Like Serves Nouns and Pronouns, Not Verbs

Like Serves Nouns and Pronouns, Not Verbs â€Å"Like† Serves Nouns and Pronouns, Not Verbs â€Å"Like† Serves Nouns and Pronouns, Not Verbs By Daniel Scocco Like is associated with various uncouth usages â€Å"They were, like, all over the place†; â€Å"I was, like, ‘Really?’† common in speech but easily avoided (except for comic effect) in writing, but many people are unaware that another widespread usage is considered improper in formal writing. As a preposition meaning â€Å"similar to,† like is associated with nouns (â€Å"She entered the room like an empress†) and pronouns (â€Å"I don’t know anyone like him†). However, when the word connects one clause (a segment of a sentence that includes a subject and a verb) to another, it impersonates a conjunction: â€Å"He started dancing like his pants were on fire†; â€Å"I arranged the furniture like it had appeared before.† Note, though, that this usage, though ubiquitous in conversation and in informal writing, is not considered acceptable in formal writing; like should be replaced, respectively, by â€Å"as if† (He started dancing as if his pants were on fire†) or as: (â€Å"I arranged the furniture as it had appeared before†). Replacing as with â€Å"the way† is also acceptable: â€Å"I arranged the furniture the way it had appeared before.† (But beware of hypercorrection; as is erroneous when, with the same intent, it precedes a noun: â€Å"She entered the room as an empress† means that the subject literally became, rather than merely resembled, royalty. But â€Å"She entered the room as an empress would† is correct, because the emphasis is then on the subject’s action, not on the type of person the subject is compared to.) In the case of a sentence such as â€Å"Like many first-time visitors do, I stared, dumbstruck, at the vista before me,† either change like to as (â€Å"As many first-time visitors do, I stared, dumbstruck, at the vista before me†) or delete the verb at the end of the introductory phrase (â€Å"Like many first-time visitors, I stared, dumbstruck, at the vista before me†). 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 General category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:100 Idioms About Numbers50 Idioms About Fruits and VegetablesAppropriate vs. Apropos vs. Apt

Headspace Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Headspace Analysis - Essay Example This technique has been used to identify spoiled food, fragrances from botanical material, the determination of plasticizers in plastics and for forensic samples involving arson snuff. Its main component, nicotine is habit forming and other compounds produced by pyrolysis during smoking are carcinogenic and can cause a number of other health problems. Tobacco is an extremely valuable export in the United States despite the health concern, and its quality is carefully monitored. Tobacco can be flue cured, air cured, fire cured or sun cured, but the quality of the product can often be monitored by analyzing the vapors in the head space above the tobacco. The head space over tobacco can be sampled and analyzed using a Solid Phase Micro Extraction (SPME) technique. Diesel is similar in chemical composition to kerosene and heating oil in that it is composed of aliphatic hydrocarbons that are obtained from the fractional distillation of crude oil. Diesel has a higher boiling point fraction and the distillation range is greater than that of kerosene and heating oil being composed of essentially C10 to C25 aliphatic hydrocarbons. The use of these extremely sensitive laboratory techniques must be made carefully because of the consequence of obtaining a false positive result. The possibility of the accidental contamination of a sample through poor sampling and laboratory techniques needs to be minimized. The research has shown the sample containers can be cleaned before use and should be sealed before transport to the fire scene. Samples should then be delivered to the laboratory and analysed promptly. The laboratory equipment should be cleaned before use and blank samples analysed regularly to check for any possible contamination. The extraction equipment can be cleaned by washing with acetone and heating the gas transfer lines with a Bunsen burner. The interpretation of the chromatograms must be made carefully using a library of chromatograms composed of the common accelerants, industrial solvents, common household materials, The analysis of numerous burnt synthetic materials was found to be distinct from the common accelerants. The common accelerants were found to change during evaporation making it sometimes difficult to distinguish between those composed entirely of entirely of an aliphatic hydrocarbon fraction. Ethanol could not be detected in fire debris using charcoal absorption extraction techniques and alternative analytical techniques were needed. The background level of accelerants in the environment is dependent of the history of the sample material. Traces of petrol and aliphatic hydrocarbons were found in soil from a motor wrecking yard, however, no traces were found in numerous car flooring materials indicating none would be expected from a domestic environment. Gas odourants could also be detected using the same equipment as that used for fie debris analysis which would assist the investigation of suspected gas explosions. References: 1. Evans, J.S. "Arson in Australia. Dimensions of the Problem and

Art and design Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Art and design - Essay Example The Harlem renaissance art borrowed heavily from post impressionism. The African American community came to understand that it was their time to flourish as human beings. This is usually referred to as the period of enlightenment for the African American artists and the people. This essay seeks to discuss the Harlem renaissance basing on the two prominent figures, Richmond Barthe and Aaron Douglas. It compares and contrasts their early life, their education and their contribution in the Harlem renaissance. Richmond Barthe was born in bay St Louis, Mississippi. This was on January 28, 1901. His father was sr. Richmond Barthe and his mother Marie clementine Robateau. His mother sewed to support the family and his father died when he was only a year old. His mother later remarried to Barthe’s godfather, William franklin. William had no stable job and he worked odd jobs to sustain the family. This included being the icemen to the local community. Interestingly, Barthe’s interest in art developed at a very tender age. Barthe himself mentions that his mother would keep him calm through giving him a piece of paper to draw on. This would allow the mother enough time to run the house errands (Schulman & Peter, 2009 p123). At the age of six years, Barthe began to paint after the master the mum sewed for gave him a set of water colors. At this age, Barthe could draw well. When Barthe was a teenager, his art was overdeveloped for his age. Most of his paintings captured his father’s ice customers and his mother’s sewing customers. Luckily as he helped his father in delivering ice during the summer, one of the customers noticed the hardship and helped him get a job in New Orleans (Black, 2009 p234). This family encouraged his art and as he worked as a houseboy, Barthe furthered his talent in art. It was around this time that Barthe met Lyle Saxon. This was a writer for the New

Vowels Case Essay Example for Free

Vowels Case Essay Speech sounds can be classified and described in articulatory, acoustic and auditory terms. On the basis of these terms the two broad categories in which the speech sounds in any language can be classified are vowels and consonants. Consonants are best described in articulatory terms because there is some type of closure or narrowing of the air passage to the extent that there is audible friction during the production of that sound. But in case of the production of vowels as there is no closure and no narrowing of the air passage to the extent that it may produce audible friction both articulatory and auditory terms are used to describe and classify them. In Phonetic terms vowels are speech sounds in the production of which there is no obstruction or closure and no narrowing of a degree that would cause audible friction in the pharynx and the mouth. Vowels are essentially a tone issuing from the glotis with the vocal chords vibrating. Classification and description of vowels becomes difficult due to the fact that the distinction of one vowel from another arises because of the modification in the shape and size of the resonating chambers, that is the pharyngeal cavity, nasal cavity and the mouth. Soft Palate, the lips and the tongue are responsible for this modification. Thus, just as any description of consonant sounds should reveal the position of vocal cords, place of articulation and manner of articulation, similarly any description of vowel sounds describe: 1. the position of the soft palate – raised (oral) or lowered (nasalized). 2. The shape of the lips –1 i. Unrounded spread, neutral, open ii. Rounded – open and close 3. The shape of the tongue i. which part of the tongue is raised – front, central and back. ii. How high is the part of the tongue is raised – close, half close, half open and open. The position of the soft palate is judged by auditory perception. The shape of the lips can be observed by the eye and therefore described in articulatory terms. But the shape and position of the tongue changes so minutely that it is very difficult to feel these changes. So most of the positions of the tongue are judged by auditory perception only. Cardinal Vowels: Thus it is clear that a finer and more independent system of description is needed on the auditory and articulatory levels. The most satisfactory scheme was devised by Daniel Jones and is known as the Cardinal Vowel system. The basis of the system is physiological. The vowel sounds were produced with the tongue in certain easily felt position. The front of the tongue was raised as close as possible to the palate without causing friction and the sound produced was that of the cardinal vowel [ i ]. Starting from the [ i ] , the front of the tongue was lowered gradually, the lips remained in the spread or the open position and the soft palate was in raised position. The lowering of the tongue was halted at three points at which the vowel qualities seemed to be equi-distant from the auditory point of view. These three tongue positions were x-rayed and it was found that these three points were almost equi-distant from a spatial point of view. The symbols assigned to these three positions were [ e, Æ  , a ]. The same procedure was applied to the vowels which are produced by raising the back of the tongue. The sound produced when the whole of the tongue was as low as possible with a slight raising at the back of the tongue was termed as the cardinal vowel [ ]. The lips were changed progressively from a wide open shape to closely rounded one and the soft palate remained in the raised position. Once again three auditorily and spatially equi-distant points were found. These points were were assigned the symbols – [ , o, u ]. Thus a scale of eight primary cardinal vowels was set up. They were denoted by the following numbers and symbols: 1, [ i ] ; 2, [e] ; 3, [Æ ] ; 4, [a] ; 5, [ ] ; 6, [ ] ; 7, [o] ; 8, [u]. The usefulness of Cardinal Vowels Such a scale is useful because: a. these cardinal vowel sounds are unrelated to particular values in languages, though they may occur in various languages, and b. the set of cardinal vowels is recorded so that reference may always be made to a standard. A vowel sound may be described as being similar to a particular cardinal vowel. These cardinal vowels can be represented diagrammatically. A vowel diagram is obtained by plotting the highest point of tongue raising for each of the primary cardinal vowels and joining the points together. The internal triangle, corresponding to the region of central vowel sounds, is made by dividing the top line into three approximately equal sections and drawing lines parallel to the two sides so that they meet near the base of the figure. C [ i ] C [u] C [ e ] C [ o ] C [ Æ  ]C [ ] C [ a ]C [ ] Monophthongs and Diphthongs There are twenty vowel sounds in RP. These vowel sounds can be divided into two types – monophthongs and diphthongs – on the basis of whether the quality the vowel sound changes during their production or not. Vowel sounds, during the production of which there is no considerable and voluntary change in the quality of the sound are called monophthongs or pure vowels. For example, the vowel sound / I / in ‘pin’. They are represented by thick dots in the vowel diagram. There are 12 monophthongs in RP. Similarly, vowel sound, during the production of which there is considerable and voluntary change in the quality of the sound is called diphthongs or gliding vowel. For example the / aI / sound in ‘pine’. (Explain). They are represented by arrows in the vowel diagram indicating the starting point and the direction in which the quality change, corresponding to the movement of the tongue, is made. There are 8 diphthongs in RP. It should be noted that a diphthong is not the same thing as a sequence of two monophthongs. The diphthong occupies one syllable while a sequence of two monophthongs is spread over two syllables. Example: soil, sawing. During the description of a diphthong we have to describe the lip position and the tongue position at the starting point and the lip position and the tongue position after it has glided in a particular direction.

The two Duffy poems I have chosen to compare the way she presents Essay

The two Duffy poems I have chosen to compare the way she presents the speaker’s relationship with the person she is speaking to are Havisham and Elvis Twin Sister. Havisham is in a form of a monologue. Choose two Duffy Poems. Compare the way she presents the speaker’s relationship with the person she is speaking to (or about) Most of Carol Ann Duffy’s poems are about love, but that does not always mean that they contain positive connotations. Some contain positive where as quite a few of them have negative. The two Duffy poems I have chosen to compare the way she presents the speaker’s relationship with the person she is speaking to are ‘Havisham’ and ‘Elvis’ Twin Sister’. ‘Havisham’ is in a form of a monologue. She begins by telling the reader the cause of her troubles. She states ‘beloved sweetheart bastard’ which is an oxymoron meaning an apparent contradiction for example loving hate. She uses words to describe her bitter and angry tone such as ‘bastard’, ‘strangle’, ‘Nooooo’ and also ‘bang’. Duffy has used these words to make the readers aware of the ange...

Important Events in Louisiana History Essay

The State of Louisiana has a colorful and important past unbeknownst to laymen. These events helped shape the picture of its culture and what is the present day United States. In the 18th century, this state was established as a French Colony and within a little over 30 years, was passed on to the Spanish after the French-Indian War. Control of Louisiana allowed ships from Europe or Mexico to dock from the ocean and move inland through the Mississippi river. The influence of the empires at the time, are still carried over to today. This state recognizes no â€Å"official language† but some residents speak French and Spanish. Aside from this, most of the population is made up of Christians due to the influence of its colonizers. During the 19th century the most important event was the inclusion of this state to The United States of America. The French held the territory at the time but the newly formed United States was worried that at any time, France could close off the Mississippi and form a chokehold on the existing trade routes. President Thomas Jefferson authorized the liaison to France to negotiate a purchase for the territory around the river to prevent a stranglehold. Napoleon at the time encountered too many setbacks with his plan for Louisiana and decided to sell the whole territory. The liaison, Robert R. Livingston, worried that approval from Washington might take too long decided to push through the talks and came to a price of fifteen million US Dollars. President Jefferson was surprised at first but decided to push through with the purchase since it would double the government’s current land area and make way for the expansion west. This served as a precedent fro the purchase of territory and did not spill a single drop of blood. It paved the way for frontiersmen in the years to come and paved the way for the United States to be connected to two great oceans. In1901, speculators in Louisiana discovered oil. Along with forestry, this introduced a wave of economic growth which introduced economic growth. This alleviates the United States’ dependence on foreign oil and places worth on this area of land which was previously valued only for its accessibility to the Mississippi river. Reference List 1. About Louisiana. Louisiana. gov. Last checked 06 May 2008 from http://www. louisiana. gov/wps/wcm/connect/Louisiana. gov/Explore/About+Louisiana/

Frida Kahlo A And Man Like Tendencies - 1230 Words

Frida Kahlo is a very interesting person whom has been through a lot in her short life. Though there is so much to say about the past of Frida Kahlo from her ghastly affair’s and man like tendencies. Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo was born on July 6, 1907 and lived in a house that her father built in Mexico City (Tuchman). Kahlo was a hard working woman but who had a horrible temper. When Kahlo was engaged with Rivera at the age of twenty-one, her father even gave a warning to Rivera. That Frida was â€Å"a devil† and Rivera replied â€Å"I know it (Tuchman).† Throughout Kahlo’s life time she only produced around two- hundred paintings. Her paintings were all relatively still portraits of herself and of friends and family. She was good at creating hunting, and sensual original paintings and that fuse the elements of surrealism (Tuchman). Her mother was of Indian and Spanish extraction from Mexico while her dad was the son of Hungarian Jews from the German town of Baden-Baden (Schirmer’s 10). At a young age Frida encountered a painful tragedy that changed her forever. At the age of six Frida had a short pain in her right leg, not knowing what it was she went to the doctor and was diagnosed with polio. Through, she was able to fight off this horrible disease, it left her left right leg skinny and weakened with no muscle. So for the rest of her life she had a limp. She reflected all of her pain and feelings through her art. There is one particular piece titled Girl with Death MaskShow MoreRelatedFrida Kahlo : The Only Thing I Know1375 Words   |  6 Pagespasses through my head without any other consideration. – Frida Kahlo Frida Kahlo is a very fascinating individual who has been through a lot in her short life. Though there is so much to say about the past of Frida Kahlo from her ghastly affair’s and man like tendencies, she was a very interesting women who was defiant and resilient in her own way. Even though in the Mexican heritage, women are looked down upon from the male prospective, Frida was way before her time. So much so that she is now usedRead MoreFrida Kahlo and Joy Hester Essays1733 Words   |  7 PagesFrida Kahlo and Joy Hester During the 1940s and 50s a emergence of strong female artistic influence can be seen using the examples of Joy Hester and Frida Kahlo. While Kahlo was recognised during her life as a brilliant independent artist for her ground-breakingly personal style, Hester was not. It was only after her death in 1960 that her art was truly celebrated in Australian exhibitions. Hester and Kahlo both attended art schools through the 1920s and 30s; because of this they share