Comparisons And Contrasts Of Ethics By Linda Pasta Essays - Fiction

Comparisons And Contrasts Of Ethics By Linda Pasta Essays - Fiction Comparisons And Contrasts Of Ethics By Linda Pastan, And 35/10 By Sharon Olds Comparisons and Contrasts of Ethics by Linda Pastan, and 35/10 by Sharon Olds The poems Ethics and 35/10 by Linda Pastan and Sharon Olds are surprisingly alike. Each poem tells a story with the speaker being the author. She speaks directly to the audience. Although the number of lines differ, the appearance and length of each line and the appearance of each poem as a whole is very similar. The tones are similar, since both are reflective and somewhat pensive. The language and diction in both poems are simple and understandable. The authors interest is telling her story, and that is evident. Sharon Olds poem, 35/10 is a narrative poem about a mothers realization that she is aging as her daughter is blooming. The mother is the speaker, which is also the author, and she speaks directly to the audience. The tone is admiring, maternal, pensive, reflective, and nostalgic. It is structured as an 18 line poem, each line being of almost equal length. The fact of there being 18 lines may symbolize youth, as the age 18 is the prime of ones youth. The movement of the poem is very fluid. Its chronological flow takes the audience from the beginning when the mother notices her daughter, to where she wonders why they bloom as mothers begin to wilt, to finally understanding that it is to replace the mother. The title simply represents the ages, the mother being 35 and the daughter being 10. The diction helps emphasize the difference between the mother and daughter. Words such as gray, silver, dry pitting, and dud represents the mother, while silken, flower, full, and round represent the daughter. There is imagery that helps the audience see the difference as well as the mother in the mirror. For example, in lines 9-10, she opens like a small pale flower on the tip of a cactus, or last chances to bear a child are falling through my body, the duds among them. This deepens the contrast. Linda Pastans poem, Ethics is a narrative poem as well. The author, who is the speaker, tells the audience a story of her lesson of ethics. As a young woman, she had an Ethics class, but in the end the lesson the teacher attempted to teach, was only learned by the authors own experience. The tone is reflective, pensive and appreciative. The poem consists of 25 almost equal lines. The poem moves fluidly as the author herself changes from the beginning to the end. It develops from her memory of the class, to years later in a museum where she remembers her discussion of the class years before. It chronologically tells the audience that she goes from not knowing what to do, to understanding the real answer. The title Ethics shows that she didnt understand the true meaning of the word from her class, but through age, wisdom, and experience. The diction consists of simple words that flow. The imagery is in the description of the painting in the museum, she states, The colors within the frame are darker than autumn, darker even than winter - the browns of the earth, though earths most radiant elements burn through the canvas which allows the audience to envision the painting with her. In conclusion, the two poems differ in the way the story is being told, but are similar in many other ways. Both poems tell a story of coming of age, but in different fashions. The structures, the diction, the tones, and even the movement are alike. Both are narrative poems with the speaker being the authors.

Cognitive Grammar - Definition and Discussion

Cognitive Grammar - Definition and Discussion Cognitive grammar is a  usage-based approach to grammar that emphasizes symbolic and semantic definitions of theoretical concepts that have traditionally been analyzed as purely syntactic.Cognitive grammar is associated with wider movements in contemporary language studies, especially cognitive linguistics  and functionalism. The term cognitive grammar was introduced by American linguist Ronald Langacker in his two-volume study Foundations of Cognitive Grammar (Stanford University Press, 1987/1991). Observations Portraying grammar as a purely formal system is not just wrong but wrong-headed. I will argue, instead, that grammar is meaningful. This is so in two respects. For one thing, the elements of grammar- like vocabulary items- have meanings in their own right. Additionally, grammar allows us to construct and symbolize the more elaborate meanings of complex expressions (like phrases, clauses, and sentences). It is thus an essential aspect of the conceptual apparatus through which we apprehend and engage the world.(Ronald W. Langacker, Cognitive Grammar: A Basic Introduction. Oxford University Press, 2008)Symbolic AssociationsCognitive grammar . . . chiefly departs from traditional theories of language in its contention that the way in which we produce and process language is determined not by the rules of syntax but by the symbols evoked by linguistic units. These linguistic units include morphemes, words, phrases, clauses, sentences and whole texts, all of which are deemed inherently sym bolic in nature. The way in which we join linguistic units together is also symbolic rather than rule-driven because grammar is itself meaningful   (Langacker 2008a: 4). In claiming a direct symbolic association between linguistic form (what it terms phonological structure) and semantic structure, Cognitive Grammar denies the need for an organizational system to mediate between the phonological and semantic structures (i.e. syntax).(Clara Neary, Profiling the Flight of The Windhover. (Cognitive Grammar in Literature, ed. by  Chloe Harrison et al. John Benjamins, 2014)​ Assumptions of Cognitive GrammarA Cognitive Grammar is based on the following assumptions... .:The grammar of a language is part of human cognition and interacts with other cognitive faculties, especially with perception, attention, and memory. . . .The grammar of a language reflects and presents generalizations about phenomena in the world as its speakers experience them. . . .Forms of grammar are, like lexical items, meaningful and never empty or meaningless, as often assumed in purely structural models of grammar.The grammar of a language represents the whole of a native speakers knowledge of both the lexical categories and the grammatical structures of her language.The grammar of a language is usage-based in that it provides speakers with a variety of structural options to present their view of a given scene.(G. Radden and R. Dirven, Cognitive English Grammar. John Benjamins, 2007)Langackers  Four PrinciplesA primary commitment to Cognitive Grammar is . . . to provide an optima l set of constructs for explicitly describing the linguistic structure. Its formulation has been guided throughout by a number of principles thought to be helpful in achieving such optimality. The first principle . . . is that functional considerations should inform the process from the outset and be reflected in the frameworks architecture and descriptive apparatus. Because the functions of language involve the manipulation and symbolization of conceptual structures, a second principle is the need to characterize such structures at a reasonable level of explicit detail and technical precision. To be revealing, however, descriptions must be natural and appropriate. Thus, a third principle is that language and languages have to be described in their own terms, without the imposition of artificial boundaries or Procrustean modes of analysis based on conventional wisdom. As a corollary, formalization is not to be considered an end in itself, but must rather be assessed for its utility at a given stage of an investigation. That no attempt has yet been made to formalize Cognitive Grammar reflects the judgment that the cost of the requisite simplifications and distortions would greatly outweigh any putative benefits. Finally, a fourth principle is that claims about language should be broadly compatible with secure findings of related disciplines (e.g., cognitive psychology, neuroscience, and evolutionary biology). Nevertheless, the claims and descriptions of Cognitive Grammar are all supported by specifically linguistic considerations.(Ronald W. Langacker, Cognitive Grammar.  The Oxford Handbook of Cognitive Linguistics, ed. by  Dirk Geeraerts and Herbert Cuyckens. Oxford University Press, 2007)