Exam 1 American History Essays - Free Essays, Term Papers

Exam 1 American History Essays - Free Essays, Term Papers Exam 1 American History How many languages did Native American groups in North America speak in 1492? The groups in Mexico and above spoke between 300 and 350 different languages. So we can't think of American Indians as simply one group-it is exactly the opposite. Which Pre-Columbian culture is most known for the human sacrifice and cannibalism? (Aztecs) Spaniards were particularly appalled at the Aztec's practices of human sacrifice, connected with their fertility rituals. What was the level of cultural advancement of the Mayans, Aztecs, and Incas compared to other Indian groups ( and the Spanish)? The Indians were more set in their ways. The Mayans, Aztecs, and Incas were more advanced. Their "communities" "cities" "land" was more elaborate and larger than the Indians. What was the main characteristic of the "New Monarchs" compared to previous rulers in Europe? These Monarchs recruited national armies(not private like before) imposed national taxes, and also brought about national court systems. They brought about a measure of control and political stability, so there was actually less fighting-even though wars would now be in larger scale. Essentially now instead of thousands and thousands of little kingdoms under local control we now have the equivalent of the modern nation-state, which is much more likely to foster things like exploration and discovery. Technological advances were becoming more frequent. These were not only new advances, scholars had rediscovered many Greek, Roman, and Arab texts that changed the Europeans views of the natural world. Also the printing press was invented by Gutenberg in the 1440s which helped spread knowledge and thus accelerating technological advancements. Who were the first Europeans to explore West Africa and exploit African Labor? The first Europeans to sail the coast of West Africa were the Portuguese. The Portuguese were interested in gold and slaves, but the African Nations were too strong for Portugal to simply take these militarily. The Portuguese would deal with the local African elites. As slaves became needed, local leaders found more ways to collect the numbers. What was Columbus's major miscalculation on his first voyage? Columbus thought that Asia was 3000 miles west of Spain, when it was actually 10000 miles west of Spain. He thought the world was actually a lot smaller than it actually is. He did not realize anything lay between Europe and Asia. What did the treaty of Tordesillas (1494) do? Spain claimed all of this new territory (America) even before they knew what or where it was. Portugal also claimed the new territory thinking it was a new route to India which they claimed control of. To avoid war the two countries got arbitration from the pope (head of the Christian church) and in the treaty of Tordesillas the New World was divided between the Spanish and the Portuguese. Because they didn't know what all of this looked like Spain received almost all of the New World and Portugal received only part of brazil. Who was the German Monk who started the Protestant Reformation in Europe? Martin Luther (1517) Wrote 95 thesis to the church door in Wittenburg, Germany. These were public complaints against abuses, especially indulgences. Luther went a step further and criticized the idea of penance- where a priest would assign a specific task to absolve him of that particular sin. He suggested that the term "do penance" should be interpreted as simply "repent". Luther believed that god made every decision and that man actually didn't decide things like his own salvation. What came about as a result of the Act of Supremacy (1534)? In 1534 Henry VIII with parliamentary support enacted the act of supremacy in which Henry declared himself head of the Church of England. After several very confusing years following Henry's death his daughter Elizabeth came to the throne and brought about political stability. There was still controversy over whether England was Catholic or Protestant. They had switched a couple of times after Henry's death. Who wrote the Institutes of the Christian Religion? John Calvin (1536) Predestination meant that god had chosen some people to be saved and some to be damned. Individuals did not have the right to choose god, instead god chose them. Calvinists were forever searching for a sign that they were in fact among the elect ( chosen ones). So essentially they said that if you

Spoken English - Definition and Examples

Spoken English s Definition: The ways in which the English language is transmitted through a conventional system of sounds. Compare to written English. Spoken English, says linguist David Crystal, is the more natural and widespread mode of transmission, though ironically the one which most people find much less familiarpresumably because it is so much more difficult to see what is happening in speech than in writing (The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language, 2nd ed., 2003). In recent years, linguists have found it easier to see what is happening in speech through the availability of corpus resourcescomputerized databases containing real life examples of both spoken and written English. The Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English (1999) is a contemporary reference grammar of English based on a large-scale corpus. The study of speech sounds (or spoken language) is the branch of linguistics known as phonetics. The study of sound changes in a language is phonology. See also: Speech (Linguistics)ColloquialConversationConversation AnalysisDialogueKey Events in the History of the English LanguagePresent-Day English (PDE)Standard EnglishVernacularWhat Is Standard English? Examples and Observations: Academic Bias Against Spoken English[L]inguists have inevitably had a long-standing and intensive contact with standard English. The nature of standard English as primarily a written variety, together with the immersion of academics in written English, does not augur well for their recognition of structures that may be more typical of spoken English than written English.(Jenny Cheshire, Spoken Standard English. Standard English: The Widening Debate, ed. by Tony Bex and Richard J. Watts. Routledge, 1999) The Relationship Between Spoken and Written English[I]n the course of the languages history, the relationship between spoken and written English has come nearly full circle. Throughout the Middle Ages, written English predominately served transcript functions, enabling readers to represent earlier spoken words or (oral) ceremony, or to produce durable records of events, ideas, or spoken exchange. By the seventeenth century, the written (and printed) word was developing its own autono mous identity, a transformation that matured in the eighteenth, nineteenth, and first half of the twentieth centuries. (However, through at least the end of the nineteenth century, spoken rhetorical skills were also seen as critically important to people with social and educational aspirations.) Since World War II, written English (at least in America) has increasingly come to reflect everyday speech. While writing on-line with computers has hastened this trend, computers didnt initiate it. As writing growingly mirrors informal speech, contemporary spoken and written English are losing their identity as distinct forms of language.(Naomi S. Baron, Alphabet to Email: How Written English Evolved and Where Its Heading. Routledge, 2000) Teaching IlliteracyOne main danger is that spoken English continues to be judged by the codified standards of written English, and that teaching pupils to speak standard English may, in fact, be to teach them to speak in formal written English. A test of spoken English may become a test of ones abilities to speak a very restricted codea formal English used routinely by dons, civil servants, and cabinet ministers. It is not very far removed from the language of formal debate. Such a view of spoken English can produce an artificial and unnatural English and can even promote a kind of illiteracy which is as damaging to users of English as not being able to write literate English; for to have everyone speaking and writing only one codea standard written English codegenerates an illiteracy almost as grave as would be the case if everyone were only able to use a local dialect.(Ronald Carter, Investigating English Discourse: Language, Literacy, and Literature. Routledge, 1997) Henry Sweet on Spoken English (1890)The unity of spoken English is still imperfect: it is still liable to be influenced by local dialectsin London itself by the cockney dialect, in Edinburgh by the Lothian Scotch dialect, and so on. . . . [I]t changes from generation to generation, and is not absolutely uniform even among speakers of the same generation, living in the same place and having the same social standing.(Henry Sweet, A Primer of Spoken English, 1890) The Value of Teaching Spoken English (1896)Not only should English grammar be taught with reference to the nature of language and the history of English, but it should also take account of the spoken, as distinct from the written, form. The reasons for this seem to me many and excellent. For instance, it is a misfortune that the English language makes its appeal to the educated mind, mainly through the written and printed form. The appeal to the ear and the appeal to the eye, which should strengthen one another, are thus distinctly separate and divergent. Our orthography encourages this separation. It is, therefore, the more important that textbooks of grammar should make some attempt to counteract this tendency.(Oliver Farrar Emerson, The Teaching of English Grammar, 1896) The Lighter Side of Spoken EnglishIf Opals goin to be a school-teacher, mebbe she wants summat to practice on, grinned her father.Oh, Pa, you mustnt say summatit isnt a word, remonstrated his daughter.Aint a word ! shouted her father with increasing excitement. Well, hear that! How do you know it aint a word?It isnt in the dictionary, said Opal.Shucks, disparaged Pa, whats the dictionary got to do with it? The words that git into the dictionary aint common talkin words nohow; theyre written wordsnobody puts talk into a dictionary.Why not? questioned Opal, astonished at her fathers apparent knowledge of the making of dictionaries.Cause why? Cause spoken words is too lively for emwho can go round and keep track of every word thats spoke? I can make up a hull mouthful myself, and no dictionaryll ever know anything about itsee?(Bessie R. Hoover, A Graduated Daughter. Everybodys Magazine, December 1909)