Davy Crockett essays

Davy Crockett essays In this biography I will be discussing the life of David Crockett also known as Davy Crockett. Im going to be talking about his birth in the Tennessee Mountains all the way to his death in the Alamo war. Crockett was the fifth of nine children and the fifth son born to John and Rebecca Hawkins Crockett. The Crocketts were a self-sufficient, independent family. Crockett was born August 17, 1786 in a small cabin on the banks of the Nolichucky River, near the mouth of Limestone Creek in Tennessee. Growing up Davy lived a rough childhood as his dad failed at being a farmer, a mill operator, and storekeeper. Their Crockett family then fell in debt and Davy was forced to work. His father put him at work driving cattle to Virginia when he was 12 years old. When the summer came that year Davy was enrolled in school, he spent 5 day in school then got in a fight with one of the school boys and he played hooky for several weeks later. Later on his father found out about his hooky playing and Davy got scared and ran away to escape punishment by father. This "strategic withdrawal," as Crockett called it, lasted 2Â ½ years while he worked as a wagoner and day laborer and at odd jobs to support himself. When he returned home in 1802 he had grown so much that his family did not recognize him at first. When they did, he found that all was forgiven. Davy was now fifteen years old and approaching six feet in height. In those days a boy either worked for his father or turned over his pay if he worked for others. His father then had Davy work for some of the men that his father owed money too. He was to work on a farm for the men at what ever they needed done. He often borrowed his employer's rifle and soon became en expert marksman. From his wages he bought new clothes, a horse and a rifle of his own. He began to take part in the local shooting contests. At these contests the prices often were quarters of ...

The Definition and Usage of Optimality Theory

The Definition and Usage of Optimality Theory In linguistics, the theory that surface forms of language reflect resolutions of conflicts between competing constraints (i.e., specific restrictions on the form[s] of a structure). Optimality Theory was introduced in the 1990s by linguists Alan Prince and Paul Smolensky (Optimality Theory: Constraint Interaction in Generative Grammar, 1993/2004). Though originally developed from generative phonology, the principles of Optimality Theory have also been applied in studies of syntax, morphology, pragmatics, language change, and other areas. In Doing Optimality Theory (2008), John J. McCarthy points out that some of the most significant work on OT is available for free on the Rutgers Optimality Archive. ROA, which was created by Alan Prince in 1993, is an electronic depository of work in, on, or about OT. Its a fabulous resource for the student as well as the veteran scholar. Observations At the heart of Optimality Theory lies the idea that language, and in fact every grammar, is a system of conflicting forces. These forces are embodied by constraints, each of which makes a requirement about some aspect of grammatical output forms. Constraints are typically conflicting, in the sense that to satisfy one constraint implies the violation of another. Given the fact that no form can satisfy all constraints simultaneously, there must be some mechanism selecting forms that incur lesser constraint violations from others that incur more serious ones. This selectional mechanism involves hierarchical ranking of constraints, such that higher-ranked constraints have priority over lower-ranked ones. While constraints are universal, the rankings are not: differences in ranking are the source of cross-linguistic variation. (Renà © Kager, Optimality Theory. Cambridge University Press, 1999) Faithfulness and Markedness Constraints [Optimality Theory] holds that all languages have a set of constraints which produce the basic phonological and grammatical patterns of that particular language. In many cases, an actual utterance violates one or more of these constraints, so a sense of well-formedness applies to that utterance which violates the least number or least important constraints. Constraints can be classified in two types: faithfulness and markedness. The faithfulness principle constrains a word to match the underlying morphological form (such as plural tram -s in trams). But words like buses or dogs do not follow this constraint (the first falls foul of the constraint that prevents the pronunciation of two consecutive /s/ sounds and the second places a /z/ instead of an /s/). These two examples, though, follow markedness constraints, and in these cases the particular markedness scores higher than the faithfulness constraint, so the alternate forms are allowed. Differences between languages, then, are a ma tter of the relative importance given to particular constraints, and a description of these constitutes a description of the language. (R.L. Trask, Language and Linguistics: The Key Concepts, 2nd ed., ed. by Peter Stockwell. Routledge, 2007) Constraint Interaction and the Domination Hierarchy [W]e assert that the constraints operating in a particular language are highly conflicting and make sharply contrary claims about the well-formedness of most representations. The grammar consists of the constraints together with a general means of resolving their conflicts. We argue further that this conception is an essential prerequisite for a substantive theory of UG. How does a grammar determine which analysis of a given input best satisfies a set of consistent well-formedness conditions? Optimality Theory relies on a conceptually simple but surprisingly rich notion of constraint interaction whereby the satisfaction of one constraint can be designated to take absolute priority over the satisfaction of another. The means that a grammar uses to resolve conflicts is to rank constraints in a strict domination hierarchy. Each constraint has absolute priority over all the constraints lower in the hierarchy. [O]nce the notion of constraint-precedence is brought in from the periphery and foregrounded, it reveals itself to be of remarkably wide generality, the formal engine driving many grammatical interactions. It will follow that much that has been attributed to narrowly specific constructional rules or to highly particularized conditions is actually the responsibility of very general well-formedness constraints. In addition, a diversity of effects, previously understood in terms of the triggering or blocking of rules by constraints (or merely by special conditions), will be seen to emerge from constraint interaction. (Alan Prince and Paul Smolensky, Optimality Theory: Constraint Interaction in Generative Grammar. Blackwell, 2004) The Richness of the Base Hypothesis Optimality Theory (OT) does not allow for constraints on the inputs of phonological evaluation. Output constraints are the only mechanisms for expressing phonotactic patterns. This idea of OT is referred to as the Richness of the Base hypothesis. For instance, there is no input constraint that forbids the morpheme *bnik as a morpheme of English. The output constraints will penalize such a form, and evaluate this form in such a way that the optimal output form is not faithful to this form, but different, e.g. blik. Since forms such as bnik will never surface in English, it does not make sense to store an underlying form bnik for blik. This is the effect of lexicon optimization. Thus, the phonological output constraints of a language will be reflected by the input forms. (Geert Booij, Morpheme Structure Constraints. The Blackwell Companion to Phonology: General Issues and Subsegmental Phonology, ed. by Marc van Oostendorp, Colin J. Ewen, Elizabeth Hume, Keren Rice. Blackwell, 2011) Optimality-Theoretic Syntax [T]he emergence of OT syntax seems to fit into the general tendency in syntax to blame the ungrammaticality of a sentence on the existence of a better alternative. This view on grammaticality is also found in [Noam] Chomskys Minimalist Program (Chomsky 1995), although Chomsky takes optimization to play a much more modest role than OT syntacticians do. Whereas Chomskys only criterion for evaluation is derivational cost, the inventory of violable constraints assumed in OT syntax is richer. As a result, the OT constraints interact and conflict with each other. This interaction is exploited by the assumption that constraints are ranked, and that parametrization can be reduced to differences in ranking between languages. Chomskys economic conditions, on the other hand, have no such direct parametrizing effect. In the Minimalist Program, the locus of the parametrization is the lexicon. (Introduction to Optimality Theory: Phonology, Syntax, and Acquisition, ed. by Joost Dekkers, Frank van d er Leeuw, and Jeroen van de Weijer. Oxford University Press, 2000)

Economics Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Economics - Assignment Example (Anderson and Cavangh, 2004)Â   The unemployment rate accelerated from 9.7 percent to 9.8 per cent in September 2009. The US economy had lost 7.2m jobs since the beginning of the crisis in 2007 and about 15.1 million people were looking for jobs. The worst hit was the construction sector, which witnessed as many as 64,000 job losses. The manufacturing and the retail sectors were no exceptions where the employer cut down were 51,000 and 39,000 respectively. In this scenario of joblessness, where the growth in the unemployment rate was showing a northward trend I had to come up with a policy to address the issue on a more serious note. There is no doubt about the fact that outsourcing enhances globalization and opens trade which has been proved to be beneficial for both the parties engaged in it but at the same time it reduces the number of jobs available to the domestic workers. So a policy implication has to be made to stop outsourcing of jobs.(Anderson and cavangh , 2004) To overco me the unemployment issue in the country I have come up policies, which would stop outsourcing of work.

International Analysis of Organization Design Essay - 1

International Analysis of Organization Design - Essay Example Such is a significant feature that influences the management of organizations in different regions. Multinational organizations that exist in more than one country must always adopt unique organizational structures and systems of management in the various countries in order to suite with the culture of people in the different markets as the discussion below portrays. China is the largest economy in the East and is among the largest markets in the world. The country has conducive environment for doing business owing to the large population and the low production costs. As such, numerous multinational companies target the market. However, Chinese people have a unique culture. The history of the country presents a country that remained secluded from the rest of the world thus succeeded in forming a unique system of governance coupled with an equally unique culture. The culture of China therefore influences the management of the multinational organizations that set up shops in the country. Despite the lucrative nature of the market, the companies must always adopt new structures and systems of management in order to operate in the region (Juvidan, Dorfman & House, 2006). -Develop its brand and the visibility and spread of the stores so as to make it the first choice when it comes to coffee, easy to find and familiar with the environment and hard to switch to substitutes Key among the multinational companies that operate in China is Starbucks. Starbucks Corporations, also known as Starbucks Coffee is an American company and the largest coffee company in the world. The company operates in more than two thousand locations throughout the world. While the United States is its largest market, the company operates in many other countries with China forming headquarter in its eastern frontier. The company is a large and accepted brand in China. The company’s success in China is because of specific changes in the management of the

The Lottery Essay Example for Free

The Lottery Essay Have you ever imagined being killed for winning a lottery? In â€Å"The Lottery† by Shirley Jackson, the author does an outstanding job describing the main character, the plot, and the theme. The character Tessie Hutchinson in this story makes the reader feel as if he or she is a part of the plot. Additionally, the plot of this story is very surprising and unexpected. Jackson does a really great job writing the story, and in the end it is very easy to think about a theme. Certainly, â€Å"The Lottery† is a perfect example of a story combining an interesting plot, good characterization, and a clear theme. Tessie Hutchinson starts out being a regular citizen of the village and ends up being the main character; ultimately, she is killed. First, she is described as: â€Å"an old house woman.† This tells the reader that she probably works all day and is very tired. Next, she nearly forgets about the lottery and she arrives late. This tells us that she is exhausted and doesn’t really care about the lottery. In the end, she â€Å"wins† the lottery as Mr. Summers announces: â€Å"It’s Tessie!† Winning the lottery means being killed, and this is exactly what happens to Tessie. The subtle increasing of the level of importance of Tessie throughout the story made it more interesting to read. The plot of this story was surprising and unexpected at the same time. In the beginning, the scene is described as: â€Å"Clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full-summer day.† Ironically, this makes the reader think this is going to be a positive story. Later, we shockingly find out that: â€Å"Someone’s life is going to be over.† This clearly tells us that someone is going to die in this story. Finally, in the end Tessie screams: â€Å"It’s not fair, it isn’t right!† Lastly, the story ends and we then know that Tessie has been killed. These three significant changes that transpire during the plot make it a more compelling story. The theme of this story is to never relax until you are completely safe. A good example is Tessie. For her, it starts out being: â€Å"a normal summer morning.† Then, throughout the story her predicament completely changes. Later on, she nearly forgets about the lottery and she arrives late. Her husband asks: â€Å"Why were you late?† and she simply says that she had forgot. Lastly, she finds out that she is the winner of the lottery as Mr. Summers says: â€Å"It’s Tessie.† This means that she is the one that is going to be killed out of all the citizens of the village. After reading this story, there is one more thing to learn. This is the theme, life lesson, or moral that has just been outlined. In this story, Shirley Jackson does an outstanding job of having an interesting plot, using characterization, and including a clear theme. I really enjoyed reading this story because it was different from most stories I have read before. I like this type of story because the surprise in the end is not expected and you don’t understand it until you finish reading the whole story. This is a fine example of experiencing a result that you definitely didn’t expect. So now, be careful the next time you take part in a lottery!

A Comparison of Two Creation Myths :: Compare Contrast, Creation Stories

Can religions and cultures be anything more than their history? Why do we have a concept of history in the first place? Obviously history exists, but like the human ability to conceive of the future, history seems to be a rare phenomenon tied with our ability for language and the telling of stories. What’s even more fascinating is the human ability to make up a history or to tell a story, such as a creation myth, that seeks to explain something that has not been witnessed by anyone and does not have any role in finding food or creating shelter. We do not have a physical need to know how the earth came to be or to know how it is that we came to be here. Still, creation stories exist in almost all human cultures and, amazingly, many share many of the same elements. The question is, why? Is it a coincidence that so many of them share the same elements? By looking at a comparison of two creation stories, we should be able to understand the meaning of these similarities better . Just look at two creation stories side-by-side and you should easily see their similarities. Perhaps the easiest way to do this would be to take one unknown creation story and compare it to one from one’s own culture. Below is an example of a Mongolian creation myth: Long long ago God descended to earth and made a man and a woman out of clay. Before returning to heaven to get some holy water with the power to animate anything, he ordered his dog and cat to protect the clay people from the devil. After God ascended to heaven, the devil came to harm the people. The dog and the cat protected them, though, thwarting the devil's plan. Finally, the devil deceived them by giving a piece of meat to the dog and a bowl of milk to the cat. While the dog ate the flesh and the cat lapped the milk, the devil urinated on the people and fled. When God returned with the holy water and discovered what had happened, he was enraged. Scolding the dog and cat for neglecting their duty, he forced the cat to lick the hair off the bodies of the people whom the devil had defiled (God created humans with hair all over their bodies). The cat licked off the hair everywhere except their heads, armpits, and crotches, since the former

A Moral Solution to the Organ Donor Shortage Essay

In Alexander T. Tabarrok’s essay, â€Å"A Moral Solution to the Organ Shortage† Alexander explains ways to find solutions to the organ shortage by proposing a fair way to go about qualifying for organ transplant. Gary Becker suggested that paying a good amount of money toward funeral cost of organ donors would help and encourage people to donate their organs. The new rule that Alexander wanted to proposed is the â€Å"no -give – no – take† rule. Under this rule in order to receive an organ a person must have previously signed their organ donor card. Under â€Å"no – give – no take†, signing your organ donor card is like joining the club, the club of people who have agreed to share their organs. People have different views when it comes to donating organs. Some have their doubts about becoming an organ donor because of their religious beliefs, while others thinks that by signing an organ donor card it’s same as buying an i nsurance . NOTE In some ways I agree with Alexander on this new rule that he has proposed ( UNOS). Having a donor card is a good idea to make sure there is surplus of organs able to be donated. I’m not convinced that the â€Å"no- give no – take† rule will be productive to solve the shortage of our organ donors any time soon, since Alexander’s essay was based on suggestion. As for myself I would have doubt of donating my organs not because of my religion or beliefs, but the trust of the people that handling my organs. This essay has inspired me to rethink being an organ donor because of the problems of most organizations. In my own views, paying tremendous amounts of money to organ donors to saved someones life is a wrong way to help people that in need. As time progresses and suggestions becomes reality I would be more confident in donating my organs.