Definitions of Whats Ungrammatical in English

Definitions of What's 'Ungrammatical' in English In descriptive grammar, the term ungrammatical refers to an irregular word group or sentence structure that makes little apparent sense because it disregards the syntactic conventions of the language. Contrast with grammaticality. In language studies (and on this website), examples of ungrammatical constructions are usually preceded by asterisks (*). Judgments regarding ungrammatical constructions are often subject to gradience. In prescriptive grammar, ungrammatical may refer to a word group or sentence structure that fails to conform to the proper way of speaking or writing, according to the standards set by some authority. Also called grammatical error. Contrast with correctness. Examples and Observations Designating a sentence as ungrammatical simply means that native speakers tend to avoid the sentence, cringe when they hear it, and judge it as sounding odd. . . .Calling a sentence ungrammatical means that it sounds odd all things being equalthat is, in a neutral context, under its conventional meaning, and with no special circumstances in force.(Steven Pinker, The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window Into Human Nature. Viking, 2007)Sentences . . . are simply the highest-level expressions of a language, and an ungrammatical string is a morpheme sequence which fails to constitute a meaningful expression of any kind.(Michael B. Kac, Grammars and Grammaticality. John Benjamins, 1992) Examples of Grammatical and Ungrammatical Sentences With Reflexive Pronouns Grammatical Ungrammatical(Terri L. Wells, L2 Acquisition of English Binding Domains. Morphology and Its Interfaces in Second Language Knowledge, ed. by Maria-Luise Beck. John Benjamins, 1998) The smart student thinks that the teacher likes himself.The very happy mother said that the girl dresses herself.The young child said that the pretty woman hurt herself.The man in the blue jacket said that the dog bit himself.The crying father said that the younger boy cut himself.The woman thinks that the student does not like herself.The doctor said that the old man shot himself in the foot.The lawyers think that the four policemen shot themselves.*The man thinks the boy does not like that stupid himself.*The woman said that the little girl saw yesterdays herself.*The taxi driver said that the man hit that careless himself.*The girl said that the teacher laughed at that funny herself.*The soldiers know that the generals like todays themselves.*The student said that the athlete hurt that stupid himself.*The mother wrote that the child laughed at that slow herself.*The man said that the boy was angry with the lazy himself. Distinguishing Between Descriptive and Prescriptive Grammar The sentence below is a garden-variety English sentence, which is descriptively grammatical to any English speaker . . .. I eat bacon and eggs with ketchup. We can form a question based on this sentence as follows: What do you eat bacon and eggs with? This sentence is descriptively grammatical but violates a prescriptive rule; recall that for some, ending a sentence with a preposition (in this case, with) is prescriptively ungrammatical. But now consider this sentence: I eat bacon and eggs and ketchup. When we try to form a question we get the following: *What do you eat bacon and eggs and? No English speaker would utter this sentence (hence the *), but why not? The source sentences look exactly the same; the only difference is that ketchup follows with in the first sentence, and and in the second. It turns out that with, a preposition, functions quite differently from and, a conjunction, and the distinction between the two is part of our unconscious knowledge of English. Studying this unconscious knowledge, revealed in puzzles like this one, allows us to construct a model, or theory of descriptive grammar, a model that attempts to explain why we quite naturally produce grammatical sentences such as What did you eat your bacon and eggs with? but not ungrammatical ones like What did you eat your bacon and eggs and? (Anne Lobeck and Kristin Denham, Navigating English Grammar: A Guide to Analyzing Real Language. Blackwell, 2014)

Literal Meanings and Pedantic Precision

Literal Meanings and Pedantic Precision Literal Meanings and Pedantic Precision Literal Meanings and Pedantic Precision By Mark Nichol Earlier this year, the Merriam-Webster website, which, along with its paper-and-ink version, is notorious for its laissez-faire approach to word usage, expressed an intriguing argument in one of its Usage Notes: Chill out about preserving the â€Å"original† meaning of words. If one were to insist that words be used only in their initial sense, one would discourage me from writing â€Å"Chill out,† because I am not alluding to temperature, and the literal meaning of the verb chill is not â€Å"calm down,† but â€Å"make colder.† That’s the point of the post, which argues that, for example, aggravate shouldn’t be required to apply only to making something worse- it’s fine to use it when describing mere irritation. The argument goes that if the restriction is to be taken to its logical conclusion, aggravate should mean only â€Å"weigh down,† because that is its original sense. (The grav in aggravate, you see, is the same as the grav in gravity.) By the same token, the lackluster utterance of â€Å"Awesome† in response to, well, virtually any pronouncement- no exclamation point is necessary, because the comment was likely nothing like an exclamation- is acceptable. Apparently, the interest of some in preserving that term to describe something truly remarkable is invalid; after all, the original meaning was â€Å"inspiring awe,† and to employ the word for something merely spectacular demonstrates disloyalty to its etymological origins. (Awful would also have the same restriction, because it literally means â€Å"full of awe.†) I see the point, but I also feel that indiscriminate dilution of a word’s distinct meaning paints writers into a corner. Once awesome, indiscriminately mumbled in response to myriad comments undeserving of such a potentially powerful reply, is devalued, what is left to describe something that is, well, truly awesome? On the one hand, this weakening of a word challenges the writer to find- or even craft- a suitable synonym, but it might not be long before the replacement is in turn drained of its strength. That’s why I never write (or say) anxious when I mean eager; the former term patently alludes to anxiety, not anticipation. But I admit inconsistency- using the last word in the previous sentence reminds me that anticipation literally means not â€Å"the state of looking forward to something† but, rather, â€Å"the act of foreseeing.† (Anticipere, the Latin verb from which it is derived, means â€Å"take before.†) Nevertheless, I try to use precise, unambiguous words and will continue to preserve distinctions when possible, and I encourage careful writers to do so as well. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Writing Basics category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:20 Computer Terms You Should Know50 Nautical Terms in General Use20 Movies Based on Shakespeare Plays

History of Adhesives and Glue

History of Adhesives and Glue Archeologists excavating burial sites from 4000 BC have discovered clay pots repaired with glue made from tree sap. We know that the ancient Greeks developed adhesives for use in carpentry, and created recipes for glue that included the following items as ingredients: egg whites, blood, bones, milk, cheese, vegetables, and grains. Tar and beeswax were used by the Romans for glue. Around 1750, the first glue or adhesive patent was issued in Britain. The glue was made from fish. Patents were then rapidly issued for adhesives using natural rubber, animal bones, fish, starch, milk protein or casein. Superglue - Synthetic Glue Superglue or Krazy Glue is a substance called cyanoacrylate that was discovered by Dr. Harry Coover while working for Kodak Research Laboratories to develop an optically clear plastic for gunsights in 1942. Coover rejected cyanoacrylate because it was too sticky. In 1951, cyanoacrylate was rediscovered by Coover and Dr. Fred Joyner. Coover was now supervising research at the Eastman Company in Tennessee. Coover and Joyner were researching a heat-resistant acrylate polymer for jet canopies when Joyner spread a film of ethyl cyanoacrylate between refractometer prisms and discovered that the prisms were glued together. Coover finally realized that cyanoacrylate was a useful product and in 1958 the Eastman compound #910 was marketed and later packaged as superglue. Hot Glue - Thermoplastic Glue Hot glue or hot melt adhesives are thermoplastics that are applied hot (often using glue guns) and then harden as they cool. Hot glue and glue guns are commonly used for arts and crafts because of the wide range of materials that hot glue can stick together. Procter Gamble chemical and packaging engineer, Paul Cope invented thermoplastic glue around 1940 as an improvement to water-based adhesives that were failing in humid climates. This to That A nifty site that tells you what to use to glue anything to anything else. Read the trivia section for historical information. According to the â€Å"This to That† website, the famous cow used as the trademark on all Elmer’s glue products is actually named Elsie, and she is the spouse of Elmer, the bull (male cow) who the company is named after.

Storage Area Network of Carlson Companies Assignment - 1

Storage Area Network of Carlson Companies - Assignment Example This paper illustrates that the effective way to implement a SAN requires computing different or all the existing servers by deploying multiple servers thereby allowing them to organize automatically by creating unconnected information islands. However, in the case of Carlson SAN approach, each of these created islands will be accessible to only one computer; therefore, if computer B needs to use information created by computer A, then computer B needs to copy such information from computer A. In this case, the computer A and B are not connected to a central server, but to independent servers. However, the current implementation of SAN requires a mode of operation or computation where the sourcing of information is from a central point, but accessing such information must be with a high degree of security. Moreover, the Carlson SAN approach mode of implementation requires backup, inter-process communication, and data transfer between different data source; however, the today’s implementation will not require backup since that data or the computing information will be in the cloud. Cloud computing does not require backup or interruption of systems or the flow of information during such implementations as such data or inhumation will be readily available to both the organization’s management and customers in the cloud. Cloud computing allows server Virtualization that does not require physical servers that reducing the interference of worker at some point of network maintenance or advancement.

Pre-Socratic and Aristotles Philosophy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Pre-Socratic and Aristotles Philosophy - Essay Example The philosophers favored a logical or analytical approach in their explanation of occurrences (Sproul, 2000). Consequently, Plato’s philosophy was not based on Greek mythology. In addition, pre-Socratic philosophers were inquisitive about the essence of things. For instance, existence, source, and plurality of things were fundamental pre-Socratic questions. Ideally, Plato’s philosophy attempts or responds to these questions. In conclusions, Plato’s philosophy is a refinement of the pre-Socratic philosophy. Plato’s philosophy supports an ontological dualism, which proposes the existence of two forms of realities/worlds. In this sense, things exist as either ideas or tangibles. Each of this existence represents unique worlds namely intelligible or the sensible world. The intelligible world represents the universals and invisible realities (forms). Under this existence, things cannot change their state or appearance since they are neither material nor tempora l (Sproul, 2000). Thus, the intelligible world preserves eidos and particulars. Indeed, Plato believed that the abstracts are the foundations of the sensible world and that it is only through them that people acquire genuine knowledge. Aristotle’s philosophy was established natural science for thousand years. Key to his science is the nature of change and motion. In his philosophy, Aristotle discovered the fundamental principle of change that direct natural bodies. The principle holds in both the celestial and terrestrial, living and the inanimate. Under the Aristotelian physics, terrestrial objects move towards different part of the universe according to their composition. For instance, earth being the heaviest material, moved towards the center of the universe. On the contrary, ‘fire’ the lightest element tends to move away from the center of the universe.  

Social Networks Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Social Networks - Research Paper Example It has by and large bridged the gap between willing buyers and sellers hence distance has proved to be no longer a challenge in transaction because it has enhanced communication between parties involved. Besides, the internet has proved to be man’s greatest innovative achievement and a popular instrument used in the performance of numeric functions and to enhance communication in the banking sector. Far from this, the internet which is synonymous to cyberspace has even dominated the health sector. It facilitates the distribution of power, enforcement of law and even delivers or retains very confidential information. However, since it is a public utility, the internet has caused much havoc to mankind because sometimes it has not been used for purposes for which it was intended. Some cyberspace users have abused the internet and have thus rendered it a vulnerable social, political and economic tool. Cyber threat has remained a top concern in most nations because of security conc erns. Research and study have found out that cyber security has continued to increase in intensity and sophistication with time. Its gravity has been witnessed everywhere hence this calls for great security concern in the entire world. As we can see, the ever-growing need to use internet services in our everyday life places individual users and even the government and organizations into a task of combating risk factors associated with fraud and sabotage of important information and sometimes the security threat to a person (Yar, 2006). Cyber space hackers have more than often hacked and tampered with confidential government and corporate information, which they use to cause security threats targeting not only government officials but also the common man. Cases of terrorism have continued to increase with time. This is alarming since massive loss of people and properties have been witnessed. The terrorists have routinely targeted business hubs and top government institutions. Victims of cyber attacks have reported that they have also lost massive investments in the process of cyber attacks. This is a matter of concern since no measures placed have proved reliable to curb this scam. According to a report by the National Academy of Sciences (2010), it has been noted that not even the renowned tech-savvy individuals and organizations have managed to stay immune to cyber attacks. Victims of cyber attacks have included important service providers like telecommunication companies, Google, travelling industries, defense and even the banking sectors. This shows that nobody is immune to threats caused by cyber attacks. However, some of the experts causing cyber threats have tried to justify their actions as not being in any way related to threat in the cyber. Some of the terms used to refer to these techs savvy that have sometimes used the internet for purposes other than what is intended have tried to create a distinction between themselves and real criminals. For inst ance, terms which have always confused computer users are hackers and crackers. As far as computer security is concerned, programmers have tried to bring out their argument that someone who tries to break into other computers is better termed as cracker because they use it for ill intentions. According to such experts, computer crackers are like criminals because they use the internet to cause security concerns to other internet users hence are sometimes called black hats. They cause security

Negotiating in a three-dimensional world Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Negotiating in a three-dimensional world - Essay Example Haggling is one of the most common types of negotiation in everyday business transactions. The aim of negotiation is mainly to establish a middle-ground with which either party is comfortable and contented. For a long time, people have always seen negotiation as a social theory that requires only skills and tactics during the round table meeting. However, modern day negotiators are using the revolutionary process of negotiation referred to as the 3-dimensional negotiation. This paper seeks to explain the elements of three dimensional negotiations as explained by Lax and Sebenius (2006). According to lax and Sebenius (2006), negotiation is not effective if given the usual one dimension style. They argue that traditionally, negotiations entailed the use of tactics to either gain the advantage under the topic of conflict or have such benefit distributed among the concerned parties. The usual one dimensional approach to negotiations sought either a win-win result or a win-lose outcome. H owever, practically speaking, such outcomes could only create more conflict where the parties to the clash were more than two. Lax and Sebenius (2006) explain that one-dimensional approaches only stimulate more conflict and yield unsatisfactory deals. Much like a gambling game, one-dimensional techniques are not appropriate where the other party is the holder of all the cards. It is for this reason that the two scholars came up with the three dimensional approach. The three dimensional system is a method of handling negotiations from three perspectives. According to the consultants, the three aspects of this approach are, The Tactics Dimension, The Deal Design Dimension and the Set up Dimension. In addition to these dimensions, Lax and Sebenius (2006) explained a final aspect referred to as the three dimensional audit. The three aspects of the strategy are designed in such a way that they cover the period before the negotiations, during the actual discussion and after the deal are s ealed. The set up dimension takes place away from the negotiation grounds. The side concerns itself with the parties to conflict and the subject matter of the conflict. In evaluating this dimension, the planner or the negotiator focuses on the actual parties involved in the conflict as well as the potential participants. In addressing the issue of the parties expected to attend the negotiation proceedings, the negotiator finds information on which to rely when planning the tactics. The set-up dimension is as well concerned with the subject matter of the negotiator. The negotiator seeks to establish ways in which the subject matter can be useful to them and how valuable they can be to the other party. The essence of this aspect then can be said to be the evaluation of the pie to be shared. Being a preliminary stage, the set-up section concerns itself with estimating the possible outcomes and expected maximum costs. Lax and Sebenius (2006) argue that, in every negotiation procedure, t here are unavoidable costs. Either party should make a provision for such costs prior to the actual negotiation process. Among the essential preliminary steps are the arrangements to hold private consultations with the key parties to the actual negotiations. This may involve the process of identifying the correct sequence of events, as well as, the hierarchy to be observed. Lax and Sebenius (2006) summarized this aspect as the process that concerns itself w