Old French Before and After the Oaths of Strasbourg
The Historical Background of Old French

The evolution of Old French language began in 52 Before Christ when Julius Cesar held the power over the continents of the Gaul. According to Columbian Encyclopedia, Gaul was under the Roman Empire in the first and second century. With the strong influence it brought, Latin spoken by the Romans gradually replaced the Gaelic, a Celtic language as the Gaul's mother tongue, for a long time. Latin became the national language, spoken widely among people and became the root of recently spoken languages through Europe, including English (Le Tacon).

Marnette in her lecture notes gives hints, that during the occupation, a settlement of Germanic tribes was recorded in the border of Gaul in the first century. This would be an important step onto political action affecting the regions of the Roman Empire. As the immigration crisis arose…...

Language Policy and Planning
Language planning refers to the efforts that are deliberately undertaken to influence how languages functions, are structured or acquired or the variety of languages in a given country. It is often a government responsibility by non-governmental organizations have also come to be involved in this. Grass-roots organizations and also individuals have been involved in this. The goal of language planning differs depending on the country. However, it generally includes planning, decision making and possible changes which benefit the communications system of the country. Language planning or efforts to improve the communication in a country can also bring about certain social changes such as shift of language, assimilation and therefore provide a motivation which plans the function, structure and acquisition of languages Woolard & Gahng, 1990()

Decision making in language planning

There are four dominant language ideologies which motivate the decisions that are made regarding language planning. The first is…...

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References

Little, M.E.R., & McCarty, T.L. (2006). Language Planning Challenges and Prospects in Native American Communities and Schools. Tempe, AZ: Language Policy Research Unit.

Martin, J.J. (1988). An American Adventure in Bookburning in the Style of 1918. Colorado Springs: Ralph Myles Publisher.

Woolard, K.A., & Gahng, T.-J. (1990). Changing Language Policies and Attitudes in Autonomous Catalonia. Language in Society, 19(3), 311-330.

Wyburn, J., & Hayward, J. (2009). OR and Language Planning: Modelling the Interaction between Unilingual and Bilingual Populations. The Journal of the Operational Research Society, 60(5), 626-636.

Language Is Arbitrary
As you are reading these words, you are taking part in one of the wonders of the natural world," begins Steven Pinker's The Language Instinct. (Pinker, 3) In other words, it is a wonder that the human mind is able to create, from need and cognitive structure and instinct, a morphological structure of communication that can change over time from context to context, yet still be understood.

It is a wonder that is both natural yet arbitrary in its construction. For the syntax, or appearance and sound of a particular kind of piece of language is arbitrary, even though the semantics, or relational meaning of the language is not. Should you, the reader, doubt this proposition, consider that one solitary letter can mean the difference between an object being understood, in an English context, as a bat, a cat, or a hat respectively. One letter can be a distinction…...

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Works Cited

Frompkin, Victoria. (2002) Introduction to Language. Heinle: Seventh edition.

Pinker, Steven. (2000) The Language Instinct. New York: HarperCollins.

French associate their country with a geometrical shape.
Hexagon

Circle

Octagon

Square

Having read the section on geography and weather, which one of the following regions is best known or most typically known for this type of weather:

Hot summers and cold sometimes snowy winters

North and Western Coastal Regions

Vosges, Jura, Alps, Pyrenees

Central and Eastern France

The South (also known as the Midi)

Having read the section on geography and weather, which one of the following regions is best known or most typically known for this type of weather:

Hot summers and mild winters often made colder by the cold Mistral wind

North and Western Coastal Regions

2.

Vosges, Jura, Alps, Pyrenees

3.

Central and eastern France

4.

The south (the Midi)

Question 4

Having read the section on geography and weather, which one of the following regions is best known or most typically known for this type of weather:

Long harsh winters and some hot sun in the summer

1.

North and Western Coastal Regions

2.

Vosges, Jura, Alps, Pyrenees

3.

Central and eastern…...

Clothing and Culture
Clothing, in the modern definition, is considered to be fiber or textiles that are worn on humans, and one of the anthropological features of human culture and society. The type (color, style, fit) of clothing is typically dependent upon a number of variables -- geography, weather, gender, status, physical state, work activities, and even status symbols. From a practical standpoint, clothing serves as protection from external weather, or for safety reasons (constructing, cooking, hiking, sports); it may protect the wearer from flora and fauna (nettles, bites, thorns); it may insulate against hot or cold conditions; and may even provide a hygienic barrier. Often, studying the aspects of clothing and society tells scholars a great deal about the particular culture -- not just in external appearance but in the technology of textile production, weaving, and adornment (oucher & Deslandres, 1989).

Evolution of Clothing Styles: Scholars are uncertain as to the…...

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Bibliography

Blum, S. (Ed.). (1982). Eighteenth-Century French Fashion Plates. New York: Dover Publications.

Boucher, F., & Deslandres, Y. (1989). 20,000 Years of Fashion. New York and London: H.N. Abrams.

Delpierre, M. (1997). Dress in France in the 18th Century. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Doyle, W. (2001). The Ancien Regime. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

If language is like food, then the ingredients are its words; the cooking process is its grammar; the nutritional value is its semantics. Some sentences are simple staples like rice and beans. Others are primarily aesthetic, finely crafted, and honed over time like a French sauce. Like the ingredients in any dish, the words of a language depend largely on geography. At the same time, we borrow words from other cultures just as we may borrow ingredients from other cuisines. Spanglish is like fusion food. Some cooking processes are rigid, time-consuming, and complex like proper grammar; others are looser and more flexible like everyday speech. There are some dishes you would serve your mother and others that are too spicy for her. Some language is long-winded and without substance; some is meaty; some is so packed with goodness that you return it again and again.
Ascription to the rules of…...

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Works Cited

Kemerling, Garth. "Language and Logic." 27 Oct 2001. Retrieved June 6, 2007 from  http://www.philosophypages.com/lg/e04.htm 

Schutz, Ricardo. "Stephen Krashen's Theory of Second Language Acquisition." 20 Aug. 2005. Retrieved June 6, 2007 from

Rather, language may be more apt to change the way we see the world, rather than vice versa, at least according to Chomsky.
Meaning thus varies and shifts, some would say as the world shifts, others would say as language itself grows and generates new meanings -- while almost all would agree that the drive to communicate and make consistent and coherent meanings endures in all segments of the species. hile a stroke may damage the ability of some human brains to convey language and different people may have different levels of ability in using language effectively, or learning foreign systems of communication, the innate, structured, yet dynamic nature of human language lives on. Language exists on a biological, linguistic, and cultural level, although the degree to which these factors produce and affect language and meaning remains controversial.

orks Cited

Luger, G.F. (1994). Chapter 13: Language representation and processing. In Cognitive science:…...

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Works Cited

Luger, G.F. (1994). Chapter 13: Language representation and processing. In Cognitive science: The science of intelligent systems. Academic Press, San Diego, CA. Retrieved 22 Sept 2008.  http://www.jimdavies.org/summaries/luger1994.html 

Sowa, John F. (2005, Nov 27). "Lexicon." Excerpted from the book Knowledge representation. Retrieved 22 Sept 2008.  http://www.jfsowa.com/ontology/lexicon.htm 

Szab, Zoltan Gendler. (2004). Noam Chomsky. Dictionary of modern American philosophers.

1860-1960, in Ernest LePore (ed.) Bristol. Retrieved 22 Sept 2008.  http://www.chomsky.info/bios/2004-.htm

Consider the fact that the Iroquois are said not to have had a strong word for the singular "I," and that they subsequently developed what was arguably the longest lasting communal representative democracy the world has ever known. The Inuit, whose culture revolves around the arctic world, have dozens of words for snow - this sort of technical knowledge allows quick and accurate transmission of conditions and training in survival.
In Western terms, one remembers that Jesus Christ was said to be "The Word," yet in the original Greek this indicates not only a spoken word but also the Logos - the root term for intellectual reason, for Meaning within context (be that the context of a sentence, a life, a history, or a universe); logos was rational order. The difference between saying that a religious figure is the Word (which at its most profound seem to indicate a kind…...

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Bibliography

Atkins, J.D.C. (1887). Report of the commissioner of Indian affairs. House Exec. Doc. No. 1, Pt. 5, 50th Cong., 1st Sess. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

Boston Language Institute. "TEFL FAQ  http://teflcertificate.com/faq.html 

Ethnologue. "English  http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=eng 

Macha, Freddy. "Tanzanian Independence Day Abroad. http://www.unclesamofafrica.com/TanzaniaGuardian.htm

Language and Literacy
Every workplace without exception relies on language as a primary means of communication. Therefore, all types of literacy are required in order for an organization to function properly. The different types of literacy range from multicultural awareness to written language to public speaking. For the purposes of this project, I examined and analyzed several different workplace environments for their usage of language and their different literacy demands. My personal workplace environment is a high-stress, hustle-and-bustle office. Phones are ringing constantly throughout the day, memos are being circulated on a near-daily basis, and most employees need to be familiar with company literature including quarterly financial reports. In addition to the rigors of interpersonal communication, which entails informal as well as formal conversations, we deal with inter-office communications with those who work at remote office locations, with offices located abroad, with clients, and with various others with which we do…...

Language Diversity and Education by Carlos J. Ovando, the author makes the point that the language diversity present in the United States has significant implications for all teachers and all students. He emphasizes the importance of both a person's first language and the dominant language in a culture. He notes the complexity of learning a second language: in addition to the cognitive mastery of vocabulary and grammar involved, fluency in a language involves discourse (structure of paragraphs and larger chunks of written language); appropriateness (adjusting language to the social setting); paralinguistics (body language, gestures, volume, pitch, etc.); and pragmatics (cultural norms involving language, subtle conversation skills). Even though ESL students may seem to be learning English rapidly, those language skills may be largely social and inadequate t the cognitive demands made on it in a classroom.
Ovando gave examples of true dialects in the United States -- creoles, or combinations of…...

The attendant rules for the words may, or may not be carried to the new language. For example, many French words carry their plurals into English, while some more recent additions adopt English rules for pluralization
So we create new words or meanings as needed, and we drop old ones as they become obsolete or lose their usefulness. Another way language changes is by attitude. Cultural influences make certain words taboo, so we develop euphemisms to replace the taboo word. When the euphemism becomes widely known, we change it. One example in English is the word for toilet: water closet->loo->lavatory->ladies' room-> rest room ad infinitum until finally, we stopped thinking of this particular place as taboo in western society, so now we use many of the previous euphemisms as our personal taste dictates, and most people understand us.

Language is so basically part of our culture that culture is probably the…...

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MacNeil, Robert and McCrum, Robert 1986 "The Story of English" (1986) (mini)

Public Television miniseries.  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0198245/ 

See Language in Thought and Action, Dr. S.I. Hayakawa, 1935 for more on this topic.

Apparently this view has much in its favor.
When we compare modern English with some of those Indian languages which are most concrete in their formative expression, the contrast is striking. When we say "The eye is the organ of sight, the Indian may not be able to form the expression the eye, but may have to define that the eye of a person or of an animal is meant. Neither may the Indian be able to generalize readily the abstract idea of an eye as the representative of the whole class of objects... (p. 64).

It does not seem to occur to Boas anywhere in the Handbook that such a way of talking about the world might not arise because the mind of the American Indians that he is writing about is "primitive" but rather because he or she is seeing the world in a very different way.

Boas would no…...

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References

Boas, F. (1911). The handbook of American Indian languages. Washington DC: Smithsonian Institute.

Chomsky, N. (1965). Aspects of the theory of syntax. Boston: MIT Press.

Lewis, H. (2001). Boas, Darwin, Science and Anthropology. Current Anthropology 42(3): 381-406

Whorf, B.L. (1941). The relation of habitual thought and behavior to language in Language, culture, and personality, essays in memory of Edward Sapir. (L. Spier, ed.) Menasha, Wis.: Sapir Memorial Publication Fund.

Symbolism first developed in poetry, where it spawned free verse. Forefathers included the poets Baudelaire, Verlaine, and Rimbaud; practitioners included Laforgue, Moreas, and Regnier. The Swiss artist Arnold Becklin is perhaps the most well-known Symbolist painter; his pictures are like allegories without keys, drenched in melancholy and mystery. Other artists working in this vein include Odilon Redon and Gustave Moreau. The Surrealists drew heavily on the Symbolists later on.
Catalan Artists

Catalan masters played a major role in the development of 20th Century modern art in many fields. For example, modernism expressed by Gaudi, Rusinol, Gimeno, Camarasa, Picasso, Nonell or Miro epitomized the efforts of the Catalan people. Still, most of them expressed their talents outside Spain in Paris where many of them lived and worked before going home to continue their expression. Like anyone honing a craft, they needed a foundation of knowledge for their art and Paris offered this…...

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Works Cited

2000. Catalan Masters. Available at http://www.artcult.com/na125.html. Accessed on 9 January 2005.http://www.artcult.com/na125.html"

2002. Notes on Picasso: Important Terms, People, and Events. Available at   Accessed January 2005.http://www.tamu.edu/mocl/picasso/archives/2002/opparch02-281.html .

Art Nouveau in Catalonia. Available at Accessed 9 January 2005.http://www.gaudialigaudi.com/A0003.htm;.

Catalan Painting. Available at   Accessed January 2005.http://www.mnac.es/eng/dinou/s6.htm .

watch first the French a Bout de Souffle, Luc Godard's film, released in 1960. I decided to pick this particular one from the list because I thought the image of Jean Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg in the street made me want to see the film. That image communicated not only eroticism, but also a special connection between the two that I wanted to explore. While watching the French film, I searched the Internet to find out more about the actress playing Patricia, the main female role. I found her femininity befitting the sensuality of her male counterpart, Paris in the sixties.
Next, I then found out that Jean Paul Belondo played his first major role in this film, one of the most successful films of the French New Wave (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000901/bio-ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm ).

After watching the French film, I realized that the main male character, his villainy aside, was quintessentially French. He…...

strong letter recommendation recommend a language professor seeking tenure promotion. In letter stress
It would be extremely difficult for me to fathom a better foreign language professor than Mrs. Groschupf (CHANGE THE NAME). Her presence, knowledge, enthusiasm, and interest in her students -- both individually and collectively -- made her French courses a pleasure to take, and one of my fondest memories of my graduate experience thus far. There are certain personalities which dominate a time period in one's life, which fuse a series of moments together and enrich one's life in the process. I unequivocally assert that Mrs. Groschupf is one such personality, and that her approach towards the subject matter -- genuine, personable, approachable -- has benefitted not only me but also most every other student who took her course last semester.

What I enjoyed most about Mrs. Groschupf's teaching methodology is the fact that she actually made learning…...