Determining the mass of calcium carbonate obtained Essay

Purpose: The purpose of the experiment was to investigate the mass of calcium carbonate obtained from the reaction between calcium chloride and sodium carbonate. Apparatus: – Three beakers (250 – ml) – Spatula – Balance à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ 0.1g – Filtration setup – Filter paper – Stirring rod – Plastic wash bottle Materials: – Sodium Carbonate – Calcium chloride – Distilled water Procedure 1. Weigh out 4.0g of calcium chloride (111g/mol) and dissolve in enough distilled water. 2. Weigh out 6.0g of sodium carbonate (106g/mol) and dissolve in enough distilled water. 3. Pour the sodium carbonate solution into the beaker containing calcium chloride solution. 4. Stir the mixture. Set up the filtration apparatus. Weigh the filter paper and then filter the mixture. Rinse the beaker and empty the contents in the funnel. Wash the precipitate with distilled water several times. 5. Place the filter paper with the precipitate and leave it to dry out. After it is completely dry, then weigh the dry filter paper with the precipitate. Data Table: Measurements taken in the experiment Mass of the filter paper 2.00g à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½0.01g Mass of filter paper with the precipitate (after filter paper dried) 5.10g à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½0.01g Mass of precipitate 3.10g à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½0.01g* *The mass has an error of (à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½0.01) because of the reading in the mass, in which they show up to only 2 decimal points 1. The equation of the reaction that took place is shown below, in which a grey/white precipitate of calcium carbonate was produced. CaCl2 (aq) + Na2CO3 (aq) —> Ca (CO3) (s) + 2NaCl (aq) Calcium + sodium —> calcium + sodium Chloride carbonate carbonate chloride 2. The theoretical mass and the experimental mass are going to be found out in order to see how much calcium carbonate should be obtained theoretically and how much was produced in the real reaction. To find the theoretical mass of calcium carbonate, firstly we have to find the limiting reagent in the reaction. The mole ratio from the equation is CaCl2 : Na2CO3 1 : 1 The actual mole ratio of reagents present is Mass in g – 4 : 6 Molar mass in g mol ^-1 – 110.98 : 105.99 n = mass – 0.03604 : 0.056609 . Molar mass Having looked at the mole ratio, it is apparent that since calcium chloride has the lowest number of moles present, it is therefore the limiting reagent. The limiting reagent calcium chloride is therefore used to calculate the theoretical mass of calcium carbonate that can be obtained: Theoretical yield = number of moles of limiting reagent x mass of calcium . carbonate = 0.03604 x (40.08 + 12.01 + 16 + 16 + 16) = 0.03604 x 100.09 = 3.6g 3. Therefore theoretically the mass of the calcium carbonate that can be obtained is 3.6g. The theoretical yield assumes that everything reacts perfectly, and we are able to recover everything 100%. These ideal conditions are rarely present and so we would expect the actual yield to be less than the theoretical yield for this reason. To calculate the experimental mass, the following calculation is done: Experimental mass = Mass of filter paper with the precipitate – Mass of filter paper = 5.1g – 2g = 3.1g As expected the experimental mass is lower than the theoretical mass. 4. It is not advisable to use sodium carbonate to calculate the amount of product in the reaction. The theoretical yield depends on the limiting reagent and not the other. Here the two reactants are in a molar ratio 1:1 but the actual molar ratio is 0.03604:0.056609. The sodium carbonate is in excess. It is not possible even under ideal conditions for every sodium carbonate to react to form the product. Therefore it is not advisable to use this. Conclusion Having looked at the results, it is clearly seen that the actual experimental mass is less than the theoretical mass yield. This is not an unexpected result. According to my results the actual mass of the precipitate produced was 3.1g, while that of the theoretical mass is 3.6g. The percentage yield of this reaction can be calculated by; Percentage yield = Actual mass X 100 = 3.1 X 100 = 86% . Theoretical mass 3.6 The maximal yield of a chemical reaction would be 100%, a value that is never reached. Yields about 90% are called very good, yields above about 75% are called good, yields below about 60% are called modest, whilst yields below 30% are called poor. This experiment had a border-line very good yield in regards to these literature guidelines. In practise the theoretical yield based on the balanced chemical equation is never achieved owing to impurities in reagents, side reactions and other sources of experimental error. The possible sources of error in this experiment may include: – Material used may have been tampered with and so would affect the overall results. – Wrong measurements were taken. – Error arrising from human judgement. – The balance only recorded 2decimal points. – The filter paper may not have been left long enough to dry. A possible modification to this experiment would be to make the sodium carbonate the limiting reageant rather then the calcium chloride as it was in this case. This would be done so that we would have a smaller number of moles of sodium carbonate then calcium chloride. Although my experiment was successful, many improvement could have been made to both my experiment and too the experiment. This includes: – Repeating the measurements for more trials so that more accurate answers could be found. – Using an accurate method to measure the mass, so as to reduce the errors in the experiment. – Make sure that none of the compound is accidentally spilled out. – Use larger quantities so to reduce the error in their recording

“Naturalism an occurrence at owl creek bridge”

The 19th Century American Art described Naturalism as: Life imitating nature and the artists of this period began focusing on â€Å"real life† situations.   Naturalism literature began to flourish after the civil war and after the most loved Romanticism and Victorian literature.   Naturalism focuses on the lower to middle class man in which he is a futile figure of a domineering universe of a hostile nature.   Some sort of struggling for the fittest and the strong and predestined are the only sure winner.The Ambrose Bierce story at Owl Creek Bridge is told by a third party narrator. For a simple reason that a man who is dead cannot narrate his own death?   It says nothing more of a man named Peyton Fahrquhar, a planter from a respected Alabama family; the author even distinguishes him as a gentleman which befits his physical appearance.   Despite of the man’s description, the person in the story seemed to die a futile death giving stress on the character of na turalism to which man is unimportant as quoted by the narrator below:†¦Ã¢â‚¬Å"he   . . original secessionist   Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ devoted to the Southern cause. Circumstances of an imperious nature, which it is unnecessary to relate here, had . . . .army which had fought the disastrous campaigns †¦ (Bierce, 2004)Cynical, skeptical or mocking characteristics is vividly present along these lines,â€Å"To be hanged and drowned,† he thought, â€Å"that is not so bad; but I do not wish to be shot. No; .. not be shot; that is not fair.†(Bierce, 2004)The story dealt more on the agonizing death of a person but it was more descriptive than sentimental.   It is an unwanted way of dying and yet there is no reason to stop it.The entire theme below is focused on someone who has experienced a few moments of life before death and another few moments after dying.   His soul seemed to search and in a way could not even tell he is really dead. The story of the life of Peyton is a step by step narrative about the ironies of violent death, as if a man could account of his own dying which can be paraphrased:â€Å"To die of hanging at the bottom of a river! — the idea seemed to him ludicrous. He opened his eyes in the darkness †¦above him a gleam of light, but how inaccessible! He was still sinking, for the light became fainter †¦.mere glimmer.†(Bierce, 2004)â€Å"His neck ached horribly; his brain was on fire, his heart, – fluttering faintly, gave a great leap, trying to force itself out at his mouth. His whole body was –   wrenched with an insupportable anguish! â€Å"(Bierce) 2004.The two lines below were skillfully drawn by the author and I must say that he has expertly given the most significant characteristic to the story by defining life and imitating nature.   He uses the forest and trees, even the detail of a leaf and those that inhabits itincluding the morning dewdrops.   He described nature just as he des cribes a new life that is to be unfolding.†¦Ã¢â‚¬ the forest on the bank of the stream – trees, the leave ,, veining of each leaf — he saw the very insects †¦ noted the prismatic colors in all the dewdrops †¦million blades of grass. The –   gnats that danced..the eddies . . . the beating of the dragon flies' wings, the strokes – water spiders' legs, like oars which had lifted their boat — all these made audible music.†(Bierce)2004.â€Å"A fish slid along beneath his eyes and he heard the rush of its body parting the water.†(Bierce) 2004.This brief sentence above almost completed the story the author wanted to conclude, that death has come and the heavens could be so near.   As if describing that the soul came out from the eye and it moves thru the waters.   Bierce in his few words was able to describe a real life situation which is one of the most interesting characteristic of a naturalistic piecework.  Ã‚   Tha t after life naturally comes death.â€Å"Peyton Fahrquhar was dead; his body, with a broken neck, swung gently from side †¦beneath the timbers of the Owl Creek bridge.†(Bierce) 2004.Though the whole work is a literary genius, it leaves a mark of pessimism on the part of the reader. Pessimism in the sense that the character of the story was never given a chance. He was doomed simply because of a circumstance that is beyond the control of the person being told.   There was no hope but a dream or it could be real that the character’s soul transcended only to be able to look for his love ones. Even in this scene we can see that there is a big division.   There is desire to be with someone and yet the story emphasizes more on losing. The sad part of it is for an observer to have an impression that not all prayers are answered and an urgent question that need to be asked – where is God why did he allowed such fate?REFEENCES:Bierce,   2004 A. An Occurrence A t Owl Creek Bridge [Electronic Version]. Retrieved 24 September 2007 from http://www.pagebypagebooks.com/Ambrose_Bierce/An_Occurrence_At_Owl_Creek_Bridge/index.ht. Naturalism an occurrence at owl creek bridge The 19th Century American Art described Naturalism as: Life imitating nature and the artists of this period began focusing on â€Å"real life† situations.   Naturalism literature began to flourish after the civil war and after the most loved Romanticism and Victorian literature.   Naturalism focuses on the lower to middle class man in which he is a futile figure of a domineering universe of a hostile nature.   Some sort of struggling for the fittest and the strong and predestined are the only sure winner.The Ambrose Bierce story at Owl Creek Bridge is told by a third party narrator. For a simple reason that a man who is dead cannot narrate his own death?   It says nothing more of a man named Peyton Fahrquhar, a planter from a respected Alabama family; the author even distinguishes him as a gentleman which befits his physical appearance.   Despite of the man’s description, the person in the story seemed to die a futile death giving stress on the character of na turalism to which man is unimportant as quoted by the narrator below:†¦Ã¢â‚¬Å"he   . . original secessionist   Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ devoted to the Southern cause. Circumstances of an imperious nature, which it is unnecessary to relate here, had . . . .army which had fought the disastrous campaigns †¦ (Bierce, 2004)Cynical, skeptical or mocking characteristics is vividly present along these lines,  Ã¢â‚¬Å"To be hanged and drowned,† he thought, â€Å"that is not so bad; but I do not wish to be shot. No; .. not be shot; that is not fair.†(Bierce, 2004)  The story dealt more on the agonizing death of a person but it was more descriptive than sentimental.   It is an unwanted way of dying and yet there is no reason to stop it.The entire theme below is focused on someone who has experienced a few moments of life before death and another few moments after dying.   His soul seemed to search and in a way could not even tell he is really dead. The story of the life of Pey ton is a step by step narrative about the ironies of violent death, as if a man could account of his own dying which can be paraphrased:  Ã¢â‚¬Å"To die of hanging at the bottom of a river! — the idea seemed to him ludicrous. He opened his eyes in the darkness †¦above him a gleam of light, but how inaccessible! He was still sinking, for the light became fainter †¦.mere glimmer.†(Bierce, 2004)â€Å"His neck ached horribly; his brain was on fire, his heart, – fluttering faintly, gave a great leap, trying to force itself out at his mouth. His whole body was –   wrenched with an insupportable anguish! â€Å"(Bierce) 2004.  The two lines below were skillfully drawn by the author and I must say that he has expertly given the most significant characteristic to the story by defining life and imitating nature.   He uses the forest and trees, even the detail of a leaf and those that inhabits it  including the morning dewdrops.   He described n ature just as he describes a new life that is to be unfolding.  Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ the forest on the bank of the stream – trees, the leave ,, veining of each leaf — he saw the very insects †¦ noted the prismatic colors in all the dewdrops †¦million blades of grass. The –   gnats that danced..the eddies . . . the beating of the dragon flies' wings, the strokes – water spiders' legs, like oars which had lifted their boat — all these made audible music.†(Bierce)2004.â€Å"A fish slid along beneath his eyes and he heard the rush of its body parting the water.†(Bierce) 2004.  This brief sentence above almost completed the story the author wanted to conclude, that death has come and the heavens could be so near.   As if describing that the soul came out from the eye and it moves thru the waters.   Bierce in his few words was able to describe a real life situation which is one of the most interesting characteristic of a natural istic piecework.  Ã‚   That after life naturally comes death.  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Peyton Fahrquhar was dead; his body, with a broken neck, swung gently from side †¦beneath the timbers of the Owl Creek bridge.†(Bierce) 2004.Though the whole work is a literary genius, it leaves a mark of pessimism on the part of the reader. Pessimism in the sense that the character of the story was never given a chance. He was doomed simply because of a circumstance that is beyond the control of the person being told.   There was no hope but a dream or it could be real that the character’s soul transcended only to be able to look for his love ones. Even in this scene we can see that there is a big division.   There is desire to be with someone and yet the story emphasizes more on losing. The sad part of it is for an observer to have an impression that not all prayers are answered and an urgent question that need to be asked – where is God why did he allowed such fate?REFEENCES:Bie rce,   2004 A. An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge [Electronic Version]. Retrieved 24 September 2007 from http://www.pagebypagebooks.com/Ambrose_Bierce/An_Occurrence_At_Owl_Creek_Bridge/index.ht.

Muir and Wordsworth Essay

Thesis Statement, Opening Paragraph, evidence & conclusion REVISED While both poets Muir and Wordsworth wrote about the happy feelings that they have towards nature the beautiful outdoors or what some people may say Mother Nature, some of which the feelings are the same and some that are different as they speak of the different plants. In every walk with Nature one receives far more than he seeks.† – John Muir Nature does not only show the beauty of the Earth, but it shows the beauty within us. So then, is it not easy to say that both of these authors have great beauty within them? After reading both â€Å"Calypso Borealis,† -John Muir and â€Å"I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud† -William Wordsworth, I can boldly state that with their loving choice of diction, tone, and use of syntax they clearly show that they truly admire nature and their surroundings. People say â€Å"Nature is the best medicine.† I know exactly what they mean. Sometimes, I’m fe eling down because something didn’t go right, or has popped up in my life. After a enjoying a beautiful morning, outside with the nature I’m back in my right state of mind. If you felt the emotion in this scene, the works of two authors, John Muir and William Wordsworth, would certainly catch your eye. â€Å"Calypso Borealis† by Muir and the poem â€Å"I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud† by Wordsworth are two beautiful pieces of literature written very differently, but with key similarities, one of them being nature. The powerful emotions within the unique tone and personalities of the two authors not only expressed their relationships with nature, it allowed the reader to connect with the feelings of the author both visually and mentally. When you first read these two pieces of literature, you’ll find yourself captivated wonderfully in a descriptive world. In â€Å"Calypso Borealis† Muir has a particularly vivid section in which the main character off on an excursion into a swamp surrounding the great lakes. Starting on his journey, Muir is greeted by a diversity of flora. He marvels in the plants and happily soaks up natures treasures. Muir creatively informs the reader just how much the main character truly loves nature. The same marvel and beauty is shared in the poem â€Å"I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud.† After a long climb over a high hill he finds his reward a valley shining with a huge field of daffodils. â€Å"Besides the lakes, beneath the trees, fluttering and dancing in  the breeze.† As Wordsworth explains the scene. As each scene pops out of the poem, a new addition to the painting in your mind appears each time. The painting may vary from person to person, but I believe the sam e sense of awe is present with every mind. The portions cited are just the beginning of these two works; enough to splash your mind with colors and emotions, but later parts are what truly makes them worth reading. â€Å"Calypso Borealis† turns from revelation to a desperate situation. Weary and empty, the main character prepares to spend the night in the wet swamp, in a tree nest. Just as the sun was about to set, the future very unpredictable, when â€Å"Everything seemed most dangerous and discouraging†, the story continues, â€Å"I found beautiful Calypso on the mossy bank of stream.† Overwhelmed by the purity and beauty of the Calypso, he collapses by the flower and cries. This rather quick change of pace I what kept me reading, and the fact the Calypso was so beautiful it made the main character break down in tears. Imagine finding the glorious treasure you’ve been seeking the entire time. The change of tone from depressing to overwhelmingly happy is similar to the poem â€Å"I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud.† In the last stanza, when Wordsworth is sitting on his couch, lonely and depressed, he remembers the beautiful scene overlooking the field of daffodils and is instantly uplifted with joy. Wordsworth describes it as, â€Å"In vacant or in pensive mood they flash upon that inward eye which is the bliss of solitude.† The marvelous change of tones in these two works makes them a rollercoaster of emotions. If you are very emotional person, these two pieces of literature will certainly touch you. The poem â€Å"Calypso Borealis† by John Muir and the poem â€Å"I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud† by William Wordsworth two great works centered on nature that contain vivid imagery and emotional changes of tone the pictures in your mind are the illustrations, your emotions are the story, and nature is the cover. These two works inspired by events in the 19th century are different in many areas, but not the emotional and colorful images they provoke.

Everyman Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Everyman - Essay Example cularly reflected at the beginning of the text when God laments that the attention of human beings has been turned away from what they should pay attention to. â€Å"I perceive, here in my majesty/How that all creatures be to me unkind/Living without dread in worldly prosperity./Drowned in sin, they know me not for their God† (Donaldson 2121)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   It is an irony that the material wealth, which God said has come between him and his creatures, is not able to buy salvation for Everyman. Material wealth is also unable to win his friends over to his side even to the point of death. Of course, he must have affected the lives of fellowship, kindred, cousin, material goods and knowledge who all neglect him when he needs them the most. In spite of the fact that â€Å"money maketh all right that is wrong† (Donaldson 2131), Material Goods is unable to buy everyman salvation. Only good deed stays with him. Hence, the impression one gets is that the best money can do for any individual is to enable them make friends that will not stay during their time of trials and tribulations.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   However, it is not the case that material wealth is depicted in no good light in the text because the reader, through the character of Everyman, is made to realize that Knowledge about what to do and what not to do will help one from making the kind of mistake that almost leads to the doom of the eponymous character. When one gets knowledge, others like discretion, strength, his five wits, and beauty will come.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   At the end of the entire play, despite the fact that Everyman could have been followed by others, only Good Deeds follow him into the heavenly expanse. The bottom-line that is presented in the Morality Play, â€Å"Everyman†, is that all things might desert one (even wealth), only good deed will remain. Therefore, humans are encouraged not to give premium to material wealth over and above good deeds. This is despite the fact that

Costco's Management Style and How the Business Operates Research Paper

Costco's Management Style and How the Business Operates - Research Paper Example This research will begin with the statement that managerial functions refer to a set of practices that can enable the organizations to successfully accomplish their predetermined business targets. The organizations of the present business world tend to highly focus on developing as well as designing effective and well-built managerial functions that can lead them towards sustaining in this competitive financial market. The managerial functions are regarded as the primary factors of an organization that incorporates a major set of practices like planning; organizing, leading as well as controlling that can lead them towards accomplishing their expected business goals. Costco is globally well-known for its extensive operations of retailing broad assortment of products for a different group of customers across the globe. The organization principally involves a membership warehouse facility that is dedicated to providing extensive collection of quality based merchandise to its global cus tomers in a best possible price. Currently, Costco can be observed in more than hundreds of global locations with a wider range of merchandise, convenient specialty departments as well as elite membership services serving a different group of global customers. The managerial functions are regarded as the pivotal factors that significantly direct an organization to accomplish its broad array of business practices. According to the rapid development of the global business environment, the organizations seek to achieve better control of its range of activities to remain competitive.... te an effective set of managerial functions for the purpose of strengthening and developing its operational as well as managerial capabilities through designing effective set of planning, organizing, leading as well as controlling functions (Costco Wholesale Corporation, 2012). This can be better understood with the help of the following pictorial illustration. Source: (Daft & Lane, 2009) In relation to the business operations of Costco, it has been observed that the organization practices an effective set of managerial functions that enable the company to conveniently perform its wide range of activities by a considerable level. Planning Planning can be considered as the initial and major aspect of the managerial functions that perform by a particular organization. The phase highly involves unending course of functions that are set by the top hierarchical members of a specific organization (Lewis, Goodman, Fandt & Michlitsch, 2007). In relation to the present managerial functions of Costco, it can be identified that the top hierarchical members of the organization tends to make effective decisions in order to attain its expected business targets. In this regard, the decisions include setting any predetermined business goal, procedures along with policies and other plans to deliberately provide quality products or services to its potential customers. Moreover, the planning functions of the Costco also incorporate developing functional strategies and effective action plans that facilitates the organization to attract the customers by a greater extent (Costco Wholesale Corporation, 2011). In addition, the planning function of the organization also engages different marketing and promotional functions concerning warehouse opening, direct mailing to the new members along

The Blue Kite by Tian Zhuangzhuang Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

The Blue Kite by Tian Zhuangzhuang - Essay Example These significant historical events are used to tie together the overall dramatic expression of the time while showing the debates that were a part of Beijing in the 1950s. Shot – by – Shot Analysis The scene which shows the historical and dramatic features most is in the climax and end portion. This begins with the soldiers that are surrounding Tietou’s father. The scene begins with a close up shot of glasses being knocked onto the ground then leads into a symbol of the new army of China. This is surrounded by voices that are shouting for Tietou’s father to get up. A close shot then moves into Tietou’s father, who is passed out then immediately zooms out to show the soldiers, all as children, who are surrounding him. The camera stays in this same position with a girl who continues to hit the father combined with the soldiers pushing the father. The noise, quick zooms and subject matter shown combines to show the drama of the situation while combining the political upheaval of the situation within this one section. The change occurs with a close up zoom to the soldiers that are on one side with the statement to get a stretcher. The camera then goes back and forth between close ups of the soldiers and of the father who is still being beaten and pushed. The scene changes to a close up of Tietou’s mom who is outside by a tree. The scene changes by showing her walk into the building after hearing shouting from the street. The scene continues by a zoom out of an aisle with soldiers on each side and her walking in the middle. A close up is shown of her pushing to tell the soldiers to stop because of his heart failure. The shouting at this point stops to listen to her; however, it quickly changes when a political statement is made about counter – revolutionary. This again heightens the tension of the scene, specifically with the political term used and the movement from the close up of his wife to the soldiers surrounding the area. The scene then changes to show the soldiers carrying his father down the steps in a stretcher and each soldier pushing the other. The drama heightens when the soldiers move to the streets and begin s houting â€Å"Down with Wu Leishing.† A close up is shown of the man who is now unconscious then moves into the soldiers shouting. The wife is shown as being pushed by the soldiers, then is followed by Tietou coming in and pushing toward his father then his mother. The camera stays with a mid – zoom to show the boy running into the soldiers; however, it doesn’t show the heads of the soldiers. The perspective is one of the little boy as he runs to find his parents. The pushing moves to a close up shot of the boy being pushed and of close ups of his mother trying to meet him. This is combined with the yelling with â€Å"mom† being heard over the other shots and with the mom’s expression going to her son as she is slapped by the soldiers. Music starts at this point to highlight the drama of the mother and son being torn apart by the soldiers. As the music continues, the soldiers state to beat him to death, throw him on the ground and leave. A close up shot is shown of Tietou glancing up to get his mother, than going to find a piece of wood and to run after the soldiers. The music continues in the back with close up angles. The highlight of this part is

The Rebirth of a Fallen Man Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

The Rebirth of a Fallen Man - Essay Example The narrator undergoes externally and internally significant changes because he drugs, cares about other people, and desires to live a common lifestyle in the end of the collection (Johnson, â€Å"Jesus’ Son: Stories†). The narrator experiences positive external and physical changes as he recuperates from drug addiction. Because of drugs and alcohol, the health condition of the narrator becomes worse and worse. Before the car crash happens, the narrator cannot even stand up because a college man gives him drugs. He loses his consciousness and passes out in the grass off the exit ramp. His exhausted and weak body compels him to feel the world negatively, owing to his emotional behavior. Once, he said, â€Å"I hadn’t been anywhere near it in over a year, but I was just getting sicker. When I coughed I saw fireflies†. The aforementioned statement can be attributed with the context that the over the years, the narrator had been growing sicker, resulting in the development of chronic cough. Drug overdose during talking medications places him in a severe condition, and he is almost dead. However, things are changing...

Investment Enhancement Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Investment Enhancement Paper - Essay Example Also by diversify portfolio investors are able to earn more consistent returns on their investment and if one stock does not perform well and does not yield positive return then the other one could perform well and yield positive return thus the overall risk of the portfolio is reduced and investors are in a position to save their investment from fluctuations of stock as well as market. There are different techniques that investors around the world use to diversify their portfolio and maximize their return. Investing internationally or in the international markets is one of the most common techniques that investors use to diversify their portfolio. This gives more chances to investors to enhance their investment and earn better returns. In addition to while making investment internationally, investors have also used alternative investment vehicles to diversify their portfolio and to enhance their investment. This report analyzes how investors around the world have been diversifying t heir portfolio by investing internationally and by making use of alternative vehicles. international portfolio diversification on an investment portfolio When investors are investing in a particular asset they normally face two types of risks. These two types of risk are; systematic risk and nonsystematic risk. These types of risk influence the stock price and thus the return of the investors is changed. Non-systematic risk is the risk of a particular asset, stock or company in which the investment is being made and it is also called the diversifiable risk as it can be reduced drastically by creating a portfolio and diversifying the investment. The other kind of risk is called the systematic risk and it is the market risk or risk of a portfolio. The risk of a stock is reduced by diversifying the portfolio and by making investment in stock of different industries. However even after diversifying the portfolio in a particular market, the market risk cannot be reduced (Gitman, 2003). T he following graph shows that as the investor diversifies its portfolio the non-systematic risk of the portfolio reduces and as the portfolio becomes more and more diversified, the non-systemic risk reduces. However by diversifying portfolio, the systematic risk or market risk is not diversified or reduced. Market risk is the risk that can be because of fluctuations in the market, economic condition of the country, political instability and several other macroeconomic factors that would directly or indirectly impact the stock prices. (Source: Systematic versus Non-Systematic Risk) So in order to enhance the investment and further reduce the risk of the portfolio, investors have started investing stocks and assets in other countries as it reduces the market risk. By investing in different markets, the impact of change in the return because of a particular market is reduced in the overall investment and therefore the overall risk of the portfolio is reduced. The following graph reflec ts that the risk of the portfolio is further reduced as stocks from other parts of the world are included in the portfolio. Therefore diversifying portfolio and investing in different stocks around the world would reduce the risk of the portfolio and therefore it would enhance the investment. So, investing internationally would reduce the market risk and thus the overall risk

Structural Transformation through E-business Essay

Structural Transformation through E-business - Essay Example Fred Smith of FEDEX Corp built up his business by identifying a need – the need of Companies for timely delivery of important documents. He invested large amounts of capital in building up an expensive transportation network, because of his belief that a strong market existed among businesses for overnight delivery of time sensitive documents. A centralized computer system existed which kept track of all packages delivered and this was known as COSMOS (Customer Operation, Service Master Online System). A bar code was placed on every package at the pick up point and scanned at every stage of the delivery process. Fred Smith realized early on that the Internet would play a significant part in revolutionizing the logistics of the transportation industry. The centralized database system was improved by introducing various pioneering features, such as handing out PCs with FEDEX software for tracking of packages, hand held signature devices that delivery agents could use to record s ignatures and a website that contained information on package delivery status. Using EDI and the Internet, FEDEX also worked backwards along the supply chain and provided management services at several points along it, where different services could be provided; for example, transportation, inventory control, purchasing, etc. 3. In the achievement of its goals, FEDEX has capitalized the vision of its founder, Smith who believed the success of the Company lay in IT(Lappin, 1996) and has implemented IT systems that are geared towards strengthening its e-commerce operations. The realization that information systems could play a vital role in ensuring the success of business has enabled the Company to survive and gain a head start in package delivery (www.garyclarke.com).

Visual entertainment media Essay Example for Free

Visual entertainment media Essay Visual entertainment media is a part of everyday life, anywhere from cellphones, television, internet, newspaper, etc. All of the forms of visual entertainment media have helped shaped America, also the culture and values that have developed over the years. The most common visual entertainment media form that has shaped, influenced, the culture and values in America is cable television. Cable television covers so many different forms within itself, news channels, religious channels, debate channels, and different types of local television programs. Each of these channels carries their own message, with entertainment values that are viewed by the person watching the program. Many forms of visual entertainment carry a negative social influence message, self-education is important on these types of visual entertainment in order to determine what best fits your personal situation. If there are, guidelines that are set on, what type of visual entertainment are acceptable, internet access, cell phone access, and television channels. Than the amount of negative influence, someone may be subjected to can be cut down dramatically, giving the opportunity for positive experiences to be put in its place. The idea of visual entertainment media is to help spread education, and social entertainment purposes. One way to ensure that this is the experience that is shared is to limit what you make available to your family and how much is acceptable. I think that it is very easy for adolescent minds to be subjected to influence, both positive and negative depending on what their social surrounding support frequently. If a child is exposed to violent, sexual, or death filled entertainment, it is more likely for them to incorporate these things into their everyday social environment. This affects their social behavior and attitudes to not only peers, but also any given situation. The influences these entertainment types have can either become a person or just be a part of everyday life. This solely depends on the person that is subjected to the visual entertainment, and how they conceive what is viewed into their everyday life. A minor is not in control of what they watch and cannot be responsible for making educated visual entertainment media choices, that being said they could not be responsible for the influence it has on them either.

Analysis of Linguistic Theory in Transpotting (1996)

Analysis of Linguistic Theory in Transpotting (1996) Introduction The main argument of this dissertation is that the language of John Hodges screenplay Trainspotting, even though it appears to contain sub-cultural social contexts, cannot be categorised within the framework of linguistic theory as representing a youth subculture. The verbal conflict formation in the text should be read as reflective of the larger worldview that verbal conflict behaviour is inevitable in all societies, as are the existence of social dialectsand the usage of common slang. 1. Gumperz Term: Speech Community In his 1982 volume Discourse strategies, John Gumperz discusses the concept of a speech community. He defines speech community as a system of organized diversity held together by common norms and aspirations. He also states that the speech community must form the starting point of linguistic analysis. He further states that although members of the same speech community may differ in terms of their beliefs and their behaviours, that this is a normal variation and has been shown to be a systematic regularity of communities. For, the most part, however, members of speech communities generally share norms of evaluation. Gumperz stresses the point that it is not the individual speakers of a language that make up a speech community. He cites the theories of Saussure and others of that time period to support this statement: It was believed that these reflect either momentary preferences, personal idiosyncrasies, or expressive or emotive tendencies, which rely on universal signalling mechani sms and are thus not part of the system of meaningful sounds by which substantive information is conveyed (11-12). According to Gumperz, although the ability to form grammatical statements is common to all speakers of a certain language, the more complex knowledge of contextualization convention varies widely. He also points out that contextualization is not something that can be attained through formal education or reading, but must be learned through face-to-face interactions. Discourse at this level is marked by conventions that reflect prolonged interactive experience by individuals cooperating in institutionalized settings in the pursuit of shared goals in friendship, occupational and similar networks of relationships (209). Language and social identity, a volume published in the same year, was co-authored by Jenny Cook-Gumperz. In this work, he discusses the role of communicative skills in our society, asserting that they have been radically altered. It is absolutely essential for individuals in todays society to be capable of managing or adapting to a variety of diverse communicative situations. In addition, they must be able to interact freely with people who are virtual strangers to them. These abilities are an absolute necessity if one is to acquire a sense of personal control and to establish a sense of order in ones life. The cause for this change, he asserts, is the bureaucratization of public institutions, which have become increasingly pervasive in our day-to-day lives. He sees this as a result of our post-industrial society and states that it exists in both Western and non-Western countries. The skills required to function at this level are far more complex, but must be mastered if one is to function autonomously as a member of a speech community. 2. Hallidays Notion: Antilanguages In Language as social semiotic: The social interpretation oflanguage and meaning, M.A.K. Halliday explains the initial acquisitionof language as part of the development of the child as a socialcreature: Language is the main channel through which the patterns ofliving are transmitted to him, through which he learns to act as amember of a â€Å"society† (9). The child does this, she goes on toexplain, through associations with family, neighbourhood, and varioussocial groups; these comprise the foundation on which the child baseshis or her belief systems and values. The child does not learn these things directly, but ratherindirectly, Halliday explains. It is through the accumulatedexperience of numerous small events, insignificant in themselves, inwhich his behaviour is guided and controlled, and in the course ofwhich he contracts and develops personal relationships of all kinds'(9). The unifying factor here is language; language is the mediumthrough which all of this takes place. She develops her discussion further by introducing the notion of anantisociety which is in direct contrast to society, describing theantisociety as a conscious alternative that can also be viewed as aform of resistance. This resistance can take a number of forms. It canbe passive, in which case it will appear, at least outwardly, to causeno harm. On the other hand, it can be actively hostile to the point ofcausing actual destruction. The antilanguage is the language of the antisociety. It isparallel to the antisociety, which of course generates it. Bothlanguage and its counterpart, antilanguage, share equal linguisticsignificance. According to Halliday, either pair, a society and itslanguage or an antisociety and its (anti) language, is, equally, aninstance of the prevailing sociolinguistic order (164). Halliday describes the antilanguage as a form of resocialization,as a mechanism that creates an alternative reality. In this sense, shedoes not see it as a negative construct, but rather of reconstruction(170). The significant aspect of the language/antilanguage dynamicexists in the distance between the two, and in the tension that iscaused by that distance. The individual may function in either worldand may go back and forth with relative comfort. In this sense, it mayseem that he is living a double existence. Still, it should not be forgotten that both aspects—language andantilanguage—originate from the same place. Because of this commonbackground, there is continuity between them which parallels thatbetween society and antisociety. Not only is there a continuity, thereis also tension. Hence, although the languages may be expressed bymembers of different social strata, they are both parts of the samesocial system. In other words, the antisociety is, in terms ofLà ©vi-Strausss distinction between metaphor and metonymy, metonymic tosociety—it is an extension of it, within the social system (Halliday175). Thus, basically, an antilanguage is just another language. However,the world it exists in is a counter-reality, which in itself hascertain implications: It implies preoccupation with the definition anddefence of identity through the ritual functioning of the socialhierarchy. It implies a special conception of information and ofknowledge (172). In addition, there will be a certain amount of secrecy in anantilanguage; this is inherent in its nature. The reality in which itfunctions is a secret reality. Generally, the members of this realitydo have secrets. Often these secrets may have something of an illegalassociation to them. It is just as likely, however, that the secretsare not illegal, but merely lacking in respectability and socialsanction. They may be the secrets of a segment of the population whichexists at least partly in its fringes, although its members may notwant this known in the mainstream. The antisociety is, then, a metaphorfor the society, and it joins society at the level of the social system. The perspective of the antilanguage is generally that of adistinctly different view of the world, one which is thereforepotentially threatening, if it does not coincide with ones own'(Halliday 179). The purpose of the antilanguage is primarily fordisplay as its speakers struggle to maintain their counter-realitywhile existing within the confines of the world. An antilanguage, according to Halliday, brings into sharp reliefthe role of language as a realization of the power structure ofsociety (181). The antilanguages of countercultures, such as prisonsand criminal networks, are often full are defined against the socialstructure. Essentially, they are defined by what they are not. This isnot unlike the jargon or nomenclature of certain highly-specialisedprofessions, which may in some sense be seen as having a similar—thoughacceptable by society—counter-reality. Members of mainstream society who are speakers solely of standarddialect may have negative reactions to antilanguage. However, they willusually express this indirectly. For example, they may state that theydont like the vowels as they are pronounced by the speakers of theantilanguage, when in essence what they are saying is that they dontlike the values held by the speakers of the antilanguage. 3. Labovs Finding: The Concept of Sounding Labov and his colleagues (Paul Cohen, Clarence Robins, and JohnLewis) studied the vernacular of young American black males in theinner city areas of New York. The youths ranged in age from eight to 19years old, and they spoke a relatively uniform grammar, the language ofstreet culture. Labov and his team used a variety of methods to gather their data,the most important of which was long-term participant-observation withpeer groups (via). They collected tape-recorded conversations that tookplace on school buses, field trips, and parties—essentially, any typeof gathering where the youths got together and socialized. They thencarefully analyzed the data they collected, noting the patterns theyfound in speech events. Two examples of these exchanges are below. A: Eat shit. B: Hop on the spoon. A. Move over. B. I cant, your mothers already there. The following exchange is between two adolescents, John and Willie, with an observer (Rel) looking on: John: Who father wear raggedy drawers? Willie: Yeh the ones with so many holes in them when-a-you walk they whistle? Rel: Oh . . . shi-it! When you walk they whistle! Oh shit! (326) Given the insults against the person, his family, his poverty, aperson who is not a member of a given culture might expect thesituation to escalate into physical conflict. However, Labov points out that these are actually ritual insults. Herefers to this as sounding, which he describes as a complex patternof verbal conflict. Sounding has also been called playing the dozensor signifying. It consists of a dialogue that is usually performedfor an audience of observers who are usually peers. The dialogue itselfconsists of ritual insults, most of which are directed towards theother speakers mother, self, or housing situation. The speakers tradethese sounds back and forth as though in competition, and theaudience looks on. Occasionally an audience member will comment, approve, ordisapprove of the statements of one or both speakers. Labov points outthat the audience is an essential ingredient to this process: It istrue that one person can sound against another without a third personbeing present, but the presupposition that this is public behavior caneasily be heard in the verbal style. The presence of an audience has a definite impact on the speechevent. The sounds are no longer spoken in a direct, face-to-faceconversational mode when others are present. The speakers voices tendto be raised and they become more projected, suggesting full awarenessthat the audience is there. In the second exchange above, Rel makes acomment on Willies insult, praising it. In a sounding session, Labovpoints out, everything is public—nothing significant happens withoutdrawing comment. The rules and patterning of this particular speechevent are therefore open for our inspection (327). In fact, theexistence of an audience is considered a defining factor, according toLabov. A primary difference between sounding and other speech events isthat most sounds are evaluated overtly and immediately by theaudience (325). By closely analyzing the discourse of this segment of thepopulation, Labov was able to isolate certain characteristics and todiscern patterns in the structure of this ritua l exchange of insults.After a while, the fundamental difference that divides ritual insultsand personal insults became clear. For example, there was a very clearopposition between an insult that is made during this ritualperformance and an actual, personal insult. The appropriate responsesare quite different: a personal insult is answered by a denial, excuse,or mitigation, whereas a sound or ritual insult is answered by longersequences (335). The ritual insults must be exaggerated to thepoint of being ridiculous and clearly untrue. This is clear to both thespeakers and to the audience that is following the exchange. If theinsults violate this rule—for example, one speaker makes a comment thatis both derogatory and which is known to be accurate—the ritual mayturn into conflict. The speech event we call sounding is not isolated from other formsof verbal interaction: it can merge with them or become transformedinto a series of personal insults, asserts Labov (330). He points outthat when ritual insult passes over into a different level ofdiscourse, that of interpersonal conflict, the difference between thetwo is unmistakably clear. Audience reaction is a key tool in assessing sounds. Laughter isthe primary mark of affirmation. A really successful sound will beevaluated by overt commentsAnother, even more forceful mode ofapproving sounds is t repeat the striking part of the sound oneself'(325). Negative reactions to sounds happen with a similar frequency andare equally overt. At the end of any sounding contest, all members,speakers and audience alike, are keenly aware of the who has come outahead. 4-a. Goffmans Notion: Face in Politeness Goffman writes that the ritual order seems to be organizedbasically on accommodative lines (109). These lines allow individualsto build and maintain illusions about themselves, and are not governedby laws or justice. Rather, Goffman asserts, the main principle of theritual order is not justice but face (110). Hence, the governingprinciple is what allows individuals to save face. Individuals whocross the line do not suffer retribution, but rather receive what isnecessary to bolster the illusion of self to which they are committed. The ways in which an individuals may insulate themselves aremyriad. Some of them include half-truths, illusions, andrationalizations. Therefore, not only are they able to convincethemselves of the beliefs necessary to his continued sense of self,they are further bolstered by the support of those close to them. Thusthey continue to believe in the illusion of self, and this illusion isfurther maintained and reinforced by the members of their immediate,intimate circle (109). 4-b. Does face exist in the discourse when verbal conflict occurs? An incidence of verbal conflict requires the individual uponwhom the offense has been committed to react in some way. The type ofreaction will depend on the level of offense. One mechanism for savingface is avoidance. That is, if a person is offended by anotherindividual, but can let the incident go without losing too much face,then it is likely that the offended person will let the situation go.He or she may rationalize this by telling themselves that they willdeal with the offender at some point in the future, perhaps when thecircumstances are optimal—although it is just as likely that when thispoint in time presents itself, no action will be taken. If the offense committed against the person is great, an actionmust be taken by the offended person. They may decide to withdraw fromthe situation and may avoid future encounters with individuals whobreak the ritual code. Alternately, they may arrange to have theoffending person removed, thus ensuring that there will be no furthercommunication necessary with this individual. Societies must mobilize their members as self-regulatingparticipants in social encounters Goffman asserts. Ritual is one wayof doing this. Members of society are taught the importance of face,and that they should value such qualities as pride, honor, dignity, andpoise (110). Maintaining face then is a one way in which individuals protectthemselves and maintain their illusions of who they are and where theystand in the social hierarchy. This does not mean that face is realor authentic: Universal human nature is not a very human thing,asserts Goffman. By acquiring it, the person becomes a kind ofconstruct, built up not from inner psychic propensities but from moralrules that are impressed upon him from without (110). This constructis necessary for the individuals sense of self and helps him tomaintain the ritual equilibrium that is essential for his survival. 5. Brown and Levinson and the politeness phenomena Penelope Brown and Stephen Levinson derive their definition offace from Goffman. They also include the English folk term, whichincludes the concept of being embarrassed or humiliated—or, simply put,losing face. They explain this further: Thus face is something thatis emotionally invested, and that can be lost, maintained, or enhanced,and must be constantly attended to in interaction (Brown and Levinson61). Brown and Levinson also point out that one individuals sense offace is dependent upon the continued maintenance of everyone elsessense of face. A threat to one individuals face, then, becomes athreat to all. Individuals in the community soon learn that it is intheir best interest to defend not only their own faces, but those ofthe other members of the community as well. Brown and Levinson discuss two kinds of linguistic politeness: positive politeness and negative politeness. Central to our model is a highly abstract notion of â€Å"face†which consists of two specific kinds of desires(â€Å"face-wants†) attributed by interactants to one another: thedesire to be unimpeded in ones actions (negative face), and the desire (in some respects) to be approved of (positive face)(13). Brown and Levinson offer fifteen strategies that speakers use to establish positive politeness: [H= addressee] 1. notice, attend to Hs interests, wants, needs, goods 2. exaggerate interest, approval, sympathy with H 3. intensify interest to H 4. use in-group identity markers -address forms -use of in-group language or dialect -use of jargon or slang -contraction and ellipsis 5. seek agreement 6. avoid disagreement 7. presuppose/raise/assert common ground–gossip, small talk 8. joke 9. assert or presuppose Ss knowledge of and concern for Hs wants 10. offer, promise 11. be optimistic 12. include both S H in the activity, using we 13. give (or ask for reasons) 14. assume or assert reciprocity 15. give gifts–goods, sympathy, understanding, cooperation If positive politeness is defined as redress directed to theaddressees positive face, then negative politeness is redressiveaction addressed to the addressees negative face: his want to have hisfreedom of action unhindered and his attention unimpeded (129).Strategies used by speakers in the process of establishing negativeface include: 1. be conventionally indirect–opposing tensions, indirect speech acts 2. question, hedge 3. be pessimistic 4. minimize the imposition 5. give deference 6. apologize 7. impersonalize S H 8. state the FTA [face-threatening act] as a general rules 9. nominalize 10. go on record as incurring a debt, or as not indebting H Brown and Levinson have a third category for speech actions. Thisone is off record. A communicative act is done off record if it isdoe in such a way that it is not possible to attribute only one clearcommunicative intention to the act (211). 1. give hints 2. give assocation clues 3. presuppose 4. understate 5. overstate 6. use tautologies 7. use contradictions 8. be ironic 9. use metaphors 10. use rhetorical questions 11. be ambiguous 12. be vague 13. over-generalize 14. displace H 15. be incomplete, use ellipsis Off record politeness is a sort of hybrid strategy that falls in between the two and is difficult, if not impossible to definitively categorize (Brown and Levinson, 230). 6a. Grimshaws concept of conflict talk In the introduction to his 1990 volume Conflict talk:Sociolinguistic investigations of arguments in conversations, AllenGrimshaw writes: Conflict talk is at the same time so complex a phenomenon andone so deeply implicated in every dimension of human sociallife that it would be possible to identify dozens of reasonswhy it should be a focus of systematic inquiry; by thesame token one would be left wondering why its study hasbeen so neglected (3). Grimshaw points out that conflicts may have as their focus a numberof subjects, including beliefs, objects (things), persons, groups, orinstitutions (294). Interestingly, he asserts that as long as conflicttalk is sustained and the participants do not withdraw, conflicts need not increase in hostility. The increase in hostilityseems to occur only with an increased sense of intensity on both sides 6b. Goodwin and Goodwin: interstitial argument In their essay Interstitial argument, Charles Goodwin andMarjorie Harness Goodwin present the findings of their researchregarding verbal conflict. During the course of their research theywere able to closely study the relationship between participants andtheir local environment. One thing they found is that despite thedisruptive behavior that accompanies an argument, the participants payextremely close attention to the details surrounding them. During theargument, what goes on is actually a process of very intricatecoordination between the parties who are opposing each other (85). For a year and a half M.H. Goodwin audiotaped a group of urbanblack children as they played together in the street. This was onesegment of a larger project in which a range of speech activities werebeing studies. These activities included gossip, arguments, stories,and directives, and similar activities. Specifically, four childrenwere audiotaped during oppositional exchanges, and these exchanges werethen transcribed and analyzed. One of the issues at hand was aslingshot battle. All exchanges, from the planning stages to theselection of teams to the preparation of weapons, were studied inmeticulous detail. From these data Goodwin examined content shift andcontext within argument, multi-party argument, and piggybacking, oraffiliation in argument. Analysing their findings, the Goodwins discovered that by followingthe sequence of utterances, it was clear that the four individualsinvolved in the exchange did not have equal positions (107). It seemedclear that each side had a primary spokesman, followed by a secondindividual who followed the behavior of the primary spokesman. This ledGoodwin and Goodwin to conclude that the structures utilised in theprocess of negotiating opposition also provide resources for theparticipants, enabling them to duplicate types of social organization.Thus, the process of arguing essentially gives the participants resources for reproducing a life that is greater than that of the argument itself (113). Finally, Goodwin and Goodwin write that it has been argued that thetalk people produce during their dealings with each other is oftenconsidered to be too disorderly to be properly organized and studied.In response to this, they write that in analysing the data from thisstudy they found anything but disorder. The participants themselves,within the space of a very few turns, produce a range of systematicpermutations on a basic structure with a precision that would tax theingenuity of even the most inventive experimental design to replicate'(114). 6c. Schiffrin: argument: the role of opinions and stories Deborah Schiffrin asserts that everyday forms of talk are guidedby norms of co-operation and competition. Even argument, a form of talkwhich might seem to be the paradigm example of conflict talk, can be aco-operative way of speaking as well as (or instead of) a competitiveway of speaking (241). Schriffin uses Goffmans concepts of footing and frame asadditional links. Footing and frames are very similar to eachother. Schriffin explains the frame as the definition of thesituation, and the footing as the sort of alignments taken up byparticipation (242). She then goes on to explore opinions and stories. With regard toopinions, she admits that it is not always possible to find linguisticfeatures which mark a declarative statement as the presentation of an opinion, and that because of this,one needs to look elsewhere, and she presents her criteria fordiscerning what an opinion actually consists of, concluding thatopinions are unverifiable, internal, subjective depictions of anexternal worldthe facts presented by the author cannot remainundisputed, but the principals stance toward that proposition cannotbe/ disputed 248-9). This, she explains, also gives opinions aparadoxical status in argument, such that they can either initiate orend an argument (249). She then discusses the role of stories, breaking them down into: †¢ selective interpretation †¢ deictic (time) shifts †¢ evaluation †¢ contextualization First of all, she asserts, one must consider that theinterpretation of stories is highly selective. Individuals will choosecertain stories and interpret them in a way that justifies certainbehaviors and actions. Second, there are deictic, or time shifts, to beconsidered. For example, frequently a speaker must re-orient him orherself back to the actual time of the story, to a time when they mighthave had less knowledge or information about the story. The thirdaspect of stories that Schiffrin finds significant are the evaluativedevices used by the storyteller. These devices can be phonological,grammatical, or textual in nature. Finally, she asserts, stories arepresented as frames within certain events are explained,contextualizing them. Text Analysis on Verbal Conflict, using examples from the screenplay of Trainspotting 1. Overview. Trainspotting is a coming-of-age story in story of a group ofheroin-addicted young people from Edinburgh. It is a very vividdepiction of junkie life as well as a cross-section of life in the 90s.The title of the book, Trainspotting, is also a term used in theBritish Isles for people who, as a hobby, keep track of local trainschedules with excessive vigilance. Essentially, the term is synonymouswith wasting time, making this activity a sort of metaphor for heroinaddiction. Both activities are essentially pointless and futile. Drugs are a central focus of the story, and in particular (but notexclusively) heroin. This is very clear from the language that is used.This can be noted from the frequency of the occurrence of terms whichrelate to heroin. There are numerous references to the sale,acquisition, preparation, injection, and withdrawal of heroin. Thedrug-related words which appear with highest frequency include hit,junk, shot, and inject, each of which appear more than ten times.Other commonly used drug words include of course the drugitself—heroin—along with its many variations, such as smack and skag. However, despite the omnipresence of drug and drug-relatedactivities, the story does not set out to glorify heroin use; neitherdoes it condemn or moralize use of the drug. It does, however, give aclear depiction of the bleak environment this group of young peoplemust survive in. The area is working-class. References are made to DSSchecks and Giro, which are terms associated with the life of povertyand struggle. This dismal backdrop, and the fact that they have littlehope of physical escape, makes their wreckless behaviour a bit moreunderstandable. Their addictions seem to be the most reliable, if notthe only, escape. Trainspotting is very definitely a movie about youth culture. Itshows an intricate understanding of the issues and influences uponyouth at that period in time, and it realistically reflects thecultural experiences had by young people. Trainspotting appeals to acult-prone youth because it contains the elements that comprisefoundations of subculture in British culture. Alt hough other worksappealed to the youth culture of that period, Trainspotting enjoyed apopularity that exceeded most of them. This may have been due to itsauthenticity in replicating the youth culture experience. When it first premiered (and even now), the graphic detail ofits language and content was found to be rather shocking by some.However, it resonated very strongly with anyone familiar with drugculture. It reflects, sometimes quite graphically, the underbelly ofEdinburgh in the 1980s, and focuses, as mentioned earlier, mainly onone group of heroin addicts, as well as their friends and families.Their experiences as they struggle with very real issues that many canidentify with: life, work, family, death, the struggle to survive.Other issues—ones that may not have been part of mainstream culture—arepresented as well: AIDS, heroin overdose, heroin withdrawal, and raves,among others. The use of dialect is very powerful in Trainspotting. Inaddition, the social, political, and economic views expressed by thecharacters would have mirrored the views of societys fringemembers—specifically members of the youth and/or drug cultures. Renton and his mates do not rebel against society, but they doattempt to transcend in their destructive ways. Renton often parodiesfamous Thatcher quotes through his â€Å"Choose life† rants and frequentcomments regarding the emptiness of society, as demonstrated in thefollowing examples from the screenplay: †¢ Choose life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family.Choose a fucking big television, choose washing machines, cars, compactdisc players, and electrical tin openers. †¢ Choose good health, low cholesterol, and dental insurance. Choosefixed-interest mortgage repayments. Choose a starter home. Choose yourfriends. †¢ Choose leisurewear and matching luggage. Choose a three-piece suiton hire purchase in a range of fucking fabrics. Choose DIY andwondering who the fuck you are on a Sunday morning. Choose sitting onthat couch watching mind-numbing, spirit-crushing game shows, stuffingfucking junk food into your mouth. Choose rotting away at the endof it all, pishing your last in a miserable home, nothing more than anembarrassment to the selfish, fucked-up brats you have spawned toreplace yourself. Choose your future. Choose life. †¢ I chose not to choose life. I chose something else. And thereasons? There are no reasons. Who needs reasons when youve gotheroin? The lifestyle portrayed in Trainspotting has been described asrepresenting a detached subculture of British youth. However, thereis no evidence in the screenplay to support this assertion. The youngcharacters in this story simply attempt to survive in the largerenvironment by adapting in whatever ways they can, primarily throughmusic and through drugs. They do not attempt to change the status quo,nor are they champions of social reform. They simply react to the bleaksocial conditions that they were born into. Unable to physically escape their environment, they find release in music, drugs, alcohol, and sex. Renton is a prime example of this. He is not proactive, he issimply a survivor. He assesses situations with the manipulative eye ofan addict, and he reacts accordingly, taking advantage when he sees theopportunity. He and his contemporaries are merely representative ofyouth who are struggling for a sense of identity. Their mindset isambiguous; they react to outside societal pressures by employing theirchosen means. But they cannot be considered as a youth subculture basedon their language that has been described in the previous section. Language T Analysis of Linguistic Theory in Transpotting (1996) Analysis of Linguistic Theory in Transpotting (1996) Introduction The main argument of this dissertation is that the language of John Hodges screenplay Trainspotting, even though it appears to contain sub-cultural social contexts, cannot be categorised within the framework of linguistic theory as representing a youth subculture. The verbal conflict formation in the text should be read as reflective of the larger worldview that verbal conflict behaviour is inevitable in all societies, as are the existence of social dialectsand the usage of common slang. 1. Gumperz Term: Speech Community In his 1982 volume Discourse strategies, John Gumperz discusses the concept of a speech community. He defines speech community as a system of organized diversity held together by common norms and aspirations. He also states that the speech community must form the starting point of linguistic analysis. He further states that although members of the same speech community may differ in terms of their beliefs and their behaviours, that this is a normal variation and has been shown to be a systematic regularity of communities. For, the most part, however, members of speech communities generally share norms of evaluation. Gumperz stresses the point that it is not the individual speakers of a language that make up a speech community. He cites the theories of Saussure and others of that time period to support this statement: It was believed that these reflect either momentary preferences, personal idiosyncrasies, or expressive or emotive tendencies, which rely on universal signalling mechani sms and are thus not part of the system of meaningful sounds by which substantive information is conveyed (11-12). According to Gumperz, although the ability to form grammatical statements is common to all speakers of a certain language, the more complex knowledge of contextualization convention varies widely. He also points out that contextualization is not something that can be attained through formal education or reading, but must be learned through face-to-face interactions. Discourse at this level is marked by conventions that reflect prolonged interactive experience by individuals cooperating in institutionalized settings in the pursuit of shared goals in friendship, occupational and similar networks of relationships (209). Language and social identity, a volume published in the same year, was co-authored by Jenny Cook-Gumperz. In this work, he discusses the role of communicative skills in our society, asserting that they have been radically altered. It is absolutely essential for individuals in todays society to be capable of managing or adapting to a variety of diverse communicative situations. In addition, they must be able to interact freely with people who are virtual strangers to them. These abilities are an absolute necessity if one is to acquire a sense of personal control and to establish a sense of order in ones life. The cause for this change, he asserts, is the bureaucratization of public institutions, which have become increasingly pervasive in our day-to-day lives. He sees this as a result of our post-industrial society and states that it exists in both Western and non-Western countries. The skills required to function at this level are far more complex, but must be mastered if one is to function autonomously as a member of a speech community. 2. Hallidays Notion: Antilanguages In Language as social semiotic: The social interpretation oflanguage and meaning, M.A.K. Halliday explains the initial acquisitionof language as part of the development of the child as a socialcreature: Language is the main channel through which the patterns ofliving are transmitted to him, through which he learns to act as amember of a â€Å"society† (9). The child does this, she goes on toexplain, through associations with family, neighbourhood, and varioussocial groups; these comprise the foundation on which the child baseshis or her belief systems and values. The child does not learn these things directly, but ratherindirectly, Halliday explains. It is through the accumulatedexperience of numerous small events, insignificant in themselves, inwhich his behaviour is guided and controlled, and in the course ofwhich he contracts and develops personal relationships of all kinds'(9). The unifying factor here is language; language is the mediumthrough which all of this takes place. She develops her discussion further by introducing the notion of anantisociety which is in direct contrast to society, describing theantisociety as a conscious alternative that can also be viewed as aform of resistance. This resistance can take a number of forms. It canbe passive, in which case it will appear, at least outwardly, to causeno harm. On the other hand, it can be actively hostile to the point ofcausing actual destruction. The antilanguage is the language of the antisociety. It isparallel to the antisociety, which of course generates it. Bothlanguage and its counterpart, antilanguage, share equal linguisticsignificance. According to Halliday, either pair, a society and itslanguage or an antisociety and its (anti) language, is, equally, aninstance of the prevailing sociolinguistic order (164). Halliday describes the antilanguage as a form of resocialization,as a mechanism that creates an alternative reality. In this sense, shedoes not see it as a negative construct, but rather of reconstruction(170). The significant aspect of the language/antilanguage dynamicexists in the distance between the two, and in the tension that iscaused by that distance. The individual may function in either worldand may go back and forth with relative comfort. In this sense, it mayseem that he is living a double existence. Still, it should not be forgotten that both aspects—language andantilanguage—originate from the same place. Because of this commonbackground, there is continuity between them which parallels thatbetween society and antisociety. Not only is there a continuity, thereis also tension. Hence, although the languages may be expressed bymembers of different social strata, they are both parts of the samesocial system. In other words, the antisociety is, in terms ofLà ©vi-Strausss distinction between metaphor and metonymy, metonymic tosociety—it is an extension of it, within the social system (Halliday175). Thus, basically, an antilanguage is just another language. However,the world it exists in is a counter-reality, which in itself hascertain implications: It implies preoccupation with the definition anddefence of identity through the ritual functioning of the socialhierarchy. It implies a special conception of information and ofknowledge (172). In addition, there will be a certain amount of secrecy in anantilanguage; this is inherent in its nature. The reality in which itfunctions is a secret reality. Generally, the members of this realitydo have secrets. Often these secrets may have something of an illegalassociation to them. It is just as likely, however, that the secretsare not illegal, but merely lacking in respectability and socialsanction. They may be the secrets of a segment of the population whichexists at least partly in its fringes, although its members may notwant this known in the mainstream. The antisociety is, then, a metaphorfor the society, and it joins society at the level of the social system. The perspective of the antilanguage is generally that of adistinctly different view of the world, one which is thereforepotentially threatening, if it does not coincide with ones own'(Halliday 179). The purpose of the antilanguage is primarily fordisplay as its speakers struggle to maintain their counter-realitywhile existing within the confines of the world. An antilanguage, according to Halliday, brings into sharp reliefthe role of language as a realization of the power structure ofsociety (181). The antilanguages of countercultures, such as prisonsand criminal networks, are often full are defined against the socialstructure. Essentially, they are defined by what they are not. This isnot unlike the jargon or nomenclature of certain highly-specialisedprofessions, which may in some sense be seen as having a similar—thoughacceptable by society—counter-reality. Members of mainstream society who are speakers solely of standarddialect may have negative reactions to antilanguage. However, they willusually express this indirectly. For example, they may state that theydont like the vowels as they are pronounced by the speakers of theantilanguage, when in essence what they are saying is that they dontlike the values held by the speakers of the antilanguage. 3. Labovs Finding: The Concept of Sounding Labov and his colleagues (Paul Cohen, Clarence Robins, and JohnLewis) studied the vernacular of young American black males in theinner city areas of New York. The youths ranged in age from eight to 19years old, and they spoke a relatively uniform grammar, the language ofstreet culture. Labov and his team used a variety of methods to gather their data,the most important of which was long-term participant-observation withpeer groups (via). They collected tape-recorded conversations that tookplace on school buses, field trips, and parties—essentially, any typeof gathering where the youths got together and socialized. They thencarefully analyzed the data they collected, noting the patterns theyfound in speech events. Two examples of these exchanges are below. A: Eat shit. B: Hop on the spoon. A. Move over. B. I cant, your mothers already there. The following exchange is between two adolescents, John and Willie, with an observer (Rel) looking on: John: Who father wear raggedy drawers? Willie: Yeh the ones with so many holes in them when-a-you walk they whistle? Rel: Oh . . . shi-it! When you walk they whistle! Oh shit! (326) Given the insults against the person, his family, his poverty, aperson who is not a member of a given culture might expect thesituation to escalate into physical conflict. However, Labov points out that these are actually ritual insults. Herefers to this as sounding, which he describes as a complex patternof verbal conflict. Sounding has also been called playing the dozensor signifying. It consists of a dialogue that is usually performedfor an audience of observers who are usually peers. The dialogue itselfconsists of ritual insults, most of which are directed towards theother speakers mother, self, or housing situation. The speakers tradethese sounds back and forth as though in competition, and theaudience looks on. Occasionally an audience member will comment, approve, ordisapprove of the statements of one or both speakers. Labov points outthat the audience is an essential ingredient to this process: It istrue that one person can sound against another without a third personbeing present, but the presupposition that this is public behavior caneasily be heard in the verbal style. The presence of an audience has a definite impact on the speechevent. The sounds are no longer spoken in a direct, face-to-faceconversational mode when others are present. The speakers voices tendto be raised and they become more projected, suggesting full awarenessthat the audience is there. In the second exchange above, Rel makes acomment on Willies insult, praising it. In a sounding session, Labovpoints out, everything is public—nothing significant happens withoutdrawing comment. The rules and patterning of this particular speechevent are therefore open for our inspection (327). In fact, theexistence of an audience is considered a defining factor, according toLabov. A primary difference between sounding and other speech events isthat most sounds are evaluated overtly and immediately by theaudience (325). By closely analyzing the discourse of this segment of thepopulation, Labov was able to isolate certain characteristics and todiscern patterns in the structure of this ritua l exchange of insults.After a while, the fundamental difference that divides ritual insultsand personal insults became clear. For example, there was a very clearopposition between an insult that is made during this ritualperformance and an actual, personal insult. The appropriate responsesare quite different: a personal insult is answered by a denial, excuse,or mitigation, whereas a sound or ritual insult is answered by longersequences (335). The ritual insults must be exaggerated to thepoint of being ridiculous and clearly untrue. This is clear to both thespeakers and to the audience that is following the exchange. If theinsults violate this rule—for example, one speaker makes a comment thatis both derogatory and which is known to be accurate—the ritual mayturn into conflict. The speech event we call sounding is not isolated from other formsof verbal interaction: it can merge with them or become transformedinto a series of personal insults, asserts Labov (330). He points outthat when ritual insult passes over into a different level ofdiscourse, that of interpersonal conflict, the difference between thetwo is unmistakably clear. Audience reaction is a key tool in assessing sounds. Laughter isthe primary mark of affirmation. A really successful sound will beevaluated by overt commentsAnother, even more forceful mode ofapproving sounds is t repeat the striking part of the sound oneself'(325). Negative reactions to sounds happen with a similar frequency andare equally overt. At the end of any sounding contest, all members,speakers and audience alike, are keenly aware of the who has come outahead. 4-a. Goffmans Notion: Face in Politeness Goffman writes that the ritual order seems to be organizedbasically on accommodative lines (109). These lines allow individualsto build and maintain illusions about themselves, and are not governedby laws or justice. Rather, Goffman asserts, the main principle of theritual order is not justice but face (110). Hence, the governingprinciple is what allows individuals to save face. Individuals whocross the line do not suffer retribution, but rather receive what isnecessary to bolster the illusion of self to which they are committed. The ways in which an individuals may insulate themselves aremyriad. Some of them include half-truths, illusions, andrationalizations. Therefore, not only are they able to convincethemselves of the beliefs necessary to his continued sense of self,they are further bolstered by the support of those close to them. Thusthey continue to believe in the illusion of self, and this illusion isfurther maintained and reinforced by the members of their immediate,intimate circle (109). 4-b. Does face exist in the discourse when verbal conflict occurs? An incidence of verbal conflict requires the individual uponwhom the offense has been committed to react in some way. The type ofreaction will depend on the level of offense. One mechanism for savingface is avoidance. That is, if a person is offended by anotherindividual, but can let the incident go without losing too much face,then it is likely that the offended person will let the situation go.He or she may rationalize this by telling themselves that they willdeal with the offender at some point in the future, perhaps when thecircumstances are optimal—although it is just as likely that when thispoint in time presents itself, no action will be taken. If the offense committed against the person is great, an actionmust be taken by the offended person. They may decide to withdraw fromthe situation and may avoid future encounters with individuals whobreak the ritual code. Alternately, they may arrange to have theoffending person removed, thus ensuring that there will be no furthercommunication necessary with this individual. Societies must mobilize their members as self-regulatingparticipants in social encounters Goffman asserts. Ritual is one wayof doing this. Members of society are taught the importance of face,and that they should value such qualities as pride, honor, dignity, andpoise (110). Maintaining face then is a one way in which individuals protectthemselves and maintain their illusions of who they are and where theystand in the social hierarchy. This does not mean that face is realor authentic: Universal human nature is not a very human thing,asserts Goffman. By acquiring it, the person becomes a kind ofconstruct, built up not from inner psychic propensities but from moralrules that are impressed upon him from without (110). This constructis necessary for the individuals sense of self and helps him tomaintain the ritual equilibrium that is essential for his survival. 5. Brown and Levinson and the politeness phenomena Penelope Brown and Stephen Levinson derive their definition offace from Goffman. They also include the English folk term, whichincludes the concept of being embarrassed or humiliated—or, simply put,losing face. They explain this further: Thus face is something thatis emotionally invested, and that can be lost, maintained, or enhanced,and must be constantly attended to in interaction (Brown and Levinson61). Brown and Levinson also point out that one individuals sense offace is dependent upon the continued maintenance of everyone elsessense of face. A threat to one individuals face, then, becomes athreat to all. Individuals in the community soon learn that it is intheir best interest to defend not only their own faces, but those ofthe other members of the community as well. Brown and Levinson discuss two kinds of linguistic politeness: positive politeness and negative politeness. Central to our model is a highly abstract notion of â€Å"face†which consists of two specific kinds of desires(â€Å"face-wants†) attributed by interactants to one another: thedesire to be unimpeded in ones actions (negative face), and the desire (in some respects) to be approved of (positive face)(13). Brown and Levinson offer fifteen strategies that speakers use to establish positive politeness: [H= addressee] 1. notice, attend to Hs interests, wants, needs, goods 2. exaggerate interest, approval, sympathy with H 3. intensify interest to H 4. use in-group identity markers -address forms -use of in-group language or dialect -use of jargon or slang -contraction and ellipsis 5. seek agreement 6. avoid disagreement 7. presuppose/raise/assert common ground–gossip, small talk 8. joke 9. assert or presuppose Ss knowledge of and concern for Hs wants 10. offer, promise 11. be optimistic 12. include both S H in the activity, using we 13. give (or ask for reasons) 14. assume or assert reciprocity 15. give gifts–goods, sympathy, understanding, cooperation If positive politeness is defined as redress directed to theaddressees positive face, then negative politeness is redressiveaction addressed to the addressees negative face: his want to have hisfreedom of action unhindered and his attention unimpeded (129).Strategies used by speakers in the process of establishing negativeface include: 1. be conventionally indirect–opposing tensions, indirect speech acts 2. question, hedge 3. be pessimistic 4. minimize the imposition 5. give deference 6. apologize 7. impersonalize S H 8. state the FTA [face-threatening act] as a general rules 9. nominalize 10. go on record as incurring a debt, or as not indebting H Brown and Levinson have a third category for speech actions. Thisone is off record. A communicative act is done off record if it isdoe in such a way that it is not possible to attribute only one clearcommunicative intention to the act (211). 1. give hints 2. give assocation clues 3. presuppose 4. understate 5. overstate 6. use tautologies 7. use contradictions 8. be ironic 9. use metaphors 10. use rhetorical questions 11. be ambiguous 12. be vague 13. over-generalize 14. displace H 15. be incomplete, use ellipsis Off record politeness is a sort of hybrid strategy that falls in between the two and is difficult, if not impossible to definitively categorize (Brown and Levinson, 230). 6a. Grimshaws concept of conflict talk In the introduction to his 1990 volume Conflict talk:Sociolinguistic investigations of arguments in conversations, AllenGrimshaw writes: Conflict talk is at the same time so complex a phenomenon andone so deeply implicated in every dimension of human sociallife that it would be possible to identify dozens of reasonswhy it should be a focus of systematic inquiry; by thesame token one would be left wondering why its study hasbeen so neglected (3). Grimshaw points out that conflicts may have as their focus a numberof subjects, including beliefs, objects (things), persons, groups, orinstitutions (294). Interestingly, he asserts that as long as conflicttalk is sustained and the participants do not withdraw, conflicts need not increase in hostility. The increase in hostilityseems to occur only with an increased sense of intensity on both sides 6b. Goodwin and Goodwin: interstitial argument In their essay Interstitial argument, Charles Goodwin andMarjorie Harness Goodwin present the findings of their researchregarding verbal conflict. During the course of their research theywere able to closely study the relationship between participants andtheir local environment. One thing they found is that despite thedisruptive behavior that accompanies an argument, the participants payextremely close attention to the details surrounding them. During theargument, what goes on is actually a process of very intricatecoordination between the parties who are opposing each other (85). For a year and a half M.H. Goodwin audiotaped a group of urbanblack children as they played together in the street. This was onesegment of a larger project in which a range of speech activities werebeing studies. These activities included gossip, arguments, stories,and directives, and similar activities. Specifically, four childrenwere audiotaped during oppositional exchanges, and these exchanges werethen transcribed and analyzed. One of the issues at hand was aslingshot battle. All exchanges, from the planning stages to theselection of teams to the preparation of weapons, were studied inmeticulous detail. From these data Goodwin examined content shift andcontext within argument, multi-party argument, and piggybacking, oraffiliation in argument. Analysing their findings, the Goodwins discovered that by followingthe sequence of utterances, it was clear that the four individualsinvolved in the exchange did not have equal positions (107). It seemedclear that each side had a primary spokesman, followed by a secondindividual who followed the behavior of the primary spokesman. This ledGoodwin and Goodwin to conclude that the structures utilised in theprocess of negotiating opposition also provide resources for theparticipants, enabling them to duplicate types of social organization.Thus, the process of arguing essentially gives the participants resources for reproducing a life that is greater than that of the argument itself (113). Finally, Goodwin and Goodwin write that it has been argued that thetalk people produce during their dealings with each other is oftenconsidered to be too disorderly to be properly organized and studied.In response to this, they write that in analysing the data from thisstudy they found anything but disorder. The participants themselves,within the space of a very few turns, produce a range of systematicpermutations on a basic structure with a precision that would tax theingenuity of even the most inventive experimental design to replicate'(114). 6c. Schiffrin: argument: the role of opinions and stories Deborah Schiffrin asserts that everyday forms of talk are guidedby norms of co-operation and competition. Even argument, a form of talkwhich might seem to be the paradigm example of conflict talk, can be aco-operative way of speaking as well as (or instead of) a competitiveway of speaking (241). Schriffin uses Goffmans concepts of footing and frame asadditional links. Footing and frames are very similar to eachother. Schriffin explains the frame as the definition of thesituation, and the footing as the sort of alignments taken up byparticipation (242). She then goes on to explore opinions and stories. With regard toopinions, she admits that it is not always possible to find linguisticfeatures which mark a declarative statement as the presentation of an opinion, and that because of this,one needs to look elsewhere, and she presents her criteria fordiscerning what an opinion actually consists of, concluding thatopinions are unverifiable, internal, subjective depictions of anexternal worldthe facts presented by the author cannot remainundisputed, but the principals stance toward that proposition cannotbe/ disputed 248-9). This, she explains, also gives opinions aparadoxical status in argument, such that they can either initiate orend an argument (249). She then discusses the role of stories, breaking them down into: †¢ selective interpretation †¢ deictic (time) shifts †¢ evaluation †¢ contextualization First of all, she asserts, one must consider that theinterpretation of stories is highly selective. Individuals will choosecertain stories and interpret them in a way that justifies certainbehaviors and actions. Second, there are deictic, or time shifts, to beconsidered. For example, frequently a speaker must re-orient him orherself back to the actual time of the story, to a time when they mighthave had less knowledge or information about the story. The thirdaspect of stories that Schiffrin finds significant are the evaluativedevices used by the storyteller. These devices can be phonological,grammatical, or textual in nature. Finally, she asserts, stories arepresented as frames within certain events are explained,contextualizing them. Text Analysis on Verbal Conflict, using examples from the screenplay of Trainspotting 1. Overview. Trainspotting is a coming-of-age story in story of a group ofheroin-addicted young people from Edinburgh. It is a very vividdepiction of junkie life as well as a cross-section of life in the 90s.The title of the book, Trainspotting, is also a term used in theBritish Isles for people who, as a hobby, keep track of local trainschedules with excessive vigilance. Essentially, the term is synonymouswith wasting time, making this activity a sort of metaphor for heroinaddiction. Both activities are essentially pointless and futile. Drugs are a central focus of the story, and in particular (but notexclusively) heroin. This is very clear from the language that is used.This can be noted from the frequency of the occurrence of terms whichrelate to heroin. There are numerous references to the sale,acquisition, preparation, injection, and withdrawal of heroin. Thedrug-related words which appear with highest frequency include hit,junk, shot, and inject, each of which appear more than ten times.Other commonly used drug words include of course the drugitself—heroin—along with its many variations, such as smack and skag. However, despite the omnipresence of drug and drug-relatedactivities, the story does not set out to glorify heroin use; neitherdoes it condemn or moralize use of the drug. It does, however, give aclear depiction of the bleak environment this group of young peoplemust survive in. The area is working-class. References are made to DSSchecks and Giro, which are terms associated with the life of povertyand struggle. This dismal backdrop, and the fact that they have littlehope of physical escape, makes their wreckless behaviour a bit moreunderstandable. Their addictions seem to be the most reliable, if notthe only, escape. Trainspotting is very definitely a movie about youth culture. Itshows an intricate understanding of the issues and influences uponyouth at that period in time, and it realistically reflects thecultural experiences had by young people. Trainspotting appeals to acult-prone youth because it contains the elements that comprisefoundations of subculture in British culture. Alt hough other worksappealed to the youth culture of that period, Trainspotting enjoyed apopularity that exceeded most of them. This may have been due to itsauthenticity in replicating the youth culture experience. When it first premiered (and even now), the graphic detail ofits language and content was found to be rather shocking by some.However, it resonated very strongly with anyone familiar with drugculture. It reflects, sometimes quite graphically, the underbelly ofEdinburgh in the 1980s, and focuses, as mentioned earlier, mainly onone group of heroin addicts, as well as their friends and families.Their experiences as they struggle with very real issues that many canidentify with: life, work, family, death, the struggle to survive.Other issues—ones that may not have been part of mainstream culture—arepresented as well: AIDS, heroin overdose, heroin withdrawal, and raves,among others. The use of dialect is very powerful in Trainspotting. Inaddition, the social, political, and economic views expressed by thecharacters would have mirrored the views of societys fringemembers—specifically members of the youth and/or drug cultures. Renton and his mates do not rebel against society, but they doattempt to transcend in their destructive ways. Renton often parodiesfamous Thatcher quotes through his â€Å"Choose life† rants and frequentcomments regarding the emptiness of society, as demonstrated in thefollowing examples from the screenplay: †¢ Choose life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family.Choose a fucking big television, choose washing machines, cars, compactdisc players, and electrical tin openers. †¢ Choose good health, low cholesterol, and dental insurance. Choosefixed-interest mortgage repayments. Choose a starter home. Choose yourfriends. †¢ Choose leisurewear and matching luggage. Choose a three-piece suiton hire purchase in a range of fucking fabrics. Choose DIY andwondering who the fuck you are on a Sunday morning. Choose sitting onthat couch watching mind-numbing, spirit-crushing game shows, stuffingfucking junk food into your mouth. Choose rotting away at the endof it all, pishing your last in a miserable home, nothing more than anembarrassment to the selfish, fucked-up brats you have spawned toreplace yourself. Choose your future. Choose life. †¢ I chose not to choose life. I chose something else. And thereasons? There are no reasons. Who needs reasons when youve gotheroin? The lifestyle portrayed in Trainspotting has been described asrepresenting a detached subculture of British youth. However, thereis no evidence in the screenplay to support this assertion. The youngcharacters in this story simply attempt to survive in the largerenvironment by adapting in whatever ways they can, primarily throughmusic and through drugs. They do not attempt to change the status quo,nor are they champions of social reform. They simply react to the bleaksocial conditions that they were born into. Unable to physically escape their environment, they find release in music, drugs, alcohol, and sex. Renton is a prime example of this. He is not proactive, he issimply a survivor. He assesses situations with the manipulative eye ofan addict, and he reacts accordingly, taking advantage when he sees theopportunity. He and his contemporaries are merely representative ofyouth who are struggling for a sense of identity. Their mindset isambiguous; they react to outside societal pressures by employing theirchosen means. But they cannot be considered as a youth subculture basedon their language that has been described in the previous section. Language T