African American Slang Essay -- Communication Language Essays

African American Slang African American Slang has had many other names: Ebonics, Jive, Black English, and more. The Oxford English Dictionary defines slang (in reference to language) in three different ways: 1) the special vocabulary used by any set of persons of a low or disreputable character; language of a low and vulgar type 2) the special vocabulary or phraseology of a particular calling or profession; the cant or jargon of a certain class or period 3) language of a highly colloquial type, considered as below the level of standard educated speech, and consisting either of new words or of current words employed in some special sense. Whatever one’s perspective on slang, it is a natural and inevitable part of language. In this paper I will discuss examples of current slang being used that some people may not understand. The African influence of American English can be found as far back as the Seventeenth century. Although its influence may have began that far back, the influence of African American slang has arguably reached its peak (so far) in the last half on the 20th century. Evidence of this can be seen in magazines, music, television, and films. Perhaps more importantly, evidence can be seen in the way that people of ethnic groups, other than African American, have changed their speech due to this influence. The Equal Rights Movement lead to a paradigm shift in African American linguistic consciousness due to Black intellectuals, scholars, activists, artists, and writers deliberately engaging in a search for a way to express Black identity and the particular circumstances of African American life. Although there had been strides in Black pride in the past, this was the first one to call for linguistic Black p... ...at this is a desired result. Ebonics is a fun variation on the standard, and as stated in the beginning of this paper, Ebonics has an influence; many would say a positive one, on the mainstream dialect. Works Cited Green, Jonathon. The Cassell Dictionary of Slang. London: Cassell, 1998. Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language.Volume 1 A-K. Amsterdam: Elsevier Publishing Company, 1966. Major, Clarence. Dictionary of Afro-American Slang. New York: International Publishers, 1970. New York - - -. Juba to Jive: A Dictionary of African American Slang. London: Penguin Books, 2000. Oxford English Dictionary Online. 2nd ed. May 2001. http://www.oed.com Scotti, Anna and Paul Young. Buzz Words New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1997. Smitherman, Geneva. Black Talk. 2nd ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2000.

Free Will Essay

Vilayandur S. Ramachandran came from a distinguished family in Tamil Nadu, India, and was neuroscientist, which is a field of study encompassing the various scientific disciplines dealing with the nervous system. Ramachandran’s views on the brain and how it works are discussed in his work â€Å"The New Philosophy†. In his essay he discusses the nature of consciousness, discussing the effects of certain mental states and their influence on the body and the brain. One of his main topics, however, is the Ramachandran’s view of free will. He suggest that â€Å"†¦ neuroscience intersects with philosophy because the question of free will has been a philosophical problem for hundreds of years and more† (Jacobus 569). He discusses the significance of the brain imaging that shows a â€Å"readiness potential† and what it really means to have a free will. Through his essay, though, it is interesting to point out where religion and Christianity stands on the issue of free will and whether Christians are puppets under God’s command. Ramachandran poses this question about free will: â€Å"Is your brain the real one in charge, making your free will only a post-hoc rationalization; a delusion..? † When a special experiment was underway, it was discovered that when a person was told to move their finger within the next ten minutes at their own free will, their brain would kick in almost a second before the actual willingness to move the finger. This posed the original question stated above and brought on other questions as well. If this person is now shown the screen displaying the signal from the EEG scanner hooked up to your brain, they can then see their free will. They will then have three options: 1) They will experience a sudden lack of will, feeling as though the machine is controlling them, making them feel like a puppet. 2) They will refuse to have their belief of their free will to be altered but instead believe that the machine has some â€Å"paranormal precognition by which it is able to predict your movements accurately† (Ramachandran 559-60). 3) The person will reconfigure the experience in their mind, and cling to their sense of freedom, denying what their eyes have seen as evidence and maintain that â€Å"the sensation of will precedes the machine’s signal, not vice versa† (Ramachandran 560). The point when the brain would â€Å"kick in† before the movement is called the â€Å"readiness potential†. The â€Å"readiness potential† is what happens when there is a change in the electrical activity of the brain that occurs before the subject’s conscious decision to move a muscle (medical-dictionary. thefreedictionary. com). Ramachandran believes that â€Å"†¦ there is an inevitable neural delay before the signal arising in one part of the brain makes its way through the rest of the brain to deliver the message†¦ natural selection has ensured that the subjective sensation of willing to delay deliberately to coincide not with the onset of the brain commands but with the actual execution of the command by your finger† (Ramachandran 560). Ramachandran is a firm believer in evolution, believing that the events must have some sort of evolutionary purpose. â€Å"On one hand,† he says, â€Å"this experiment shows that free will is false and cannot be causing the brain events because the events kick in a second earlier. But on the other hand, the pause must have some purpose, otherwise why would the delay have evolved† (Ramachandran 560). Though these events have a purpose, evolutionary is not the answer. In Joshua 24:15 it says â€Å"Choose for yourselves this day who you will serve, as for me and my household we will serve the LORD. † God gives mankind a choice to follow Him and so free will is a gift from God as something to be accepted. Humans have the gift of God to reject or take the free gift that He offers. If humans really are descendants of apes, then when did the gift of free will come into the evolutionary chain of today’s mankind? John 7:37 says â€Å"Anyone who is thirsty may come to me. † It is an offer. Not a demanding command. ‘Anyone who is thirsty may come to me’, shows us that God does not want us to be without his living water and without him, but it is our choice whether we choose to accept God’s free gift of salvation. When studying free will in the Bible and through works of literature like Vilayandur S. Ramachandran, there will always be people on both sides of the argument. Do we have control of our own destinies or are we merely puppets in God’s giant game of the world? My personal beliefs on the subject are as I have stated in this paper: Though God has a control over the destiny of the world and each of our lives, he gives us a chance to make a decision to follow him or to ignore the free gift of his son that he has offered to us. John 3:16 it says: â€Å"For God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believed in him would have eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. † Works Cited Jacobus, Lee A. A World Of Ideas. 8th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2008. Print. The Free Dictionary. Medical Dictionary. Online source. http://medical-dictionary. thefreedictionary. com/readiness+potential Bible. New Living Translation.

The Invention Of The Automobile - 1051 Words

The Invention of the Automobile, A Turning Point in History One could argue that one of the best inventions of the 1900’s was the Model T Ford or Tin Lizzie. The invention of the automobile has certainly left an indelible mark on the American Society. Consequently, the automobile has become the center of an extraordinary industry with the assembly lines and mass production techniques. These elements have essentially revolutionized the automobile industry. The Model T Ford made car travel affordable for the working class. In 1914 the average American worker made $11 per week. Previously, cars were seen as a novelty only the wealthy could afford. Ford was able to keep car prices down through efficient fabrication vs. personal hand crafting and assembly line production. Ford once announced to the world, â€Å"I will build a motor car for the great multitude†. Detroit would become the motor capital of America with the creation of this enormous industry. Henry Ford grew up during the period of the Civil War. He was raised on a prosperous farm. There he learned the values of hard work and responsibility. He loved to tinkle with things and realized his mechanical abilities early. One of his hobbies and loves became watch repairs. He never had any formal education and could not read easily or write. Ford knew he did not want to make his living as a farmer. Luckily his mechanical genius took him in another direction. Henry Ford was the first to put rubber tires on the car wheels. HeShow MoreRelatedThe Invention Of The Automobile2373 Words   |  10 PagesAutomobiles are arguably one of the most important inventions in the history of the world. Not only have they allowed us to get from point A to point B in a faster fashion than walking but they have also aided us in new inventions that will greatly benefit the world. Before the birth of the automobile, people had few choices of transportation that could actually get them to a specific location of their choosing. Railroads and boats were modes of transportation that were mainly used for travellingRead MoreThe Invention Of The Automobile1378 Words   |  6 PagesThe automobile has become one of the most important parts of daily life. Life as we know it would be altered without them. Without cars the simplest trips would take longer. Cars make life easier. Automobiles have improved throughout history and continue to improve as time goes on. The invention of the automobile cannot be credited to just one man or woman. â€Å". It is estimated that over 100,000 patents created the modern automobile.† (inventors.about.com). In the later 1700s, Engineers began to experimentingRead MoreThe Invention of the Automobile1798 Words   |  7 Pages Ever since the early invention of the automobile from the second industrial revolution, humans have taken granted for the convenience of this technological advancement. In most developed countries and urban cities like Vancouver, owning an automobile vehicle or taking any forms of transportation has become a norm and an essential element in order to operate our every day life. It is difficult to imagine a day without a transportation tool in our modern society: as a student, we need to commute toRead MoreThe Invention Of The Automobile1751 Words   |  8 PagesContrary to popular belief Henry Ford did not invent the automobile, or the assembly line. More than any other individual he was responsible for transforming the automobile from an Invention of unknown utility into an innovation that profoundly shaped the 20th century and still To this day continues to affects our live. Innovators change things, they take their own ideas, And sometimes other people’s, and develop and promote those ideas until it has become accepted As part of our daily lives. InnovationRead MoreThe Invention Of The Automobile Industry Essay1150 Words   |  5 Pagesdefinitely the biggest invention on history changing the way humans transport. In the past, there were no vehicles and therefore people used to walk while only the few lucky had the privilege of enjoying a horse ride. There were also horse wagons which were made in order to increase the number of persons who could be carried (Lynn, 54). However, in the year 1907, Henry Ford invented the first car model which was referred to as T model, that allowed everyone to own a automobile. In this paper I willRead MoreThe Invention of the Automobile Essay1357 Words   |  6 Pagessuccessful but served little practical purpose. Automobiles first began to truly spread with the invention of the electric motor which created cheaper, more powerful, and safer automobiles. Still the automobile still had numerous problems and were mainly in the hands of the rich. It was the developmen t of the internal combustion engine and the assembly line that was truly able to create a practical vehicle that could be used by all and propelled the automobile into the heart of American culture and madeRead MoreThe Invention Of The Automobile Industry1450 Words   |  6 PagesBackground: One of the most innovative inventions of the 19th century was the invention of the automobile. It is clear that the automobile industry has changed the way people and goods travel. The industry basely existed until a man named Henry Ford made the automobile accessible to the public. He put into full motion what we now know today as the automobile industry. Henry Ford had both changed the automobile industry, as well as the manufacturing industry. Ford did this with the way he used theRead MoreThe Invention Of The Automobile Industry1622 Words   |  7 PagesThere is a well known proverb that applies to many industries that goes â€Å"Necessity is the mother of all invention,† but, when it comes to the automobile industry it’s hard to say necessity was the main driving force, as opposed to, say, money. The mechanics of an automobile, and most other power-based machines, revolve around the invention of the internal combustion engine in the early 1860’s and it’s later commercialized application; at first it was more of a luxury item but soon after investorsRead MoreInvention of the Automobile Essay2494 Words   |  10 PagesInvention of the Automobile In the beginning, man’s only form of transportation was his own feet. Later, to comfort his journey on foot, was the invention of footwear. Through envy of the speed of other animals he would learn to tame these animals. People who live in the desert ride atop camels. The people who live in the frigid climates travel by dogs. Some people from places like India ride elephants. But the must widely used form of transportation by animal power was by horse. Man wouldRead MoreThe Invention Of The Automobile Industry1302 Words   |  6 PagesThe automobile industry is said to have its beginnings dating to the 19th century. Gottieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach, of Germany, fitted their engine into a stagecoach in 1886 (Kindersley, 2011, 10). They were both successful at creating the first four-wheeled, gas-engine vehicle. It reached a top speed of ten miles per hour. Each engine was still being fitted into stagecoaches (Kindersley, 2011, 10). The industrial revolution introduce d a wide array of new ideas for the automobile. The ideas ranged