English

John Skelton is a central literary figure and the leading poet during the first thirty years of Tudor rule. Nevertheless, he remains challenging and even contradictory for modern audiences.

This book aims to provide an authoritative guide to this complex poet and his works, setting him in his historical, religious, and social contexts. Beginning with an exploration of his life and career, it goes on to cover all the major aspects of his poetry, from the literary traditions in which he wrote and the form of his compositions to the manuscript contexts and later reception. Contributors: Tom Betteridge, Julia Boffey, John Burrow, David Carlson, Helen Cooper, Elisabeth Dutton, A.S.G. Edwards, Jane Griffiths, Nadine Kuipers, Carol Meale, John Scattergood, Sebastian Sobecki, Greg Waite

The subject of semiotics is not to answer the questions such as what does the text says, who says the text, or what are the possible external— societal, individual, and historical—effects on the text. Instead, it is mainly interested in how signs are created, how they are articulated with each other to create the meaning in the text, and in what ways the meaning is created in different semantic layers within its system. The study necessitates focusing on the relations of the formative elements in the text which leads us to reach the narrative syntax that makes it possible to observe the underlying structures in different semantic strata of the text. Moreover, the approach helps us to analyze the meaning production process, as well as to observe the ways of the articulation process of meaningful items with each other to create the whole text.  The main purpose of this study is to figure out the semantic organization of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four narrative within the scope of Greimas's semiotic trajectory.

Despite being recognized as one of the greatest playwrights of all time, Shakespeare is well known to have many problematic relationships to power that are extended into his texts. One example of this is patriarchy and his portrayal of women, and lack thereof. The Tempest is an example of this through Shakespeare's near total exclusion of women from the play. Miranda is the only women that ever appears in this play, and the only other one that is mentioned is Sycorax, who is dead long before the events of the play take place. This leaves limited options when examining gender relations within the play. The portrayal of Miranda serves as a good point of analysis as the only woman, however, particularly in her relationship to her father. Prospero, her father, is one of the major perpetrators of this, as he keeps her isolated and controls what she learns, which serves to maintain his power over her and the island. He uses many techniques of patriarchal abuse in order to keep this power dynamic upheld. On top of this all, Prospero also uses rhetorical objectification within his discussion of Miranda and planning of his future, as he seems to care little about her feelings or needs. These examples help us to understand how patriarchy pervades the play and shades our understanding of the characters within away from what Shakespeare and his audience may have perceived. Rather than the good, heroic wizard that audiences may have perceived him to be, I argue that these analyses prove that Prospero is not heroic, but abusive, controlling and hungry for power.

Among the diverse national varieties of Postcolonial English (Schneider 2007), Australian English is an interesting example of the potential a non-dominant variety of English can have nationally and inter¬nationally. After only having achieved general acceptance and linguistic attention as a national standard in the 1970s, Australian English is now codified and well researched. On the one hand, its development has been (and continues to be) influenced by two different dominant varieties of English, British English as well as United States English, on the other hand, Australian English has become a semi-dominant standard regionally, influencing other South West Pacific Englishes, in particular the Papua New Guinean and New Zealand standards. It is argued that in many cases of pluricentric languages, dominance or non-dominance is not a binary opposition but must be determined for each standard variety within its individual framework of dominance.

Eighteenth-century Britain saw the emergence of a new poetic genre, the “work” poem which took various forms of labor as its subject and was often written by laborers themselves. Several of these working class poets found their lives transformed due to the success of their verse (Stephen Duck most famously), but most faded into literary obscurity. However, a substantial body of “work” poems was produced by a diverse group of poets throughout the century, each manifesting divergent concerns and attitudes about the experience of work. This chapter assesses the formal connections uniting this poetic genre, particularly the frequent use of such literary devices as ironic distancing, litotes, and mock-georgic description. Instead of solely classifying “work” poems on the basis of their subject matter, this chapter demonstrates that such poetry (indeed the genre itself) lends itself to sophisticated literary techniques often associated with other poetic genres. In this fashion the full measure of eighteenth-century working class poetry can be evaluated more fairly, particularly by analyzing the formation of a new genre designed expressly by the poets themselves. The chapter ultimately seeks to demonstrate the connectedness, rather than the alienation, of working class poetry to the eighteenth-century British poetic tradition.

Race has always been a topic that is associated with different emotions, views, and thoughts for thousands of years. Since the beginning of times, people from different racial backgrounds such as Africans have always been judged and treated based on their race or where they were born. Brent Staples was among the renowned African American writers that fought against the negative stereotyping of black men in public spaces through his article, “Black Men and Public Space” in which he employs numerous rhetorical uses that add more appeal to his descriptions of experiences as a black man in public spaces. Staples’ article is a great example of how racism despite the progress made over the years, is still present. In writing this essay, Brent Staples reveals how black men, in spite of all their qualifications and achievements in life, are still discriminated against, for simply taking a walk. The author uses many examples of how different white Americans show racial stereotyping, from law enforcement to random people walking at night, which not only reveals how some Americans can be ignorant but also how they are likely to judge a person based on their skin color without considering other aspects of their life.

'Texts give us insights into the nature of ourselves and our worlds.' Harper Lee's 1960 novel To Kill a Mockingbird develops our understanding of the world and those around us by allowing us to "walk in someone else's skin". Set in the 1930's and reflecting the early life of protagonist and narrator Scout, Harper Lee shows the coexistence of good and evil while promoting the need for equality of all men and the possibility of social change during a time of great social change in her own context. To Kill a Mockingbird provides powerful insight into the true nature of human beings, that is whether they are essentially good or essentially evil. Lee conveys this idea through Scout and Jem`s transition of perspective from childhood innocence, in which they assume that all people are good as they had never been exposed to evil, to a more adult perspective where they must incorporate the evils they had encountered into their view of the world. A dominant sub-theme in the novel is the prejudice, hatred and ignorance that the evil show towards the innocent "mockingbird(s)". Consequently, people who are not prepared for the evil that they encounter, such as Tom Robinson and Boo Radley, are subjected to great oppression and are destroyed. Jem is also exposed to the evils of racism during and after the trial, stating that the verdict of the trial "ain`t right", and retreats into a state of disillusionment. The character of Atticus Finch is virtually unique in the novel as he had experienced "a lot of ugly things" but had developed an understanding of the evils of the world without losing his faith in the human capacity for goodness. Atticus understands that, rather than being simply creatures of good or creatures of evil, most people have both good and bad qualities. The important thing is to appreciate the good qualities and understand the bad qualities by treating others with sympathy and trying to "climb in his skin and walk around in it". He tries to teach this ultimate moral lesson to Jem and Scout to show them that it is possible to live with conscience without losing hope or becoming cynical. In this way, Atticus is able to admire Mrs. Dubose's courage and see her as a "great lady" even while deploring her racism. The novel skilfully explains that human beings have a capacity for both great good and great evil, but its when you try to sympathise with them and try to understand their circumstances that you "finally see them".

Purple Hibiscus is an African postcolonial Gothic tale cautioning and warning against the falsely assumed sense of absolutism of the Roman Catholic Church and its definitive contestation with the concept of tradition. Adichie’s auto-fiction tells a tale of a child transgressing beyond a complicated set of interwoven boundaries in order to find herself and establish herself in the realms of religion and tradition – embodying two assumed contesting concepts. It is only through an extreme disassociation with herself that Kambili finds a sense of physical and emotional piece and forgiveness – she assumes the role of Kambili that was previously denied by her tyrannical father. Kambili’s shared, yet emotionally exclusive experiences with her mother and brother Jaja, provided the opportunity for these characters to emancipate themselves from the absolutist dystopian reality they were led to believe was the only reality.

This dissertation analyzes the postfeminist tendencies and biopolitics in contemporary media practices by considering the pop culture exemplar, the Kardashian-Jenner family.

This dissertation received First Class Honors from Trinity College Dublin.
Vanessa graduated with Distinction in B.A. English Literature and Media Studies.

The development human communication along the way has brought in way and means to communicate over distances. In the prehistoric era fires, beacons, smoke signals, horns, and drums were used with embedded messages to communicate among distant-tribes within a limited geographic area. Between the 4 th and 6 th Centuries more structured distant communication emerged by the use of "Hydraulic semaphores" by the Greeks. It was a pre-determined coded system; the code was derived by draining out the container at both ends, which had a pole marked with identical codes at the both ends, as long on the torch was on. The code was then deciphered (Ref).

This book is produced using paper that is made from wood grown in managed, sustainable forests. It is natural, renewable and recyclable. The logging and manufacturing processes conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin.

How humans possess the language ability is a matter of long controversy among the linguists. Some of them believe that the ability of language is the result of innate knowledge. Unlike other species humans possess that innate ability which is genetically coded. To them language is the outcome of nature (genes). Conversely, others claim that the ability of language is learned through experience extracting all the linguistic information from the outside environment. It is the outcome of nurture (environmental factors/stimuli). At present, there is no clear winner regarding the debate as both genes and environmental factors/stimuli seem to play a vital and important role in language acquisition.

Moral education through the work of literature and story-telling has long been present in our society. With the curriculum this moral education is something that should be present in today's education as well. By studying the fundamental values in the curriculum and how they are expressed in the fantasy novel New Spring, the moral values will be present in education. Using literature in the classroom has many benefits and by specifically using fantasy we might catch the interest from the students. By using New Spring as a case study I will do a lesson plan that incorporates the fundamental values in education.

In this study, it was postulated that typically developing (i.e., normally developing without incidence of a speech or language delay or disorder) Spanish/Englishspeaking children ages 4 to 5 years old would show different articulation productions and phonological patterns in both languages. Sixteen participants from Florida were tested with Spanish and English articulation and phonology tests. For articulation, two manner or

Introduction. Emotions have been proven to have significant impact on cognitive and motivational aspects of learning. Choosing appropriate activities to stimulate learners' positive emotions can thus greatly promote learning. Aim. The present research is aimed to find out which learning activities induce positive / negative emotions among upper secondary level learners of English as a foreign language and the secondary aim was to identify the emotions experienced. Methodology and research methods. Methodological triangulation applying qualitative research methods (questionnaire, interview and observation) was conducted among 62 learners and their 2 English teachers. A complementary quantitative instrument (scale) was used to detect the subjective emotional comfort of learners during English lessons. Results. The findings revealed prevailing positive habitual comfort of learners and joy as their primary emotion incited mostly by communication activities. Negative emotions of fear...

While samson is in the prison The Chorus appears and they start taking about Samson's current state, how the brave and powerful man who tore apart lions with his bare hands is now sitting in a cage, dressed in rags and blind. They start talking and Samson blames himself for what has happened. The Chorus tells him not to blame God and Samson admits that he is the one to blame because he didn't listen, told Dalila his secrets and married a woman who was not from Israel. The chorus then introduce another character and that is Samson's father, Manoa.

This research aims to investigate English students' perceptions of using WhatsApp in paragraph writing class in one public university. Paragraph writing class is a part of language disciplines which may get some benefits from the usage of SNS. This qualitative research with a case study approach explores the perceptions of English students on the benefits and limitations of using WhatsApp during their learning activities. There were six participants in this research that the researcher got through purposive sampling; two students who got high, average, and low score of pre-test. The data were collected through questionnaire and interview. The data were analyzed in three major themes; 1. General background of the participants using WhatsApp, 2. Benefits of WhatsApp in paragraph writing class, and 3. Limitations of WhatsApp in paragraph writing class. The findings of the current research indicate that there were positive perceptions of the students in using WhatsApp in paragraph w...

Perceptual asymmetries for tasks involving aesthetic preference or line bisection can be affected by asymmetrical neurological mechanisms or left/right reading habits. This study investigated the relative contribution of these mechanisms in 100 readers of Japanese and English. Participants made aesthetic judgments between pairs of mirror-reversed pictures showing: (a) static objects, (b) moving objects and (c) landscapes. A line bisection task

Six lexical decision experiments were conducted to examine the influence of complex structure on the processing speed of English compounds. All experiments revealed that semantically transparent compounds (eg, rosebud) were processed more quickly than matched monomorphemic words (eg, giraffe). Opaque compounds (eg, hogwash) were also processed more quickly than monomorphemic words. However, when the experimental materials and/or procedure encouraged decomposition/integration, this advantage ...

A personality and behavioral disorder is an important and defining feature of frontal lobe dementia (FLD) or frontotemporal degeneration (FTD). The diagnosis usually depends on the progressive development of various behavioral symptoms rather than a set of neuropsychological measures. Quantification of the personality-behavior disorder is important for standardizing the diagnosis. An inventory was constructed to capture the major positive and negative behaviors and personality change, and it was administered prospectively to caregivers of 108 patients in a cognitive neurology clinic, at the time of first diagnostic assessment. The prevalence and extent of behavioral abnormality was quantitated in the clinic population of FLD, vascular dementia (VaD), Alzheimer's disease (AD), primary progressive aphasia (PPA), and depressive disorder (DD) patients. The mean scores of FLD patients were significantly above all other groups. Scores in VaD were also higher than in AD, PPA, and DD. Interrater reliability (Cohen's kappa of .90) and item consistency (a Cronbach alpha of .89) were both high. Perseveration, indifference, inattention, inappropriateness, and loss of insight rated highest in FLD, significantly different from all other groups. Apathy, aspontaneity, inflexibility, disorganization, impulsivity, personal neglect, and poor judgment were also significantly higher in FLD. Discriminant function correctly classified 92.7% versus all other patients (NON-FLD) in the study. A total of 18.8% of VaD patients were misclassified as FLD. Indifference, alien hand, and inappropriateness were the highest discriminant functions. Perseveration and verbal apraxia were important discriminatory items for FLD and PPA, respectively. The FBI is a standardized behavioral inventory useful to diagnose FLD, to differentiate it from other dementias, and to quantify the behavior disorder. (JINS, 2000, 6, 460-468.)

The purpose of this article is to examine the personal, academic, and professional experiences of five Japanese university students who did short-term academic internships in three southeast Asian nations. Since students in Japan often associate international opportunities with inner-circle English-speaking countries (e.g. the United States of America or the United Kingdom), this article highlights the perceived benefits of choosing Southeast Asia as an educational destination. In limited published studies, researchers have revealed that Japanese students may gravitate towards Southeast Asia for multilingual language learning opportunities, lower perceived discrimination, and reduced financial costs. This article provides additional insight into the discerned advantages and disadvantages. Data for this qualitative exploratory study include weekly written reflections from students who were in southeast Asian countries from late 2018 to early 2019, followed by a focus group and individual questionnaires in the months following the participants’ return to Japan.  Based on thematic analysis of self-reporting, results suggest that the participants found value in their experiences due to the (a) proximity and costs involved, (b) comfort with using a non-native variety of English, and (c) development of intercultural competences and soft skills.  More specifically, participants felt that their experiences were less financially burdensome on parents, compared to similar experiences in inner-circle destinations. Also, participants reported feeling comfortable using English as a lingua franca, despite communicating in lower-context environments. This, in turn, contributed to the development of their adaptation, negotiation, and communicative skills. If higher education stakeholders and recruiters can better promote the educational experiences of Japanese university students in Southeast Asia, such as those featured in this article, then it is possible that access and participation may increase in the future.

Abstract. The aim of the present paper is to examine the routine of apologizing in spoken business communication. Being face-threaten-ing acts, apologies are of special importance in communication. Since apologies express sincerity and are remedial acts, apologizing helps to enhance mutual respect and to keep the relationship between col-leagues stable, which is especially important in business communica-tion. The present analysis focuses on four main expressions of explicit apologies, i.e. apologies with sorry, I apologise, pardon and excuse me. The data have been obtained from the sub-corpus of the British National Corpus, which includes transcripts of business communica-tion and amounts to 1,321,844 words. The analysis accounts for the general frequency of different forms of apology in business commu-nication as well as their frequency in relation to gender. The paper also focuses on the most typical patterns of apologies and argues that apologies range from neutral to highly emp...

In the first half of the twentieth century, English grammar disappeared from the curriculum of most schools in England, but since the 1960s it has gradually been reconceptualised, under the influence of linguistics, and now once again has a central place in the official curriculum. Our aim is ...

A comparison of Shakespeare's The Tempest with Marina Warner's rewriting, Indigo to explore the concept of proto-colonialism. The re-writings of characters as colonisers-colonised will be explored with regards to postcolonial theories to identify colonial traits within Shakespeare's play.

Knowing that writing is a crucial but challenging language skill in both academic and career lives, researchers have continually explored ways to facilitate learning and teaching of writing at different educational levels. This experimental study investigates the impact of using mentor texts in undergraduate writing classes on the students' writing proficiency. A quantitative, pre-posttest experimental design was used to achieve this purpose. Based on the strong relationship between reading and writing, and stemming from the modeling approach to learning, mentor texts are tested as potential tools in teaching word choice, sentence structure, and organization for Arab university undergraduates studying English as a foreign language. This is done by examining expository essays written by 128 female students before, during, and after the fifteen-week study period. The subjects are divided into control and experimental groups. A non-parametric Friedman test of differences among repeated measures is conducted and rendered a Chi-square value of 125.242 which is significant (p<.01). Comparing the scores of the three components of the essays, which are word choice, sentence structure, and organization, resulted in the finding that mentor texts could be an effective strategy to teach these three writing traits to undergraduate students.

Disabling Characters: Representations of Disability in Young Adult Literature Patricia A. Dunn. New York: Peter Lang, 2015. Print; E-Book.Over the past 10 to 15 years, we have witnessed an explosion of young adult literature published in the United States. New and veteran authors are consistently offering more high-quality titles to their audiences. As part of this increase, more attention (but still not enough) is being paid to diverse characters. If we want readers, and particularly our students, to understand and celebrate the diversity inherent in their lives and communities, then issues of disability should be included when we consider what it means to be diverse. If, as Rudine Sims Bishop has suggested, we seek mirror and window books to describe how we see both ourselves and others when we read literature, then we must seek out books that authentically represent issues of disability, as well as serve to push our thinking about how disability is represented in our society. Wit...