Language of Robinson Crusoe Essay

Daniel Dafoe’s popular novel, originally titled The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner: Who lived Eight and Twenty Years, all alone in an uninhabited Island on the Coast of America, near the Mouth of the Great River of Oroonoque; Having been cast on Shore by Shipwreck, wherein all the Men perished but himself. With an Account how he was at last as strangely deliver’d by Pyrates (iii), like most classics underwent many editions through the years. However nothing but the first edition, which is the basis of this essay, can give us the look and feel of the time as intended to be shown by the author. Early Modern English According to Volume 14 of The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes, Early Modern English period marked the expansion of the use of the English language outside England. But since English was spread at various times it has been subjected to different influences and additional variations caused by attempts at etymological spelling (Ward et al ch 15 sec 3 par 1). These were evident in the novel in two aspects of language: grammar and vocabulary (Ward et al ch 15 sec 1 par 1-2). Among the inflectional changes during the early modern English was the dropping of the weak vowel in verbs ending in –ed (Ward et al. ch 15 sec 4 par. 7). Examples of these manifested not only in the title (the word deliver’d) but within the text itself such as call’d, fill’d, encreas’d, and fatigu’d. Spelling also appeared to be phonetically defective (Ward et al. ch 15 sec 3 par. 1) with words like perswasions, lyon, lye, and prophetick. Compounding of words were also used in the novel by examples of free-school, hand-maids, ground-tackle and fellow-slave. However, the change in the verbs as well as the defects in spelling was not applied to the entire novel which makes us consider the reasons for such use. Towards a Purity in Style Daniel Defoe, in his book An Essay upon Projects, emphasized that it was the responsibility of the society to polish and refine the English tongue and to purge it from all the irregular additions that ignorance and affectation have introduced as befitted the noblest and most comprehensive of all the vulgar languages in the world (8). The spread of the English language was depicted in the novel when Robinson Crusoe teaches his servant Friday the English language. We may notice from an excerpt of their discourse below that although essentially Crusoe and Friday came to communicate effectively with each other, Friday’s English differs much from Crusoe’s parallel to their difference in status and origin: Friday, My Nation beat much, for all that. Master, How beat; if your Nation beat them, how come you to be taken? Friday, They more many than my Nation in the Place where me was; they take one, two, three, and me; my Nation over beat them in the yonder Place, where me no was; there my Nation take one, two, great Thousand. Master, But why did not your Side recover you from the Hands of your Enemies then? Friday, They run one, two, three, and me, and make go in the Canoe; my Nation have no Canoe that time. (Defoe, â€Å"Robinson Crusoe† 254) Much is the same circumstance that brought about the variations and additions to the English language in which Defoe is clamoring for purity (â€Å"An Essay upon Projects† 8). Shoar and Shore. Aside from the defective spelling mentioned earlier is the variation in the spelling (Ward et al. ch 15 sec 3 par. 1). An example if this is the word shore, spelled shore and shoar, in different context of the novel. It may be noted that shoar was only used in the part of Robinson Crusoe’s mishaps. That is to say, from the part of his captivity at Sallee until before his wreck on the island. These mishaps, Crusoe later reflected on, were results of his ignorance in the Providence of God and malcontent thus the use of the spelling shoar. While his solitary life in the island described the learning process he underwent to survive and finally live harmoniously with his surroundings; hence the renewed use of the spelling shore. In this regard, one may interpret that the use of the word was intentional to show the need and difficulty in creating a standard for the English language. viz. and (viz.). The use of foreign language in novels is quite common throughout the ages. As such, we came to attention on the use of the Latin word viz. Oxford English Dictionary defines viz. as the abbreviation of videlicet which generally means namely or that is to say (1033). Although Defoe used viz. without parenthesis and viz. in parenthesis based on the same definition, its participation in the statement are quite different. The viz. without parenthesis was used in identifying and qualifying statements such as the â€Å"All the rest of that Day I spent in afflicting my self at the dismal Circumstances I was brought to, viz. I had neither Food, House, Clothes, Weapon, or Place to fly to†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (â€Å"Robinson Crusoe† 82). On the other hand, viz. in parenthesis, which appeared in lines like â€Å"This was what I wish’d for; so I took them up, and serv’d them as we serve notorious Thieves in England, (viz.) Hang’d them in Chains for a Terror to others†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (â€Å"Robinson Crusoe† 138), was used as such in order to explain earlier statement. The use of parenthesis to differentiate the use of the same word in the novel further reflects Defoe’s quest for refinement of the English language as mentioned previously. Conclusion Indeed, regardless of the plot of the story which categorized it to fiction, the culture and language of the time is unmistakable. Robinson Crusoe, in its original version, allows us the indulgence to peek and appreciate not only the early modern English language but the period as well. The flexibility of the language then reflected the society of that time as it has always been for any period or era. At the same time, the novel provided additional venue for the author to disseminate his ideas and further his individual attempt towards the transition to the modern English language and insertions to the importance of learning across the spectrum of the society. Such power language has to influence its readers, whether consciously or unconsciously. And the duality that the novel showed made it a favorite among children and adults alike. Fulfilling its objectives to entertain and propagate (however subtle it may be). Works Cited Defoe, Daniel. An Essay Upon Projects. New York: Adamant Media Corporation, 2005. Print. —. The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner: Who lived Eight and Twenty Years, all alone in an uninhabited Island on the Coast of America, near the Mouth of the Great River of Oroonoque; Having been cast on Shore by Shipwreck, wherein all the Men perished but himself. With an Account how he was at last as strangely deliver’d by Pyrates. London: printed for W. Taylor, 1719. Print. Oxford English Dictionary. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. Print. Ward, Aldolphus William, Sir, et al. The Cambridge History of English and American Literature. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1907-21; New York: Bartleby.com, 2000 (Web) April 1, 2009.

Cell phones Positive Effect on Society Essay

The cellphone is one of the defining technologies of the early 21st century, with a December 2012 Pew Internet study showing that more than 87 percent of American adults own at least one. While the negative societal consequences of cellphones have been well documented, it’s also true that they can bring many benefits. Mobile technology allows users to interact with family, friends and colleagues in ways that weren’t possible for previous generations. New Telecom Prepaid Offer 60 mins talk & 5,000 txts Only $19. Plus 500MB Data – Go Big Now! www.telecom.co.nz​/​Prepaid-ValuePack Mobile Commerce Cellphones have become vital tools for consumers, allowing users to obtain information, search for discounts and purchase products directly from their devices. M-commerce is growing rapidly, with an eMarketer study putting U.S. retail sales through mobile devices at $24.66 billion in 2012. In addition, mobile marketing through cellphones allows businesses to engage with their audiences in new ways. This can be especially effective for small businesses, giving them a cost-effective way to reach potential customers. Helps Speech Difficulties The text and instant messaging functions of cell phones can be used to help those who suffer from vocal communication problems. Some conditions, such as certain forms of autism or diseases of the vocal cords, leave individuals able to understand words but unable to vocalize them. Cellphones offer a portable and unobtrusive way to type what they want to say instead of having to say it aloud, with some phones also offering text-to-speech capabilities. Keeping in Touch Cellphones make it easier than ever before to contact family and friends, especially for users who do a lot of traveling. No less than 65 percent of American adults believe that their cellphone makes it a lot easier to stay in touch with the people they care about, according to Pew Internet’s 2012 survey. Cellphone-based services like SMS and instant messaging encourage communication between individuals through their convenience alone, allowing users to stay in more or less constant contact. Emergency Use Keeping a cellphone on you allows you to make 911 calls immediately, with no need to waste time finding a phone to call from. The Federal Communications Commission estimates that 70 percent of 911 calls are made from mobile devices, and recognizes them as an important public safety tool. It has also developed a text-to-911 function, allowing users to request emergency assistance through text in certain circumstances. Even in non-emergencies, for example a car breakdown, cellphones can make requesting help much easier and safer.

Global perspective Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Global perspective - Essay Example Individuals can travel from one country to another by taking direct flights. Therefore, this increases criminal cases such as illegal immigration and drug dealing and human trafficking (Ndiaye,  2007). These cases are mainly caused by the wide spared globalization. They affect the criminal justice systems of the United States significantly because; they demand a lot of time and thus; other areas of the systems have to be foregone. Globalization has also increased cross-border terrorism, which affects the American Criminal Justice System considerably. This is because while people move from one place to another while conducting trade, assessing all the people entering the country becomes difficult. Therefore, globalization leaves a loophole for terrorists to enter a country. Illegal immigration on the other could also be said to arise from extensive globalization since; people enter a country as traders or business people with fake documents and yet the authorities fail to realize it (Ndiaye,  2007). This can be attributed to the multitude of cases burdening the Criminal Justice System such that; it fails to exercise keenness in its work. However, globalization can also be said to have a positive effect on the American Criminal Justice Systems. This is because with globalization, law enforcement agencies are now able to obtain information about people within a very short period. In addition, globalization connects the American criminal justice system with criminal justice systems of other countries in the world. Therefore, the system has become stronger since it can borrow different ideas from the other systems. Through globalization, the American criminal justice system also coordinates well the criminal justice systems of other countries to ensure that criminal activities are acutely reduced. The civil law is a type of law that deals with the kinds of disputes that are not termed as criminal cases. Therefore, the law solves disputes arising from matters suc h as contracts, divorces, ownership of property, child custody and compensation for property or personal damage. The law is normally based on the ruling of court but sometimes it is based on the federal statutes. Basically, civil law serves as a remedy of solving problems among people. Common law is a type of law that deals with similar cases as the civil law. However, the difference between the civil law and common law is that judgments in common law are based on prior judgments made by other judges on similar or closely related cases. Therefore, judges depend on their predecessors’ judgments to decide cases in court (Quigley,  1989). However, sometimes judges have to look outside the set precedents in order to avoid the issue of rigidity in solving cases. Islamic law is a type of law that mainly solves Muslim cases based on their holy book, the Quran. The law, which is widely known as the Sharia Law, solves all kinds of cases irrespective of whether they are criminal or c ivil. For instance, it solves matters concerning crime, politics and financial issues. The law also solves personal matters such as fasting, prayer and hygiene. In the Sharia law, plaintiffs and defendants are not required to hire lawyers to represent them. Instead, the individuals normally represent themselves in the Sharia court. Socialist law is a type of law used in communist states such as China. Although the law is based on the civil law, it has been slightly modified in order to fit the ways of communism. The

Moodal Realism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

Moodal Realism - Essay Example Epistemology is popularly held to be a conjunction of two fundamental words: "episteme", which means knowledge or information and "logos" means belief or a system of meanings. Thus it is a field of enquiry into the relevance and ingredients of knowledge and how do they affect us by their state and nature of existence. Hence, knowledge is seen as an after product of something. It is not a neutral state of being that was just there from the beginning. And when speaking of beginning, it also has a theological side to it, because it then analyzes the Christian belief of Origin too and how knowledge came into being. Therefore epistemology defines, analyzes, classifies and determines the very existence of knowledge. It is a very vast field but it is interminably connected with ideas and quests of metaphysics that questions the nature of our immediate outside or reality, and our inside or being. Thus if theory of knowledge questions the understanding of a mass of gathered data, then metaphy sics interprets that to understand the world we inhabit. Ontology situates the various categories into different areas of interpretation and locates it within the fixity of a single perceivable and understandable reality. But what if the reality is a plural idea Then what happens to the idea of the being Where do we locate the consciousness 3.0 Interrelation Between Modal Realism and Epistemology Counterfactuals come in between the assumptions of Modal Realism and critical problems of it concerning epistemology to whose scope it may. Thus counterfactualism opens up more possibilities and act against the teleological determinism that seem to haunt historical truths that seem to be chronologically and determinedly progressing towards an ultimate end and has a hidden purpose towards ultimate perfection or destruction. In theology that maybe an apocalypse or Judgement Day, while in science it may be the end of evolution and extinction and in physics it may be the end or the beginning of another universe altogether. Hence, how does the study of knowledge that asserts the value of knowledge treat Thus knowledge and truth are interrelated. Hence, Modal Realism becomes a claim that must either be a part of that truth, which is either established by reason or by empiricism and hence is a priori or posteriori in their essence and existence. Lewis makes a claim which allows us to at lea st think of many possible worlds where all things are parallely possible without any temper spatial relation to each other and thus if in one world President Kenny is assassinated, then in another he may have somehow been luckier and had a chance to be the president of America for another term. But how can the validity of such a bizarre notion (at least bizarre to the seeming establishment of epistemological understanding of know-how truth, belief and system of verified reality Thus the question of 'what if' is problematic not just within its essential dimension of being impossible (since a priori knowledge is another area

Practice and Ethics of Intelligence-Led Policing Essay

Practice and Ethics of Intelligence-Led Policing - Essay Example The essay "Practice and Ethics of Intelligence-Led Policing" talks about the intelligence-led policing, a crime reduction strategy supported by law that is based on a combination of crime analysis and the criminal intelligence. The origin of the concept of intelligence-led policing was in the United Kingdom (UK). The basis of the concept was to target offenders since in general it was found that more attention was given to crime determination rather than targeting the offenders who commit those crimes. Thus the concept was more oriented to the problems leading to the criminal activities. Making use of intelligence in crime analysis has the ability to utilize the available resources in strategically targeting offenders and try to prevent crime. However, the ethical considerations of this policy are equally significant. The present study focuses on the practice and ethics of intelligence-led policing and determines whether this policy should be the future of law enforcement. Intelligen ce, as can be associated with the analyses of crimes, can be referred to the availability of information that is analyzed as well. Thus raw information that is collected does not represent intelligence. Intelligence is when the data is assessed and analyzed and used for the purpose of crime detection, prevention, and reduction. Intelligence can be either tactical or strategic. Tactical intelligence enables the accomplishment of particular inquiries. Strategic intelligence focuses on the broader insights of the crime investigation.... Strategic intelligence on the other hand, focuses on the broader insights of the crime investigation and thus takes into consideration the entire plan and manpower involved in the process. While tactical measures are meant for immediate actions, strategic intelligence is considered and planned over a significant period of time producing effective solutions to crime related problems (Intelligence-Led Policing: The New Intelligence Architecture, 2005, p.3). The primary need for intelligence arises in making effective decisions, planning of measures, strategically targeting the offenders and thus preventing and reducing the crimes and their effects. Collection of information, processing them and using the power of analyzed intelligence are required and prove to be significantly useful in most of the agencies working under the law enforcement power. The need for intelligence based crime detection and prevention became more significant after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack in the United States (US). Thus, now, the large amounts of data being collected and processed prove to be an effective measure in order to analyze the crimes. The different forms of collection of information involve physical surveillance that may be either conducted by an individual or through videotaping, electronic surveillance that can be conducted through trapping or tracing of information, use of secret informers, operators who remain undercover, reports from newspapers or other sources of media, as well as public records (Intelligence-Led Policing: The New Intelligence Architecture, 2005, pp.3-6). Intelligence-Led Policing: The Origin and the Process: Although some of the law enforcement agencies might assert that they have been using the intelligence-led

Work-life Balance In The Global Human Resource Management Coursework

Work-life Balance In The Global Human Resource Management - Coursework Example These components are change management, stress management, technology management, leisure management, self management and time management. If any employee’s mental health is sick then the work will be affected. There will not be any kind of outcomes even if the employee works hard. To keep all these factors in mind employers now arrange the work schedule in such a way so that every employee should get some time for their own and personal purpose. The management of many companies also arrange vacation trips for the employees or provide vacation allowances to the employees for enjoying the trip with their families in a relaxed mood. Here in the two mentioned case studies one common sentence can be found. This is ‘the work life balance’. In one case study this is observed that a person’s professional life has been changed after death of her daughter in an accident. Before this accident Mrs. Hughes was involved only in her work and spent most of the time to develop her career path. But after that tragedy she realized that apart from work she has to do something which will be beneficial for the society and through this process she will get mental satisfaction. She began a safety campaign along with her professional work. The main objective of this campaign is to reduce the risk factors at railway crossings. Her campaign got significant success at this work. As per the view of many people this can be said that any incident in personal life will affect the work life also. If there is something wrong with a person then his ability of work will be reduced in a significant way (Kramar and Syed, 2012 ). Personal experience most of the time change the behaviour towards work. Some people do not want to share his personal stories in the work place. That is fine but communication with the peer group apart from work related matter is necessary. This will help to reduce the work load

Asian Americans V.S. African Americans Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Asian Americans V.S. African Americans - Essay Example With time, these conflicts have intensified as their number keeps on increasing. Economic strength has also greatly enhanced intensity of conflict between these two groups. The battle over who is superior to the other economically seems to intensify as each group try to take control over the other (Andersen, et al 239). Limited economic resources are not enough to cater for everyone thus creating division between those who have and those who do not have. To weaken each other economically, these groups destroy properties that belong to the other group like it was witnessed in 1992 during the ‘Black – Asian’ conflict. In addition, many Asians have made money, by venturing into businesses in the areas occupied by the Africans. Because of anti-black racism that discriminates Africans in America, such as getting loan to start business, many Africans are unable to venture into business. Due to this fact, Africans feel that the Asians are siphoning money from them. Media is another cause, which has been fueling racial conflict between Asians and Africans. Africans are depicted in media as arrogant, gangsters, lazy and poor. On the other hand, Asians are depicted as hardworking, eager to please and opportunistic. Such notions portrayed by media every now and then fuel the rivalry between these two groups (Chang 4). Cultural practices and customs is another root cause of conflict between Asians and Africans in America. Each group has its diverse culture, which it follows and respect. Fear of their culture being dominated or absorbed completely makes the two groups to distance from each other (Takaki 7). A conflict arises as each group try to maintain the benefits of their culture and disrespect cultural practices of the other group. The difference in skin color between Asians and Africans is another cause of conflict between them. Asians compares themselves to white