There are over six thousand languages spoken around the world. In the United States, where we speak primarily English, there are over one million words however only around six hundred thousand words are included in the dictionary. The other four hundred thousand are considered slang or variations. The English language obviously has evolved and expanded over the last fourteen hundred years of its life, however, what effect does this have and where do we draw the line? The English language and usage affect our educational system and social inclusion. Therefore it is essential that there is some structure to the madness. Although usage may seem boring, it affects your thoughts, your interactions, and your knowledge. Usage structure is necessary to understand and …show more content…
He refers to himself as Snoot or an elitist nerd who has immense respect for the English Language. The problems this article poses are that there two groups of users, prescriptivists, and descriptivists. The Prescriptivists regard to structure, and a traditional view of usage and the descriptivists adapt usage to how they prefer. If usage had no structure there would be no way to reference anything nor would there an actual language. It would be usage anarchy. However if we never challenged usage or adapted as generations evolve we would be excluding so many new advancements. There is obviously a middle ground and this it where American usage should stand. As we discover new things, there are sometimes no words to describe them and we must adapt our language to include these new discoveries. Our nation and population is growing larger and we must keep traditions alive and maintain our language. As new families travel to the United States, they find closure in our usage rules. They need that structure to learn and become part of our society. This usage allows for inclusion rather than
Have you ever felt stuck? Wherever you are, it’s the absolute last place you want to be. In the book Into the Wild, Chris McCandless feels stuck just like the average everyday person may feel. Chris finds his escape plan to the situation and feels he will free himself by going off to the wild. I agree with the author that Chris McCandless wasn’t a crazy person, a sociopath, or an outcast because he got along with many people very well, but he did seem somewhat incompetent, even though he survived for quite some time.
John Marsh, Ph.D., shares his epiphany, that his sharing the popular belief that higher education was the answer to bringing about economic equality and curing poverty, was in fact wrong; in this short selection, “Why Education Is Not an Economic Panacea”, taken from his book, “Class Dismissed: Why We Cannot Teach or Learn Our Way Out of Inequality”. Marsh had felt that gaining a higher education himself worked to bring him to a level of economic equality, so, it should work the same way for everyone else. His change of heart comes after perhaps stepping down from the pedestal that many, with lots of letters after their name, sit on, or are put upon by others, and witnessing first-hand the dismal rates of graduation of students in the single course he teaches for The Odyssey Program. Serving as good Public Relations for the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the program’s purpose was two-fold; it was to provide, at no cost, college level course(s) for low-income adults and look good for the University. In this excerpt, Marsh’s narrow vision seems to have opened up somewhat, however, it does not demonstrate that his visual field widened enough to see that there is much, much more than simply economics or education that is at play in determining where people end up in the spectrum of being considered successful in the United States. (Marsh 914)
The United States of America originally purchased Alaska from Russia in 1867 for 7.2 million dollars. When striking this deal Natives of Alaska and their lands were never taken into consideration. Ever since Alaskan Natives battled for their lands and subsistence land rights. However, it was not until 1959, when Alaska became a state, that natives pushed for a solution to their land claims and rights (Creed and Dixie). In fear of failure from previous events in the Lower 48 such as the Dawes Act of 1887, or Burke Acts, Alaskan Natives knew they did not want their culture or land to be diminished. In 1966 Native leaders in Alaska collaborated to form the Alaska Federation of Natives, which advocated for Natives rights. In 1968 the federal government
David Wallace’s purpose for writing his essay, “Authority and American Usage”, was to give a book review on Bryan Garner’s, “A Dictionary of Modern American Usage”. Wallace does this tremendously; in doing so, he provides references to other dictionaries showing the good and bad aspects of them. He then goes on to explain how Garner’s dictionary does a very good job at staying neutral in the so-called “Usage Wars”. Wallace explains how there are two main viewpoints that derive from today’s standard written English (SWE): descriptivism and prescriptivism (which Wallace often refers to as being a SNOOT). With the viewpoint of descriptivism comes the ideology that SWE should not have a strict set of rules or guidelines. On the other hand, as Wallace says, prescriptivists believe that a definite set of rules is what brings meaning to SWE. The term, “Usage Wars”, is what Wallace uses to depict the clashing ideology of descriptivists and SNOOT’s.
Every day, more and more attempts of banning books and taking away the rights of our First Amendment get violated. The challenging of a book is the attempt to remove or restrict materials, and the banning is the removal of these materials. I believe that books should not be banned for these reasons.
“After researching several years in in El Cajon English teacher Juliet Ellery was finally fired”. Before the research she was announced to be unsuited to teach but due to her teacher tenure, parents and school officials were unable to do anything. But it took eight years and more than $300,000 for the district to win its case.The reason behind Ellery not being fired on the first place was due to the advantages of her teacher tenure. Teacher tenure is compelling students to study under a bad teacher who does not have skill set to teach well and he/she still will be in job because of the tenure. Despite giving security to teachers,teacher tenure must go through a massive reform so that the good teachers will still there without any complication Not to forget teachers like Ellery hardly ever lectured, gave baffling assignments, belittled students and ignored repeated efforts by the high school principal to get her to improve. However, like what happened with Juliet Ellery, who was defended despite having over 400 evidences against her, there are many cases similar where teachers who need to be sack are protected by teacher tenure.
What makes a good person good? According to WikiHow, "We should learn to define our own morals ourselves. One of the simplest ways to do so is to love others, and treat them as you would like to be treated. Try to think of others before yourself. Even doing small things daily will greatly enrich and improve your life, and the lives of others around you." This quote shows us what we need to do in order to be what society thinks as, “good". In order to be a good person, you have to do good and moral things in your society consistently. However people might think that by doing one good thing once in a while will automatically make you a “good person”, but in reality it doesn’t.
There comes a time in someone’s life when they must get a job to support themselves or their family. For those who don’t have a college degree, a minimum wage job is the way to go. A federal minimum wage is the lowest hourly, daily or monthly compensation that employers may legally pay to workers. However if minimum wage is so low that someone can barely make an income, to support themselves or a family. Minimum wage is based on federal decisions. Some states minimum wage is more than the next. For example Florida’s is $7. 79 while Connecticut’s is $8.25 per hour. Georgia has the lowest minimum wage which is $5.15. The federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour. Minimum wage should be increased because poverty will be reduced, it will be good for economic recovery, and provide more for families. However minimum wage raises are opposed by those who believe it will create more unemployment.
Since it’s been a predominant topic of our discussion, let us talk about the infamous English language. We can be sure that it has painstakingly progressed throughout generations of reevaluation and modernization, and has thus become what it is today. It has gone in several directions to try and mesh with the various epochs of language, from the Shakespearean era to the common English slang we use now, we can all agree that English is a language that has been transcending and will continue to transcend into many
“Man masters nature not by force but by understanding. This is why science has succeeded where magic failed: because it has looked for no spell to cast over nature”. From the beginning of time man and nature has been in conflict with one another because, as a whole, there is no cooperating. Each one tirelessly wants its way. The Man is fighting for dominance and nature w never yielding its authority. In American Literature, many authors illustrate this theme in their writing. Specifically the writers Jack London in The Law Of Life, Stephen Crane The Open Boat and Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Fin. Each explores the relationship between humans and nature but with slightly different methods. Mark Twain uses nature in a realistic way, Jack London in a naturalistic way and Stephen Crane constitutes a combination of both.
In May of 2006, Gallup Poll found that sixty-nine percent of Americans answered yes to the question "When a person has a disease that cannot be cured, do you think doctors should be allowed by law to end the patient's life by some painless means if the patient and his family request it?”. Assisted suicide is suicide committed by someone with assistance from another, usually a physician. Supporters of the Death With Dignity law believe that anyone should be able to take the lethal pill if he or she has a terminal illness and only has six months or less to live. This is legal in the three states of Oregon, Washington, and Montana. Assisted suicide should be legal in California.
In Johnson’s preface to A Dictionary of the English Language, Johnson argues the importance of preserving language. Other dialects had a produced their own dictionaries, such as the French and Italians. Various writers of the eighteenth century were alarmed at the fact that there was no standard for the English language, since there was no standard it could easily become extinct. Johnson explored many points, such as how and why languages change as well as how many words are formed.
Language as a dynamic structure is exposed to constant development, transformation and alteration. Media, society, culture, science, technology and politics are the core factors that contribute towards language evolution. Due to numerous linguistic and extra linguistic factors, newly coined units in the language are in the process of entering and influencing the English language. These new units, known as neologisms, serve as our guidance in understanding the never-ending evolution in the English language. Furthermore, neologisms ease each individual’s process of coping with changes by creating mental bridges between the old and the contemporary. The English language vocabulary is facing constant change, as neologisms enter in a blink of an eye through the media. The mass media being the major source and ground on which English neologisms are coined, plays a significant role of intermediary between the English population as active consumers and the language itself.
A - English necessary and the process must be learned in isolation admire those who speak it .
The English language arose from the early Anglo Saxon inhabitants in ancient England and spread to Scotland and other European countries via the British Empire and later to the United States through colonial political and economical influences. It later dispersed to other parts of the world through these same influences to become one of the leading languages of the world. It has over the years developed by adopting different dialects to create a language, which is the standard lingual Franca in many countries. The rapid growth of the English language and its adoption by different cultures across the globe is sufficient ground to make it the global language.