Discoveries of the (Dinosaur) Incisivosaurus Gauthier, and (Hominid) Sahelanthropus Tchadensis :: Anthropology Essays Paleontology Papers

Discoveries of the (Dinosaur) Incisivosaurus Gauthier, and (Hominid) Sahelanthropus Tchadensis In the year 2002 a bizarre looking theropod dinosaur fossil was found in China (Xu). It challenges the way researchers have been thinking of theropods and other dinosaurs for a long time. In the Sahara desert, the oldest hominid skull in the world was found that same year. These are just two of many discoveries that have challenged the way we perceive the ancient world. Incisivosaurus Gauthier was what is believed to be a primitive Oviraptorosaurian that was recently discovered in China. The Theropod and its highly specialized skull is described as a bizarre creature that lived 128 million years ago (Gee). The characteristic that â€Å"sticks out† the most are it’s rodent-like teeth. Harry Gee has described the dinosaur as â€Å"a [cross between] Roadrunner [and] Bugs Bunny† (Ibid.) and Hillary Mayell calls it a â€Å"’Weird’ Bucktoothed Dino.† (Mayell) Oviraptorosaurians are known for their specialized skulls and for being egg thieves, which is where they get their name. It was later discovered that they were more than likely near the nests not to eat the eggs but hatch them. In Mongolia there was a discovery of a fossil of a female Oviraptor shielding her nest from a sandstorm (Mayell). They are thought to have evolved in the early Cretaceous (Xu). The Cretaceous period, is the interval of time that came just after the most well known of periods in the earth’s history, the Jurassic. Xing Xu, the man who with his team found Incisivosaurus, works for Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing, China. Xu and his team believe that this find proves that not all theropods ate meat (Ibid). In an article for the National Geographic, Phillip Currie of the Royal Tyrell Museum of Paleontology in Canada says, "These teeth are totally inappropriate for eating meat. Even with the beak, we had always assumed that oviraptorosuars were still carnivorous—hawks and eagles do it quite well. But these teeth are teeth you expect to see in an herbivore† (Mayell). Researchers believe that Incisivosaurus shows a link between typical theropods and the more rare or at least bizarre Oviraptorosaurians which are more birdlike (Gee). Xu also believes that this may show a link between the Oviraptorosaurians and an herbivorous group of dinosaurs, the Therizinosaurs. Which shows that not all of them were carnivores (Mayell).

The Cycles of International Conflict Essay -- International Conflict

Wars have been waged for decades creating the world we live in today. Charles Tilly observed, â€Å"the state made war and war made the state† (qtd in Sernau, 2009, 147). However, these battles have been destructive and bloody resulting in the deaths of countless individuals. These grave consequences lead us to ask the ever problematic question, what could possibly motivate a state to engage in warfare? Fundamentally, some believe war is linked to a conflict of political and economic interests rooted in power struggles ranging from territorial and humanitarian to ideological and ethnic while others argue that war has become ingrained in our societies and economies resulting in this tenacious cycle of confrontation. Territories are the bases of states. Accordingly, Joshua Goldstein and Jon Pevehouse explain that â€Å"Most of today’s borders are the result of past wars (in which winners took territory from losers) or were imposed arbitrarily by colonizers† (Goldstein and Pevehouse, 2009, 25). Territory is precious to states and is rarely yielded voluntarily for any incentive and lost territory is not quickly forgotten (Goldstein and Pevehouse, 2009, 133). For example, disputes were the consequences of the collapse of the Ottoman Empire after World War I and the Middle Eastern region being colonized by England and France through the Sykes Picot agreement (Singh, 2003). Eventually these colonies gained their freedom but several territory disputes arose the most prominent being the Israeli-Palestinian conflict linked to the Oslo Accords (Singh, 2003). The concept of irredentism which is â€Å"The goal of regaining territory lost to another state† (Goldstein and Pevehouse, 200 9, 133) is a problematic result of this dispute with Palestinians belie... ...tions." Bint Jbeil. 1993. Web. 9 Apr. 2012. . Kent, John. "Cold War and the Periphery." History in Focus. Institute of Historical Research, 2006. Web. 9 Apr. 2012. . Nikitin, Alexander. "Political and Economic Causes of War." Proc. of 50th Pugwash Conference On Science and World Affairs: Eliminating the Causes of War, Queen's College, Cambridge. 2000. Print. Sanchez, Peter. Class Lecture. International Politics. Loyola University, Chicago, IL. 26 Mar 2012. Sernau, Scott. Global Problems: The Search for Equity, Peace, and Sustainability. Boston: Pearson/Allyn and Bacon, 2009. Print. Singh, K. G. "Treating the Symptoms Instead of the Cause." Asia Times Online. 31 July 2003. Web. 5 Apr. 2012. .

Covingtons Conviction of Serpent Handling Essay -- Biography

In Salvation on Sand Mountain, the emotional frustrations, cultural hypotheses, and literary images provide insight into the ethics of the author, Dennis Covington. During his dangerous undertakings while submerged in the religious practices of Appalachia, Covington incites anxiety within the reader when discussing worship services involving snakes, and inquisitorial thought when revealing the number of casualties involved, in turn showcasing his own passions and morality. Covington’s rectitude, goodwill, and intelligence all play important roles in revealing his ethos. Subsequently, they also exemplify his argument: No obstacle can conquer one’s religious devotion. Covington’s intellect boasts a curious ambition to solve the secrets of the Appalachia through factual data and personal inquiries. â€Å"Their first church in town burned to the ground† Covington explains, â€Å"They suspected arson, but charges were never brought†¦they moved to other locations†¦neighbors complained of the noise. Wherever the handlers relocated, tires got slashed and windows broken† (25). By presenting facts about the trouble the snake-handlers dealt with, Covington reveals how steadfast they are in their religious faith. The serpent-handlers’ strong devotion has turned into a tainted reputation for some, such as Glenn Summerford. Curious to hear Glenn’s version of why he was put in jail for ninety-nine years, Covington interviews him. When asked about his wife, Darlene, Summerford simply states that when she was â€Å"living right, she drank [poison]† (50). Faced with a lifetime sentence in a jail cell, Summerford shows no remorse, and instead criticizes his wife, whom he attempted to murder, for not living by the word of God. Glenn Summerford’s testimonial is a ... ... person, yet theirs remain unconquered. As we analyze Covington’s rhetoric, we can see the manifestation of an ethos that follows a strong ethic code, a powerful intellectual prowess, and a devoted righteousness towards the confusing, yet strong-willed worshipers of serpent handling. As Covington explains it, â€Å"There are moments when you stand on the brink of a new experience and understand that you have no choice about it. Either you walk into the experience or you turn away from it, but you know that no matter what you choose†¦there will be consequences† (2). For the followers of serpent handling, these experiences are always pursued. These consequences, such as broken windows, burning churches, murder allegations, or desperate pursuits of the Holy Ghost, all have laid the foundation for Covington’s argument, that no obstacle can conquer one’s religious devotion.

Is Global Peace an Illusion

Q. 6 Over several centuries, the collaborative goal of the world has been to attain the harmony, understanding and interdependent relationships between nations that brings peace, security and stability to the world. However, although global peace is attainable, much collaborative effort is needed to turn global peace into a reality, instead of living in a world of deception where global peace is merely a false belief. Therefore, the world aims to attain global peace via international efforts and individual contributions, to counter the problems that prevents global peace of being attained, such as due to the lack of understanding and collaboration between nations, as well as due to selfish demands and the lack of initiative from individuals to make it work. Some people may think that global peace is simply too good to be true due to the lack of collaboration and understanding between nations. As the people of different nations have their own set of ideologies and beliefs, this leads to conflicting ideologies between nations which could spark an international dispute such as in the case of the cold war which occurred between the United States of America which practiced capitalism, as well as the Soviet Union which practiced communism. This vast difference in belief thus led to conflicts between the nations, which sparked feelings of hatred and resentment between the people of the two nations. This prevented the success of efforts to call for further global peace. Additionally, differing interests of the nation could lead to violence, as well as terrorism, such as in the case of the Bali Bombings in 2005 which involved a terrorist group, Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) of Al Qaeda. They bombed specific tourist sites in Bali to display their displeasure towards people of another nation, as well as to rebel against the newly adopted democratic practice. This led to great instability within the country, as well as many people from around the world to feel dubious about the Indonesians in general. This led to an even greater segregation as well as isolation of the Malay race and Muslim religion as they were thought to be terrorists, deterring the progress of the world to achieve global peace and harmony. Secondly, the lack of individual initiative to push for greater global peace leads to the inefficiency of the world to achieve global peace. As individuals make up the largest percentage of the country, they have arguably the most influence to ensure that efforts to achieve global peace are successful. Hence, individuals are the key driving force for the achievement of global peace, and not relying solely on governmental efforts. However, as many individuals are simply pushing the responsibility to the government, global peace cannot be achieved However, commendable efforts have been made by international organizations (IGOs) and governments to make global peace a reality, which includes international governmental organizations such as the United Nations (UN) and Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Such organizations aim to promote regional and international peace and stability, and to promote active collaboration and mutual assistance between countries which would foster stronger bonds, thus promoting harmony between nations. An example is when the UN started the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) to alleviate income inequality between nations to prevent conflict between nations due to growing income disparity between the rich and the poor. On 1 December 2000, the United Nations General Assembly also adopted a resolution on the role of diamonds in fuelling conflict, breaking the link between the illicit transaction of rough diamonds and armed conflict, as a contribution to prevention and settlement of conflicts. The ASEAN-Korea Summit in 2009 also contributed to greater understanding between the countries involved, and thus helped to bridge differences. Hence, international efforts by IGOs, along with the cooperation from respective governments, are able to pave the way towards attaining global peace and harmony by promoting mutual understanding between nations which would promote the forging of strong bonds between the nations, instead of conflicts due to differences in beliefs. In conclusion, although global peace is able to be attained, it is not able to be sustained for a long period of time. Global peace is also not able to be achieved universally as efforts to call for peace are inadequate as lack sufficient support from the people in the world. Thus, the ephemeral nature of peace inevitably causes global peace to be nothing but a false belief, seemingly attainable yet out of reach.

English Consonants

RESEARCH PAPERS | 23 How Many Consonant Sounds Are There in English? How Many Consonant Sounds Are There in English? by David Deterding, National Institute of Education, Singapore †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. Most analyses agree that there are 24 consonant sounds in English. However, it is valuable to consider in some detail a few issues that affect the status of these consonants. First, we can think about why the affricates /t? / and /d / are treated as single consonants rather than sequences of two consonants. Second, one might discuss why it is that /w/ and /j/ are classified as consonants rather than vowels. Third, there is the possibility of a voiceless counterpart of /w/ that, for some speakers, differentiates which from witch. And finally, there is the question of whether the velar nasal /? / is actually an allophone of /n/. After considering these issues, most people will still conclude that there are 24 consonants in English. However, the discussion can help us gain a deeper understanding of English phonology. †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. s Introduction How many consonant sounds do you think there are in English? Of course, most of us know that there are 20 consonant letters in our alphabet (or 21 if you include ‘y’), but here we are talking about sounds, not letters. And there is a mismatch between sounds and letters: sometimes two letters combine to represent one sound, so that ‘s’ + ‘h’ combine to represent the sound /? / and ‘t’ + ‘h’ combine for /? /, and sometimes one letter is pronounced as a sequence of two sounds, as ‘x’ is usually /ks/. So the number of consonant letters in our alphabet is irrelevant when considering the number of consonant sounds (phonemes) in English. The basic answer to the original question is that there are 24 consonant sounds in English: q 6 plosives : /p b t d k / q 9 fricatives : /f v ? ? s z ? / q 2 affricates : /t? d / q 3 nasals : /m n ? / q 1 lateral-approximant : /l/ q 3 approximants : /w j r/ However, things are never quite as simple as that in the study of languages, and there are a number of issues that we might consider in more depth: q Why are /t? / and /d / regarded as single phonemes and not as sequences of two phonemes? q Why are /w/ an d /j/ regarded as consonants and not vowels? q Do those people who distinguish which from witch have one extra phoneme, / /, a voiceless equivalent of /w/? q Should /? / really be regarded as a separate phoneme? Or can it be analysed as an allophone of /n/? s The status of /t? / and /d / The two affricates are each written as a sequence of two symbols, so why do we regard them as single consonants? Why do we not, for example, analyse cheese /t? i z/ as having two consonants at the start, /t/ followed by /? /? The answer is that /t? / behaves phonologically as a single sound, even if phonetically it is rather similar to a plosive followed by a fricative. In analysing its behaviour, we need to think about the patterns of distribution of /t/ and /? (Laver, 1994:365), so we should consider what sequences of sounds can occur together, particularly at the start of a syllable. English allows quite complex syllable onsets, such as /str/ in string and /spl/ in splash, but it does not generally permit a plosive followed by a fricative, so */pf k/, */ts? / and */k p/ are not possible words of English. (In the few cases where the spelling does suggest a plosive followed by a fricative at the start of th e word, such as psychology, the plosive is actually silent. ) But note that chip /t / and check /t? ek/ are perfectly good words of English. So if we treated /t? / as a sequence of two phonemes, we would have to make a special exception to the rule that an English word cannot begin with a plosive followed by a fricative. Note that /t? / can also occur at the end of a word, as with catch /k t? / and rich /r? t? /, and there are no other instances where /? / can occur after a plosive at the end of a word, as */k k? / and */r? p? / are not possible words in English. The situation with /d / provides even stronger evidence. The consonant / / is rather rare in English, and apart from in some recent loan words such as genre / ? nr? /, beige /be? /, and rouge /ru / (all of which still sound rather foreign), / / can only occur in the middle of a word, mostly between two vowels, as in pleasure Copyright  © 2005 Singapore Tertiary English Teachers Society1, 2005 STETS Language & Communication Review, Vol. 4, No. (STETS) w 24 | David Deterding s The status of /w/ and /j/ If you say /w/ and drag it out, it sounds rather like /u /, and similarly /j/ sounds rather like /i / (Roach, 2000:64). If they sound like vowels, why do we classify /w/ and /j/ as consonants? Sometimes it is valuable to make a distinction between a contoid and a consonant: contoids are articulated with an obstruction in the vocal tract, but consonants are sounds which can occur at the edge of a syllable (Laver, 1994:147-8). In other words, contoid is a phonetic term which describes the articulation of a sound, while consonant is a phonological term which describes its behaviour within a syllable. From the phonetic perspective of articulation, we find that plosives, fricatives, nasals, and the lateral approximant /l/ are all contoids, because they all involve a constriction in the vocal tract, but /j/ and /w/ (and maybe /r/ as well) are not contoids. But now we should consider phonological behaviour and thereby determine which sounds should be classified as consonants. Let us think about what can occur before /et/ to create a monosyllabic English word. We have words such as bet /bet/, pet /pet/, set /set/, net /net/, and debt /det/, but not */? t/ or */ et/, so we regard /b p s n d/ as consonants because they occur at the edge of a syllable, but /? / are vowels. However, note that we can also have wet /wet/ and yet /jet/. This confirms that /w/ and /j/ are consonants. In one other aspect of behaviour, we can consider the distribution of the indefinite articles a and an: a occurs before consonants, while an occurs before vowels, and this depends on the pronunciation and not the spelling, so it is an hour not *a hour because /a / begins with a vowel (the ‘h’ is silent). But note that we have a waste and a year, not *an waste and *an year, and notice that once more this is based on pronunciation and not on spelling, as it is a university (which begins with /j/) and not *an university. So again we see that /w/ and /j/ behave as consonants, not as vowels (Roach, 2000:64). s The status of /? / In standard phonemic analysis, we assume that if the occurrence of a sound can be predicted from the surrounding sounds, it is regarded as an allophone and not as a phoneme. So, for example, we treat [ ], the dark /l/ sound that occurs at the end of a word such as fill, as an allophone of /l/ because we can specify that it only occurs in the coda of a syllable (or as a syllabic consonant in words such as bottle), unlike its clear counterpart which occurs before a vowel. So what about /? /? Note that /? / can also only appear in the coda of a syllable, and furthermore we can predict that /? / rather than /n/ will always occur before another velar sound, such as in bank /b ? k/ and anger / ? ?/. So should /? / be regarded as an allophone of /n/ (and then be written as [? rather than /? /)? The crucial test for a phoneme is the existence of a minimal pair: if there are two words which only differ with respect to one sound distinction, then we know that we have two separate phonemes. For example, we know that /f/ and /v/ are different phonemes of English because of the existence of the minimal pair fan /f n/ and van /v n/ where the only difference is in the initial consonant, and similarly the difference in the final sound of back /b k/ and bag /b / establishes /k/ and / / as separate phonemes of English. On this basis, we can be confident that /n/ and /? / are different phonemes, because we have many minimal pairs such as sin /s? n/ and sing /s /, and also ran /r n/ and rang /r ? /. This would seem to be the end of the story, but of course it is not. s The possibility of / / Do you make a distinction between which and witch? For most speakers, these two words are homophones as they are both pronounced as /w? t? /, though many Americans do make a distinction (Wells, 1982:126), and most Copyright  © 2005 Singapore Tertiary English Teachers Society (STETS) w w w /ple ? / and measure /me ? /. But notice that jet /d et/ and barge /b? d / are perfectly good words in English. So if we were to regard /d / as a sequence of two separate sounds, we would have to say that / / can only occur near the start or at the end of a word if it is preceded by /d/, which would be rather strange. So the claim that /t? / and /d / are single sounds in English is well-founded, because they behave phonologica lly like single sounds in the structure of English words. However, one might note that Ladefoged (2001:27) does treat both these English affricates as sequences of two sounds, partly because his emphasis is rather more on phonetics than on the phonological structure of English. Scottish speakers also do (Wells, 1982:408). Indeed, it was once normal for all speakers of English to make this distinction, but by the end of the eighteenth century even educated southern speakers no longer maintained it (Mugglestone, 2003:132). For speakers who retain this distinction, it might be necessary to include an extra phoneme, with / / representing the voiceless counterpart of /w/, so that which is / ? ? / while witch is /w? t? / However, even here the analysis is not so simple. Historically, this sound was a consonant cluster /hw/, parallel to other clusters beginning with /h/, such as /hr/, /hn/ and /hl/ (Cruttenden, 2001:215). These others have now disappeared, so apart from the possibility of /hw/, the only remaining consonant cluster involving /h/ is /hj/ in words such as huge /hju d / and human /hju m? n/. And even the status of this is doubtful, as one might alternatively regard /ju / as a diphthong (Deterding, 2004). So, from a historical perspective, / / might be treated as /hw/. But from a synchronic perspective, we should note that the contrast between / / and /w/ is parallel to the contrast between many pairs of consonants in English, such as /t/ and /d/, /s/ and /? /, and /f/ and /v/. The fact that the voiceless/voiced contrast is wellestablished in English lends support to the treatment of / / as a phoneme in its own right. We might therefore conclude that some speakers do have this extra phoneme. w v w v How Many Consonant Sounds Are There in English? | 25 so it’s fun being with them [F9-f:40] In fact, extra velar plosives also occasionally get inserted at the end of words such as selling, studying and young in relatively informal Singapore data (Lim & Deterding, 2005), as shown in the following examples also from the NIECSSE corpus: selling um decorative stuff [iF9-c:83] that I was studying †¦ this [iF9-c:238] when we were young †¦ we used to erm [iF10-e:180] If a velar plosive gets inserted occasionally after /? /, maybe we should analyse it as present in the underlying representation of the word, and then instead of saying that it sometimes gets inserted, we should state that it sometimes fails to get deleted. And if this is the case, s Conclusion It is still basically true that there are 24 consonants in English, though it may under some circumstances be possible to regard /t? / and /d / as sequences of two sounds, some speakers may have an extra phoneme / /, and the status of /? / is questionable. Even though we can conclude that there are 24 consonants in English, consideration of some of the issues regarding the phonological analysis of English can give us a deeper understanding of he structure of the sound system of the language. STETS Language & Communication Review, Vol. 4, No. 1, 2005 w v v An alternative possibility is to say that words like sing have a silent / / at the end, and this silent / / gets deleted when it occurs at the end of a word (Roach, 2000:68). In fact, for some speakers of English, this deletion rule does not apply and sing is pronounced as [s ] (Roach, 2000:67), so clearly for speakers such as this, we should analyse [? ] as an allophone of /n/. Furthermore, in careful pronunciation, some speakers insert a velar plosive at the end of words such as being, and this can occur in Singapore English (Setter & Deterding, 2003) as is evident from the following utterance from the NIECSSE corpus (Deterding & Low, 2001): then the distribution of [? ] is entirely predictable, so it is an allophone and not a phoneme. Finally we might note that words such as long /l /, strong /str / and young /j ? / have no final / /, but there is a / / when a comparative suffix is added: longer /l ?/, stronger /str ?/, younger /j ? ?/. So this seems to lend further support to the possible existence in the base form of these words of a final / / which gets deleted in some circumstances. (But note that there is no / / with the –ing suffix or the agentive –er suffix: singing /s / and singer /s /; not */s / and */s ?/. ) In conclusion, we can say that, on the basis of minimal pairs, /? / is generally regarded as a phoneme of English, but that there are some counter-arguments which raise a few questions about its status. 26 | David Deterding REFERENCES Deterding, D. (2004). How many vowel sounds are there in English? STETS Language & Communication Review, 19(10): 19-21. Deterding, D. & Low, E. L. (2001). The NIE corpus of spoken Singapore English (NIECSSE). SAAL Quarterly, 56: 2–5. Ladefoged, P. (2001). A course in phonetics (4th edition). Fort Worth: Harcourt College Publishers. Laver, J. (1994). Principles of phonetics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Lim, S. H. & Deterding, D. (2005). Added final plosives in Singapore English. In D. Deterding, A. Brown and E. L. Low (Eds. ), English in Singapore: Phonetic research on a corpus, pp. 37-42. Singapore: McGraw Hill. Mugglestone, L. 2003). ‘Talking proper’: The rise of accent as a social symbol (2nd edition). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Roach, P. (2000). English phonetics and phonology: A practical course (3rd edition). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Setter, J. & Deterding, D. (2003, August). Extra final consonants in the English of Hong Kong and Singapore. Paper presented at the International Conference of Ph onetic Sciences, Barcelona. Wells, J. (1982). Accents of English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Copyright  © 2005 Singapore Tertiary English Teachers Society (STETS)

My reaction to Dante’s Inferno Essay

While I was looking back through all the freewrites I had written about Dante’s The Divine Comedy I realized how much I had really progressed in my understanding of the poem itself, and in doing so had really been given a whole new view on religion and spirituality. The freewrite that showed this growth to me the most was the second one we had written after reading Canto’s III and IV. I had a rather strong reaction to the ideas presented to me within those sections that dealt with the concept of Limbo. That reaction brought on somewhat of a domino effect, bringing up even larger issues for me that had to do with my views on Christianity and the assumptions I made about it. Through further reading and class discussions I was able to start looking The Divine Comedy with a whole new angle, allowing me to grasp Dante’s message of being responsible for your actions so that you can be in control of your own fate. Limbo was making little sense to me. I could not comprehend how God could let these worthy souls, especially Virgil, not go up to heaven just because of certain technicalities that were beyond their control, such as not living in a time of Christianity or living in a culture that was not Christian. Or being held up because of something as small as not being baptised. It seemed so arbitrary to me that God could get so hung up on these details and punish those souls by not permitting them to go to heaven even though they seemed to deserve it. I am really not religious at all, and I have a lot of my own views about the afterlife and God. Realizing that my values are probably different than the average Christian, I adopted what I think of as the â€Å"normal† Christian view when I go into anything that deals with religion. That view, to be simplistic about it, is that we go through life, and when we die, God either rewards or punishes us for the life we led by sending us to heaven or hell. So when I began reading The Divine Comedy, I was trying to apply that overly simplistic view to the poem, and it led to a lot of confusion for me. I had to overcome my assumption that God was the judgemental ruler and determiner of all things and realize that Dante wants us to understand that we have all the control over our fate because we have the power to choose right from wrong in any situation. In this poem, it’s a matter of making the right  decisions and doing the right things to lead a life of God, or its choosing to do the wrong thing, therefore giving your self a hellish existence. Dante gives us the idea that God is eternally forgiving and accepting of us. Therefore the people we see suffering so horribly all throughout the Inferno have made the decision to be there. None of them ever ask to get out. They are quite literally still choosing to be in hell because they refuse to see the evil in their decisions. You can’t feel sorry for any of them because of this. It gives it a certain level of deservidness when you read of all the tortures going on in the Inferno. That I think really explains the idea of contrapasso. You get what you deserve. This is seen in every level of hell, it is what the Inferno is based upon, it is the physical punishment that fits the sin. Like in the seventh circle, for example, tyrants and murderers are immersed in a boiling river of blood. Or in the first ring of the ninth circle, traitors are immersed in ice with their heads bent down. Dante feels that they chose to sin, and now they are paying for it. They choose to be there by not recognizing their responsibility to do the right thing. I think it is really hard for anyone to read about the suffering in hell and not feel some sympathy for those who are going through it, whether they are choosing it or not. I think it should be understood that Dante was not being literal about it all. Contrapasso is something that I think is supposed to be somewhat amusing to think about and can create some gratifying mental images for one’s imagination, but to have people actually suffering I think it feels a bit harsh. Hell in The Divine Comedy I think is mainly used for allegorical purposes, and contrapasso accomplishes that. He was writing a poem, an entertaining one at that, and I highly doubt he was trying to show us what the afterlife was really like. What I do think he was trying to do was tell us that we have the power to choose right from wrong, and based upon that we can decide our own fate. I feel that anyone can find some solice in that idea, whether you are Christian or not. Limbo is still probably the hardest concept for me to accept, but I do know that before I just thought it was really unjust of God to hold back  worthy people, whereas now I understand that it is really a bit more complicated then that. Based on how every other level of hell works in The Divine Comedy, I might say that God really doesn’t have much to do with keeping them there, it has more to do with them keeping themselves there. Or perhaps Limbo is just an exception to that rule. It’s hard to say. But by realizing how simplistic I thought the â€Å"normal† Christian view was, I think I’ve gained a lot in understanding that the views of Christianity can be seen in a multitude of ways. It would certainly be unfair of me to continue to assume I know how anyone, Christian or not, views the afterlife and God.

Buddhism is the reality

Emptiness in ‘Buddhism† is the reality of the existence of ourselves, and all the phenomena around us. According to the Buddhist point of view, seeking reality and seeking liberation amount to the same thing. The person who doesn't want to seek reality doesn't really want to seek liberation. If you have to look for it outside yourself, in another place, then you are mistaken. You cannot seek reality outside yourself because you are reality. Perhaps you think that your life, your reality was made by society, by your friends?If you think that way you are far from reality. if you think that your existence, your life was made by somebody else it means that you are not taking the responsibility to understand reality. You have to see that your attitudes, your view of the world, of your experiences, of your girlfriend or boyfriend, of your own self, are all the interpretation of your own mind, your own imagination. They are your own projection, your mind literally made them up. If you don't understand this then you have very little chance of understanding emptiness.You cannot seek reality outside yourself because you are reality. Perhaps you think that your life, your reality was made by society, by your friends? If you think that way you are far from reality. if you think that your existence, your life was made by somebody else it means that you are not taking the responsibility to understand reality. A basic doctrinal assertion in the Buddhist tradition states that Buddhism or â€Å"no self† means that no permanent identity comtinues from one period of time to the next.This according to them is not a pessimistic point of view but rather a simple realistic acceptance of the constantly changing human personality and all of reality as well. They understand that if everything changes, then it is possible for everything on earth to become new. If they grasp fully the essence of â€Å"emptiness†, then it would be possible to face even the toughes t situations in life with a feeling of lightness and peace of mind. With this in mind, one can begin to understand what it means for a Buddhist to cross out the word â€Å"I†.Buddhists can begin to erase this word by reallizing that there is no permanent self to hold onto or protect. Furthermore, emptiness is a mode of perception, a way of looking at experience. It does not add or subtract anything from the actual data of physical and mental events. It is looking at the incidents or happenings in the mind and the senses without any thought of whether there’s anything lying behind them. In this mode one does not act or react to any events that transpire which would mean a deeper involvement thus complicating the matter.To master the emptiness mode of perception requires firm training in virtue, concentration and discernment. Without this training, the mind stays in the mode that keeps creating stories and world views. And from the perspective of that mode, the teaching of emptiness sounds simply like another story or world view with new ground rules. It seems to be saying that the world doesn’t really exist,or else that emptiness is the great undifferentiated ground of being from which we all came and to which someday we will all return. QUESTION # 2Snyder’s poetry has the grandeur and detail of nature, and the mental disciplines of Zen Buddhism. He writes I the first person, as individual in the wilderness, but the beauty and glory of the wilderness allows that individual the status of a common man. For Snyder, symbol and metaphor cause a distancing from the thing itself,the thing itself is at least enough. Love and respect for the primitive tribe, honour accorded the Earth, the escape from city and industry into both the past and the possible, contemplation, the communal, peace, and the ascetic.There is not much wilderness left to destroy, and the nature in the mind is being logged and burned off. Industrial-urban society is not â €Å"evil† ut there is no progress either. (quoted in David Kherdian, Six San Francisco Poets, Fresno, Calif. , 1969). â€Å"Wild Mind† according to Gary means elegantly self-disciplined, self-regulating. In wilderness nobody has a management plan for it. Care for the environment is like noblesse oblige. You don’t do it because it has to be done. You do it because its beautiful. You are not being anxious to do good, or feels obligation or anything like that.In â€Å"The Practice of the Wild† Gary introduced a pair of distinctive ideas to our vocabulary of ecological inquiry. Grounded in a lifetime of nature and wilderness observation, Snyder offered the â€Å"etiquette of freedom† and â€Å"practice of the wild† as root prescriptions for the global crisis. Informed by East-West poetics, land and wilderness issues, anthropology, benevolent Buddhism, and Snyder’s long years of familiarity with the bush and high mountain places, these pri nciples point to the essential and life-sustaining relationship between place and psyche.To Snyder, value also translates as responsibility. Within his approach to digging in and committing to a place is the acceptance of responsible stewardship. Snyder maintains that it is through this engaged sense of effort and practice-participating in what he salutes as â€Å"the tiresome but tangible work of school boards, county supervisors, local foresters, local politics†-that we find our real community, our real culture.Many of Snyder's original arguments addressing pollution and our addiction to consumption have by now become mainstream: reduced fossil fuel dependence, recycling, responsible resource harvesting. Others remain works-in-progress: effective soil conservation, economics as a â€Å"small subbranch of ecology,† learning to â€Å"break the habit of acquiring unnecessary possessions,† division by natural and cultural boundaries rather than arbitrary political boundaries.As an ecological philosopher, Snyder's role has been to point out first the problems, and then the hard medicine that must be swallowed. Snyder has become synonymous with integrity-a good beginning place if your wilderness poetics honor â€Å"clean-running rivers; the presence of pelican and osprey and gray whale in our lives; salmon and trout in our streams; unmuddied language and good dreams. † From The Oxford Companion to Twentieth-century Poetry in English. Ed. Ian Hamilton. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994. Copyright  © 1994 by Oxford University Press