moment is consistent among all who reach it. At the peak, the subjects indicate that they lose their sense of individual existence and feel inextricably bound with the universe. "There [are] no discrete objects or beings, no sense of space or the passage of time, no line between the self and the rest of the universe" (Newberg 119). As the river flowing east and west Merge in the sea and become one with it, Forgetting that they were ever separate rivers, So do all creatures lose their separateness When they merge at last . . . (Newberg 6-7) Newberg first took baseline images of the brains of the meditators to use as a standard for comparison (Newberg 5). It was important that these scans of the brain be taken while the subjects were at rest so that brain activity while one is simply relaxed could be differentiated from brain activity while one is having a spiritual experience. The baseline scans showed an "even distribution of activity throughout the brain," characterized by a large amount of activity in the posterior, superior parietal lobe and a moderate amount in the prefrontal cortex (Newberg 4).1 The subjects then meditated. When they reached the peak, they pulled on a string attached at one end to their finger and at the other to Dr.

completing college the easy way :: essays research papers

Completing our education is a goal many of us share. Finding the time to juggle classes, family life and a job seems to be the hard part. In today’s growing corporate world, more and more people are expanding their education. Searching to obtain a higher level of education, online classes seem to be the wave of the future. The growths in the technology field make achieving our goals seem almost too easy to be true.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Traditional schools offer many learning opportunities, not only to the young, but also to the adults looking to move forward with their careers. Many adults head off to college, hoping to reach personal goals by obtaining a higher level of education. With this goal in mind, many are looking for job opportunities.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Higher levels of learning bring an achievement of not only personal goals, but also many gain financial opportunities that come with having a degree. Organizations are hiring individuals with educational backgrounds, to benefit their company. Having a high school degree in these changing times is not a big enough asset anymore.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Online learning is quickly becoming the wave of the future. Many traditional colleges are quickly adding online courses to keep in demand. Modern technology enables us to receive our education with out leaving our home or jobs. Today’s computers are holding large amounts of information making, those days of lugging books back and forth to the library a thing of the past.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Completing our jobs, taking care of families and now attending classes via the Internet makes college more acceptable to many individuals. Attending a class when it is convenient to ones schedule is creating an environment of educated adults who are benefiting the companies they work for.

Imperialsim †proper and legitimate course Essay

Have you ever wanted something because you felt you deserved it? Throughout history people have wanted to expand and take what they wanted. It is human nature to want things and set goals to acquire those wants. Imperialism was a proper and legitimate course of action for the U.S. Imperialism is the proper thing for America to practice. Reverend Josiah Strong wrote Our Country stating, â€Å"The highest civilization will spread itself over the earth. â€Å"This means that Americas are better than all the people who we took the land of. Alfred T. Mahan wrote The Interest of America in Sea Power which says, â€Å"The growing production of the country demands it.† This means that America needs to expand to allow more people to purchase our products. President McKinley said, â€Å"we could not leave them to themselves they were unfit for self government.† This means that our way of government is so much better than theirs in our eyes that we must take over them to help them prosper. Albert Beveridge, a Republican senator from Indiana said, â€Å"Almighty God He has marked us as His chosen people.† This means that it’s our god given right to pursue more land. Henry Cabot Lodge stated â€Å"Taking Philippines does not violate the princ iples of the Declaration of Independence, but will spread them among a people who have never known liberty.† This means he want us to force freedom on the Philippines and eventually more people. Imperialism is legitimate and proper however some people disagree with this statement. Senator George F. Hoar says â€Å"under the Declaration of Independence you cannot govern a foreign territory, a foreign people, another people than your own†. This being said means that many things America has done goes against the declaration which is unjustifiable. Anti-Imperialist League said, we hold that the policy know as imperialism is hostile to liberty and tends toward militarism, an evil from which it has been out glory to be free.† This is basically saying that imperialism is evil and goes against liberty. In conclusion, Imperialism was a proper and legitimate course of action for  the U.S. Imperialism is a very controversial topic that can prove to be just or not in many ways. In the end if America did expand we would of wasted or true potential to be what we are now. If one this imperialism isn’t just how ever then why will there option matter because without land there would be overpopulation and lack of commonly used resources.

Charter

More tab of the library website, locate the following five database articles that deal with the dangers of global warming and climate change. If you have difficulty finding these resources through the library databases, contact the Embedded Librarian, Jodi Loomed, by posting a question to the Library Questions & Tips discussion forum. â€Å"Study on Energy Use in China,† by X. Yang and R. J. Crooked, in the Journal of the Energy Institute. â€Å"Lawsuit Aims to Alter Climate Report,† in theBulletin of the American Meteorological Society. â€Å"Balancing Carbon Management and Renewable Fuels Production,† by Mark Fuchs and Cheery Sullivan, in Bicycle. â€Å"Global Warming, Dangerous Storms and Biomass Losses in the Oceans,† by Ben Kroger, in Sea Technology. â€Å"Climate of Change,† by Broodier Raman, in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. In a Word document (name the document â€Å"01 _Yearned_Billion†), arrange your complete citations i n alphabetical order, by author if available; If no author is listed, arrange by title of the article.Compile entries in complete PAPA American Psychological Association) format and Include the following citation elements needed to cite an online Journal article: Author(s) Name(s) Year Title of the Article Title of Journal Volume Number Issue Number Page Number(s) DOI (Digital Object Identifier) OR URL of the article If no DOI Is present The alphabetized arrangement, use of capitalization, and formatting (using a hanging Indent of one-half Inch) should all conform to PAPA requirements. You can refer to the listed on the Write & Cite tab of the library website.Once your bibliography Is omelet, submit It to your Instructor Charter By matter 23 Association Journal. In a Word document (name the document â€Å"01 _Yearned_Bible'), arrange your complete citations in alphabetical order, by author if available; if no (American Psychological Association) format and include the following cit ation DOI (Digital Object Identifier) OR URL of the article if no DOI is present The indent of one-half inch) should all conform to PAPA requirements. You can refer to the listed on the Write & Cite tab of the library website. Once your bibliography is complete, submit it to your instructor

Exploring the greek mythology through the ‘Odyssey’

Literary narratives such as the Greek and the Roman mythologies have played a great part on the development of societies around the world. Especially in the context of western civilization, the mythologies of the Greeks and the Romans significantly shaped the culture of this region. Aside from its culture, it also highly influenced its society in general. In fact, politics and religion are also explained in the light of the Greek and Roman mythologies. In this paper, it will explore on the Greek mythology through the myth on the ‘Odyssey’. More specifically, it will emphasize on its main character by the name of Odysseus or Ulysses. Through this character, this paper will be able to explain the role of myth on the changing cultural make-up of Greece. In particular, this myth will serve as an instrument in identifying the way Greeks perceive and use mythologies. Finally, this paper will also present the different key points of the myth. The Odyssey is an epic of Homer about the adventures of Odysseus. Specifically, this myth is considered as the sequel to the earliest well-known surviving work in Western literature which is the ‘Iliad’. In comparison to many sequels in the present era, the ‘Odyssey’ is considered to be distinct because of its originality and even stands as an independent work. (Napierkowski, 1998a) It has been said that its main character, Odysseus, has been a celebrated hero in the Greek mythology. Being the central character in the ‘Odyssey’, he is best known for is adventures during his ten-year journey home after the Trojan War. His journey to home on Ithaca took ten years because of the anger of the sea god Poseidon. During his journey and adventures, the hero went to many wondrous and dangerous places. Along the way, he lost all his companions and the treasure he had gotten from Troy Arriving home at last after an absence of 20 years, Odysseus had to defeat rivals trying to take possession of his wife and his kingdom. Then he had to prove his identity to his wife, Penelope. (Wickersham, 2000) The adventures of Odysseus are highlighted by his achievement of victory in various challenges or struggles. Among this is the encounter with the Ciconians, the Lotus-eaters, Polyphemus, Aeolus, the Laestrygonians, Circe, Journey to the underworld, the sirens, Scylla and Charybdis, the cattle of Helios as well as the Calypso and the Phaecians. More importantly, one can also add the difficulties he acquired upon his arrival in Ithaca due to the suitors of his wife, Penelope. Eventually, all of these trials were conquered by Odysseus. Therefore, he was dubbed as a hero. Moreover, the qualities he manifested during his trials were considered as the qualities of a real or true hero. Undoubtedly, the voyages and troubles encountered by Odysseus highlights the concept of heroism, loyalty, creativity and order. In addition, the ‘Odyssey’ is also famous for its use of symbolism as well as for the pace and variety of its action. With this, both the ‘Iliad’ and the ‘Odyssey’ set the standard by which epic poetry, if not all poetry of any kind, was judged in the past 1,500 years. More importantly, the story on the wanderings of Odysseus has remained a perennial favorite to the present day. (Napierkowski, 1998a) Basically, the appeal of the ‘Odyssey’ is derived from its nature as being able to present the Greek people as well as the way of life in ancient Greek society. In short, the story serves as an archetype to various societies and not just the Greek community. Particularly, the characters of Penelope and Odysseus serve as a role model to the multitude. Their way of life has been the idealized life of the many. Until today, the moral of the story has continuously been resonated to the people of any culture or ethnic group. Furthermore, the theme of human condition is the most important theme in the ‘Odyssey’. In the story, almost every aspect of humanity is depicted- good, bad, young, old, individuals and groups, the living and even the dead. Other themes also include love and loyalty, order and disorder, heroic craftiness, the nature of women, triumph over temptation, home, the epic journey, the God’s involvement, revenge, heroism and, creativity, imagination and deception. Â  (Napierkowski, 1998b) Indeed, the story of Odysseus made a great impact on the society of the Greek people. In fact, even in the present day, the story on the adventures of this great hero is still related to many people around the world. In the contemporary society, people have created a modern version of the ‘Odyssey’ through the aid of media technology. This is evident on the animated version of this story in order to cater the needs of the children or the young generation. REFERENCES Burns, M. (1996, May 1). The wanderings of the Odysseus: The story of ‘The Odyssey.’ The Horn Book Magazine. Â  72 (3). Napierkowski, Marie Rose. (Ed). (1998). Odyssey: Introduction. Epics for students. Vol.1. Detroit: Gale. (1998). Odyssey: Themes. Epics for Students. Vol. 1. Detroit: Gale, Wickersham, John M. (Ed). (2000). Odysseus. Myths and Legends of the World. Macmillan: Thomson Gale. Â  

English as a World Language Essay

The global spread of English over the last 50 years is remarkable. It is unprecedented in several ways: by the increasing number of users of the language, by its depth of permeation [â€Å"pE:mI’eISn] into societies and its range of functions. There is a model consisting of 3 circles proposed by B.B. Kachru in 1982 in order to describe regional varieties of English. The 1st or inner circle includes people who speak English as their vernacular language (200-400 mln speakers).The outer circle includes people who live territories colonized by Britain and USA (India, Nigeria). And the expanding circle includes the rest of the world which is learning English. English is used for more purpose than ever before. Over 70% of the worlds scientists read English. About 85% of the world’s mail is written in English. And 90% of all information in the world’s electronic retrieval systems is stored in English. There are several basic characteristics of the English language which make it so popular. 1) The simplicity of form. It has no many inflections to show singular and plural, tense, person like in German, Russian and French. Verbs have very few inflections and adjectives do not change according to the noun. 2) Flexibility. As a result of loss of inflections English has become a very flexible language. Without inflections the same word can operate as many different parts of speech. Many nouns and verbs coincide in form. Adjectives can be used as verbs. 3) Openness of vocabulary. This involve the free admissions of words from other languages and easy creation of compounds and derivatives. Most world languages have contributed some words to English. Though English is a world language there are some ideas of creating a lingua franca which will be the vehicle for international communication. Such a lingua franca can become Esperanto. Created in 1887 by Ludvig Zamenhof as a means of unifying the whole world it’s spoken by 8 mln people all over the world. It’s taught at schools in China, Hungary and Yugoslavia. There are some advantages of Esperanto as a 2nd language. -It’s easier to learn (Esperanto has 16 rules and no exeptions). -It’s a neutral language. It has no political or cultural bias. -It saves money because 55% of expenses in all international organizations are spent on interpreters and translators. But nevertheless English which began 1500 years ago as a rude language now encompasses the world. There is no reason to believe that any other language will appear within the next 50 years to replace English. However it is possible that English will not keep its monopoly in the 21st century. A small number of languages may form an oligopoly – each with special area of influence (Spanish for example). English has been an international language for only 50 years. Geographically it’s the most widespread language on Earth, second only to Mandarin Chinese in the number of people who speak it. It’s the language of business, technology, sport and aviation. This will no doubt continue although the proposition that all other languages will die out is absurd.

Case WriteUp for Sunshine Foods Marketing

First, their motto: â€Å"As long as new products look like they will increase the company’s sales volume, they are introduced. † This is causing the company to take on too many products that don’t increase their revenues. It spreads them to thin and makes them too generic. Second, adding more products to use the unused areas of production. They need to do a cost analysis to see if using that unused production time has any cost/revenue benefit. Just because it is unused doesn’t mean that it will generate more money if it is used. Third, their contract states a grocer needs to carry at least 65 Sunshine Food items. This forces only large grocers to carry their items, which limits their market area. By limiting their market area to only large grocers they are unable to have price control and they are always competing against all of the other brands that the store carries. Sunshine’s lack of growth is primarily caused by their lack of specialization. If they can and freeze everything and anything then a consumer doesn’t see them as being â€Å"the best† in any product. Their lack of expansion into smaller stores is also holding back their growth. High overhead costs are created by Sunshine’s need to use every second of factory time. This is causing them to spend too much to create a product that returns very little. If their factories have that much unused time they should just close a few factories and focus on what is really important. Recommendations I would recommend that they first do a cost analysis on the products that they are producing. This will allow them to see which products sell the most and create the highest return. Once they know this information they need to produce more of those items and stop producing the items that aren’t helping their bottom line. Along with this, they will be able to identify which factories are the most efficient at producing those items. They can then close the slower factories and use the money to make the remaining factories more efficient. I would then have them change their contract to a much smaller number of items for stores to carry. If they lower their number to 25 items then they could sell items in more boutique shops that will have lower competition and higher prices. To really increase their profits they should pick a few â€Å"specialty† items and market themselves as having the best in those items. This will help them create more of a brand name, especially if they sell those items in the boutique shops. Case WriteUp for Sunshine Foods Marketing First, their motto: â€Å"As long as new products look like they will increase the company’s sales volume, they are introduced. † This is causing the company to take on too many products that don’t increase their revenues. It spreads them to thin and makes them too generic. Second, adding more products to use the unused areas of production. They need to do a cost analysis to see if using that unused production time has any cost/revenue benefit. Just because it is unused doesn’t mean that it will generate more money if it is used. Third, their contract states a grocer needs to carry at least 65 Sunshine Food items. This forces only large grocers to carry their items, which limits their market area. By limiting their market area to only large grocers they are unable to have price control and they are always competing against all of the other brands that the store carries. Sunshine’s lack of growth is primarily caused by their lack of specialization. If they can and freeze everything and anything then a consumer doesn’t see them as being â€Å"the best† in any product. Their lack of expansion into smaller stores is also holding back their growth. High overhead costs are created by Sunshine’s need to use every second of factory time. This is causing them to spend too much to create a product that returns very little. If their factories have that much unused time they should just close a few factories and focus on what is really important. Recommendations I would recommend that they first do a cost analysis on the products that they are producing. This will allow them to see which products sell the most and create the highest return. Once they know this information they need to produce more of those items and stop producing the items that aren’t helping their bottom line. Along with this, they will be able to identify which factories are the most efficient at producing those items. They can then close the slower factories and use the money to make the remaining factories more efficient. I would then have them change their contract to a much smaller number of items for stores to carry. If they lower their number to 25 items then they could sell items in more boutique shops that will have lower competition and higher prices. To really increase their profits they should pick a few â€Å"specialty† items and market themselves as having the best in those items. This will help them create more of a brand name, especially if they sell those items in the boutique shops.

Questions Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 27

Questions - Assignment Example As a result, such a male will have access to more females frequently and hence increase chances of intimacy. Hence, more females will get pregnant and increase chances of passing genes to subsequent generations. Moreover, being a high-ranking male means there will be more dominance in the group. The effect is access to many females and hence more intimacy. Consequently, there will be more offspring of the same male. There is a lot to learn after reading about the monkeys raised without a mother. First, it is clear that monkeys raised without a mother lacks the necessary social skills required to raise their own infants and interacts with the rest of the members. Hence, parenting among primates is paramount as it helps in equipping the young ones with social skills necessary for raising their own offspring and interacting with the rest of the members in a group. Primates are not purely instinctual; some of the behaviors are learnt through interaction with the rest of the members. For example, the young ones learn how to hunt from their

Database protection Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Database protection - Essay Example Compilations of data or other material, whether in machine readable or other form, which by reason of the selection or arrangement of their contents constitute intellectual creations shall be protected as such (â€Å"Agreement on Trade-Related.†). The petition filed to the WTO is basically a court hearing, with a judge, lawyers, plaintiff, and defendant. The only difference is that not all of the players in this court case are Americans, but from various countries belonging to the WTO. Whatever the judge decides, the defendant’s country, or America in this case, is left to uphold. If it was proven that the database had been accessed illegally and copies distributed, then America would enforce the penalty, ranging from prison to restitution. Most of the time restitution is the scenario. Let it be noted that only twenty-five cases of intellectual property theft has been petitioned to the WTO (â€Å"Agreement on Trade-Related.†). Another means for the database owner would be to file suit either in American federal or state court where the defendant is from. America has copyright laws for intellectual property. Because of the WTO, every WTO member must have current laws protecting intellectual property, America is no exception. By suing through the American justice system, the database owner could have an injunction placed on the product from the database immediately. American laws would also punish the hacker, if they were found guilty, by restitution or jail time. The two options above all depend on the database owner and where they live. If from a developed country like Russia or one of the European states, it is very likely justice will be done and their database will be protected. However, if from an underdeveloped country, like Cambodia or an African state the database owner will lose their property. One because their country does not have the existing WTO treaty or their country already has sanctions. Two the database owner would not have the

Health Law and Ethics Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Health Law and Ethics - Research Paper Example Petersburg, Florida, in a totally heart attack on 25th, February, 1990. She agonized huge brain impairment due to absence of oxygen and, in the next two and a half months in a loss of consciousness, her analysis was altered to vegetative condition. For a couple of years doctors tried physical and speech and therapy and other tentative therapy, anticipating to return her to a condition of responsiveness. In 1998 Michael, Schiavos husband, petitioned the 6th Circuit Court of Florida to confiscate feeding tube supporting her (America, H., 2006). He said he adores his wife and will do anything it takes to bring to an end the existence that he is certain she would not like to endure. He thought that she would like her feeding tube removed and that she would aspire to die instead of remaining in bed in a nurture home in a long-lasting vegetative condition for the remaining of her living days. The Schindler’s parents and the other siblings remained equally persuaded that Michael was wrong.   They said, Terri would like to be live, that she was not as brain-damaged as her husband thought, and that there was still optimism for her recovering irrespective of the point that she has be unsuccessful to show any slight improvement in the past 16 years. They dispute that there are still more actions to be tried and that since she was a Catholic, she would like to honor latest of Papal lessons that feeding tubes should not be detached from those in permanent vegetative condition (Alec & Newport, 2006). Michael was right when he said the tube to be detached and his beloved wife die this is because Ever since the Supreme Court permitted a respirator to be detached from Karen Ann Quinlan, U.S. Supreme Court stated that feeding tubes are medical cures just like antibiotics, heart-lung machines, respirators, and dialysis, it has been clear in U.S. legislation and medical beliefs that those who fail speaking can have their feeding tubes detached.   The power to

The Ocean Broiler Restraunt Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The Ocean Broiler Restraunt - Case Study Example Additionally, any head of department who requires additional staff members should submit written qualification requirements for such persons to be recruited. The human resource department then makes an advertisement and recruits individuals who successfully meet the job requirements and skills before organizing an interview. The human resource department should have colluded with the recruiting department to outsource the recruitment job to a qualified person or agency, but to carry out interview on that same person. Notably, it is the responsibility of the human resource manager to deal with the organization’s work force; thus, it is their mandate to ensure that the organization employs highly qualified people in its entire departments. After the recruitment process, a training session is then organized for the recruits. The nature of the training process and materials required for training depend on the functions of the departments. Training should be done using a manual of work as a source of reference (Pandey, 2006 p239). It is evident from the case study that the Ocean Broiler Restaurant lacks a formal system of training its new employees, since the recruits under training are engaged to a trainer who is fully engaged in the normal retune of the restaurant. In other words, there is not proper training accorded to the new recruits. Moreover, the restaurant does not provide the trainees with an opportunity to synthesize and understand what is being learned (Blue, 2011 p4). A training session that directly engages the recruits into the company’s daily routine makes this process ineffective, since the trainer needs address both the customers’ needs and the needs of the trainees (Mullins, 2011 p236). Since the Ocean Broiler restaurant uses the same inadequate training method; its service outcome is expected to be below standards. In addition, since the new recruits are assigned to different trainers, there is a strong probability that consi stency in service delivery will emerge compromising the quality of service offered to the customer (Blue, 2011 p2). The quality of Services offered to the customer depends on the quality of training the staff members received. Therefore, proper methods of training are paramount for quality service delivery. The restaurant management should, therefore, ensure that their staff members receive ideal training. Proper training of the staff members usually involves two distinct training methods (Pandey, 2006 p239). The first part involves collective training of the new recruits before narrowing down to training the recruits along their specific duties. Moreover, training should be a duty assigned to a single department in order to maintain quality in training, and to achieve consistency in service delivery. To ensure that quality of training is not compromised, every department should link with the human resource department that is competent in obtaining qualified staff members (Mullins, 2011 p237). In addition, the training session should be reasonably longer to facilitate proper mastery of the work or service delivery techniques required of a person. At some point, the restaurant should consider training the senior staff members (Koontz & Weihrich, 2006 p214). This may be done to refresh the already existing techniques within them or to introduce them to new techniques for quality enhancement. All training methods should aim at boosting service delivery to the customers. Due to the ever-changing customers’

The Role Self-Concept In Building Interpersonal Relationships Essay

The Role Self-Concept In Building Interpersonal Relationships - Essay Example Sales personnel can obtain the attention of the manager of some organization by applying his oily tongue, flattering techniques, and capability of glamorizing the scenario and articles to sell them to the customers and clients. A writer can capture the consideration of a magazine, journal or newspaper by writing the powerful article on the topic of public interest. Without self-disclosure in the present of the relevant authority, making sure headway leading to success is certainly tantamount to impossibility. It becomes evident that self-concept and self-disclosure turn out to be fruitful for the individuals to assess and estimate their abilities and exhibit the same while communicating with other members of society. Attributed to the unprecedented technological advancements, the contemporary era is frequently regarded to be the age of perfect competition, which has introduced revolutionary alterations in all fields of life, including the corporate sector all over the globe. The comp anies hire the services of highly qualified, proficient, confident and brilliant personnel against the positions in different departments with the aim of ensuring a powerful penetration into the entire business environment in a successful manner. Not only this that the companies strongly recommend the development of self-concept in the employees, but also lay stress upon the observing of the same while demonstrating their interpersonal skills while entering into interaction with the management, co-workers, subordinates, and customers at large.

What is meant by the 'Star System' illustrate the workings of the Essay

What is meant by the 'Star System' illustrate the workings of the system by analysing the image of one star from the period 1930-1960 - Essay Example The star system created and promoted film stars by creating personas for them. In the process new names and backgrounds were created. Cary Grant, Joan Crawford and Rock Hudson were film stars who were created by the Hollywood star system. The system expected men to be gentlemen and women to wear stylish clothes when leaving the house. There were special clauses within the actors’ contracts which called for strict moral regulations to be adhered to (de Cordova, 52, 2000). The star’s public image was fiercely guarded by the Hollywood executives. Any scandals or incidents that damaged the star’s image were covered up. Sham dates were introduced for actors who were homosexual. Actors and actresses were matched together in order to create a public image of a romantic couple. Money was given to witnesses to hide incidents of drugs, adultery, drinking and divorce. Some tabloid papers were on the Hollywood payroll which exclusively reported on the stars to update their public image. Celebrity scandals were hushed up by giving money to tabloid papers and journals (Walker, 57, 1970). During the initial years of the film industry, actors and actresses were reluctant to perform in films. They felt embarrassment in working for movies. The film industry was considered at the level of carnivals and freak shows. Only silent movies were considered to be acceptable. Producers also feared that by working for films actors would gain more fame and prestige. Thomas Edison’s Motion Picture Patents Company forced companies to follow their rules and equipment during the design of films. The Motion Picture Patents Company did not promote stars. The star system eventually arose from the public desire to know the names of the actors. Film audiences gave their own nicknames to performers in movies they liked (McDonald, 77, 2000). Star promotion was first done by Carl Laemmle when he acquired Lawrence from Biograph. He promoted the star by spreading rumors of her being killed in

WWII Inventions and Innovations Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

WWII Inventions and Innovations - Essay Example One can only begin to imagine where the world would be now if WWII had not happened. The innovations that resulted from WWII are quite significant and still present in modern society. Some significant events that took place during WWII that have impacted my life as well as the lives of many sometimes go unnoticed but not forgotten. Women took on a new role in society and men fought for freedom. New weapons were created as well as the means for new technology. Hitler’s power was defeated and the Japanese went against the odds and made a surprising attack on Pearl Harbor. This attack began the start of the war and America bombed two Japanese territories that finished the war. The end of the war also marked a milestone in history as this started a new way of life for many. The role of women is one of the most innovative and long running changes that can still be seen in modern society as result of WWII. When WWII began women had a role that left them limited to taking care of the home, children and husband. These roles women had made their presence in the work field limited and their motivation to step up in society low. WWII made it necessary for men to go to war. This meant that the men would be leaving the home and the women were then forced with the burden to take care of everything that they were once before limited too. With many men off to war but the production of war supplies at an all time high, women were encouraged to step up and go to work. Many women not only worked like men once did, but women were also enlisting in the war. The government helped force this upon women with the use of advertising. Many billboards and posters were placed for women to see that encouraged them to step up in society. This is known in history as Rosie the Riveters. The events that WWII had on women and their new role in society have affected lives even to this day. Women are still working many jobs alongside men as well as taking care of the household. Women are mo re outspoken and honored for their many achievements. Without WWII, the role of women in society would not be as flourished as it is because of the result of WWII. The government was also able to use this as a way to investigate the affects that the mass media has on others. The response to the advertising toward women was so successful that the government was able to gain power through motivation. Weapons and technology that were invented during WWII are also used today and can be seen as building blocks for other weapons and technological advances. The medical field, weaponry and communications have come a long way since WWII but without advances made in WWII, many may not have been possible. Weapons and military advancement that have impacted modern day life and helped to advance the war include new ships and guns, the use of navigation and espionage and the rise in factory work this created. Many countries were constantly developing new ways that allowed them to take on a more p owerful stance during WWII. Medical advancements developed during WWII helped many survive injuries and are still used today. Although drugs such as penicillin were created before WWII the need was high for those in the front lines of war. What this meant was that penicillin needed to be mass produced and stored efficiently so that it could be beneficial. The ability to mass produce and distribute penicillin has impacted lives today. Pharmaceutical companies are now able to better keep up with the demand of many medicines that each one of us use every day. Communication as a result of WWII has made many impacts. These impacts include allowing communication to be as advanced as it now is. The results are the

Confucianism, Legalism, Daosim Essay Example for Free

Confucianism, Legalism, Daosim Essay China was built by three ancient philosophies. Each has its own meanings; each had its own ways of seeing the nature of human beings, society and the universe. These three philosophies were Legalism, Confucianism and Daoism. Although they each have many differences their purpose is the same, to make society better, to end conflict. Confucius started Confucianism. He felt that if rulers were honest and children respected their parents everything would fall into place. Human nature was considered neutral and it was what you did that determined whether it was good or bad, each person had a role that they must follow. Freethinking was encouraged. Legalisms approach was much more forceful, books were burnt and freethinking was discouraged. People were not inspired by their leaders but scared of them, human nature was considered bad; therefore rules and harsh punishments took place. Unlike the rest of the philosophy’s Daoism’s approach is much less focused on politics. The idea that humans needed to be in harmony with nature took place; it’s all about the balance of good and bad, yin and yang. Each Philosophy has its own view of what human nature should be. Daoism believes that human nature is good, Legalism believes that human nature is bad and people need to be controlled by laws and punishments in order to prevent them form doing wrong. Confucianism believes that human nature is neutral, and its is what you do in life that determines whether it is good or bad.

Semantics and Theories of Semantics Essay Example for Free

Semantics and Theories of Semantics Essay Semantics is the study of meaning in language. We know that language is used to express meanings which can be understood by others. But meanings exist in our minds and we can express what is in our minds through the spoken and written forms of language (as well as through gestures, action etc. ). The sound patterns of language are studied at the level of phonology and the organisation of words and sentences is studied at the level of morphology and syntax. These are in turn organised in such a way that we can convey meaningful messages or receive and understand messages. ‘How is language organised in order to be meaningful? ’ This is the question we ask and attempt to answer at the level of semantics. Semantics is that level of linguistic analysis where meaning is analysed. It is the most abstract level of linguistic analysis, since we cannot see or observe meaning as we can observe and record sounds. Meaning is related very closely to the human capacity to think logically and to understand. So when we try to analyse meaning, we are trying to analyse our own capacity to think and understand, our own ability to create meaning. Semantics concerns itself with ‘giving a systematic account of the nature of meaning’ (Leech). Difficulties in the Study of Meaning The problem of ‘meaning’ is quite difficult, it is because of its toughness that some linguists went on to the extent of excluding semantics from linguistics. A well-known structuralist made the astonishing statement that ‘linguistic system of a languagedoes not include the semantics. The system is abstract, it is a signaling system, and as soon as we study semantics we are no longer studying language but the semantic system associated with language. The structralists were of the opinion that it is only the form of language which can be studied, and not the abstract functions. Both these are misconceptions. Recently a serious interest has been taken in the various problems of semantics. And semantics is being studied not only by the linguists but also by philosophers, psychologists, scientists, anthropologists and sociologists. Scholars have long puzzled over what words mean or what they represent, or how they are related to reality. They have at times wondered whether words are more real than objects, and they have striven to find the essential meanings of words. It may be interesting to ask whether words do have essential meaning. For example, difficulties may arise in finding out the essential meaning of the word table in water table, dining table, table amendment, and the table of 9. An abstract word like good creates even more problems. Nobody can exactly tell what good really means, and how a speaker of English ever learns to use the word correctly. So the main difficulty is to account facts about essential meanings, multiple meanings, and word conditions. The connotating use of words adds further complications to any theorizations about meaning, particularly their uses in metaphor and poetic language. Above all is the question : where does meaning exist: in the speaker or the listener or in both, or in the context or situation ? Words are in general convenient units to state meaning. But words have meanings by virtue of their employment in sentences, most of which contain more than one word. The meaning of a sentence, though largely dependent on the meaning of its component words taken individually, is also affected by prosodic features. The question whether word may be semantically described or in isolation, is more a matter of degree than of a simple answer yes or no. It is impossible to describe meaning adequately any other way except by saying how words are typically used as part of longer sentences and how these sentences are used. The meanings of sentences and their components are better dealt with in linguistics in turns of how they function than exclusively in terms of what they refer to. Words are tools; they become important by the function they perform, the job they do, the way they are used in certain sentences. In addition to reference and function, scholars have also attached import talkie to popular historical considerations, especially etymology, while studying word-meanings. Undobtedly the meaning of any word is casually the product of continuous changes in its antecedent meanings or uses, and in many cases it is the collective product of generations of cultural history. Dictionaries often deal with this sort of information if it is available, but in so ding they are passing beyond the bounds of synchronic statement to the separate linguistic realm of historical explanation. Different answers have been given to the questions related to meaning. Psychologists have tried to assess the availability of certain kinds of responses to objects, to experiences, and to words themselves. Philosophers have proposed a variety of systems and theories to account for the data that interest them. Communication scientists have developed information theory so that they can use mathematical models to explain exactly what is predictable and what is not predictable when messages are channeled through various kinds of communication networks. From approaches like these a complex array of conceptions of meaning emerges. Lexical and Grammatical Meaning When we talk about meaning, we are talking about the ability of human beings to understand one another when they speak. This ability is to some extent connected with grammar. No one could understand: hat one the but red green on bought tried Rameez. while Rameez tried on the red had but bought the green one causes no difficulties. Yet there are numerous sentences which are perfectly grammatical, but meaningless. The most famous example is Chomsky’s sentence â€Å"Colourless green ideas sleep furiously†. Similar other examples are: * The tree ate the elephant. * The pregnant bachelor gave birth to six girls tomorrow. * The table sneezed. In a sentence such as Did you understand the fundamentals of linguistics? A linguist has to take into account at least two different types of meaning: lexical meaning and grammatical meaning. Full words have some kind of intrinsic meaning. They refer to objects, actions and qualities that can be identified in the external world, such as table, banana, sleep, eat, red. Such words are said to have lexical meaning. Empty words have little or no intrinsic meaning. They exist because of their grammatical function in the sentence. For example, and is used to join items, or indicates alternative, of sometimes indicates possession. These words have grammatical meaning. Grammatical meaning refers mainly to the meaning of grammatical items as did, which, ed. Grammatical meaning may also cover notions such as ‘subject’ and ‘object’, sentence types as ’interrogative’, ‘imperative’ etc. Because of its complexity, grammatical meaning is extremely difficult to study. As yet, no theory of semantics has been able to handle it portly. But the study of lexical items is more manageable. What is Meaning? Philosophers have puzzled over this question for over 2000 years. Their thinking begins from the question of the relationship between words and the objects which words represent. For example, we may ask: What is the meaning of the word ‘cow’? One answer would be that it refers to an animal who has certain properties, that distinguish it from other animals, who are called by other names. Where do these names come from and why does the word ‘cow’ mean only that particular animal and none other? Some thinkers say that there is no essential connection between the word ‘cow’ and the animal indicated by the word, but we have established this connection by convention and thus it continues to be so. Others would say that there are some essential attributes of that animal which we perceive in our minds and our concept of that animal is created for which we create a corresponding word. According to this idea, there is an essential correspondence between the sounds of words and their meanings, e. g. , the word ‘buzz’ reproduces ‘the sound made by a bee’. It is easy to understand this, but not so easy to understand how ‘cow’ can mean’ a four-legged bovine’—there is nothing in the sound of the word ‘cow’ to indicate that, (Children often invent words that illustrate the correspondence between sound and meaning: they may call a cow ‘moo-moo’ because they hear it making that kind of sound. ) The above idea that words in a language correspond to or stand for the actual objects in the world is found in Plato’s dialogue CratyIus. However, it applies only to some words and not to others, for example, words that do not refer to objects, e. g. ‘love’, ‘hate’. This fact gives rise to the view held by later thinkers, that the meaning of a word is not the object it refers to, but the concept of the object that exists in the mind. Moreover, as de Saussure pointed out, the relation between the word (signifier) and the concept (signified) is an arbitrary one, i.e. the word does not resemble the concept. Also, when we try to define the meaning of a word we do so by using other words. So, if We try to explain the meaning of ‘table’ we need to use other words such as ‘four’, ‘legs’, and ‘wood’ and these words in turn can be explained only by means of other words. In their book, The Meaning of Meaning, L. K. Ogden and I. A. Richards made an attempt to define meaning. When we use the word ‘mean’, we use it in different ways. ‘I mean to do this’ is a way of expressing our intention. ‘The red signal means stop’ is a way of indicating what the red signal signifies. Since all language consists of signs, we can say that every word is a sign indicating something—usually a sign indicates other signs. Ogden and Richards give the following list of some definitions of ‘meaning’. Meaning can be any of the following: 1. An intrinsic property of some thing 2. Other words related to that word in a dictionary 3. The connotations of a word (that is discussed below) 4. The thing to which the speaker of that word refers 5. The thing to which the speaker of that word should refer  6. The thing to which the speaker of that word believes himself to be referring 7. The thing to which the hearer of that word believes is being referred to. These definitions refer to many different ways in which meaning is understood. One reason for the range of definitions of meaning is that words (or signs) in a language are of different types. Some signs indicate meaning in a direct manner, e. g. an arrow (?  ®) indicates direction. Some signs are representative of the thing indicated, e. g. onomatopoeic wards such as ‘buzz’. ‘tinkle’ ‘ring’; even ‘cough’. ‘slam’, ‘rustle have onomatopoeic qualities. Some signs do not have any resemblance to the thing they refer to, but as they stand for that thins, they are symbolic. Taking up some of the above definitions of meaning, we can discuss the different aspects of meaning o a word as follows: (i) The logical or denotative meaning. This is the literal meaning of a word indicating the idea or concept to which it refers. concept is a minimal unit of meaning which could be called a ‘sememe’ in the same way as the unit of sound is called a ‘phoneme’ and is like the ‘morpheme h Is structure and organisation. Just as the phoneme /b/ may be defined as a bilatial + voiced + plosive, the word ‘man’ may be defined as a concept consisting of a structure of meaning ‘human + male + adult’ expressed through the basic morphological unit ‘m + ? + n’. All the three qualities are logical attributes of which the concept ‘man’ is made. They are the minimal qualities that the concept must possess in order to be a distinguishable concept, e. g. if any of these changes, the concept too changes. So ‘human + female + adult’ would not be the concept referred to by the word ‘man’, since it is a different concept. (ii) The connotative meaning. This is the additional meaning that a concept carries. It is defined as ‘the communicative value an expression has by virtue of what it refers to over and above its purely conceptual content’ (Leech, 1981). That is, apart from its logical or essential attributes, there is a further meaning attached to a word, which comes from its reference to other things in the real world. In the real world, such a word may be associated with some other features or attributes. For example, the logical or denotative meaning of the word ‘woman’ is the concept, ‘human + female + adult’. To it may be added the concept of ‘weaker sex’ or ‘frailty’. These were the connotations or values associated with the concept of ‘woman’. Thus connotative meaning consists of the attributes associated with a concept. As we know, these associations come into use over a period of time in a particular culture and can change with change in time. While denotative meaning remains stable since it defines the essential attributes of a concept, connotative meaning changes as it is based on associations made to the concept; these associations may change. (iii) The social meaning: This is the meaning that a word or a phrase conveys about the circumstances of its use. That is, the meaning of a word is understood according to the different style and situation in which the word is used, e. g. though the words ‘domicile’, ‘residence’, ‘abode’, ‘home’ all refer to the same thing (i. e. their denotative meaning is the same), each word belongs to a particular situation of use—’domicile’ is used in an official context, ‘residence’ in a formal context, ‘abode’ is a poetic use and ‘home’ is an ordinary use. Where one is used, the other is not seen as appropriate. Social meaning derives from an awareness of the style in which something is written and spoken and of the relationship between speaker and hearer—whether that relationship is formal, official, casual, polite, or friendly. (iv) The thematic meaning: This is the meaning which is communicated by the way in which a speaker or writer organises the message in terms of ordering, focus and emphasis. It is often felt, for example, that an active sentence has a different meaning from its passive equivalent although its conceptual meaning seems to be the same. In the sentences: Mrs. Smith donated the first prize The first prize was donated by Mrs. Smith the thematic meaning is different. In the first sentence it appears that we know who Mrs. Smith is, so the new information on which the emphasis is laid is ‘the first prize’. In the second sentence, however, the emphasis is laid on ‘Mrs. Smith’. It is sometimes difficult to demarcate all these categories of meaning. For example, it may be difficult to distinguish between conceptual meaning and social meaning in the following sentences: He stuck the key in his pocket. He put the key in his pocket. We could argue that these two sentences are conceptually alike, but different in social meaning––the first one adopts a casual or informal style, the second adopts a neutral style. However, we could also say that the two verbs are conceptually different: ‘stuck’ meaning ‘put carelessly and quickly’, which is a more precise meaning than simply ‘put’. Of course, it is a matter of choice which word the speaker wishes to use, a more precise one or a neutral one. Some Terms and Distinctions in Semantics (a) Lexical and grammatical meaning Lexical or word meaning is the meaning of individual lexical items. These are of two types: the open class lexical items, such as nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs, and the close class items such as prepositions, conjunctions and deter-miners. The open class items have independent meanings, which are defined in the dictionary. The closed class items have meaning only in relation to other words in a sentence; this is called grammatical meaning, which can be understood from a consideration of the structure of the sentence and its relation with other sentences. For example, in the sentence The tiger killed the elephant’, there are three open class items: tiger, kill, elephant. Out of these, two are nouns and one is a verb. There is one closed class tern— ’the’—which occurs before each noun. It has no independent reference of its own and can have meaning only when placed before the nouns. This distinction may help in understanding ambiguity. Thus, if there is ambiguity in a sentence, this can be a lexical ambiguity or a grammatical ambiguity. For example, in the sentence: I saw him near the bank, there is lexical ambiguity, since the item ‘bank’ can mean (a) the financial institution or (b) the bank of a river. However, in the case of: ‘The parents of the bride and the groom were waiting’ there is grammatical ambiguity as the sentence structure can be interpreted in two ways: (a) the two separate noun phrases being ‘the parents of the bride’, and ‘the groom’; or (b) the single noun phrase ‘the parents’ within which there is the prepositional phrase ‘of the bride and the groom’ containing two nouns. The first type of coordination gives us the meaning that the people who were waiting were the parents of the bride and the groom himself. The second type of coordination gives us the meaning that the people who were waiting were the parents of the bride and the parents of the groom. The meaning of a sentence is the product of both lexical and grammatical meanings. This becomes clear if we compare a pair of sentences such as the following: The dog bit the postman. The postman bit the dog. These two sentences differ in meaning. But the difference in meaning is not due to the difference in the meaning of the lexical items ‘postman’ and ‘dog’, but in the grammatical relationship between the two. In one case  Ã¢â‚¬Ëœdog’ is the subject and ‘postman’ is the object, in the other case the grammatical roles are reversed. There is also the relationship of these nouns with the verb ‘bit’. In the first sentence, the action is performed by the dog, which conforms to our knowledge about dogs, but in the second sentence, the action is performed by the postman which does not match with our knowledge about what postmen do, so there is a sense of incongruity about the second sentence. Only in some exceptional circumstance could we expect it to be comprehensible. (b) Sense and Reference. It has been explained earlier that signs refer to concepts as well as to other signs. A sign is a symbol that indicates a concept. This concept is the reference, which refers in turn to some object in the real world, called the referent. The relationship between linguistic items (e. g. words, sentences) and the non-linguistic world of experience is a relationship of reference. It can be understood by the following diagram given by Ogden and Richards: The objects in the real world are referents, the concept which we have of them in our minds is the reference and the symbol we use to refer to them is the word, or linguistic item. As we have seen, we can explain the meaning of a linguistic item by using other words. The relation of a word with another word is a sense-relation. Therefore, sense is the complex system of relationships that holds between the linguistic items themselves. Sense is concerned with the intra-linguistic relations, i. e. relations within the system of the language itself, such as similarity between words, opposition, inclusion, and pre-supposition. Sense relations include homonymy, polysemy, synonymy and antonymy. Homonyms are different items (lexical items or structure words) with the same phonetic form. They differ only in meaning, e. g. the item ‘ear’ meaning ‘organ of hearing’ is a homonym of the item ‘ear’ meaning ‘a stem of wheat’. Homonymy may be classified as: (a) Homography: a phenomenon of two or more words having the same spellings but different pronunciation or meaning, e. g. lead /led/ = metal; lead/li:d/ = verb. (b) Homophony: a phenomenon of two or more words having the same pronunciation but different meanings or spellings, e. g.sea/see, knew/new, some/ sum, sun/son. It is difficult to distinguish between homonymy and polysemy as in polysemy, the ‘same’ lexical item has different meanings, e. g. ‘bank*’, ‘face*’: Two lexical items can be considered as synonyms if they have the same denotative, connotative and social meaning and can replace each other in all contexts of occurrence. Only then can they be absolutely synonymous. For example, ‘radio’ and ‘wireless’ co-existed for a while as synonyms, being used as alternatives by speakers of British English. But now, ‘wireless’ is not used frequently. What we consider as synonyms in a language are usually near-equivalent items, or descriptive items. For example, ‘lavatory’, ‘toilet’, ‘WC’, ‘washroom’ are descriptive or near-equivalent synonyms in English. Antonyms are lexical items which are different both in form as well as meaning. An antonym of a lexical item conveys the opposite sense, e. g. single-married, good-bad. But this gives rise to questions of what is an opposite or contrasted meaning. For example, the opposite of ‘woman’ could be ‘man’ or girl’ since the denotation of both is different from that of ‘woman’. Thus we need to modify our definition of antonymy. We can say that some items are less compatible than other items. There can be nearness of contrast or remoteness of contrast. Thus ‘man’ or ‘girl’ is contrasted to ‘woman’ but less contrasted than ‘woman’ and ‘tree’. In this sense, ‘woman’ and ‘man’ are related, just as ‘girl’ and ‘boy’ are related, in spite of being contrasted. Other meaning-relations of a similar nature are: mare/stallion, cow/bull, ram/ewe etc. , all based on gender distinctions. Another set of meaning relations can be of age and family relationship: father/son, uncle/nephew, aunt/ niece. In this, too, there are differences in the structures of different languages. In Urdu, for instance, gender distinction or contrast may be marked by a change in the ending of the noun (e. g. /gho:? a:/gho:? i:/ for ‘horse’ and ‘mare’ respectively) or, in some cases, by a different word (e. g. /ga:e/bael/ for ‘cow’ and ‘bull’ respectively). In English, there are usually different words to mark contrast in gender except in a few cases (e. g. elephant, giraffe). The evolution of a complex system of sense relations is dependent on the way in which the objects of the world and the environment are perceived and conceptualized by the people who make that language. For example, Eskimos have many words related in meaning to ‘snow’ because snow in different forms is a part o their environment. In English, there are only two ‘snow’ and ‘ice’, while in Urdu there is only one: ‘baraf’. This reflects the importance that a particular object or phenomena may have for a certain community. Another kind of sense-relationship is hyponymy. Hyponymy is the relation that holds between a more general and more specific lexical item. For example, ‘flower’ is a more general item, and ‘rose’, ‘lily’, etc. are more specific. The more specific item is considered a hyponym of the more general item—’rose’ is a hyponym of ‘flower’. The specific item includes the meaning of the general. When we say ‘rose’, the meaning of ‘flower’ is included in its meaning. ‘Rose’ is also hyponymous to ‘plant’ and ‘living thing’ as these are the most general categories. The combination of words to produce a single unit of meaning is also a part of sense-relations in a language. Compounds are made, which often do not mean the same as the separate words which they consist of. Thus, while ‘black bird’ can be understood to mean ‘a bird which is black’, ‘strawberry’ cannot be understood to mean ‘a berry made of straw’. Similarly, ‘fighter’ can be considered to be a noun made up of the morphemes ‘fight’ + ‘er’, but ‘hammer’ cannot be considered as made up of ‘ham’ + ‘er’. Phrasal verbs and idioms are also a case of such sense relations. The verbs ‘face up to’, ‘see through’, ‘look upon’, etc. have a composite meaning. Collocations such as ‘heavy smoker’ and ‘good singer’ are not mere combinations of heavy + smoker meaning ‘the smoker is heavy’ or ‘good + singer’. They mean ‘one who smokes heavily’ or ‘one who sings well’. The collocated unit has a meaning which is a composite of both that is why we cannot say ‘good smoker’ and ‘heavy singer’. All these sense-relations are peculiar to a language and every language develops its own system of sense-relations. (c) Sentence-meaning and Utterance-meaning A distinction may be drawn between, sentence-meaning and utterance-meaning. This is because a speaker may use a sentence to mean something other than what is normally stated in the sentence itself. As discussed earlier, sentence meaning is a combination of lexical and grammatical meaning. In addition to this, intonation may also affect sentence meaning. For example, ‘I don’t like COFFEE’ means that the speaker does not like coffee, but may like some other drink; ‘I don’t like coffee’ means that the speaker doesn’t like coffee but someone else does. Speakers can use intonation to change the emphasis and thus the meaning of the sentence. Further, a sentence may be used by a speaker to perform some act, such as the act of questioning, warning, promising, threatening, etc. Thus, a sentence such as ‘Its cold in here’ could be used as an order or request to someone to shut the window, even though it is a declarative sentence. Similarly, an interrogative sentence such as ‘Could you shut the door? ’ can be used to perform the act of requesting or commanding rather than that of questioning (The speaker is not asking whether the hearer is able to shut the door, but is requesting the hearer to actually do the action). Usually such use of sentences is so conventional that we do not stop to think of the literal sentence meaning, we respond to the speaker’s act of requesting, etc., which is the utterance meaning. This is the meaning that a sentence has when a speaker utters it to perform some act, in particular appropriate circumstances. (d) Entailment and Presupposition One sentence may entail other sentence—that is, include the meaning of other sentence in its meaning, just as hyponymy includes the meaning of other word. For example, the sentence ‘The earth goes round the sun’ entails (includes) the meaning ‘The earth moves’. A sentence may presuppose other sentences, e. g. the sentence ‘Shamim’s son is named Rahat’ presupposes the sentence ‘Shamim has a son’. Presupposition is the previously known meaning which is implied in the sentence. While entailment is a logical meaning inherent in the sentence, presupposition may depend on the knowledge of the facts, shared by the speaker and the hearer. Theories of Semantics a) Traditional Approach: We have noted earlier that meaning was always a central concern with thinkers. This has been the root of much divergent opinions and definitions of meaning. However, there was little doubt that there are two sides of the issue : symbolic realization, whether in utterance or in writing, and the thing symbolised. Plato’s Cratylus clearly lays down that word is the signifier (in the language) and the signified is the object (in the world). Words are, therefore, names, labels that denote or stand for. Initially, a child learns to know his world, and his language in this manner. He is pointed out the objects and people; names are given to them, and in his mind link or association between the names and the external world is established. Children have always been taught their language in this manner. This is also perhaps the way the earliest thinkers tried to understand the world through linguistic medium. That could be the reason why William Labov was prompted to say, ‘In many ways, the child is a perfect historian of the language’. This simple view of the relationship between name and things is diagrammatically shown below. However, this is an extremely simplistic theory and it would be wrong to say the child simply learns the names of things. Gradually, and simultaneously, he learns to ‘handle the complexities of experience along with the complexities of language’. b) Analytical/Referential Approach: Between the symbol and the object/thing there is an intervening phenomenon which is recognized as ‘the mediation of concepts of the mind’. De Saussure and I. A. Richards and C. K. Ogden are the best-known scholars to hold this view. The Swiss linguist de Saussure postulated the link, a psychological associative bond, between the sound image and the concept. Ogden and Richards viewed this in the shape of a triangle. The linguistic symbol or image, realized as a word or sentence and the referent, the external entities are mediated by thought or reference. There is no direct relation between the sign and the object but ‘our interpretation of any sign is our psychological reaction to it’ (Ogden). The meaning of a word in the most important sense of the word is that part of a total reaction to the word which constitutes the thought about what the word is intended for and what it symbolizes. Thus thought (the reference) constitutes the symbolic or referential meaning of a word (YevgenyBasin : 32-33). Linguistics, in the opinion of de Saussure, operates on the borderland where the elements of sound and thought combine : their combination produces a form, not a substance. When we see an object, a bird, for example, we call it referent; its recollection is its image. It is through this image that the sign is linked to the referent. The symbol is manifested in the phonetic form and the reference is the information the hearer is conveyed. This process thus established, makes meaning a ‘reciprocal’ and reversible relation between name and sense. One can start with the name and arrive at the meaning or one can start with the meaning and arrive at the name/s. The referential or ‘analytical’ approach, as it is also known, tries to avoid the functional domain of language, and seeks rather to understand meaning by identifying its primary components. This approach is the descendant of the ancient philosophical world-view, and carries its limitations. It ignores the relatively different positions at which the speaker and the hearer are situated. Their positions make a reciprocal and reversible relationship between name and sense (Ullmann). This approach also overlooks other psychological, non-physical processes which donot depend upon the linguistic symbol, the reception of the sound waves for recognising the meaning of the object/thing. A word usually has multiple meaning and is also associated with other words. Which of the meanings will be received depends upon the situations. (c) Functional Approach In the year 1953 L. Wittgenstein’s work Philosophical Investigation was published. Around this time Malinowski and J. R. Firth were working to formulate the ‘operational character of scientific concepts like ‘length’, ‘time’ or ‘energy’; they tried to grasp the meaning of a word by observing the uses to which it is put instead of what is said about it. They approached the problem by including all that is relevant in establishing the meaning – the hearers, their commonly shared knowledge and information, external objecs, and events, the contexts of earlier exchange and so on, and not by excluding them. This approach can directly be linked to the concept of the Context of situation being developed by the London group which viewed social processes as significant factor in explaining a speech event. While the referential approach took an idealist position, dealing, as someone said, with ‘meaning in language’, the functional theory or the operational theory took a realistic stand, taking ‘speech’ as it actually occurred. Words are considered tools and whole utterances are considered. Meaning is thus seen to involve a ‘set of multiple and various relations between the utterances’ and its segments and the relevant components of environment’ (Robins). In placing special emphasis on language as a form of behaviour – as something that we perform, the functional approach shares a lot with systemic linguistics. Language is a form a behaviour which is functional, ‘something that we do with a purpose, or more often, in fact, with more than one purpose. It is viewed as a form of functional behaviour which is related to the social situation in which it occurs as something that we do purposefully in a particular social setting’ (Margaret Berry). The systemic organization of a language is sought to be understood through its relations with the social situations of language. According to this theory, meaning is classified into two broad categories, Contextual Meaning and Formal Meaning. Contextual meaning relates a formal item or pattern to an element of situation.