Tuesday, December 31, 2019

Definition and Examples of Function Words in English

In English grammar, a function word is a  word that expresses a grammatical or structural relationship with other words in a sentence. In contrast to a content word, a function word has little or no meaningful content. Nonetheless, as Ammon Shea points out, the fact that a word does not have a readily identifiable meaning does not mean that it serves no purpose. Function words are also known as: structure wordsgrammatical wordsgrammatical functorsgrammatical morphemesfunction morphemesform wordsempty words According to James Pennebaker, function words account for less than one-tenth of 1 percent of your vocabulary but  make up  almost 60 percent of the words you use. Content Words vs. Function Words Function words include determiners,  conjunctions, prepositions, pronouns, auxiliary verbs, modals, qualifiers, and question words. Content words are words with specific meanings, such as nouns, adjectives, adverbs, and main verbs (those without helping verbs.) In the sentence, The sly brown fox jumped gracefully over the lazy dog and cat, the content words are: fox, dog,  and cat (nouns)sly, brown, and lazy (adjectives)gracefully (adverb)jumped (main verb) Function words include: the (determiner)over (preposition)and (conjunction) Even though the function words dont have concrete meanings, sentences would make a lot less sense without them. Determiners Determiners are words such as articles (the, a), possessive pronouns (their, your), quantifiers (much), demonstratives (that, those), and numbers. They function as adjectives to modify nouns and go in front of a noun to show the reader whether the noun is specific or general, such as in that  coat (specific) vs. a coat (general).   Articles: a, an, theDemonstratives:  that, this, those, thesePossessive pronouns: my, your, their, our, ours, whose, his, hers, its, which  Quantifiers: some, both, most, many, a few, a lot of, any, much, a little, enough, several, none, all Conjunctions Conjunctions connect parts of a sentence, such as items in a list, two separate sentences, or clauses and phrases to a sentence. In the previous sentence, the conjunctions are or and and. Conjunctions: and, but, for, yet, neither, or, so, when, although, however, as, because, before   Prepositions Prepositions begin prepositional phrases, which contain nouns and other modifiers. Prepositions function to give more information about nouns. In the phrase the river that flows through the woods. The prepositional phrase is through the woods, and the preposition is through. Prepositions: in, of, between, on, with, by, at, without, through, over, across, around, into, within Pronouns Pronouns are words that stand in for nouns. Their antecedent needs to be clear, or your reader will be confused. Take Its so difficult as an example. Without context, the reader has no idea what it refers to. In context, Oh my gosh, this grammar lesson, he said. Its so difficult, the reader easily knows that it refers to the lesson, which is its noun antecedent. Pronouns: she, they, he, it, him, her, you, me, anybody, somebody, someone, anyone Auxiliary Verbs Auxiliary verbs are also called helping verbs. They pair with a main verb to change tense, such as when you want to express something in present continuous tense (I am walking), past perfect tense (I had walked), or future tense (I am going to walk there).   Auxiliary verbs: be, is, am, are, have, has, do, does, did, get, got, was, were Modals Modal verbs express condition or possibility. Its not certain that something is going to happen, but it might. For example, in If I could have gone with you, I would have, modal verbs include could and would. Modals: may, might, can, could, will, would, shall, should Qualifiers Qualifiers function like adverbs and show the degree of an adjective or verb, but they have no real meaning themselves. In the sample sentence, I thought that somewhat new dish was pretty darn delicious, the qualifiers are somewhat and pretty. Qualifiers:  very, really, quite, somewhat, rather, too, pretty (much) Question Words Its easy to guess what function that question words have in English. Besides forming questions, they can also appear in statements, such as in I dont know how  in the world that happened, where the question word is how. Question words: how, where, what, when, why, who Sources Shea, Ammon Shea. Bad English. TarcherPerigee, 2014, New York.Pennebaker, James. The Secret Life of Pronouns. Bloomsbury Press, 2011, New York.

Monday, December 23, 2019

Virtual Reality And Artificial Intelligence - 1180 Words

The emergence of technologies such as virtual reality and artificial intelligence has led to the development of anxiety within the modern Western technological culture. Transhuman theorists now contend that human beings are at the brink of arresting their evolution by creating a more advanced post-human soon. Many individuals see this advancement with both curiosities about its potential and worries about the impact of the same potential. This advertisement reveals the development of a breakthrough in human existence today: humanopreserver. The humanopreserver is a new technology that aims to save the lives of humans by exposing their bodies to temperatures that are so cold that individuals who cannot benefit from today s technology are preserved until a later date when a cure is found. Such a technology sounds like fiction, but its essence is based on modern day science. Based on my research, I have come to the realization that death is caused by changes that occur when the chemistry of a person becomes so disorganized that normal operation cannot be resumed. Considering the above it is no wonder that human embryos can be preserved for extended periods at temperatures that bring the chemistry of life to a complete stop. Besides, biology dictates that people (adults) have the capacity to survive cooling temperatures that can halt the normal functioning of the brain, heart, and all other organs for one hour, at most. Deducing from these studies, we can come to theShow MoreRelatedThe Age Of Spiritual Machines1299 Words   |  6 Pagesbook The Age of Spiritual Machines, explores how advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) in the 21st century will benefit mankind as human lives integrate with machines. 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Robotics is a branchRead MoreAugmented Reality And Its Reality1184 Words   |  5 Pages1.0 Introduction 1.1 Introduction to Augmented Reality Augmented Reality is the primary technology that is utilized in this project. The functionality of the application is based on Augmented Reality. Augmented Reality is an integration of the physical world along with the virtual world. Most of the people confuse Augmented Reality with Virtual Reality, but virtual reality is the simulation of the physical world in a virtual world. There is quite a difference like in acting a movie and watchingRead MoreThe Matrix - Finding Reality In The Matrix818 Words   |  4 Pagesseeing. Virtual Reality is a creation of a highly interactive computer-based multimedia environment in which the user becomes a participant with the computer in a quot;virtually realquot; world. Movies and virtual reality can do the same thing: make you believe what is presented to you. Although there are several movies which use virtual reality in the plot, such as The Lawnmower Man, and Hackers, the one most prevalent to me is The Matrix. Although this movie contains man y aspects of virtual reality

Saturday, December 14, 2019

Two ears are better than one Free Essays

Introduction Fancy yourself as a musical maestro†¦so you think you know your music†¦did you know?†¦.music has been changed with the evolution of mankind , for example tribal drumming progressed into melodic tunes with vocals. Whether you like Rihanna or Elton John, music is of personal choice and ‘taste’. We will write a custom essay sample on Two ears are better than one or any similar topic only for you Order Now Music choice can also depend on personal experiences for instance if one is to experience feelings of love they will listen to love songs as they can relate to the meaning of the lyrics it has been proven that music can alter moods. It has been proven listening to music activates different parts of the brain, in which both serotonin and dopamine are released. These hormones are responsible for causing pleasurable feelings similar to those of eating chocolates or even having orgasms. Although the reminiscence of a song can have a have a positive influence on emotions, it can also have the opposite effect and make you feel sad. Have you ever wondered why listening to a specific song can bring back memories that associated with that song†¦this is because music has that ability to take you back in time, which makes it useful for studying and learning. For those of you having difficulty learning a new language, try listening to a song in that language to improve your vocabulary†¦and who said learning isn’t be fun!!! . Also it has been found music stimulates brainwaves to synchronize with the beat – a faster beat encourages alertness and concentration while a slower beat calms, relaxes and creates a meditative state. So depending on your needs, music can enhance every activity and balance every mood. There are many different aspects of music; pitch, rhythm, melody and stereo sound, they all play individual roles in how music is perceived in the human brain. Modern technology has allowed for further research in to these areas. Most people have probably heard of the first three aspects but what is stereo sound†¦stereo sound is what gives music it sense of ‘realness’ it creates the illusion of sound heard from different directions, as one would hear in natural hearing. For instance if listening to an advert on the radio one will be able to sense if the voice is nearer or further away. Did you know†¦ The first radio broadcast using stereo was done by the BBC in 1925. However stereo sound was established much earlier by Clement Ader in 1881 when he placed two microphones on a stage. Surprisingly it was Walk Disney’s film called Fantasia, a cartoon released in 1940, which was the first commercial film which used stereophonics. Nowadays stereophonics is essential in any film. The use of stereophonic grew and record labels began to tape in stereo, which made the first stereophonic discs available to people in 1958. So as mentioned above Stereo sound is used in broadcasting, so let’s talk about the radio†¦..what’s the difference between FM and AM radio†¦.stereophonics use a complex system which has certain requirements. Given that the AM receivers are very restricted in number AM radios can almost never use stereophonics. On the other hand FM radio is able to use stereophonic sound. With time AM radio stations are adapting and have been looking into digital radio which would then be able to implement stereophonics It is also used in Television various modulation schemes are used in different parts of the world to broadcast more than one sound channel. These are sometimes used to provide two mono sound channels that are in different languages, rather than stereo. Multichannel television sound is used mainly America So how is this 3D style sound possibleNow concentrate because here’s the clever part †¦..To achieve stereo sound two microphones have to be placed in separate places and both record at the same time. Because of where the microphones are placed even thought they both recorded the same sound, the time that the sound arrives will be different. These small differences are picked up in the brain which helps the person to establish where a sound is coming from. This phenomenon can only be achieved when two speakers are used. Have you ever wondered when listening to music why it feels as though the sound is in your head†¦when you use earphones you cannot determine certain cues due to the pinna. Therefore a device known as Head-Related Transfer Function (HRFT) is used to make the music sound external. The HRFT changes the sound before it arrives at the eardrum, this allows for the person to establish where a sound is coming from. Pump up the jam!!!†¦.more like pump down the jam. It is easy to forget using headphones at a sufficiently high volume level can cause temporary problems or permanent deafness due to the â€Å"masking† effect. This occurs went the volume of music is so high that it competes with your surroundings, for example in train stations. The ears become indifferent to the detrimental effects of listening to music at a high volume. Having two ears does not mean our hearing is limited to two directions,they can locate sounds in three dimensions – in range (distance), in direction above and below, in front and back, as well as to either side. The brain, inner ear and the external ears (pinna) help locate sound this is called spatial hearing All the above information might be confusing to get your head ‘around’ at once, so in simpler terms stereo sound is based entirely upon the principles spatial hearing get it?†¦.and for those of you who have forgotten what spatial hearing is†¦.spatial hearing is what makes us hear in 3D. So why do we need spatial hearing?†¦..well most importantly we need it assess danger for instance hearing somebody creeping up behind you†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦also if you were at a party, spatial information effectively allows people to â€Å"zoom in† on a particular signal of interest. This has been demonstrated in a multitude of studies. Kidd et al presented a target speech signal from one of three loudspeakers placed horizontally in front of their subjects. From the other two loudspeakers, very similar competing speech signals were presented. Under these challenging conditions, knowing the spatial location of the target signal strongly aided the subjects’ ability to recall it. Another study by Cameron et al on children with auditory processing disorders concluded â€Å"†¦ of those children with auditory processing disorder APD, there may be a high proportion who have deficits in the binaural processing mechanisms that normally use the spatial distribution of sources to suppress unwanted signals.†In simpler term, they argued that normally perceived spatial cues help suppress secondary signals, such as background noise. This research has shown spatial information and spatial hearing are highly important, not only for the purpose of sound localization, but for speech recognition in challenging acoustic environments with multiple competing signals. Where in the brain does all this happen then†¦..an fmri study by Colline Poirier et al found that V5 which is found in the visual cortex is activated by auditory motion processing Studies by a young scientist called Sam Irving have maybe helped us identify where in the brain spatial hearing may occur, The oxford study in which participants were placed in â€Å"ring of sound† where a sound is played from one of 12 speakers placed in a circle around the subject their response is monitored to see if they can detect which speaker the sound is coming from. People with normal hearing are very good at this and have excellent spatial hearing. The participants where then given an ear plug to wear on one side in which they were tested to see how well their hearing would cope in such conditions. At first the participants found it difficult to identify where the noise was coming from, but after a couple of days, the participants began to regain their ability to hear, and got the same results as they did without earplugs. This experiment was also done on ferrets, and the results were the same as humans. It has been thought by Irving that OCB, the Olivocochlear Bundle, which is a part of the brain that we know, is a centre of feedback information being transmitted from the brain back to the ear, maybe responsible for spatial hearing. As discussed earlier, music has an effect on the brain although many are unknown. Research suggests that music relaxes people’s moods, long after the actual music stops. It’s as if a memory of the relaxation is imprinted on the brain. Music has also been shown to help people prepare for surgery and heal faster. When patients listen to relaxing music, their breathing deepens, more oxygen is transported throughout the body, and there is a secretion of serotonin in the brain which stabilizes moods. As previously mentioned music is known to be a form of stress relief. Due to technological advances, it has now become easier to incorporate music into our daily lives, using devices such as car radios/CD players, iPods and mobile phones etc. However these devices are not as effective as stereophonic sound as they use monophonic (single) speakers, so the sound is not as realistic thus not having the same stress relieving affects Stereophonic although it is taken for granted, and not generally thought about by most individuals. Stereophonic sound has proven to be very beneficial, as it is used in our everyday lives, whether it’s listening to hip hop/pop or reggae music in the car, or watching easterners in the evening, these tasks would not be possible without stereo sound. References Behrens T. Spatial hearing in complex sound environments: clinical data. Hearing Review.2008; 15(3):94?102. Cameron S, Dillon H, Newall P. The listening in spatialized noise test: an auditory processing disorder study. J Am Acad Audiol. 2006;17:306?320. Blauert J. Spatial Hearing—The Psychophysics of Human Sound Localization. Cambridge, Mass:The MIT Press; 1983. Bronkhorst AW. The cocktail party phenomenon: a review of research on speech intelligibility in multiple?talker conditions. Acta Acust Acust. 2000;86:117?128. Laske R.D., et al., 2009. Subjective and Objective results after bilateral cochlear implantation in adults. Otol Neurotol. Vol. 30. pp.313-316 Kidd G Jr, Arbogast TL, Mason CR, Gallun FJ. The advantage of knowing where to listen. J Acoust Soc Am. 2005;118:3804?3815. Schneider BA, Li L, Daneman M. How competing speech interferes with speech comprehension in everyday listening situations. J Am Acad Audiol. 2007;18:559?572. How to cite Two ears are better than one, Essay examples

Friday, December 6, 2019

The Harlem Renaissance John Birks Gillespie and Selma Burke free essay sample

The Harlem Renaissance was a time of great accomplishments among African Americans. Mary works of art, poetry, and music during this time became notable even to today. Two very inspiring people of this time period were John Barks Gillespie and Selma Burke. John Barks Dizzy Gillespie was born on October 21, 1917 in Cherry, South Carolina. He was the youngest of nine children. His father, James Gillespie, was a bricklayer and a musician on the side. His mother, Little Pope Gillespie, was a house wife and a full time mother.By the age of 12, Gillespie had experience In playing the IANA and hoped to someday Join the school band. He flirts started playing the trombone but switched to the trumpet because he liked the sound better. His family struggled with poverty after his father died when he was ten. This prevented him from getting his own instrument. Although, through his struggles, he still managed to be a very skilled trumpet player but only in one key. We will write a custom essay sample on The Harlem Renaissance: John Birks Gillespie and Selma Burke or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page He earned a scholarship to Laurelling Tech in North Carolina. He studied theory and harmony and decided that music would be his profession.While Gillespie was with the Frankie Fairfax band, the band leader, Fats Palmer, jokingly gave Dizzy his name. Gillespie played In several musical groups Including the Teddy Hill Orchestra (1 937), the Cab Galloway Band (1939), and the Earl Hines Band (1941). He had many distinctive characteristics about himself that became his trademarks. His most popular trademarks were his ballooning cheeks, upturned horn, and fun personality. To earn more money, he wrote arrangements for other bands. Including one of his first arrangements, Planck the Cabbage, written for Cab Galloway. In the sass, with the help of Charlie Parker, Theologies Monk, and Kenny Clarke, Gillespie created a new genre of music called bebop. At first, many musicians did not take to the new form of music. But after playing with popular musicians, including Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Elongating, and many more, Gillespie founded his own band in 1945. In 1947 Gillespie made songs synthesized with bebop and Afro-Cuban rhythms. Some of these songs become best-sellers, like the song Cuban Be, Cuban Bop. Gillespie band made Its official debut at Carnegie Hall In September of 1947 (Smith, 459).He continued to refine bebop and in 1956 the U. S. Department of State asked Gillespie to represent the country and take a band on a tour of Europe, Africa, and the Middle East (Smith, 459). Gillespie continued making music and performing up to 300 shows a year. In 1988 his new band recorded Dizzy Gillespie and the united Nations orchestra: Live at Royal Festival Hall in London which won a Grammar Award in 1 991 . He won two more Grammas before that in 1975 and 1980. In IEEE was honored with a year-long diamond Jubilee for his 50 years of performance and his 75th birthday (Smith, 460).He performed for four presidents and won the prestigious Kennedy Center Award. Gillespie also wrote an autobiography called To Be Or Not to Bob Memoirs published 1 OFF remembered for his amazing talent and great personality by all whom he loved and inspired. Another notable African American during this time was Selma burke, an inspiring artist and sculptor. Selma Hornets Burke was born on December 31, 1900 in Impressible, North Carolina. She was one of ten children of Neal and Mary Jackson Burke. Her love for art started when she was quite young.Her father was a minister that traveled the world and when hed come back from overseas he would bring traditional fine art objects along with him. Burke also had two uncles who also traveled mostly to Africa. They brought back lots of traditional religious African figures and masks which were given to the Burkes after their deaths. Therefore, African art was one of Salaams first references to art (Whine, 191). Burke attended the only black elementary school in the Washington, D. C. Area. Unfortunately, the school offered no encouragement for the arts.She, instead, was mom schooled by William Arial, a white man who also encouraged her love for art. She later attended Winston-Salem High School and her mother urged her to get a practical education. So she went to SST. Agnes School of Nursing and became a registered nurse in 1924. After moving and continuing her education in nursing, Burke married Duran Woodward who eleven months later, died of blood poisoning. She became a personal nurse for a wealthy Otis Elevator heiress and was pretty much unaffected by the Great Depression.Burke moved to New York in 1935 and took on a modeling Job and co-wrote the Liberator with Claude McKay. In 1938, she spent a year in Europe learning about different techniques and arts. After that she pursued a professional degree in sculpture at Columbia University. She graduated with an M. F. A. In 1941 and even got a chance to show her work at the McMillan Galleries in New York City. But during World War II, Burke Joined the Ana but was hospitalized after a back injury. She later entered a competition to create a profile portrait of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1944.She had multiple private sit-downs with the president himself to get the rarity Just right. She wanted this to be the best piece of sculpture I had ever done (Whine, 192). She created a 36 by 26 bronze plaque in profile with the four freedoms listed along the top. It was put in the Recorder of Deeds Building in Washington, D. C. The plaque was revealed by Frederick Weaver on September 24, 1945. John R. Session, the man who designed Roosevelt profile on the dime, use Salaams plaque as a main reference. Burke taught at many schools throughout her life. She even got remarried and moved to Pennsylvania.