The Brig

  The first issue raised in the text is the issue of how more people speak English as a second language than Americans that speak it at all. According to the text, “There are probably more people in China who speak English as a second language than there are Americans who speak it as their first.” This, at first glance, doesn't seem like a problem. But upon further examination and pondering, you can see how that could mean the loss of English as a first language. As China begins to dominate the business side of the world and puts a strong foothold in the internet, more people will start to speak Mandarin than English The loss of English is already beginning to be seen in America. According to the text, “A fifth of Americans speak a language other than English in their own homes.” America’s cultural influence can be seen around the world so seeing this shift in language is puzzling. However, if fewer Americans speak English, it may mean that it isn’t seen as the world's comm...

  Firstly, let’s talk about how Raina exhibits the first few stages of early development in child language acquisition. Raina displays very holophrastic language. One word, immaturely expressed sentences such as “WHY, WHY?”  are perfect examples of this. She also doesn’t use sentences that describe anything in detail and instead just tells the person to look in a direction which is part of the holophrastic stage and is common for her age group. Secondly, let’s talk about the different linguistic functions Raina exhibits in her speech. She exhibits the Regulatory and instrumental functions of language. She exhibits Regulatory function through statements like “look (.) this way (.) i'm going to (.) go over here” This is regulatory because she is trying to get her mother to look a certain way. She also displays the Instrumental function. She does this through saying “... can we go in this field” I also noticed that the Imitation and Reinforcement Theory was backed through ...

  Richard Branson is the owner of the Virgin Group which has over 400 companies under its umbrella. Some of his most successful companies include Virgin Galactic (commercial space travel), Virgin Hotels, Virgin Casino, and Virgin Wines.  As a successful person does as they get older, he did some introspection and wrote this open letter; hence, its form is a letter. It contains a greeting to the reader “Dear Stranger,” and ends with “Happy Regards, Richard Branson.” These two features indicate to the reader that this piece will be more personal since it is a letter; however, it will not be personalized to the reader since it is written to a “Stranger.” The other telltale sign of a letter is its first person point of view. Branson wrote the letter this way so that the reader feels more connected to him. This allows the reader to truly understand the message of happiness Branson is trying to convey.  A great example of this in the letter is in the first sentence, “You don’t...

  Dear President Macron, In light of recent events regarding the Notre-Dame Cathedral I feel the need to inform you about another blaze raging on the other side of the world from your cathedral. This blaze burns at a rate of roughly two football fields per minute. This blaze is ripping its way through the Amazon Rainforest. The Rainforest is vital to the survival of the planet due to the fact that it is responsible for producing roughly twenty percent of the Earth’s oxygen. Without this forest, we essentially wouldn’t be able to breathe as easily as we do now. The most dangerous part of this fire is that people barely know about it. The world knew that Notre-Dame was burning mere minutes after the first ember went alight, it’s been three weeks since the fire in the Amazon began and the majority of America has no idea that their southern hemisphere neighbor is aflame. Furthermore, the vast majority of Europeans don’t know much about the Amazon or its smoldering state. I write to y...

  The English language has existed for about 2500 years.  In that time, it  has undergone some minuscule and gargantuan alterations. These revisions can be seen in as small of time frames as from the 1800s to present day (which isn’t a very long time in the grand scheme of things). Through analyzing n-grams and collocates, and comparing writings from the 1800s to present day, one can see how time and history forge the language we speak and write today.  Author Edward Berens wrote a text called Advice to a Young Man upon First Going to Oxford : In Ten Letters, From an Uncle to his Nephew wherein he wrote ten letters each giving advice about how to behave, what to do, and essentially how to be an “Oxford Man” to his nephew who presumably was going to study at Oxford College. Berens was a Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford and therefore came from a platform of experience from which his nephew could appreciate. He published the letters in 1832 and have since then been reno...

  The Forest “Hey, Marshall!” Cody exclaimed. “Let’s go, man!”  They were running behind schedule this morning, they meant to be on the road by 8… it was 9:30 a.m.  “I’m coming! Just have to grab my hoodie.” Marshall raced to his truck. Before opening the door, he took a glance at it. “Dang, I’m good,” he mumbled to himself.  Marshall was a mechanic and restored his 1973 Chevy after buying it from a junkyard. He opened the door and grabbed his favorite olive hoodie from the seat.  “‘Bout time!” Cody said.  “Yeah, yeah. You remembered your boots this time, right?” Marshall poked back.  “Yeah, I got ‘em.” Cody fired up his truck, which Marshall fixed up and gifted to Cody, and they finally started down the road. It was a long, beautiful drive to the trailhead.  “Hey, did ya hear about the funny stories goin’ ‘round town about this trail?” Cody asked. “Nope, I’ve been nose to the grindstone recently,” Marshall responded. “Aww, man! The old timers are...