Gender and Marriage in Chinese culture Research Paper

Gender and Marriage in Chinese culture - Research Paper Example Generally, economic development is an umbrella key to understand environmental concern, gender differences in environmentally oriented behaviors, and environmental knowledge. Making use of interview analyses, I identified a pattern of gender differences where women demonstrated a high participation inside home while are concerned with economic role â€Å"Breadwinner† as opposed to environmental issues. Accordingly, gender differences in environmentally oriented patterns could further be understood in family perceptive where children adhere to witness and understand traditional practices. Most Chinese people believed that marriage customs is subject to the pressures of culture. Recently, I interviewed Angie who created great insights on gender and marriage customs in Chinese culture. Angie, 95 is an elderly woman who lives in one of the village in China. She spends most of her life teaching the young generation about the Chinese culture. In fact, she explained that her life exp erience has tremendously increased knowledge of understanding Chinese culture. From her dialogue, I could tell that Angie had profound information about gender issues and marriage customs in her culture. ... Angie continued to explain that women were less privileged in the society and men only counted the number of sons when questioned about the size of their family. Still, some families sold their daughters to wealthy families as slaves. As the Cultural Revolution took hold, Angie explained that women moved into the workforce, but with lower pay rates than men. To date, the Chinese society continues holding men responsible for providing basic needs while women taking care of their households. This discussion is similar to the broader literature of Jin, Li & Feldman (2006, p. 150) who in their research used theoretic perceptive regarding gender and environmental behaviors of Chinese. The study is further supported by Canchu (2010, p. 75) who argues that early childhood interaction render women to being sensitive to the needs of others, thus being more responsible to take on nurturing roles. By contrast, early socialization leads men to great value of achievement and independence. The vie w about interview dissemination created a platform to understand in depth gender issues in the Chinese culture. It is true with regard to Angie argument that women’s greater share of household duties have reduced their availability in the market place. The reverse effect has offset men and women to differ in their levels of contribution in the marketplace and domestic duties. However, Angie claimed that the Chinese government is emphasizing on gender equality as a major constituent of economic development. Following this, she affirmed that women have emerged in the market place to support their families. Overall, Angie created a platform for me to comprehend Chinese marriage ceremonies and customs. She derived her argument from ancient times to make me understand about Chinese

Applied linguistics Essay Example for Free

Applied linguistics Essay Applied linguistics 1 History The term applied linguistics dates back at least to the 1940s in the USA when linguists applied analytical methods to the practical problems of producing grammars and phrasebooks and developing language courses. 2 What Is Applied Linguistics? Applied linguistics: (1) was interdisciplinary, drawing on psychology, sociology, and pedagogy as well as theoretical linguistics; (2) included a range of fields including lexicography, stylistics, speech pathol ogy, translation, language policy, and planning among others; (3) performed a mediating function between theory and practice. Ð pplied linguistics must take into consideration the nature of language and the nature of the particular world in which language is used, the beliefs, social institutions, and culture of its users, and how these influence language use. Ideally, the job of an applied linguist is to diagnose a problem in real-world language use, bring the insights of linguistics to bear on the problem, and suggest solutions. 3 Relation of Theory and Practice: the Case of Language Teaching The applied linguist stands at the intersection of theory and practice, but it is not always clear how the applied linguist mediates between the two. This suggests a one-way street in which theory is at the starting point, and the applied linguist directs traffic from theory to practice. Influenced by structuralism in linguistics and by behaviorism in psychology, applied linguists believed that language was a collection of discrete learnable structures, speaking was primary, and learning a language was a matter of correct habit formation. To inculcate correct habits, teachers drilled students incessantly in correct pronunciation and patterned practice of grammatical structures. Under the influence of the theoretical work of Noam Chomsky, applied  linguists saw language learning as a cognitive process of hypothesis testing, in which errors indicated the stage of the language learner’s interlanguage. Instead, knowing a language means knowing how to communicate in the language; it involves acquiring â€Å"communicative competence. † A richer model of the relationship among theory, practice, and applied linguistics sees it as a two-way street in which the applied linguist directs traffic from theory into practice and from practice into theory. Similarly in applied linguistics, practice provides a testing ground for theory,  but it is more than that: real-world language use provides new questions and issues requiring new theories. 4 Recent Range of Inquiry Nevertheless, the central characteristics of applied linguistics remain: (1) focus on contextualized language use; (2) application of theory to practice and vice versa; (3) practical problem-based approach; (4) multidisciplinary perspective. 4. 1 Second language teaching and cross-cultural linguistics 2Accurate description of language use with the ultimate goal of teaching has motivated research in cross-cultural discourse and pragmatics. Concentration on  spoken language, combined with speech act theory among others, has engendered numerous research projects in applied linguistics investigating specific speech acts such as making requests and apologies in different languages and cultures. Applied linguists have examined the development of pragmatic competence in second language learners and the possibilities for teaching pragmatics. 4. 2 Language use in context: contributions of discourse analysis Outside the area of language pedagogy, the burgeoning of discourse analysis has provided a means whereby linguistic insight can be applied to real-world situations. Other institutional and professional settings, too, have come under scrutiny from applied linguists using theoretical constructs to explain how language is used in real-world settings such as commerce, employment, and public services. A field that has developed considerably in recent years in response to societal concerns is the investigation of language and gender. Recent empirical studies have enriched understanding of the interrelationship of language and gender and demonstrated that generalizations about male and female speech are unreliable when the particular communicative contexts in which the speech occurs have not been examined. Other work has examined gender and language cross-culturally and in specific institutional settings. 4. 3 Language maintenance and endangered languages and dialects The work of applied linguists on endangered or minority languages and dialects brings together field linguistics, anthropology, sociolinguistics and education. For example, a longitudinal study of language use and cultural context draws together sociolinguistic research into language use, research in language socialization, and second language acquisition research into educational discourse. It is not only minority languages that are under threat, but also dialects. 2. Contemporary linguistic approaches: Clinical, forensic, computational linguistics ( Ð ²Ã'‹Ã'‡Ð ¸Ã' Ã »Ã ¸Ã'‚Ð µÃ »Ã'Å'Ð ½Ã °Ã'  )( 29, 30, 25) We have chosen to focus on four relatively popular areas of inquiry: †¢ syntactic parsing; †¢ discourse analysis; †¢ computational morphology and phonology; †¢ corpus-based methods. Parsing and discourse analysis have had the longest continuous history of investigation. Computational morphology and phonology began to grow as a separate discipline in the mid-1980s. Corpus-based approaches were investigated as early as the 1960s. 1 Parsing (Ã'€Ð °Ã ·Ã ±Ã ¾Ã'€) Parsing is the act of determining the â€Å"syntactic structure† of a sentence. The goal is to represent â€Å"who did what to whom† in the sentence. Parsing involves tagging 3the words with an appropriate syntactic category and determining their relationships to each other. Words are grouped into phrase-like constituents, which are arranged into clauses and sentences. Machine translation systems employ parsing to derive representations of the input that are sufficient for transfer from the source to target language at either the syntactic or semantic level. A great deal of attention to the application of syntactic parsing models for language modeling for automatic speech recognition. 2 Discourse Analysis. The area of discourse analysis is concerned with inferring the intended meanings of utterances. In order for the dialogue participants to successfully carry out a dialogue, they must be able to recognize the intentions of the other participant’s utterances, and to produce their responses in such a way that will enable the other participant(s) to recognize their intentions. A recipe is a generic template for performing a particular action. The recipe library contains a collection of generic recipes, and during discourse understanding, the plan inference module attempts to infer utterance intentions and relationships using  information provided by this library. 3 Computational Morphology and Phonology Roughly speaking, the topics can be classified into computational morphology, which treats the analysis of word structure; and computational phonology, which, deals with the changes in sound patterns that take place when words are put together. 4 Corpus-based Methods The word corpus in linguistics is typically a collection of texts. Corpora have been widely used by linguists to identify and analyze language phenomena, and to verify or refute claims about language. However, a corpus also reveals important  quantitative information about the distribution of various language phenomena. 29 Clinical Linguistics Clinical linguistics is the application of the linguistic sciences to the study of language disability. 1 Identifying Linguistic Symptoms Attention has now come to be focused on important symptoms of language disability, and to those aspects of the problem which have been ignored or misdiagnosed. â€Å"Less noticeable† refers to any feature other than the audible qualities of pronunciation, the order and omission of surface grammatical elements, and the actual items which constitute vocabulary. These features exclude  most of the properties of phonological systems, the sense relations between lexical items, the constraints operating on discourse in interaction, and the many ramifications of underlying syntactic structure. All of these play a major part in identifying the various kinds of language disability. The use of a clinical linguistic frame of reference has also enabled people to make progress in identifying disorders of language comprehension. That requires careful testing and the controlling of variables. Disorders of a pragmatic kind, likewise, 4 have often remained undiagnosed, or have been misdiagnosed as problems of a  psychological or social behavioral type. 2 The Role of Clinical Linguistics 2. 2 Description A major area of clinical linguistic research has been to provide ways of describing and analyzing the linguistic behavior of patients, and of the clinicians and others who interact with them. 2. 3 Diagnosis An important aim of clinical linguistics is to provide a classification of patient linguistic behaviors. This can provide an alternative diagnostic model, and one which is more able to provide insights about intervention in cases where there is no clear evidence of any medical condition. 2. 4 Assessment (Ð ¾Ã'†Ð µÃ ½Ã ºÃ °). Clinical linguistics has also been much involved in devising more sophisticated assessments of abnormal linguistic behavior. A diagnosis tells us what is â€Å"wrong† with a patient; an assessment tells us just how seriously the patient is â€Å"wrong. † 2. 5 Intervention The ultimate goal is to formulate hypotheses for the remediation (Ð ¾Ã ·Ã ´Ã ¾Ã'€Ð ¾Ã ²Ã »Ã µÃ ½Ã ¸Ã µ) of abnormal linguistic behavior. Not all aspects of a patient’s problem are directly relevant to the need for linguistically based intervention, clinical linguistics can help clinicians to make an informed judgment about â€Å"what to teach next,† and to monitor the outcome of an intervention hypothesis, as  treatment proceeds. To a large extent, moving well beyond the patient’s language, to include an investigation of the language used by the person(s) carrying out the intervention, the kind of teaching materials used, and the setting in which the interaction takes place. 3 Linguistic Insights The chief aim of clinical linguistics is to provide the clinician with increasing levels of insight and confidence in arriving at linguistic decisions. The three pillars of any clinical linguistic approach: description – grading – intervention. All change needs to be regularly monitored, to demonstrate that progress is being made – this  is the task of assessment. The keeping of comprehensive linguistic records is a further priority, without which the efficacy of intervention can never be demonstrated. Forensic Linguistics Now linguists also have begun examining voice identification, authorship of written documents, unclear jury instructions, the asymmetry of power in courtroom exchanges, lawyer–client communication breakdown, the nature of perjury, problems in written legal discourse, defamation, trademark infringement, courtroom interpretation and translation difficulties, the adequacy of warning  labels, and the nature of tape recorded conversation used as evidence. 1 Trademark Infringement Typically, they respond to requests of attorneys to help them with their law cases. 2 Product Liability 5But the linguist, calling on knowledge of discourse analysis, semantics, and pragmatics, can determine the extent to which the message was clear and unambiguous and point out the possible meanings that the message presents. Once this is done, it is up to the attorney to determine whether or not to ask the linguist to testify at trial. 3 Speaker Identification Linguists have been used by attorneys in matters of voice identification. If the tapes are of sufficient quality, spectographic analysis is possible. If not, the linguist may rely on training and skills in phonetics to make the comparison. 4 Authorship of Written Documents Law enforcement agencies process provide a â€Å"psychological profile† of the person. Calling on knowledge of language indicators of such things as regional and social dialect, age, gender, education, and occupation, linguists analyze documents for broad clues to the identity of the writer. Stylistic analysis centers on a writer’s habitual language features over which the writer has little or no conscious awareness. 5 Criminal Cases Suspects are recorded with court authorized wire taps placed that none of the speakers is aware of being taped, or by using body microphones and engage suspects in conversation. If the law enforcement agency is concerned about the adequacy of the language evidence that they have gathered, they may call on a linguist to make transcripts of the conversations, analyze them. The tape recorded conversation itself points to the use of the other tools of the forensic linguist, including syntax, morphology, semantics, pragmatics, dialectology, and discourse analysis. 3. Discourse analysis (17) Discourse analysis is concerned with the contexts in and the processes through which we use oral and written language to specific audiences, for specific purposes, in specific settings. 1 What Is Discourse? A Preliminary Characterization The big D concerns general ways of viewing the world and general ways of behaving, the small d concerns actual, specific language use. Discourse analysis emphasizes that language is not merely a self-contained system of symbols but a mode of doing, being, and becoming. Discourse research can be divided into 2 major types of inquiries: (1) why some but not other linguistic forms are used on  given occasions and (2) what are the linguistic resources for accomplishing various social, affective, and cognitive actions and interactions. 2 Communicative Motivations for the Selection of Linguistic Forms Language is inseparable from other aspects of our life and that the selection of linguistic forms should be explained in terms of authentic human communicative needs (i. e. , social, interactional, cognitive, affective needs). 2. 1 Context 6One of the first questions is what is happening in this stretch of talk, who the participants are, where they are, and why they are there. Linguistic choices are  systematically motivated by contextual factors. Context is a complex of 3 dimensions: First, the field of social action in which the discourse is embedded. Second, the set of role relations among the participants. And third, the role of language in the interaction. In this view, language is a system of choices made on the basis of a contextual configuration which accounts for field, tenor, and mode. 2. 3 Speech act What kind of speech act utterance is and whether this act is accomplished through direct or indirect means. Speech act theory says that language is used not only to describe things but to do things as well. Further, utterances act on 3 different levels: the literal level (locutionary act), the implied level (illocutionary act), and the consequence of the implied act (perlocutionary act). 2. 4 Scripts / plans Script is to describe the knowledge that we have of the structure of stereotypical event sequences. If such knowledge can be described in a formal way, then we may have a theory of how humans process natural language. 2. 5 Referentiality How entities (Ð »Ã ¸Ã'†Ð °) are referred to in utterances. Some analysts are interested in how referential forms make a stretch of discourse cohesive in form and coherent in meaning. 2. 6 Topicality and thematicity What is an utterance about, what is the starting point of a message, what is the focus of a message. Topic the part of the utterance about which something is said. Prague School linguists developed the functional sentence perspective which says that word order has to do with how informative each element in the utterance is – communicative dynamism, or CD. A sentence begins with elements with the lowest CD and ends with those with the highest CD. Theme is the part of the utterance with the lowest degree of CD. 2. 7 Sequential organization The sequential context of the utterance. Discourse analysts have sought to explain linguistic choices in terms of ethnographic contexts, knowledge structure, rhetorical organization, communicative intentions, textual organization, information management and sequential organization, among others. Discourse Analysis, Linguistics, and More Discourse analysts research various aspects of language not as an end in itself, but as a means to explore ways in which language forms are shaped by and shape the contexts of their use. Further, discourse analysis draws upon not only linguistics, but also anthropology, sociology, psychology, philosophy, cognitive science, and  other disciplines in the humanities and social sciences concerned with human communication. Discourse analysis promotes a view of language which says that 7 Resource Center Saved Recents Uploads My Answers Account Products Home Essays Drive Answers Texty About Company Legal Site Map Contact Us Advertise  ©2016 StudyMode. com HOME   ESSAYS   LINGUISTICS   LINGUISTICS Linguistics Applied linguistics, Discourse analysis, Language By maor87 Apr 17, 2015 6489Words 150Views More info PDF View Text View PAGE8 OF 18 language use is not only reflective of other aspects of our lives but is also constitutive of them. As it draws insights from various disciplines, it also contributes to interfacing linguistics with other domains of inquiries, such that we might now investigate the construction of culture through conversation or program computers to generate interactive texts based on our understanding of the rules and principles of human interaction. It focusses on language as it is used by real people with real intentions, emotions. 4. Linguistics and pragmatics (16) The Puzzle of Language Use: How Do We Ever Understand Each Other? Pragmatics is the study of communication – the study of how language is used. This study is based on the assumption of a division between knowledge of language and the way it is used; and the goal of pragmatics is providing a set of principles which dictate how knowledge of language and general reasoning interact in the process of language understanding, to give rise to different kinds of effects which can be achieved in communication. Pragmatics as the Application of Conversational Principles to Sentence Meanings The starting point for studies in pragmatics is the mismatch between what words â€Å"mean, and what speakers â€Å"mean† by using them. There is the knowledge of  language, which dictates the meanings of words and the ways in which they can combine. This is called the encoded meaning. On the other hand, there are pragmatic principles which enable a hearer to establish some different interpretation – the nonencoded part of meaning. Moreover, given the full array of rhetorical effects such as metaphor, irony, etc. , all of which are uses of expressions in context in some sense, the proposed approach maintains a natural separation between literal uses of words, which are reflected in sentence-meanings, and the various non-literal uses to which they may be put. Knowledge of language: sentence-meanings as partial specifications of interpretation The problem for this â€Å"clean† view is that we use commonsense reasoning, whatever this consists in, not merely in working out why a speaker has said something, but also in establishing what she has said in using the words chosen. The overall picture of interpretation is that grammar-internal principles articulate both syntactic and semantic structure for sentences, a semantic structure for a sentence being an incomplete specification of how it is understood. Pragmatic theory explains how such incomplete specifications are enriched in context to yield  the full communicative effect of an uttered sentence, whether metaphorical, ironical, and so on. The Process of Reasoning: How Do Hearers ever Manage to Choose the Right Interpretation? Grice’s cooperative principle and the conversational maxims According to Grice who was the pioneer of the inferential approach to conversation, there is a general assumption underpinning all utterance interpretation that the interpretation of utterances is a collaborative enterprise. This 8collaborative enterprise is structured by a number of maxims, which speakers are presumed to obey: †¢ The maxim of quality: do not say that for which you lack evidence; do not say what you believe to be false. †¢ The maxim of relevance: be relevant. †¢ The maxim of quantity: make your contribution as informative as is required, but not more so. †¢ The maxim of manner: be perspicuous (avoid obscurity, avoid ambiguity, be brief, be orderly). Grice articulated the maxims as a means of simplifying the overall account of the relation between the use of language in logical arguments and the conversational use of language. Relevance theory This theory claims to characterize pragmatic phenomena in terms of a single  cognitive concept, that of relevance, replacing the social underpinnings of Grice’s cooperative principle. The principle of relevance Optimal relevance is getting the right balance between size and type of context and amount of information derived. The more information some stimulus yields, the more relevant it is said to become, but the more effort the interpretation of that stimulus requires, the less relevant it will become. And to be minimally relevant a stimulus must lead to at least one non-trivial inference being derived. However interpretation of an act of communication involves two agents – the  speaker and the hearer. The constraint of balancing cognitive effect with cognitive effort will also apply to what the hearer does, but here the task of interpretation is more specific because the hearer has to try and recover what the speaker intended to convey. There are two aspects to the task: 1 Decoding the information associated with an uttered expression– i. e. working out what words have been said and the information that they by definition carry. 2 Making choices which enrich that encoded information to establish what the speaker had intended to convey using those words. Relevance and speech acts  On the speech act view of language, language can best be understood in terms of acts such as these which speakers carry out in using language. The observation by speech act theorists that there is more to language than just describing things is quite uncontentious. Nonetheless, in relevance theory, where the type of implications that can be drawn is quite unrestricted, there is no need of any special discrete categories for such different kinds of act. 5. Linguistic typology and its directions (14) 1 The Diversity of Human Languages The field of linguistic typology explores the diversity of human language in an  effort to understand it. The basic principle behind typology is that one must look at as wide a range of languages as possible in order to grasp both the diversity of 9language and to discover its limits. Typology uses a fundamentally empirical, comparative, and inductive method in the study of language. That is, typologists examine grammatical data from a wide variety of languages, and infer generalizations about language from that data. The basic discovery of typology is that there are limits to linguistic diversity. By comparing diverse languages and discovering universal grammatical patterns, one can attempt to disentangle what is  universal about the grammars languages from what is peculiar to each individual language. 2 The Nature of Language Universals: Word Order One of the first areas of grammar where it was recognized that there are limits to grammatical diversity was the order of words. Word order is probably the most immediately salient difference in grammatical patterns from one language to the next. First, one must examine a sample of languages in order to infer the range of grammatical diversity and its limits. A variety sample collects as broad a range of languages as possible from different geographical areas and different genetic  groupings. Its purpose is to ensure that all possible language types are identified. Second, one must be able to identify phenomena from one language to the next as comparable. The basic problem here is the great variety of grammatical structures used in the world’s languages. The solution to this problem is due to another insight of structuralism: the basic unit of the language is the sign, a form that conventionally expresses or encodes a meaning. The basis for cross-linguistic comparison is a particular linguistic meaning; once that is identified, we may examine the different structures used to encode that meaning. Third, we must identify a range of grammatical patterns or types used to express the linguistic meaning being examined, and classify languages according to what type(s) is / are used in them. For instance, in describing word order of the sentence, the relative position of subject (S), object (O), and verb (V) are used to classify language types. Language structure is determined by factors of language use, such as processing. Language structure is also determined by historical relationships among grammatical patterns, which themselves are due to similarity in meaning. However, these factors do not uniquely determine a language structure, but  compete with each other. Speech communities resolve the competing motivations in arbitrary, language-particular ways; this leads to the diversity of languages found in the world. 3 Language Universals and the Formal Encoding of Meaning Word order universals appear to be motivated in terms of processing of linguistic structure in the act of producing and comprehending language. Word order is a fundamental grammatical property of sentences. 3. 1 Typological markedness and morphological representation 10Some of the earliest work in typology examined the coding of grammatical and  lexical concepts in inflected word forms. The universals go under the name of (typological) markedness. Typological markedness represents an asymmetric pattern of the expression of meaning in grammatical categories across languages. Typological markedness has two central characteristics. First, typological markedness is a property of conceptual categories – e. g. singular and plural – or more precisely, how those conceptual categories are expressed in languages. For number, the singular is unmarked and the plural is marked. Second, unmarked status does not imply that the unmarked member is always left unexpressed and the marked member is always expressed by an overt morpheme. The presence / absence of an overt inflection encoding a conceptual category is only one symptom of markedness, namely structural coding. Typological markedness is found in another aspect of the coding of concepts in words and constructions. Most words in sentences express more than one conceptual category. Pronouns in English, for instance, can express gender as well as number. In English, neither the singular nor plural pronouns express number by a separate inflection; instead number is implicitly expressed by distinct forms such as he and  they. The grammatical coding of additional, cross-cutting, distinctions in the singular but not in the plural is an example of the second symptom of markedness, called behavioral potential. Behavioral potential is also represented by an implicational universal: If the marked member of a category grammatically expresses a crosscutting distinction, so does the unmarked member. A third property of typological markedness points to its underlying explanation. The unmarked member is more frequent than the marked member in language use. Concepts that occur more frequently in language use (e. g. singular) will tend to be expressed by fewer morphemes than less frequently occurring concepts (e. g. plural). This explanation for how meaning is encoded in grammatical form is a processing explanation, called economy or economic motivation. 3. 2 Hierarchies and conceptual spaces We can describe the cross-linguistic distribution of plural markings across classes of pronouns and nouns with the animacy hierarchy. The hierarchy is a succinct way to capture a chain of implicational universals: if any class of words has a plural, then all the classes to the left (or higher) on the hierarchy have a plural. These  patterns are defined over a conceptual space. The conceptual space describes a network of relationships among conceptual categories which exist in the human mind and which constrains how conceptual categories are expressed in grammar. Grammatical change must follow the links in conceptual space. For instance, a plural marking spreads from left to right in the animacy space. Conceptual spaces specify what grammatical category groupings are found in, and how constructions spread (or retreat) over time in their application to grammatical categories. If we compare absence vs. presence of case marking on nouns for the grammatical  11 relations hierarchy, we find that absence of case marking occurs at he higher end of the hierarchy, and presence thereof at the lower end of the hierarchy. The grammatical relations hierarchy also defines the distribution of verb agreement across languages. Verb agreement is associated with the higher end of the grammatical relations hierarchy – the ability to trigger verb agreement indicates the greater behavioral potential of the grammatical relation. These facts demonstrate that the two grammatical relations hierarchies in fact reflect a deeper cross-linguistic universal pattern, found in many different parts of the grammar of languages. 3. 3 Economy and iconicity Economic motivation: the more frequently used category is more likely to be reduced in expression or left unexpressed. Iconic motivation the structure of language reflects the structure of concepts. In the example, each conceptual category, both singular and plural, are overtly encoded in the word form. A subtype of iconicity called isomorphism: the correspondence between forms and meanings. There are two ways in which isomorphism occur in human languages. The first way is in the correspondence of forms and meanings in the combination of words and inflections in a sentence. This is called syntagmatic isomorphism. Economic and iconic motivation compete to produce the range of attested and unattested correspondences between form and meaning. There are 3 predicted patterns. Overt expression is iconically motivated: there is a one-to-one correspondence between meanings and forms. However, it is only moderately economically motivated: it is more economical than expressing a meaning with more than one word or morpheme, but less economical than not expressing the meaning at all. Non-expression of a particular meaning, such as the singular of English nouns like car-O (vs.plural book-s), is economically motivated: zero expression breaks one-to-one correspondence between forms and meanings. The third possible option, zero marking of both singular and plural, corresponds to the absence of expression of the category. This option is economically motivated: either the meaning can be inferred from context, or it is not relevant to the communication. There is another economically motivated pattern of expressing meaning in form: the combination or fusion of discrete meanings in a single form. For example, the suffix -s in English run-s indicates 3rd person subject, singular  subject and present tense, all in a single suffix. In other languages, inflectional categories are found in separate suffixes, as in Turkish. The second type of isomorphism is the correspondence between form and meaning in the inventory of words stored in the mind; paradigmatic isomorphism. 12The possible means of expression of meanings in words are limited by economy and iconicity. Unmotivated possibility: the existence of more than one word with the same meaning, synonymy. It is not iconically motivated. A one-to-one match between a word and a meaning is called monosemy. It isiconic ally motivated but not that economically motivated: we would need very many words to express each discrete meaning. Homonymy is economically motivated, but it is not iconically motivated (many unrelated meanings are expressed by a single form). By far the most common state of affairs in languages, however, is polysemy: the grouping of related meanings under a single form. Polysemy is economically motivated because it subsumes several meanings under a single form, as with homonymy. It is iconically motivated, because the meanings are related. 4 The Dynamic Approach to Language Universals The most common word.

Crete: Biblical Traditions, Churches and Monasteries :: Free Descriptive Essay About A Place

Crete: Biblical Traditions, Churches and Monasteries Crete has long been known for its isolation caused by the mountains and the seas ; As a result of its landscape, it has been always identified as independent.? (Dubin 241). However, the mountains and the seas could not keep away the various foreign powers, occupations, and the religious impact these forces have had on this beautiful island.? History has shown that its island form has not kept Crete safe from outside forces; In fact, it is often considered to be a microcosm of a continent.? Just like a mini-continent, Crete has a diverse religious history that is fluid and ever changing with hundreds of years and layers of religious history.? ?Crete has always been steeped with religious importance, especially to the western world.? In fact, it was here in Crete where many believed that Zeus (the Roman god) was born and raised. (Psilakis 7) The caves in Crete are not only famous for the brethren who have made Christian dwelling, but also for being where the mythical gods lived as well.? Crete was also very important in early Christianity; The Apostle Paul around 64 CE (during his third apostolic trip) visited Crete. ( Theocharis, Detorakis) Paul later entrusted Titus to oversee the duty of the Christianizing the island.? However, the church in Crete has experienced many internal and external stresses on the church, much of it due to the friction of the island.? These tensions, however, have not impacted the religious strength and stamina of it island.? Crete is famous for their? ?Ten surmountable martyrs? who were martyred under persecution of Decious, Crete around 249-251 AD.( Theocharis, Detorakis)? So? famous and rever ed are these Cretians, that whenever the Byzantine wrote about the island of Crete, they were almost always mentioned.? The ?ten surmountable martyrs? are indicative of the strength, notoriety, and torments that the Cretian church and its members have embodied through history. HISTORY ?Despite the enthusiastic missionaries of early Crete, it was not until the peace came (under the Pax Romana) that Christianity really flourished in Crete.? It was between the 5th and 7th centuries when the church could flourish under the prosperity of the Byzantine empires of Constantinople. (Tucker 527) It was during this time that the Orthodox Church flourished. Unfortunately, later occupations and invasions have destroyed much of this epoch in Crete?s church history. ?Much of the Crete?s church history, however, is representative of constant change and not stagnancy.

Mahmut Sait

Mahmut Sait Arslan 04 January 2013 The Role Of Religion in A Secular Society According to secularization theory, as societies become more modernized and rationalized, religion will gradually lose it’s authority in social life and governance(Norris & Inglehart, 2004, p. 4). Modernization did â€Å"undermined† lots of accepted beliefs(Holloway, 2011, para. 7). But, by contrast with secularization thesis, there is no significant diminution in people’s religious demands(Kuru, 2011, p. 4). Appearently, not all modernized societies call themselves as â€Å"secular† and not every secular state can completely ignore religion.In this work, I’m going to inspect secular societies and question how religion can take part in their governance, concerning American, French and Turkish examples. Historically, American’s and French have seperated the church and state for different reasons. The establishment of secular state in America was a result of a compromi se between rationalists and evangelists. These groups have agreed on the secular state for different reasons. Thomas Jefferson, one of the America’s Founding Fathers, had foreseen that the secular state would lead to the â€Å"freedom and triumph of the reason†.Oppositely, a famous Evangelist, Isaac Backus had believed that secular state would provide the spread of the religion(Kuru, 2011, p. 84). Because in America’s early years, none of the Protestant churches could provide the majority that is necessary to be legitimized as the official church. So, as the second best choice, they accepted the state to be secular(Kuru, 2011, p. 86). The secularization of the France is rooted in the ideas of Enlightenment. Philosophers of Enlightenment was trying to replace dogmatic values with rational and humanistic ones(Wikipedia, 2009).After the French Revolution, with the abolition of monarchy, the close relation between the French State and Catholic Church finished. Accor ding to Tocqueville, Christianity was the object of aggression not as a religion but as a political establishment. This was because of the cooperation between the monarch and the Church before the revolution(Kuru, 2011, p. 142). The different reasons led to different results in these countries. From the beginning of the 19th century, evangelists have strenghtened the socio-cultural hegomony of the Protestant college. Casanova, 1994, p. 137) Christianism was, in public sense, accepted as semiofficial religion of the U. S. It was also, accepted as a part of the state’s civil law(Kuru, 2011, p. 88). Even Supreme Court of U. S have acknowledged the U. S nation as a Christian nation(Kuru, 2011, p. 91). In this period, state was not neutral against all religions, but neutral amongst Protestant sects. Up till now, there has been ideological conflicts between rationalists and conservative people about the religion. There have been exclusivist and compromiser interpretations of the se cularism.But generally, it hadn’t been understood as hostility against religion. In America, churches are relieved from state’s effect, wheras in France the state is relieved from the Church’s effect. A radical interpretation of secularism which advocates the seperation of not just state and church, but of all kind of values like moral and human values, is hegemonic in France. In other words, eliminating the religion from public life and confining it with the soul of human. Some people even exceed it to create a â€Å"religion of humanity†(Holloway, 2008, para. 12).But, there have been lots of significant deviations from the ideology because of Catholic roots of French public and opposing ideological attempts. French government could easily ignore the religious demands of minorities like Muslims and Jewish. But they pay much attention to the demands of Catholics who form the majority. At the end of the first quarter of the 20th century, Turkey had to quot e the Swiss Civil Law because when they tried to make their own law, commission members couldn’t liberate themselves from their religious beliefs(Oguzman & Barlas, 2012, p. 27).But even when quoting they had to make some modifications according to Turkish culture. This was made in the name of being secular and neutral against all beliefs. Putting the history aside, I want to examine the impact of religious law in secular societies’ law system. Human made laws are inspired by lots of different sources like ethics, religion, philosophy, convenances, other law systems etc. These rules have some commonalities because they’re all aimed to establish the ideal society. Concerning this, secular legislatives should concern every law system and utilize them.For example, marriage is, in religious world, concerned as a religious practice. For secular people this mean nothing. But, if we take human nature into the account, inexistence of the institution of marriage could be a threat to the mental and physical health of the progenies(Oktem & Turkbag, 1999, p. 209). So, the legislatives may foresee a religious institution like marriage as necessary for secular reasons. The implementation of the secular law in Turkey has caused many problems because there were some rules which were opposite to the belief and perception of majority of the public like prohibiting headscarves.Ordering a believer not to do what they believe is like ordering somebody to jump off a cliff. Because they’re sure that they will be rewarded or punished according to their loyalty to their beliefs. The secularization thesis promise to be neutral against all religions. But applicating the inhibition of a religious obligation to all members of the society equally, is like prohibiting to sleep under the arch of a bridge for both rich and poor people equally(Kuru, 2011, p. 108). The acceptance of secularism as being neutral, and religiousity as differantiality makes secularists mor e advantagous.To eliminate unequality, chaos and tension states should pay more attention on public demands and trends. Compared to French and Turkish history, there were less religious related slaughters in American history. Without renouncing secularism, Americans could identify themselves as religious. They used secularism not as a tool to restrict and transform the public, but to ensure the freedom of different groups within the society. To be able to equal aginst every belief, each belief system should be approached equally.Like Islam or Christianity, secular people should be concerned as believers, believers of secularism. References Age of Enlightenment. (2009). In  Wikipedia. Retrieved january 4, 2013, from en. wikipedia. org Casanova, J. (1994). Public Religions in the Modern World. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. Holloway, D. , (2008). The Secular State and The Oxford Union. Retrieved January 4, 2013, from http://www. church. org. uk/resources/csdetail. asp? cs date=01/02/2008 –(2011). A Judge, Secularism, Pluralism and Fundamentalism.Retrieved January 04, 2013, from http://www. church. org. uk/resources/csdetail. asp? csdate=01/03/2011 Kuru, A. (2011). Pasif ve D? slay? c? Laiklik: ABD, Fransa ve Turkiye. Istanbul: Istanbul Bilgi Universitesi Yay? nlar?. Norris, P. & Inglehart, R. (2004). Sacred and Secular: Religion and Politics Worldwide. New York: Cambridge University Press. Oguzman, M. K. & Barlas, N. (2012). Medeni Hukuk. Istanbul: Vedat Kitapc? l? k. Oktem, N. & Turkbag, A. U. , (1999). Felsefe, Sosyoloji, Hukuk ve Devlet. Istanbul: Der Yay? nlar?.

Anglo Saxon Poetry Of Beowulf English Literature Essay

BeowulfA is the most of import verse form in Old English and it is the first major verse form in a European slang linguistic communication, †¦ remarkable for its sustained magnificence of tone and for the glare of its manner, as has been remarked by Margaret Drabble. Beowulf has been categorized as a â€Å" Primary Epic † by C.S.Lewis. In wide footings, a primary heroic poem is drawn from the unwritten narrative stating tradition as opposed to what Lewis termed as a â€Å" Secondary Epic † which is a planned literary creative activity. A Handbook to Literature defines the undermentioned demands for a literary piece to be classified as an heroic poem: On the footing of these standards, which shall be examined in the undermentioned paragraphs, Beowulf can safely be characterised into the heroic poem genre. The hero of Beowulf is â€Å" a figure of heroic stature † . Beowulf ‘s physical stature mirrors his qualities and when we foremost see Beowulf as he arrives from his fatherland Geatland at Scyldings in the land of the Danes, attending is drawn to his stature by the Scylding guard who exclaims that he has ne'er seen a â€Å" a mightier baronial, / a larger adult male † ( 247-48 ) Beowulf is a hero of heroic strength with the strength â€Å" clasp † of 30 work forces, who kills nine sea monsters on a swim. Subsequently he establishes his strength by killing Grendel and his female parent. Though immature at the beginning of the verse form, Beowulf has all the devisings of a good leader. He reveals his line of descent to the reader when he mentions his male parent to the guard who is funny about him ( 251 ) . Beowulf besides reveals his male parents name and the name of his male monarch, Hygelac. On his meeting with King Hrothgar ( 418 ff. ) , we realise that non merely is Beowulf brave and brave but he besides is loyal and has come to refund the generousness and kindness of King Hrothgar to his male parent Ecgtheow. He besides divulges that he has cleansed his fatherland of its enemies and has killed a folk of giants. Thereafter he shows his strength when he kills the sea monsters while viing with Breca. Beowulf ‘s handling of Unferth ( 529 ) is a farther testimony to the wisdom of the immature hero. By his handling of Unferth, and the maner in which he reminds the assemblage of the certificates of Unferth and how he killed his ain brothers, Beowulf asserts himself even before he confronts Grendel. In the conflict with Grendel, Beowulf displays his accomplishments as an intelligent warrior as he allows Grendel to devour a Geat, while he lies still accessing his enemy. As a con sequence of analyzing his enemy he manages to rend Grendel ‘s right claw off from his shoulder socket. He farther strengthens his repute as a worthy and courageous warrior in the mode in which he deals with Grendel ‘s female parent. He besides shows himself as a loyal friend when Hygelac is killed in a conflict, since he does non claim the throne for himself but supports his boy. Merely when Hygelac ‘s boy is killed in a fued does Beowulf go up to the throne. The conflict with the firedrake in his old age once more proves his strength and him as a good warrior though a few critics found him reckless for non worrying about who would go up him to the throne. Beowulf besides makes the usage of the tools of heroic poems such as asides, addresss, and expeditions. There is besides a mirroring of the unwritten tradition of narrative stating in the text, as we see the â€Å" scop † who chants the occurrences of The Finnsburh Episode ( 1063-1159 ) . The asides though they appear cumbersome were feats of good known heroes and popular narratives. For case the blood-feud history of Finn and the Danes reverberations Cain and Abel in its misrepresentation, craftiness, treachery and disloyalty. The slaying of Finn to revenge the decease of Hnaf brings on the onslaught of the monster Grendel, who is eventually slayed by Beowulf. The narrative of this narrative non merely celebrates his triumph but besides highlights the triumph of good over immorality. Unlike the classical heroic poem, Beowulf does non get down â€Å" media RESs † and has no supplication to the Muse, but it is an heroic poem however, given the character of the hero, the events of great magnitude and besides the poetic composing. The verse form employs the usage of initial rhymes, which carry more significance than a rime. A important portion of the verse form does use the usage of rime as good. But over all it is evident from the scrutiny of the verse form that it was compose for unwritten narrative as opposed to a literary piece. Beowulf is a glorious merger of many subjects, viz. the subjects of Christian and Pagan rites, of light and darkness which mirror good and evil, of Men and Monsters, of Treasures, of the importance of Genealogy, of community, of Wyrd and of good Kingship which runs analogue in the narrative. In the book English Epic and Heroic Poetry, the writer W. Macneile Dixon, stresses that Beowulf is was perchance non â€Å" crude poesy † ( Pg. 14 )[ 5 ]when it was composed. Though the linguistic communication of the verse form appears to be simple, the poets have drawn on both the Pagan and Christian elements. Therefore Fitela, Scyld Scefing and Sigmund from heathen mythology are offered as defenders of demeanor and the monster Grendel ‘s household line belongs to the family tree of Cain ( 107 and 1258-67 ) . Again we see a strong heathen influence as the Anglo-Saxon construct of Wryd is a subject by itself in the text. Beowulf calls upon Wyrd when he battles the first sea monster of the nine that he killed, when he competed with Breca. Subsequently he attributes his endurance to the Christian God. ( 569-574 ) . He besides refers to Wyrd at his concluding reference. Hrothgar besides thanks God when Beowulf defeats the monster Grendel. Through the text Hrothgar ‘s advocate and warnings to Beowulf reflect the Christian dogmas of generousness and the pattern of gold giving followed at that clip. Three of the awful seven deathly wickednesss are besides mentioned as a warning to Beowulf. ( 1724-78 ) When Beowulf is deceasing ; Wiglaf tries to resuscitate him utilizing a ritual with H2O which calls to mind the Baptism. Beowulf is really heathen in the mode in which he chooses to contend the firedrake entirely, and it is in maintaining with the codification of behavior of the warrior. His subsequent funeral, with a adult female and 12 considerations mourning him name to mind, Christ ‘s adherents and Mary Magdalen forenoon Christ. Good and immorality is a nother subject running through the text and it is farther emphasised as we view the struggle of visible radiation and darkness, and heaven and snake pit. The text begins with a apposition of the light universe of the human warriors and their gay mead-hall with the dark universe of Grendel ‘s prevaricator ( 417-426 ) . The universes invariably clash as Grendel ‘s haterate and slaughter of the Danes brings Beowulf to him who is non afraid to face the darkness. ( 480-488 ) . Hrothgar ‘s soldiers though brave do non last boulder clay dawn. Where Grendel symbolises darkness, his female parent symbolises snake pit and somberness that is dark at its darkest. Continuing with the subject of dark and light is the subject of adult male and monster. While we are cognizant the Grendel is a monster ( 101-108 ) , we are besides reminded that possibly Beowulf is besides non wholly human, since he kills nine sea monsters, and about has the power equivalent to Grendel particularly s ince his feats of conveying the monsters to an terminal could easy be lines used for Grendel. ( 551-558 ) the subject of good triumphing over immorality besides runs through the heroic poem as even though Grendel is strong with crisp claws he is defeated non by the blade but by the bare custodies of the heroic Beowulf. ( 987-990 ) Again we are reminded of Beowulf ‘s strength which is more than human as he is contending Grendel ‘s female parent, and he is protected by his extraordinary armor which is adorned with two rings demoing the friendly relationship of the Geates and the Danes and their support of Beowulf. The heroic poem is rich in item since it has a hero who harmonizing to Hegel[ 6 ]the hero Beowulf is waited on manus and pes, and has to fight for basic endurance, and the necessities of life such as â€Å" Equus caballuss and arms and nutrient † . The subject of hoarded wealth therefore besides highlights the implicit in economic sciences of a feudal society while heightening the heroic poem. Harmonizing to W.P.Ker, in his book Epic and Romance, he mentions that Beowulf was likely written by two Scribes and has a construction with a â€Å" prologue at the beginning and a judgement pronounced on the life of the hero at the terminal † ( Pg.158 ) BeowulfA has an omniscient ( â€Å" omniscient † ) storyteller. The narrative voice remarks on the character ‘s actions, and knows and is able to describe on what they think. The storyteller is cognizant of things- for illustration, the expletive on the firedrake ‘s hoarded wealth ( lines 3066-75 ) -that are non known to the heroic poem ‘s characters. Beowulf portions this all-knowing narrative with other heroic poems, such as theA Iliad, A theOdyssey, A and theA Aeneid, A but remains subtly different. The storyteller ofA BeowulfA makes an expressed connexion with the audience, admiting a shared background of cultural cognition, in the gap lines of the verse form: A † WeA have heard of the thriving of the throne of Denmark † ( accent added ) . The storyteller ‘s voice is besides closely connected with those of the characters. Both use narrations in the same manner, to indicate a moral or to project†¦ ..

The Ultimate Gift

The Ultimate Gift Free Online Research Papers I have seen a lot of movies with different plots, themes and meanings, but the â€Å"The Ultimate Gift† film by stood out among the others. It had a very special plot and took me a while to fully understand the meaning the film gave. The movie began with the funeral of Red Stevens, a very wealthy and successful entrepreneur. But it was interrupted by the loud engine of his grandson that showed up late, Jason Stevens. Jason a self centered person who has no respect for himself and his family. He was born with a silver spoon in his mouth and never had to work for anything in his life. Jason has a lot of hatred toward his grandfather because his father died in a plane crash working for Red and Jason blamed it on him After the funeral, the relatives of Red Stevens gathered in a room to hear the will and what they would receive. Red Stevens had four children, a daughter and three sons, but one of his sons, the father of Jason, died in a tragic accident. The lawyer reading the wil l is Red’s best friend that he met fifty years ago, Mr. Hamilton. As Mr. Hamilton began to read the will, the children of Red were anticipating receiving complete ownership of their fathers businesses, but were shocked to hear that they were only given salaries, not ownership. After hearing the disappointing news, they barged out of the room frustrated. Then once again, Jason shows up late to hear the will. Mr. Hamilton haves everybody in the room leave besides Jason. He tells Jason that his grandfather has a very special gift and plays a video of his grandfather. His grandfather tells Jason that he has been given everything and is taking the important things in life for granite. Red has set up a series of challenges for Jason; each challenge should teach him twelve very special gifts that will lead to the ultimate gift. The first gift that Red wanted Jason to learn was the gift of work. Since Jason had to never work a day in his life, he was sent to Texas to help one of Red’s friends, Gus, to help do some work on his ranch. When Jason arrived at Gus’s house, he thought it was a waste of his time. There was no TV, no cell-phone service and nothing but open land for fifty miles. The next day Gus woke up Jason at five o’ clock to begin his work on the ranch, but Jason called him crazy and went back to sleep. That was probably the first time he woke up that early in his life. When Jason finally got out of bed and got dressed in work clothes, Gus drove him out in the ranch to plant post. Gus showed him how to plant the post and told him they had to be even and eight feet apart from each other. When Jason finished setting up all the post he would be finished and will receive the gift his grandfather had for him. The first few days Jason did not work. Then Jason realized that maybe if he did the work he was supposed to do he would receive the gift. So Jason decided to plant the post. When he was finished, Gus came to see how he did. As soon as Gus saw the post he pulled them out and told him to do it again because the posts were uneven and not eight feet apart. Then the next day Gus walked down stairs to have breakfast and he sees Jason finishing up his plate. Gus was shocked to see Jason awake before him. After breakfast Jason was determined to the set posts correctly. He did not stop working until he finished the job which shows that Jason has the capability to accomplish his goals if he applies himself. After Gus sees Jason’s finished work on the posts he congratulates him and told him he was finished here. Gus drove Jason to the airport and as soon as Jason got out of the car he asked Gus for the gift. Gus laughed and drove off. Jason returned to Mr. Hamilton’s office and watched another video of his grandfather. The video told Jason that you can do anything if you work for it. After the video he started to complain that he had to physical labor and received nothing for doing it. After learning the gift of work Jason asked Mr. Hamilton what his next challenge was and he told Jason that he would find out. The next day Jason drove in the parking garage of his apartment. He went up stairs, opened his door and saw that everything inside his apartment was gone. He ran downstairs and saw a tow truck towing his car away. Jason went back to Mr. Hamilton’s office and watched the next video from his grandfather. His grandfather said that he was the life of the party but he had no true friends. Mr. Hamilton told Jason to come back at the end of the month with one real friend and he would learn the gift of friendship. One night, Jason took out his girl friend to a very nice restaurant for dinner. When the bill came Jason gave the waiter his credit card. The waiter came back and told Jason that the credit card was rejected. He shrugged and pulled out another one of his many credit cards to pay the bill. But the waiter came back again and told Jason the same thing h e did before. Realizing that he couldn’t pay the bill because he was broke, Jason asked his girl friend to cover this dinner. She looked at Jason and felt insulted that he asked her to pay the bill and left. After dinner, Jason started calling his fake friends for a place to stay and some money, but everyone ignored him and hung up on him. Later that night Jason went to his mother’s house for a warm place to sleep. When his mother answered the door she denied him a place to stay because she was told not to. Jason wondered around the park and had no other option but to sleep on the bench in the park. The next day Jason met this little girl named Emily and her mother and acted ignorant towards them. He asked them if they could be his friends for a while to help him out and in return he would take them to Disney World. Emily called Jason pathetic and left. Emily and her mother return to the par the next day to eat lunch, but they were disturbed by a homeless man. Jason s ees that the homeless man is harassing Emily and her mother, so he gets the homeless man to leave them alone. In return for helping to get rid of the homeless man, Emily and her mother invite Jason to lunch. During lunch they talk about Jason’s the challenges his grandfather has arranged for him to receive his part of the will. He tells them that he needs a true friend to come with him and they agree. Emily and her mother go with Jason to Mr. Hamilton’s office. Mr. Hamilton was shocked to see that Jason has made a friend. After the meeting Emily told Jason to meet her at the same time tomorrow for lunch, but he laughed and walked away. Jason didn’t want to be friends with her; he used her to get him through to the next gift. The next video that Jason’s grandfather talked about was the gift of money. Jason was given a bill for the work he did on Gus’s ranch and he was to spend it on someone with a real problem which is also the gift of giving. Jason goes out and heads to the park planning on giving some of his money to the homeless man that wonders around there. But when Jason finds the homeless man, he runs off and drops a women’s purse. Jason goes over and looks through to see who it belongs to. He finds out that the purse belongs to Alexia, Emily’s mother. While looking through the purse Jason saw bills that are from the apartment rent for large amounts due. So Jason went to the hospital to return her purse. He asked around for her and was sent to Emily’s room. Jason walked in and saw Emily and noticed that she had a cancer because she had no hair. Shocked to see Emily with no hair, he placed the purse down and left the room. Leaving Emily’s room, Jason ran in to Emily’s mother. She asked why Jason was here but she saw the look in his eyes and new that he saw Emily. Jason asked what was wrong with Emily and Alexia told him that she had leukemia. Jason offered to help her pay their bills but she didn’t want his help. But Jason decides to donate the money to Emily and her mother to anyway. This shows that Jason can think about others besides himself. Jason returns to Mr. Hamilton’s office and ask to see the next video of his grandfather right away. Mr. Hamilton plays the video. Red tells Jason that he should get the whole family together for Thanksgiving dinner for the gift of family. Red also says the best way to solve a problem is to confront it and the problem Jason has is his family and Jason will learn the gift of the problem. Jason immediately denies doing it but he has too. Instead of going by himself to Thanksgiving he decides to ask Alexia. He goes to the hospital and finds her there. They started to talk and Emily’s mother said that someone paid her bills. She knew that Jason paid her bill and she told him thank you. That simple thank you she gave to Jason is an example of the gift of gratitude. Then Jason asked her to join him at Thanksgiving but she told him no because she wanted to spend the holiday with her daughter. Later that day Emily and her mother are reading in the hospital until Emily saw the s mirk on her mother’s face and asked her what was on her mind. Emily guessed that her mother was thinking about Jason. Her mother told her that Jason invited him to Thanksgiving dinner with his family but told him no because she wanted to spend it with her. But Emily wanted her mother to spend Thanksgiving with Jason and made her go with him. So Jason and Alexia went to Thanksgiving dinner at Jason’s uncle’s house. During the dinner all the family talked about was money and who has the most. Jason grew tired of hearing his family and there selfishness and left. He realized that his family will never care about anything else besides money. To solve the problem in his family, Jason tells them that they are all pathetic. Another video is played for Jason. Red talks about learning and how Jason needs to learn to learn, he doesn’t know everything. There are more things in the world to learn besides knowing how to spend money. So Jason decides to visit a library that his grandfather owns in Ecuador. He flew down and met up with a tour guide. The tour guide took him to the village where the library was and Jason entered the library and started reading. Later that night some of the village people invited Jason to a bond fire in honor of Red Stevens. They shared stories and laughed most of the night. Jason learned the gift of laughter at this bond fire and learned how it feels to have a fun time without spending money and being surrounded by fake friends. The three gifts that Jason learned are the gift of love, laughter and the gift of the day. The best example I saw during the movie when Jason expressed these gifts was the day he dedicated to Emily. Jason grew very close to Emily and Alexia over the months. Since Jason missed Christmas because of some series of unfortunate events, he wanted to make it up to Emily and Alexia. He flew Emily and Alexia out to Texas for a surprise. When they got there, they drove to Gus’s ranch to see his yard covered with snow and his house lighten up with lights. During the day Jason did everything that Emily wanted to do. One of the activities that Emily did was go horseback riding. While horse back riding Jason told Alexia that he didn’t know that Emily liked horses. Alexia started to cry and said she doesn’t like horses; she’s the one who does. This touched me to see a girl of her age show so much love and unselfishness towards her mother. Later that night, Jason and Emil y were sitting on the couch by the fire talking. Emily told Jason that she wanted her mother to have someone after she passes away and wanted Jason to be that someone. Jason then asked Emily what her dream was and she told him that her dream was to have a perfect day and that she was just finishing it. Even though Jason didn’t have any dreams for himself, he helped someone who really needed it to complete their dreams and make the last day of her the life the best day. Emily dies the next day in the hospital of her cancer. Jason felt a lot of pain when she passed because that was his best friend, his real friend. She accepted him as a friend for who he is, not the number of credit cards he has. At the end of the year Jason came in to watch the last video of his grandfather. Red told Jason that he was sorry for everything he has done to him and hopes that what he learned over the year will help him live a more spiritual life. Red tells Jason good bye and that’s the last Jason will hear from his grandfather. At that moment, Jason felt bad that he acted like a moron towards his grandfather and wishes he could take it back. Jason shows the first sign of love towards his grandfather when he cries at the end of the video. As said Jason would receive a prize if he succeeded his grandfather’s challenges. Mr. Hamilton gave Jason an envelope; Jason opened it, and found a one million dollar check and was given control of his entire grandfather’s estate. Jason decides to build a cancer center for those who are diagnosed with cancer. He called it Emily’s home. All the gifts that were taught equal up to answer the question what is the Ultimate gift. The answer is that there is no correct answer; all the gifts are needed to live with a complete soul. Research Papers on The Ultimate GiftThe Masque of the Red Death Room meaningsBook Review on The Autobiography of Malcolm XNever Been Kicked Out of a Place This NicePersonal Experience with Teen PregnancyHarry Potter and the Deathly Hallows EssayWhere Wild and West Meet19 Century Society: A Deeply Divided EraThe Fifth HorsemanTrailblazing by Eric AndersonQuebec and Canada

How to Write a Perfect Retail Resume (Examples Included)

How to Write a Perfect Retail Resume (Examples Included) Retail might not be the most glamorous career around- complete with aching feet and a perma-smile that hides your suspicion that the customer is not always right- but if you’ve ever been on those front lines, you know how essential your services are. We’re a society of consumers, and retail professionals are the ones who keep that cycle going. If you’re an experienced retail sales associate or someone just starting out, we’ve got you covered. We at TheJobNetwork have put together a guide accompanied by resume templates on creating the perfect retail resume. Let’s look at three different retail professionals: One entry level, one seeking seasonal retail employment, and an experienced sales associate looking to become a manager.1.Entry Level  Retail Sales Associate Resume2.Seasonal Retail Sales Resume3.Retail Sales Manager ResumeFirst up: Bella, who’s seeking her first job in the retail world.Download This Resume in MS WordBella opts for a fu nctional, or skills-based resume, because she doesn’t have a lot of retail-specific experience to showcase (yet). So she puts her best qualities and her skills up front, to underline her summary statement: that she’s looking to take the skills and work ethic she already has and turn that into a retail job/career. She also presents herself as a recent grad, which can let the reader know up front that she probably doesn’t have years and years of experience behind her. Bella prioritizes her strongest skills (her responsibility/dependability, her ability to work with the public, and her familiarity with handling transactions), then her awards/certifications (which emphasize her reliability and her professional successes), then her experience, and finally, her education.Bella’s experience is mostly in food service, and includes part-time jobs. She includes the part-time jobs because those helped develop skills she listed above, like customer service and an out going personality. Bella’s high school experience is important to note, because she has completed her diploma, but unless her school experience is directly relevant to the job she’s applying for (in this case it’s not), she wisely just lists the school and the diploma.Let’s look at Marty, who has more experience, but is seeking a seasonal retail position (back-to-school, holiday season, etc.) rather than a full-time gig.Download This Resume in MS WordMarty puts his cards on the table up front: he’s a student, he has retail experience, and he’s not looking to put a ring on it- he just wants to find a gig for the upcoming holiday season. He opens with a detailed summary, with a brief statement and then a handful of bullets outlining his deal. An important point in his bullets: that he’s available to work a variety of shifts, which is key for a store looking to hire someone to come in and get their hands dirty even when others are at hom e eating leftover turkey.Next, he lists his experience, to show that he’s a pro at the seasonal holiday game. He may have other jobs along the way, but he’s not looking for a career here- he focuses on the seasonal retail experience he already has, so that the reader doesn’t have to cut through a bunch of information that isn’t necessarily relevant to the immediate goal of hiring for a brief period.Our final retail resume-writer is Erica, who’s got a lot of retail associate experience behind her, but wants to jump up a level in the store management food chain.Download This Resume in MS WordErica’s resume shows an accomplished retail professional. But what she needs, if she wants to apply for higher-level retail jobs and not associate-level jobs, is to show that she has demonstrated leadership. Thus, the first skill she lists is rallying team members (check) to increase sales (check-plus) in her experience. The remainder of her skill bullets are used to show the breadth of her retail experience. This format, the skills-based resume, is helpful for someone like Erica, who wants to emphasize that she has what it takes to step into a bigger role, not just the kind of job she’s already had. Even though she’s not changing career paths, she’s trying to change up her career within that path, and this format can be useful when you want to show what you can be, in addition to what you’ve already done.Erica also provides as much detail as possible, without crowding her resume. The overall sales of her current store, with some concrete stats on how she’s helped increase sales, are very impressive, and don’t take up much space in the resume. Erica is letting results do the talking for her. An interview is a great chance to provide more context than resume bullets allow, but whenever you have specific numbers and information you can include, that will likely catch the attention of the reader and help get you into the next round. Erica also goes out of her way to include various awards, which show she’s been a superstar at her current job. Overall, the picture here is of someone who has been successful, and has the drive to keep going and improving sales.

Pacific Coast Migration Model Into the Americas

Pacific Coast Migration Model Into the Americas The Pacific Coast Migration Model is a theory concerning the original colonization of the Americas that proposes that people entering the continents followed the Pacific coastline, hunter-gatherer-fishers traveling in boats or along the shoreline and subsisting primarily on marine resources. The PCM model was first considered in detail by Knut Fladmark, in a 1979 article in American Antiquity which was simply amazing for its time. Fladmark argued against the Ice Free Corridor hypothesis, which proposes people entered North America through a narrow opening between two glacial ice sheets. The Ice Free Corridor was likely to have been blocked, argued Fladmark, and if the corridor was open at all, it would have been unpleasant to live and travel in. Fladmark proposed instead that a more suitable environment for human occupation and travel would have been possible along the Pacific coast, beginning along the edge of Beringia, and reaching the unglaciated shores of Oregon and California. Support for the Pacific Coast Migration Model The main hitch to the PCM model is the paucity of archaeological evidence for a Pacific coastal migration. The reason for that is fairly straightforwardgiven a rise in sea levels of 50 meters (~165 feet) or more since the Last Glacial Maximum, the coastlines along which the original colonists might have arrived, and the sites they may have left there, are out of present archaeological reach. However, a growing body of genetic and archaeological evidence does lend support to this theory. For example, evidence for seafaring in the Pacific Rim region begins in greater Australia, which was colonized by people in watercraft at least as long ago as 50,000 years. Maritime foodways were practiced by the Incipient Jomon of the Ryukyu Islands and southern Japan by 15,500 cal BP. Projectile points used by the Jomon were distinctively tanged, some with barbed shoulders: similar points are found throughout the New World. Finally, it is believed that the bottle gourd was domesticated in Asia and introduced into the New World, perhaps by colonizing sailors. Read more about the JomonRead about bottle gourd domestication Sanak Island: Redating Deglaciation of the Aleutians The earliest archaeological sites in the Americas- such as Monte Verde and Quebrada Jaguay- are located in South America and date to ~15,000 years ago. If the Pacific coast corridor was only truly navigable beginning around 15,000 years ago, that suggests that a full-out sprint along the Pacific coast of the Americas had to have occurred for those sites to be occupied so early. But new evidence from the Aleutian Islands suggests the sea coast corridor was opened at least 2,000 years longer ago than previously believed. In an August 2012 article in Quaternary Science Reviews, Misarti and colleagues report on pollen and climatic data that provide circumstantial evidence supporting the PCM, from Sanak Island in the Aleutian Archipelago. Sanak Island is a small (23x9 kilometers, or ~15x6 miles) dot about the midpoint of the Aleutians extending off Alaska, capped by a single volcano called Sanak Peak. The Aleutians would have been partthe highest partof the landmass scholars call Beringia, when sea levels were 50 meters lower than they are today. Archaeological investigations on Sanak have documented more than 120 sites dated within the last 7,000 years- but nothing earlier. Misarti and colleagues placed 22 sediment core samples into the deposits of three lakes on Sanak Island. Using the presence of pollen from Artemisia (sagebrush), Ericaceae (heather), Cyperaceae (sedge), Salix (willow), and Poaceae (grasses), and directly tied to radiocarbon-dated deep lake sediments as an indicator of climate, the researchers found that the island, and surely its now-submerged coastal plains, was free of ice nearly 17,000 cal BP. Two thousand years seems at least a more reasonable period in which to expect people to move from Beringia southward to the Chilean coast, some 2,000 years (and 10,000 miles) later. That is circumstantial evidence, not unlike a trout in the milk. Sources Balter M. 2012. The Peopling of the Aleutians. Science 335:158-161. Erlandson JM, and Braje TJ. 2011. From Asia to the Americas by boat? Paleogeography, paleoecology, and stemmed points of the northwest Pacific. Quaternary International 239(1-2):28-37. Fladmark, K. R. 1979 Routes: Alternate Migration Corridors for Early Man in North America. American Antiquity 44(1):55-69. Gruhn, Ruth 1994 The Pacific Coast route of initial entry: An overview. In Method and Theory for Investigating the Peopling of the Americas. Robson Bonnichsen and D. G. Steele, eds. Pp. 249-256. Corvallis, Oregon: Oregon State University. Misarti N, Finney BP, Jordan JW, Maschner HDG, Addison JA, Shapley MD, Krumhardt A, and Beget JE. 2012. Early retreat of the Alaska Peninsula Glacier Complex and the implications for coastal migrations of First Americans. Quaternary Science Reviews 48(0):1-6.

Lutz Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Lutz - Essay Example likely to stir emotional and physical reactions from the clients, a development that is likely to negatively affect the brand image (Goshgarian n.p.). Based on the observations of Lutz, it is sad to note that people are often too short sighted to discover carefully articulated phrases. In this case, the impact of public understanding of linguistic strategies behind ads is explored. Without a doubt, the alcohol industry is marred by use of weasel words in attempts to lure clients into adopting drunken behaviors. In line with Lutz observations, double speak is a common occurrence. As a global brand, Heineken is acceptable to many as a responsibly brewed alcoholic beverage with esteemed quality. The firm has partnered with many institutions in an attempt to attain publicity that would be essential in promoting its brand integrity. Further, Heineken has sponsored many athletes and public figures, all targeted towards promoting its brand image. Through reviews, it is evident that many youthful populations find themselves endeared to the public figures, a fact that drives them into imitating what the public figures do. Further, football is a widely accepted and followed sport across the globe. Specifically, the European champions’ league provides an ideal platform for various firms to seek fame. In such avenues, clients tend to endear themselves to the produc ts on offer. Reviewing Heineken marketing strategy, the firm advertizes its alcoholic brand just before and after the champions’ league matches, creating its esteemed image as a stable firm with the capacity to sponsor the league. In this advert, the starring exhibits accurate ball shooting ability. In this sense, the brand is trying to indicate that consumption of the drink improves energy and accuracy of the client. In reality, this weasel image created is far from truth. If I were a client to Heineken, realization that consumption of Heineken is likely to affect my stability, preventing me from exhibiting

Protecting Online Privacy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Protecting Online Privacy - Essay Example And they should take care to protect it from spreading discriminately online. Protecting their privacy online will ensure that they are not leaving their personal information open to abuse (Australian Government). In an open environment any one can have a taste of the matter. The people have a general right to be granted access to the personal information that organizations and agencies hold about them (Australian Government). But such persons are less aware of the fact that their information may be used for the various purposes including the resource to earn money by scammers, spammers or phishers etc.. To avoid discrimination people should know their right. They have diversity of sources to know about their right to protect their personal information, which they have supplied to a range of companies for countless reasons. The more a person knows about his/her rights, the easier it will be for him/her to safeguard his/her privacy (Australian Government). But they are less aware that the companies have taken their consent in their agreement section that their information may be used for their business purposes. Most of them are even not aware what they have signed for. Many credit agencies have gathered information from other agency for handsome amount without the consent of the customer and sold them for their commercial use. There are instances where people don't know about their right and importance of their privacy. They commit such a nuisance that they defame their personal image. For example, the persons, specially crazy girls and even curious women who are interested in publishing their personal information including photograph on internet on free hosting websites, are not aware of the fact that their identity is revealed to the world and they may fall a prey to the world of the prohibited by pornographers. Their ignorance can easily give opportunities, putting themselves in various troubles, to them to earn handsome money out of their clandestine materials. Several examples can be sited to show that the delicate information provided on Internet can make such a big harm to the people that they may even take their life as the compensation of the fault. In early September, a web developer took an apparently real advertisement placed online by a woman looking for a sexual liaison and posted it on the Seattle "casual encounters" section of the Craigslist bulletin board, according to press reports. There were 178 responses to the phony sexual solicitation, many of which included compromising photos. The developer then posted all the responses on a public website, including photos, email addresses and other personal information -- where anyone could view them. (Wharton). Another case of taking the advantage of using the personal matter for the use of Internet shows the wild nature of misuse of the information. A young woman in Seoul was on a subway train with her pet dog when the animal relieved itself on the floor. The woman did not clean up the mess, angering other riders, and the woman herself reportedly became surly as tensions escalated. Using a camera phone -- at 99%, South Korea has the highest camera-phone penetration in the

Reflection Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Reflection - Assignment Example I remember when I started learning English it was not that easy for me to get hold of it since I came from an Arabic background. However, had my mom not made sure that all the siblings spoke to each other in English, my speech wouldn’t have been the way it is. Hence, the maintenance factor came in which helped me continually polish my language skills. I also agree to Baker when he says one of the reasons for acquiring a second language is to make you culturally aware. I remember when I moved into college it wasn’t really that difficult for me to get along with other students since I had a pretty good understanding of the English culture and the language itself. However, I noticed how people who weren’t really familiar with the English language and culture found it very difficult to get along with the local students. It’s inspiring to see how Baker has put down in words a lot of thing that I have experienced in real life. Being a bilingual and aware of the local language of a country also helps you a lot in getting selected for a job. Baker has correctly mentioned this point in his book by saying that acquiring language helps a lot in career in employment. Not only the employment factor but it also helps a great deal in communicating effectively with foreigners while closing trade deals etc. I can totally connect the dots here to my own experience. I remember how one of my cousins raised in Arabia found it very challenging in finding a proper job in out country. Not that he wasn’t good at academics or anything but most of the potential employers told him the only reason they are hesitant about hiring him is that he isn’t familiar much with the English language and they believe it might some how hinder his performance at work. I believe going through Baker’s â€Å"Second Language Acquisition And Learning† has not only conformed my beliefs as to what I think of being a bilingual but it has further

Nursing Knowledge Resources and Nursing Theory Essay

Nursing Knowledge Resources and Nursing Theory - Essay Example This makes them to collaborate with others and the conversations will be scientific when they work with the physicians. Generally it was observed that physicians are giving increased autonomy for the nurses, who follow evidence based practice. This results in willingness in increasing the accountability and professionalism. The research is capable of validating the care they provide when they use evidence based practice. The research on nurses has shown that they lack skills regarding the appraise of research literature. As a result they are not able to use the research findings. The concept of evidence based practice increased the nurses' professional skills. The aim of the research should be the awareness of the nurses about the EBN reports. If they are not, the system or organization should make them aware of them. The concept of evidence based nursing found to be more important among the nurses. Though this is the case a research by Christel Bahtsevani of Malmo University revealed that there are many nurses who do not have access to the literature regarding the access to the evidence based nursing practices.( Christel Bahtsevani RN, Azzam Khalaf MSc, Ania Willman RN, PhD 2005) The importance and benefit of the evidence based practice is that it answers the clinical questions due to the evidence it gathers. The skills of clinicians regarding the research can be developed, and this can give efficient access to the evidences. This results due to the collaboration with colleagues who can assist in getting to the evidence. Melnyk etal in 2004 and Pravikoff et al. in 2005 stated that the educators when consider the lack of searching skills in nurses, they have to adopt evidence based practice. (Sally Bennett, John W. Bennett, 2000) They need to collaborate with librarians, database creators, indexers and others to develop the basic skills needed in EBP. This results in fostering the need to find the mother lode of evidence to answers the clinical questions. This results in finding the best team, best equipment and the best techniques to get the results quickly. They can anticipate and embrace the challenges inherent in practice. (Ellen Fineout-Overholt RN, PhD, Sheila Hofstetter MLS, AHIP, Leslee Shell MLS, Linda Johnston RN, PhD 2005) 3. Nursing theories 3.1 Websites on Nursing: The http://www.fhs.mcmaster.ca/ceb/acts/ebcp.htm describes the evidence based nursing practice in the practical sense. It stress on the use of scientific literature to use evidence based nursing practice. It defines the clinical questions in a way the answers extraction will become easy. This enables the search for best information that enhances the evidence based practices in nursing. The clinical message should be extracted by the physician from the information. 3.1.1 In http://www.herts.ac.uk/lis/subjects/health/ebm.htm the definitions, references and conferences are available. The methodological filters and evidence based health web sources are there to explain the care of public health with health technology assessment. In this site the evidence based medicine health care is looked upon a new paradigm that is capable of replacing the traditional medicine practices. They are based on authority and EBM is based on scientific information. 3.1.2 In

Animal Cruelty Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Animal Cruelty - Essay Example are passive acts in which animals are left ignored due to the very absence of proper care which may harm the animal seriously, such as, starving the animal. Here, we will discuss an active act of cruelty- abuse with dairy cows in factory farming. For a dairy cow to be able to produce milk, she must give birth frequently. In today’s farming industry, the dairy cows are forcefully made pregnant by artificial insemination so that they are able to give birth to calves every year. The pregnancy duration for a cow is the same as humans, that is, nine month. Thus, giving birth every year is a very tedious job for a cow. Even after birth while the lactation is going on, insemination is done and cows are again made pregnant for the reason that they may be able to carry out producing milk and never stop. Moreover, now with the use of technological means, cows are made to produce milk much more than they can naturally. This keeps their bodies under constant stress and tension which can bring hazardous problems to their health. They are kept in â€Å"windowless sheds, wire cages, gestation crates, and other confinement systems† (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals).Feeding them high energy diet, so that they can pr oduce copious quantity of milk, causes â€Å"metabolic disorders including ketosis, which can be fatal, and laminitis, which causes lameness† (Factory Dairy Production). Mastitis, Bovine Leukemia Virus and Johne’s disease are getting commoner in cattle day by day. When the production of milk is greater than the quantity of calcium made in the cows’ body, it causes calcium deficiency. Furthermore, these cows are also slaughtered for human consumption just after very few years of their lives when they can live longer in natural conditions. Newly born calves are also abused. Male calves are beaten and forcibly drawn toward slaughter houses while female calves are supposed to replace the older cows. Male calves are slaughtered also for veal production for

Study case Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words - 1

Study case - Essay Example For the information strategy to work effectively the only requirement is that information should not be biased and should be obtained using utmost care and analysis. In the case at hand, the information will be obtained from the employees and the board members of the company. The IT development team will conduct user surveys and review user requirements individually (Hansen et all, 1999). They will strive to find out the roles played by each employee and will design a system that enables each individual to perform his or her role effectively. Similarly, the IT consultants will have to analyze the different use cases and the user scenarios which will affect the end product. The information needs will then be derived from the use cases. From the case the business requirements are to provide an online marketplace for buyers and customers to interact, place orders, enter details and feedback and receive goods through a logistics channel. Hence, Aalsmeer has to function in a manner where it not only keeps record of the financial transactions of the company but also the financial transactions that take place over their marketplace. Similarly, for their success they will have to market their offering to the customers which can be flower growers and flower merchants as well as the private buyers who want flowers and plants to be delivered to them for a non business purpose. In addition to this the Flower Auction will have to incorporate the feedback from the clients to the vendors so that the growers know what is being demanded in the marketplace and grow the same flowers and plants. Therefore, it will provide the growers the analysis of the demand in the market for the various types of plants and flowers. The information requirements for the proposed system can be divided into different entities. There would be different information stored for individual entities, i.e. growers and sellers would have their profile while the customers will have one

Animal Cruelty Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Animal Cruelty - Essay Example are passive acts in which animals are left ignored due to the very absence of proper care which may harm the animal seriously, such as, starving the animal. Here, we will discuss an active act of cruelty- abuse with dairy cows in factory farming. For a dairy cow to be able to produce milk, she must give birth frequently. In today’s farming industry, the dairy cows are forcefully made pregnant by artificial insemination so that they are able to give birth to calves every year. The pregnancy duration for a cow is the same as humans, that is, nine month. Thus, giving birth every year is a very tedious job for a cow. Even after birth while the lactation is going on, insemination is done and cows are again made pregnant for the reason that they may be able to carry out producing milk and never stop. Moreover, now with the use of technological means, cows are made to produce milk much more than they can naturally. This keeps their bodies under constant stress and tension which can bring hazardous problems to their health. They are kept in â€Å"windowless sheds, wire cages, gestation crates, and other confinement systems† (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals).Feeding them high energy diet, so that they can pr oduce copious quantity of milk, causes â€Å"metabolic disorders including ketosis, which can be fatal, and laminitis, which causes lameness† (Factory Dairy Production). Mastitis, Bovine Leukemia Virus and Johne’s disease are getting commoner in cattle day by day. When the production of milk is greater than the quantity of calcium made in the cows’ body, it causes calcium deficiency. Furthermore, these cows are also slaughtered for human consumption just after very few years of their lives when they can live longer in natural conditions. Newly born calves are also abused. Male calves are beaten and forcibly drawn toward slaughter houses while female calves are supposed to replace the older cows. Male calves are slaughtered also for veal production for

The Bolivian Election Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

The Bolivian Election - Research Paper Example NGOs in emerging democracies are typically funded by non-governmental outsides sources, such as foreign aid or private donors. However, it is possible for an NGO to be partially or even fully government funded. It is important to note that Bolivia became a democratically elected government in 1982. In the first stages of its democracy Bolivia had a very centralized national government, and along with it came much corruption and a general unhappiness of its citizens with democracy. However, in 1994 much of the central power devolved to the local municipalities including the appropriations of funds. This act is known as the Law of Popular Participation. During these times NGOs preformed a vital role in the cross over to the new system. They were often consulted in planning, helped with organization, and educated citizens about the new system (Boulding 461). The article sets out to examine how NGOs can effect political participation in emerging or weak democracies. (Boulding 456) states that NGOs can promote political activity of a country by providing resources, and by making available opportunities for association. When an NGO provides resources to a community, they have the ability to make citizen political participation easier. ... "NGOs, whether they are providing small business training, lobbying for women’s' or indigenous rights, providing health care, or building houses, all involve local interaction between NGO workers, neighbors, and others in the community. By spending time together, talking, and working toward a common project, people (Boulding 456). As evidenced in the previous elections, Bolivia often experience violent elections dating back to 1980s when the country was identified to be politically emotional due to poor leadership and the desire of the incumbent government to rig elections causing uncalled for animosity in the country. The huge funds donated by Europe and the United States since 1980s for the sole purpose of strengthening democracy for instance; through promoting the involvement of civil society in ensuring that peaceful election process. The fruitless efforts necessitated the desire to act on the issues which lead to post election violence so that the problem could be solved permanently through embracing peace and reconciliation (Boulding 456). However, in order to determine the best solution on the same, research had to be carried out to determine the cause and corresponding results of post election violence so that a common objective would be set to avert the post election violence since it had been a routine in the country. However, to ascertain the consequences of post election violence, research process should be continuous since all research outcomes had not achieved perfect solution. Electorates and the corresponding leadership require periodic research processes which corresponds to the current research study (Boulding 459). In the Bolivian history, myriad research processes had