The Goodest Blog

  Lera Boroditsky a researcher from Stanford researches language and its differences in multiple languages. In her studies, she explains that English is actually quite different from a lot of the languages used around the world. In her research, she asks “can language shape how we think?” The answer that she gives is yes and her work can back it up.      In her first most explanative portrayal she uses a cup that shows how language is used in different languages. She states, “she broke the cup” this would, in turn, show that English is more possessive whereas in languages like Japanese or Spanish for example if one deliberately knocks the cup there is a verb to form to indicate as much. This would translate to “the cup broke itself.” However, the research that she did covered far more than just that.       Some further research can show that the theory of universalism is largely intact. This Theory explains that language is just a reflection of hu...

The text, an extract of an article by the BBC World Service website highlighted some of the more important issues raised in the present and future status of English in an international context. One of which was the showcase of the expansion in other languages around the world. We most clearly see this in the text which states, “...about 1.5 billion people around the world speak it- but fewer than 400 million have it as their first language.” This shows that the expanding circle of English is getting bigger. In this increasing bubble of language, eventually, it will pop. This is further supported in the article in the discussions of translations by the internet and computers around the world. This is an important issue in English’s longevity because, with more global enabling of translation and support for other languages to be used without disadvantages, English will die. This global enabling includes the use of new technologies that can translate even easier than ever before. We see t...

  The text written is a letter to a “Stranger” which makes the audience quite unspecific and very broad. The letter's purpose is to give the audience advice on how to live a happier life. To achieve this, the letter gives advice to the reader throughout the entirety of it and makes good use of personal anecdotes which summarize where most of the advice the writer Richard Branson is giving comes from. Beyond the personal anecdotes he gives like saying, “I’ve cheated death on many adventures, seen loved ones pass away…” He also gives advice that isn’t exactly derived from him. An example of this is in his writing saying, “Be healthy.” This simplistic advice although not very personal, still would speak volumes, especially in the contextual sense in which it’s presented.      As for the form in which this letter is written. Richard Branson makes use of the common components a letter would have, following suit using an address to the readers saying, “Dear Stranger” and a...

  4/19/22 Dear, Mr. Macron It should be immediately brought to your attention that the single most important lung for oxygen on this planet is dying as we speak. Right now, the Amazon rainforest is being burned down at a rapid rate and isn’t stopping anytime soon, we need you to take action as president and assure that this catastrophe doesn’t continue. The fire has been burning for over three weeks, now consuming more than one-and-a-half soccer fields of forest being destroyed every passing minute. With your own people's backing of the #PrayforAmazoanas, you have more than the green light to commence help for this forest immediately! `The rainforest is over 5.5 million square kilometers and produces 20% of the world’s oxygen. With over 16,000 tree species and 390 billion trees in the Amazon, we cannot stand to waste any single one of them. So we ask you to step in now, as there is no time to waste on this essential habitat that is being torn apart, especially in the times of...

  In this discourse, which contains a mother and her child Raina. Raina, the child, is five years old. Throughout the discourse, it is evident that Raina is in the late post-telegraphic stage of child language acquisition. This became firstly evident when taking into account the recognition of homophones that their mother uses. This was their mother saying “i can see the sea” and the child’s response “mm hmm.” This recognition of homophones is quite significant in the stage that Raina is in.      It should also be noted that Raina is able to use intonation and stress in speaking. These prosodic features can be heard when listening to Raina say, “lets go this way mum (.) this way.” This use of prosodic stress also represents Raina’s ability to understand conversational importance of paralinguistic features such as body language, but without use of body language, Raina is still able to show emphasis using this stress in speaking. More examples include the intonation s...

    Text A, an excerpt from Advice to a Young Man upon First Going to Oxford: In Ten Letters, From an Uncle to His Nephew by Edward Berens, was written in 1832, which means it is written in late modern English. Over time, English has had quite a few significant changes that are theorized and studied by people all over the world. One of those theories that closely relates to the change we see in Text A is the cultural transmission theory. Developed by many, the cultural transmission theory suggests that the passing on of information through one another occurs through the actions and imitations of the language/idea that the teacher would like to put forward. Through this learning of new information by socialized and engaged interactions, you are cultural learning. For instance, Text A is all about the advice that an uncle is giving to his nephew who’s going to Oxford. This downward communication of an uncle talking to his nephew and giving advice is the base of the cultural...

Beneath the midnight moon lies the campfire shared amongst three teal-tinted tents. The light of the campfire bled onto the surrounding grass only an arms reach past the tents. The moon was bright but its shine was restricted by the damp forestry surrounding the dirt-floored campgrounds. Only two of the tents were occupied by campers since the last tent’s occupants were occupied by the path they discovered hiking earlier in the day. The two occupants, a young fellow named Tanner and his Border Collie named Spike. The path they discovered had symbols carved into trees that Tanner hadn’t ever seen before. Like stick figures digging a hole or something along those lines, he had thought. As they walked along the trail following its loose bends and roughly sloped hills they began seeing more and more trees. Not uncommon for a forest necessarily, but a more frequent amount than usual. The trees, still and tall looked down upon the two venturers. The branch scars were like cyclops eyes starin...

Welcome to M.I.A Your First Day on Campus In less than three weeks, you’re going to be swinging open the doors to Marco Island Academy and for some of you, your first time in high school. At M.I.A, the entrance is the two doors under the awning of the building with a fountain out front. This is where you should go first as it will bring you to the main entrance where you can go to the gym, down the 100s or up the stairs to the second floor out of three. From there, you can just follow your class schedule. Your Classes Most classes at M.I.A require you to have a computer, if you don’t have a laptop already, the school will gladly provide you with one. This is a big responsibility because the temptation to veer off from your assignment may be tempting, but it separates the hard working from the hardly working. Most of the time after you get your assignments done, you can go on the computer and either work ahead in your other classes or doze off. Depending on whether or not you want homew...

     When it comes to William Least Heat-Moon’s Roads to Quoz, An American Mosey . The author chose to format the writing to be a descriptive piece that is best classified as a travel novel. The piece was written as a first-person narrative and has most of the contextual emphasis on the differences in setting and area, portrayed through the descriptions written.      This is initially embedded in the first sentence in the description of their whereabouts saying “We went into Little Lanesboro to Joe’s Country Store.” This being the head of the piece/paragraph immediately brings importance to it, this is essential in a travel novel and rightfully put at the forefront of the writing.      This importance and analysis of the first sentence continue when it comes to the linguistic development of Heat-Moon’s writing. The use of the words “We” and “went” reveals the first-person nature of the text and the past tense showing that the events have alre...

  In the broadest view of the text, this is a paragraphically structured story with a short sentence at the end of the piece. Upon reading the first paragraph it’s contextually developed that the character talking in the first person is weighing the options of shooting an elephant. This can be depicted linguistically from the heavy modality, like when the author wrote “... I ought to do. I ought to walk up within…” Using the word “ought” is showing a suggestion. When looking at this first paragraph deeper than its contextual meaning, the word “sinking” pops out. The author wrote, “I was a poor shot with a rifle and the ground was soft mud into which one would sink at every step.” Although this does develop the text, it has a second bigger meaning. In each step he takes he gets closer to the elephant where he has to make a decision whether or not to shoot, so for every step he takes sinking deeper into the mud, he is also sinking deeper into committing to a decision.  Furtherin...

  Question 1 A       The Jamaican runner Usain Bolt just ran the 100 meters final and won. The lanes accompanying Bolt were filled with all-star runners like Richard Thompson and teammate Asafa Powell who was the former world record holder of the 100-meter dash.      To recount the run it started off with runner Richard Thompson having an inhuman start bursting off the block taking the initial lead. This seemingly threw Bolt for a loop having a bad fourth step, but with a quick recovery, it was still anyone’s race… That was until Bolt’s momentum started building with his longer strides. He quickly took the lead from Thompson gaining a clear vision of the line.      And in entertaining fashion with the whole group still bunched in the back, Bolt pulled ahead taking a look over his shoulder and it dawns on him; that he would win this race. Bolt still close to ten meters from the line threw his hands up in the air and pounding on his c...

     Are the envisionments of your dreams bright? In An Area of Darkness by V.S. Naipaul, the writer, describes two different areas. He first describes Kashmir, saying ‘Kashmir was coolness and colour’ which took me by surprise in that he detailed a place as colour itself. This was further incorporated into the writing saying that Kashmir had ‘yellow mustard fields’ and ‘milky blue sky’ with vague descriptions of the place including the colour; this gave me the impression that the writer was envisioning or maybe literally seeing Kashmir from a distance. The mood given of a calm and placid mountainous region seen from afar, a bright place in a bright mindset.      This envisionment, literal or not, is soon broken in the writing of the second paragraph which begins by describing the sightings again, but in more of a proximal bias. Discussing the smells of ‘charcoal, tobacco, cooking oil’ and ‘human excrement’. The lexical choice is mostly urban and dense sme...