Friday, March 20, 2020
The Picture of Dorian Gray â⬠Film Essay
The Picture of Dorian Gray ââ¬â Film Essay Free Online Research Papers The Picture of Dorian Gray Film Essay The MGM film ââ¬Å"The Picture of Dorian Grayâ⬠was directed by Albert E. Lewis, in i945.This film was based upon Oscar Wildeà ´ s unique novel which has the same name. Lewis was an American filmmaker, producer and screenwriter born in 1894 who first worked as an English instructor and after several and diverse labor activities, he entered to the cinema world as a drama and film critic before working at the MGM in 1924 where he developed his main career. The movie, which is classified as a horror film, tells the story of Dorian Gray, an aristocrat from London who sells his soul to remain young and handsome after meeting Lord Henry Wotton whose influence over Dorian lead the latter to a sordid way of empty pleasure, luxury and sin where morality was a ridiculous word. Albert Lewin personally selected Hurd Hatfield to play the role of Dorian Gray in the 1945 movie version. It was an ââ¬Å"astonishing performance, one that proved virtually unstoppable for Hatfieldâ⬠; according to The New York Times All Media Movie Page. Hatfield was born in New York, in 1918. George Sanders portrayed Lord Henry Wooton. Born in St. Petersburg, Russia, 1906; he ââ¬Å" was the personification of cynicism, an elegantly dissolute figure whose distinct brand of anomie distinguished dozens of films during a career spanning nearly four decades.â⬠Lowell Gilmore performed Basil Hallward. Gilmore was born in New York, 1906. According to comments taken from All Movie Guide, he was a suave-looking, wavy-haired supporting actor who always seemed more British than American, despite his Midwest origins Angela Lansbury, who performed the famous Jessica Fletcher between 1984 and 1996 on the television series Murder, She Wrote, played the role of Sybil Vane. She won the Best Supporting Actress Golden Globe Award in 1945 for her role in the film. The plot is as follows: Basil Hallward, an artist, painted a young handsome man named Dorian Gray. During the last section of the painting, Dorian met Lord Henry Wotton, a friend of Basil. Lord Henry made Dorian realize of the great but ephemeral beauty he, Dorian had and advised him to enjoy life to the fullest without taking care of any moral principle. Then, looking at the portrait, he wishes out that the painting would get old, but not he. Dorian Gray fell under the influence of Lord Henry, due to the clever way he had to convince him and his good manners. Years went by, and Dorian found certain joy in committing sinful. Each time he did a bad action, the painting became older and uglier while he did not lose his beauty or youth. He was able to destroy lives and also killed Basil, the painter. At the end of the story, he decided to be a good person again and destroyed the picture with the same knife he used to kill Mr. Hallward. When he did it, Dorian Gray was found dead on the floor and the portrait new and beautiful as when it was painted. This film is essentially a black and white one that bursts into Technicolor whenever the picture is shown in close-up. The impact is great each time the picture is seen in color, but in my opinion, the black and white atmosphere made the movie convincing about the theme, definitively. The cinematographer Harry Stradling won as the Best Black and White Cinematography Academy Award in 1945. The sound designer was Douglas Shearer and the music composer was Herbert Stothart. They both were responsible of the music when the picture is finally revealed in all its decay and horror. According to Judith Mayne in her essay Cinema and Spectatorship (1993), the film is about portraiture, and therefore shows an obvious connection to spectatorship. Mayne notes that she is also interested in the gay persona of the author Oscar Wilde and the homosexual implications of the novella on which the film is predicated. Despite some commonalities with classical Hollywood cinema, the film focuses primarily on the looking relations between the male characters in the film and, Mayne suggests, an implicit homosexuality and I agree with her. In conclusion, I can say that the film represents the novel very well. This version evokes the Victorian age perfectly. While Dorian was full of beauty of his eternal youth, his picture not only got older and older, but also assumes a repulsive ugliness that materializes his terrible sins. The room in which the portrait is held is perceived as a forbidden zone set apart from reality, but the only place where he could see himself without any mask. The death of Dorian is a representation of the death of immorality which is, somehow, a symbol of Wildeà ´ s conflict because of his own homosexuality, very difficult to face and accept in such an oppressive society. The film begins and ends with the following verses taken from the Roubaiya of Omar Khayyam: ââ¬Å"I sent my soul through the invisible Some letter of that after-life to spellâ⬠And by and by my soul returned to me And I answered :â⬠I myself am Heaven and Hellâ⬠These verses express conflict, opposition of ideas about the good and the bad. The meaning of them can be interpreted along the development of the movie. At the beginning they sound like introductory questions, at the end, they sound like answers. 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Wednesday, March 4, 2020
The Cardinal Connection
The Cardinal Connection The Cardinal Connection The Cardinal Connection By Maeve Maddox American bird watchers enjoy seeing the bright scarlet plumage of the bird we call the cardinal (Cardinalis virginianus). The bird got its name because it reminded early explorers of the scarlet robes of the cardinals of the Roman Catholic church. cardinal: One of the seventy ecclesiastical princes (six cardinal bishops, fifty cardinal priests, and fourteen cardinal deacons) who constitute the popes council, or the sacred college, and to whom the right of electing the pope has been restricted since the third Lateran council in 1173. Originally, every priest permanently attached to a church was called a cardinal. The word came from Latin cardo, a hinge. The business of the church hinged on permanent personnel. One sense of cardinal still in use is important. cardinal adjective: something on which something else hinges or depends, fundamental; chief, principal, of special importance. We speak of cardinal virtues: prudence, justice, temperance, and fortitude (so called because all other virtues depend upon them) cardinal numbers: one, two, three, four etc. (as opposed to the ordinal numbers first, second, third, fourth, etc.) cardinal points of the compass: North, South, East, West In time, the term cardinal came to refer to the first or most important priest attached to a church. Then, as the administrative reach of the papacy increased, the term came to be attached to clerics charged with advising the pope and helping him administer the work of the church. The college of cardinals, given canonical form by Pope Eugene III in 1150, has had the right to elect the pope since 1173. The cardinals may have been wearing red robes earlier, but in 1294, Pope Boniface officially conferred red cassocks, stockings, gloves, and hats on them. Red had been the trademark color of a cardinal for at least two centuries before Columbus spied the New World and exploration began that would discover the pretty red bird. In the U.S., the cardinal is a popular sports mascot. Universities that have it as their mascot include Ball State, Plattsburgh, and the University of Louisville. Even the University of Arkansas, famous for its Razorback mascot, derives its school colors of red and white from an association with the bird. Before the adoption of the razorback mascot, the university football team, organized in 1894, was called the Cardinals and the school colors were cardinal red and white. The story is that, after the triumphant 1909 season, the coach told the team that theyd played like a wild band of razorback hogs. The student body promptly voted for a mascot change, but the colors remained the same. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Vocabulary category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:100 Beautiful and Ugly WordsHyper and Hypo50 Plain-Language Substitutions for Wordy Phrases
Monday, February 17, 2020
Assignment on Corporate Finance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words
Assignment on Corporate Finance - Essay Example A merger can resemble a takeover but result in a new company name or combining the names of the original companies. (http://en.wikipedia.org) Shleifer and vishny (2003) proposed a market timing model of acquisition. They assumed that acquirers are overvalued, and the motive for acquisition is not to gain synergies, but to reserve some of their temporary overvaluation for long-run shareholder. Specifically, by acquiring less-overvalued target with overpriced stock (or less interestingly, undervalued target with cash) overvalued acquirers can cushion the fall for their shareholders by leaving them with more hard assets per share or, if the deals value proposition. This refers to the fact that the combined company can often reduce duplicate departments or operations, lowering the cost of the company relative to theoretically the same revenue stream thus, increasing profit. For example, a bank buying a stock broker could then sell its banking products to the stock's customers while the broker can sign up the banks customers for brokerage account. Or a manufacturer can acquire and sell complimentary products. This is the sign to smoothen the earning result of a company, which over the long-term smoothes a stock price of a company, giving conservative investors more confidence in investing in the company. However, this does not always deliver value to shareholders (http://en.wikipedia.org) From datamonitor analyses, UCB has an inorganic expansion into lucrative AIID and oncology market. The acquisition of the Biotechnology Company, Celltech offered UCB technology platforms and experience for the development of biological drugs. And the new regulations allows our company to create motive for us to merge and acquire, which is an opportunity for us to have a strong R & D pipeline and new expertise in the pharmaceutical sectors. So all of this would be achieved rapidly if acquisition decision is taken. Asset acquisition UCB is a multinational company, operating in more than one hundred and forty countries, also it is one of the largest pharmaceutical and chemical
Monday, February 3, 2020
Multicultural Education Final Project Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words
Multicultural Education Final Project - Essay Example The key points of the Constructivist learning theory that make it useful for differentiation in teaching are that it: (1) helps students from different cultural and social backgrounds to interact more naturally; (2) provides a common ground for learning to take place; and (3) helps students to think and be creative, which is one of the important learning objectives I have in my math classes (EBC, 2007; Matthews, 2003). Analyzing the underlying principles show how the theory supports my approach to differentiation. With its emphasis on big concepts that begin with the whole and expanding to include the parts, constructivism provides the intellectual foundation that allows the students coming from diverse cultural and personal backgrounds to grasp concepts of working together, sharing common goals, and appreciating differences. This mindset is useful to guide students - many of whom are traumatized by immigration, the challenge of a new culture, and coping with family problems - to work towards achieving grand objectives and see the part everyone plays in it. By giving value to student questions and interests, the constructivist learning theory helps the students develop self-esteem by making them realize that personal differences make them unique, and that these differences play an important role in the learning process and in fostering unity and agreement within a multicultural environment. The interactivity of learning builds on what students know from their own backgrounds and personal experiences. While I use typical examples from American culture to teach mathematics, I encourage students to use examples from their own cultures to enhance a familiar feel by not completely detaching students from their unique histories. I find this useful when dealing with students coming from cultures of oppression and inferiority, emphasizing for example that while respect for authority is an important value, it needs to be balanced with other values important in a democratic society, such as formation of individuality, love for freedom, and the n eed to establish and achieve high standards (Glatthorn, 1999, p. 5). Unique personal learning is encouraged by the constructivist principle of dialogue with students aimed at helping them construct their own personal knowledge. The teacher's interactive role, rooted in negotiation, helps students acquire life skills that are crucial for their futures. The emphasis on group work reinforces the interaction of the students among themselves so they develop the abilities of self-expression, independent thinking, and understanding differences in viewpoints, all cornerstones of American society. Constructivism's emphasis on process, observations, and tests and the recognition that knowledge is dynamic and changes with personal experience are useful in developing in students the habits of lifelong learning, experimental daring, and the curiosity to learn more about the world around them. Since each culture has unique world views, constructivism helps everyone learn from the different ways people view and learn from the world. This does not mean that Instructivism, the ideological opposite of constructivism, does not contain good points that are useful in making education in a diversified classroom more effective. The Instructivist emphases on developing basic skills, having a well-planned curriculum, the value of repetition, the recognition of the teacher's authority, teaching correct answers, and fostering learning independence
Sunday, January 26, 2020
Engineering Genetic Logic Circuits for Cancer Cells
Engineering Genetic Logic Circuits for Cancer Cells http://www.nature.com/nbt/journal/v27/n12/full/nbt1209-1071.html http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/documents/publications/syntheticbiologyroadmap-pdf/ (Accessed 11 10 2016) Engineering genetic logic circuits for cancer cell recognition and treatment Over the past 60 years, the field of molecular biology has experienced significant advances. Following the genomic revolution, genetic engineering enabled to modify endogenous gene networks using technologies such as site-directed mutagenesis, DNA recombination, DNA sequencing, synthesis and others. Now, after rigorous engineering, the field of synthetic was born making it possible to create novel biological entities that behave in a controllable and predictable manner 1. Synthetic biology is defined by the Royal Academy of Engineering as The design and engineering of biologically based parts, novel devices, and systems as well as the redesign of existing natural biological systems 2. It builds on the work of conventional genetic engineering by not only focusing on individual genes but by applying an engineering driven perspective designing and creating complex artificial biological systems. At present, synthetic biology has been applied in a wide range of areas demonstrating its potential to solve major global challenges in the fields of bioremediation, biosensing, production of biofuels, biomaterials, therapeutics, and biopharmaceuticals. Examples comprise the creation of organisms that could clean hazardous waste such as radioactive elements or arsenic 3, modification of yeast for the production of isobutanol 4, engineering viruses and bacteria to treat cancer 5,6, and the development of a diabetes treatment using an optogenetic gene circuit 7. Synthetic biology makes use of engineering analogies such as the one illustrated by Andrianantoandro and collaborators were it is compared to computer engineering at different hierarchy levels (Figure 1). Both disciplines take a bottom-up approach by integrating its component parts to build a more complex system. At the bottom are the biochemical molecules (DNA, RNA, proteins and other metabolites) equivalent to the physical layer of capacitors, transistors and resistors in computer engineering. One level up at the device level, physical processes are controlled by biochemical reaction comparable to engineered logic gates. By connecting and integrating these modules into host cells, synthetic biologists can program cells with the desired behaviour. More complex tasks can be accomplished by using a cell population, in which cells communicate each other to perform in a coordinated way, much like the case of computer networks 8. Finally, from an engineering point of view, what synthetic biologists are doing now is quite like what electrical engineers have been doing for many years, designing electronic circuits using standard components, such as resistors, capacitors and transistors. The difference lies in the building blocks that are used. Synthetic biologists design genetic circuits with specified functions using standard engineered biological parts such as genes, promoters, ribosome binding sites and terminators. In this regard, synthetic biology is to biology what electrical engineering is to physics, which both deal with electrons but one focuses on the understanding of their nature and the other aims to make use of them to build useful applications. Ã Ã Synthetic biology follows a hierarchical structure, building up systems from smaller components. At the lowest level are the parts, which are pieces DNA that encode for a single biological function such as a promoter. These parts are then combined into the next layer, the device layer, which is a collection of parts that performs a desired order function (e.g. the production of a protein). Devices are further combined into a system, which can be defined as the minimum number of devices necessary to perform the behaviour specified in the design phase. Systems can have simple behaviour (e.g. an oscillator) or a more complex behaviour (e.g. a set of a metabolic pathways to synthesise a product.)Parts and devices are usually treated as modular entities in design and modelling. This means that it is assumed that they can be exchanged without affecting the behaviour of the other systems components that are left untouched. At the module level, biological devices can be used to assemble comp lex pathways that function like integrated circuits. Early synthetic biology studies began developing circuits in prokaryotic organisms. Inspired by electronic, first systems made use of basic elements such as promoters, transcriptional repressors and ribosome binding sites to create small modules. These modules included the construction of oscillators 9, genetic switches 10, and digital logic gates 11. The successful construction of the first systems demonstrated that engineering-based methods could be used to programme computational behaviour into cells 12 (Figure 2).
Friday, January 17, 2020
Meaning of life â⬠Phrase Essay
Origin: A person seeing a table piled high with sumptuous food has a tendency to get too many and/or too large a portion. Since the problem is brought on by the eyes and a lack of reason, the person is portrayed a one whose eyes are bigger than their stomach. Elephant in the room Meaning: An important and obvious topic, which everyone present is aware of, but which isnââ¬â¢t discussed, as such discussion is considered to be uncomfortable. Origin: The theme of the exhibition was global poverty. By painting the elephant in the same bold pattern as the roomââ¬â¢s wallpaper, Banksy emphasized the phraseââ¬â¢s meaning, by both making the elephant even more obvious and by giving those who chose to ignore it (like the woman in the tableau) an opportunity to pretend that it had blended into the wallpaper background. Even at the turning of the tide Meaning: The phrase is used to denote some change from a previously stable course of events. Origin: The phrase comes from Shakespeareââ¬â¢s Henry V where he use turning of the tide in a letter. Ear candy Meaning: Music with an instant appeal but with little lasting significance. Origin: The term may have been in use before 1977, although I can find no references to it in print that predate Reddyââ¬â¢s album title. The term did get picked up though and soon became a generic term for music that was initially attractive but with little lasting substance. Candy is of course what the US calls the confectionery that many parts of the English-speaking world call sweets. The sugary, insubstantial imagery is well suited to these phrases. Excuse my French Meaning: Please forgive my swearing. Origin: A coy phrase used when someone who has used a swear-word attempts to pass it off as French. The coyness comes from the fact the both the speaker and listener are of course both well aware the swear-word is indeed English. F Fair and square Meaning: Honest and straightforward, especially of business dealings. Origin: In the 16th century ââ¬Ësquareââ¬â¢ meant ââ¬Ëfair and honestââ¬â¢ so ââ¬Ëfair and squareââ¬â¢ is tautological. George Puttenham used that meaning of square in The arte of English poesie, 1589:â⬠[Aristotle] termeth a constant minded man ââ¬â a square man. ââ¬Å"Francis Baconââ¬â¢s essay Of Prophecies, 1604 is the first known use of ââ¬Ëfair and squareââ¬â¢: Fast asleep Meaning: soundly asleep. Origin: The ââ¬Ëfastââ¬â¢ in ââ¬Ëfast asleepââ¬â¢ derives from the Old German ââ¬Ëfestââ¬â¢, meaning ââ¬Ëstuck firmlyââ¬â¢; ââ¬Ënot easily moveableââ¬â¢ ââ¬â as in ââ¬Ëstuck fastââ¬â¢. ââ¬ËAsleepââ¬â¢ derives from ââ¬Ësleepââ¬â¢ in the same way that nautical adverbs like ââ¬Ëagroundââ¬â¢ and ââ¬Ëasternââ¬â¢ derive from ââ¬Ëgroundââ¬â¢ and ââ¬Ësternââ¬â¢. To be ââ¬Ëfast asleepââ¬â¢ was to be stuck firmly in sleep, analogous to a beached ship being ââ¬Ëfast agroundââ¬â¢. Filthy rich Meaning: Very rich, possibly having become so by unfair means. Origin: The phrase comes from the word ââ¬Å"filthy lucreâ⬠means money from dishonorable gain. This was first used as a noun phrase meaning ââ¬Å"rich people; who have become so by dishonorable meansâ⬠like gambling. Face the music Meaning: Face the truth Origin: Comes from the British military. When someone was court marshaled, there would be a military drum squad playing, hence face the music. The term ââ¬Å"drummed out of the militaryâ⬠came from this practiceâ⬠¦. From stem to stern Meaning: Thorough, complete. Origin: The very front of a ship is called the stem, the rear is called the stern. From stem to stern includes the entire ship. G Get a leg up Meaning: To get a boost or advantage. Origin: This phrase may incorrectly invoke images of a dog raising its leg. In fact ââ¬Å"Getting a leg upâ⬠is from the act of an equestrian receiving help in mounting a horse. The helper would create a foothold by cupping the hands to heft the rider upward, throwing a leg up and over the steed. Get of the wrong foot Meaning: Make a bad start to a project or relationship. Origin: The phrase comes from the idiom ââ¬Å"put your best foot forward. â⬠This means to make a best impression. Despite the implication we only have two choices, so if thereââ¬â¢s a wrong foot there has to be a right one too and get off on the right foot is also in common use. Graveyard shift Meaning: A late-night/early-morning work shift. Origin: So they would dig up coffins and would take the bones to a ââ¬Å"bone-houseâ⬠and reuse the grave. When reopening these coffins, one out of 25 coffins was found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realized they had been burying people alive. So they thought they would tie a string on the wrist of the corpse, lead it through the coffin and up through the ground and tie it to a bell. Someone would have to sit out in the graveyard all night (the ââ¬Å"graveyard shiftâ⬠) to listen for the bell; thus, someone could be ââ¬Å"saved by the bellâ⬠or was considered a ââ¬Å"dead ringer. â⬠Grinning like a Cheshire cat Meaning: Grin broadly. Origin: The phrase comes from the novel ââ¬Å"Alice in Wonderlandâ⬠where she asked the duchess why the cat grinned. The duchess answered ââ¬Å"Because itââ¬â¢s a Cheshire cat! â⬠ââ¬ËI didnââ¬â¢t know that Cheshire cats always grinned; in fact, I didnââ¬â¢t know that cats COULD grin. ââ¬Ë ââ¬ËThey all can,ââ¬â¢ say the Duchess; ââ¬Ëand most of them do. ââ¬Ë Good as gold Meaning: Well ââ¬â behaved and obedient. Origin: When banknotes (known as bills in the USA and some other countries) were first introduced they werenââ¬â¢t considered to be money in the sense we now think of them. They were promissory notes or IOUs. Gold or silver was real money as it had intrinsic value. Notes were just promises to pay in coin. UK banknotes, like those of many other countries, still include messages like this, signed by the Chief Cashier of the Bank of England: ââ¬ËI promise to pay the bearer on demand the sum of ten poundsââ¬â¢. So, ââ¬Ëas good as goldââ¬â¢ ought really to be ââ¬Ëas genuine as goldââ¬â¢, but the more usual meaning of ââ¬Ëgoodââ¬â¢ has taken precedence over the years and left us with the usual meaning of the phrase. H High on the hog Meaning: Extravagantly. Origin: The best meat is on the upper portion of the pig. Rich people have always been afforded this luxury while the servants, slaves and poor have always had to eat pigââ¬â¢s feet, chitterlings, cracklings, etc. ââ¬â low on the hog. Horse of a different color Meaning: Unlike the subject at hand. Origin: Horses are registered at birth and the registration includes a record of their color. When a horse trades hands due to sale, the registration is also transferred. Sometimes the color recorded on the registration may not match the actual color of the horse leading one to suspect the horse is not the one in the registration. Horses sometimes change color as they age, just as some peopleââ¬â¢s hair changes color. More likely the horse is not the one represented on the registration but is actually an entirely different horse. Hold your feet to the fire Meaning: To hold one accountable for a commitment, make good on a promise. Origin: Pertains to torture used during the Crusadeââ¬â¢s. As a method for extracting confession for heresy, non-believers were positioned in a manner that allowed the inquisitor to apply flames to the feet of the accused. This was done until the accused confessed or died. Head over heels Meaning: Excited, and/or turning cartwheels to demonstrate oneââ¬â¢s excitement. Origin: Head over heelsââ¬â¢ is now most often used as part of ââ¬Ëhead over heels in loveââ¬â¢. When first coined it wasnââ¬â¢t used that way though and referred exclusively to being temporarily the wrong way up. It is one of many similar phrases that we use to describe things that are not in their usual state ââ¬â ââ¬Ëupside-downââ¬â¢, ââ¬Ëtopsy-turvyââ¬â¢, ââ¬Ëtopple up tailââ¬â¢, ââ¬Ëarse over tea-kettleââ¬â¢, ââ¬Ëbass-backwardsââ¬â¢ etc. Hard lines Meaning: Bad luck Origin: Clearly the derivation of ââ¬Ëhard linesââ¬â¢ is entirely dependent on which line was being referred to when the phrase was coined. There is a reference to lines in the King James Version of the Bible, 1611, and that is the basis of several early citations of ââ¬Ëhard linesââ¬â¢:Psalms 16:6 The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage.
Thursday, January 9, 2020
Definitions and Examples of English Sentence Structures
In English grammar,à sentence structure is the arrangement of words, phrases, and clauses in a sentence. The grammatical function or meaning of a sentence is dependent on this structural organization, which is also called syntax or syntactic structure. In traditional grammar, the four basic types of sentence structures are the simple sentence, the compound sentence, the complex sentence, and the compound-complex sentence. The most common word order in English sentences is Subject-Verb-Object (SVO). When reading a sentence, we generally expect the first noun to be the subject and the second noun to be the object. This expectation (which isnt always fulfilled) is known in linguistics as the canonical sentence strategy. Examples and Observations One of the first lessons learned by the student of language or linguistics is that there is more to language than a simple vocabulary list. To learn a language, we must also learn its principles of sentence structure, and a linguist who is studying a language will generally be more interested in the structural principles than in the vocabulary per se.ââ¬âMargaret J. Speas Sentence structure may ultimately be composed of many parts, but remember that the foundation of each sentence is the subject and the predicate. The subject is a word or a group of words that functions as a noun; the predicate is at least a verb and possibly includes objects and modifiers of the verb.ââ¬âLara Robbins Meaning and Sentence Structure People are probably not as aware of sentence structure as they are of sounds and words, because sentence structure is abstract in a way that sounds and words are not . . . At the same time, sentence structure is a central aspect of every sentence . . . We can appreciate the importance of sentence structure by looking at examples within a single language. For instance, in English, the same set of words can convey different meanings if they are arranged in different ways. Consider the following: The senators objected to the plans proposed by the generals.The senators proposed the plans objected to by the generals. The meaning of [first] the sentence is quite different from that of [the second], even though the only difference is the position of the words objected to and proposed. Although both sentences contain exactly the same words, the words are structurally related to each other differently; it is those differences in structure that account for the difference in meaning.ââ¬âEva M. Fernà ¡ndez and Helen Smith Cairns Information Structure: The Given-Before-New Principle It has been known since the Prague School of Linguistics that sentences can be divided into a part that anchors them in the preceding discourse (old information) and a part that conveys new information to the listener. This communicative principle may be put to good use in the analysis of sentence structure by taking the boundary between old and new information as a clue to identifying a syntactic boundary. In fact, a typical SVO sentence such as Sue has a boyfriend can be broken down into the subject, which codes the given information, and the remainder of the sentence, which provides the new information. The old-new distinction thus serves to identify the VP [verb phrase] constituent in SVO sentences.ââ¬âThomas Berg Producing and Interpreting Sentence Structures in Speech The grammatical structure of a sentence is a route followed with a purpose, a phonetic goal for a speaker, and a semantic goal for a hearer. Humans have a unique capacity to go very rapidly through the complex hierarchically organized processes involved in speech production and perception. When syntacticians draw structure on sentences they are adopting a convenient and appropriate shorthand for these processes. A linguists account of the structure of a sentence is an abstract summary of a series of overlapping snapshots of what is common to the processes of producing and interpreting the sentence.ââ¬âJames R. Hurford The Most Important Thing to Know About Sentence Structure Linguists investigate sentence structure by inventing sentences, making small changes to them, and watching what happens. This means that the study of language belongs to the scientific tradition of using experiments to understand some part of our world. For example, if we make up a sentence (1) and then make a small change to it to get (2), we find that the second sentence is ungrammatical. (1) I saw the whiteà house. (Grammatically correct) (2) I saw the house white.à (Grammatically incorrect) Why? One possibility is that it relates to the words themselves; perhaps the word white and the word house must always come in this order. But if we were to explain in this way we would need separate explanations for a very large number of words, including the words in the sentences (3)-(6), which show the same pattern. (3) He read the new book.à (Grammatically correct) (4) He read the book new. (Grammatically incorrect) (5) We fed some hungry dogs. (Grammatically correct) (6) We fed some dogs hungry.à (Grammatically incorrect) These sentences show us that whatever principle gives us the order of words, it must be based on the class of word, not on a specific word. The words white, new, and hungry are all a class of word called an adjective; the words house, book, and dogs are all a class of word called a noun. We could formulate a generalization, which holds true for the sentences in (1)-(6): (7) An adjective cannot immediately follow a noun. A generalization [as with sentence 7] is an attempt to explain the principles by which a sentence is put together. One of the useful consequences of a generalization is to make a prediction which can then be tested, and if this prediction turns out to be wrong, then the generalization can be improved . . . The generalization in (7) makes a prediction which turns out to be wrong when we look at sentence (8). (8) I painted the house white.à (Grammatically correct) Why is (8) grammatical while (2) is not, given that both end on the same sequence of house white? The answer is the most important thing to know about sentence structure:à The grammaticality of a sentence depends not on the sequence of words but how the words are combined into phrases.ââ¬âNigel Fabb Sources Speas, Margaret J. Phrase Structure in Natural Language. Kluwer, 1990Robbins, Lara. Grammar and Style at Your Fingertips. Alpha Books, 2007Fernà ¡ndez, Eva M. and Cairns, Helen Smith. Fundamentals of Psycholinguistics. Wiley-Blackwell, 2011Berg, Thomas.à Structure in Language: A Dynamic Perspective. Routledge, 2009Hurford, James R. The Origins of Grammar: Language in the Light of Evolution II. Oxford University Press, 2011Fabb, Nigel. Sentence Structure, Second Edition. Routledge, 2005
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