Desert Economy Struggling To Stay Afloat Essay Example for Free

Desert Economy Struggling To Stay Afloat Essay When Americas economy fell into a recession in 2008, it took down mexico along with it. America is by far the largest buyer of Mexican products, last year alone doing $400 billion in business. The Economist article, Making The Desert Bloom, brings to light the condition that Mexicos economy is currently in, restricted by cartels, monopolies and its unfortunate situation with America. When stocks plummeted and jobs were lost in america, Mexicos economy as a whole fell by 6.1%, the northern state of Coahuila getting hit the worst with a drop of 12. 3%. Until the recession, Mexico was on schedule to have a reasonable decade but with personal income growth now at only 0.6% , some of the worst in the world, it doesnt look promising. Mexicos unemployment rate peaked at 6.4% in 2009 and is only slowly getting better. The foundation of Mexicos economy is based on its exports. With americans share of Mexicos exports falling from 89% to 78% and expecting to get worse, mexico has a problem on their hands. At the beginning of the decade, Mexico claimed the largest Latin American economy but since has been over taken by brazil with a GDP grow to more then 2 times that of Mexicos. In 2010, the murder rate was 17 out of every 100,000 people, expected to cause a 1% drop in Mexicos annual growth rate. Foreign direct investment has fall from $30 billion to just half that over the last 5 years. With so many problems limiting Mexicos potential, the country needs to get everything in order to to revive itself from the current recession. Mexico has been hit by the steepest recession of any latin american country. A recession can be explained by a significant decline in activity across the economy effecting in industrial production, employment, income and trade. Between 2008 and 2009, 700,000 jobs were lost in Mexico. In certain parts, 4 in 10 business shut down. The head of economic planning in Mexicos fiancee ministry, Miguel Messmacher, has seen a major shift in the direction of exports out of his country. Sales to latin America and asia are growing twice as fast as those to America. Mexicos largest export is the automotive industry, although its exports to America make up only 65%. Eduardo soils head of the industrys national association thinks this is a good sign because it always Mexico to establish markets in other countries, opening up more opportunities. His goal is to get it down to 50%. Others argue that Mexico can not become a commodity exporter. just because countries like china have a demand for soy beans, doesnt mean that Mexico should start growing and export this product. They believe the economic future still lies in Americas economy. They way out of the recession is to gain a bigger piece of Americas slowly growing economy.

Production Of Speech Sounds English Language Essay

Production Of Speech Sounds English Language Essay The production of speech sounds involves two essential components: initiating a flow of air in and through the vocal tract; Some method of shaping or articulating the air-stream so as to generate a specific type of sound articulation; A third component, present in most, but not all sounds phonation. Initiation Initiators: lungs in English the only initiator (in other languages also closed glottis or tongue (combined with velar closure). Lungs sponges that can fill in with the air, contained within the rib cage. The expiratory air stream is further processed to bronchi, then to trachea/windpipe and then the larynx  [1]  . The space between the vocal cords/vocal folds is the glottis. Articulation Organs participating in articulation are called articulators (above the larynx): Pharynx  [2]   a tube stretching from above the larynx, its top end is divided into two parts: One part being the back of the mouth; The other part beginning off the way through the nasal cavity. In the production of English sounds it serves mainly as a container of a volume of air that is set into vibration in accordance with the vocal folds vibration  [3]   Oral cavity plays the most important role. It is within the oral cavity that the greatest variety of articulatory motions occurs. The articulatory organs in the mouth: i/ passive the maxilla, the teeth, the alveolar ridge, the hard palate. ii/ active the jaw, the lower lip, the soft palate. The velum/soft palate raised (the airflow cannot escape through the nose) or lowered a (the air passes through the nose). The most active organ in the mouth is the tongue. The tongue: the tip (apex), the blade (dorsum) and the root (radix). The outer end of the mouth is provided with the upper and lower lip. The vibration of the vocal folds inside the larynx/voice box produces the sound of voice and this process is called phonation. The larynx is situated in the neck. It has several parts; its main structure is made of cartilage (material similar to bone but less hard). The larynx consists of four cartilages: 1 cartilago thyreoidea 2 cartilago cricoidea 3 cartilagines arytenoideae 4 epiglottis covering the entrance into the larynx Inside the larynx there are vocal folds (two thick flaps of muscle rather like a pair of lips). At the front the vocal folds are joined together and fixed to the inside of the thyroid cartilage. At the back they are attached to a pair of small cartilages called arytenoid cartilages, so that if the arytenoid cartilages move, the vocal folds will move too. The arytenoid cartilages are attached to the top of the cricoid cartilage but they can move so as to move the vocal folds apart or together. The term glottis is used to refer to the opening between the vocal folds. States of the glottis: 1. Not vibrating: 1) If the vocal folds are closely together and they part after the final phase of articulation Voiceless Plosives 2) If the vocal folds are loosely open, no vibration, no voice is produced Voiceless Fricatives and Affricates are produced. 3) If the vocal folds are held closely only in their front part, the cartilage-like part is set apart Glottal Fricative (the sound /h/) is produced. 2. Vibrating: Further narrowing of the glottis brings it into position for the production of voice. The vocal folds can be held closely together and vibrate. This produces tones /vowels. The vocal folds can be loosely together and their vibration is weak. This produces: Voiced Plosives, Affricates and Fricatives. The number of cycles of opening and closing the glottis per second is referred to as the fundamental frequency of voice (Hz). A single cycle happens in the region of 1/100th second, therefore, the cycle repeats at the rates in the region of between approximately 80-200 cycles per second. This rate is far too rapid for the human ear to be able to distinguish each individual opening /closing of the folds. However, human ear is able to perceive variations in the overall rate of vibration as changes in the pitch of the voice  [4]  . The vibration averages roughly between 200 and 300 times per second in a womans voice and about half that rate in adult men. Acoustic aspect Sound is formed by means of the vibration of air molecules and is transmitted in sound waves in all directions. The voice comes into existence on the basis of vocal folds vibration. The periodic vibration gives rise to tone, whereas aperiodic vibration results in the production of noise. The tone is characterized by three basic qualities: The pitch given by the frequency of the vibrations in cps. The pitch is in direct proportion to the number of cps and in indirect proportion to the cycles period. The intensity is the amount of energy transmitted through the air. It is related to the amplitude of vibration. The intensity is proportionate to the square of the amplitude. The timbre is given by the composition of the tone. Simple tones are non existent because any object vibrates not only as a whole but also in its individual parts. The vocal folds vibrate in such a manner that in addition to the fundamental frequency (a basic vibration over their length) they produce a number of overtones or harmonics which are simple multiples of the fundamental or first harmonic. The combination of these components makes up the acoustic spectrum. A visible recording of speech is produced by computer analysis and it refers to the following dimensions: Time / duration on the horizontal axis, given in ms Frequency on the vertical axis, given in cycles per second Intensity indicated by relative blackness of the markings. The component bands are called formants and are numbered from bottom upwards. It is the first two formants (F1 and F2) that contribute most to the distinctive character of the vowels. From articulatory point of view F1 is correlated with tongue height (the pharyngeal formant), F2 with front-to-back tongue placing (the oral formant). Auditory aspect The perception of a sound is mediated by the brain rather than by ear itself. The ear has three major functions: To collect stimuli To transmit them To analyze them. The upper limit of frequency which can be perceived is maximum 20, 000 cps. The ear is subdivided into the outer ear, the middle ear and the inner ear. The outer ear leads to the ear drum. The middle ear is a small air-filled cavity containing a chain of three tiny bones connected to the ear drum at one end and the inner ear at the other. The main part of the inner ear is the cochlea shaped like a snails shell whose function is to convert sound vibrations into nerve impulses. Speech sounds are perceived in terms of four categories (pitch, loudness, quality and length). The categories are subjective and must not be equated exactly with the related physiological and physical categories. Consonants: Plosives, Fortis Lenis The differences between vowels and consonants are in the way they are produced (vowels voices, consonants noises); vowels fulfill the role of the peak of the syllable whereas consonants fulfill the marginal function.. Classification of consonants see Chart of Consonants (P. Roach, p.62). It is customary to divide consonants into several groups according to several criteria. The most important are: According to their place of articulation According to their manner of articulation A/ Classification according to the manner of articulation: The articulators involved form a closure: /p, t, k/; /b, d, g /. The consonants produced in this way are called Stops/Plosives. The articulators involved form a narrowing (as for /f, v, s, z,  Ã¢â‚¬ ,  Ã¢â‚¬Å¾,  Ã¢â‚¬Å",  Ã… ¡, h/). The consonants produced in this way are called Fricatives. The articulators form a closure combined with a narrowing (as for t Ã¢â‚¬Å", d Ã… ¡). The consonants produced in this way are called Affricates. Plosives As for place of articulation: bilabial, apico-alveolar, velar. Plosives four phases (approach, hold, release, post-release). Distributions All the three plosives in all positions: initial, medial and final. Initial position: CV In /p, t, k/ during the transition to voiced sound the wide-open glottis takes some time to close sufficiently so that the vocal folds can start vibrating, consequently there is a period of voicelessness aspiration (puff of air). Final position: VC The syllables closed by voiceless consonants are considerably shorter than those that are open, or closed by voiced consonants. Fricatives They include /f,  Ã¢â‚¬ , s, v,  Ã¢â‚¬Å¾, z, h/. Manner of articulation: Two organs are brought and held sufficiently close together for the escaping air-stream to produce strong friction. This friction may or may not be accompanied by voice. A/ Place of articulation: /f, v/ labiodental / Ã¢â‚¬ , Ã¢â‚¬Å¾/ dental /s, z/ alveolar / Ã¢â‚¬Å",  Ã… ¡/ palato-alveolar /h/- glottal Length of the preceding sound: The value of the final /f,  Ã¢â‚¬ , s, v,  Ã¢â‚¬Å¾, z/ is determined by the length of the syllable which they close. Dental fricatives: / Ã¢â‚¬ ,  Ã¢â‚¬Å¾/ / Ã¢â‚¬ / spelling: always th distribution: word initial, word medial, word final; word initial clusters, word final clusters / Ã¢â‚¬Å¾/ spelling: always th distribution: word initial, word medial, word final; word initial clusters /d/ does not occur in initial clusters, word final clusters Manner place of articulation: The tip of the tongue makes a light contact with the edge and inner surface of the upper front teeth. With some speakers the tongue-tip may protrude through the teeth. Affricates Affricates are complex consonants, beginning as plosives and ending as fricatives (Roach). Palato-alveolar Affricates /t Ã¢â‚¬Å", d/ /t Ã¢â‚¬Å"/ when final in syllable: effect of reducing the length of the preceding sounds. Nasals Bilabial nasal /m/ Alveolar nasal: / Ã‚ ®/ Velar nasal: / Ã… ½/ (spellings: ng or n followed by a letter indicating a velar consonant: tongue, anxious) distribution: word medial: singer, hanger, anxiety; word medial + g: finger, angle, angry, hunger; word medial + k: anchor, monkey, donkey; word final: sing, wrong, tongue; word final + k: sink, rank; word final syllabic: bacon, taken, organ Roach: rules for the pronunciation of the nk and ng digraphs: in nk the /k/ is always pronounced in ng the following /g/ is pronounced in mono-morphemic words (finger, anger, linger) and in comparatives superlatives of adjectives (younger, the longest) otherwise the /g/ following the / Ã… ½/ is never pronounced!!! Laterals Articulatory features: articulated by means of a partial closure, on one or both sides of which the air-stream is able to escape through the mouth. Only one, alveolar, lateral consonant occurs in E. Within the /l/ phoneme 3 main variants occur: a/ clear /l/, with a relatively front vowel resonance, before vowels and /j/ Roach /i/ resonance b/ voiceless /l/ following accented (aspirated) /p, k/ (less considerable devoicing after /f, s,  Ã¢â‚¬ /, or weakly accented /p, t, k/) c/ dark /l/, with a relatively back vowel resonance, finally after a vowel, before a consonant, and as a syllabic sound following a consonant Roach u resonance Clear /l/ the front of the tongue is raised in the direction of the hard palate at the same time as the tip contact is made. Dark /l/ the front of the tongue somewhat depressed and the back raised in the direction of the soft palate. Approximants /r/ Distribution: word initial (red, raw), word medial, intervocalic (mirror, very), word final /r-link/ (far away, poor old man); in consonantal clusters (price, crow) Manner place of articulation: the tip of the tongue held in a position near to, but not touching, the rear part of the alveolar ridge. Lip position according to the following vowel. BBC /r/ distribution: only before a vowel. /j/ palatal /w/ labio-velar English vowels: short vowels long vowels Vowels are specified in terms of 3 parameters: vertical tongue position (high low; close half-close half-open open) horizontal tongue position (front back) lip-position (unrounded rounded) In accented syllables the so-called long vowels are fully long when they are final or in a syllable closed by a voiced consonant, but they are considerably shortened when they occur in a syllable closed by a voiceless consonant. The same considerable shortening before fortis consonants applies also to the diphthongs. Diphthongs The sequences of vocalic elements included under the term diphthong are those which form a glide within one syllable. They have a 1st element (the starting point) and a 2nd element (the point in the direction of which the glide is made). BBC diphthongs: 1st element is in the general region of / Ã¢â‚¬ °, e, a, ÊÅ  , Ɔ , Æ / 2nd element is in the general region of / Ã¢â‚¬ °, ÊÅ  , Æ / division into closing (direction towards / Ã¢â‚¬ °, ÊÅ  / and centering (direction towards /Æ /. Generalizations referring to all RP diphthongs: 1/ Most of the length and stress associated with the glide is concentrated on the 1st element, the 2nd one is only lightly sounded; in Slovak the ratio between the lengths of the two elements1:1, in English it is approximately 2:1; 2/ They are equivalent in length to long vowels and are subject to the same variations in length; in the reduced forms there is a considerable shortening of the 1st element; 3/ No diphthong occurs before /ņ¹/; Phonetics Phonology Phonetics phonology are the two linguistic sciences investigating the phonic aspect of language communication and its generalization in the minds of the language users. Phonetics investigates the phonic material of speech (the sounds). The speech sounds are analyzed from two aspects; Aspect of the speaker/producer; Hearer/receiver. The former aspect covers the activity of articulatory organs, the latter: the transmission of acoustic entities perceived by the listener and the process of decoding. According to the subject of investigation, phonetics is further subdivided into: i/ genetic/articulatory production of speech sounds ii/ acoustic transmission of sounds, acoustic characteristics of speech sounds iii/ auditory perception of speech sounds Phonology speech sounds from the aspect of their function they fulfill within a linguistic system, how they are organized into systems, how they are utilized in languages and what the relationships among them are. We can divide speech up into segments and we can find great variety in the way these segments are made (their pronunciation differs from speaker to speaker; even the same speaker never pronounces the same segment in the same way. But there is an abstract set of units as the basis of our speech; otherwise we would not be able to understand other speakers of the same language, communication among people would be impossible. These units are called phonemes, and the complete set of these units is called the phonemic system of the language. The phonemes themselves are abstract (the sound patterns stored in our mental grammar), we do not produce phonemes, we produce sounds or phones. Phonemes are the minimal sequential contrastive units of the phonology of languages, (Catford). contrastive: phonemes are contrastive in the sense that they are the bits of sound that distinguish one word from another: bit , pit: solely by the contrast between the initial consonants /p/ /b/ the two words are distinguished. The bits of sound manifesting these contrasts are phonemes. minimal: phonemes are minimal units, because if you take a stretch of speech and chop it up into a sequence of phonological units, the shortest stretch of speech sounds that functions as a contrastive unit in the buildup of the phonological forms of words is the phoneme. The phonological structure of English, like that of other languages, can be described as a hierarchy of units. The largest, or most inclusive, unit in English is the intonation contour or tone-group: Jane was here yesterday. We can chop up each tone-unit into smaller units, namely into successive rhythmic units, or feet: (the fact that these feet are contrastive, meaning differentiating units, is demonstrated by the fact that we could divide the utterance into feet differently, and this would convey a slightly different meaning). Next, we can divide each foot into still smaller chunks, namely into a sequence of syllables. Finally, we can divide up each syllable into a sequence of still smaller units and here it is necessary for us to go into phonetic transcription: At this point we can do no further chopping. We have reached the lowest rank in the phonological hierarchy, the smallest sequential; or linear units phonemes. There are no smaller meaning-differentiating units. Sequential: following in sequence. Phoneme an abstract unit operating on the level language as a system. Symbols Transcription Types of Transcription 1/i/ Phonological transcription, phonemic transcription: The choice of symbols is limited to one symbol per one phoneme. 2/ Phonetic transcription: Very detailed, each single realization of a sound is recorded. The Syllable Human beings cannot produce a sound smaller than a syllable. The syllable seems to be the essential unit of speech segmentation and speech recognition. J. Lavers definition of the phonological syllable is as follows: The syllable is a complex unit, made up of nuclear and marginal elements. Nuclear elements are vowels, and marginal elements are consonants. A/ Languages differ in syllable types: The minimum syllable V (I, Oh); CV (consonantal beginning an onset): (e.g. me) open syllable; VC (consonantal end a coda): (e.g. am) closed syllable; Some syllables have both onset and coda: (e.g. him). The most common type of syllable among the languages of the world is CV. CVC is also common among the languages of the world. English syllables: a wide variety of syllable types, both open and closed. B/ Languages also differ on constraints on the segments which can occur at the beginning or end of a syllable. No syllable in E can begin with /ņ¹/; /Ê’/ and /ÊÅ  / are rare. Almost any consonant can occur in syllable-final position, except for /h/, /j/, /w/, /r/ (only in rhotic accents). Syllable types in E: Beginning: a vowel (see the constraints above), one, two or three consonants. Ending: a vowel, one, two, three or four consonants. Syllable structures in English: Beginning: a vowel zero onset (/ÊÅ  / rare); a consonant except for /ņ¹/, /Ê’/ having an onset; two or more consonants a consonant cluster. C/ Initial two-consonant clusters: i/ pre-initial /s/ is followed by one of about 10 initial consonants (p, t, k; f; m, n; l; w, j, r); with /l, r, w, j/ a two-way analysis is possible (e.g.: slow, sky, swim); ii/ initial (p, t, k; b, d, g; f, ÆÅ ¸, s, h, v; m, n; l) followed by a post-initial /l, r, w, j/ (e.g. proud, queen, friend). D/ Initial three-consonant clusters: There is a clear relationship between the two groups: /s/ is the pre-initial /p, t, k/ are initial and /l, r, w, j/ are post-initial (e.g. split, square, strike). E/ Final consonant clusters: No final consonant means that there is no coda, i.e. it is an open syllable. One consonant means that the syllable is closed. Any consonant except for /h/, /w/, /j/, /r/ can occur in syllable-final position. F/ Two-consonant clusters: i/ pre-final (m, n, ņ¹, l, s) is followed by a final (e.g. bend, bench ask); ii/ a final consonant is followed by a post-final /s, z, t, d, ÆÅ ¸/ (e.g. fifth. asks, robbed). The post-final consonant often corresponds to a separate morpheme. Pronunciation: the release of the first plosive of a plosive + plosive cluster is usually produced without plosion and is therefore practically inaudible. G/ Final three-consonant clusters: i/ pre-final + final + post-final: (e.g. helped, twelfth); ii/ final + post-final 1 + post-final 2 (e.g. fifths, next); H/ Final four-consonant clusters: i/ pre-final + final + post-final 1 + post-final 2 (e.g. twelfths); ii/ final + post-final 1 + post-final 2 + post-final 3 (e.g. sixths). The syllable: onset + rhyme / peak + coda Difficulties encountered by foreign learners: Unknown consonant clusters: usually two strategies are applied: i/ vowels between the consonants are inserted; ii/ one of the consonants is deleted. That is simplification of the syllable structure of the E word by making it conform to the pattern of the native languages of the learners. Deletion exists in E but these deletions do not occur randomly. Stress in English The syllable or syllables which stand out from the the other szllable or szllables of a word are said to be stressed, to receive the stress. Gimson: a stressed syllable the one upon which there is relatively great breath effort and muscular energy. As for perception the stressed syllables are perceived to be more prominent because they are louder, longer, pronounced on the pitch different from that of the other syllables and they contain a vowel sound differing in its quality from neighboring vowels. The most powerful effect is produced by pitch, the length comes second, loudness and quality of the vowel sounds is less important. Types of stress: (Kenworthy): Three levels of stress: primary, secondary, tertiary are heard in long E words: i/ when said in isolation; ii/ the word is in a position in a sentence where it is very strongly stressed; iii/ full vowels are used. Placement of stress: English stress is: A/ Variable, i.e. the main stress is not tied to any particular syllable (in Slovak it has delimitative function, i.e. denotes word boundaries; in E it has distinctive function, i.e. it differentiates the meanings of words); B/ Fixed, i.e. the main stress always falls on a particular syllable in any given word; C/ Mobile, i.e. having become familiar with one form of a word, learners will assume that the stress stays on the same syllable in other forms of the word (or they will assume that prefixes and suffixes make no difference to the placement of the stress) but this is not the case of the E language (e.g. photography photographer photograph; advertising advertiser advertisement; librarianship librarian library). Word Stress Rules When considering the stress placement several factors should be taken into account: the structure of the word (whether the word in question is a simple or complex); the grammatical category of the word (noun, adjective or verb) the number of the syllables in the word; the phonological structure of the syllables. 1. The structure of the word: Simple word not consisting of more than one grammatical unit morpheme (although this is sometimes difficult to decide); Complex words two major types: i/ words made from a basic stem word with the addition of an affix (derived words) affixes: two sorts: prefixes and suffixes. They have three possible effects on word stress: the affix itself receives the primary stress (i.e. -ee, ese); the affix will not influence the placement of stress, (i.e. -ing the word will be stressed just as if the affix was not there); The stress remains on the stem, not on the affix, but it is shifted to different syllable (i.e. magnet magnetic). ii/ compound words made of two (or occasionally more) independent E words. There is no clear dividing line between two-word compounds and pairs of words that simply happen to occur together quite frequently. Spelling inconsistency: solid (one word, e.g. sunflower); words separated by a hyphen (e.g. fruit-cake, whistle-blower, cabinet-maker); two words separated by a space (e.g. coffee table, tax inspector, weather forecast). Word stress rules 2. The number of the syllables syllable structure TWO-SYLLABLE WORDS Verbs: Oo 60%. If the second syllable contains a long vowel/diphthong, or if it ends with more than one consonant the second syllable is stressed (e.g. apply, attract, achieve). If the final syllable contains a short vowel and one/no consonant or the diphthong / Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬ ¢/ the first syllable is stressed (e.g. enter, open, follow). Adjectives: follow the verbs (e.g. lovely, even, hollow, divine, correct). Nouns: Oo 90%. If the second syllable contains a short vowel, the stress will usually come on the first syllable. (e.g. table, sofa, picture). Otherwise it will be on the second syllable (e.g. estate, balloon). Adverbs, Prepositions: behave like verbs and adjectives (e.g. evenly, correctly). THREE-SYLLABLE WORDS Verbs: oOo, ooO. If the last syllable contains a short vowel and ends with not more than one consonant that syllable will be unstressed and the stress will be placed on the preceding/penultimate syllable (e.g. encounter, determine). If the last syllable contains a long vowel/diphthong, or ends with more than one consonant, that final syllable will be stressed (e.g. entertain, resurrect). Nouns: Ooo, oOo. If the final syllable contains a short vowel and the middle syllable contains a short vowel and ends with no more than one consonant, both final and middle syllables will be unstressed and the first syllable will get the stress (e.g. library). If the final consonant contains a short vowel or /Éâ„ ¢u/, it is unstressed if the middle syllable contains a long vowel/diphthong, or it ends with more than one consonant, the middle syllable will be stressed (e.g. potato, mimosa, disaster). Adjectives: follow the nouns (e.g. derelict, insolent). DERIVED WORDS Prefixes stress rules governed by the same rules as in words without prefixes. Suffixes: carrying stress themselves (e.g. -ee, -ese, -eer, -ette); not affecting the stress placement (e.g. -able, -al, -ful, -less); influencing the stress in the stem (e.g. -ive, -ic, -ion, -ious); stress on the penultimate syllable (e.g. words ending in -phy (e.g. photography); -cy (e.g. democracy); -ty (e.g. reliability); -gy (e.g. prodigy); -al (e.g. critical). COMPOUNDS Nouns: Two noun elements: the first element stressed (e.g. typewriter, suitcase, sunflower). Adjectives: Adjective + -ed: the second element is stressed (e.g. bad-tempered); first element a number: the second element is stressed (e.g. first-class, five-finger, three-wheeler) Adverbs, Verbs: usually final stressed (e.g. ill-treat, down-stream, North-East, half-timbered). Note: What a beautiful black bird! Look at that big blackbird! Stress tending to go on syllables containing a long vowel/diphthong and /or ending with more than one consonant. 3. The grammatical category of the word nouns, adjectives, verbs. Compounds nouns usually stressed on the first element (e.g. summertime, grandfather, silverware, schoolteacher, bathtub). When the second element is a polysyllabic word it retains its stress pattern, but when speaking more rapidly, the stress of the second element may be lost (the secondary stress, e.g. trade exhibition). Some compound nouns late stress exceptions: Late stress: First element material, ingredient the second element is made of (e.g. plastic cup, turkey sandwich, cherry pie). Compounds containing juice, cake take an early stress!!! (e.g. fruit juice, fruit cake, lemon juice). Names of squares and roads thoroughfares (roads for public traffic, e.g. Walnut Avenue, Cambridge Crescent, Belgrade Square, Oxford Drive). Those containing street, however, have an early stress (e.g. Baker Street). The first element identifies a place or a time (e.g. town hall, kitchen window, summer holiday, London transport, April showers). Sentence Stress In sequences (sentence, clause, discourse) not all the words are equally important, which in E is shown by means of sentence stress and sentence focus. Why is it important? As listeners, it is essential that we are able to spot points of importance in the stream of speech; As speakers, we must highlight points in our messages, or E listeners will have difficulty in interpreting what they hear, in deciding how it relates to what has just been said and predicting what the speaker is possibly leading up to. Thus sentence stress and sentence focus are vital for intelligibility. The placement of sentence stress is closely related to the function the word fulfills within a sentence. According to their function the words in E are divided into: Content words/lexical words; Grammar words/function words/structure words. The former bear the lexical meaning while the latter are structural markers, denoting grammatical categories and syntactic relations. The classes appear to have physiological and neurological validity. Some brain damaged persons have greater difficulty in using, understanding or reading content words and structure words (e.g. in inn; which witch). Content words normally carry the most of information. They generally have in connected speech the qualitative pattern of their isolate form and therefore retain some measure of qualitative prominence even when no pitch prominence is associated with them and when they are relatively unstressed. Structure words do not carry so much information. They do not have a dictionary meaning in the way we normally expect nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs to have. All structure words

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e of performance enhancing drugs in sports Performance enhancing drugs should be prohibited in all associations in sports. Not only because it dismantles the playing field for all athketes but it ruins athlete’s lives and careers in many ways. Titles can be revokes and winnings can be rejected. The side effects are horrendous and it ruins the love for the sport each true athlete participates in. Athletes think that performance enhancing drugs level out the playing field and let all of the current athletes compete on the same level. This only will make things worse than they already seem. Currently there are players who trained day in and day out, putting in hard work every hour of the day, compete on the same level, and go the extra mile for the sport they love. They all compete to be the supiroror athlete but these are the ones that are being pushed to the side and not receiving any credit for their achievements. Athletes who use performance enhancing drugs have a huge advantage over athletes who don’t. athletes who do use these drug have a gain in strength, less body fat, and better bone density . Lance Armstrong is the best Cyclist out there today. He would win race after race, tour after tour, but he only accomplished this because of the use of performance enhancing drugs. He used a drug called EPO which is an illegal transfusion of oxygenated blood cells that are put into an athlete’s body to help their blood cells stay oxygenated. This drug would take the athletes ability to perform for a long period of time to a whole knew level. This gave players, cyclist, and runners such an advantage that they could be stripped of their titles or medals received if they were caught. Oprah Winfrey interviewed lance about his use of drugs.... ...e. He stated, â€Å"My son would walk the halls and tell kids that his dad did not use drugs or his dad was clean† (Oprah and Lance Armstrong). All competitors know that using performance enhancing drugs is wrong. But some know that it helps them get a step ahead of other athletes, risking their lives, family bond, and career. Even though these drugs are very desirer able the side effect are just not worth the risk. These drugs dismantle the playing field in all sports. It is not fair to other athletes who work their butts off day in and day out to achieve greatness. These drugs are not worth the risk. It’s not worth knowing that the only way you got to the top of the game was by cheating. A saying that everyone knows is cheaters never win... so get rid of performance enhancing drugs in sports or watch the concept of sports take a huge turn for the worse in the future .

Similarities and Differences in the Two Poems, Cousin Kate and The Sedu

The two narrative poems, ‘Cousin Kate’ and ‘The Seduction’ have a number of similarities between them, such as the poems are both based on love and the misuse of women. However, the two poems are also very different in some ways. For instance, the reactions to love vary in the poems. ‘Cousin Kate’ was set in the 1860’s and ‘The Seduction’ was set in the 1970’s, therefore, the poems are set one hundred years apart from each other. It is due to this that they have many differences between them. The difference in time contributes to the language that the poems have been written in. The two poems are also set in different areas. ‘Cousin Kate is set in the rural countryside, and ‘The Seduction’ is set in an urban area. An example of a difference is the way their emotions and views on love are presented. For the reason that the poems are set in different centuries, people thought of love differently, they did have the same morals or reactions to the pregnancies. ‘Cousin Kate’ was written by a female poet called Christina Rossetti. The poem is divided into six stanzas. It consists of an abcb rhyming scheme. For instance, the poet has rhymed ‘air and fair’. The rhyming of the words allows the poem to be read fluently and in a rhythmic pattern. The poem could be sing-songed to seem more interesting to listen to. This poem consists of three main characters – the Cottage Maiden, Cousin Kate and the Great Lord. The three characters have three very diverse personalities in the poem. The poem is written in the first person, from the Cottage Maiden’s point of view, therefore, she is describing her feelings throughout the poem. On the other hand, you can only observe Cousin Kate and the Great Lord through the Cottage Maiden’s eyes and conseq... ...to live. Ultimately, as well as having their differences, the poems are very alike. They both have the same moods throughout the poem – anger, sadness and betrayal. The themes are also comparable – betrayal, respect, pain and love. However, they are different because of the way the poems have been written. ‘The Seduction’ is more like a story, going through the different stages in her life. Whereas, ‘Cousin Kate’ could be seen like a diary, the Cottage Maiden is talking about her feelings and emotions about different aspects of her life. I think that both of the poems succeed in what the poet set out to do. In ‘Cousin Kate’ I experienced the emotions the Cottage Maiden encountered. In ‘The Seduction’ I saw how inconsequential the girl’s life was to the boy. She was not ready to be a woman, but she had no choice. I felt the loneliness and betrayal she experienced.

Five Pillars of Islam Essay

What are the central beliefs of Islam, and how are they reflected in the â€Å"Five Pillars† (McInerney, 2003)? Which of the Five Pillars do you feel would be easiest to fulfill, and which would be the most challenging (McInerney, 2003)? Monotheism is one of the main central beliefs of Islam. This is the belief that there is only one God and that God is Allah. The Islam’s believe that their purpose for humanity is to only serve their God Allah and to construct a moral lifestyle. The five pillars are considered obligatory for all Muslims to follow. The five pillars can be found within the Qur’an which is Islam’s holy book. The first pillar is the shahadah. The Shahadah is the accepting that Muhammad is God’s messenger. Islamic culture believes that the prophet Muhammad is the founder of Islam’s faith. The second pillar is the daily prayers. In order to do this a Muslim must be in a state of ritual purity. One must prayer at least five times within a day. Muslims believe that doing so will bring them closer to God and they will be able to learn more about him. The third pillar is the fasting during Ramadan. Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar which is the Islamic month for fasting. Muslims have to avoid any type of drinking, eating and sexual relations from dawn until sunset. This is done in order for Muslims to learn about patience, humanity, and spirituality. The fourth pillar is called alms giving which is the giving of 2. 5 percent of one’s annual earnings to the poor and needy. Lastly, the fifth pillar is the pilgrimage to Mecca. This is a core practice and must be carried out at least once in a Muslims lifetime. The fourth pillar which consists of giving 2. percent of one’s annual pay to the poor and needy would be one of the easiest pillars for me to follow. I think everyone should do this. I’m a Christian and every Sunday that I go to church I always give to the needy whether its five dollars or two dollars that I have on me at the time. My religion believes that by giving we will receive blessings from our God. The pillar that would be difficult for me to follow would have to be pillar number three which is fasting. This would be difficult for me because I always have to be drinking water. I am also anemic and if I don’t eat after a while I tend to black out.

Choices: Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening Essay

What is happening in each poem? How do they compare and contrast? What is the main idea to both poems? The poem â€Å"The Road Not Taken† is a very sentimental poem, because it is about a choice. On the other hand, the poem â€Å"Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening† is about the choice that someone made already. In â€Å"The Road Not Taken† the person chose to take a road with an unknown ending, and is less traveled. Moreover, the writer was letting people know that sometimes taking the less traveled path makes a huge difference. The evidence I found was â€Å"I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference. (Frost, 2008)† This poem is basically about a life choice, because sometimes people comes to a fork in the road, and they have to decide which way is better for them. However, sometimes people do not make the right choice, but it’s a life lesson to be learned. In â€Å"Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening† the writer was talking about slowing down to enjoy life. Too many people try to get caught up in life, but if they would just slow down and look around they might feel relaxed and safe. The evidence that I found to make me believe this poem was are slowing down for life was â€Å"To watch his woods fill up with snow, (Frost, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, 2008)† and â€Å"The woods are lovely, dark and deep (Frost, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, 2008)†. Both poems compare to one another, because one is about making a choice while the other is about enjoying it. Those poems tones were the same sad, yet hopeful, which makes me believe the writer, Robert Frost, was a very sad person full of hope, and the desire for something grater. I would recommend those poems to teenagers up to adults, because that is when life starts taking hold, and that is when choices become.

Health Communication verses Social Marketing and allocationof Essay

Health Communication verses Social Marketing and allocationof resources - Essay Example The role of the nutritionist would be to supervise the entire nutritional portion of the program wherein the requirements as delineated by the USDA. He/she would be employed as a consultant and would plan the lunch menu on a for the week and endure the menu meets the minimal energy level of 664 kcal with a fat content of less that 30% of the total calorific content, no less than 10g of protein, 286mg of calcium, 3.5mg of iron, at lease 224 retinol equivalents of vitamin A and at lest 15mg of vitamin C. The salary for the nutritionist would be approximately $15/hour for 10 hours per week. This salary is based on the Hourly Rate Survey Report for Job: Nutritionist (PayScale, Inc. 2007). A chef would also serve as an integral part of the proposed program, the role of the chef would be such that he/she would work in collaboration with the nutritionist to ensure that the calorie and other nutritional requirements of the proposed program are met. This would be achieved through healthy culinary techniques, portion control and the close monitoring of all those involved. The chef would be an additional employee procured specifically for this program. This employee would be a part-time employee and would garner a salary of approximately $20/hour for an average of four hours per day and twenty hours per week. In addition to the nutritionist and the chef, the program would utilize a physical education/health and nutrition teacher. Currently, the department of education within each and every state utilizes physical education/health and nutrition teachers. These teachers are on staff on a full-time basis. In order to maintain the guidelines of this program, it would be necessary for these teachers to undergo specialized training in order to deliver the necessary fitness and education programs as these programs are age-specific. In addition to the age specificity, these programs are accompanied by specific guidelines