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Tuesday, April 22, 2008
My Favorite Sentence Revision Technique | Writing Power

My Favorite Sentence Revision Technique | Writing Power

My Favorite Sentence Revision Technique
Author: loren

18 Mar

My students typically get into a bad place about their writing style right about now - at midterm. Gripping their temples, they moan, “This is pointless. It’s stupid. You know what I meant.” Just a couple of weeks ago, they had (somewhat glibly) assured me that they were eager to learn how to write with a more powerful, lively, specific style. Now that they have had a taste of how difficult stylistic issues can be, and how deeply ingrained in their prose wordiness is, they’re frustrated. Quite understandably.

Revising to improve writing style can be a tortuous - and torturous - process. All too often, we fix one style error by creating another. Or we can’t think of a different way to phrase our ideas. Sometimes, we don’t even understand the wordy, jargon-filled prose our earlier selves drafted. It’s enough to make a writer want to give up.

But my students are not giving up. They are turning on the assignment instead, demanding to know what’s so great about active voice or what’s so wrong with “due to the fact that.” I find this feistiness encouraging, because it means that they are questioning assumptions about writing. They are thinking critically, even if their goal is nothing more noble than trying to worm out of the hard work of stylistic revision. They need a manageable sentence revision strategy to get them started.

At this point, I introduce the class to my favorite sentence revision technique: Richard Lanham’s Paramedic Method of Revision. It’s simple to understand, easy to do, and effective.

Here it is:

1. Circle all the forms of the verb “to be.”

2. Circle all the prepositions.

3. Ask yourself, “who is doing the central action in this sentence?”

4. Make your answer the active subject of the sentence.

5. Eliminate mindless introductory phrases.

Let’s break it down.

1. Forms of the verb to be (For example: is, am, are, was, were, will have been, would be, has been, will be) are often a signal that passive voice is present. Additionally, “to be” is the most inert verb in the English language - step #3 almost always identifies a central action other than “being.”

2. The more prepositions in a sentence (For example: of, to, from, by, for, beside, among, between, over, off, in, onto, under, through, around, at), the higher the chance that the writer is using wordy phrases. Like the verb “to be,” prepositions have valid uses in English; however, writers often overuse them as well.

3. Often in a wordy sentence, the most important action is hiding in a noun or wordy phrase. By asking yourself to identify your sentence’s essential core, you will find that action and turn it into a vibrant active verb.

4. Make the “doer” of that active verb the sentence’s subject. After all, the subject and verb are a sentence’s most important parts. It stands to reason that they should communicate the sentence’s most important information.

5. Introductory phrases can be useful, but they can also be rhetorical throat-clearing. Your sentences should hit the ground running, content wise.

Example before the paramedic method:

In today’s society, honesty is seen as a quality that many people do not value.

After:

Few people value honesty.

Another example before:

It is evident that there is an extensive process involved in the creation of high-quality writing that begins in the mind of the writer and does not cease but continues over the course of the process of writing from invention to editing.

And after:

A writer’s creative process starts in his or her mind and continues from invention to editing.

Of course, the Paramedic Method will not catch every stylistic gaffe. But applying it diligently can improve your writing dramatically. I hope you’ll try it soon.
Posted by Dr. T. Jacob Thomas at 9:59 PM 0 comments
Govt drops move for stricter Sati law-India-The Times of India

Govt drops move for stricter Sati law-India-The Times of India

Govt drops move for stricter Sati law
23 Apr 2008, 0021 hrs IST,Himanshi Dhawan,TNN
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NEW DELHI: The UPA government has dropped attempts to strengthen the anti-Sati law, more than 20 years after it was first enacted. This comes at a time when the women's reservation bill has been relegated to the backburner.

The amendments to the Commission of Sati (Prevention) Act, 1987, had met with resistance in the Cabinet over some clauses. The proposed law was expected to increase prison terms for those committing as well as glorifying the practice while holding the entire community responsible for the act.

Sources in the women and child development ministry said the amendments have been dropped following political pressure.

Cabinet members, including minister for mines Sis Ram Ola, and science and technology minister Kapil Sibal had objected to the amendments in a meeting in September.

Ola, who hails from Jhunjhunu, raised several issues. He said the proposals would challenge existing mores. What would happen to the Sati temples and how would the government deal with the tradition of worship at these temples, he asked.

Sibal had pointed out certain legal lapses in the bill that holds the panchayat and onlookers responsible for "participation" in bride-burning. The bill had recommended that the village be heavily fined and the panchayat be made responsible for alerting the police and the district magistrate to any such incident.

The proposed legislation recommended that coercing a woman to commit Sati be made a non-bailable offence. The amendments were cleared by a GoM in August 2007.
Posted by Dr. T. Jacob Thomas at 6:20 PM 0 comments
Monday, April 21, 2008
The Times of India - Indian Newspapers in English Language from six editions.

The Times of India - Indian Newspapers in English Language from six editions.

Is the CJI a public servant?
22 Apr 2008, 0300 hrs IST,Dhananjay Mahapatra,TNN
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NEW DELHI: Chief Justice of India K G Balakrishnan's contention that the CJI was not a public servant but a constitutional authority flies in the face of a 1991 ruling by a five-judge Bench of the Supreme Court which held that all judges of the apex court and high courts were "public servants".

Justice Balakrishnan recently said, "The Chief Justice is not a public servant. He is a constitutional authority. RTI does not cover constitutional authorities." This assertion appears contrary to the ruling of the five-judge Bench, which by a 4:1 majority, held that "a judge of the high court or the Supreme Court is a 'public servant' within the meaning of Section 2 of the Prevention of Corruption Act".

The RTI Act had not been conceived at that time and the SC could not debate whether a person categorised as public servant under PC Act would retain his classification under the RTI Act.

In the judgment given on July 25, 1991, the apex court had rejected the plea of a former HC chief justice, K Veeraswamy, seeking quashing of criminal proceedings initiated against him by the CBI for accumulating disproportionate assets during his tenure as CJ.

Justices K J Shetty, B C Ray, L M Sharma and M N Venkatachalliah unanimously came to the conclusion that all judges of the superior courts were "public servants".

Justice J S Verma dissented. "A judge or chief justice of a high court is a constitutional functionary, even though he holds a public office and in that sense, he may be included in the wide definition of a public servant."

He said that as there was no authority nominated in the PC Act to sanction prosecution of SC and HC judges, they could not be classified as public servants under the anti-corruption law.

The majority did not agree with Justice Verma. They said for sanctioning prosecution of a judge of the Supreme Court or high court in a corruption case, the President would be the competent authority, though no criminal case would be registered without first consulting the chief justice of the court where the judge was working.

"If the Chief Justice of India himself is the person against whom allegations of criminal misconduct are received, the government shall consult any other judge or judges of the Supreme Court," the majority verdict said.

dhananjay.mahapatra@timesgroup.com
Posted by Dr. T. Jacob Thomas at 6:23 PM 0 comments
Sunday, April 13, 2008
History of Latin

History of Latin
History of Latin Close this window

An irreverent but true chronology by Timothy J. Pulju.

753 BC — Traditional date of the founding of the city of Rome by Romulus, a fictional character who killed his twin brother Remus, populated his city with escaped convicts, and found wives for his subjects by kidnapping Sabine women who had come for a visit. At this stage, Latin is the language spoken by several thousand people in and near Rome.

6th century BC — Earliest known Latin inscription, on a pin, which says "Manios me fhefhaked Numasioi", meaning "Manius made me for Numerius". Only a few other inscriptions predate the 3rd century BC.

250-100 BC — Early Latin. The first Latin literature, usually loose translations of Greek works or imitations of Greek genres, stems from this period. Meanwhile, the Romans are conquering the Mediterranean world and bringing their language with them.

100 BC-150 AD — Classical Latin. Guys like Cicero, Caesar, Vergil, and Tacitus write masterpieces of Latin literature. Also, Ovid writes a book on how to pick up women at the gladiator shows. The literary language becomes fixed and gradually loses touch with the ever- changing popular language known today as Vulgar Latin.

200-550 — Late Latin. Some varieties of literature adhere closely to the classical standard, others are less polished or deliberately closer to the popular speech (e.g., St. Jerome's translation of the Bible into Latin—the Vulgate). The western half of the empire is falling to pieces, but the Greek-speaking east, which is still in good shape, keeps using Latin in official contexts until the end of this period.

600-750 — Latin has become a dead language. Few people in the west outside of monasteries can read. The spoken languages of Italy, France and Spain change rapidly. Monks, particularly in Ireland, read and write classical Latin and preserve ancient texts as well as church documents. The Roman Catholic church continues to use Late Latin in the liturgy, though they eventually decide to deliver homilies in the local popular language. The Byzantines still call themselves Romans but have given up on the Latin language.

800-900 — The Carolingian Renaissance. Charlemagne decides that education is a good thing and promotes it in his kingdoms. After his death scholarship goes downhill a while, but never as far as it had before his reign.

1100-1300 — Contact with the educated Arabs who have conquered North Africa and Spain leads to a revival of learning, especially the study of Aristotle and other Greeks. Leading smart guys include St. Thomas "The Dumb Ox" Aquinas and John "Dunce" Scotus, as well as Petrus Hispanus, a pope who was killed when a ceiling collapsed on him. All learned writing is done in Latin, a practice which persisted until the 20th century at some fairly silly universities.

Mid 14th century — The Black Death kills a lot of people, including students, professors and other people who live in crowded, unsanitary cities. This is bad for the educational system. Meanwhile, an Italian poet named Petrarch decides that plague-infested professors and anyone else who doesn't write the classical Latin used by Cicero is a moron. In fact, everyone between Cicero and Petrarch was a moron in the latter's opinion, so it was high time to have a Renaissance and make fun of everything medieval.

1400-1650 — During the Renaissance, which spreads from Italy to France and finally to England, people start reading Latin classical authors and bringing Latin words into their languages. In England, this is called "aureate diction" and is considered evidence of great learnedness. Furthermore, as science develops, Europeans find it useful to have a universal Latinate terminology to facilitate international research.

up till 1900 — Almost everyone who goes to college has to learn Latin, and most humanities majors have to study Greek as well. Many of the Latin roots borrowed during the aureate diction period have come to seem native and can be used in forming new words.

mid 1960s — The Catholic Church decides that Latin is no longer the obligatory language of Catholic liturgies. Meanwhile, what with free love and everything, most young people of the 60s figure they have better things to do than learn Latin.

Today — Nobody speaks Latin well, and few people can write it, but lots can read it. Many of them are tenured professors, so they'd be hard to get rid of even if we wanted to.

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Posted by Dr. T. Jacob Thomas at 8:20 AM 0 comments
History of English



A Brief History of English, with Chronology
by Suzanne Kemmer © 2001-2005

* Pre-English | Old English | Middle English | Modern English

The language we call English was first brought to the north sea coasts of England in the 5th and 6th centuries A.D., by seafaring people from Denmark and the northwestern coasts of present-day Germany and the Netherlands. These immigrants spoke a cluster of related dialects falling within the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family. Their language began to develop its own distinctive features in isolation from the continental Germanic languages, and by 600 A.D. had developed into what we call Old English or Anglo-Saxon, covering the territory of most of modern England.

New waves of Germanic invaders and settlers came from Norway and Denmark starting in the late 8th century. The more violent of these were known as Vikings, sea-faring plunderers who retained their ancient pagan gods and attacked settlements and churches for gold and silver. They spoke a northern Germanic dialect similar to, yet different in grammar from Anglo-Saxon. In the 11th century, the attacks became organized, state-sponsored military invasions and England was even ruled for a time by the kings of Denmark and Norway. The Scandinavian influence on the language was strongest in the north and lasted for a full 600 years, although English seems to have been adopted by the settlers fairly early on.

The Norman Invasion and Conquest of 1066 was a cataclysmic event that brought new rulers and new cultural, social and linguistic influences to the British Isles. The Norman French ruling minority dominated the church, government, legal, and educational systems for three centuries. The Norman establishment used French and Latin, leaving English as the language of the illiterate and powerless majority. During this period English adopted thousands of words from Norman French and from Latin, and its grammar changed rather radically. By the end of that time, however, the aristocracy had adopted English as their language and the use and importance of French gradually faded. The period from the Conquest to the reemergence of English as a full-fledged literary language is called Middle English. Geoffrey Chaucer wrote his masterpiece, The Canterbury Tales, in Middle English in the late 1300s.

William Caxton set up the first printing press in Britain at the end of the 15th century. The arrival of printing marks the point at which the language began to take the first steps toward standardization and its eventual role as a national language. The period from 1500 to about 1650 is called Early Modern English, a period during which notable sound changes, syntactic changes and lexical enrichment took place. The Great English Vowel Shift, which systematically shifted the phonetic values of all the long vowels in English, occurred during this period. Word order became more fixed in a subject-verb-object pattern, and English developed a complex auxiliary verb system. A rush of new vocabulary from the classical languages, the modern European languages, and more distant trading partners such as the countries of Asian minor and the Middle East entered the language as the renaissance influences of culture and trade and the emerging scientific community of Europe took root in England.

Shakespeare wrote prolifically during the late 1500s and early 1600s and, like Chaucer, took the language into new and creative literary territory. His influence on English drama and poetry continued to grow after his death in 1616 and he has never been surpassed as the best known and most read poet/playwright of modern English.

The King James Bible was published in 1611, the culmination of at least a century of efforts to bring a Bible written in the native language of the people into the Church establishment and into people's homes. Among the common people, whose contact with literature often did not go far past the Bible, the language of the scriptures as presented in this version commissioned by King James I was deeply influential, due in part to its religious significance, but also to its literary quality. Its simple style and use of native vocabulary had a surpassing beauty that still resonates today.

By the 1700s almost all of the modern syntactic patterns of English were in place and the language is easily readable by modern speakers. Colonization of new territories by the newly united Kingdom of Great Britain spread English to the far corners of the globe and brought cargoes of still more loanwords from those far-flung places. At this point English began to develop its major world dialectal varieties, some of which would develop into national standards for newly independent colonies. By the 21st century, as the language of international business, science, and popular culture, English has become the most important language on the planet.

* Comparison of the Lord's Prayer in different stages of English

Pre-English Period (before 600 AD) [Top]
ca. 3000 B.C.
(or 6000 B.C?) Proto-Indo-European spoken in Baltic area.
(or Anatolia?)

* Excurses: Indo-European languages | Proto-Indo-European

ca. 1000 B.C. After many migrations, the various branches of Indo-European have become distinct. Celtic becomes most widespread branch of I.E. in Europe; Celtic peoples inhabit what is now Spain, France, Germany and England.
55 B.C. Beginning of Roman raids on British Isles.
43 A.D. Roman occupation of Britain. Roman colony of "Britannia" established. Eventually, many Celtic Britons become Romanized. (Others continually rebel).

* Excursus: History of Latin

200 B.C.-200 A.D. Germanic peoples move down from Scandinavia and spread over Central Europe in successive waves. Supplant Celts. Come into contact (at times antagonistic, at times commercial) with northward-expanding empire of Romans.
Early 5th century. Roman Empire collapses. Romans pull out of Britain and other colonies, attempting to shore up defense on the home front; but it's useless. Rome sacked by Goths.

Germanic tribes on the continent continue migrations west and south; consolidate into ever larger units. Those taking over in Rome call themselves "Roman emperors."
ca. 410 A.D. First Germanic tribes arrive in England.
410-600 Settlement of most of Britain by Germanic peoples (Angles, Saxons, Jutes, some Frisians) speaking West Germanic dialects descended from Proto-Germanic. These dialects are distantly related to Latin, but also have a sprinkling of Latin borrowings due to earlier cultural contact with the Romans on the continent.

Celtic peoples, most of whom are Christianized, are pushed increasingly (despite occasional violent uprisings) into the marginal areas of Britain: Ireland, Scotland, Wales. Anglo-Saxons, originally sea-farers, settle down as farmers, exploiting rich English farmland.

By 600 A.D., the Germanic speech of England comprises dialects of a language distinct from the continental Germanic languages.

Old English Period (ca. 600-1100) [Top]
600-800 Rise of three great kingdoms politically unifying large areas: Northumbria, Mercia, Wessex. Supremacy passes from one kingdom to another in that order.
ca. 600 Christianity introduced among Anglo-Saxons by St. Augustine, missionary from Rome. Irish missionaries also spread Celtic form of Christianity to mainland Britain.
793 First serious Viking incursions. Lindisfarne monastery sacked.

* Excursus: Map of Viking invasions

800 Charlemagne, king of the Franks, crowned Holy Roman Emperor; height of Frankish power in Europe. Wessex kings aspire to similar glory; want to unite all England, and if possible the rest of mainland Britain, under one crown (theirs).
840s-870s Viking incursions grow worse and worse. Large organized groups set up permanent encampments on English soil. Slay kings of Northumbria and East Anglia, subjugate king of Mercia. Storm York (Anglo-Saxon Eoforwic) and set up a Viking kingdom (Jorvik). Wessex stands alone as the last Anglo-Saxon kingdom in Britain.
871 Vikings move against Wessex. In six pitched battles, the English hold their own, but fail to repel attackers decisively. In the last battle, the English king is mortally wounded. His young brother, Alfred, who had distinguished himself during the battles, is crowned king.
871-876 Alfred builds a navy. The kings of Denmark and Norway have come to view England as ripe for the plucking and begin to prepare an attack.
876 Three Danish kings attack Wessex. Alfred prevails, only to be attacked again a few months later. His cause looks hopeless.
878 Decisive battle at Edington; Alfred and a large contingent of desperate Anglo-Saxons make a last stand (they know what awaits them if they fail). Alfred leads the Anglo-Saxons to decisive victory; blockades a large Viking camp nearby, starving them into submission; and exacts homage from the kings of Denmark and an oath that the Danes will leave Wessex forever.

Under Alfred's terms of victory, England is partitioned into a part governed by the Anglo-Saxons (under the house of Wessex) and a part governed by the Scandinavians (some of whom become underlords of Alfred), divided by Watling Street. 15 years of peace follow; Alfred reigns over peaceful and prosperous kingdom. First called "Alfred the Great".
925 Athelstan crowned king. Height of Anglo-Saxon power. Athelstan reconquers York from the Vikings, and even conquers Scotland and Wales, heretofore ruled by Celts. Continues Alfred's mission of making improvemen ts in government, education, defense, and other social institutions.
10th century Danes and English continue to mix peacefully, and ultimately become indistinguishable. Many Scandinavian loanwords enter the language; English even borrows pronouns like them, their they.
978 Aethelred "the Unready" becomes king at 11 years of age.
991 Aethelred has proved to be a weak king, who does not repel minor Viking attacks. Vikings experiment with a major incursion at Maldon in Essex. After losing battle, Aethelred bribes them to depart with 10,000 pounds of silver. Mistake. Sveinn, king of Denmark, takes note.
994-1014 After 20 years of continuous battles and bribings, and incompetent and cowardly military leadership and governance, the English capitulate to king Sveinn of Denmark (later also of Norway). Aethelred flees to Normandy, across the channel.
1014 Sveinn's young son Cnut (or Canute) crowned king of England. Cnut decides to follow in Alfred's footsteps, aiming for a peaceful and prosperous kingdom. Encourages Anglo-Saxon culture and literature. Even marries Aethelred's widow Emma, brought over from Normandy.

After Cnut's death his sons bicker over the kingdom. When they die without issue, the kingdom passes back to the house of Wessex, to young Edward, son of Aethelred and Emma, who had been raised in exile in Normandy. Edward is a pious, monkish man called "The Confessor".

Edward has strong partiality for his birthplace, Normandy, a duchy populated by the descendents of Romanized Vikings. Especially fond of young Duke William of Normandy. Edward is dominated by his Anglo-Saxon earls, especially powerful earl Godwin. Godwin's son, Harold Godwinson, becomes de facto ruler as Edward takes less and less interest in governing.
1066 January. Edward dies childless, apparently recommending Harold Godwinson as successor. Harold duly chosen by Wessex earls, as nearest of kin to the crown is only an infant. Mercian and Northumbrian earls are hesitant to go along with choice of Harold.

William of Normandy claims that Harold once promised to support HIM as successor to Edward. Harold denies it. William prepares to mount an invasion. Ready by summer, but the winds are unfavorable for sailing.

September. Harald Hardradi of Norway decides this is a good time to attack England. Harold Godwinson rushes north and crushes Hardradi's army at Stamford Bridge. The winds change, and William puts to sea. Harold rushes back down to the south coast to try to repel William's attack. Mercians and Northumbrians are supposed to march down to help him, but never do. They don't realize what's in store for them.

October. Harold is defeated and killed at the battle of Hastings.

December. William of Normandy crowned king of England in Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day.

* Excursus: The Bayeux Tapestry

Middle English Period (ca. 1100-1500) [Top]
1066-1075 William crushes uprisings of Anglo-Saxon earls and peasants with a brutal hand; in Mercia and Northumberland, uses (literal) scorched earth policy, decimating population and laying waste the countryside. Anglo-Saxon earls and freemen deprived of property; many enslaved. William distributes property and titles to Normans (and some English) who supported him. Many of the English hereditary titles of nobility date from this period.

English becomes the language of the lower classes (peasants and slaves). Norman French becomes the language of the court and propertied classes. The legal system is redrawn along Norman lines and conducted in French. Churches, monasteries gradually filled with French-speaking functionaries, who use French for record-keeping. After a while, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is no longer kept up. Authors write literature in French, not English. For all practical purposes English is no longer a written language.

Bilingualism gradually becomes more common, especially among those who deal with both upper and lower classes. Growth of London as a commercial center draws many from the countryside who can fill this socially intermediate role.
1204 The English kings lose the duchy of Normandy to French kings. England is now the only home of the Norman English.
1205 First book in English appears since the conquest.
1258 First royal proclamation issued in English since the conquest.
ca. 1300 Increasing feeling on the part of even noblemen that they are English, not French. Nobility begin to educate their children in English. French is taught to children as a foreign language rather than used as a medium of instruction.
1337 Start of the Hundred Years' War between England and France.
1362 English becomes official language of the law courts. More and more authors are writing in English.
ca. 1380 Chaucer writes the Canterbury tales in Middle English. the language shows French influence in thousands of French borrowings. The London dialect, for the first time, begins to be recognized as the "Standard", or variety of English taken as the norm, for all England. Other dialects are relegated to a less prestigious position, even those that earlier served as standards (e.g. the Wessex dialect of southwest England).

* Excursus: Chaucer's Canterbury Tales

1474 William Caxton brings a printing press to England from Germany. Publishes the first printed book in England. Beginning of the long process of standardization of spelling.

* Excursus: The Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye

Modern English Period (ca. 1500-present) [Top]
1500-1650 Early Modern English develops. The Great Vowel Shift gradually takes place. There is a large influx of Latin and Greek borrowings and neologisms.
1552 Thomas Cranmer, archbishop of Canterbury, publishes the Book of Common Prayer, a translation of the church's liturgy into English.
1611 King James Bible published, which has influenced English writing down to the present day.

* Excursus: Common phrases from the King James Bible

1616 Shakespeare dies. Recognized even then as a genius of the English language. Wove native and borrowed words together in amazing and pleasing combinations.

* Excursus: Shakespeare's Legacy

1700s Classical period of English literature. The fashion for borrowing Latin and Greek words, and coining new words with Latin and Greek morphemes, rages unabated. Elaborate syntax matches elaborate vocabulary (e.g. writings of Samuel Johnson).

The rise of English purists, e.g. Jonathan Swift, who decried the 'degeneration' of English and sought to 'purify' it and fix it forever in unchanging form.
17th-19th centuries British imperialism. Borrowings from languages around the world.

Development of American English. By 19th century, a standard variety of American English develops, based on the dialect of the Mid-Atlantic states.

Establishment of English in Australia, South Africa, and India, among other British colonial outposts.

* Excursus: Borrowed words in English

19th century Recognition (and acceptance) by linguistic scholars of the ever-changing nature of language. Discovery of the Indo-European language family. Late in century: Recognition that all languages are fundamentally the same in nature; no "primitive" or "advanced" languages.
19th-20th centuries Scientific and Industrial Revolutions. Development of technical vocabularies. Within a few centuries, English has gone from an island tongue to a world language, following the fortunes of those who speak it.
20th century Communications revolution. Spread of a few languages at the expense of many. Languages of the world begin to die out on a large scale as mastery of certain world languages becomes necessary for survival. Classification and description of non-Indo-European languages by linguists continues, in many cases in a race against the clock.
1945-present American political, economic, military supremacy. Borrowing patterns continue. English has greater impact than ever on other languages, even those with more native speakers. Becomes most widely studied second language, and a scientific lingua franca.

By the 1990s, preferences begin to shift in many places from British to American English as the selected standard for second language acquisition. The twin influences of British and American broadcasting media make the language accessible to more and more people. Hollywood and the pop music industry help make English an irresistible medium for the transmission of popular culture. Even long-established European cultures begin to feel linguistically and culturally threatened, as English comes into use in more and more spheres and large numbers of English borrowings enter their languages.

New waves of immigrants to the U.S. Linguistic diversity increases where the newcomers settle, but immigrants repeat the pattern of earlier settlers and lose their language within a generation or two. The culture at large remains resolutely monolingual (despite the fears of cultural purists). But as ever, the language continues to absorb loanwords, continually enriched by the many tongues of the newcomers to these shores.

* Excursus: Internet slang

[Top]
Site maintained by Suzanne Kemmer at Rice University. Design Copyright © 2003 by James Jirtle, WebWiz Design.
Posted by Dr. T. Jacob Thomas at 8:17 AM 0 comments
Friday, April 11, 2008
Lalu, Antony slam pay panel's 'pro-IAS' report-India-The Times of India

Lalu, Antony slam pay panel's 'pro-IAS' report-India-The Times of India

*








Lalu, Antony slam pay panel's 'pro-IAS' report
12 Apr 2008, 0315 hrs IST,Vishwa Mohan & Bisheshwar Mishra,TNN
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NEW DELHI: The gathering discontent against the recommendations of the sixth pay commission found a loud echo in the Union Cabinet on Friday, with railway minister Lalu Prasad strongly asking for a review of what he called "a package loaded in favour of big babus in the IAS".

The recommendations were iniquitous and would increase salary disparities among different sections of employees, Lalu said. He added that while secretaries and other senior IAS officers had fared well, other services — police, paramilitary forces, defence services, railways, as well as lower and middle-rank functionaries of almost all central services — had been given a short shrift.

Lalu's strong advocacy received support, according to sources, from defence minister A K Antony, home minister Shivraj Patil and others, leading Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to suggest that the recommendations were not the last word and the government would take a view after a detailed scrutiny of the report and the grievances it has generated.

The Cabinet cleared a proposal to set up a high-level panel headed by cabinet secretary K M Chandrashekhar to screen the recommendations and look into the alleged anomalies.

The 12-member committee will comprise secretaries of the ministries of home, defence, revenue and expenditure.
The secretary of the department of post, secretary of security, deputy CAG, and financial commissioner and member secretary of the Railway Board will be the other members of the panel.

"The final recommendations of the committee will be submitted to the Cabinet for approval," science and technology minister Kapil Sibal told reporters after the Cabinet meeting. The minister did not announce any time-frame by which the committee would submit its report.

Given the widespread grievances against the pay panel's "bias" for IAS, there are doubts whether the agitating sections will accept the recommendations of the panel dominated by the "elite corps".

Meanwhile, The IPS Association has already asked for setting up of a GoM to go into their demand for "principle of parity in pay, promotion, pension and service conditions with IAS". The stand was finalized at a meeting of IPS officers drawn from across the country on Thursday.

"One should not forget what happened to similar committees formed after the fourth and fifth pay commission. The follow-up reports by such panels were merely an eyewash as it hardly addressed the grievances of employees," said a senior IPS officer.

What increases the prospect of a GoM is the sympathy that the political class, ever resentful of the "obstructionist ways" of the "steel frame", has shown for the discontented sections of the government servants since the pay commission unveiled its much-awaited report last month.

Before Lalu, UP chief minister Mayawati had come out strongly for the IPS cadre and the cops can only be expected to step up the lobbying.

The bubbling resentment came out in the open in the Capital on Friday with the Central Secretariat Services Association holding a huge protest demonstration. Members of the association have decided to observe a "protest week", beginning May 21.

There was strong fear of the employees cranking up their protests and was suspected to be the main reason for Lalu's forceful intervention in the Cabinet.

While the government had expected some protests, its willingness to deal with them would be constrained by the looming polls. Sections are wary of the implications of any generosity on the fiscal figures. But it has to balance the concern with consideration not to appear insensitive to the demands of a vocal and organized workforce that has a disproportionate say in influencing opinion.

Then, it also has to reckon with powerful partners as well as the Left who have traditionally been more aligned with the aspirations of the cops and non-IAS sections of the
Posted by Dr. T. Jacob Thomas at 6:08 PM 0 comments
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Muslims suss rpaCatholics: Will interfaith dialogue follow? | redblueamerica.com

Muslims surpass Catholics: Will interfaith dialogue follow? | redblueamerica.com

Muslims surpass Catholics: Will interfaith dialogue follow?

Demographic changes are reshaping the world's religions. The Vatican on Sunday reported that Islam has surpassed Roman Catholicism as the world's largest religion.

"For the first time in history, we are no longer at the top: Muslims have overtaken us," Monsignor Vittorio Formenti said in an interview with the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano. Formenti compiles the Vatican's yearbook. He said that Catholics accounted for 17.4 percent of the world population -- a stable percentage -- while Muslims were at 19.2 percent. (Christianity as a whole, however, remains the dominant world religion.)

"It is true that while Muslim families, as is well known, continue to make a lot of children, Christian ones on the contrary tend to have fewer and fewer," the monsignor said.

The news comes as Catholics and Muslims prepare to launch an unprecedented interfaith dialogue. Should the shifting population change the course of dialogue? Do Christians have anything to worry about? How does the rising Muslim population change the way Americans think about Islam and the war on terrorism? Does the changing face of world religion give new impetus to efforts to promote religious tolerance and peace?
Posted by Dr. T. Jacob Thomas at 6:53 AM 0 comments
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