Difficult Obstacle In Learning English English Language Essay

Difficult Obstacle In Learning English English Language Essay Vocabulary is the most difficult obstacle in learning English. However, English word formation is an effective way to learn English, because it can help us to correctly identify the word form, part of speech, and to understand the meaning of the word, and to rapidly expand our vocabulary. Among them, affixation is the strongest one, and it forms the largest number of words, and it is considered to be one of the best ways to learn English. Besides, compounding, conversion, blending, clipping, acronymy, back-formation are also the efficient ways of learning English. In the paper, the ways and characteristics of word formation are analyzed in affixation, compounding and conversion. Keywords: English word formation, affixation, compounding, conversion 1. Introduction Learning a language must to learn the speech, grammar and vocabulary. In these three elements, vocabulary occupies a pivotal position. Well-known scholar Wilkins said, without grammar, very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary, nothing can be conveyed. Vocabulary scientist McCarthy said more simply, no matter how well the student learns grammar, no matter how successfully he masters the sounds of a L2, without words to express a wide range of meanings, communication in that language cannot happen in any meaningful way. So many teachers and students pay a lot attention to the vocabulary learning. And the expansion of vocabulary in modern English depends chiefly on word formation. There is a variety of means being at work now. The most productive are affixation, compounding and conversion. Talking about word-forming patterns means dealing with rules. But not all words which are produced by applying the rule are acceptable. The acceptability is gained only when the words have gain ed an institutional currency in the language. Therefore, rules only provide a constant set of models from which new words are created from day to day. Rules themselves are not fixed but undergo changes to a certain extent. For instance, affixes and compounding processes may become productive at one time or lose their productivity. By word formation processes, we concentrate on productive or on productive rules. While applying the rules, we should keep in mind that there are always exceptions. Then I will analyze the ways and characteristics of word formation in affixation, compounding and conversion. 2. Affixation Affixation is generally defined as the formation of words by adding word-forming or derivational affixes to bases. This process is also known as derivation, by which new words are derived from old or base forms. The words that are created in this way are called derivatives. According to the positions affixes occupy in words, affixation falls into two subcategories: prefixation and suffixation. Prefixation is a way of forming new words by adding prefixes to stems. Usually, prefixes do not change the word-class of the stem but only modify its meaning. Prefixes can be divided, based on their meanings, into: negative prefixes, reversative prefixes, pejorative prefixes, prefixes of degree or size, prefixes of orientation and attitude, locative prefixes, prefixes of time and order, number prefixes, conversion prefixes, miscellaneous prefixes. For instance, negative prefixes include: 1) a-, apolitical, asexual, atypical; 2) dis-, disobey, discredit, disloyal; 3) in-, il-, ir-, im-, inaudible, illegitimate, irresistible, improbable; 4) non-, non-classical, non-smoker, non-violence; 5) un-, undemocratic, unwillingly, unbuilt. Suffixation is the process of forming new words by adding suffixes to the end of stems. Suffixes have primary function being to change the word class with a slight modification of meaning. Suffixes can be divided into noun suffixes, adjective suffixes, adverb suffixes and verb suffixes. For instance, noun suffixes include: 1) denominal nouns, -eer, -er, -age, profiteer, teenager, mileage; 2) deverbal nouns, -ant, -ent, -ing, assistant, respondent, christening; 3) de-adjective nouns, -ity, -ness, productivity, youthfulness; 4) noun and adjective suffixes, -ese, -an, -ist, Chinese, Australian, Methodist. Affixation is the strongest word formation, and it forms the largest number of words, and it is considered to be one of the best ways to learn English. Linguist David Crystal said, no matter how big your vocabulary is, only you know the range of prefixes and suffixes, and you know the main limitation of using them, your vocabulary will sharp increase soon. Famous author Lord Chesterfield said, the shortest and best way of learning a language is to know the roots of it, that is, those original primitive words of which other words are formed. Etymology scientists John Kennedy said, the stem and its value are the basis of the English language. 3. Compounding Compounding or composition is a process of word formation by which two or more stems are put together to make a new word. Words formed in this way are called compounds. So a compound is a à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"lexical unit consisting of more than one base and functioning both grammatically and semantically as a single wordà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢, Quirk et al said that. Compounds can be divided into noun compounds, adjective compounds and verb compounds. For instance, noun compounds include: 1) noun+ noun: moon cake, end product; 2) noun+ verb: toothache, frostbite; 3) verb+ noun: crybaby, tell-tale; 4) adjective+ noun: deadline, blueprint; 5) noun+ verb-ing: brainwashing, air-conditioning; 6) verb-ing+ noun: cleaning lady, wading bird; 7) noun+ verb-er: stockholder, crime reporter; 8) adverb+ verb: outbreak, downfall; 9) verb+ adverb: sit-in, have-not; 10)verb-ing+ adverb: going-over, carryings-on; 11) adverb+ verb-ing: up-bringing. And compounds have noticeable characteristics, such as phonolog ical features, semantic features, grammatical features and orthographical features. 4. Conversion Conversion is the formation of new words by converting words of one class to another class, without changes in morphological structures. New words are new only in a grammatical sense. For instance, the word paper as a noun has four senses: 1) material in thin sheets made from wood or cloth, 2) a newspaper, 3) a piece of writing for specialists, and 4) wallpaper. When turned into a transitive verb, it is related only to 4) as in à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"She papered the room greenà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢. 5. Conclusion English words are difficult to learn and hard to remember, but there are internal rules can be found. If we start from word formation, we can make vocabulary learning become simple and efficient, and make it possible for the rapid expansion of vocabulary. Word formation is an efficient way and powerful weapon for English study. We should grasp the three main ways, affixation, compounding and conversion, especially for our English major students.

Binge Drinking on College Campuses

Alcohol on American campuses has become a serious issue.   According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, drinking among college students leads to about 1,400 deaths, 500,000 injuries and 600,000 assaults each year (Coin).In 2000, the total number of alcohol related deaths on college campuses was nearly 5,600, while in 1979 the total was more than 2,500 (McClintock), and the number of students who reported that they had driven while intoxicated rose from 2.3 million to 2.8 million (Hingson 260).   This statistic includes all college students, ages 18-24.   That means some of the people involved in these incidents were underage.   1 out of every 4 students drinks at a binge level (Simons 24).This reflects the direction that the youth of America, as a whole, has taken.   Part of the reason for this is that many college students do not know about the harmful effects of alcohol.   Although college drinking, historically, has been viewed by many as a rela tively innocent rite of passage, there is evidence that it is a rite that too often results in negative consequences for drinkers such as poor academic performance, public misconduct, and health problems.Binge drinking is defined as having five or more drinks for men, and for or more drinks for women (Jennison 660).   After putting these numbers in a blood alcohol estimator, the average male, about 165 lbs, would have a BAC of approximately .09.   This is legally intoxicated in all states.   These numbers were achieved using beer as the type of alcohol.   Had it been hard liquor, the number would have been higher.   At this level of intoxication, all motor skills and judgment are affected adversely, leading to bad decisions as well as the physical inability to handle oneself.The negative short term affects of excessive drinking are numerous.   Impaired vision, judgment, and speech are among the first and most obvious symptoms of drunkenness.   Also, nausea, vomiting, d ehydration, and headaches are among the most common symptoms the next day, commonly referred to as a â€Å"hang over.†The main problem with these short term affects is the impaired judgment and motor skills.   When people are drunk, they can get very emotional, and this often leads to physical altercations.   More than 600,000 students reported being assaulted by someone who was under the influence of alcohol and more than 500,000 reported being injured while intoxicated (Hingson 261).   It is a fact: people have trouble controlling both their words and their actions while they are drunk, and this often leads to injuring themselves or the people around them.There are also many long term affects.   Liver disease, brain damage, and ulcers are the most common among the many effects that slowly tear away at the human body (Jennison 672).   It can also lead to impotence in men, birthing problems in women, added risk of breast cancer, and muscle deterioration (Hingson 268 ).   These are all very serious problems, and for the most part, most college students have no clue about the long term consequences of their binge drinking (Donahue 20).Next, we must understand the reason students drink in college.   Much of the drinking occurs at parties and revolves around drinking games.   These are social games designed to bring different groups of people together, and the rules of participation ensure heavy drinking (Simons 24).   Various games include beer-pong, Beirut, F**k the dealer, asshole, and quarters, among others.The general rules in these games ensure that both winners and losers will drink, with the losers drinking dangerous amounts.   Most people engage in these games as a way to meet new people, while some get involved just to drink.   Another reason many males start these games is to get girls involved.They know that alcohol makes people make decisions they wouldn’t usually make and they hope this leads to the girls being easi er.   It is a fact that alcohol loosens ones inhibitions, so many new friends can be met in one night at a party by a typically shy person if he/she decides to drink.   Also, many students are pressured into drinking by friends, but as they have never drank alcohol before, they do not know their limits, and this is often what leads to the biggest problems.Many first time drinkers have wound up â€Å"passed out† somewhere due to involvement in drinking games (Simons 27).

MediaCorp’s “Police and Thief” Essay

1. Short summary of my understanding of the question and my thesis statement 2. State some obvious similarities and differences between the 2 case studies. 3. Dissect each case study with the following categories in mind: a. Narratives b. Genres c. Representation d. Ideology e. Scenes 4. Conclusion 5. Some other things to think about: a. Give concrete examples. b. Aspects of styles. These two shows are very Singaporean. By this I mean that they contain many elements which are unique to my country, elements which only within the paradigm of our society will resonate with local viewers. Homerun, an Asian remake of the internationally acclaimed Iranian movie Children of Heaven is a movie directed by Jack Neo, who is a local celebrity best known for his comedic prowess and the many comedy shows under his name. Police and Thief is a relatively new weekly half-hour sitcom shown on Channel 5 which has yet to set a foothold in the heart of local audiences. These locally produced shows use, essentially different techniques in many areas to present the story to us while making use of our experiences as Singaporeans to help us understand and appreciate the shows from their story/plot to the surprises and nuances contained within. I will proceed to show you how the techniques used are also more different than similar. A distinction between the two shows is the element of narration. Cause and effect is employed to effectively present the story or stories in the shows. It is not uncommon to find secondary stories in an episode of a situation comedy or sitcom. These are often inserted into the plot and often come together in conclusion at the end of the episode. In Police and Thief, the show starts off on this episode with Lee Tok Kong the main character of the show wanting to get under the blanket with his wife and due to common reasons of tiredness and falling asleep quickly, has his pleas ignored. This scene is related to how Tok Kong later reacts to the wiles of a less than archetypical femme fatale. There is another story inserted in between, which shows how the neighbour’s sons, Rudy and Rafi having an unspoken conflict over a common love interest. This plot development has no explicit and implicit impact on the main story mentioned earlier. It almost feels like tokenism has taken place, either to fill up the half hour of screen time or to give emphasis to the other characters in the sitcom. In Homerun, it is quickly established that poverty leads to a lack of options and hence with the losing of shoes early into the movie, we see the main ’cause’ in the show that explains later effects. The show revolves around how the main characters are thwarted at every attempt to obtain a new pair of shoes or retrieve the old pair. We do not see scenes that have no relation to any other. In fact the entire narration of Homerun is about a search for a cause-shoes. Both the shows have different range of stories. There is less suspense buildup in Police and Thief and this is probably due to restricted narration where both the audience and the characters in the show know the same information at relatively equal times. The only example of unrestricted narration in the recent episode was when Rudy cheated on his promise to his brother Rafi behind his back to get a chance to go out with the girl, Cecilia, they both like. Rafi only found it out in another scene when Cecilia whom similarly does not know of the conflict called their home. In this case, we know more than several characters in the show at a particular time. In Homerun, during the opening sequence of Chew Kiat Kun running errands for his family, it is quickly established that a rag-and-bone man had taken away the pair of shoes which Kiat Kun had put down. Kiat Kun has no idea how the shoes had mysteriously disappeared and hence his sister Seow Fang too. In this scene alone, a beautiful play on camera angle suffices to keep us in suspense till much later in the show. This seemingly passing top down close up scene of the gnarled hands removing the shoes helps to tug hard at our heart strings when we later realize the rag-and-bone man is blind. The above is a good example of how both restricted and unrestricted narration can be developed from one scene. We know who had taken away the shoes (unrestricted narration) but like the characters in the show we have no idea he was blind (restricted narration). These two shows belong to the 2 commonest genres in Singapore. Police and Thief can be classified as belonging to the â€Å"HDB† genre. In fact this plot of this particular sitcom revolves around the conflict faced by two men who live in close proximity. It has an appeal particular to local viewers who are able to appreciate the familiar settings. One example which we can relate to is the scene of Lily, Tok Kong’s wife who repeats a punch line in a scene where her face is framed in the center of our common older HDB window panes. It is common to see neighbours walking and talking from the same angle for those who have lived in HDB flats. Homerun is a social commentary and even as it is based in 1965, the year Singapore became independent, it reflects on socio-political situations which were prevalent during the time of filming i.e. the water issue between Malaysia and Singapore. Another genre which is mixed into both these shows is the coffee shop genre, featuring many scenes of meeting and interactions at local coffee shops. We see this in Police and Thief where Tok Kong was being interviewed by a lady near the beginning of the show and in Homerun, Kiat Kun helps out his teacher from school who is close to collapsing from shortness of breath at a roadside coffee shop. There is obvious stereotyping in Police and Thief. Tok Kong is your typical gangster or â€Å"Ah Beng† in colloquial terms. He has wild, pointy gelled hair and wears colourful clothing, even for sleeping attire (Opening scenes). His heavily accented Singapore Colloquial English (SCE) (â€Å"Don’t play with my heart†) and his love for techno music scream â€Å"Ah Beng†. He is put in direct contrast with his neighbour and antagonist in the show Sergeant Dollah who is a policeman. Dollah is characterized with short hair, very neat and righteous. These stereotypes alone set the premise for tension and conflict as neighbours. It is akin to Phua Chu Kang versus his sister-in-law Margaret. The stereotypes in Homerun broadly differentiate the rich and the poor. A simple comparison can be made between Beng Soon and Kiat Kun, friends of opposite ends of the economic spectrum whose relationship sours then mends in the course of the show. Beng Soon is cast in shirts, clean with well-gelled hair (in school) and stands at a good head taller than Kiat Kun. His friend however is almost always dirty, with smudges on his singlet and/or face. Even during a game of soccer, Beng Soon provides the soccer boots and he is the only one on the field with soccer socks. Tok Kong as the gangster also becomes an icon easily associated with local shows of similar genres. There is no obvious icon in Homerun. It uses a motif rather, to play out the story. There were multiple scenes of close ups of your ‘Bata’ white or dirty shoes (in the shops or in the background with Seow Fang’s face in the focus). Many scenes of tension started because of shoes e.g. the shoes slipping off and into a canal full of rushing water and even in the scene where Seow Fang’s teacher paces as the children are exercising). These scenes feature changes in music, close ups with dialogue in the background, all to draw attention to the motif in the show. During the scene at the well with the confrontation between the two groups of boys, we see wealth being equated with power, that Beng Soon who was the rich one could actually decide who got to use the well. This is perhaps the director’s ideology portraying the way Malaysia hordes over us in the water issue. The premise of Homerun revolved around three things: shoes, intelligence and power being associated with wealth. Jack Neo parodies the socio-political situation between Singapore and Malaysia using the three elements with shoes being the water, Singapore being the more intelligent country and power that Malaysia holds over us due to their superior water resource. The two shows end differently too. The end of the sitcom is close without answered questions while the cryptic ending of Homerun leaves us pondering what the director would have us think as we leave the cinema. There is no element of suspense left in Police and Thief to entice the audience to look out for the next episode, unlike a soap opera. Even as both shows make use of our experience to enhance our appreciation and understanding of the shows, they obviously use several different techniques and some similar ones to bring forth the essence of each individual story. These different methods highlight certain elements essential to the plot of the stories and ultimately help us to enjoy the shows as Singaporeans.

The Jewish Community in Italy Essay - 2754 Words

The Jewish Community in Italy Problems with format For centuries, there has been a Jewish community in parts of present-day Italy, dating back to the Roman Empire. In addition to religious differences, Jews were faced with political challenges as well. The Emperor was included in the pantheon of Roman tradition, which added a political obligation to religious, and thus Roman citizens were required to ?conciliate the gods.? For Jews, this requirement created many consequences.[1] According to estimates, there were five to seven million Jews in the Roman Empire during this time. The relations between the Jews and the Romans have always been complicated. For in 186 B.C. measures were taken against the Bacchanalia, but in 161 B.C., a†¦show more content†¦In addition to those geographically in Italy, many Jews were subject to Roman rule. After the tyrannical emperor Nero committed suicide and violent civil war, Vespasian, of the Flavian dynasty, gained control. In Judea, Roman rule seemingly contradicted the common Jewish re ligious-nationalist sentiments, but Roman rulers established various privileges for those with Hebraic religious beliefs. Jews, throughout the Empire, were not required to engage in emperor worship, since it was directly contrary to their monotheistic beliefs. Yet, the Jews and the Romans did clash on various issues; one example took place during the reign of Caligula, when he ?ordered that a golden statue of himself be placed in Jerusalem?s temple.?[5] After the Jews firmly resisted, Caligula rescinded his order. ?In 66 A.D., as a result of the encouragement of militant Jews, the Jewish community initiated a war of liberation. A five-month siege during 70 A.D., by the Romans, significantly hurt the Jews, and soon after, the Romans captured and destroyed the Jerusalem temple.? Then, the Romans transported approximately ten thousand Jews to Rome in order to build the Coliseum.? There was another Hebrew revolt in Judea under the rule of Hadrian, but the Romans were victorious again.? Most Palestinian Jews were sold into slavery, exiled to other lands, or killed.? Though the Jews in Rome were enslaved, their cultureShow MoreRelatedMussolini s Main Goals For Italy1177 Words   |  5 Pagesthou shalt not be a bystander† (A), these wise words were spoken by Yehuda Bauer, 65 years after the start of the Holocaust. Italy, under the rule of fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, was one of the many countries who turned her back on the Jewish people. Because of political, social and economic rea sons, Italy was a bystander to the heinous crimes inflicted on the Jewish population. Benito Mussolini took control of the Italian government in 1922, and ruled until 1943. Under Mussolini’s rule, democraticRead MoreAntisemitism in the Middle Ages1616 Words   |  7 PagesWorld. The Spanish Inquisition was one of the darkest periods of time in Jewish history. 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