The Three C's Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

The Three C's - Essay Example Known as great hunter-gatherers, American Indians are recognized as the legend of metallurgy. Their craftsmanship and knowledge in metallurgy enabled them to devise the latest and pliable tools for hunting. Also, being skillful hunters allowed American Indians to become substantial keepers of livestock which helped them to grow economically through the Columbian Exchange which they participated in the product barter with the use of their animals as trade currencies. Their involvement in the Columbian Exchange elevated the social status of the American Indians as their economy continuously stabilizing. But, such luxury was revealed to be short-lived since the Columbian Exchange, the very reason of their loft, has also been the means to their own fall. Through the Columbian Exchange, animal and human resource trade signaled the spread of communicable foreign diseases which affected all the potential livelihood resources for the American Indians. Thus, their chiefdom immediately fell ba ck to the hinters.

Why being on time is important Essay Example for Free

Why being on time is important Essay Being on time is one of the most basic, yet most important things about what we do, as Marines, and Military Policemen. Most Marines understand this concept and are able to comply willfully and promptly due to the extent they have been taught regarding the importance of being on time and the punishment that can follow a more than tardy arrival. Tardiness in the workplace is a correctable issue and majority of the time is nothing more than a seldom occurrence. Some particular occasions however, become more than just the scarce problem that it should be. When this becomes less than an uncommon problem, people begin to take notice. The most important part of any occupation is reliability. People need to be able to view you as more than a mediocre character that stumbles to work subsequently behind every other co-worker. they need to see you as a person that they can entrust their life to, whether that situation arises or not. They need to regard you as a trustworthy, well put together person; a well put together Marine. The Marines is not a place for play. It is not. It is a place for america’s men and women alike to join together and construct an unstoppable effort for the good of this country and a harsh unforgiving authority for our enemies. When a Marine looks in the mirror, that is exactly what they should gaze upon; A Marine. Arriving late, last minute, or unprepared are not attributes that compose a Marine. Being early, well prepared, and enthusiastic to initiate the day are qualities a Marine should have. Not having these aspects can account for many consequences, and whom is ultimately accountable for ones own behavior? It’s not your command who tells you that you are at fault, it’s you. All Marines being on time, as opposed to a belated appearance, is great for unit moral as well. it helps the unit work together due to the fact that everyone feels like they are putting forth an equal, and combined effort towards their common objective. A unit with 1 or more Marines battling an issue with tardiness is likely to have a lessened performance when being  exposed to that Marine, or Marines. The concept will spread; if that marine can be late every day, so can I. This type of ideology can take a drastic toll on the total effectiveness of the unit and cannot be tolerated. The productivity of any given unit with problem Marines, can and will immensely decrease causing Marines and co-workers alike, to be less encouraged to do their job to the best of their abilities. And instead, master the art of just getting by. This is why remaining on schedule is one of the most important parts of your daily routine. And if you are reading this and feel like everything written here doesn’t really apply to you, then I suppose you dont have much to worry about.

Languages Are Constantly Changing English Language Essay

Languages Are Constantly Changing English Language Essay Languages are changing as the world is constantly changing. After the Second World War, English neologisms emerged in a remarkable way. New vocabulary came into existence due to new technologies and new discoveries such as ; computing, internet , cell phones and the like. Peoples daily activities like dancing, looking and many others, renewed their popularity giving birth to new lexicon. In deed, new words are invented rapidly and are developed quickly thanks to mass communication. They appear and fall into disuse when they have served their momentary purpose ( Bernhart 54).Only a few of them will get recorded in glossaries of neologisms of general dictionaries. The matter of neologism becomes a new hot spot of research owing to its practical and prevailing use in reality. The study of neologisms evoked a whole cluster of questions: -What are the reasons beyond the rise of new lexicon? -Why are some new words just a flash in a pan? -Why are other words successful? -What are the qualities that make a word successful? -Are Neologisms markers of changes in societies? Chapter 01:Literature Review 1.Definition of a Neologism The term neologism originates from Greek: neos means new, logos means word, i. e. a neologism is literally a new word. Neologism is the creation of a new lexical item as a response to changed circumstances in the external world, which achieves some currency within a speech community(qtd. in Chrystal 1992: 264) at a particular time. In linguistics, a neologism is a recently-coined word, or the act of inventing a word or phrase. Additionally it can imply the use of old words in a new sense (i.e., giving new meanings to existing words or phrases). Neologisms are especially useful in identifying new inventions, new phenomena, or old ideas which have taken on a new cultural context. The word neologism was coined around 1800 and was, at that time, a neologism itself. A person who develops a neologism is sometimes called a neologist; neology is the act of introducing a new word into a language. l. 2. Background of English Neologisms The famous American new word expert John Algeo wrote in the preface of his book Fifty Years Among the New Words, Although the dictionary of new word is warmly welcomed by readers only in recent years, actually the compiling of English dictionary began with the collection of new word ever since 1604. The early English dictionaries like Table Alphabeticall (1604, Robert Cawdrey), English Expositor (1616, John Bullokar), and The English Dictionarie (1623, Henry Cockeram) all embodied some hard words, which were absolutely new words to people in those days. Thus, those dictionaries somehow held the characteristics of neologism dictionary. However, the scientific and systematic study of neologism began at 200 years later, the 20th century. In 1902, Leon Mead published a book named Word-Coinage, being an Inquiry into Recent Neologisms, also a Brief Study of Literary Style, Slang, and Provincialisms, which said to be the first book studying neologism in the 20th. Although it was not a neologism dictionary, it contained some articles about new words. Whats more, Mead put forward the idea of making research on new words for the first time in the history. He also provided lots of examples of new words created by some American writers at that time. In 1920, C.Alphonso Smith, the dean of the English department of American Navy Institute wrote a book entitled New Words Self-defined, in which 420 new words were illustrated by examples. This had proved to be a big progress in the research on the neologisms. From 1937 to 1940, the famous American scholar Dwight Bolinger first applied newspapers and magazines to introduce new word. He created a column, The Living Language, in the newspaper, Words. In 1943, the column was brought into American speech and the title was changed into Among the New Words. Then, in the next year,Professor I. Willis Russell took the place of Bolinger and became the chief-editor of the column. He wrote articles entitled Words and Meanings, New, to introduce new words and their new meanings. War is said to be the major cradle for the born of new words. Majorie Taylor, a librarian in New York, collected numerous neologisms created during the World War II. In 1944, Taylor compiled a word-list, The Language of World War II: Abbreviation, captions, Quotations, Slogans, Titles and Other Terms and Phrases, in which every new word was explained. Similarly, Clarence Barnhart published his Dictionary of U.S. Army Terms. At that time, some academic magazines also published articles to introduce new words. Many neologism dictionaries in the 1950s are very popular, especially the Dictionary of New Words in English compiled by Paul Charles Berg in 1953 and The Dictionary of New Words by Mary Reifer in 1955. During 1950s, Mr. Paul Charles Berg did a lot of job to collect new words about the war, which brought us his Dictionary of New Words in English in 1953. After the World War II, science and technology development had greatly influenced the society. Subsequently, a lot of scientific and technical words were flooding into the language field. A lot of neologism dictionaries about words in those fields were published. Two of them are mostly welcomed: An Explaining and Pronouncing Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Words by W. E. Flood Michael West and Words of Sciences and the History Blind Them by Isaac Asimov. From 1970s on, the study of English neologism drew great attention from western scholars, many of them established special column to introduce new words in English, such as William Safire who was well known for his On Language in New York Times weekly and Anne H. Soukhanow who was the chief-editor of Word Watch. In Safires column, he provided a considerably clear explanation of new words by citing typical examples, exploring their origins and performing their current usage. Besides, the American Dialect Association Dispatches introduced some new words yearly to the public. For instance, in 1994, information superhighway was rewarded as the newest word; cybersex was the most surprising word and mosaic culture the most unnecessary word. The digital revolution in 1990s is the radical reshaping and restructuring of social patterns. Because of the wild spread of internet, America is speaking a whole new language, said Shawn Holley in his The New Word Revolution. Lots of neologisms that have a historical significance by reason of the influence they exerted on the language field are brought into existence. According to the statistics, more than 20 neologism dictionaries have been compiled, among which some put emphasis on the academic field and some are distinctive by their popularity. Oxford English Dictionary, Websters Third New International Dictionary and Barhart Dictionary of New English are the ones with the highest academic value. New words are numerous. Sometimes it seems as if a new word has about as much chance of developing into a permanent addition to our vocabulary. Only few of them will remain as serious candidates for the dictionary. Books especially about new words are abundant. However, only a few scholars have ventured to propose factors that make for the success of new words. One is Goran Kjellmer, whose article Potential Words in the journal Word for August 2000 also reviews previous proposals. The other is the executive secretary of American Dialect Society, Allan Metcalf who proposed the FUDGE scale. The two reached different conclusions. Along with books and periodicals, there is the Internet. In particular, it makes my extensive searches for examples of how words are actually used today possible. Here the author has searched thousands of pages indexed by Google.com countless times to find current uses of words under discussion. A jump of several decades has showed us more researches on the neologisms. Language reflects our life, and the research on the neologisms has never been stopped. By collecting new words or phrases occurring in languages, the previous researches have provided precious materials for the further exploration in this field. Therefore, a careful look at the research background of neologisms carries an essential academic significance. In china, the study of neologism began from 1980s. Most of the specific works and papers are mere introduction of theories from abroad lacking of much original study. To keep up with the latest English vocabulary is really difficult, thus a thorough and systematic analysis about English new words is of practical significance both in learning and teaching of English as a foreign language. Chapter 02: Factors for the Rise of English Neologisms It is not language change itself that has occupied the attention of historical linguists for the past decades, but the causes and the processes of change. Early researchers, such as Saussure (1922) or Bloomfield (1933), for instance, maintained that the causes of linguistic change cannot be established despite numerous attempts at feasible explanations (Wardhaugh,1990:187). The majority of the early researchers have maintained also that the actual processes of change cannot be observed that what one can observe and perhaps analyses are the consequences of change. The findings of later research, however, envisage the process of change as an initial fluctuation between the new and the old, with the completion of the process occurring when the new replaces the old (Fromkin et al.,1996:295). In other words, if the new form, be it phonological, morpho-syntactic, lexical or semantic, spreads the change is in progress, if it eventually replaces the old form, the change has become a fait ac compli it has gone to completion(Holmes,1992:212). In regard to the causes of change, although the reasons for an aspect of a language undergoing change at a particular point in time still remain unclear, a number of theories have been proposed, depending on the orientation of individual researchers. For instance, Mcmahon M.S (1994: 179-182) discussing causes of semantic change, delineates the following: Linguistic causes Historical causes (subdivided into ideas and scientific concepts) Social causes Psychological causes (subdivided into emotive factors and taboo) Foreign influence The need for a new name Quite a lot of reasons are responsible for the creating of English neologisms. Any new thing or new concept, which takes place in our society, may provide a foundation for the creating of the new words. In the following, four of the major reasons will be emphasized: 1) the rise of new concepts and new ideas in social culture; 2) new discoveries in science and technology; 3) the manufacture of new products in economy, and 4) the events in the field of politics. Accompanied by a series of neologisms, we can have a clearer understanding of the current English neologisms. 2.1. Sociolcultural Changes: 2.1.1. New Concepts and ideas in Social Culture. The improving living condition and the enhancing cultural standard have formed a solid basis on which a large number of new things find their occurrence. It is not necessary to demonstrate that with the development of social culture, new concepts and ideas are introduced into us constantly. Since there are many more concepts than there are existing words, there will always be new words created. Changes in social outlook and manners of behavior call for new terms such as beatnik, peacenik, and hippie. Even new culinary arrangements demand new labels and in English they have some forth in the form of cheeseburger, chiliburger, mushroomburger, etc. (Anderson, 1973) Brian Foster presents us a striking example of how fast English vocabulary changes. In the year 1914, a young girl named Monica Baldwin entered a convent, remaining secluded there until 1941. When she returned to the outer world, she found herself in a totally different world: the conditions of everyday life altered by technical developments and social changes were beyond recognition. Whats more puzzling to her was the language people speaking. During a railway journey, the term luggage in advance meant nothing to her. Reading the daily newspapers made her feel idiotic in the extreme, because words like jazz, Gin, Hollywood, Cool, noshing and Isolationism were completely incomprehensible to her. Not to mention how bewildered she was at hearing friends say, Its your funeral or believe it or not. (Brian Foster, 1981) Lets look at another example moonlighting. It was anything but new to the vocabulary, and it gained a brand new meaning in 1957 as the verb to moonlight and its related noun, moonlighting. Time magazine, beamed moonlighting at its readers in its issue of July 22nd, 1957. According to Time, it was in fact not just a new name, but a new trend and a new concern. MOON-LIGHTING, proclaimed the headline: A Problem Born of Prosperity. As a noun, moonlight goes back with the moon itself to the beginning of the English language and even earlier to the Germanic and Indo-European ancestors of English. Presumably ever since humans could speak, they have talked about the light of the moon. As a verb, to moonlight is more recent, but it still goes back to the nineteenth century. From the start it has meant doing something by the light of the moon, but at first this was something that could get one arrested. In the nineteenth century, moonlight was a slang term for the activity of burglars, who benefited from moonlight at their work. In the twentieth century, it was also used for herding cattle and hunting deer by moonlight. Whether it was the illegal work that in 1957 caused the transmutation of moonlight into a standard term for legal work, or whether this new meaning was independently derived from the original moonlight, nobody knows. And it doesnt matter much. Either way, moonlight meaning the light of the moon easily took on its second meaning of to work a second job, and Americans have been moonlighting ever since. This second meaning seems likely to stay in the vocabulary, as long as people continue to hold down second jobs. 2.1.2.Disguising Language, Misnomers While taboo words are words that have been banned by the speech community, misnomers are words that individuals have decided to coin in order to deceive the hearer by disguising unpleasant concepts. Examples: E. friendly fire instead of bombardment by own troops. 2.1.3.Prestige, Fashion Lexical change may be based on the prestige of another language or another variety of the same language, certain fashionable word-formation patterns or certain fashionable semasiological centers of expansion. The kernel of this force is mostly found outside of language. It is often the prestige of a culture, the superiority of a group or politics which cause speakers to adopt linguistic elements (words, morphemes, morphs, sounds) from the prestigious groups speech. Example: English, for instance, borrowed heavily from French during the ME. period because the upper social classes were made up of French people: garment, flower, rose, face, prince, hour, question, dance, fork, royal, loyal, fine, zero are all Gallicisms. Today, English is now the most prestigious language for many parts of the world. 2.1.4.Social, or Demographic, Reasons By social, or demographic, reasons we shall refer to the contact between different social groups. This contact may easily, and rather subconsciously, trigger off lexical change- the more intensive the social contact is, the more intensive the linguistic exchange. Example: In the history of the English language, the two prominent instances of exchanges between two social groups were the one with the Vikings in the 8th to 11th centuries and the one with the French in the 11th to 15th centuries. The force of direct contact between different speech communities must not be mixed up with the prestige force, where no direct contact with the other speech community is necessary. Thus, we can say that the early French loans (from Northern French) rather go back to the everyday contact with the English population and the French soldiers, not so early French loans (from Parisian French) go back to the prestige of the French aristocracy, the French loans in the official bilingual phase of Englands history may either go back to prestige or to the social contact or to both. Examples: The inherited ey is replaced by Scandinavian egg, the inherited nimen is replaced by Scandinavian taken except for theform benumb, throwen is supplemented by Scandinavian casten; early French loans are army, carpenter, catch. 2.1.5.Culture-Induced Salience of a Concept (Cultural Salience) Sometimes concepts are not salient to humans because of gerenal human nature, but because of the concepts cultural values. Their salience can change with the change of culture. Example: The increased importance of arts and fashion has affected the lexical treatment of the conceptual field of colors: from a vague differentiation between dark blue and light blue to a neat distinction between cobalt blue, royal blue, indigo etc. (such neat detailed differentiations often originate in expert slang and then penetrate the language of the general speech community). Conceptual fields which have gained salience through cultural importance may very well serve as designations in other conceptual field in the form of metaphors. Example: In the US, a lot of metaphors in general language have been taken from the field of baseball, e.g. to be off base to be completely wrong, to hit a home run to be highly successful and from the field of entrepreneurship. 2.1.6.Word-Play The category of word play includes humor, irony and puns. Although word-play often goes hand in hand with other factors (such as taboo, prestige or anthropological salience), it can also trigger lexical change on its own. Example: ModE. perfect lady prostitute, to take French leave to leave secretly (without paying), to cool look ( 2.2 New discoveries and Products In Science and Technology Suppose youre advancing the cause of science rather than pitching a product, and you have something new to report-a new element, a new compound, or a new species. How does it get a name? No new science is possible without neologisms, new words or new interpretations of old words to describe and explain reality in new ways. How could Aristotle have developed the logic of syllogisms or Newton thetheory of dynamics without new vocabularies and definitions? They were neologists, and everybody wanting to contribute new knowledge must be. For new knowledge there is no way around the creation of new terms and concepts. For new objects and new inventions, scientific discoveries, technical theories, etc, the new name is usually the work of one man or of a very few. To reject neologisms, often despicably, is to reject scientific development. No sign of scientific conservatism is so telling as the rejection of all but the established concepts of a school of thought. Neologisms are, however, relative to the terminological paradigm actually dominating a field of knowledge. It may be a radical renewal to introduce terms from a tradition believed to be outmoded. Nowadays the idea of the technical highway has been very familiar to people. Development in the science and technology has brought tremendous energy to the improvement of our civilization. And these achievements also find their reflections in language. Technical advancements in a society demand new designator terms, many of which can be found in linguistics such as hypercorrection, phoneme, allomorph, etc. The progress of science and technology gives occasion for the large majority of new words; for a new thing we must have a new name; hence, for instance, motor, argon, and appendicitis. It is interesting to see that the last word did not exist, or was at least too obscure to be recorded, when the Oxford Dictionary began to come out in 1888; but we cannot do without it now. Take the word software for example, that computer term was invented by John W. Tukey, a statistician at Princeton University. As long ago as 1958, he used the word in the American Mathematical Monthly. Today the software comprising the carefully planned interpretive routines, compilers, and other aspects of automotive programming are at least as important to the modern electronic calculator as its hardware of tubes, transistors, wires, tapes and the like. Tukey was already known for inventing another now- famous computer term. In 1946 he used the little word bit as the designation for a unit of information, a binary digit with value 0 or 1. That led a decade later to bytes (groups of bits, now always eight, a term invented by Werner Buchholz at IBM) and to todays kilo-, mega; and tera-bytes of computer storage and information. 2.3 The Manufacture of New Products in Economy Economic development is the mainstream of our era. The improvement of language, to a certain extent, benefits a lot from the new phenomenon that occurs in the economic field. In this competitive world, any innovation or fresh things taking place in economy will soon find their voice in the language. If theres anything a new product needs, its a brand name. To the extent that the product succeeds, the name will too. Its a sure thing, the one way to guarantee that a new term will be a success: spend mighty amounts of money on marketing persuade people to buy and keep on buying a product, and they will call it by the name you give it. When you want a product, a company would like you to think of its brand name. The Coca-Cola Company wants people to think of a Coke when they want a soft drink. But if the marketing is successful enough and the name Coke is embedded in peoples vocabulary, people will ask for a Coke and be satisfied if they get a Pepsi. In fact, in the southeastern United States, home of Coca-Cola, Coke is such a successful brand that many people there (and in the rest of the country) refer to any soft drink as a coke. Some brand names even joined the pack of the general vocabulary. Here are some of them: à ´Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ Ã‚ ºÃ¢â€š ¬Ã‚  Aspirin: a name for acetylsalicylic acid, trademarked by the Bayer Company of Germany at the start of the twentieth century. à ´Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ Ã‚ ºÃ¢â€š ¬Ã‚  Elevator and escalator: both originally trademarks of the Otis Elevator Company. à ´Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ Ã‚ ºÃ¢â€š ¬Ã‚  Zipper: a name given to a separable fastener by the B.F. Goodrich Company many years after it was invented. The new name helped the zipper attain popularity in the 1930s. à ´Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ Ã‚ ºÃ¢â€š ¬Ã‚  Loafer: for a moccasin-like shoe. à ´Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ Ã‚ ºÃ¢â€š ¬Ã‚  Cellophane: for a transparent wrap made of cellulose. à ´Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ Ã‚ ºÃ¢â€š ¬Ã‚  Granola: a trademark registered in 1886 by W K. Kellogg, now used for a natural kind of breakfast cereal. à ´Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ Ã‚ ºÃ¢â€š ¬Ã‚  Ping-pong: for table tennis, a trademark registered by Parker Brothers in 1901. à ´Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ Ã‚ ºÃ¢â€š ¬Ã‚  Xerox: for photocopier. à ´Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ Ã‚ ºÃ¢â€š ¬Ã‚  Kleenex: for facial tissue. à ´Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ Ã‚ ºÃ¢â€š ¬Ã‚  Band-Aid: for adhesive bandage. à ´Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ Ã‚ ºÃ¢â€š ¬Ã‚  Tupperware: for storage container. à ´Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ Ã‚ ºÃ¢â€š ¬Ã‚  Scotch tape: for transparent adhesive tape. à ´Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ Ã‚ ºÃ¢â€š ¬Ã‚  Jazzercise: for exercise to jazz music. 2.4. The Events in the Field of Politics. The forming of English new words is sometimes considered as the result of the political changes. Language reflects the society, as it has always been. Politics is an essential part of the development of the world; therefore, it can easily find its relative neologisms in the language field. For instance, when Mr. Bill Clinton was elected as the president of the US., his name has been associated with many political words. His policy is Clintonian, he is carrying out the Clintionism, his economics policy is Clintonomics, and his supporters were called Clintonites, he ultimately wanted to realize his Clintonization. Another widespread usage of affixes is -gate, which came from the historical Watergate event. People took use of Irangate to disclose the involvement of some American government office workers in U.S. selling arms to Iran. Camillagate was used to mean the love affair of British Prince Charles and his lover Camilla Parker. Nannygate was pointed to the illegal hire of baby-sitter or the hire of illegal immigrants. Another striking example, On September 11, 2001, the peace of a sunny late-summer morning was shattered by the impact of four hijacked airplanes on the World Trade Center towers, the Pentagon, and a field in Pennsylvania. There were more direct casualties in these disasters than on any previous day in American history, and soon the entire country felt the impact of damaged or destroyed lives, businesses, and sense of security. Out of the ashes came patriotism, resolve, and unity. And out of the ashes came new words, too, to describe new situations never before imagined. The events stir memories of Pearl Harbor and Oklahoma City, and we refer to other memorable occasions by their locations Lexington and Concord, Gettysburg, Little Big Horn, and Wounded Knee but in this case the name of place wont work. Its not just because several places were involved, but also because the places are too famous. New York City and Washington, DC, have too many other connotations, so do the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. For lack of a suitable designation deriving from place, we have used the date as a reference point: September 11. That does have a well-known precedent. One other event in American history is referred to by its date: July 4 or the Fourth of July, the date in 1776 when the Declaration of Independence was proclaimed in Philadelphia. In addition to the spelled-out month and day, the numerals 9/11 or 9-11 have been used. Never before has such a historic event been so labeled, but because of the striking coincidence that 911 is the telephone number to call for help in an emergency, that numerical designation has been a success. Headline writers like the concision of this expression, just three numerals to take in all the events of that day. So far, the events of that day have resulted in just one new term: ground zero, for the place of impact, the center of destruction in New York City where the World Trade Towers once stood. That phrase has succeeded because it is not really new; its an old term for the location on the ground directly under a vast atomic explosion, corresponding to air zero, the location in the air above the ground where the bomb goes off. Ground zero had been gathering dust on the shelf in recent years because of a fortunate lack of atomic explosions. No one knows who first said ground zero in reference to the site where the World Trade Towers were attacked and collapsed, but the term immediately caught on because of its familiarity and emotional power. Chapter 03:Success of English Neologisms 3.1. How are Neologisms Found? The authority for a word in fact, the authority for a language rests with the users of the language. Thus, the process of adding new words to the dictio ­nary begins with a systematic examination of almost everything printed and said in English. As far as Among the New Words is concerned, this important task citation with source information (qtd. in Algeo 1991a: 3) is fulfilled by active members of the Words Committee, who contribute the words they regard as new in any material they read or listen to (Algeo 1991a: 3). The cited word must contain the name of the publication, the day, and the page number. Concerning oral citations, the source information must consist of the day the sentence was heard and where and when one came across it (Algeo 1991a: 3). The following list shows that usually American dictionaries are consulted (with the exceptions of two British dictionaries: the OED and Websters Third) to check the newness of each contribution (Algeo 1991a: 2): Random House Websters College Dictionary, 1991. Oxford English Dictionary, 2d ed., 1989. World Book Dictionary, 1989 Websters New World Dictionary, 3d College ed., 1988. Random House Dictionary, 2d ed. Unabridged, 1987. Websters Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary, 1983. Websters Third New International Dictionary, 1961. Only if the new word is assumed to be British, are additional British dictionaries referred to. To make sure that a neologism has not been lexicalized yet, the following dictionaries of neologisms are used: Third Barnhart Dictionary of New English. 1990. Chambers English Dictionary, 1988. Collins Concise Dictionary, 2d ed., 1988. Collins Dictionary, 2d ed., 1986. Longman Dictionary, 1984. Readers Digest Great Illustrated Dictionary, 1984. If a word entered one of these dictionaries, then it is usually not recorded in Among the New Words (Algeo 91a: 2). Since Among the New Words receives more citations than there is space to print, a selection has to be made. The criteria on what and when to enter a word is up to the lexicographer. As I said, lexicographers have different opinions (Algeo 1991b: 75) and therefore it is hard to give exact rules. However, two principles can be set up: the absolutely newness of a word and the reflection of the zeitgeist. 3.2. Reasons of Success of Neologisms 3.2.1 The frequency of occurrences The most important factor is that a word appears in as many different sources as possible. The more sources (newspapers, magazines, books etc.) a word appears in, the more obvious is the frequency and range of the term (Sheidlower 33). Besides, the more a word is cited the more popular it is; and consequently the more likely it is to be included in a dictionary. 3.2.2 Range among sources It is of interest to know the range of the new word because if a word is only common in a special field, it is not a candidate for a general dictionary but rather for a technical one. Therefore, a general dictionary excludes technical terms or terms well known in a certain field because they are not of general interest. However, there are exceptions: the term intellectual property  [1]  was limited to certain fields. Today, its use is widespread because new technologies are invented; thus the intellectual property has to be preserved (Sheidlower 33). 3.2.3 Durability The use of a term over a certain time gives information on its durability. Nevertheless, this criterion must not be overrated. It is true that a word that appears over a certain time span, but otherwise does not constitute sufficient evidence (qtd. in Barnhart 59) probably will not be included; however, a brandnew word with sufficient evidence (frequency of occurrences, range among sources, cruciality in a given field) is likely to enter a dictionary (Sheidlower 34). Sheidlower points out that the criterion should rather be the number and range of citations than the newness of the word (34

Majoring in Music :: Education Musical Singing School Essays Papers

Majoring in Music Music has always been an important part of my life. Upon entering the fifth grade, my parents bought me a flute, at my insistence. After moderate success playing the flute, I saw greener grass on the other side of the musical fence. Singing just had to be easier than making music with a long metal pipe. My perception and reality did not exactly match. Singing has its own subtleties and complexities which are not readily apparent to the casual observer. Abandoning the flute for singing, I began taking voice lessons in the tenth grade. My voice teacher was very experienced and encouraged me to pursue my interest in music beyond high school. After much deliberation, I decided to major in voice during college. This path would be fraught with unforeseen difficulties and exciting challenges. After announcing my decision to a number of friends and acquaintances, I began to encounter not a few misconceptions about the study of music. Many people readily expressed their uninformed opinion that music (particularly vocal performance) was an easy college major for anyone with a modicum of talent: â€Å"Just open your mouth and let the music pour out.† Some showed their ignorance by commenting that music majors had both light and easy course loads. There are even some people who refuse to acknowledge that music is a serious academic discipline. They believe music is a refuge for slackers who do not want to tackle the really difficult courses. Others have insinuated that music majors choose a career in music by default (i.e., because they could not think of anything better to study). Of course, none of these perceptions are true. Two short months studying music on the college level has exploded these misconceptions. The study of music is a rigorous academic discipline which only gets more difficult as one progresses further into the curriculum. While our professors are understanding and helpful, we certainly are not coddled. Music majors quickly learn that hard work and long hours is the price of success in the world of music. The subject matter demands dedication and discipline. Music majors do have some respite from the demands of our discipline. For voice majors, there is choir. Choir provides an opportunity to learn in a more passive manner. The choir director leads the members of the choir toward the desired goal – the mastery of the piece of music to be performed. While choir members must be attentive and receptive, the burden is primarily carried by the director.

Black Swan, Cinema Paper

Sarah Risner Dr. Foley Cinema 19 November 2012 Black Swan â€Å"Black Swan† is a movie with a dark transformation of Nina the white swan metamorphosing herself into the black swan, with symbolism and psychosis playing well within the movie. Most of this movie plays into the world the ballerina, and exposes some of the hidden motives of this world. The other world this movie plays into is the world of someone with psychosis, and the mysteries that follow between both worlds. It seems the ballerina world feeds into the patient with psychosis and feeds the mental illness.After one watches this movie they will be horrified and troubled at the same time. The character of Nina will leave one trying to figure out the mysteries of Nina’s life. It actually leaves the audience with more questions than answers after watching the movie. The questions are what give the movie great success. The setting of â€Å"Black Swan† takes place in New York at a ballerina studio where Ni na and Lily are preparing for the production of Swan Lake. The plot of the movie is about Nina and her obsession with dance. Her mother is a former ballerina and is very controlling of her daughter.The dance director by the name of Thomas Leroy decides to replace the character Beth with Nina for the new season of Swan Lake. Nina is his choice, but he also has eyes for the character Lily. Nina feels competition between herself and Lily. Nina has an obsessive view between herself and Lily. This part is complicated because it means the character has to play both the white swan and the black swan. The white swan requires the ballerina to play a part of purity and elegance. The black swan part requires the ballerina to play a part of cunning and sexuality.Nina will go to the dark side of this character and it will drive her insane. Lily and Nina form a candid friendship which seems to be insane itself. The conflict of this movie is the inner struggle of Nina with her own personality wagi ng war against itself. The character change of this movie is with the main character of Nina. Nina starts out innocent and ends up exploring her dark side in order to turn herself into the character of the black swan. Some universal symbolism found in this movie is the use of the character Lily asNina’s doppelganger. The symbol is of course is the twin/double identity of Nina’s self. This embodies Nina’s good/evil sides of herself. Mirrors are used in the film to show Nina splitting into two different personalities. The cultural symbolism in this movie is seen in black and white symbolism. Black of course shows the dark side of Nina, and white the good side of Nina. It is shown with actual color within most of the movie though. The theme of this movie is the cost of fame, along with the dark sides of show business.It also shows complexities of trying to be perfect and how the stress of perfection can be one’s downfall. According to The Sticky Shoe Review by Logan Arney, says the Black Swan having a target audience is a bold statement. The reason for this being that the movie has attracted all kinds of people to watching it due to the Oscars and so forth. It has almost created its own target, or curious on-seekers just wondering what goes on in this film. The marketing of this film has many causes to it such as big names. The big acting names are Natalie Portman who stars in this film, director Darren Aronofsky.Aronofsky himself has directed big hits such as â€Å"The Wrestler†, â€Å"The Fountain†, â€Å"Requiem for a Dream†, and â€Å"Pi†. Natalie Portman has starred in big hits such as â€Å"V is for Vendetta†, and â€Å"The Other Boleyn Girl†. Adding to this list are the other two big actors being Vincent Cassel, and Wynonna Ryder and not to mention this film being the buzz at the Venice Film Festival of 2010. There is a lot of PR when this bag of names is mentioned (Mu). The script used in this film was written by Mark Heyman, Andres Heinz, and John McLaughlin. The story was written by Andres Heinz (IMDb).According to Tom Long, giving his critical response about this film, he believes the movie works due to Portman’s great commitment to character which gives the movie its greatness. He also admits this movie is not necessarily for everyone, but for anyone looking for the horror and craziness in a ballerina movie (Long). The mise-en-scene in â€Å"Black Swan† shows up as black and white color. For one, the costume of the dancers shows as black and white. The dress in the reception is black, as are the walls of the ballet company. The editing of this movie was done by Andrew Weisblum (IMDb).What made the editing so great in this movie was how the emotions were transferred on film while adeptly telling the good story. The lighting in â€Å"Black Swan† is very dramatic with tones of greens and magentas showing up within different characters, and of course the black and whites within the film. The music in this film is like any suspense thriller movie in that one knows something is about to happen when a scary tune starts to play. The sound effects seem to mimic the actual swan cry in some parts of the movie. This in effect makes the film very symbolic of the actual animal of a swan.This movie has many camera angles that clearly explore this movies symbolism. One of the high-angle shots of this film is when the character of Nina when she is dancing on stage, and she is looked down on by the audience. A good close-up shot are when it shows Nina’s feet and it shows how much control she has in her movement. A significant wide-shot in the movie is when we are in Nina’s bedroom, and there is light hitting the bed. The medium-shot in the movie that probably catches most everyone’s eye is when Nina is passing her other self on the subway.This movie uses mostly the fixed-camera. In conclusion, this movie clearly g oes beyond any limit set forth on most film. It has used more symbolism than other movies which makes it quite interesting. It also has the uncanny terroristic theme of terror imposed within it. One feels as if the ballerina world has been exposed while showing to what extremes the female ballerina will go thru to stay skinny, and be perfect. The black and whites of the film show to what extremes in which the ballerina will show herself through. Works Cited Arney, Logan. â€Å"Black Swan. The Stickey Shoe Review (2010): 1. July 19, 2012 http://stickyshoereview. com/? p=107 â€Å"Black Swan,† IMDb (2010): 1. July 20, 2012 < http://www. imdb. com/title/tt0947798/> Long, Tom. â€Å"Review: Natalie Portman soars in ‘Black Swan'† The Detroit News Opinion (2010): 1. July 19, 2012 < http://www. detroitnews. com/article/20101210/OPINION03/12100326/1034/ent02/Review–Natalie-Portman-soars-in–Black-Swan-> Mu, Jennifer. â€Å"Love this Black Swan Film Marketi ng,† Luminosity Marketing (2010): 1. July 19, 2012 < http://luminositymarketing. com/blog/? p=2616>

From Bondage to Freedom (Fredrick Douglass)

From Bondage to Freedom In the early days of slavery, Frederick Douglass published a narrative that will be forever remembered in history. â€Å"Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass† is a recount of the harsh life on the plantations before his escape to New York. He describes the senseless acts of cruelty on the part of the masters, as well as the degraded lives of the slaves. This narrative provides a powerful description how ignorance was used as a tool for slavery, the damaging effects on slaves and slave owners, and the knowledge to the path of freedom for African Americans.Although the journey that Douglass suffered through was hard and extensive, he made his mark in the world and it is still appreciated today. Frederick Douglass was born in a slave cabin, in February, 1818, close to the town of Easton, on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Frederick Douglass, whose full name is Frederick Augustus Washington Baily, was abandoned by his mother when he was just a baby an d then was raised by his grandparents. Douglass never knew his father and according to him and nearly everyone, â€Å"†¦opinion was also whispered that my master was my father† his father figure was a white man ( NLOFD, 1).When Douglass was around the age of six, his grandmother took him to the plantation of his master and left him there. He stayed there with his master for about two years then he was relocated around the age of eight where he was sent to Baltimore to live as a Page 2 houseboy with Hugh and Sophia Auld, relatives of his master. Not long after his arrival his new mistress taught him the alphabet. The lessons soon came to a cease when Hugh said â€Å"learning will spoil the best nigger in the world† (Chapter 6).When her husband forbade her to continue her instruction, because it was unlawful to teach slaves how to read, Frederick took it upon himself to learn. This marked the turning point when Frederick Douglass started to become a man. Frederick D ouglass’ narrative was written to expose how ignorance was used as a tool for slavery. He shows how white slaveholders maintain slavery by keeping their slaves ignorant and oblivious to society. At the time Douglass was writing, many people believed that slavery was a natural state of being.They believed that blacks were incapable of participating in civil society and thus should be kept as workers for whites. Mr. Auld, Douglass’ master, makes this evident by stating† A nigger should know nothing but to obey his master-to do as he is told to do. † Slave owners would keep slaves unaware of simple things such as birth names and birth dates. Douglass shares his grief of not knowing his age by stating â€Å"A want of information concerning my own was a source of unhappiness to me even during childhood. The white children could tell their ages.I could not tell why I ought to be deprived of the same privilege. I was not allowed to make any inquiries of my master concerning it. †(Chapter 1) The master withheld this information because things like birthdays give a person self-identity. Self-identity leads to self-worth, and this was not a desirable quality to have in a slave if you're a slaveholder. They also controlled the language of the slaves by annihilating the mother tongue. This limited the Page 3 communication between slaves and controlled interaction also kept uprising and revolt to a minimum.Literacy and formal education of slaves was not allowed . The more a slave knew about the language of another country the more he is able to move through all levels of that society. Slave owners believed that their captives would learn their secrets, and would be slaves no more. Slave owners could not fool a slave that knew their language, and being a fool is one of the basic ingredients to the conservation of the slavery system. Douglass reveals the damaging effects on slaves through various angles. He describes Aunt Hester’s brut al beating by Mr.Plummer most vividly stating â€Å"He then said to her, â€Å"Now, you d——d b—-h, I'll learn you how to disobey my orders! † and after rolling up his sleeves, he commenced to lay on the heavy cow skin, and soon the warm, red blood came dripping to the floor. † The treatment of slaves as property is another subject the author focuses on. He highlights that slave owners believed that their captives were not human and were not treated as such. He also describes how slaves were often passed between owners, and how family separation severed bonds. Douglass’ describes his own pain by expressing â€Å"I eceived the tidings of [my mother’s] death with much the same emotions I should have probably felt at the death of a stranger† (Chapter 1). Slaveholding was destructive not only to slaves but to slave owners as well since the corrupt power that the slave owner enjoyed over their slaves had a harmful effect on the slave owners moral health. Before slavery corrupts Sophia Auld’s good nature, she is a kind, affectionate person. She is corrupted by slaveholding when her husband said to her â€Å"if you teach Page 4 that nigger how to read, there would be no keeping him. It would forever unfit him to be a slave.He would at once become unmanageable, and of no value to his master† (Chapter 6). This treatment of slave led the slave masters down a path to destructive moral health that would not be accepted in today’s society. Just as slave owners deny slaves of knowledge and education, slaves must seek education and knowledge in order to chase freedom. Douglass gains this knowledge by reading a book called The Columbian Orator, which contains a philosophical discussion between a master and a slave. In the dialogue, the master lays out the argument for slavery, and the slave disproves each point, eventually convincing the master to free him.After Frederick Douglass reads The Colombian Orator, he realizes the truth about ignorance, freedom, and knowledge. Douglass writes, â€Å"It was this everlasting thinking of my condition that tormented me. There was no getting rid of it. [†¦] The silver trump of freedom had roused my soul to eternal wakefulness† (Chapter 7). Douglass also describes his path to freedom. He clarifies, however, that this section of the book does not describe the exact means of his escape. He does not want to give slave owners any information that would help them prevent other slaves from fleeing to the North.Though he does not give a physical description of how to escape from slavery, he does inspire slaves to gain the knowledge to one day seek the path to freedom. The â€Å"Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass† shows how white slaveholders perpetuate slavery by keeping their slaves ignorant, the damaging effect of slaves, and also how slaves must seek knowledge and education in order to pursue freedom. The novel lets t he readers Page 5 feel the cruelty and hardship of Douglass’ life. Douglass’ writing reminds people of the harsh reality of slavery, and what it takes to overcome the circumstances.