Free Essays on Compare And Contrast Protagonist In A&P And A Woman On A Roof

Compare and contrast Protagonist in A&P and A Woman on a Roof A protagonist is a principal character in the story. In the stories â€Å"A & P â€Å"and â€Å"A Woman on a Roof â€Å"have some common in the character of protagonist. Harry is a protagonist in the â€Å"A Woman on a Roof† and Sammy is a protagonist in the â€Å"A & P.† Harry and Sammy’s character should be compare and contrast, because they both are protagonist in the stories. Both of these characters have leading role in the stories. While both young men learn a lesson, Tom is more heroic and who lives in a greater fantasy world. In Both of the stories â€Å"A&P† and â€Å"A woman on the roof â€Å"‘s authors have used heroism, comic contrast and narrative voice to develop the theme of the stories. In â€Å"A his attention becomes fixed on the â€Å"queen† of the three girls. He was ready to checkout those girls until his boss showed up told them they weren’t attire decently. Lengel criticize girls with the comment â€Å"this isn’t the beach†, Sammy sense of heroism is aroused and he said quit. But never wanted to quit, he just wanted to get notice by those pretty girls in bathing suit. But the irony girls never needed his help; they stand up well under the Victorianism of Lengel â€Å"we are decent† said by those girls. While on other side of the ring Tom, the narrator of â€Å"a woman on the roof† had this feeling of that woman on the roof attracted to him. He was very attracted and had a crush on her. Woman’s beauty had turned into him in a stalker. Even though that woman on the roof never liked those guys, Tom still had guts and feelings that he should go and talk to her about him being attracted to her beauty. Comparing bot h of the protagonists Tom is more heroic manner, because he protected the woman on the roof by Stanley’s anger and he went up to talk to her, while Sammy, in fact,... Free Essays on Compare And Contrast Protagonist In A&P And A Woman On A Roof Free Essays on Compare And Contrast Protagonist In A&P And A Woman On A Roof Compare and contrast Protagonist in A&P and A Woman on a Roof A protagonist is a principal character in the story. In the stories â€Å"A & P â€Å"and â€Å"A Woman on a Roof â€Å"have some common in the character of protagonist. Harry is a protagonist in the â€Å"A Woman on a Roof† and Sammy is a protagonist in the â€Å"A & P.† Harry and Sammy’s character should be compare and contrast, because they both are protagonist in the stories. Both of these characters have leading role in the stories. While both young men learn a lesson, Tom is more heroic and who lives in a greater fantasy world. In Both of the stories â€Å"A&P† and â€Å"A woman on the roof â€Å"‘s authors have used heroism, comic contrast and narrative voice to develop the theme of the stories. In â€Å"A his attention becomes fixed on the â€Å"queen† of the three girls. He was ready to checkout those girls until his boss showed up told them they weren’t attire decently. Lengel criticize girls with the comment â€Å"this isn’t the beach†, Sammy sense of heroism is aroused and he said quit. But never wanted to quit, he just wanted to get notice by those pretty girls in bathing suit. But the irony girls never needed his help; they stand up well under the Victorianism of Lengel â€Å"we are decent† said by those girls. While on other side of the ring Tom, the narrator of â€Å"a woman on the roof† had this feeling of that woman on the roof attracted to him. He was very attracted and had a crush on her. Woman’s beauty had turned into him in a stalker. Even though that woman on the roof never liked those guys, Tom still had guts and feelings that he should go and talk to her about him being attracted to her beauty. Comparing bot h of the protagonists Tom is more heroic manner, because he protected the woman on the roof by Stanley’s anger and he went up to talk to her, while Sammy, in fact,...

Affirmative action debate essays

Affirmative action debate essays When they were first initiated, affirmative action policies were needed to address the discrimination faced by women and members of minority ethnic groups. These policies have enabled many people to secure better employment and educational opportunities. In their wake, however, affirmative action policies have also spawned criticisms of reverse discrimination, and given rise to charges that in the long run, these policies harm the people they were intended to help. This paper argues that while affirmative action policies were necessary in 1965, they are no longer appropriate in 2003. In fact, this paper presents arguments why affirmative action policies are ineffective in addressing the discrimination problems faced by African Americans, Latinos 1. Race is not a sharply-defined category. Many critics of affirmative action point to the problem of "racial boxing" that these policies inherently promote. Linda Chavez, for example, argues that race categories are arbitrary concepts, which are fluid and This problem is best illustrated in the arbitrary definitions of what constitutes being "Latino" or "Hispanic." An Argentinean person of Spanish ancestry, for example, would most likely be considered "Caucasian." However, if the same person speaks fluent Spanish instead of fluid English, he automatically becomes "Hispanic." Such arbitrary classifications are also at work among other racial groups. All Asians are usually lumped together because of the way they look. Such a catchall category, however glosses over important cultural differences and even makes light of deep-seated cleavages between groups like the Japanese and Koreans. Even Caucasian people of Eastern European descent are asserting their distinctness from other Caucasians. Just as it is impossible to classify who belongs to what ethnic group, it is also virt...

Why are passwords and other good information security technologies Essay

Why are passwords and other good information security technologies compromised by the people who use them What can we do to improve their contribution to information security - Essay Example Password attacks can be implemented by means of numerous diverse techniques, involving Trojan horse programs, brute-force attacks, packet sniffers and IP spoofing. While IP spoofing and packet sniffers are able to produce user accounts and passwords, password harasses usually refer to frequent efforts to recognize an user account and password; these repeated cracks are called brute-force attacks (Johnson, 2007). By means of the term information security we recognize an intellect of possible risks implicated in the sensitivity of the information. With information technologies coming into the view the image broadens its limits. At this instant it turns out to be essential to recognize the nature of hazard involved and next there should be a well-formulated description of the term safety itself (Rantasaari et al, 2003). In broad sense, there are necessarily three sides of the term security. Primarily, it shows the accessibility of assets, though material or virtual, that is beneath possession of an entity or grouping. Secondly, there is a sense of privacy involved in this practice in view to these assets, in this case data, dealings and communication. Third and as a final point, there should be an awareness of truthfulness which allows the user or users to consider in the context of security (Goldwasser et al, 2007). Here I will explain how passwords and other good information security technologies compromised by the people who use them. The first factor that usually causes the security leak is the sharing of the password by the people with anyone for any purpose. Passwords should not be shared with anyone because it can be casuse of information and data theaft and there is danger of accessing another individual’s protected resources, accounts and personal records. Anothre reason is not changing the passwords periodically. If we do not

10 different companies selected to watch with relation to their stock Coursework

10 different companies selected to watch with relation to their stock prices - Coursework Example Each of these stocks are a part of the banking sector. Seven of the stocks are companies based in America. Two are based in the UK, and one is based in Canada. The objective of this project is to pick stocks which will rise in value during the length of this project, which spanned from April 16 to May 14. Additionally, an analyses of the banking sector in the UK and the United States is explained, because the environmental and exogenous issues which surrounding the banking sector will impact if the stocks will rise or fall during the time period. What was found was that the banking stocks lost much of their value during the time period, with two exceptions, both of which were smaller banks. Introduction Stock prices are inevitably affected by different events in the world. In this case, we are entering a period of instability in Europe, as well as recovering from a global recession which was largely caused by the meltdown of the large banks in the UK and especially the United States. Because of this recession, the UK has been forced to implement austerity measures which, among other things, cuts financial resources to its largest banks. Because these financial resources were important to these banks, in that it helped the banks recover from the recession and lend money, it stands to reason that the largest banks might be affected. Moreover, in the United States, the banks are going through a transition period with greater regulation. That said, a recent scandal involving JP Morgan Chase, which lost $2 billion in trading losses, show that the Wall Street banks might still be engaging in risky behaviour. Because of these factors, the stocks in our portfolio lost money, so the objective was not met, in that the objective was to pick stocks which would rise in value. This paper will explain how much the $10,000,000 fund was worth, week by week, and how much it was finally worth, along with explanations as to why the stocks performed the way that they did. Also incl uded is a comparison of our stocks with stocks from the Dow Jones average and the automotive sector. The automotive sector’s performance was similar to the banking performance, which denotes that stocks, in general, are having a rough go. Stock Fund Creation Overview of Sector Because the banks which have been selected are banks based both in the UK (HSBC and Barclays) and the United States (every other bank on the list except the Bank of Canada), the main thrust of this analysis will involve the banking sectors in these two countries. United Kingdom As noted above, HSBC and Barclays is based in the UK. The UK’s banking sector is having a difficult time right now because of the austerity measures that the UK has implemented, which has caused Moody’s to downgrade the rating of 12 UK financial institutions (US Banks Downgraded as Confidence Slumps). To understand why this downgrade might

Linguistics and Language Essay Example for Free

Linguistics and Language Essay What will be covered in this class? †¢ How do we produce and recognize speech? †¢ How do we perceive words, letters, and sentences? †¢ How do we learn and recall information from texts? †¢ How can we improve texts to make them easier to understand? †¢ How does the brain function to process language? †¢ What are the causes and effects of reading disabilities? †¢ Is there language in other species? Central themes in psycholinguistics 1) What knowledge of language is needed for us to use language? Tacit (implicit) knowledge vs. Explicit knowledge  Ã¢â‚¬ ¢ tacit: knowledge of how to perform something, but not aware of full rules †¢ explicit: knowledge of the processes of mechanisms in performing that thing 2) What cognitive processes are involved in the ordinary use of language? How do we understand a lecture, read a book, hold a conversation? Cognitive processes: perception, memory, thinking, learning Some definitions of basic components of language: Semantics: The meaning of words and sentences Syntax: The grammatical arrangement of words in a sentence or phrase Phonology: The sound pattern of language Pragmatics: How language is used in a social context  Examples from psycholinguistics Parsing garden path sentences The novice accepted the deal before he had a chance to check his finances, which put him in a state of conflict when he realized he had a straight flush. 1) The defendant examined by the lawyer turned out to be unreliable 2). The evidence examined by the lawyer turned out to be unreliable The process of parsing is the process of making decisions The effect of prior knowledge on comprehension The procedure is actually quite simple. First you arrange things into different groups. Of course, one pile may be sufficient depending on how much there is to do. If you have to go somewhere else due to lack of facilities, that is the next step; otherwise you are pretty well set. It is important not to overdo things. That is, it is better to do too few things at once than too many. In the short run this may not seem important, but complications can easily arise. A mistake can be expensive as well. At first the whole procedure will seem complicated. Soon, however, it will become just another facet of life. It is difficult to foresee any end to the necessity for this task in the immediate future, but then one never can tell. After the procedure is completed, one arranges the materials into different groups again. Then they can be put into their appropriate places. Eventually they will be used once more, and the whole cycle will then have to be repeated. However, that is part of life. Bransford Johnson, 1973 Recall: No context: 2. 8 idea units out of a maximum of 18 Context afterwards: 2. 7 idea units Context before: 5. 8 idea units Child language development How many words do you know? Hint: Dictionary has about: 450,000 entries Test high school graduates: How many words do they know? About 45,000 english words About 60,000 including names and foreign words. The average six year old knows about 13,000 words. Learning about 10 words per day since age 1. (One every 90 minutes) How much do we have to teach children to learn language? Do you have to teach a child to walk? Is it the same way of learning a language? My teacher holded the baby rabbits and we patted them I eated my dinner A brief history of psycholinguistics Wilhem Wundt (early 1900s) Interest in mental processes of language production †¢ Sentence as the primary unit of language †¢ Speech production is the transformation of complete thought processes into sequentially organized speech segments. Behaviorism (1920s-1950s) †¢ Rejected the focus on mental processes †¢ Measurement based on objective behavior (primarily in lab animals) †¢ How does experience (reward and punishment) shape behavior? B. F. Skinner: Children learn language through shaping (correction of speech errors) Associative chain theory: A sentence consists of a chain of associations between individual words in the sentence What’s wrong with the behaviorist approach? Noam Chomsky (1950s present) 1) Colorless green ideas sleep furiously 2) Furiously sleep ideas green colorless. 3) George picked up the baby. 4) George picked the baby up. Almost every sentence uttered is a new combination of words The Poverty of stimulus argument: There is not enough information in the language samples given to children to account for the richnes and complexity of children’s language The pattern of development is not based on parental speech but on innate language knowledge Linguistic Diversity vs. Linguistic Universals Linguistic diversity There appears to be a lot of diversity among languages Even within languages there is diversity When are two languages different? We speak the same language if we can understand each other  Exceptions: Norwegian and Swedish Cantonese and Mandarin Dialects within languages: The myth of pure language How/why do languages change? Why does there seem to be a correct English? Members of the dominant (most powerful) sub-culture tend to speak one dialect and may punish those who do not Linguistic Chauvinism Belief that one’s own language/dialect is the best of all possible languages Black English Vernacular (BEV) Study by William Labov Interviewed African-American street youth You know, like some people say if you’re good an’ sh*t, your spirit goin’ t’heaven . . . ‘n if you bad, your spirit goin’ to hell. Well, bullsh*t! Your spirit goin’ to hell anyway, good or bad. [Why? ] Why? I’ll tell you why. ‘Cause, you see, doesn’ nobody really know that it’s a God, y’know, ‘cause I mean I have seen black gods, white gods, all color gods, and don’t nobody know it’s really a God. An’ when they be sayin’ if you good, you goin’ t’heaven, tha’s bullsh*t, ‘cause you ain’t goin’ to no heaven, ‘cause it ain’t no heaven for you to go to. †¢ Place holders: There vs. It in the copula †¢ Copula: Is, Was optional †¢ Negatives: You ain’t goin’ to no heaven. BEV just as linguistically complex as Standard American English We don’t see/understand the complexity in other languages Moral: All languages seem to permit as wide range of expressions as others Linguistic Universals What is in common with all languages? Sentences are built from words based on the same physiological processes †¢ All languages have words †¢ All humans have ways of making sounds. †¢ Languages tend to use a small set of phonemic sounds †¢ Phoneme: The minimal unit of sound that contributes to meaning How many phonemes in a language? †¢ English: 40 phonemes †¢ Range: Polynesian 11 to Khoisan 141. Discreteness Messages in human language (e. g. speech sounds) are made up of units of which there is a discrete (limited) number Arbitrariness The relationship between meaningful elements in language and their denotation is independent of any physical resemblance between the two. Words do not have to look or sound like what they describe Openness †¢ New linguistic messages are created freely and easily †¢ Languages are not constrained in a way so that there are a limited number of messages that can be created. †¢ Linguistic Productivity: The ability to understand and create an unlimited number of sentences. The question studied by psycholinguists is how to characterize and account for the creativity to construct and create an infinite number of sentences given the limited capabilities of the human brain Duality of Patterning Language involves relating two different kinds of patterns or forms of representation †¢ A phonological system †¢ A semantic system These two systems use very different types of codes, although there is a phonological representation for each item in the semantic system Phrase structure Information on how a sentence is grouped into phrases. The quiet boy ate the red apple A set of Phrase Structure rules: PS 1 S (sentence) - NP + VP PS 2 NP (noun phrase)- det + (adj) + N PS 3 VP (verb phrase) - V +NP PS 4 N (noun) - boy, dog, man, book PS 5 V (verb) - ate, broke, kissed PS 6 adj (adjective - quiet, red, happy, wormy PS 7 det (determiner) - a, the We use lexical-insertion rules to put words into the structure. Phrase-structure rules provide a good account of phrase-structure ambiguity. They are broiling hens Morphology Morphology is the component of grammar that builds words out of units of meaning (morphemes) A morpheme is the smallest meaningful unit of language How many morphemes? bird firetruck undereducated unmicrowaveability Insights from American Sign Language (ASL) Unlike speech, signs are expressed in visual or spatial form Do a lot of the same grammatical concepts hold? Arbitrariness ASL possesses iconicity signs can represent objects or actions to which they refer. However, the degree of iconicity has declined over the years Duality of Patterning signs are composed of smaller elements that are meaningless Example: 3 parameters †¢ 19 values of hand configuration. †¢ 12 values of place of articulation †¢ 24 values of movements Meaningless patterns can be combined in various ways to from ASL signs. What about openness and discreteness within ASL? Transformational Grammar (Chomsky 1950s) Language: an infinite set of well-formed sentences Grammar: A finite set of rules that generates sentences in the language How do we know that a grammar is a good theory of language? Three criteria: Observational Adequacy: A grammar is observationally adequate if it generates all acceptable sequences and no unacceptable sequences. Descriptive adequacy: A grammar must also explain how a sentence relates to other sentences that are similar opposite in meaning. The ball was caught by John John caught the ball The ball was not caught by John Explanatory adequacy It is possible for multiple grammars to attain observational and descriptive adequacy. Which is the correct/best one? Children learning language are presented with many samples of language and must determine the grammar from these samples. There must be some innate language constraints that help children determine the correct grammar. There exist Linguistic Universals that are common to all languages. The fact that there are similarities in languages is based on the fact that languages are determined by the nature of the mental structures and processes which characterize human beings A Grammar must explain the role of linguistic universals in language acquisition Deep and Surface structure Deep structure: The structure of the sentence that conveys the meaning of the sentence. Surface Structure: The superficial arrangement of constituents Deep structure ambiguity: A single surface structure that is based on two different deep structures Flying planes can be dangerous. Phrase structure rules would not be able to account for the differences in meaning Sentences can have similar phrase structure, although their underlying structure is different: John is easy to please John is eager to please Sentences can different surface structure, but similar deep structure Arlene played the tuba The tuba was played by Arlene Transformational Grammar A two part process to derive a sentence 1) Use Phrase-structure rules to generate the underlying tree structure (deep structure) 2) Apply a sequence of transformational rules to the deep  structure to generate the surface structure of the sentence Transformations occur by adding, deleting or moving constituents John phoned up the woman John phoned the woman up Phrase structure approach: Two different rules VP V + (particle) + NP VP V + NP + (particle) Each sentence is derived separately, using different phrase structure rules. Transformational grammar approach: One rule V + particle + NP V + NP + particle John phoned up the interesting woman John phoned the interesting woman up John phoned up the woman with the curly hair John phoned the woman with the curly hair up. Restrictions on transformations The particle-movement transformation can not be applied to pronouns John called them up *John called up them Example 2: Passive transformation NP1 + V + NP2 NP2 + be + V + en + by + NP1 Arlene played the tuba The tuba was played by Arlene Psychological Reality of Transformational Grammar If using language is a process of converting the deep structure to the surface structure, then the number of transformation rules applied should affect how long it takes to process a sentence. However, experiments do not consistently show that this holds true Current theories of grammar Lexical-Function Grammar  Made up of three components: a constituent structure, a functional structure, and lexical entries Constituent Structure: Similar to phrase structure Functional Structure: All the information needed for semantic interpretation John told Mary to leave Bill Predicate tell (subj, obj, V-comp) Tense Past Subj John Obj Mary V-comp predicate leave subj Mary obj Bill Lexical Entries Lexical entries contain information about: †¢ the forms of the word †¢ the kinds of sentences into which they fit, †¢ arguments and semantic roles Mary kissed John John was kissed by Mary Entry for kiss includes underlying semantic structure  kiss: (agent, patient). Forms of the word kiss: agent = subject: patient = object (be) kiss: agent=object: patient = subject Major significance of LFG Most of the explanation of how we process language is based on the lexicon (where we store information about words) . Government-Binding Theory or Universal Grammar Chomsky’s view of innate grammatical mechanisms. In GB theory, grammar is modular. Grammar due to interaction of several independent subsystems, or modules. Each module is fairly simple and performs part of the task But all modules interact in order to constrain the rules made by the other modules in the grammar. Implications We all inherit a universal grammar that can be set to different parameter values. These parameter values correspond to different languages. As we get experience with a language, we acquire these parameter values, and thus the language upon which it is based. Research methods in Psycholinguistics How do we observe, collect information on phenomena related to psycholinguistics? Naturalistic Observation Observing information in a non-experimental setting Slips of the tongue Phonological switching: Crushing blow Blushing crow semantic replacements: blond eyes for blond hair. Language Acquisition The use of language over time Data from naturalistic observation Rich, but hard to analyze Controlled experiments Goal: test an empirical hypothesis Hypothesis: A chapter will be easier to understand if each section starts with a summary of what will be said. Independent Variable: Variable that is manipulated to test the hypothesis. Dependent Variable: Variable representing the behavior we want to measure Control Variables: Other variables we need to control in order to see the effect of the independent variable Subjects: Who is going to participate in the experiment? Analysis: How do we know if there are differences bewteen the two chapters? The Human Information Processing System What psychological mechanisms are involved in using language? The Sensory store Processes incoming information from the environment †¢ Individual sensory stores for each sense †¢ Information retained for a short duration The visual sensory store Experiments by Sperling (1960) X M R K C N J P V F L B The partial report technique Auditory sensory store Experiment by Darwin, Turvey Crowder (1972) 3 digits or letters auditorally presented to each ear and center at the same time. What is the use of the sensory store? It maintains information long enough so that we can do additional processing to it. Working memory or short term memory (STM) STM used to describe the fact that it holds information for a short time, while working memory refers to the processing capacity. STM works as a temporary holding place for intermediate decisions. Limited in size. Chunking Working memory: there is a limited amount of processing capacity that you can use as you perform a problem Long term memory Knowledge of how to do things, things we have learned, grammar rules, personal memories. All knowledge that is not active. Information that becomes active is retrieved from LTM and put in STM. Anything we learn is first processed in STM and some of it is put into LTM Episodic vs. Semantic Memory distinction Semantic memory †¢ Organized knowledge of words, concepts, symbols and objects. motor skills, general knowledge, spatial knowledge , social skills. †¢ All information is organized semantically, but not tagged based on when it was learned. Episodic memory †¢ Holds traces of events specific time and place. †¢ Memory of personal experiences. Interaction between semantic and episodic memory. What does the organization of the information processing system have to do with language processing? Pattern Recognition Parsing/understanding sentences in working memory This is a long sentence and yet somehow you can keep it all in working memory The organization of Long Term Memory That cat plays really cool jazz Serial vs. Parallel Processing Serial processing: One process working at a time Parallel Processing: Multiple processes working at a time In a serial model of language processing, individual modules would work one at a time to process the information. A parallel model would say that the processes happen at the same time. Parallel models as neurally inspired models of cognitive processes Top-Down vs. Bottom-Up processing Cognitive processing occurs at levels Bottom-up processing is done in such a way that all processing occurs starting from the lowest level processes and proceeds onto the higher level processes Higher level processes do not influence any of the processing done at the lower levels Top down processing: Information at the higher levels influences processing at the lower levels. Advantages and disadvantages of Top-Down processing Automatic vs. Controlled processes We have a limited amount of processes that we can do at a time. Controlled processing: Processes that require a substantial amount of cognitive processing. Automatic processing: Processes that do not require a substantial amount of cognitive processing. The role of practice in automatic processing The Stroop effect Putting it all together: Cognitive processes in action The novice accepted the deal before he had a chance to check his finances, which put him in a state of conflict when he realized he had a straight flush. The Internal Lexicon How are words stored? What are they made up of? How are word related to each other? How do we use them? Internal lexicon The representation of words in long term memory Lexical Access: How do we activate the meanings of words? Aspects of Meaning Reference: The relationship between words and things in the world Things in the world are referents of a word My dog has fleas My dog is from Mars But not all reference can be mapped to concrete things Abstract words: Love, Justice, Equality Non existent objects: Unicorn, Martians Meaning is not restricted to the real world, but also imaginary worlds Sense: The relationship of a word with other words in the language Student at NMSU vs. Undergraduate at NMSU Synonymy (same meaning) Car Automobile Antonymy (opposite meaning) Happy Sad Incompatibility (do the words contradict each other? ) John is happy vs. John is sad Hyponymy (are they part of the same class? ) A dog is an animal, Bowser is a dog, Denotation vs. Connotation Denotation: The objective meaning of the word Connotation: The aspect of the meaning beyond its explicit meaning Bachelor Spinster Hungry Starving The Mental Representation of Meaning The representation of the meaning of a word is based on the semantic features of that word. We acquire the meaning of a word by learning its semantic features Children make semantic mistakes Verbs of possession. We understand more than the meaning, we have knowledge of the relations between these words sold vs. paid give vs. receive lose vs. find Prototypes: Some members of a category are better instances of the category than others Apple vs. pomegranate What makes a prototype? More central semantic features What type of dog is a prototypical dog What are the features of it? We are faster at retrieving prototypes of a category than other members of the category Semantic Networks. Words can be represented as an interconnected network of sense relations †¢ Each word is a particular node †¢ Connections among nodes represent semantic relationships Mental models: A model/understanding of how the world works and how pieces of textual information fits in with it. John is sitting in a chair. That chair is on a table. The table is blue and round. John has red hair. The structure of the Internal Lexicon How do these pieces of semantic information relate to each other? Semantic verification task An A is a B An apple is a fruit A robin is a bird A robin is an animal A dog has teeth  A fish has gills A fish has feathers An apple has teeth NMSU is in New Mexico Harvard is in California Use time on verification tasks to map out the structure of the lexicon. Models of the Lexicon Collins and Quillian Hierarchical Network model Lexical entries stored in a hierarchy, with features attached to the lexical entries Representation permits cognitive economy Testing the model Sentence Verification time Robins eat worms 1310 msecs Robins have feathers 1380 msecs Robins have skin 1470 msecs A category size effect: Subjects do an intersection search Problems with Collins and Quillian model . 1) Effect may be due to frequency of association 2) Assumption that all lexical entries at the same level are equal The Typicality Effect Which is a more typical bird? Ostrich or Robin. A whale is a fish vs. A horse is a fish Major conclusions of the model: 1) If a fact about a concept is frequently encountered, it will be stored with that concept even if it could be inferred from a more distant concept. 2) The more frequently encountered a fact about a concept is, the more strongly that fact will be associated with the concept. And the more strongly associated with a concept facts are, the more rapidly they are verified. 3) Verifying facts that are not directly stored with a concept but that must be inferred takes a relatively long time. Spreading Activation Models (Collins Loftus) †¢ Words represented in lexicon as a network of relationships †¢ Organization is a web of interconnected nodes in which connections can represent: categorical relations degree of association typicality Retrieval of information †¢ Spreading activation †¢ Limited amount of activation to spread †¢ Verification times depend on closeness of two concepts in a network Context effect in spreading activation models Present either: Murder is a crime or Libel is a crime Then get verification time for Robbery is a crime Subjects faster when they see Murder than Libel. Why? Advantages of Collins and Loftus model †¢ Recognizes diversity of information in a semantic network †¢ Captures complexity of our semantic representation †¢ Consistent with results from priming studies Lexical Access What factors are involved in retrieving information from the lexicon? Semantic Priming Meyer Schvaneveldt (1971) Lexical Decision Task Prime Target Time Nurse Butter 940 msecs Bread Butter 855 msecs Evidence for associative spreading activation. Ratcliff and McKoon (1981) Subjects study and memorize The doctor hated the book Task: Was this word from the sentence you memorized? Prime Target Time None Book 667 msecs Doctor Book 624 msecs Word Frequency Does word frequency play a role in lexical access? Lexical Decision Task: gambastya, revery, voitle, chard, wefe, cratily, decoy, puldow, raflot, oriole, vuluble, booble, chalt, awry, signet, trave, crock, cryptic, ewe, himpola mulvow, governor, bless, tuglety, gare, relief, ruftily, history, pindle, develop, gardot, norve, busy, effort, garvola, match,sard, pleasant, coin, maisle. Lexical Decision is dependent on word frequency Eyemovement studies: Subjects spend about 80 msecs longer fixating on low-frequency words than high-frequency words Morphological Structure So we strip off the prefixes and suffixes of a word for lexical access? Decision = Decide + ion Lexical Decision Tasks: Prime Target Time Nurse Butter 940 msecs Bread Butter 855 msecs Evidence for associative spreading activation Ratcliff and McKoon (1981) Subjects study and memorize The doctor hated the book Task: Was this word from the sentence you memorized? Prime Target Time None Book 667 msecs Doctor Book 624 msecs Word Frequency Does word frequency play a role in lexical access? Lexical Decision Task: gambastya, revery, voitle, chard, wefe, cratily, decoy, puldow, raflot, oriole, vuluble, booble, chalt, awry, signet, trave, crock, cryptic, ewe, himpola mulvow, governor, bless, tuglety, gare, relief, ruftily, history, pindle, develop, gardot, norve, busy, effort, garvola, match,sard, pleasant, coin, maisle. Lexical Decision is dependent on word frequency Eyemovement studies: Subjects spend about 80 msecs longer fixating on low-frequency words than high-frequency words Morphological Structure So we strip off the prefixes and suffixes of a word for lexical access? Decision = Decide + ion Lexical Decision Tasks: Presented subjects with a sequence of words to study Examined the probability of recognizing words over 14 days Performance systematically decays over time Negatively accelerated decay. Bahrick (1984) Students retention of spanish-english vocabulary items from 0 to 50 years Power law of decay Review on the internal lexicon Aspects of meaning: Reference and Sense Denotation and Connotation What is the mental representation of meaning? Models of the Lexicon Hierarchical Network Model Spreading Activation Model What factors are involved in retrieving information from the lexicon? Semantic Priming Word Frequency Morphological Structure Lexical Ambiguity Retention of lexical items.

Impact of War in Tim OBriens The Things They Carried :: Things They Carried Essays

Impact of War in Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried      For young people, the Vietnam War is a thing of the past and they can only learn about it from second hand sources. In Tim O'brien's The Things They Carried, it becomes very apparent that the Vietnam conflict has proved to be one that many of the participants have not been able move away from, while getting on with their lives. O ²brien shows that the conflict takes on a parasitic form that eats away on its victims for the rest of their lives.      A parasite is defined as an organism that grows, feeds, and is sheltered on or in a different organism while harming its host. The war in this case takes the place of the organism, and the host becomes the soldiers. There are several examples of the parasitic nature of war through out the book. In one particular section, Tim O'Brien returns to Vietnam with his daughter. Twenty years had gone by, but it seems as though all of his thoughts are geared back to the time he had spent in the jungle so long before.   The two of them travel all over the country, but before their departure, he returns to the field where he feels he lost everything.   On this list he includes his honor, his best friend, and all faith in himself. For O'Brien, evidence of the parasite is not solely in his return Vietnam, but rather a constant personal preoccupation that seems to flow through the collection of stories. O'Brien shows how the memories of the war take on a parasitic form, and uses himself as an example.      In the chapter  ³Speaking of Courage ², O'Brien introduces a character by the name of Norman Bowker. In the story Norman finds him self home after serving his time in Vietnam. Even though he is back in his home town, things do not seem the same to him. The was seems to have put a new spin on his life. Most of the story he spends driving in circles while thinking about the war and his lack of place in his old society. The war becomes his whole life, and he feels as though he is to far distant from the town people for them to understand. The reader then finds out that Bowker

How to do qualitative research Essay

Introduction: Qualitative research is about asking questions and gathering information through words, to then later analyze. One way of doing this is through ethnography. But before any research can be done, there must be a research question. In this case, â€Å"Do the Olympics cause their audience to act differently than when they are watching any other popular TV show? † This question was chosen to clearly outline the process of ethnography, and how it is useful in finding out the information needed to answer this research question. Methodology: An ethnography is â€Å"A Research approach to understanding the culture of a group (patterns of behaviour/attitudes, how they create meaning), by immersing oneself in the activities of the specific group over a period of time and then writing up a descriptive summary. † (Savage 3). An ethnographic approach includes being engaged in and listening to conversations, taking regular notes and collecting â€Å"artifacts† of the group being studied (Savage 7). All of these things later help in writing up a summary of findings that where gathered from the ethnography. There are two main types of ethnography, first there is an overt ethnography where the participants are told they are being observed. This type of ethnography is most commonly used and is less risky because the participants are aware of the study that is taking place. The other type is covert. This is where the researcher is unknown by the participants (Savage 10). The ethnography done about whether the Olympics change the way an audience acts is a covert ethnography. The subjects were unaware of the researcher and the fact that they were being studied and just watched TV as they normally would. Although this study was in a closed setting, there is always a chance of a risk when doing a covert study, because one of the participants may not want to be studied (Savage 9-10). Another important aspect of doing an ethnography is gaining access. Gaining access all depends on whether it is a closed setting or an open setting. Open settings are public settings are are fairly easy to gain access to. They include places like a street corner, or a movie theatre lobby, or city council meetings (Savage 9). Closed settings are non-public settings that are harder to gain access to because they usually require a contact, or permission to get into. Closed settings include families, firms, doctors offices and political parties (Savage 9). These are places that access is only granted to people who have permission. Although, in most cases, a lot of groups that are in a closed setting, have both open and closed settings, so if permission was not granted, then there would still be an opportunity for an ethnography when the group is in an open setting. The ethnography that was done took place in a closed setting and access was granted due to it being at the researchers house. This made it easy to gain access without having to worry about any limits that can sometimes come with closed settings. Summary of Findings For this topic, one would find that using ethnography would be the best way to go about making a research project about the Olympics causing an audience to act differently then when they watch other popular TV shows. This is because the study was about to view two different settings, one of subjects watching a popular TV show (American Idol), and one of subjects watching the Olympic Games. This allowed for a very good comparison between the two, and made answering the research question fairly easy. While doing the ethnography in both settings, being a â€Å"fly on the wall† allowed the researcher to observe how the subjects acted in both situations without being noticed. The setting also helped in disguising the researcher, because the subjects were just told it was homework, or they were used to the researcher being on the computer anyways. If this study were to be conducted as an in-depth interview, the results would be quite different. The interviewee may not know how they react when they’re watching television, or may not notice that they act differently and vise versa, which would then make it difficult to get the desired information. This would put the study at a halt because no relevant information would have been gathered. Conducting an ethnography is the only real way to go about answering this research question. There is a certain level of control that comes with doing an ethnography for this question because the researcher is unknown, this also ensures that the subjects are acting the way the normally would and not acting the way the think they should act. Which is sometimes the case when people are told they are being studied. Also, (in this case) the subjects are somewhat being forced to watch the desired television show. This ensures that the subjects are being exposed to the same show and can allow for more specific research. Ethnography is also useful because it allows for change. If the ethnography were to go on, there would most likely be more television shows to compare the Olympics to, but in this case, the research question could be narrowed down to â€Å"Do the Olympics cause their audience to act differently than when they are watching American Idol? â€Å". If the study were to continue, because it is an ethnography with multiple subjects for each show, there is room for change, and the data that was already collected would still be useful. Whereas if an in-depth interview was to done, and data was collected there is no guarantee that each subject watches the same television shows to be able to compare among the different subject that were interviewed. Key Learnings After choosing to use an ethnography to answer this research question, some things became quite clear. First, when conducting a covert ethnography, sometimes it is not so easy to remain unknown to every subject, and it is difficult to judge what they are thinking or what they will do if they were to find out. This raised the question of what should the researcher do if they are in a closed setting that they cannot leave and a subject did not want to be studied and was very angry? In most closed setting situations, the chances are that it will not be a covert ethnography, but after this covert closed setting ethnography, it was made clear that the position of research should not be made known for the safety of the researcher. This leads to another question about ethics and who should be harmed in that case. If the researcher is in danger of being harmed if they were to tell the subject that they were being studied, and if the researcher did not tell the subject, then it is considered unethical because the subject is being lied to. Does this issue then become an issue of choosing the greater good? In which case, who decides what the greater good is? Second, when doing an ethnography there is not always something useful to take note of. This causes ethnography to be very time consuming because the research must wait until they have all the information needed which may take a very long time if nothing is happening. This causes a problem because there is no guarantee that anything will happen at all that would help the researcher answer their research question. Conclusion: In discussing using ethnography to answer the question of â€Å"Do the Olympics cause their audience to act differently than when they are watching any other popular TV show? † and what was learned, it is safe to conclude that ethnography is the best way to approach a question like this. This is largely due to the method being more successful at gathering information than it’s alternative, and because there are a number of way that is can be performed to ensure that the researcher is able to get the information needed.

Giving Advice on How “Actors Should Play Their Role in Act 3 Scene 1 of Romeo and Juliet Essay

You are going to write in role as Gregory Doran, the new artistic director of the Royal Shakespeare Company. You are going to give a lecture to the actors you have chosen to plsy Romeo, Benvolio and Mercutio. What advice would you give them about how and why they should act in Act 3 Scene 1? In Act 3 Scene 1 of Romeo & Juliet, Shakespeare raises the excitement and the tension throughout the scene by using dramatic tension between the characters, provocative and threatening dialogue, strong language effects, and sharp vital violence.The sudden, fatal violence in the first scene of Act 3, as well as the buildup to the fighting, serves as a reminder that, for all its emphasis on love, beauty, and romance, Romeo and Juliet still takes place in a masculine world in which notions of honor, pride, and status are prone to erupt in a fury of conflict. The viciousness and dangers of the play’s social environment are dramatic tools that Shakespeare employs to make the lovers’ romance seem even more precious and fragile—their relationship is the audience’s only respite from the brutal world pressing against their love. The scene begins with Mercutio continuously brushing off Benvolio’s advice as a peacekeeper to keep calm and he instead accuses Ben volio of being a hypocrite. This implies that Mercutio is very obstinate and is quick to cast suspicions and false accusations on others without much thinking. Mercutio accuses that Benvolio is just as violent and hot headed as him, â€Å"Come, come, thou art as hot a Jack in thy mood as any in Italy†, without any proof. This implies that Mercutio is the type of character to jump in head first and rarely listens to others’ advice. Later on in the scene, Benvolio exclaims ‘By my head here come the Capulets’ upon Tybalt’s arrival, and to this Mercutio replies â€Å"By my heel I care not†. The phrase ‘I care not’ notions that Mercutio does not see any problem in Tybalt’s arrival, which in turn means that he is intending on provoking a fight which accentuates that Clearly Mercutio is in an aggressive mood. Tybalt addresses Mercutio and Benvolio. â€Å" ‘Gentlemen, good den, a word with one of you’ † Up to this point, Tybalt is courteous – his quarrel is with Romeo, not with Benvolio or Mercutio. However Mercutio is extremely provocatice and he responds to Ty balt, asking a word with one of them with, â€Å"Make it a word and a blow.† The audience feels there is a fight in prospect. Which achieves Shakespeare’s purpose and intended effect. Mercutio is clearly being very confrontational in this scene, therefore, the actor should deliver his lines imposingly, loud and clear in a tone of anger. When Tybalt appears, he should spit his words and when provoking Tybalt, the actor should increase their volume and have a very irritated and aggressive facial expression by grinding his teeth. However, when imitating Tybalt and making a mockery out of him, his actions should be over the top. His movements at the beginning of the scene should reflect his provocative behaviour and therefore he should walk with big strides and a fast pace. As he is ignoring Benvolio’s advice, eye contact should be avoided up until the point that Mercutio accuses him. When this happens, the actor playing Mercution should suddenly stop to build up tension then turn around and point at Benvolio. Mercutio’s costume should be a r ed sleeveless shirt as red reflects aggression , with tattered and ripped pants if possible to emphasis his wild nature. Another option for the top is a leather jacket and piercings and metal studs as accessories to clearly showcase his obstinate and hot-headed personality. Romeo, by contrast, is as passionate about love as Tybalt and Mercutio are about hostility. Romeo appears, cheerful and contented with having wed Juliet only hours before, and unaware that he’s even been challenged to a duel. Until Mercutio dies, Romeo remains emotionally distinct from the other characters in the scene. Romeo walks atop his euphoric cloud buoyed by blissful thoughts of marriage to Juliet, peace, unity, and harmony. In response to Tybalt’s attempts to initiate a fight, Romeo tells Tybalt that he loves â€Å"thee better than thou canst devise.† Ironically, Romeo’s refusal to duel with Tybalt brings about the very acceleration of violence he sought to prevent. When Romeo enters the scene, Tybalt and Mercutio are in the middle of a scuffle, he immediately tries to not be drawn into the fiery atmosphere and tries to keep calm. â€Å"Doth much excuses the appertaining rage to such a greeting.† The word ‘excuse; was deliberately used by Shakespeare to convince the audience that Romeo is not interested in violence but rather peace and wellbeing of all are his best interests. While talking, â€Å"Romeo† should be very soft-spoken and not provocative in anyway. Eye contact should be avoided and eyes should be averted to the feet to show timidness and reluctance to fight. When Mercutio and Tybalt are about to fight, he even tries to persuade Mercutio to â€Å"put thy rapier up†. The fact that he asks his best friend to stop fighting instead of the opposing side shows that he is completely passive in violence and displays his desperation for peace. During the conflict, the actor playing Romeo should never retaliate but instead tolerate all hits or simply avoid them to depict his passive and peaceful nature. However, after Mercutio is injured and dies, his attitude should change completely and resemble that of Mercutio’s. â€Å"Romeo’s† behaviour should then be similar to Mercutio’s. While challenging Tybalt and fighting with him, the actor playing Romeo should show no hint compassion, a stern face and and clenched fi sts with a to reflect his change demeanor as stated in the book, â€Å"And fire-eyed fury be my conduct now†. After Tybalt’s death by his hands, Romeo should then retreat into confusion, reflecting on what he has done. â€Å"Oh I am fortune’s fool!† The word ‘fool’ suggests that Romeo admits that he was overwhelmed by anger and blind fury at that point in time and regrets being unable to control himself. Romeo’s costume should be very sophisticated after returning from his wedding with Juliet and therefore he should be well-groomed. During his battle with Tybalt, his clothes should then be torned and messy to symbolise his transition from a peaceful person into a murderer full of vengeance. Benvolio still maintains his status as a peacekeeper throughout the entire play, however, unlike romeo he totally does not involves himself in any conflict and always prefers to just watch form the side, and this can be interpreted in theatrical set-up to advice the actor playing Benvolio to never be the centre of attention on stage and to position himself either d ownstage, or centre stage right, but never centre stage. At the beginning of the scene he advices Mercutio to stop wandering around as to avoid a conflict, â€Å"The day is hot and the Capels are abroad, And if we meet, we shall not ‘scape a brawl.† The phrase â€Å"not ‘scape† conveys the impression that Benvolio does not like to attract much attention and be drawn into violent combat. This characteristic can be interpreted as cowardice, but also wisdom. Benvolio knows that if another brawl occurs between the two families, someone will be killed and therefore tries to plan in advance, trying to omit all possibilities of a fight happening. Benvolio is also not offended when Mercutio makes advances on him and accuses him of being a hypocrite which portrays him as a matured character. Benvolio replies with â€Å"And what to?† to Mercutio’s statement and this presupposes that he pays no heed to Mercutio because he thinks of him as a child but is only worried that he will start a fight which explains his concern on Mercutio’s hot-headed behaviour. While trying to convince Mercutio to stop with his combative and warlike behaviour, the Benvolio’s actor should be very insistent that Mercutio calm down but indifferent towards his insults to reflect his maturity. When Tybalt enters the stage, Benvolio plays a smaller part and should move away from the center-stage in the moments that lead up to the fight to indicate his cowardice and reluctance to participate in combat. Once he starts explaining to the Prince what had happened, Benvolio should still maintain his composure and calmly explain the situation because in Shakespeare’s original version of Romeo and Juliet, his explanation is long, but still contains the key details of the event, â€Å"Tybalt, here slain, whose Romeo’s hand did slay†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬  Benvolio should wear a green shirt, as green resembles peace and is the colour of nature, hence life which is an accurate symbol of Benvolio’s tendency to avoid brawls and conflicts. I have picked out and analysed single words from Act 3 Scene 1, I have commented on how Shakespeare get’s his message across and have started to develop an appreciation for the techniques that he uses. I have also given out advice on how the actors should deliver their lines, their facial expressions as well as physical gestures and their costumes.

The Science of Comets essays

The Science of Comets essays The first written records of comets date back to nearly 3,000 years ago from China and Europe. The accounts of these comets were believed to be the causes of terrible events that occurred afterward. In more recent times, however, astronomers have found out what they really are. A comet is basically a mixture of ices, from both water and frozen gases, and dust. They have also been given the names "dirty snowballs" or "icy mud balls." The typical comet is less than 10 kilometers across. They spend most of their time frozen solid in the outer parts of our solar system. Comets are composed of five parts: the nucleus, coma, hydrogen cloud, dust tail, and ion tail. The nucleus is pretty solid and stable, composed mostly of ice and gas with a small amount of dust and other solids. The surface of the nucleus is best described as a black crust. Comet nuclei can range from 1 kilometer to about 50 kilometers across. The black crust on the surface of the nuclei helps the comet to absorb heat, wh ich causes some of the ices under the crust to turn to a gas. Pressure builds up underneath the crust and causes the surface to bubble up in some places. Eventually, the weak spots of the crust break open from the pressure, and the gas shoots outward; astronomers refer this to as a jet. Dust that had been mixed in with the gas is also pushed out, and as more jets appear, a small gas and dust shell forms around the nucleus, and this is called the coma. The coma, also called the head, is a dense cloud of water, carbon dioxide, and other gases and comes off of the nucleus. They can be several thousand kilometers in diameter, depending on the comet's distance from the sun and the size of the nucleus. The size of the nucleus is important because since large nuclei have a greater surface area facing the sun, which is the side that is the warmest, hence the side where most of the jets are coming from, it means more jets and greater amounts of gas and dust go in...

The Importance of Being Leadbelly essays

The Importance of Being Leadbelly essays Women and Liquor, that was his problem. My father got him to marry his girl, Martha, and that settled him for a while, a week or two. He called himself the twelve-string champion guitar player of the world, and I guess he was. I never heard anybody who could play it better. He loved being the best. He wanted to stay the best as long as he was alive. Hes just a name on a lot of lists: the fourth or fifth name on a list of influences, never first, and all too often not mentioned at all where appropriate. Hes also an ex-convict, who was a sweet old man only while sober, which wasnt often enough. But by looking at the people he influenced, you can see that Huddie Ledbetter, Leadbelly, was redeemable no matter what he did aside from making music. The self-proclaimed King of the Twelve-String Guitar was more aptly the Godfather of the Twelve-String Gui-tar, being inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988 as an influence. He died poor and pitiful of a form of multiple sclerosis, and six months afterward his first hit song was a million-seller for another group. And every generation thereafter earned a new respect for a band that used one of his versions of a song. The importance of Leadbelly lies not in his legendary evil ways; it was in his great talent for making popular music. To make note of his importance, its important to note his discoverer, John Lomax. Lomax was on a constant search funded by the government to find its musical roots, rather to preserve what it could of them once the portable recording device was created. At the time Lomax met him, Ledbetter was serving a sen-tence at the Angola Prison Farm in Louisiana for murder, the second long stretch in prison for him. During his first run in prison, for assault in 1925 in Texas, he would play music for the guards to get lighter work-loads and eventually his music gr...

Effects of Smoking on the Human Body Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Effects of Smoking on the Human Body - Essay Example Once inhaled, carbon monoxide reaches the blood stream through the lungs and alveoli, it binds to the hemoglobin portion of the red blood cells, forming a stable compound called carboxyhaemoglobin (COHb). The stability of the compound is due to the fact that hemoglobin has a 200–250 times higher affinity for carbon monoxide than it has for oxygen. Thus, the oxygen-carrying capacity of the hemoglobin is reduced, limiting oxygen supply to cells and tissues. The diseases caused by limited oxygen in the blood include cardiovascular disease, stroke, and circulatory problems. Tar on the other hand, accumulates in the lung, causing the inflammation of the mucous membrane of the bronchi, the trachea, and the bronchioles, damages the lungs, reduces the size of the airway. Smoke thus interferes with the functioning of the respiratory system and causes chronic bronchitis and persistent cough. Tar also damages the cilia on the upper portions of the respiratory system and increases phlegm production. Finally, the chemicals in smoke damage the lungs, reduce lung surface area and affect the alveoli’s’ functionality. Lung cancer, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), mouth and throat cancer, and increased asthma symptoms are the other respiratory effects of smoking (National Cancer Institute, 2008). ... One of the mechanisms by which smoking leads to elevated CO2 levels in the blood is that the harmful chemicals in the smoke damages the alveoli of the lungs. This damage implies that the CO2 formed in other parts of the body and transported to the lungs for elimination is not efficiently eliminated at the alveoli surfaces, leading to increased levels of CO2 in the blood. How Smoking Affects other Organ Systems Besides the respiratory system, smoking affects other organ systems such as the circulatory system. In this system, smoking causes the blood clotting, blockages and narrowing of blood vessels, increased risks of strokes and heart attacks, increased blood pressure, palpitations. These conditions cause various infections that might require procedures such as amputation. The nervous system and the brain are also affected by tobacco smoking, which decreases oxygen supply to the brain as hemoglobin combines with carbon monoxide. The normal functioning of the CNS is affected as delic ate nerve endings are damages and blood supply interfered with (The New York Times, 2002). Additionally, smoking causes attention deficit and memory problems. The immune system is also affected by the tobacco toxins that enter the body via smoking so that the functioning of the white blood cells is impaired. Thus, the body becomes vulnerable to infections. The reproductive system is also not spared by smoking, which may cause erectile dysfunction, impotency, sterility, menopause, and low weight births. Correlating Cellular Respiration with the Respiratory System The correlation between cellular respiration and the respiratory system is rather clear. For instance, minus cellular respiration in the lungs,

TMJ syndrome Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

TMJ syndrome - Essay Example The arterial blood supply of the temporomandibular joint is mainly from the superficial temporal and the maxillary arteries. The venous supply is by the corresponding arteries. The nerve supply of the joint is derived from the auriculotemporal nerve and the masseteric nerve. The movements of the normal joint include forward movement of the mandible, side to side movements which occur while eating food, lowering of the jaw for opening the oral cavity and then subsequently elevation of the joint for closing the mouth. There are around 35 million cases of this condition in the United States. The condition is known to have a greater predisposition towards women with the females being more affected than males with this condition. TMJ syndrome has been associated with many diseases which include inflammation of the joints of the body as well as hormonal problems and the pathology also has a hereditary component and hence genetic factors also tend to play a role. It is also associated with trauma which may result due to accidental injury or as a result of punch to the mandible. Accidental injury may be due to not wearing helmets or putting on the seat belt while driving. The symptoms associated with the injury include severe pain in the jaw which may also present with pain in the face and the neck. The movements of the joints become limited and it becomes increasingly difficult for the person to talk as well as move the jaw.