The Structure of Noun Phrases Essays

The Structure of Noun Phrases Essays The Structure of Noun Phrases Essay The Structure of Noun Phrases Essay Univerzitet Novi Pazar Odeljenje: Beograd Fakultet humanistickih nauka Odsek: filoloski Smer: Engleski jezik i knjizevnost Predmet: Sintaksa Engleskog jezika Student: Nikola Vukasovic Beograd, 01. 06. 2011 1. Introduction Among the five different types of phrases in English namely noun phrases, verb phrases, adjective phrases, adverb phrases and prepositional phrases, noun phrases are the most common playing various syntactic functions in the sentence and clause structure: subject, object and complement (of various kinds), apposition and attribute. They are used to refer to things that people want to talk about: people, objects, concepts, processes and all kind of entities. 2. Basic Noun Phrases Structurally speaking, in the first place, basic noun phrases consist of pronouns, numerals or nouns with articles (indefinite, definite or zero) or nouns with other closed-system items that occur before the noun head including pre-determiners (pre-det), determiners (det. ) and post-determiners (post-det. ). The underlined parts of the following sentences are good examples of basic noun phrases: |   |I |stayed at |home |during |all |the |last few |days |   | |   |pronoun |   |zero article + noun|   |pre-de |+ det |+ post-det |+ noun |   | |   |Some people |dislike |‘13’ |   |   |   |   |   |   | |   |det. + noun |   |numeral | | | | | | | 2. Pronouns and Numerals Actually, pronouns are a special class of noun. As their names imply, they ‘replace’ nouns or rather whole noun phrases, since they cannot generally occur with determiners. For example, personal pronouns have two sets of case forms: subjective and objective: ‘I’/ ‘me’, ‘we’/ ‘us’, ‘he’/ ‘him’, ‘she’/ ‘her’, ‘they’/ ‘them’; ‘you’ and ‘it’ are exceptional in showing no distinction. Subjective personal pronouns function as subject and sometimes as subject complement while objective personal pronouns as object, prepositional complement and sometimes as subject complement. These can be illustrated by: He is happy. I   saw him at the station. Like personal pronouns, other types of pronouns including reflexive, possessive, relative, demonstrative, interrogative, universal, assertive, non-assertive and negative pronouns are all basic noun phrases. Reflexive pronouns include ‘myself’, ‘yourself’, ‘himself’, ‘herself’, ‘itself’, ‘ourselves’, ‘yourselves’ and ‘themselves’. He hurt himself yesterday. Possessive pronouns are ‘mine’, ‘ours’, ‘yours’, etc. This book is mine Relative pronouns: ‘who’, ‘whom’, ‘that’, ‘which’, etc. The book, which is on the table, is mine. Demonstrative pronouns fall in two groups. One is â€Å"near† reference with ‘this’ and ‘these’; and the other â€Å"distant† reference with ‘that’ and ‘those’. This is my friend. Interrogative pronouns: ‘who’, ‘whom’, ‘what’, etc. Who did you go with? Universal pronouns: ‘each’, ‘all’, and ‘every’ series: ‘everyone’, ‘everything’, etc. Everyone has his own ambitions. Partitive pronouns, parallel to the universal ones, consist of assertive pronouns including the ‘some’ group (‘some’, ‘someone’, ‘something’, etc. ; non-assertive with the ‘any’ series (‘any’, ‘anyone’, ‘anything’, etc. ); and negative with the ‘no’ series (‘none’, ‘no-oneâ€⠄¢, ‘nothing’, etc. ) Nobody has come yet. Apart from pronouns, numerals including cardinal numbers (‘one’, ‘two’, etc. ) and ordinal numbers (‘first’, ‘second’, etc. ) can form basic noun phrases, as in: Two is better than one. 2. 2 Basic Noun Phrases with Determiners Not only can basic noun phrases consist of pronouns or numerals, but they can also comprise a head noun with determiners or determiners modified by pre-determiners and/or post-determiners. The head noun of a noun phrase is the central element and decisive factor in performing the syntactic functions of the whole noun phrase. It can be singular count noun such as ‘book’, plural noun ‘books’ or mass noun like ‘ink’. Determiners can be indefinite article ‘a’ and ‘an’; definite article ‘the’; or zero article as in the noun phrase ‘books’. The use of articles is not the only possibility for determining nouns, but we can use such words as ‘no’, ‘what’, ‘this’, ‘some’, ‘every’, ‘each’ and ‘either’ before the head noun like ‘book’. These words, also called determiners, forming a set of closed-system, are mutually exclusive with each other, i. e. there cannot be more than one occurring before the head. Both ‘a the book’ and ‘a some book’ are ungrammatical. Determiners are in a â€Å"choice relation†, that is they occur one instead of another. In this respect, they are unlike ‘all’, ‘many’, ‘nice’, which are in a â€Å"chain relation†, occurring one after another as in: All the many nice pictures are collected. The articles are central to the class of determiners in that they have no function independent of the noun they precede. Other determiners like ‘some’ are also independent pronouns: A: I want the money. B: Here is the. (ungrammatical) B: Here is some. (grammatical) With regard to the co-occurrence of determiners with the noun classes singular count (‘book’), plural count (‘books’), and mass noun (‘ink’), there are six classes of determiners: (1) |The Possessive (‘my’, ‘your’, his’, etc. ) |+ |book | |Genitive (‘my father’s’, ‘Anne’s’, etc. | |books | |No | |ink | |Whose | | | |Which (ever) | | | |What (ever) | | | |Some (stressed) | | | |Any (stressed) | | | (2) Zero article |+ |books | |Some (unstressed) | |ink | |Any (unstressed) | | | |enough | | | (3) |This |+ |book | |that | |ink | (4) |These |+ |books | |Those | | | (5) A (n) |+ |book | |every | | | |each | | | |either | | | |neither | | | (6) |much |+ |ink | In addition to the determiners mentioned before, there are a large number of other closed-system items that occur before the head of noun phrases. These items, referred to as closed-system pre-modified, form three classes (pre-determiners, ordinals and quantifiers) which have been set up on the basis of the positions that they can have in relation to determiners and to each other. The first class of the closed-system pre-modifiers, pre-determiners, is unique in occurring before the determiners. They are: (1) ‘all’, ‘both’ and ‘half’; (2) the multipliers ‘double’, ‘twice’, ‘three times’, etc. and fractions ‘one-third’, ‘two-fifths’, etc. and (3) ‘such’ and ‘what’ (exclamative). Like determiners, pre-determiners are mutually exclusive. Therefore, ‘all’, ‘both’ and ‘half’ have restriction on their co-occurrence with determiners and head nouns. The illustrations are as follows: All |All |+ |The, my, etc. |+ |singular count noun | |All |+ |The, my, etc. |+ |plural noun | | | |These, those | | | | | |Zero article | | | |All |+ |The, my, etc. + |mass noun | | | |This, that | | | | | |Zero article | | | All my life All the books All this paper Both |Both |+ |The, my, etc. |+ |plural noun | | | |These, those | | | | | |Zero article   | | | Both these books Half Half |+ |The, my, etc. |+ |singular count noun | | | |A, this, that | | | |Half |+ |The, my, etc. |+ |plural noun | | | |These, those | | | |Half |+ |The, my, etc. |+ |mass noun | | | |This, that | | | Half an hour These pre-determiners can occur only before articles or demonstratives, but none of them can occur with such quantitative determiners as ‘every’, ‘either’, ‘each’, ‘some’, ‘any’, ‘no’ and ‘enough’. However, ‘all’, ‘both’ and ‘half’ have ‘of’-construction which are optional with nouns and obligatory with personal pronouns: All (of) the students   = All of them All (of) my time   = All of it With a quantifier following, the ‘of’-construction is preferred All of the ten students All of the many girls ‘All’, ‘both’ and ‘half’ can be basic noun phrases: All/Both/ Half were allowed to go out. Apart from ‘all’, ‘both’ and ‘half’, the multipliers such as ‘double’, ‘twice’, ‘three times’, etc. can occur before determiner s to denote a number, an amount, etc. : Double their papers Twice his strength Three times this amount ‘Once’, ‘twice’, etc. an occur with determiners ‘a’, ‘every’, ‘each’, and ‘per’ (less commonly) to form â€Å"distributive† expressions with a temporal noun as head: are post-determiners, that is they must follow determiners in the noun phrase structure, but they precede quantifiers and adjectives as modifier.    |The |first |(cold) |months |   | |   |determiner |post-determiner (ordinal) |modifier |noun |   | Cardinal numbers and quantifiers belong to the third class of closed-system pre-modifiers. They are mutually exclusive, following determiners but preceding adjectives as modifier. Cardinal numbers are ‘one’ (with singular count nouns) and ‘two’, ‘three’, etc. (with plural nouns), e. g. : One good reason All (of) the three brothers Closed-system quantifiers are ‘many’ (with the comparatives ‘more’ and ‘most’), ‘few’ (‘fewer’, ‘fewest’),   ‘little’ (‘less’, ‘least’) and ‘several’ as in: Several interesting books All her many good ideas A basic noun phrase may contain various determiners, more concretely, pre-determiners, determiners and post-determiners which are in a fixed order: |pre-determiners |determiners |post-determiner |Head noun | |   |   |ordinal |cardinal/quantifier |   | |Half |my |first |   |salary | |All |the | |   |books | |All |her | |many |questions | 3 Complex Noun Phrases Complex noun phrases contain three components: pre-modification, head noun and post-modification. 3. 1 Head Noun Like in the basic noun phrase, the head noun, first of all, is the central element and core component of the complex noun phrase. It may be count or mass noun which dictates concord and (for the most part) other kinds of congruence with the rest of the sentence outside the noun phrase. This is exemplified in: The only girl in this class is hardworking. All of the beautiful girls in my class are kind. Also, when the genitive is as pre-modification, the head nouns can be omitted: We met at the dentist’s last week. 3. 2 Pre-modification The second component of a complex noun phrase is pre-modification, also called pre-modifiers, including modifiers that stand before the head noun. Pre-modifiers can be closed-system and/or open-class items. Closed-system pre-modifiers are discussed in the structure of the basic noun phrases above. These items are optional in the complex noun phrases. Meanwhile, open-class pre-modifiers come after the closed-system ones and precede the head noun as in: |   |All these |young beautiful |girls |   | |   |determiner |adjective as pre-modifier |head |   | Pre-modifying adjectives can be those denoting general description (‘beautiful’, intelligent’, ‘good’, etc. ; age (‘young’, ‘old’, etc. ); size (‘big’, ‘small’, etc. ); shape (‘square’, ‘round’, etc. ); colour (‘red’, ‘blue’, etc. ); material (‘silk’, ‘metal’, etc. ); resemblance to a material (‘silken’ in silken hair, ‘cat-like’, etc. ); and provenance or style (‘British’, â €˜Parisian’, etc. ). These adjectives can be both attribute and complement. In addition, pre-modifying adjectives can be intensifying ones which have a heightening effect on the noun they modify or the reverse, a lowering effect, e. g. : ‘real’ (a real hero), ‘definite’ (a definite loss), ‘complete’ (a complete fool) and ‘close’ (a close friend). These adjectives are generally attributive only. Restrictive adjectives, another class of pre-modifying adjectives, restrict the reference of the noun exclusively, particularly or chiefly, e. g. : ‘certain’ (a certain person), ‘exact’ (the exact answer), ‘only’ (the only occasion) and ‘very’ (the very man). Like intensifying adjectives, the restrictive ones are attributive only. However, there are a number of adjectives which cannot pre-modify the head, but can be predicative such as: ‘faint’, ‘ill’, ‘well’, ‘able’, ‘afraid’, etc. Not only are the head nouns pre-modified but pre-modifying adjectives can also be, especially when they are the first items after the determiner. In this case, it can be pre-modified in the same way as it can be in the predicative position. This is illustrated by: |   |His really quite unbelievably happy |family |   | |   |   |Head |   | With indefinite determiners, some intensifiers such as ‘so’ are differently used. ‘So’ is replaced by ‘such’, which precedes the determiner or else ‘so’ plus adjective would be placed before the determiner, e. g. : Such a beautiful girl So beautiful a girl Apart from pre-modifying adjectives, the head nouns of the complex noun phrases can be pre-modified by particles, either present or past, e. g. : an approaching man (present participle), the badly injured dog (past participle), etc. The head noun can also be pre-modified by genitives, e. g. these qualified doctors’ salaries,these doctors’ high salaries, etc. group genitives as in the teacher of English’s salary, an hour and a half’s discussion, etc. ; or other nouns as in the city council, a love story, etc. Another class of pre-modifiers is the type of denomical adjective often meaning â€Å"consisting of†, â€Å"involving†, or â€Å"relating to†. These items must come next before the head and can be preceded by a wide range of pre-modifying items, e. g. :   the pleasant social life, a city political problem, etc. Finally there are various classes of pre-modification, both closed-system and open-class. Therefore, when the complex noun phrases consist of different classes of pre-modifiers, they may be placed in a relevant order. The acceptable order of pre-modifiers in a complex noun phrase is as follows: |1 |2 |3 |4 |5 | |(1) |a |book |with yellow covers (prepositional phrase) |   | |(2) |the |man |who told you the secret (finite clause) |   | |(3) |the |girl |speaking English fluently (nonfinite clause) |   | |(4) |a |shelf |full of books (adjective phrase) |   | |(5) |the |opera |Carmen (noun phrase) |   | |(6) |the |road |back (adverbial phrase) |   | In the example (1) ‘with yellow covers’ is a prepositional phrase post-modifying the head ‘book’. Apart from ‘with’, there is a wide range of prepositions that can be used, e. g. :   the road to London, the house beyond the church, a child of   five, etc. , including the complex prepositions, e. g. house on the top of the hill, action in case of emergency, etc. and those having participle forms as in problems concerning the environment. The commonest preposition in the noun phrase post-modification â₠¬Ëœof’ has a close correspondence to ‘have’ sentences: The ship has a funnel. the funnel of the ship The table has four legs. the four legs of the table However, some are relatable to ‘be’ sentences: London is a city. the city of London The news was the team’s victory the news of the team’s victory Also, the ‘of’ phrase can be used to express the subject or object relation: The bus arrived the arrival of the bus Someone imprisoned the murderer the imprisonment of the murderer In the example (2), the post-modifier is a relative or finite clause which can be restrictive or non-restrictive. There are a number of relative clauses beginning with relative pronouns: ‘who’, ‘whom’, ‘whose’, ‘that’ (personal); ‘which’, ‘that’, ‘what’ (non-personal); ‘when’, a preposition plus ‘which’ (time); ‘where’, a preposition plus ‘which’ (place); and ‘why’, ‘for which’ (reason). While restrictive relative clauses help to define the head noun, the non-restrictive ones give additional information to it, as exemplified in: |   |The woman |who is standing outside |is my neighbour.    | |   |   |restrictive |   |   | |   |That is my neighbour, |who is standing outside. |   |   | |   |   |Non-restrictive |   |   | The exampl e (3) illustrates the post-modifier as a non-finite clause, present participle clause. The non-finite can be past participle clauses. |   |The only car |serviced in the garage |is mine. |   | |   |   |past participle clause |   |   | In addition, post-modifiers can be to-infinitive clauses: |   |The next flight |to arrive |was from London. |   | |   |The place |to stay for summer holidays |should be pleasant. |   | As is seen in the example (4), adjective phrases can be post-modifiers of the head noun in the complex noun phrases. The adjective phrases can usually be regarded as a reduced relative clause. Complex indefinite pronouns ending in –body, -one, -thing, and –where can be modified only post-positively, e. g. : Anyone (who is) intelligent can do it. The men (who were) present were his supporters. In the example (5), the phrase explicitly encodes the information that â€Å"Carmen is an opera†. For this reason, ‘ Carmen’ is traditionally said to be in apposition to ‘the opera’. Another minor type of post-modification illustrated in the example (6) is adverbial modification. Similarly, in the following examples, the adverbial phrases post-modify the head noun: the way ahead, the direction back, the hall downstairs, etc. Unlike pre-modifiers, their no grammatical limit to the number of post-modifiers occurring in a noun phrase, considerations of style and comprehensibility will normally keep them to one or two. Where we have more than one, the relative order tends to depend on the related properties of length and class, with shorter modifiers preceding longer ones, prepositional phrases preceding clauses: |   |A man |from Britain |who I was talking about last night |   | |   |   |prepositional phrase |relative clause | | 4 Conclusion In conclusion, noun phrases, either basic or complex are potentially very complicated. Most simply, basic noun phrases consist of just one overt element, pronouns of different types or numerals. Basic noun phrases, more complicatedly, comprise pre-determiners, determiners, post-determiners and the head nouns, the order of which is fixed. Complex noun phrases, as their names imply, are the most difficult of all. They consist of pre-modification, head noun and post-modification. Pre-modification includes closed-system and open-class items which are in the given order. Post-modification can be finite or non-finite clauses and adjective, noun, prepositional and adverbial phrases. SOURCES Aarts, B. ( 2001 ) English Syntax and Argumentation Brown, E. K. and J. E. Miller ( 1991 ) Syntax : A linguistic Introduction to Sentence Structure examples and tables internet

Steamboat Bill, Jr. 1928 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Steamboat Bill, Jr. 1928 - Essay Example Moreover, the film gets thrilling as ones goes through the incredible stunt that are dangerous (Wickstrà ¶m). A reflection on the plot, stunt, comedy, director, themes, and soundtrack helps in analyzing the film. The plot of the movie begins at the steamboat. Steamboat Bill is shown as being a high tempered man but also an acclaimed pilot. He is also seen as heavily built with a strong stature as compared to his compatriots. He receives a letter of the impending son visit. The son had lived with his mother since being a child and had just graduated from a renowned college in the east. The son arrives dressed in a unique way that did not please his father. He was dressed in a polka-dot tie, beret, and pencil-thin moustache (Miller and Feaster 1). The father is also not pleased of his body stature as he thought he would meet a stocky person. As a result, the father with his mate Tom Lewis engages in ways that could transform his son. At the time of his arrival, a strong opposition faced the father in the steamboat business from the business magnate J.J. King (Tom Lewis (Miller and Feaster 1). To make the matter worse, King daughter arrives in the area for a visit and get acquaintance with Will iam Jr. (Miller and Feaster 1). The fathers of the two are strongly opposed to their unions. In fact, they make desperate attempts to prevent the two from meeting. In the meantime, William junior shows weakness in harnessing the ropes of piloting a steamboat. On the other hand, Bill’s boat is condemned in the river as authorized by King. He is annoyed and confronts bill and this land him to jail. This provided an opportunity for William junior to prove himself as he tried to get his father from jail (Miller and Feaster 1). He also manages to save his father boat from the junk heap and reunion with Kitty (Miller and Feaster 1). First, film is designed in a way it captures the attention of the audience. The capture takes place

Flexibility at work Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Flexibility at work - Essay Example Technology has changed the way the society works; thus many employees demand flexibility in order to become highly productive. Therefore, it is vital to offer work flexibility in the workplace because this will create organizational transformation; thus contributing to effective business performance. Spitznagel (1) attempts to reveal the way flexibility in the workplace has tremendously changed for the recent decades. The author reveals an example of an engineer who had already made significant transformation in his work process. Funaki who is an engineer skips his way into effective performance level and he carries a legacy from his former experience (Spitznagel 1). Transition from engineering to circus performing enabled Funaki to achieve better work related performance aspects because of flexibility in the workplace. Yost (para 5) argue that keeping updating innovation skills for work plus life flexibility strategy is vital in the current business world. Therefore, organisations w ill often implement a work or life flexibility policies to enable them improve business activities. Yost in his article provides varied ways of building flexibility in the future workplace; thus letting workers manage their time in the workplace can enable the company to improve their performance level (Yost para. 1). Many organisations have realized the significant of flexibility in the workplace; thus his has become one of the aspects of transforming the organisation towards achieving success. Therefore, many organisations have made significant efforts of avoiding the common traps by adopting new and flexible frameworks vital for creating effective organizational performance. One of the ways is making the goal work together with life well and this is through describing the flexible needs of employees so that this can reflect on the realities of professional services in the workplace. Recognizing that work plus life fit is an issue for every worker because it will enable employers to retain and manage workforce effectively. Creating a shared vision of work plus life flexibility is another aspect that can enable the business to accomplish their business goals successfully. Work flexibility can contribute to employee motivation and this is imperative because motivation in the workplace is one of the fundamental aspects for creating successful business performance. Many organisations such as General Mills organisation offer their employees options for flexible work situations such as working from home, support teamwork in specific areas and many other aspects. For instance, Chris Vocal, the general manager of General Mills Company talks about his work experience of working in an organisation where there is work flexibility (General Mills 2012). Moreover, Holmes (2011) argues that providing flexible work arrangements in the contemporary society is vital because this can contribute to success business performance. Holmes, the vice president of World of Work soluti ons at the Manpower Group believes that working from anywhere and the skills required to get work done have significantly changed because of technology advancement (Holmes (2011). Therefore, building a better future workplace demands flexibility where employers should trust their employees and employees should be flexible to accomplish business goals

Ethical dilemma Essay Example for Free

Ethical dilemma Essay In the following, ethical dilemma has been discussed and identified from the given case study. The background for the ethical dilemma has been explained. How the consultant has handled the situation of ethical dilemma and how a learner would have handled it differently, has been given below. ? Ethical Dilemma â€Å"Ethical dilemmas, also known as a moral dilemmas, are situations in which there are two choices to be made, neither of which resolves the situation in an ethically acceptable fashion. In such cases, societal and personal ethical guidelines can provide no satisfactory outcome or the chooser. Ethical dilemmas assume that the chooser will abide by societal norms, such as codes of law or religious teachings, in order to make the choice ethically impossible. † In the given case study, Kindred Todd is also in a situation which is an ethical dilemma. She had just finished her master degree and got a very company to join in. But she did not realize that she had been introduced as an expert on CQI to the potential clients which she discovers by the end of the meeting with the potential clients. She discussed with her boss about the need of the CQI expert but he did not give it an importance and indirectly pushed her to do what the company says. She has now a conflict between her own values(may be religious) which insist her on quitting the job and her personal materialistic needs which do not allow to leave such a good company for her career. Background for Ethical Dilemma â€Å"In a perfect world, businesses and their employees would always do the right thing. Unfortunately, in the real world, ethical dilemmas are a common occurrence in the orkplace. According to the Merriam Webster Dictionary, dilemmas are situations or problems where a person has to make a difficult choice; an ethical dilemma is a problem where a person has to choose between a moral and an immoral act. Employees must deal with pressures to perform and help the company succeed as well as personal temptations to take the easy way out. In the end, workers will likely face many dilemmas in their careers; companies should provide training and information to assist them in making the right decision. † There are many reasons which make the background or the reasons for the ethical dilemma. Employees in organizations undergo in such a situation when they are sometimes under the pressure from management . When they are particularly asked to do something which is un ethical but it goes in the company’s favor. In some cases, some employees become quite ambitious and want to succeed in their life at any cost without considering the concept of being ethical or un-ethical. They just do what akes them towards promotions or higher career. â€Å"Though diversity is an important part of business, some people may not be comfortable with people from different backgrounds and possibly be reluctant to treat them fairly. This kind of discrimination is not only un ethical but illegal and still remains common. † â€Å"Negotiators may also try to bribe their way to a good deal.  While this is illegal in the U. S. , it still sometimes happens; in other nations, it is more common, and sometimes even expected, which can put negotiators in a difficult position. † This means in organizations negotiating tactics are sometimes also the cause of ethical dilemma. ? How the Consultant Handled the Situation from Ethic View Point The consultant raised an objection before the president of the company instead of remaining uiet on the issue that why she had been introduced wrongly as a CQI expert. Moreover, she passed on the exact evaluation of her meeting about the potential clients and stress on the need of an CQI expert in order to deal with the clients. At least, in order to secure the job, she did not pretend that she can do anything they want. The best part was that she did her best to help the clients in the area of quality improvement by going through books and consulting her friends, so much so that she had a consultant behind her, unseen, to help sort out CQI issues. After the assigned work got over, she resigned the company, as she could’t trust the company for future. A View of How the Learner would have Handled the Situation Differently I would have not been, probably so daring to ask the president for the actual requirement of the clients or might not have resigned the job. ? Conclusion In a workplace, ethical dilemmas are quite common. There are different reasons for a worker to become ethical or un ethical. So, the important thing how you win the war between your values and materialistic needs.

The furture of early childhood education Essay -- essays research pape

The Future of Early Childhood Education   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  If you ask someone to list for you the most important jobs of our society, teachers always make the list sometimes beating out careers like doctor or lawyer. Ironically, for a career we value so much, teaching has never been a well paying profession. But times are about to change. Due to an increasing demand and a fixed supply, salaries for early education teachers are expected to increase within the next decade. The United States Board of Labor ranks this career as one of the highest paying of the next ten years, with an expected median tenure salary of over ninety thousand by the year 2012. Even taking into account inflation, working conditions, and different people’s preferred lifestyle, it is reasonable to say that a career in early childhood education can provide a very comfortable living.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The law of supply and demand helps us understand how price is set in our society. It states that if the supply of a good increases, or if the demand of a good decreases, then the price of the good drops. The opposite is also true, if the supply decreases and the demand increases, than a good becomes more expensive. The theory of supply and demand is very powerful, and can be applied to many different things. In this paper, it will be used to explain why teachers’ salaries are expected to increase a great deal. The number of teachers will be the supply, the need for teachers will be the demand, and salaries will be the price that will be affected. In 2002 there were over two million positions for early education teachers in the United States. Of the teachers in those jobs, â€Å"about 1.5 million were elementary school teachers, 424,000 were preschool teachers, and 168,000 were kindergarten teachers†(Outlook). The majority of these teachers worked for the local government educational services, with about ten percent working for private schools. While the majority of preschool teachers are employed by child daycare services. Geographically, teaching positions vary with the population. Highly populated areas have more employment opportunities. Every year, a greater number of students enroll into the United States school system. More students increase the need for more schools and qualified teachers. In addition to the population growth, a number of initiatives have been impl... ...their families.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  State employed teachers will not have to worry about retirement, because they are guaranteed a pension salary once they retire. Teachers will not have to stress or fear for the future like some other members of the workforce who were relying on social security.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Early childhood teachers also have the satisfaction of having a career in one of the most respected professions in our society. They will have to fulfillment of knowing that what they do makes a difference. Works Cited Case, Karl E. †Principles of Macroeconomics† Sixth Edition. Prentice Hall Van Dalen, Deobold B. â€Å"Looking Ahead To Teaching† Allyn and Bacon, Inc. Boston. Kahn, Alfred J. â€Å"Child Care: Facing the Hard Choices† Auburn House Publishing Company. Massachusetts. â€Å"Occupational Outlook Handbook† U.S. Department of Labor http://stats.bls.gov/search/ooh.asp?qu=teachers&ct=OOH (2005) â€Å"Critical Issues Facing the Teaching Profession† The South Carolina Center for Teacher Recrutement (2004) http://www.cerra.org/sectionone.pdf Cameron, Bruce â€Å"New municiple fund may well be the shape of things to come† August 14, 2004 Personal Finance Magazine

Platos Influence in Western Culture Essay

Plato (429-347 B. C. E) is seen by many as one of the greatest philosophers of the classical period, if not of all time. Coming from a wealthy Athenian family it is the belief that he followed and further developed philosophy from his mentor Socrates. His first works are seen as the most trust-worthy accounts of Socrates life, and after his death Plato would continue to develop Socrates works with the help from Plato’s most famous student, Aristotle. During this time Plato would develop his most famous work The Republic. This would notably, along with many of his later works, blend his ideas of politics, ethics, psychology, and metaphysics into an interlinked philosophy. Plato’s dialogues present much of the idea’s founded and developed by the trio, especially in one of his most famous dialogues, The Apology of Socrates Trial. It is from these experiences that with the help of his teacher Socrates and his student Aristotle, Plato would develop the philosophical foundations of Western culture. When asked to define the philosophical style of Plato most people would be quick to label him as a political philosopher, this is due to his views on social implication and the idea of an ideal state or government. Plato was an elitist political thinker in the fact that he said that only those with reason, experience and wisdom should govern. The way he put it was: â€Å"Until philosophers rule as kings or those who are now called kings and leading men genuinely and adequately philosophize, that is, until political power and philosophy entirely coincide, while the many natures who at present pursue either one exclusively are forcibly prevented from doing so, cities will have no rest from evils,†¦ nor, I think, will the human race. † By saying this Plato re-enforces his thought that only those with great wisdom should become leaders and politicians. His belief was that cities will remain evil and tyrant until their current kings either began to think and philosophize, or philosophers were to take rule over the kingdom. Plato’s theory was that these new superior leaders would be seen as â€Å"those who love the sight of truth. † And from this they would then create a perfect city much like the one which he outlined in The Republic, which begins with the city being run by an aristocracy, whose virtue is wisdom, lacks honour and because of this gets replaced by a militant government, which had the virtue of honour but also has the vice of poverty. This too is then overthrown by an elitist group whose wealth corrects the poverty of former militant government but also brings the vice of greed. The elitists are once again replaced by an elected democracy whose vision of equality and fairness corrects the former greed but brings the mistake of to much freedom resulting in anarchy. Finally, the movement of democracy brings forth the order of a tyranny, which establishes peace through cruelty and oppression. It is from this cycle of inevitable and more disturbingly logical political change that Plato disliked the idea of democracy, stating that the average person is selfish, envious and stupid, which leads democracy to be highly corruptible and can cause it to open gates to potential dictators. Democracy was seen as a government dependant on chance which for success must be mixed with competent leadership. The belief was that to run a state a government politicians needed expert rulers and not an average unintelligent citizen who may be elected in by accident. A political decision needs good judgement and because of this leaders must be carefully selected and prepared by means of extensive training. Because of this theory Plato would influence Aristotle, the English constitution and the founding fathers of America to develop a mixed republic that combines democracy, aristocracy and kingship. After the death of Socrates Plato returned to Athens and from there founded a school knows as the Academy, which is where we get the English word â€Å"academic† from and still to this day call institutes of higher learning â€Å"academies†. It was around 387 B. C. E in which Plato bought land outside of Athens to set up his school of philosophy there, which many see as the Western world’s first university. The aim of this academy was to train future politicians of Greek states, and studies focused primarily on philosophy and mathematics. The academy would continue to educate for more than 900 years after its founding even surviving the Roman invasion on Greece in 146 BCE, eventually though the academy would close when the Christian Emperor Justinian closed it in 529 A. D. Later though in Florence sometime during the mid-15th century the â€Å"Accademia Platonica† would be formed by a group of scholars who met under the Platonic philosophy professor Marsilio Ficino, to discuss philosophy and the study of classical politics. Finally in 1926 a modern academy of Athens would be built and labelled as Greece’s national academy. Staying true to its original routes to this day the academy still focuses on the study of humanities and science. It is from this initial establishment of his original academy that the legacy was able to pass on through hundreds of years to the point where the tradition is still alive to this date. Had it not been for Plato’s founding of the academy, the education process would most likely be very different than from that of which it is as we know it today. In Plato’s last and longest work entitled the Laws, he begins by asking â€Å"Who is given credit for laying down the laws? † As opposed to his earlier work in the Republic, which focused on what the best possible state might be like and what experiences and adjustments must be made to achieve that status, the Laws rather focuses on the idea of creating a practicable, yet ideal form of government in a much more realistic way than the former. The characters in this work deal with designing rules to meet â€Å"real world† problems and human affairs. Unfortunately though, the dialogue went unfinished at 345 pages at the time of Plato’s death in 347 B. C. E. The incomplete work of the Laws was still able to outline many questions and themes including, divine revelation, divine law and lawgiving; the role of intelligence in lawgiving; the relations of philosophy, religion, and politics; the role of music, exercise and dance in education; natural law and natural right just to name a few. Once again it was because of Plato’s teaching of his theory’s and publication of his dialogue’s that this theory was also able to spread so quickly through Western culture and even play a role in the way we choose laws to this date. Overall it appears that without Plato’s influence and writings the Western world and it’s culture would have been drastically different from what is the current norm in society. Political structure, academic education and formation of laws would all be heavily affected to the point in which many key things that one would see vital in today’s society may not even exist such as the use of a constitution or an academic university, since it was Plato who established and helped spread the development of such institutions. With Socrates and Aristotle, Plato not only helped develop the foundation of Western culture, but he steered it down the right path as well.

A Thousand Splendid Suns By Khaled Hosseini - 1436 Words

A Thousand Splendid Suns Essay A Thousand Splendid Suns, a book written by Khaled Hosseini, gives us a unique and informative glimpse into life in Afghanistan in the early 1960’s to the 2000’s. In it we can see many different political and social issues ravaging the country, with the most evident being gender inequality. Though many diverse groups of people were being discriminated against at the time, most of the subordination fell onto women as they had more and more rights taken away from them when various ruling powers took control. The author relays this information to us and educates us as to what happened through compelling and thought-provoking literary devices such as symbolic characters and objects, and allusions. By using these†¦show more content†¦Because a society has no chance of success if its women are uneducated, Laila. No chance† (Hosseini 114). This demonstrates just how pro women’s rights Babi was, as he not only believed in education for females and the idea that arranged marriages at young ages are wrong, but also that women could be the ones to make the country strong again, not men. Because of his beliefs, you can assume Babi represented the Soviet government that administered over Afghanistan at the time. Later into the book though, Babi ends up passing away in a terribly violent way, which to me represents the collapse of the soviet union (which happens around the same time as his death) by the violent hands of the Mujahideen. After his death, Laila then ends up living under the authority of a dangerous and brutal male, Rasheed, who represents the new Mujahideen government that took control. Rasheed had very conservative views, as seen when he warned the girls to obey his every word, not leave the house without him, and always wear a Burqa. All the things he asked them to do were the policies the new Mujahideen government set into place, restricting women s rights. By including this hidden meaning behind the characters, Hosseini actually uses them as a way to give perspective as to just how oppressive the Mujahideen actually was, and how much of a shock it must have been to women. From Babi you can see how Afghanistan was at one time a good place for womenShow MoreRelatedA Thousand Splendid Suns By Khaled Hosseini1838 Words   |  8 PagesThat was the case for Afghanistan in the late 1900s and Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns gives the reader insight into what it was like to be a woman trying to survive in those trying times. Hosseini’s use of character development and setting, with it’s respected culture such as the city of Kabul, the people, and burqas, reveals the themes of the integrity of woman and the power of love. In the beginning of A Thousand Splendid Suns, the reader is introduced to a little girl named MariamRead MoreA Thousand Splendid Suns By Khaled Hosseini2359 Words   |  10 Pages A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini is a beautiful tale of two women in Afghanistan during the Taliban uprising. They grow up on complete opposite sides of Afghan culture. The main character, Mariam, grows up in a more traditional way caused by her forced marriage to Rasheed. Laila on the other hand, grows up with a supportive father who encourages gender equality and education. There are many cultural differences such as, women’s rights, public executions, and the Taliban. The two mainRead MoreA Thousand Splendid Suns By Khaled Hosseini1504 Words   |  7 PagesA Thousand Splendid Suns is an historical fiction novel, written by Khaled Hosseini, set in Afghanistan during the late 1960’s to early 2000’s. It follows the life of Mariam, a ‘harami’ child, who experiences the twisted reality of polygamy first hand. Hosseini explores thought provoking ideas in a society where gender inequality and poorly valued education is the normality. Hosseini ’s main purpose is to show the importance of differing perspectives, as well as how to discern between the right andRead MoreA Thousand Splendid Suns By Khaled Hosseini1577 Words   |  7 PagesIn Khaled Hosseini’s novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns, women live in an oppressive, discriminatory Afghan society in which they are deemed useless and obtain little to no rights, yet still manage to endure the burden that falls upon them. After the immensely false interpretations of her father and the bitter fatality of her mother, Mariam’s father demands she marries a stranger considerably older than her at the age of fifteen. Rasheed prays daily in hopes for Laila to produce a male offspring andRead MoreA Thousand Splendid Suns By Khaled Hosseini Essay1239 Words   |  5 Pagesto rapidly advance, which ultimately produces instability and division. When elements of society—such as politics or economics—are erratic, a solid foundation cannot be formed. The book A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini is an example of how a society can crumble without stability. A Thousand Splendid Suns tells of how Afghanistan is impacted as it passes through five eras of different political powers. The traditional culture and beliefs were altered with each governing group which generatedRead MoreA Thousand Splendid Suns By Khaled Hosseini2007 Words   |  9 Pagesrights. That was the case in Afghanistan in the late 1900s and Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns gives the reader insight into what it was like to be a woman trying to survive in those trying times. Hosseini’s use of character development and setting, with it’s respected culture, such as the city of Kabul and burqas, reveals the themes of the integrity of woman and the power of love. In the beginning of A Thousand Splendid Suns, the reader is introduced to a little girl named Mariam. SheRead MoreA Thousand Splendid Suns By Khaled Hosseini1461 Words   |  6 Pagesnovel A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. Laila and Mariam are two women who fall victim to physical, sexual and emotional abuse during the course of the novel. This abuse is suffered at the hand of Rasheed their husband. Physical Physical abuse is present throughout the course of the novel and Laila and Mariam suffer constantly with the abuse. It starts off as one violent action that leads to another and before you know it has turned into a vicious cycle. In A Thousand Splendid SunsRead MoreA Thousand Splendid Suns By Khaled Hosseini1141 Words   |  5 PagesAnalyse how the ending created a satisfying outcome in the written text(s). A thousand splendid suns by Khaled Hosseini is a book that was reviewed as unforgettable by Isabelle Allende, and I wholeheartedly agree with the statement. The ending or epilogue of A Thousand Splendid Suns was most indeed unforgettable. The ending was personally my favourite part of the novel. The four points I will elaborate on is the character I admired during the denouement, the plot of the epilogue, the setting ofRead MoreA Thousand Splendid Suns By Khaled Hosseini1421 Words   |  6 PagesIntroduction: Khaled Hosseini’s sophomore novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns, shares a setting with his previous novel, the turmoil of the recent decades of Afghanistan s existence. However, despite similar themes, Hosseini once again manages to craft a story that is as engaging as it is poignant, as compassionate as it is critical, and as thoughtful as it is visceral. Summary: However, when Laila’s child is born, Aziza, and turns out to be a girl, Laila’s relationship with Rasheed deterioratesRead MoreA Thousand Splendid Suns By Khaled Hosseini1459 Words   |  6 PagesThroughout A Thousand Splendid Suns, Barthes’ statement is displayed as author Khaled Hosseini raises the following question: How did Rasheem’s treatment of Mariam and Laila show how women were treated during this time in Afghanistan? Actions that most people would see as illegal were typical in Rasheed’s house and caused Mariam and Laila to be afraid of him. He would rape them whenever he wanted, force them to wear coverings that shielded them from men, and brutally beat them. As Hosseini describes