Indian Education by Sherman Alexie Reading Response

Indian Education Reading Responses 1. The overarching tone of this piece is shamefully miserable. Sherman Alexie conveys this by using negative diction, for example; Alexie begins his first grade excerpt by saying, â€Å"My hair was short and the U. S. Government glasses were horn-rimmed, ugly†¦Ã¢â‚¬  The author uses the word ‘ugly’ to indicate young Alexie lacks in self confidence and is ashamed of his appearance. Alexie continues on saying, â€Å"†¦ in school the other Indian boys chased me from one corner of the playground to the other.They pushed me down, buried me in the snow until I couldn’t breathe, thought I’d never breathe again. † He was miserable since the day he started school, that’s sad. The phrase â€Å"couldn’t breathe, thought I’d never breathe† makes me feel hopeless and vulnerable all at once. As the school years goes by, nothing seems to change except Alexie no longer gets physically hurt. H e still feels ashamed and dejected from his own tribe. He will always be a misfit. 2. Three examples of satire: * Fifth Grade: satirizes young Indians access to drugs as an escape route from their misery.Uses imagery to show the beauty of drugs. There is also sarcasm at the very end, â€Å"Oh, do you remember those sweet, almost innocent choices that the Indian boys were forced to make? † Horatian satire. * Sixth Grade: Satirizes the young Indians who lack in self confidence. He uses Caustic wit when he said, â€Å"Always throw the first punch. † An Epiphany to defend oneself. I believe it is horatian satire. * Eight Grade: Satire that the anorexic and bulimic girls are no better than himself. Hyperbole is used to show both â€Å"grew skinny from self pity. † Juvenilia satire.

Essay Teachers and Weapons in School Essay

Abstract In this paper, I will explore the controversial question of whether teachers should be allowed or required to carry weapons on school campuses. The question of whether the topic should be entertained has come up time and again after tragedies occur, the timeline of which will be summarized herein. The recent tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, that devastated the nation on December 14, 2012, has wrenched this debate crudely back into the spotlight. I will investigate different types of protective instruments that could possibly be used, as well as what types are used in schools that have such regulations. I will delve into the reasoning behind states that have implemented laws that allow teachers to carry guns in school and/or at school events. Included within are excerpts from this writer’s first-person interview conducted with Maria Otero-Ball, a kindergarten teacher in Albuquerque, New Mexico. As a teacher of children the same age as those involved in the Newtown tragedy, Mrs. Otero-Ball offers a first-hand view on the changes that she and the school have made following the tragedy, as well as her views on the practicality of weapons in the school. My goals in preparing this paper are to expand my thoughts on the subject, peruse the thoughts of others, and explore the statistics to provide a better overall understanding of the subject matter to myself and to my readers. During the research process, I found that a compromise on the types of weapons teachers should be allowed to carry would be the best option from my point of view. Keywords: teachers, weapons, school, tragedy, children Screams of terror, cries of anguish, tears of sorrow, heartbreaking agony; the nation bore witness to all of these and more as the first responders struggled to make sense of the scene that unfolded at Sandy Hook Elementary School on that fateful day of December 14th, 2012 in Newtown, Connecticut (Ardillas, 2012). Many families had their hearts torn apart during the rampage of that lone gunman as he unleashed his rage on teachers and young students who were just beginning their life’s journey. Amidst the suffering and the grieving for the departed, the question was once again raised: Should the teachers charged with protecting our children be equipped with weapons to allow them to do so in a scene of horror such as this? But I don’t think the questions should end there. More importantly, would arming teachers be safe for the children and the teachers? Are there other options that may be more appropriate that should be considered? Allowing teachers to carry weapons could go a long way towards making our schools more secure, but realistically non-lethal weapons would be the safer, more manageable solution in making our schools the haven the community deserves them to be. The tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary, though undeniably one of the most horrendous of its kind and categorically the most recent of such magnitude, is preceded by numerous similar incidents throughout the United States over the years recorded as far back as 1927. On May 18th of this year, a farmer named Andrew Kehoe set off two explosions at Bath Consolidated Schoolhouse in Bath, Michigan, killing himself, six adults and 38 children. In Houston, Texas on September 15th, 1959, convict Paul Orgeron exploded a suitcase of dynamite on a playground at Edgar Allen Poe Elementary killing himself, two adults and three children. On October 5th, 1966, 15-year-old David Black injured another student before killing teacher, Forrest Willey, at Grand Rapids High School in Grand Rapids, Michigan. On November 12th, 1966, in Mesa, Arizona, 18-year-old student, Robert Smith, killed five people at a local beauty college. In Olean, New York, at Olean High School on December 30th, 1974, honors student Anthony Barbaro killed a school janitor and two innocent bystanders and then killed himself while awaiting trial. 16-year-old Stephen Goods was hit and killed by a stray bullet fired during a fight between two schoolmates on March 18th, 1975, at Sumner High School in St. Louis, Missouri. In 1978 on February 22nd, 15-year-old Roger Needham killed another student who had bullied him at Everett High School in Lansing, Michigan. During class on May 18th, 1978, at Murchison Junior High School in Austin, Texas, 13-year-old John Christian shot and killed his English teacher Wilbur Grayson. In San Diego, California, on January 29th, 1979, at Grover Cleveland Elementary, 16-year-old Brenda Spencer opened fire on a school across from her home, killing the principal and janitor. (CNN U. S. , 2012) In the 80’s, violent episodes in schools increased to nearly one incident per year beginning with 17-year-old Pat Lizzotte shooting and  killing her teacher Clarence Piggott during class at Valley High School in Las Vegas, Nevada, on March 19th, 1982. On January 20th, 1983, an unnamed student shot and killed another student before turning the gun on himself. On February 24th, 1984, at 49th Street School in Los Angeles, California, sniper Tyrone Mitchell began firing on children on the playground, killing one, injuring 11 and later taking his own life. In Goddard, Kansas, at Goddard Junior High on January 21st, 1985, 14-year-old James Kearbey shot and killed Principal Jim McGee. David and Doris Young, a couple in their 40’s, took over Cokeville Elementary School with a bomb, holding 150 children and adults hostage and demanding $300 million in ransom in Cokeville, Washington, on May 16th, 1986. The bomb accidentally detonated causing a fire during which 74 people were injured and David Young shot his wife and then himself. The same year on December 6th, 14-year-old Kristofer Hans shot and killed his substitute teacher, Henrietta Smith, at Fergus High School in Lewistown, Montana. In Dekalb, Missouri, at Dekalb High School on March 2nd, 1987, 12-year-old Nathan Faris shot 13-year-old Timothy Perrin and then took his own life. February 11th, 1988, Pinellas Park High School, Largo, Florida; two 15-year-olds with stolen weapons, Jason McCoy and Jason Harless, shot and killed Asst. Principal Richard Allen. At Hubbard Woods Elementary School in Winnetka, Illinois, on May 20th, 1988, 30-year-old Laurie Dann killed an 8-year-old boy and injured six other people before taking her own life. Copying the Winnetka, Illinois murder, 19-year-old James Wilson killed 8-year-olds Tequila Thomas and Shequila Bradley in the school cafeteria of Oakland Elementary School in Greenwood, South Carolina on September 26th, 1988. The worst year for school killings yet, 1988 comes to a close with the fourth incident on December 16th at Atlantic Shores Christian School in Virginia Beach, Virginia, during which 16-year-old Nicholas Elliott shot and killed teacher Karen Farley. Concluding the decade’s violence, a brief month later on January 17th, 1989, 24-year-old drifter Patrick Purdy used an AK-47 to kill five children on a playground at Cleveland Elementary School in Stockton, California before killing himself. (CNN U. S. , 2012) The momentum from the latter part of the 80’s decade did not lose velocity as the 90’s moved forward with a manifold of violent incidents every year succeeding the first episode on November 25th, 1991 at Thomas Jefferson High School in Brooklyn, New York, when 14-year-old Jason. Bently shot a gun during an argument with two other teens, the stray bullet killing a 16-year-old student who was not even involved in the altercation. Thomas Jefferson High School was revisited by the sickness on February 26th, 1992, as 15-year-old Kahlil Sumpter shot and killed two other students. On May 1st, 1992, at Lindhurst High School in Olivehurst, California, 20-year-old dropout Eric Houston returned to school to kill a former teacher and three students. Without ado, 1993 started off with a bang on January 18th when 17-year-old Scott Pennington shot and killed a teacher and a custodian at East Carter High School in Grayson, Kentucky. Three months later on April 12th, 16-year-old Jason Robinson was stabbed to death in his Social Studies class by three teenage attackers at Dartmouth High School in Dartmouth, Massachusetts. Only 3 days had passed when, on April 15th, 44-year-old David Taber invaded Ford Middle School in Acushnet, Massachusetts, taking three hostages and later killing school nurse Carol Day. Pennsburg, Pennsylvania suffered a visit from the beast on May 24th, 1993, as 15-year-old Jason Smith, a student of Upper Perkiomen High School, killed another student who had bullied him. The fifth assault of 1993 ensued on December 21st at Wauwatosa West High School in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin when 21-year-old former student Leonard McDowell returned to his high school killing Asst. Principal Dale Breitlow. February 1994 did not start off well at Valley View Jr. High School in Simi Valley, California; on the 1st day of the month, 13-year-old Philip Hernandez stabbed a 14-year-old student to death in the hallway. April 12th of the same year was no better in Butte, Montana, when 10-year-old Jason Osmanson shot and killed an 11-year-old classmate on the playground. The ominous cloud passed over Wickliffe Middle School in Wickliffe, Ohio, on November 7th, 1994, as 37-year-old drifter Keith Ledeger shot and killed school custodian Peter Christopher and injured three others. On October 12th, 1995, at Blackville-Hilda High School of Blackville, South Carolina, 15-year-old Toby Sincino killed a teacher and then himself. The 15th of November, 1995, 17-year-old Jaime Rouse killed a business teacher and a 16-year-old student at Richland High School in Lynnville, Tennessee. At Winston Education Center in Washington, DC, 14-year-old Damion Blocker encountered two masked gunmen in the stairwell where he was shot and killed by 16-year-old Darrick Evans on January 19th, 1996. In Moses Lake, Washington, at Frontier Jr. High School on February 2nd, 1996, 14-year-old Barry Loukaitis killed two students and a teacher with a rifle. 1997 saw three violent incidents on February 19th in Alaska, October 1st in Mississippi, and December 1st Kentucky with a combined death toll of 8, including a parent, a principal, and six students. Three episodes in 1998 in Arkansas on March 24th, Pennsylvania on April 24th, and Oregon on May 21st claimed the lives of 10 more. Littleton, Colorado was devastated on April 21st, 1999, when 18-year-old Eric Harris and 17-year-old Dylan Klebold murdered 12 students and one teacher before committing suicide in the library of Columbine High School. The final wreckage of 1999 came to pass on November 19th at Deming Middle School in Deming, New Mexico when 12-year-old Victor Cordova shot and killed a 13-year-old classmate. (CNN U. S., 2012). The first scene of 2000 unfurled with the youngest offender to date, a 6-year-old boy, who shot and killed a 6-year-old girl at Buell Elementary in Mt. Morris Township, Michigan on February 29th. On May 26th of the same year in Lake Worth, Florida, 13-year-old Nathaniel Brazill returned to school after being sent home for misbehaving to shoot and kill his teacher, Barry Grunow, at Lake Worth Community Middle School. At Santana High School in Santee, California, on March 5th, 2001, 15-year-old Charles â€Å"Andy† Williams killed two classmates and injured 13. The last upset until 2003 transpired on December 5th, 2001, at Springfield High in Springfield, Massachusetts when troubled teen Corey Ramos stabbed Reverend Theodore Brown, a counselor at the school, to death. 2003 saw two tragedies on April 24th at Red Lion Area Jr. High School in Red Lion, Pennsylvania when 14-year-old James Sheets shot his principal, Eugene Segro, and then himself, and on September 24th in Cold Spring, Minnesota, at Rocori High School, where 15-year-old Jason McLaughlin killed one student and critically injured another who died in October. The sole incident in 2004 struck on February 3rd at Southwood Middle School in Palmetto Bay, Florida, involving 14-year-old Michael Hernandez who slashed the throat of 14-year-old Jaime Rodrigo Gough. 16-year-old Jeff Weise perpetrated a multiple murder in Red Lake, Minnesota, beginning with the murder of his grandfather and another adult followed by killing four fellow students at Red Lake High School, a teacher, a security guard and finally himself on March 21st, 2005. In Jacksboro, Tennessee, Campbell County Comprehensive High School felt the sting of madness on November 8th, 2005, as a 15-year-old student opened fire on a principal and  two assistant principals, killing one and critically wounding another. Three vicious episodes rocked 2006: two dead in a Colorado high school shooting on September 27th, one dead in a high school shooting in Wisconsin on September 29th, and six dead, six wounded in a Pennsylvania Amish school on October 2nd. The singular attack in 2007 befell Henry Foss High School of Tacoma, Washington on January 3rd, culminating with 18-year-old Douglas Chantabouly fatally shooting 17-year-old Samnang Kok. 2008’s lone incident was a shooting at Central High School in Knoxville, Tennessee, leaving one dead. 2009 witnessed three brutalities in rapid succession commencing on September 15th at a Florida high school leaving one fatally stabbed, shadowed on September 23rd at a Texas high school where a teacher was stabbed and killed and the closing fatality on October 16th at a South Carolina high school where a police officer shot and killed a student after the student had stabbed the officer. One confrontation on February 5th, 2010, at an Alabama middle school resulted in a 14-year-old with a fatal shot to the head and a conflict on January 5th, 2011, at a Nebraska high school bringing about the death of a vice principal and the suicide of the shooter. Prior to the Sandy Hook horror in December of 2012, an attack occurred on February 27th at Chardon High School in Chardon, Ohio, killing three and wounding four others (Timeline: School violence in the US, CNN U.S. , 2012). 2013 has already suffered the first school assault at Taft High School in Taft, California leaving one student in a coma and fighting for his life (Simmons, 2012). Following the Newtown tragedy of Sandy Hook, several state lawmakers have begun the process of introducing legislation to allow teachers to bear arms. These states include Florida, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota and Tennessee. Oklahoma State Representative Mark McCullough is quoted as saying: We cannot continue to be shackled by politically correct, reflexive, anti-gun sentiment in the face of the obvious — our schools are soft targets. It is incredibly irresponsible to leave our schools undefended — to allow mad men to kill dozens of innocents when we have a very simple solution available to us to prevent it. I’ve been considering this proposal for a long time. In light of the savagery on display in Connecticut, I believe it’s an idea whose time has come. (Celock, 2012, para. 3) While these states are only beginning their journey to allow teachers to bear arms, there are places where such laws already exist. In Indiana, state law makes schools â€Å"gun-free zones†, but exempts employees or others authorized by a school â€Å"to act as a security guard, perform or participate in a school function, or participate in any other activity authorized by a school† (Wilson, 2012, para. 2). Harrold, a small Texas town, allows teachers and school officials to carry concealed weapons on school grounds. This was unanimously voted upon by the school board in 2007, requiring only that any school employee who plans to carry a weapon obtain first a state concealed-weapons permit, and then be approved by the school board to carry concealed weapons on campus. (Brown, 2012) While allowing teachers to carry guns may seem an obvious solution to many, there are those who favor other approaches to making our schools safer. Maria Otero-Ball is a kindergarten teacher in my hometown of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Being a teacher of five and six year-old students, the Sandy Hook Elementary School tragedy struck a very personal chord with Mrs. Otero-Ball. Following the horrific event, Mrs. Otero-Ball made the changes that she was able to on her own to make her classroom safer; she cleared out her supply closet to enable her to hide students in such an event, put in place a classroom emergency procedure for use in conjunction with the school’s emergency procedure and she now runs a drill at least weekly to ensure her students know what to do in case of an attack such as the one in Newtown, Connecticut. Even so, she knows that these are small changes whose chances of effectiveness are uncertain at best. Mrs. Otero-Ball has another idea that she will be proposing in the next school board meeting. Her idea is for teachers to be issued and trained on non-lethal weapons such as stun guns, tasers, tranquilizer darts, and/or pepper spray. Mrs. Otero-Ball’s stance is, â€Å"I believe that we [the teachers] would have a much better chance of immobilizing a perpetrator if armed with something like this [stun guns, tasers, tranquilizer darts, and/or pepper spray]. † (Interview: Maria Otero-Ball, 2012) Non-lethal weapons are intended to cause pain and/or physically disable an adversary with a minimal risk of serious or permanent injury. The available types of non-lethal weapons include pepper spray, which comes in a compact cylinder and emits a pepper based, oleo resin spray that has the ability to incapacitate an attacker regardless of size and/or strength. Pepper spray is most effective in close range encounters and do not require accurate aim nor much training. Pepper spray is widely used by the general public and would not require legislation  to be allowed in schools. Tasers are one of the more painful non-lethal weapons and work by shooting small electrodes which penetrate the attackers clothing and skin. These electrodes are connected to a wire which conducts a strong electrical current and incapacitates offenders for up to 10 minutes. Tasers are good for distance use and the incapacitation time of the offender would allow time for the victims to take control of the situation, remove themselves to a safer location and contact law enforcement. Stun guns work on the same basic premise as tasers, but are a hand held, close range weapon. Stun guns could be very effective if one was able to surprise the victim from behind and take them down with a shock to the back of the neck. Both tasers and stun guns would require more training for use as well as for safety of the handler. One could expect legislature would be required to allow these in schools and supply sufficient training for the teachers designated for their use. Tranquilizer darts are best known for their use on wildlife such as bears, but can be modified for use on humans by utilizing a smaller dart and lower dosage of sedative, anesthetic or paralytic agent. The drawbacks with the use of tranquilizer guns include a delay between the time the dart connects and the incapacitation of the attacker and a danger of the offender dying if not monitored closely. (Admin: Just be Safe, 2011) Based on the research of the benefits and drawbacks of these non-lethal options, a combination of availability of pepper spray, stun guns and tasers for teachers and training on their use and handling would be most beneficial in a situation involving a single or multiple assailant(s). After being faced with a dreadful scene such as that which was encountered in Newtown at Sandy Hook Elementary School, it may well be the gut reaction of the general public to shout, â€Å"Arm our teachers! † In fact, since I have begun this paper, several more schools have begun legislation, voted to allow teachers to carry concealed weapons and even purchased weapons for the exclusive use of the school. However, if more thought is given to the implications of arming teachers with guns, one must see that this could prove more dangerous than helpful if the gun were to be appropriated by the wrongdoer. Another thought that had not been considered during my research was brought to light by ‘The Ed Show’ on January 10, 2013; many parents do not condone teachers having guns, concealed or otherwise, near their children (The Ed Show, 2013). With proper training on non-lethal weapons such as stun guns, tasers, and pepper spray, teachers would be able to defend our youth without the fear of having to kill or having a murderous weapon wrested from them while attempting to defend those they strive to protect. The facts are painfully evident: 1. Violence in school has escalated over the years and something must be done to protect the students and faculty. 2. The death toll relating to school violence is much too high for comfort. 3. Regulating gun laws will not prevent guns from being in circulation. 4. There are many drawbacks to allowing teachers to have access to guns in schools including fear of the gun falling into the wrong hands, discomfort of the parents knowing there are guns in the schools and what the shooter would have to deal with if they were to kill someone. 5. Conceivably, non-lethal weapons would be the safer, more manageable solution in making our schools the haven the community deserves them to be. In light of all of the evidence, it is apparent that a compromise could be made to keep our schools safe by giving the teachers the tools they need and still keep guns out of our schools, thus satisfying government, parents, teachers, students and families alike. This could be achieved by introducing a comprehensive plan to supply all teachers with pepper spray, select teachers with Tasers and stun guns and providing the training the teachers need to successfully use these defenses during an attack. References: Admin (2011, June 5). Tasers, stun guns & pepper spray: Non-lethal self defense weapons | Just B Safe. Just B Safe. Retrieved December 15, 2012, from http://www. justbsafe. com/? p=84 Aradillas, E. , Baker, K. C. , Billups, A. , Breuer, H. , Dennis, A. , Weisensee Egan, N. , . . . Zuckermann, S. (2012, December). Tragedy in new town: Remember forever. People, 78(27), 52-59. Brown, A. (2012, December 20). Texas town allows teachers to carry concealed guns. Breaking News and Opinion on The Huffington Post. Retrieved December 24, 2012, from http://www. huffingtonpost. com/huff-wires/20121220/us-gun-toting-teachers/? utm_hp_ref=green&ir=green Celock, J. (2012, December 18). Guns for teachers legislation on the rise in states. Breaking News and Opinion on The Huffington Post. Retrieved December 22, 2012, from http://www. huffingtonpost. com/2012/12/18/guns-for-teachers_n_2324095. html.

A Corpus-Based Analysis of Mixed Code in Hong Kong Speech

2012 International Conference on Asian Language Processing A Corpus-based Analysis of Mixed Code in Hong Kong Speech John Lee Halliday Centre for Intelligent Applications of Language Studies Department of Chinese, Translation and Linguistics City University of Hong Kong [email  protected] edu. hk Abstract—We present a corpus-based analysis of the use of mixed code in Hong Kong speech. From transcriptions of Cantonese television programs, we identify English words embedded within Cantonese utterances, and investigate the motivations for such code-switching.Among the many motivations observed in previous research, we found that four alone account for more than 95% of the use of English words in our speech data across genres, genders, and age groups. We performed analyses over more than 60 hours of transcribed speech, resulting in one of the largest empirical studies to-date on this linguistic phenomenon. Keywords-code-mixing; English; corpus linguistics. code-switching; Canton ese; II. PREVIOUS RESEARCH I. INTRODUCTIONWhile Cantonese is the mother tongue for the vast majority of the people in Hong Kong, English is also spoken by 43% of the population [1], reflecting the city’s heritage as a British colony. A well-known feature of the speech in Hong Kong is code-switching, i. e. , â€Å"the juxtaposition of passages of speech belonging to two different grammatical systems or sub-systems, within the same exchange† [2]. Specifically, in the case of Hong Kong, the two grammatical systems are Cantonese and English.The former serves as the ‘matrix language’, and the latter as the ‘embedded language’, resulting in Cantonese sentences with English segments such as (example taken from [3]): canteen heoi3 canteen jam2 caa4 ‘let’s go to the canteen for lunch’ Here, the English segment contains only one word (‘canteen’), but in general, it can be a whole clause. We will use the general term â₠¬Ëœcode-switching’ rather than the more specific term ‘code-mixing’, which refers to switching below the clause level, even though most English segments in our corpus indeed contain only one or two words (see Table 3).There is already a large body of literature devoted to the study of Cantonese-English code-switching from the theoretical linguistic point of view [3,4,5]. This paper investigates the motivations behind the use of mixed code, on the basis of a large dataset of speech transcribed from television programs. In Section II, we outline previous research on the motivations of code-switching, and discuss how our investigation complements theirs. In Section III, we describe our methodology for corpus construction, in particular the design of the taxonomy of code-switching motivations.In Section IV, we present an analysis of these motivations according to genre, gender and age. The first major framework for classifying codeswitching motivations in Hong Kong c onsists of two categories: ‘expedient’ and ‘orientational’ [6]. Central to this framework is the distinction between words in ‘high Cantonese’ and ‘low Cantonese’. In everyday conversations, a speaker sometimes cannot find any word from ‘low Cantonese’ to describe an object, institution or idea (e. g. , ‘application form’). Using a word from ‘high Cantonese’ (e. g. , biu2 gaak3), however, would sound too formal and therefore stylistically inappropriate.In expedient mixing, the speaker resorts to an English word; the mixing is pragmatically motivated. In contrast, orientational mixing is socially motivated. The speaker chooses to use English (e. g. , ‘barbecue’) despite the availability of equivalent words from both ‘low Cantonese’ (e. g. , siu2 je5 sik6) and ‘high Cantonese’ (e. g. , siu1 haau1), since he perceives the subject matter to be inherently more ‘western’. This dichotomy has been criticized as overly simplistic, because of the ambiguity in defining lexical and stylistic equivalents among ‘low Cantonese’, ‘high Cantonese’, and English.Instead, a four-way taxonomy is proposed: euphemism, specificity, bilingual punning, and the principle of economy [7]. This taxonomy is then further extended, in a study of code-switching in text media [8], to include quotations, doubling, identity marking, and interjection. These categories will be explained in detail in Section III. While these classification systems are comprehensive and well grounded, they do not per se convey any sense of the relative importance or distribution of the various motivations.Our goal is, first, to empirically verify the coverage of these classification systems on a large dataset of transcribed speech; and, second, to give quantitative answers to questions such as: Which kinds of motivations are the most prominent? Does t he range of motivations differ according to the speech genre, or to the speaker’s gender or age? We now turn our attention to the methodology for constructing and annotating a speech corpus for these research purposes. III. DATA A. Source Material Our corpus is constructed from television programs broadcast in Hong Kong within the last four years by Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB).The programs belong to a variety of genres, including two drama series, three current-affairs shows, a news program, and a talk show. The news program, TVB News at Six-Thirty, carries the most formal register, containing mostly pre-planned 165 978-0-7695-4886-9/12 $26. 00  © 2012 IEEE DOI 10. 1109/IALP. 2012. 10 speech by the anchor. The current-affairs shows, Tuesday Report, Sunday Report and Hong Kong Connection, are serious in tone but contain spontaneous discussions. The talk show, My Sweets, is about food and drink.It also contains spontaneous discussions, but the topics tend to be lighte r. Although pre-planned, the speech in both drama series, Moonlight Resonance and Yes Sir, Sorry Sir, is arguably the least formal in register, designed to reflect natural speech in everyday life. Details of these TV programs are presented in Table 1. Table 1: Television programs that serve as the source material of our corpus. Genre Program Length Current Tuesday Report ( ), 135 episodes affairs ), X 20 minutes Sunday Report ( Hong Kong Connection ( ) Talk 24 episodes My Sweets ( ) show X 30 minutesEuphemism: When a Cantonese word explicitly mentions something that the speaker finds embarrassing, s/he might opt for an English word that contains no such mention. For example, to avoid the female body part hung1 ‘breast’ in the word hung1 wai4 ‘bra’, the speaker might prefer to use the English ‘bra’ (all examples are taken from [7]): bra tau3 bra gaak3 gaak3 ‘A princess whose bra is visible’ Specificity: â€Å"Sometimes an English e xpression is preferred because its meaning is more general or specific compared with its near-synonymous counterparts,† [7] in either low or high Cantonese.For example, the verb ‘to book’ means ‘to make a reservation for which no money or deposit is required’, which is more specific than its closest equivalent in Cantonese, deng6 ‘to make a reservation’. It is often used in sentences such as: book ngo5 soeng2 book saam1 dim2 ‘I want to book 3 o’clock’ Principle of Economy: â€Å"An English expression may also be preferred because it is shorter and thus requires less linguistic effort compared with its Chinese/Cantonese equivalent. † [7] While the word ‘check-in’ has two syllables, its Cantonese equivalent baan6 lei5 dang1 gei1 sau2 zuk6 ‘check-in [on a plane]’ has six.The principle of economy is thus likely the reason behind mixed code such as: check-in nei5 check-in zo2 mei6 aa3 Ã¢â‚¬Ë œHave you checked in already? ’ The taxonomy in [8] builds on the one in [7], further enriching it with categories2 below: Quotation: When citing text or someone else’s speech, one often prefers to use the original code to avoid having to perform translation. An example is direct speech: â€Å"What do you think? † jau5 go3 pang4 jau5 man6 ngo5 what do you think ‘A friend asked me, â€Å"What do you think? ’ Doubling: Originally named ‘Emphasis or avoidance of repetition’ [8], it will be referred to as ‘Doubling’ [9] here to make it explicit, as this category refers to English words that are embedded alongside Cantonese words that have the same or nearly the same meaning. The purpose is to emphasize the idea or to avoid repetitions. In the following sentence, it serves as an emphasis: 2 News Drama TVB News at Six-Thirty ( ) Moonlight Resonance ( ), Yes Sir, Sorry Sir ( Sir Sir) 5 episodes X 20 minutes 4 episodes X 45 minute s B.Data Processing From the television programs listed in Table 1, all code-mixed utterances were transcribed, preserving the original languages, either Cantonese or English. Following standard practice, loan words are not considered to be mixed code; in our context, all English words (e. g. , ‘taxi’) that have been adapted into Cantonese phonology (e. g. , dik1 si2) were excluded. The TV captions corresponding to each of these utterances are also recorded as part of the corpus. These captions are in standard Chinese, rather than Cantonese.Furthermore, alignments between the Chinese word(s) in the caption and the English word(s) in the utterance are annotated. This information will be used in the classification of motivations. Finally, two kinds of metadata about the speaker are recorded: gender (male or female) and age group (teenager or adult). C. Taxonomy of Code-Switching Motivations Our goal is to quantitatively characterize the motivations behind code-switching; to this end, each English segment in the Cantonese sentences in our corpus is to be labeled with a motivation. Due to time constraint, this classification was performed only on the currentaffairs and talk shows.The ‘expedient’ vs. ‘orientational’ classification system is too coarse for our purpose. Instead, we adopted the taxonomy in [7,8] as our starting point, then introduced some new categories to accommodate our data. The categories in [7] are1: 1 A fourth category, ‘bilingual punning’, is excluded from our taxonomy. As may be expected, punning is rarer in speech, and is indeed not found in our corpus. Among these categories is ‘identity marking’, for mixed code that marks â€Å"social characteristics such as social status, education status, occupation, as well as regional affiliation. [8] We found it difficult to objectively identify this motivation, and excluded it from our taxonomy. 166 Very good very good m4 co3 aa1 Ã¢â‚¬Ë œVery good, very good! ’ Interjection: English interjections may be inserted into the Cantonese sentence. For example: Anyway anyway nei5 hou2 sai1 lei6 ak1 ‘Anyway, you are awesome! ’ A significant amount of mixed code in our corpus, however, still does not fit into any of the above categories. Most fall under one of two reasons, ‘Personal Name’ and ‘Register’.We therefore added them to our taxonomy: Register: This is roughly equivalent to the ‘expedient’ category in [6], but will be referred to as ‘Register’ in this paper to make the motivation explicit. Sometimes, the speaker cannot find any equivalent ‘low Cantonese’ word, but feels awkward to use a more formal ‘high Cantonese’ word (e. g. , paai1 deoi3 ‘party’). As a result, s/he resorts to an English equivalent instead. For example, party hoi1 ci2 laa1 ngo5 dei6 go3 party ‘Our party is starting’ Personal Name: It is common practice among Hong Kong people to adopt an English name.Although this phenomenon may be considered ‘orientational’ codemixing in terms of the ‘western’ perception [6], it is given its own category, because it is very specific and accounts for a substantial amount of our data. A typical example is: Teresa, Teresa ngo5 dei6 zing2 dak1 leng3 m4 leng3 ‘Teresa, did we make it nicely? ’ D. Annotation Procedure We thus have a total of eight categories in our taxonomy of code-switching motivations. Five of these categories – namely, ‘euphemism’, ‘quotation’, ‘doubling’, ‘interjection’, and ‘personal name’ – can usually be unambiguously discerned.The annotator, however, has often found it difficult to distinguish between ‘specificity’, ‘register’, and ‘principle of economy’. To maintain consistency, we adopted the fol lowing procedure. When an English segment does not fit into any of the five â€Å"easy† categories, the annotator is to decide whether it has the same meaning as the Chinese word in the caption to which it is aligned. If it is deemed not to have the same meaning, then it is assigned ‘specificity’. If it is equivalent in meaning, and the annotator cannot think of any equivalent in ‘low Cantonese’, then it is labeled ‘register’.Lastly, if there is a ‘low Cantonese’ equivalent, but its number of syllables is larger than that of the English segment, then the motivation is ‘principle of economy’. IV. ANALYSIS English segments in Cantonese speech (section A), then discuss the distribution of the categories of motivations, both overall and with respect to genres, genders, and age groups (section B). A. Density and Length of English Segments It is well known that English words are sprinkled rather liberally in the Canto nese speech in Hong Kong. We measure how the frequency of English segments varies across different genres.As shown in Table 2, the frequency correlates with the register of the genre (see Section III. A). In the drama series, the most colloquial genre, one and a half English words are uttered per minute on average. The talk show occupies second place, and the current affairs shows have slightly less frequent English words. In the news program, where the speech is preplanned, the anchor did not utter any English word. Table 2: The total number of Cantonese sentences containing English segments, and the total number of English words transcribed. The last column shows how often an English word is uttered.Program genre Drama Talk show Current affairs News # sent with English 219 487 1495 0 # English words 259 625 1995 0 Frequency (words/min) 1. 4 0. 87 0. 74 0 Second, we measure the length of the English segments. Table 3 shows that the vast majority of English segments contain no more than two words. Across all genres, more than 80% of the English segments consist of only one English word. This figure is comparable to the 81. 4% for text data reported in [8]. Table 3: Proportion of English segments with only one (e. g. , â€Å"canteen†) or two words (e. g. , â€Å"thank you†).Program genre Drama Current affairs Talk show One-word 85% 85% 81% Two-word 11% 11% 17% This section presents some preliminary analyses on this corpus. We first consider the frequency and length of B. Motivations for the use of mixed code A plethora of motivations have been posited for the use of mixed code in Hong Kong (see Section II). Applying our proposed classification system (see Section III. C) on our corpus of transcribed speech, we aim now to discern the relative prevalence of the various kinds of codeswitching motivations. Table 4 shows the distribution of these motivations in the current-affairs and the talk shows.Four dominant motivations – chiefly ‘reg ister’, but also ‘personal name’, ‘principle of economy’, and ‘specificity’ – are attributed to more than 95% of the English segments. This trend is the same across genres (current-affairs and talk shows), genders (see Table 6), and age groups (see Table 5). All other categories, including quotations, euphemism, doubling, and interjection, are relatively infrequent. Genres. Among the four dominant motivations, ‘register’ – the use of appropriately informal words – is the most frequent motivation in both the current-affairs and 167 talk shows.Its proportion, however, is significantly more marked (47. 4%) in the talk show than in current affairs (36. 4%), reflecting the more informal nature of the former. Table 4: Distribution of code-switching motivations, contrasted between genres. Motivation Current affairs Talk show Register 36. 4% 47. 4% Personal Name 26. 8% 24. 5% Principle of economy 19. 0% 17. 6% S pecificity 13. 2% 8. 2% Quotation 2. 1% 1. 0% Doubling 1. 4% 0. 4% Interjection 0. 9% 1. 0% Euphemism 0. 3% 0% Age groups. Table 5 contrasts the distributions of code-switching motivations between adults and teenagers in the current-affairs shows 3 .As mentioned above, the four major motivations remain constant. However, teenagers are much more likely than adults to use English words to achieve more informal register (52. 4% vs. 35. 1%). They also tend more to opt for English to save effort (23. 8% vs. 18. 6%). Somewhat surprisingly at first glance, teenagers address others in English names less often than adults (2. 4% vs. 28. 8%); it turns out that in the conversations in our corpus, teenagers often prefer to address adults with the more formal Chinese names, likely out of respect.Table 5: Distribution of code-switching motivations, contrasted between age groups. Motivation Adults Teenagers Register 35. 1% 52. 4% Personal Name 28. 8% 2. 4% Principle of economy 18. 6% 23. 8% Specif icity 13. 1% 14. 3% Quotation 1. 9% 4. 0% Doubling 1. 3% 2. 4% Interjection 0. 9% 0% Euphemism 0. 3% 0. 8% use English names to address others (32. 9% vs. 18. 9%); men, on the other hand, more frequently use English words to reduce effort (22. 9% vs. 14. 8%). V. CONCLUSIONS We have described the construction of a corpus of Cantonese-English mixed code, based on speech transcribed from television programs in Hong Kong.Drawn from more than 60 hours of speech, this corpus is among the largest of its type. A novel feature of the corpus is the annotation of the motivation behind each code-mixed utterance. Having proposed a classification system for these motivations, we applied it on our corpus, and reported differences in the use of mixed code between genres, genders and age groups. A key finding is that four main motivations – ‘register’, ‘personal name’, ‘principle of economy’, and ‘specificity’ — account for more than 95% of the embedded English segments.ACKNOWLEDGMENT This project was partially funded by a Small-Scale Research Grant from the Department of Chinese, Translation and Linguistics at City University of Hong Kong. We thank Man Chong Mak and Hiu Yan Wong for compiling the corpus and performing annotation. REFERENCES [1] K. H. Y. Chen, â€Å"The Social Distinctiveness of Two Code-mixing Styles in Hong Kong,† in Proceedings of the 4th International Symposium on Bilingualism, MA: Cascadilla Press, 2005, pp. 527541. J. Gumperz, â€Å"The sociolinguistic significance of conversational code-switching,† in RELC Journal 8(2), 1977, pp. 1—34. J.Gibbons, â€Å"Code-mixing and koineizing in the speech of students at the university of Hong Kong†, in Anthropological Linguistics 21(3), 1979, pp. 113—123. B. H. -S. Chan, â€Å"How does Cantonese-English code-mixing work? †, in Language in Hong Kong at Century’s End, M. C. Pennington (ed. ), 1998, pp. 19 1—216, Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press. D. C. S. Li, â€Å"Linguistic convergence: Impact of English on Hong Kong Cantonese,† in Asian Englishes 2(1), 1999, pp. 5—36. K. K. Luke, â€Å"Why two languages might be better than one: motivations of language mixing in Hong Kong†, in Language in Hong Kong at Century’s End, M.C. Pennington (ed. ), 1998, pp. 145—159, Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press. D. C. S. Li, â€Å"Cantonese-English code-switching research in Hong Kong: a Y2K review,† in World Englishes 19(3), 2000, pp. 305— 322. H. Cao, â€Å"Development of a Cantonese-English code-mixing speech recognition system,† PhD dissertation, Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2011. R. Appel and P. Muysken, Language contact and bilingualism. London: Arnold, 1987. [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] Table 6: Distribution of code-switching motivations, contrasted between genders.Motivation Female Male Register 37. 5% 40. 7% Personal Name 32. 9% 18. 9% Principle of economy 14. 8% 22. 9% Specificity 10. 9% 13. 2% Quotation 1. 9% 1. 7% Doubling 1. 1% 1. 3% Interjection 0. 7% 1. 1% Euphemism 0. 3% 0. 2% Genders. Finally, we investigate whether codeswitching motivations are biased according to gender. Aggregating statistics from both the current-affairs and talk shows, Table 6 compares the motivations of males and those of females. Females are shown to be more likely to 3 [7] [8] [9] The speakers in the talk show are predominantly adults. 168

Sally Hemings & Thomas Jefferson - The Scandal Essay

Sally Hemings & Thomas Jefferson - The Scandal - Essay Example Each member relies on what each knows of human nature, using common sense and the ability to reason If the assumptions seem ridiculous, throw them out, if the reasons make sense, convict. Here Jefferson will be convicted, but free from scandal. Jefferson was a man of passion and conviction, like many a good leader, and it is just these characteristics upon which he will be judged as well as the elemental conditions of the evidence available. As with any fair trial we must first presume that Thomas Jefferson is innocent before we can bring evidence against him. This presumption will lie in the testimony of his statements and those of his contemporaries. Thomas Jefferson himself never commented publicly on the issue, though some of his remarks have been interpreted as indirect denials. For example, he publicly stated his opposition to miscegenation (a word not yet coined at the time): "Their [blacks] amalgamation with the other color," he wrote, "produces a degradation to which no lover of his country, no lover of excellence in the human character, can innocently consent."1 Why would a man with these opinions ever think to "consent" to relationships outside his own race? The Jefferson Family also vehemently denies any possible impropriety on Jefferson’s part equally sighting his high moral character and his veracity. The family also states as fact that Mr. Jefferson was never geographically present at the times in which Ms. Hemings would have conceived any of her children. â€Å"Thomas Jefferson Randolph [grandson of Thomas Jefferson], holds basically that Jefferson was not at Monticello when Sally Hemings children were conceived, and that they were fathered instead by one of his nephews, either Peter or Samuel Carr.†3 However, careful studies of Jefferson Farm Book and the detailed chronology of his public life record tend to reveal otherwise (see Timeline on page ten). Also the Author of Thomas Jefferson: An Intimate History reveals

Management Appreciation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

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Comparison of Two Recovery Room Warming Methods for Hypothermla Coursework

Comparison of Two Recovery Room Warming Methods for Hypothermla Patlents Who Had Undergone Spinal Surgery - Coursework Example Highlighting the differences and the essence of the research results, findings and conclusions can also be considered to play a major role in a research article analysis. With the above information in hand, this paper will analyze the research article namely The Comparison of Two Recovery Room Warming methods for Hypothermia Patients Who Had Undergone Spinal Surgery. The key element of this research article concerns the concept of homeostasis, whereby the human body is able to maintain a relative equilibrium state under fluctuating environmental (temperature) conditions. Thus, the human body is able to regulate the body temperature with the assistance of the hypothalamus. This research article also makes a detailed study on the time needed to reach the specified temperature by the hypothermia patients who have undergone spinal surgery. The efficiency of two major warming methods such as the warm cotton blankets and a radiant warmer for the patients in a post anesthetic care unit is c ompared in the article. The analysis of this research article can be centered on the evaluation of the validity of the results which in turn depends on the research plan measurement, data collection and analysis process. Thus, the research plan measurement can be further classified into fragments such as cases, observations, variables and unit of analysis. In this article, the cases that are taken for research were of the hypothermia patients who had undergone the spinal surgery. These patients were kept under observation with respect to their body temperatures. The variables implemented in this case would be the different types of warming methods. Hence, the research had a concrete plan on which the data collection, analysis and interpretation of the results were built up effectively. The other vital area to be focused would be the data collection process. â€Å"This study was conducted according to a quasi-experimental design. Data was collected from a medical referral centre in northern Taiwan.† (Yang, Lee, Chu, Su, Ho and Fan 2). Thus, the data collection process included selecting the study samples from patient group in Taiwan, who are older than eighteen years, also who were under general anesthesia during the course of the surgery as well as those who were conscious and able to communicate. Above all, the other parameters that were included in the process of data collection were selecting the patients who had had no fever for seventy two hours before carrying out the study, had an operation time of about three to six hours, and patients who had a tympanic temperature of about 34 to 35 degrees Celsius. Thus, based on the above criteria, the sample data were collected and the effectiveness of the warming devices on these patients was studied. After the completion of the data collection process, the next step would be data analysis and arriving at conclusions and results. The basic framework of the data analysis would be to measure the efficiency of the warming equipments with respect to the rewarming time required for the patients who had undergone the spinal surgery. â€Å"The data were analyzed using SPSS version 17 software for Windows and significance level was set at p