English Language and Cultural Homogenization

English Language and Cultural Homogenization Abstract In this paper, I will look at the subject matter of English language and the relative importance it stages in the sphere of globalization and cultural homogenization. The usage of English language has intensified the ongoing process of the modern communicative world amidst the impact of socio-cultural globalization. Its competency in the global scenario is highly sought in communication as also in occupying better positions in the market economy as an inter-linkage of understanding between two or more countries that inhabit cultural attachment of ones own language. However English language is criticized on account of heterogeneity that exists in the world countries which often provoke conflicts, along with the varying cultural settings through different practices and physical characteristics, and for which language is one that define their cultural background. Despite the fact that English language being the most influential panorama in the global language field, especially on the so cio-cultural aspect, it has been argued that its impact has devalued certain cultural norms and practices which is meant to have a negative impact on the language and culture of certain countries, especially of those colonized countries and the non-English speaking cultures. Nevertheless English language has a great impact on how people view themselves and others in the diversity of cultural background and within ones own cultural milieu. Furthermore, English language and its mode of education have a greater impact on our culture and relevant understandings. Despite being critiqued in many aspects, it establishes a dominant feature in the process of globalization with the subsequent effect it has on the socio- cultural exchange and learning. Introduction Language is one of the most important tools that greatly distinguish the capacity of human beings, placing humans at the top of the evolutionary ladder (Neuliep 2006: 246). Anthropologist and linguist like Edward Sapir argued that the language of a culture has an impact on the people belonging to that particular area on how they think, how they perceive the world around them, how they view their natural and social environments; Similarly, Whorf also stress on the idea that the languages of the people determine different types of observations that helps perceive the world differently (Ibid.). This led to the Sapir- Whorf Hypothesis that rests on two principles- the principle of linguistic determinism which believes that what one thinks depends on what language one speaks and the principle of linguistic relativity which determines that the different views of the world as seen by the speakers are based on the different languages they belong to. While there are linguists who believe that the language of the people is determined by the vocabulary and the grammar structure that corresponds to the nonverbal culture depending on the geographic, climatic, kinesic, spatial, and proxemic aspects of culture that shows itself to the cultures language (Ibid.246-248). On one hand, the varied forms of vocabulary and the meanings attached to the language is a form of culture and as such language and culture are inextricably linked; while on the other hand, a groups language defines their cultural group and cultural identity that enable social bonds stronger  [1]  . Language make possible, people belonging to different cultures, to communicate effectively that are in a way enriching ones personal and professional connectivity. It is an important tool for a knowledge based skills attitudes which incorporate ideas, customs, habits, and values that enable oneself to participate in the local and international subjects, while enriching ones personal and professional life  [2]  that characterize its impact in the process of the socio-cultural globalization. Language determines the historical tradition of people and their respective culture that are rooted in their attitudes and behavior through varied form (Ibid) In the domain of socio-cultural perspectives, Waters (1995: 3) defines globalization as a social process in which the constraints of geography on social and cultural arrangements recede and in which people become increasingly aware that they are receding (in Sengupta 2000: 3140). Certain terms that attributes to the global culture effects are Westernization, Mcdonalisation or Cocacolonization which are much talked about in the discourse of globalization, to which Westernization draws much of its critique on account of the relative effects that draws upon the rest of the world as much as cultural diffusion is concerned (Ibid.). In addition, those factors that influence the process of globalization are met through symbols of values, preferences and tastes, and not through economic materials and political power exchanges (Ibid. 3141). In the domain of establishing English language as a global practice, Britain and United States seem to have an upper hand because of its strong political and economic power for the past two centuries. The use of English Language in the fields varying from publishing, science, technology, commerce, diplomacy, air-traffic control and popular music, are drawn mostly by the aforesaid countries to forming a well known world language more popularly  [3]   English Language in the Globalization era . In the earlier times, there was an indication with regard to English as a world language, i.e., The International Herald Tribune, the former New York Herald Tribune described as The worlds daily newspaper (Phillipson 2001: 188-89). English language is perhaps the most well known language in the world spoken by native as well non-native speakers. Globalization is the buzzword the world is talking about and there are extensive literatures that relate to it but there is not much literature that specifically relates to globalization and the English language as much as the study on the global English is concerned (Ibid.). English competency is regarded as an essential tool for survival in the era of globalization, which is predominantly used in the computers when the world is largely interpreted through it  [4]  . The language of English is very popular worldwide that it has an immense role in specifying the dominance of communicators in the present globalization times that affects socio-cultural identities. The language of English is also a central part in the dominance of international politics and commerce  [5]  while also in the military links  [6]  and culture  [7]  (Phillipson 2001: 187). In the European Union too, there is much visibility on English being its dominant language, while in the central Europe the knowledge of English language is now a basic skill for a modern adaptability just like any other skills like driving a car or using a computer  [8]  . It is therefore acknowledgeable that English language is regarded as an international language that enable people to understand the ways of the world better and even communicate more smoothly  [9]  . It enables people belonging to different cultural background to come closer and to understand each other better through the communicative mode of interaction. English language is now regarded as the dominant language in the world, more popular than French because the latter is seen to be losing its ground of priority in its studies and in the everyday usage  [10]  . Further, Arnold (2006) stresses on issues as to how in the global world the English language implicates the non-English speaking culture or countries to construct itself to a form a global culture, while denoting that the globalization effect on socio cultural aspect is also caused by the colonization influences and power. Then there are instances where, about 6000-7000 spoken languages and many more sign languages and hundreds of languages across the national borders, in addition to the role of the monolingual speaking nation states that greatly affected the marketing systems and the consequent threatening affects caused by globalization (Phillipson 2001: 188-89). Critical aspects of English Language in the globalization era There are a lot of controversial issues as much as the conceptualization on English as the global language is concerned. Even though the language has marked its potency as an essentially standardized form in the speaking languages of the world, it has been critiqued for its limitations because it cannot be applied to every country or speaking communities in the world. Phillipson (2001) mentions that majority of the worlds citizens do not speak English, whether as a mother tongue or as a second or foreign language and as such, urges upon scholars to analyze things in this particular matter as to whether the English language really do serve the need of the citizens in the world or, if its use serve the better of everyone in the world if it is being considered as the world language. A lot of decisions that affect the worlds population are taken in English including the educational academics and including the scholars , and as such it is questionable as to whether it serves the interests of people in the world or whose interests does it actually serve? (Ibid.189). In addition, the colonial legacy in India is considered as capturing not only the regions economy and territory but in conquering minds that further states that the educational policy of the British was based to create A class of persons, Indians in blood and colour, English in taste, in opinion, in morals and in intellect (Ibid. 189). Likewise, we can find the dominance of the English language at every educational institutions and universities, as also of the distance educational policies and purposes. On critiquing the diffusion and domination of the English language, it entails that the promotion of one language (English) and one culture (the USAs) at the expense of others through linguistic imperialism with a system of production and ideologies brings about an economically expansionist and exploitative world order, while Agnihotri and Khanna (1997) argue for a need to shift language planning paradigms so that English would sustain and not destroy the multi-lingual ethos of India (Ibid. 193). While there is a prominent diffusion especially on the part of English language spreading throughout the world, it is also important to preserve ones language that incorporates its cultural settings. On account of this, it well known that apart from ones mother tongue there are numerous people who speak English which has an enormous effect on ones identity. In this regard, it has been argued that the cultural attachments in a language dies once there is a prominent and constant use of English while the local one diminishes, and as such, there is a need to stress to preserve linguistic diversity so that ones culture be prevailed (Arnold 2006) In the process of globalization, the World Bank also retains the usage and role of English as the pioneer of educational policy along with other transnational corporations including the European Union (EU), while there are certain corporations that aid and provide funding projects  [11]  in order to upgrade their business for the purpose of English and likewise, making use of English education for business purpose (Phillipson 2001: 190-92). David Blunkett, the British Minister for Education and Employment alleged that they make use of English language as a tool for economic development and competency, while they also intends to expand their culture overseas from the viewpoint of cultural globalization (Ibid.). With the globalization as the spark of the various ongoing factors between the world countries, even the usage of the present Information Technology (IT) characterizes English as the e-language of the world. English language being supposedly the language of electronic globalization at the present world was also the language of geographic globalization in the earlier times which has an impact on the related cultural imperialism (Arnold 2006: 2). This effect that it has on the colonized countries and their relative cultures is understood to have a negative impact as far as preserving ones original identity and culture is concerned. In this connection, it has been critiqued that English language as global language destructs the non-English speaking communities  [12]  , which is understood to be affecting their local cultures lives. It is therefore assumed that considering English language as a global form of language will be like one world: one dictionary or questions if it could al so mean one world: one language?  [13]   The British culture is considered as the most dominant in the cultural imperialism effect, as also because of the fact that it has influenced the culture of the world education that lines through Africa, America, Asia, and Australia; it has enabled to form a sort of community different  [14]  from its own cultural background (Ibid. 3). Hence, the English language is criticized on the base that it has led to a devalued form of our own languages in the community practices that involves our customs and beliefs, laws and preferred form of lives, which in turn has made our culture strayed from its original belonging. Nevertheless, the English language is considered as the strongest of all global influences as far as the diffusion of languages are concerned (Ibid.). The imperialistic attitude of English language in the globalization process is also seen at the two theories namely Exploitation Theory which is the imperialistic form of approach and the Grassroots Theory that takes a neut ral role in the cross border communication process  [15]   Impact of English Language on globalization and cultural homogenization After the II world war, the globalization effect brought with it the free trade agreement  [16]  that further led to transfer of goods and services (economic as well cultural); the economic front were the production, trade and transportation while the cultural transfer in the form of music, art, fashion and lifestyles, communication through World Wide Web and Language  [17]  . This aspect of goods and service transfer in the globalization process places English language as one important aspect, that in turn has a huge impact on the level of communicators linkages, locally and internationally, and this criterion makes English as the dominant form of communication process in the globalized world. With the globalization effect and the role of information technology that has ushered in, the earlier definition of geographic colonization has terminated to formation of an electronic globalization that has now role to play in the socio-cultural aspects of peoples life, in a way that geography does not matter anymore, however that, local lives can be lived and stretched out through electronic ways of communication and sharing ideas and knowledge (Arnold 2006). English language is predominantly used as the global mode of communication that has a greater affect in the global culture characterized by a form of modernized e-language throughout the diffusion of culture sharing. Hence, English language is characterized by its impact on the homogeneity and heterogeneity of world cultures despite being critiqued that it is based on its colonized mission and strategies that furthers the problem of non-English speaking communities. Its enables one to identify the different cultures that exist s in the world and also to view ones own within the cultural background and the diverse set of practices in the world on account of it. Redman (2002) have argued that, communities that express their languages and cultures are learning to become homogenized and for which English spans the divide between people and cultures. It isnt owned by Britain and America: now it belongs to everyone, in addition, Burnett (2004) argues that English language could belong to everyone and all the practices and cultures of other languages vanish or of no usage any longer (in Arnold 2006: 3). The globalization and technological intervention has brought about a most popular form of a web-based language- English language that has initially led to a formation of a new form of culture and language authenticity (Ibid.). Hence the web-based English language is intensifying the process of communication and in sharing world wide cultures across various communities. The role of English language has a great impact on various aspects such as political, economic-business, education, socio-cultural and other factors that vary from local to international perspectives. Its usage is like opening windows to the wider world that is believed to bring about economic progress and a better means of communicating for any kind of international understandings  [18]  . English language is taking over the world communicative process and hence, the local culture too (Arnold 2006). Arguing on a topic as to whether English language is a killer language or not, it has been observed that it is not necessarily a killer language because it acts in accordance to situation or dominance, while another important aspect of it is that, it does not merely impose applications of vocabularies to other countries; it has also been adopting itself to the expressions of other languages and cultures  [19]   Eventually it has led to the formation of a borderless world, a techno-driven on the global real/virtual basis of online connectivity, a global culture, often described as the culture of global village (Arnold 2006). According to Krishnaswamy and Brude (1998), the English language and its spread in the global world of developmental aspect after the two world war was that It is almost as if God said, Let there be language, and there was English, while it is also seen as a necessity and a form of key to success in the process of globalization (Kak 2005: 39) Conclusion English Language has brought about an immense cultural interlink age through the communicative process along with the role of the educational system that it hinges upon in almost the entire world. As such, it stages a relative importance in the sphere of globalization and cultural homogenization process. The mode of communication has greatly intensified the sharing of ideas and knowledge of the world cultures. The Information Age has made the means of communication a lot easier and the cultural homogenization stronger. It has globalized countries that inhabit their own cultural attachment through the diffusion of languages and most importantly specifying the dominance of English language in the process. Even though it has been criticized on account of the conflicts that arise because of heterogeneity or being blamed for devaluing certain cultural norms and practices, it has a great impact on the cultural homogenization in the form of blending knowledge, ideas and cultures through the effects of information and communication process, be it virtual or real and vice versa. The globalization era has therefore greatly enhanced the role of English language and its impact on the cultural homogenization enabling people to come closer beyond boundaries in the diverse set of different cultural backgrounds into forming a cultural homogenization.

Mansfield’s Short Stories Essay

This article discusses how emotions are depicted in two Katherine Mansfield’s short stories, †Bliss† and †Taking the Veil†. Emotions are mapped through linguistic markers such as adjectives and adverbs that imply a character’s emotional response to story events. The study focuses on narratorial discourse and distinguishes between verbalized speech and thought (free indirect discourse) and non-verbalised thought-processes (psycho-narration). The analysis is carried out by studying the deictic centre or the perspective in the short stories. The study shows that passages of psycho-narration and free indirect discourse are rich in emotional language, including such features as interjections, repetition and orthographic markers. 1. Introduction Emotions often play a significant role in depicting a literary character’s mind. This study discusses how characters’ emotions are depicted in two Katherine Mansfield’s short stories, †Bliss† and †Taking the Veil†.1 The focus is on those sections in Mansfield’s stories that depict characters’ psyches and feelings. The analysis maps the features that imply the presence of consciousness or perspective in Katherine Mansfield’s texts. The analysis is carried out by studying linguistic features such as adjectives, adverbs and orthography to find out whose consciousness and emotions are depicted in the text. Consciousness report is an umbrella term for several techniques that share some common features in depicting characters’ consciousness. This study focuses on the interplay between psycho-narration, the narrator’s rendering of characters’ psyches or their non-verbalised thought processes, and free ind irect discourse, the narrator’s indirect quotation of the words that the characters say or think, their verbalised speech or thought. Both free indirect discourse and psycho-narration depict character speech within the framework of third person narrative, and in Mansfield’s stories characters’ feelings are often filtered through the narrator’s discourse . 2 There are also feelings that the characters may be unaware of but that the narrator reports to the reader. For this reason, the focus of the study is on the narrator’s description of characters’ emotions, as psycho-narration and free indirect discourse are narrator’s discourse by nature. The differences between psycho-narration and free indirect discourse are illustrated in another example from Mansfield, a story called †The Doll’s House† (see subsection 2.3). In analysing characters’ emotions perspective plays an important role. Perspective tells the reader whose point of view is adopted in the text. Perspective is realised through visuo-spatial or temporal indicators that are also called deictic features (see subsection 2.1). The first aim of the analysis is to pinpoint the deictic features that imply the presence of consciousness or emotional involvement in †Bliss† and †Taking the Veil†. The second aim is to study consciousness report that is often marked by reporting devices such as evaluative adjectives and adverbs, or other perspective-building elements such as backshifting of tenses and orthographic markers. The analysis is based on linguistic evidence in sections of psycho-narration or free indirect discourse with reference to characters’ emotions and emotional changes. When a fictional character’s feelings change, the readers may also change their views of that character (Miall and Kuiken 2001: 291). Thus, changing emotions affect the reader’s interpretation of the story. The next section takes a closer look at the linguistic features that indicate characters’ emotions depicted in psycho-narration and free indirect discourse. 2. Linguistic Features in the Representation of Character Emotions This section discusses linguistic features that imply psycho-narration and free indirect discourse. In the first subsection, the connection between the deictic centre and emotions is explained. The second subsection takes a look at specific reporting devices and features that indicate a deictic centre. In the third part, psycho-narration and free indirect discourse are d iscussed with examples from Mansfield’s †Doll’s House†. 2.1 Deixis and Deictic Centre Emotions are an essential part of depicting a literary character’s consciousness. In analysing emotions or characters’ consciousness deixis is a useful tool. Deixis means †features of language which fasten utterances temporally or spatially: ‘here’, ‘now’† (Hawthorn 1994: 37). Consciousness presentation becomes apparent through many indicators, most clearly through orthographic markers such as quotation marks or words in italics. Orthographic markers are especially used in direct discourse where quotation marks show the beginning and ending of a dialogue. Parentheticals or brackets indicating the speaker and his or her act of speaking or thinking within a sentence, for example, †she said† or †he thought† are also used in direct discourse to indicate the speaking or thinking person. As these markers seldom occur in consciousness report, however, there are other markers like expressive elements that help to ide ntify the consciousness and emotions in an extract. Thus, linguistic analysis helps to find out which features refer to which character. Studying linguistic features is a key element in analyzing the deictic centre of the short stories in this paper. In the English language, deixis consists of features that indicate a subjective deictic centre (Fludernik 1993: 6). The features include personal pronouns, for example I, you,it; spatial and temporal adverbs such as left, in front of, ten years ago; verbal categories indicating distance like come and go; relational designations implying emotional involvement, for instance the enemy or darling; and terms of endearment, such as sweetheart and mummy, which also suggest that the speaker’s feelings are involved. Another way to trace a perspective is to study lexical, pragmatic, syntactic and morphological features indicating consciousness report. Deixis and subjective elements play a crucial role in analysing the material of this paper. The two other types of deixis are discourse/text deixis and social deixis (cf. Levinson 1983). Discourse deixis or text deixis refers to parts of unfolding discourse in which the utterance is located, for instance that in the following example: †Puff puff puff: That is what it sounded like.† Social deixis encodes the social status and aspects of socia l relationships between speakers and addressees: †My husband and I are both teachers, and so is my father† (Levinson 1983: 62-63). Deixis is usually organised in an egocentric way. The deictic context is speaker-based and centred upon the speaker’s †here-and-now† (Lyons 1981: 230). People are more apt to refer to their own viewpoint in discussions and prefer proximal personal expressions, such as the pronoun I, or place indexicals, such as here, to distal expressions like he or there. We can also talk about a deictic centre, meaning the perspective of the discourse participant from which utterances are delivered (Levinson 1983: 63-64, Yule 1996: 9). There are five unmarked anchorage points that constitute the deictic centre (Levinson 1983: 64). They consist of the speaker who is the central person – in literature usually the protagonist, the narrator or some other character – and of the central place which refers to the speaker’s location at utterance time. The third anchorage point of the deictic centre is the central time, the time when the speaker produces the utterance. Fourth, the discourse centre is the speaker’s current point during the production of his or her utterance. Thus, the discourse centre changes from one person to another when the producer of the utterance changes. And last, the social centre is the speaker’s social status and rank to which the addressee or referent’s status is relative (Yule 1996: 10). Another common deictic phenomenon in language is the transference of human body orientation (Fludernik 1993: 49). This method is used extensively in literature to create the illusion of naturalness. When an author uses this technique in a literary text, he or she describes an event, a phenomenon or space from a certain physical viewpoint that demands the reader’s body orientation, as in the sentence †There was a chair to the left† (Fludernik 1993: 49). To sum up, literary texts create a world of their own, including their own deictic structure. In good narratives, the reader has the impression of experiencing the fictional world directly, because he or she adopts the deictic centre as his or her own (cf. Banfield 1982, Zubin and Hewitt 1995: 131). 2.2 Reporting Devices This section introduces other linguistic features that are used in creating deictic centres in narratives. The devices consist of backshifting of tenses and other perspective-building elements, such as adjectives and adverbs, orthographic markers and textual coherence. The first device, backshifting of tenses, is connected with the †was-now† paradox, an especially interesting feature in literature. The †was† encodes the narrator in the process of narrating, introducing the fictional world mode to the reader. The †now† encodes the protagonist for whom the story world events are part of the current experience (cf. Adamson 1994). Mansfield sometimes uses the present tense in her stories, which attracts the reader’s attention and raises the question of why the †was-now† principle is violated. The change in tenses suggests a change in perspectives, including a change in the feeling experience of the story’s characters. The impl ications of these linguistic devices for the characters’ emotional world are discussed in section 3. In the analysis of the deictic centre and literary figures’ emotions, adjectives and adverbs sometimes have a significant meaning. I apply Biber, Conrad and Leech’s (2002) classification of adjectives and adverbs in this study. Descriptive adjectives or descriptors often imply consciousness report when they co-occur with other deictic elements such as place and time deixis. Evaluative/emotive (dreadful) and miscellaneous descriptors covering many kinds of characteristics (sudden) suggest consciousness report in narratives and need to be studied to trace the source of emotions in a literary text. Descriptive adjectives give personal flavour to the text, but the reader has to decide whether descriptors refer to the narrator’s or some character’s emotions. Sometimes it may be very difficult to distinguish different sources of emotion from each other, as examples from Mansfield’s stories show (see section 3) . In the analysis of Mansfield’s texts, degree adverbs and stance adverbs receive special attention. Degree adverbs like amplifiers/intensifiers (generously) and diminishers/downtoners (somewhat) as well as stance adverbs, such as attitude (unfortunately), epistemic (probably) and style stance adverbs (simply) are discussed in the analysis of the material, as are place, time and process adverbials. Of place adverbials, those of distance (a long way), direction (from within) and position (up there) often imply whose perspective is adopted in the story. Additionally, such time adverbials as point in time (tomorrow night), duration (for fifteen years), frequency (sometimes) and time relationship (after this) indicate the source of consciousness. The process of action described in stories provides the reader with valuable information on the events and characters. Manner adverbials (carelessly) are often used especially by modern authors to describe characters’ behaviour. Degree adverbials (e.g. very much, completely) are often used to amplify characters’ emotions and to describe their emotional response to story events. Adjectives and adverbs are elements in constructing perspective in a narrative. They help the reader to respond to the feeling experiences of a character that are embodied in the stylistic and linguistic devices of a text (Miall and Kuiken 2001: 292). The following subchapter discusses the connection between linguistic features and feeling experiences in psycho-narration and free indirect discourse. 2.3 Psycho-narration and Free Indirect Discourse In this section the features of psycho-narration and free indirect discourse are discussed with examples from Mansfield’s story †The Doll’s House†. Special attention is paid to linguistic devices that support the interpretation of psycho-narration or free indirect discourse in a textual passage. Psycho-narration is the narrator’s presentation of a character’s psyche. Its main focus is on a character’s thoughts and feelings and it is defined in terms of deictic qualities (Fludernik 1993: 304).3 Psycho-narration reports those feelings or states of consciousness that the character may be unaware of. Psycho-narration †has almost unlimited temporal flexibility† (Cohn 1978: 32), so it can occur both in the present and the past tense. The analysis of Mansfield’s works shows the temporal varieties of psycho-narration. Free indirect discourse consists of expressions or utterances that could be produced by the characters as such or with minor alterations, like the use of the preterite instead of the present tense.4 In free indirect discourse the narrator quotes the speech or thought of the protagonist or other characters. Direct discourse and free indirect discourse have common features such as deictics, word order in questions and lexical elements including vocatives, interjections, or dialectal features (cf. Fludernik 1993: 261). In order to retain proximity, proximal deictics likehere, now and today occur in free indirect discourse. The question word order remains direct in free indirect discourse. This narrative technique also favours expressive lexical elements from characters’ idiolects to give the narration personal flavour. McHale (1978: 269) aptly remarks that formal signs are not the only means to trace free indirect discourse, since semantic signs such as the †content† of utterances, and a character’s †thoughts† or †intended meanings† also contribute to the reader’s interpretation of free indirect discourse. The terms psycho-narration and free indirect discourse overlap to some extent. The former borrows elements from the speech of ch aracters, but a character could hardly use the (narrator’s) syntax as such. To demonstrate the difference between the various consciousness report techniques, I have chosen an extract from Katherine Mansfield’s story †The Doll’s House†. It is a story about middle-class life and the Burnell children, and how they invite classmates of the same social class to see their new doll’s house. Lower-class children are not invited, until one of the daughters, Kezia, defies her parents and asks the Kelvey girls, the daughters of a washerwoman, to see the house. The following extract depicts Kezia’s aunt’s reaction when she sees the unwelcome children in the garden. (1)†Wicked, disobedient little girl!† said Aunt Beryl bitterly to Kezia, and she slammed the doll’s house to. The afternoon had been awful. A letter had come from Willie Brent, a terrifying, threateningletter, saying if she did not meet him that evening in Pulman’s Bush, he’d come to the front door and ask the reason why! But now that she had frightened those little rats of Kelveys and given Kezia a good scolding, her heart felt lighter. That ghastly pressure was gone. She went back to the house humming. (†The Doll’s House†, 265; emphasis added) Example (1) is a description of Aunt Beryl’s consciousness presentation after she has scolded her niece and her friends in the courtyard. After the quotation in direct discourse, Aunt Beryl’s perspective (in bold type) is introduced in the first sentences as a flashback, the past perfect verb form had come implying a movement towards Aunt Beryl, come being a verb suggesting proximal activity. Even though Beryl’s name is not mentioned in the whole paragraph, she is the subject of the sentence starting the quotation and the most recent character mentioned earlier in the text. Aunt Beryl and the third person reference to her (she) in the quotation can be seen as an example of referential linking which is an important factor in maintaining textual cohesion in the depiction of characters’ emotions (cf. Ehrlich 1990). Descriptive adjectives likeawful, terrifying and threatening, and noun phrases like those little rats of Kelveys depict Beryl’s feelings, the distal demonstrative pronoun those and the descriptive noun phrase little rats of Kelveys underlining the contempt of upper classes towards lo wer-class people and the social distance between Beryl and the Kelveys. The distal demonstrative determiner that and the proximal temporal adverb now illustrate how proximal and distal linguistic features are mixed in psycho-narration, suggesting a transition from Aunt Beryl’s earlier emotional turmoil caused by her lover’s letter to her present state of mind (†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦her heart felt lighter. That ghastly pressure was gone†). There is also Willie Brent’s perspective occurring in the extract (in italics). It has elements of free indirect discourse including past tense verb forms, third person pronouns, orthographic markers and a colloquial tone. The past perfect verb form changes into the past tense did not meet, which is followed by he’d come. An exclamation mark finishes the free indirect discourse passage which is reflected through Beryl’s consciousness in the memory of the letter. The final sentence is the narrator’s neutral report of the narrative events. 3. Emotional Features in Mansfield’s Stories Psycho-narration and free indirect discourse are ways of presenting characters’ emotions to readers. In this section, Katherine Mansfield’s stories †Bliss† and †Taking the Veil† are analysed in order to find linguistic features that suggest a character’s emotional involvement. Mansfield uses psycho-narration and free indirect discourse in †Bliss† and †Taking the Veil†. In the analysis of the texts, underlined words point out subjective features and fragments of characters’ idiom. Some quotations from Mansfield’s short stories are integrated into the analysis for a more convenient discussion of the context. †Bliss† is a story of a wealthy young couple, Bertha and Harry, and their social life. In †Bliss†, psycho-narrative description is reserved for Bertha’s feelings of bliss, her relationship with Harry-the-husband, and her feelings towards their friends. The paragraphs th at include psycho-narration often start with impersonal narratorial description. The shift from the narrator’s perspective to that of the character takes place within paragraph boundaries, as the following examples show. The first paragraph of †Bliss† introduces society’s expectations of 30-year-old women’s behaviour. The narrator implies that Bertha’s thoughts and feelings are quite exceptional for her age: (2) Although Bertha Young was thirty she still had moments like this when she wanted to run instead of walk, to take dancing steps on and off the pavement, to bowl a hoop, to throw something up in the air and catch it again, or to stand still and laugh at – nothing – at nothing, simply. (†Bliss†, 91; emphasis added) The narrator adopts an omniscient perspective: she knows exactly how Bertha is feeling and what she feels like doing. The reader’s attention is directed towards the protagonist’s perspective through the use of the demonstrative this, symbolising the here-and-now narrative present, Bertha’s present state of mind. The italicised words imply Bertha’s wishes. The narrator’s speech presents societ y’s expectations at the beginning of example (2) (although,still) and Bertha’s own thoughts at the end of it (nothing – at nothing, simply). The phenomenon of Ansteckung is apparent in the fragments of Bertha’s idiom. Ansteckungmeans the narrator’s empathetic or ironic borrowing of characters’ idioms or expressions (cf. Fludernik (1993) for examples of Ansteckung or †contamination†). Fragments of Bertha’s consciousness are not complete thoughts or words uttered by her. When it comes to Bertha’s psyche, the narrator seems to be aware of it, depicting elements of Bertha’s thoughts at the end of example (2) (see the words in bold). It is obvious in the last sentence of example (2); dashes evoke Bertha’s consciousness. She is incapable of finding suitable words for the peculiar feeling; the impression is increased by the repeated words at nothing. The effect of immediacy is created by hints of Bertha’s psyche within narratorial discourse, suggesting that after the first part of the sentence the writer resorts to free indirect discourse at the end of the passa ge. There are two longer paragraphs of psycho-narration in †Bliss†. They discuss Bertha’s situation in life and her relationship with Harry. The first paragraph reads as follows: (3) Really – really – she had everything. She was young. Harry and she were as much in love as ever, and they got on together splendidly and were really good pals. She had anadorable baby. They didn’t have to worry about money. They had this absolutely satisfactory house and garden. And friends – modern, thrilling friends, writers andpainters and poets or people keen on social questions – just the kind of friends they wanted. And then there were books, and there was music, and she had found a wonderful little dressmaker, and they were going abroad in the summer, and their new cook made the most superb omelettes †¦ (†Bliss†, 96; emphasis added) Example (3) starts in free indirect discourse and shows many syntactic markers that imply consciousn ess report, such as the epistemic stance adverb really, the proximal deictic thisindicating Bertha’s spatial perspective, and the frequent use of and acting as a clause-initial co-ordinating conjunction and creating the illusion of Bertha’s happy thoughts. Other features include pragmatic indicators, such as dashes, and lexical features, for example idioms (really good pals), phrases or descriptive adjectives (absolutely satisfactory, adorable, modern, thrilling, wonderful little etc.) borrowed from Bertha. As Fludernik (1993: 117) suggests, referential positions are often shifted into the third person in heterodiegetic narratives, excluding second person narratives. This extract is a good example of such a referential shift in personal pronouns, as it contains only the third person she instead of the first person I. Example (3) describes a happy woman counting her blessings. Another paragraph reflects the problems Bertha encounters in her marriage: (4) Oh, she had loved him – she’d been in love with him, of course, in every other way, butjust not in that way. And equally, of course, she’d understood that he was different. They’d discussed it so often. It had worried her dreadfully at first to find that she was so cold, but after a time it had not seemed to matter. They were so frank with each other – such good pals. That was the best of being modern. (†Bliss†, 104; emphasis added) The extract leads readers into Bertha’s consciousnes s with the clause-initial interjection ohsuggesting free indirect discourse. Repetitive elements, such as of course and the intensifierso, emphasise the impression of Bertha rationalising her marriage to Harry. The sentence-initial and helps her to articulate her understanding of Harry and his different feelings on the topic, as she is negotiating the good and bad things about her marriage in her mind. There are also some lexical indications of consciousness report, such as just, the intensifier such, anddreadfully, a colloquialism only to be attached to Bertha’s consciousness. These emotive features create an impression of Bertha’s inner conflict and the suppression of her feelings, which is evident throughout the story.5 †Taking the Veil† is a story about Edna and her lover Jimmy, and Edna’s dreams of becoming a nun. In †Taking the Veil†, psycho-narration is reserved for Edna’s internal debate and her memories of the crisis of her life. A typical example is a theatre scene, where Edna goes through the happenings of the previous night: (5) The play had begun fairly cheerfully. That was at the chocolate almond stage. Then the hero had gone blind. Terrible moment! †¦Then there had been that ghastly scene with the hero alone on stage in a deserted room†¦He had tried – ah, how painfully, how pitifully! –to grope his way to the window†¦and the band faded away into the distance. (†Taking the Veil†, 284; emphasis added) Example (5) shows how Mansfield uses distal deictics like that (in that ghastly scene) to imply Edna’s perspective by creating a personal tone. Additionally, she uses the evaluative adjectives terrible and ghastly to refer to Edna’s emotional response. The repetitive pattern in the exclamations above (in bold type) is separated from the rest of the psycho-narration by dashes and emphasised by other orthographic signals, such as exclamation marks. An introductory exclamation ah adds to the colloquial tone, as does the repetition of the wh-element how. Mansfield often uses clause-initial wh-elements in exclamations to introduce free indirect discourse in the telling (Kuivalainen 2005). These features contain elements representative of speech rather than thought. The impression in this extract is that of narratorial discourse flavoured by free indirect discourse (in bold type). Psycho-narration continues when the narrator describes Edna’s internal debate: (6) If she did not marry Jimmy, of course she would marry nobody. The man she was in love with, the famous actor – Edna had far too much common-sense not to realise thatwould never be. It was very odd. She didn’t even want it to be. Her love was too intense for that. It had to be endured, silently; it had to torment her. It was, she supposed, simply that kind of love. (†Taking the Veil†, 285; italics original, emphasis added) The extract above shows how Edna debates her love for Jimmy, her fiancà ©, and for the actor she has fallen in love with. The words in bold include an attitude stance adverb of course, a comment on a possible marriage with the famous actor, and a distal pronoun that. All these elements imply a reference to Edna’s perspective which, however, intermingles with that of the narrator after the dash on the second line. Edna’s emotional perspective, the vacillating feelings she suddenly faces in the story, re-occurs with the comment on the nature of her love (†It was very odd†) and remains unchanged till the end of the extract, with another comment at the end of the paragraph introduced by the style stance adverb simply. The extract above shows the subtlety of the change from one perspective to another: at the beginning we only have a personal pro noun reference to the speaker, but later the protagonist’s proper name is used to help the reader realise the change, to introduce the perspective of the narrator penetrating that of Edna. The effect is that of immediate access to the character’s thoughts and feelings. In the paragraph preceding example (6) the closest proper noun is †Sister Agnes†. However, the reader does not connect the personal pronoun she in example (6) with Sister Agnes but with Edna, who is mentioned earlier in the text, because semantic connectors such as marriage and †Jimmy† imply her. The narrator’s statement-like comment after the dash supports this interpretation. However, this sentence is affected by Edna’s idiom, the use of that(in italics) emphasising the impossibility of the suggestion of love for an actress. Edna’s eighteen-year-old girl’s voice is also heard at the end of the paragraph with the simply that kind of love quotation of Edna’s thoughts. As example (6) suggests, psycho-narration at the beginning of the paragraph depicts Edna’s feelings from her perspective, but later the narrator’s perspective becomes predominant in the example, providing the reader with an external perspective to Edna’s love life. A drastic change in psycho-narration happens when the tenses change from the past to the present. This change implies a shift from the past or present events to the future. (7) She takes the name of Sister Angela. Snip, snip! All her lovely hair is cut off†¦And in a blue gown with a white head-band Sister Angela goes from the convent to the chapel, from the chapel to the convent †¦she greets the little children who run to her. A saint! She hears it whispered as she paces the chill, wax-smelling corridors. A saint! (†Taking the Veil†, 286; emphasis added) The extract above shows how Edna dreams about the life of a nun and imagines her future as Sister Angela. The short onomatopoeic snip and the repetition of a saint, both ending with an exclamation mark, refer to Edna’s imagination. Her emotional involvement shows in the sacrifices she makes (†All her lovely hair is cut off†) and in the description of the new environment she enters (†chill, wax-smelling corridors†). The present tense adds to the effect. It is used throughout the passage to relate Edna’s convent dreams, as another quotation below shows: (8) Now it is evening. Two old people leaning on each other come slowly to the grave†¦Now there comes another. He is all in black; he comes slowly. But when he is there and lifts his black hat, Edna sees to her horror his hair is snow-white. Jimmy! Too late, too late! The tears are running down his face; he is crying now. Too late, too late!(ibid.: 287; italics original, emphasis added) In example (8), the same elements of exclamatory repetition too late! and the present tense are used to depict Edna’s reveries about the future. Additionally, immediacy is emphasised with the temporal proximal deictic now, a favourite of Mansfield’s in this story, and the present continuous are running and is crying. The use of present continuous verb forms and the proximal deictic now mark Edna’s mental crisis, which culminates at the end of example (8) and ends the sections in the present tense. The non-use of the †was-now† pattern reflects a change in perspective from the narrator to Edna in example (8), as the sections that do not imply Edna’s consciousness in †Taking the Veil† are written in the past tense (see example (5)). When the paragraph after example (8) begins, Edna has changed her mind about becoming a nun and realised she actually loves Jimmy. 4. Discussion †Bliss† and †Taking the Veil† consist of a mixture of speech and thought report. It is noticeable in these works that, as a narrative technique, free indirect discourse is clearly separated from psycho-narration. The shift from psycho-narration into free indirect discourse and then back to psycho-narration can be found in †Bliss† and †Taking the Veil†, as the linguistic analysis of characters’ emotions showed in section three. The reverie-like atmosphere of †Taking the Veil† is strikingly different from the passionate, hectic mood in †Bliss†, where the narrator first describes the setting for the psychological phenomena, Bertha’s mixed feelings about her marriage, and then resorts to consciousness presentation. In †Taking the Veil† the narrator’s function is to offer the reader an insight into Edna’s mind mostly through psycho-narration, thus, psycho-narrative passages begi n with narratorial description which introduces Edna’s mental world to the reader. Psycho-narration serves to depict the protagonist’s internal debate: example (5) depicts the crucial moment of the past in the past tense and example (7) future dreams in the present tense. On the other hand, free indirect discourse in example (5) helps in creating sensual perceptions that present a contrast to Edna’s inner thoughts. Passages in free indirect discourse often start with a clause-initial coordinator (and), interjection (oh) or a wh-element (how) and can be spotted from the rest of the narration through orthography, like dashes surrounding the free indirect discourse passage, exclamation or question marks. Mansfield frequently uses italics and ellipses in reporting characters’ consciousness and feelings, which gives the impression of free indirect discourse. Extensive use of stance adverbs is striking in the two stories. A common feature in Mansfield’s psycho-narration is the adoption of epistemic stance adverbs such as really in example (3).6In †Bliss† and †Taking the Veil†, the interplay between the two dominant voices, that of the narrator and the protagonist, becomes evident through the rich use of stance ad verbs. The narrator’s perspective is mostly introduced through epistemic adverbs indicating certainty or doubt (e.g. perhaps), whereas the protagonist’s perspective mostly consists of those of actuality and reality (e.g. in fact, really). The effect is a narrator with no intention to intrude upon the story events, and a protagonist with a distinctly marked emotional world including feelings of bliss, future dreams, and moments of despair and love. Mansfield’s narrator steers the reader towards the protagonist’s climax with subtle remarks and hardly visible hints. Psycho-narration demonstrates different functions in the texts of this study. Mansfield uses evaluative and emotive descriptors in psycho-narrative sections; she borrows characters’ idiomatic expressions and marks internal discourse with orthography (dashes, exclamation marks), intensifiers and repetition to imply a shift from one perspective or feeling experience to another, for example, from the narrator to the protagonist. Mansfield describes the inner conflict or the dream world of the characters through psycho-narration, which is usually triggered by an emotional climax, in Bertha’s case the revelation of her husband’s adultery and in Edna’s case understanding who she really loves. In Mansfield’s fiction, the climax almost has a hallucinatory effect, as Edna’s convent dreams and the graveyard scene in exampl e (8) show. The use of the present tense seems to have a role in Mansfield’s text. Mansfield uses it mostly in psycho-narrative sections. All in all, there are certain features that are used frequently in Mansfield’s stories, such as dashes, repetition of adverbs or other clausal elements like intensifiers, interjections or co-ordinators. Temporal and spatial deictics have a significant role in the two stories, as the reader has very few other means to orient him- or herself while reading a literary text. Deictics help the reader to pinpoint the perspective in the passage and understand whose experiences are depicted in the story. The study of the deictic features in Mansfield’s fictional prose shows that the author uses various markers to create a deictic centre. These markers create a picture of characters’ emotional world. Free indirect discourse and psycho-narration are motivated, for example, by an internal debate or a crisis, as Edna’s ponderings showed in example (8). As was suggested in the analysis, linguistic features such as reporting devices and deictic features can be used to pinpoint the source of emotions in a literary text. Verbs, adjectives, adverbs and other consciousness markers work for the same effect, to describe the emotional world of characters. Psycho-narration and free indirect discourse provide Mansfield with a tool to point out the significant moments in the protagonists’ lives and separate them from the rest of the narration. Mansfield is the master of her characters and their emotions, making them breathe and feel as if they really existed.

Climate Change Awareness Begins with Me

â€Å"Climate Change Awareness Begins With Me† TGTAI CONCEPT PAPER Goal: To encourage youth to engage in interactive learning on Global Warming & Climate Change which may be translated into education outreach in their specific communities and/or organizations. Objectives: 1. To encourage youth from youth organizations, schools and communities to learn/learn more about global warming and Climate Change concepts (Think Green) and engage in simple Green Solutions at the individual/community level. 2. To assist young people in understanding the Commonwealth initiative as it pertains to Education for Sustainable Development. 3. To provide opportunities for experiential learning on the environment through nature appreciation, work group activities and other interactive knowledge elements. 4. To assist youth in developing their critical thinking skills. Problem Statement The long-term alteration in global weather patterns, especially increases in temperature and storm activity, and the potential of sea-level rise, will have a detrimental impact on Small Island Developing States (SIDS). Like all countries of the world, Trinidad and Tobago will need to play its part in decreasing its carbon emissions and encouraging its population to: â€Å"Think Green, Then Act to Impact (TGTAI). † Additionally, there is an urgent need to address the gap between information-on-the- street and knowledge leading to action at the micro-levels in communities. In a preliminary baseline survey conducted by TGTAI’s volunteers, on conceptual knowledge of Global Warming & Climate Change, 77% of the persons surveyed either did not know what was global warming this included mistaking the circumstance of ozone layer depletion for global warming. Among this group, the youth also had difficulty expressing these concepts. Presently there is no collective ESD initiative which provides opportunities for youth to learn through a learning environment that is more natural, to learn basic concepts associated with global warming and climate change, while enabling them with opportunities to engage at individual level, simple energy-saving and conservation activities within their home/school units. Additionally very little exposure has been provided for youth to engage in understanding the role of the Commonwealth in supporting ESD initiatives among local youth. Project Description â€Å"Climate Change Awareness Begins With Me† is a One-Day highly interactive ESD Collaboration which seeks to jointly engage youth in exposure to (and in some instances), concretizing their Global Warming/Climate Change knowledge. Youth will be engaged in four (3) ESD learning areas/modules: ? Nature and Ecosystem Appreciation ? Global Warming & Climate Change Commonwealth & ESD Initiatives ? Green Solutions 1. Nature and Ecosystem Appreciation Participants will learn about overall environmental awareness by encouraging learning in a natural setting with opportunities provided to interact and learn from nature, a trail experience and interaction with wildlife elements. This preliminary intervention will hopefully help the young people to gain a deeper appreciation of the importance of existi ng ecosystems and to see themselves also playing a responsible role in their conservation/protection. . Global Warming & Climate Change Participants will learn basic global warming and climate change concepts and will be able to demonstrate linkages between anthropogenic (man-made) activities and their emerging/existing impact on human well-being and the natural environment. 3. Commonwealth & ESD Initiatives Participants will learn the structure of the Commonwealth, to determine its benefits and to understand the existing/emerging role of the Commonwealth for ESD Initiatives. 4. Green Solutions Participants will develop and be exposed to simple Green Solutions that they can individually carry out in their homes while transmitting knowledge in various ways for others in the home/school/community to do same. Project Methodology: The Lead Youth Agencies who will engage in Pre-implementation work/activities: ? Commonwealth RYC Trinidad and Tobago. ? Junior Environmentalists of Trinidad and Tobago (JETT) and its TGTAI Volunteers. Key Project Elements: ? Use of Interactive Think Green Workshops in a Natural Setting. Use of Visual Stimulation through Trail/Nature Experiences To Encourage Nature Appreciation. ? Provision of Problem-Solving Opportunities for Participants to Engage in Critical-thinking and Real-life Application. ? Encouraging by Facilitators of Youth Capacity to Create and Adopt a Green Charter. These elements will be achieved by the following strategic partnerships: Asa Wright Nature Centre: Nature/Eco-system Appreciation Youth Facilitators: ? Junior Environmentalis ts of Trinidad and Tobago (Environmental Advocacy and Green Solutions) ? Commonwealth Youth Programme (Commonwealth RYC, ESD Initiative) Environmental State Agencies: ? Environmental Management Authority (PowerPoint Presentation on Global Warming & Climate Change: Concepts and Social Impacts) ? Forestry Division (Environmental/Wildlife Conservation Issues Related to Climate Change and Human Impacts) ? Institute of Marine Affairs (Marine Ecosystem Challenges Related to Climate Change) ? WITT (Water Challenges Related to Climate Change) Recommended Venue which meets all project requirements: ? Asa Wright Nature Centre (East Trinidad) Alternate Locations: ? Pointe-a-Pierre Wildfowl Trust, ? La Vega Estate (Central Trinidad) ? Emperor Valley Zoo/Botanical Gardens Target Group: 30 youth (aged 14-24), from the East-West Corridor (20 students;10 youth from youth organizations); Project Timeline: Project Start date: March 18th (pre-implementation activities) and End Date: April 10th 2008 (One-Day Interactive ESD Learning Experience). Expected Outcomes: . 30 Youth from the East-West Corridor exposed to Global Warming & Climate Change Concepts and Related Issues. 2. 30 Youth exposed to information on the Commonwealth and its role in emerging/existing ESD initiatives for their benefit. 3. 30 Youth exposed to critical thinking skills, through experiential learning and interactivity with and among a healthy, thriving ecosystem. 4. 3000 Youth Exposed to Green Solutions. 5. Creation of a Youth-oriented Green Declaration for furt her ratification among youth. Project Sustainability: Each Participant will also receive 100 Green Solutions which they will be encouraged to disseminate among their peers, families and communities. Participants will also have the opportunity to create and adopt a Green Declaration, which symbolizes their commitment to educate and act on in their own spheres of influence, their peers, families and communities on Global Warming & Climate Change towards a low carbon emission. This will include acquiring a goal of 5,000 signatures for the Green Declaration, an indication of the young individual’s willingness to support through daily commitments, Environmental Education and environmentally-friendly activities as laid out in the Green Declaration. Evaluation & Monitoring 1. Feedback from Participants (an evaluation questionnaire). 2. Evaluation Meetings by Project Team. Bibliography: JETT TRAINING MANUAL, 2004. TGTAI BASELINE SURVEY, 2008

Essay on Freedom - 1303 Words

Freedom remains the sole basis for American society as we know it. Without freedom the great nation of America would have never been founded. To understand the true principles of freedom, one must understand the scope of the word. Philosophical freedom encompasses the ability to make choices without restraints, while political freedom is the state of being free rather than in physical confinement. Despite the importance of these ideas to our founding fathers, freedom has lost much of its importance in modern American society. The failure to stress the importance of freedom has diminished the quality of life for the entire American populous Positive liberty is the freedom for one to become all one can (Postive Liberty). This idea†¦show more content†¦To understand the importance of freedom in American society, we must go back to the beginning: the Declaration of Independence. Jefferson framed the constitution around the concepts set forth by John Locke, the father of liberty. The Declaration of Independence created a way to free ourselves from the injustices done upon us by the English monarchy. This document set forth the basis of what a government can reasonably do to protect and tax its citizens, before being beyond the appropriate scope of its power. When the government exceeds this power one must consider this an infringement on freedom. This governmental basis becomes extenuated in the Bill of Rights, the foundation of the US constitution. The Bill of Rights remains the true source of our freedoms as American. These freedoms include speech, religion etc. These freedoms were to be held dear by all members of our society. As a result off the plasticity of these amendments, the American elitists can interpret these for their own ideas. Since the beginning of America, Elitists have found a way to hinder the lower and middle classes involvement in government through the enormous amount of money required to create a successful election c ampaign. 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