... Today there are over 6,000 forms of languages that are spoken in the world. We are living in such a culturally diverse world and encourage others to embrace everyone’s race, gender, ethnicity, age, religion, and even personal beliefs. However, a common issue today is sometimes people do not embrace each other’s characteristics. Characteristics of a person describe their features and qualities. In today's society multiple people experience oppression, the cause of that is those individuals interpret and express their power of language differently. This is a problem because certain groups or cultures experience oppression due to the power of language. Language evolves our ideas and beliefs into reality...
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...The Power of Language Baca experienced a turning point the first time he was wrongfully arrested after failing to explain a deep cut on his arm. He stated: "There I met men, prisoners, who read aloud to each other the works of Neruda, Paz, Sabines, Nemerov, and Hemingway. Never had I felt such freedom as in that dormitory. Listening to the words of these writers, I felt that invisible threat from without lessen- my sense of teetering on a rotting plank over swamp water where famished alligators clamped their horny snouts for my blood. While I listened to the words of the poets, the alligators slumbered powerless in their lairs" (4). The poetry made him feel secure and free even though he was in jail with inmates. The poetry saves him from being eaten by the alligators and in reality it saves him from losing all hope and feeling trapped because he's in jail. Baca was unable to communicate or express himself which landed him in jail twice. Both times he was innocent, but the second time he couldn't pay his bail so he was sent to the county jail. After stealing an attendant's university textbook he began to learn how to read. He commented that "I became so absorbed in how the sounds created music in me and happiness, I forgot where I was...For a while, a deep sadness overcame me, as if I had chanced on a long-lost friend and mourned the years of separation. But soon the heartache of having missed so much of life, that had numbed me since I was a child, gaveaway, as if a grave...
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...Kingsborough Community College Chebarrie Haynes English 12 Sec. 71 Dec 8, 2015 Language and Its Power "Thanks to words, we have been able to rise above the brutes; but thanks to words we have often sunk to the level of the demons" (Huxley, pg). This quote means that depending on how they are used, words have the power to set people apart from one another. For example, Martin Luther King Jr. with his famous 'I Have a Dream' speech. However Huxley is also saying that words have the power to allow people to the level of the 'oppressors'.This is seen in Gloria Naylor's essay "The Meaning of a Word". I am also a believer of this doctrine. “Words start wars and end them"(Roy Williams, Web). A little over 50 years ago Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and delivered one of the memorable and influential speeches in history. During this time period, there were many civil rights movements occuring throughout the entire nation. The majority of African Americans in the U.S.A. especially in the south were faced with racial discrimination and Jim Crow Laws which allowed the legal segregation of black and white people even though "All men are created equal" (Thomas Jefferson, Web). These 'Laws' meant that colored people could...
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...The Power of Oppressive Language Oppressive language is everywhere in mainstream society and can be found in pop culture, work and school environments. Language that degrades others has become such a comfortable part of our everyday life and it is difficult for some people to acknowledge that their words are hurtful and unnecessary. Oppressive slang is especially common for teenagers because of the influence of rap artists and offensive television shows. The use of slang in pop culture gives people the idea that it is acceptable to use degrading terms and makes it difficult for our society to recognize the true meaning. The n-word is unique in the English language and is an example of oppressive slang that is still being used today. When...
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...Lyric Censorship: Language is Power Words create powerful emotions in all of us. They are used to express our feelings, thoughts and ideas, as well as communicate with one another. There are countless examples in history where we see language equating power. Within those examples we see people in the position of power, using this power of language to degrade their enemies and those they consider beneath them, and shape language in their favor. Music ties into language completely. The words of song lyrics convey powerful messages. As language is power, those in control seek to repress the power of this language in music, attempting to keep the power in their favor. But this attempt at censorship only gives those words even more influence and any attempt to infringe our right to free speech should be fought for to prevent its loss. The censorship of lyrics has occurred globally and can be dated back as far as music and poetry can be traced. Let’s take Asia as an example. Under the ruling of the Taliban in Afghanistan, music became a crime (Korpe, 2004). Instruments were burned, and people were severely punished for singing or creating any kind of music that was not deemed acceptable by the government. In Kabal, President Rabbani went as far as to create an Office for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, which was used to regulate the lyric of song in the favor of the government, and punish those who spoke ill towards those in power. In Pakistan,...
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...In this world, everybody is connected through one thing. This one thing affects us most of the day, every day, for nearly all of our lives. Thing one thing, arguably one of the most important things to ever exist for humans, is language. Language is how humans can communicate and share ideas. Language is what allowed people to rise above everything else on the food chain and dominate the planet Earth. Without out a doubt, language is important. Authors, the great gods of language, use this valuable tool inspire people to impact society. There are so many examples of authors who impact society. One of these examples is Jeanne Wakatsuki, the author of Farewell to Manzanar. Farewell to Manzanar expresses the feelings of a young Japanese girl who was taken from her home, taken to an internment camp, and thrown out onto the streets. Wakatsuki uses her own childhood memories to inspire people not to make the same mistake again, even if people still respect the current enemy. In the book, Wakatsuki states when on the topic of Japan and America having a war, she writes,”When your mother and father are having a fight, do you want them to kill each other? Or do you just want them to stop fighting.”(page 64) The...
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...How might Politicians use persuasive language to reinforce their Influential power? Introduction This investigating will focus upon the topic ‘Language and Power’, throughout it will explore how power plays a massive part in politics and how politicians use it to make them seem electable. This aspect within the investigation has been chosen because this is an area of interest and a topic I particularly enjoyed whilst studying the AS course. Not only this, but the power section, in my opinion, has the most interesting theory within it but the investigation will tie into another area which equally fascinates me, this being UK politics. This has always been something that I have followed with passion, with this in mind; it has led me to question the very topic. I would like to investigate how politicians use their language, to make them seem more electable and make them seem more favourable to the electorate. From this the Investigation will discover to what extent an election speech impacts on voting. Thus, this investigation aims to explore: • How politicians use a range of persuasive techniques to reinforce their influential power. I expect that the politician who uses persuasion most effectively will seem more favourable to the electorate. Politicians that aren’t confident may hinder their chances with the electorate, even though they use persuasive techniques. This would show...
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...James Clifford T. Santos Dr. Jocelyn Martin LIT 127.2 (Postcolonial Literature II) Ateneo De Manila University 10 February 2014 Of Interpreters, Schools, and Courts: An Analysis of the Postcolonial Themes of Language, Education, and Power in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart Through his awareness of the European literary tradition of negatively stereotyping the African natives as uncivilized peoples and putting the West in the pedestal in terms of cultural superiority and advancement (Guthrie 51-52), it can be asserted that the renowned African novelist and intellectual Chinua Achebe may had realized, at one point in his life, that in order to have a more realistic portrayal of the dynamics of Western and non-Western contact, there is a need to break such convention which undeniably favours the West. Perhaps, this is the reason why Achebe had written Things Fall Apart in such a way that it provides readers the African point of view of culture, identity and colonization thereby eradicating the dominant and unwarranted perception that the peoples of Africa are mere savages that have no customs, beliefs and traditions. Indeed, by providing a somewhat balanced approach in portraying the dynamic societal changes experienced by the Ibo people due to the conflict between their traditional culture and the foreign culture brought by their English colonizers primarily through religious and educational instruction, Things Fall Apart indubitably qualifies as a relevant and interesting...
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...identities within a country The protection of a language through the media and education The growth of separate political parties and devolved power Civil disobedience Terrorist violence Civil war International conflict or disturbances The establishment and maintenance of societies and norms with clear separate cultural identities within a country (e.g. the Bretons in France) • The protection of a language through the media and education (e.g. Welsh, Catalan) • The growth of separate political parties and devolved power (e.g. the Scottish and Welsh Nationalists) • Civil disobedience (the Friends of Owen Glendauer) • Terrorist violence (e.g. the Basques, Chechnya) • Civil war (e.g. East Timor, Tamil Tigers) consequences of separatism may be either peaceful or non-peaceful: The establishment/maintenance of own societies and norms- separate cultural identities within a country The protection of a language through the media and education The growth of separate political parties and devolved power Civil disobedience Terrorist violence Civil war International conflict or disturbances The establishment and maintenance of societies and norms with clear separate cultural identities within a country (e.g. the Bretons in France) • The protection of a language through the media and education (e.g. Welsh, Catalan) • The growth of separate political parties and devolved power (e.g. the Scottish and Welsh Nationalists) •...
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...Representation Stuart Hall Summarize by Jesse Tseng 1 Representation, meaning and language At first we have to know that： Representation is an essential part of the process by which meaning is produced and exchanged between members of a culture. It does involve the use of language, of signs and images which stand for or represent things. And surly it is not a simple or straightforward process. How this article exploring the concept of representation connect meaning and language to culture？ We will be drawing a distinction between three different account or theories：the reflective, the intentional and the constructionist approaches to representation. Most of this text will be exploring the constructionist approach with two major variants or models of the constructionist approach, the semiotic approach- Ferdinand de Saussure and the discursive approach- Michel Foucault. But we have to answer the question first：what does the word representation really mean？ 1.1 Making meaning, Representing things Representation is the production of the meaning of the concepts in our minds through language. There are two processes, two systems of representation. First, there is the system by which all sort of objects, people and events are correlated with a set of concepts or mental representations which we carry around in our heads.（like chair, table） Second, Language is therefore the second system of representation. (When we say we belong to the...
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...differences in language when discussing power between characters in popular medical TV series Grey’s Anatomy. Contextual issues may include the differences in power between characters, gender differences in the work place and how the show is scripted for entertainment. I chose to investigate Grey’s Anatomy as I enjoy the show and also because I wanted to understand why it was so popular in today’s society. Furthermore, I wanted to explore the language used in hospitals as there is a unspoken rule that people of a lower status in hospitals, must answer to whoever is above them. It is important for hospitals to have a clear power hierarchy as it may be a matter of life and death in some situations. Through studying this, I hope to broaden my knowledge on language and power and develop information I learn throughout my AS level. In the data I have collected, I will be specifically looking at conversations between Doctors and Interns as a way of identifying the clear line of division when it comes to language and power. I will also be looking at the differences between male and female characters, to hopefully show a contrast between genders and to come to a conclusion to whether woman use less negative face than men. I also intend to look at conversations between just the interns themselves in order to show a contrast between language used in the workplace and language used in social situations. The final thing I will be looking at is the choice of language used, for example...
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...Critical Thinking and Language Kaitlyn Longstaff COMM/251 April 11, 2014 Shaun Morse Critical Thinking and Language Language is defined as “the landscape of our mind; it is the mountains and forests as well as the cities and roads. It both carries the content and structures the form. We think with it. Language works intimately with all aspects of our thinking” (Kirby & Goodpaster, 2007, chpt. 5). Language both influences and is influenced by the critical thinking process and has the power to inspire or inhibit the expression of thoughts. Language is tied to critical thinking in every way, it is the “interpretive medium for the input—the remembering, sorting, creating, judging, and deciding—and language also dramatically shapes those processes” (Kirby & Goodpaster, 2007, chpt. 5). Without language, critical thinking would not be possible. Language and language diversity influence critical thinking, which in turn creates persuasion and the ability for language to benefit or inhibit the expression of thoughts. Language and language diversity play a huge role in in the critical thinking process through the universalizing process of language and the structuring power of language. The universalizing process of language is the mind’s ability to critically think about one word and associate it with all things like it. Kirby and Goodpaster use a tree as an example of the universalizing process of language and a panther to show its diversity among different cultures...
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...English as global language? What is a global language? Does it mean that everyone in the world speaks English? This is certainly not true. Does it mean, then, that every country in the world recognizes Englis has an official language? This is not true either. So what? A language achieves a genuinely global status when it develops a special role that is recognized in every country. There are two main ways in which this can be done. Firstly, a language can be made the official language of a country, to be used as a medium of communication in such domains as government, the law courts, the media, and the educational system. Secondly, a language can be made a priority in a country’s foreign-language teaching, even though this language has no official status. It becomes the language which children are most likely to be taught when they arrive in school. Why a language becomes a global language has little to do with the number of people who speak it. It is much more to do with who those speakers are. Latin became an international language throughout the Roman Empire, but this was not because the Romans were more numerous. They were simply more powerful. And later, when Roman military power declined, Latin remained for a millennium as the international language of education, thanks to a different sort of power – the ecclesiastical power of Roman Catholicism. There is the closest of links between language dominance and economic, technological, and cultural power, and this relationship...
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...Position of English as a Global Language: Political and Cultural Factors English has achieved a global significance that no other language has ever been able to do so, in such a scale. A language earns its global status when it culturally and politically dominant across the continents. Also, it is notable that the most salient feature of a global language is not how many people use it, rather how strongly the people who speak this language is socially and politically established. In fact, perhaps the most significant force that makes a language global is political power of its speakers. The spread of English beyond Europe and the British Isles is accredited to four centuries of colonialism and British imperialism, which led to English being spoken by over three hundred million people. (Crystal 14) The first significant stride in the advancement of English towards its pre-eminence as a world language occurred during the early trade in the Atlantic. Crystal also articulates that by the year 1600, England had gained trading contacts across three continents, which retrospectively provided a powerful platform on which the English language was to flourish and become the globally dominant medium of communication that it is at present (39). Trading companies such as the Newfoundland fur trade, the ivory and gold trade on the western coast of Africa and the East India Company brought speakers of English into economic contact throughout the world. English and the English-based pidgins...
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...2 Fairness DEAKIN UNIVERSITY ECL 776 - Language Testing and Assessment Unit Chair: Dr. Rod Neilson Adam Scott 500148222 Introduction Testing is a fundamental aspect of human nature and society. Humans have used tests for psychological and physical inclusion since history began. The importance is evident in early literature such as Homeric text where allusions to testing are personified as gods challenging man. Undoubtedly, tests in those times had their own high-stakes nature, perhaps being the life of an individual, and while this may seem extreme and unfair in the twenty-first century, in its context was perhaps necessary to ensure the survival of a group. This protectionism no doubt persists today, evident in social policy and language norms. Although the stakes have changed, entry to a society is no less high contextually in terms of financial and emotional currency. Now as the dominant species the survival of the fittest no longer seems relevant, so attention must be drawn to current gate-keeping practices and not only their necessity but also whether or not they are fair. While language testing has become standard practice in many countries it has also become politicized especially as a means of power (Hamp-Lyons, 1997a; Shohamy, 2001). In this case the term fairness becomes problematic because determining whether it is society or the political class who has set the standards has many implications. Language testing systems employed by governments may be...
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