Using Digital Information And Technology Safely, Legally,...

In the digital world we live in now, one should be responsible and learn how to use digital information and technology safely, legally, and ethically. Why is this so important? For one, there are legal ramifications for inappropriate use of the internet. It is also dangerous. Someone can be â€Å"playing† the part of a fellow friend and actually be a predator of some kind. Or someone can steal personal information and one can end up with a whole would of problems. Children need to be helped with learning the ins and outs of internet usage. With the every changing internet and technology, one must be vigilant with their own protection and those that use the internet in their household. Children are most vulnerable to poor internet†¦show more content†¦This FTA rule holds websites to obtain consent from a parent by putting in a parents email and the parent has to respond to it to allow the child permission to use the website. The website is also required to pos t its privacy policies and cannot request any personal information more than it would need to play a game or enter a contest (Internet Safety, 2015). Children do not realize the dangers they could be in when giving out information freely to online strangers. Giving one’s name and address gives someone online enough information to harass, kidnap, or even hurt a child. Rules need to be established to help a child stay safe on the internet. The FTA helps with the COPPA rule, but parents need to set up rules for children to follow at home. Websites like about.com and netsmartz.com have articles on ideas for rules to present to children when they start to use the internet. Here are a few of the suggestions they provide: Always ask for a parent or guardians permission to give out personal information like phone numbers and address, do not arrange to meet anyone from online, and think before posting online things like pictures or chatting in a chat room [1,2]. When the child is on the internet, the computer needs to be in a high traffic area of the house and not in a room unless you can check on the child frequently. The parents need to set any rules that they see fit for

Critique on Distinctive Features Free Essays

Andrew Ike B. Waga ENG 106 Dec. 14, 2011 2010-53632 Trubetzkoy, Jakobson or Chomsky, Whose Distinctive Features are truly â€Å"Distinct†? â€Å"Teacher, teacher, Help me, I have just been side swiped by a car! † These were the exact words that came out from the mouth of the school’s resident hooligan, Kevin, one afternoon after class. We will write a custom essay sample on Critique on Distinctive Features or any similar topic only for you Order Now During those times, our school has been intensively campaigning for every student to speak English at least while on campus, in preparation for the coming PAASCU (Philippine Accrediting Association of Schools, Colleges) visit, we were so prepped up that we were even speaking in English outside school â€Å"just in case the Assessors are just loitering around, observing† our teachers would say. So one afternoon, after finding not much to do, Kevin, decided he wanted to show his antics to us, saying that he is planning to pull off a prank on our school’s English Coordinator, and our class adviser as well, we had a carefully laid out plan, he would be rushing from the street towards our school gate while we convince our teacher to approach the gate as well, and then he shouted, the exact words on quotation, except that he pronounced swiped as /s? ?pd/. Our teacher, knowing Kevin’s reputation, was already sensing that she was a bait to a good laugh, calmly yet in an authoritarian manner said, â€Å"side swipe! s? aIp/ Next time, Kevin, try pronouncing the words well, so as not to lose your momentum, there’s always a next time! † with her signature smirk. I remembered this incident while reading about Natural classes, I am very sure that my teacher knew what Kevin meant, since all of us thought that Kevin’s pronunciation of that word was corre ct as far as we were concerned, until the jokes went back to Kevin. Growing up in a city that speaks Cebuano, it is inevitable for some English words to get that â€Å"bisaya† flavour, like the occasional /p/ becomes an /f/ or the letter h is pronounced as /? ? / and many more, but nevertheless, besides deviating from what we know as a â€Å"standard† for American English, we pretty much understood each other despite the glitches. And so I thought, why was it necessary to dwell on the distinctive features of sounds when the main importance has been served, comprehension. But then, I had to understand that it is necessary so that I would know just how these sounds are related to be viewed as almost interchangeable, just how â€Å"similar† was similar? Hence, we go to the distinctive features of sounds. In dealing with Distinctive features, I focused first on the work of Trubetzkoy, most people would start with Jakobson before Trubetzkoy but I saw that it was Trubetzkoy who first saw Phonetics and Phonology as separate disciplines. He mentioned that form (contrast, system patterning) must be studied separately from substance (acoustics, articulation). Hence, there was a greater concentration on sounds first before they are seen as words. It was Trubetzkoy who introduced the idea of â€Å"oppositions† in Phonology which he mentioned in his primary work, GrundzUge der phonologie  (1939). Oppositions would refer to a pair or set of sounds sharing the same feature that is not shared with any other sounds. Here are some of Trubetzkoy’s Oppositions: a) Bilateral oppositions A bilateral opposition refers to a pair sounds that share a set of features which no other sound shares fully. For example, voiceless labial obstruents =  /p,f/. Note that obstruents are defined as having a degree of stricture greater than that of approximants (that is, stops and fricatives). b) Multilateral oppositions A group of more than 2 sounds which share common features. For example, labial obstruents,/p,b,f,v/, are both labial and obstruents, so they share two features. c) Privative (Binary) Oppositions One member of a pair of sounds possesses a mark, or feature, which the other lacks. Such features are also known as  binary  features which a sound either possesses or lacks. Voicing is such a feature. A sound is voiced or NOT voiced. The sound which possesses that feature is said to be  marked  (eg  [+voice]) whilst the sound lacking the feature is  unmarked  (eg. [-voice]). d) Gradual Oppositions The members of a class of sounds possess different degrees or gradations of a feature or property. For example, the three short front unrounded vowels in English  /? ,  e,  ? /  which are distinguished only by their height. In this system height would be a single feature with two or more degrees of height. As of present times, when Chomsky and Halle’s set of Distinctive features are accessible to us, this would seem very broad and general, hence, not really dwelling into more specific details. But this jumpstarted the notion that sounds share similar qualities and it is crucial for the development of his friend, Jakobson’s own Distinctive Feature Theory. Jakobson is known as the first one to formalize the Distinctive Feature Theory. He followed the findings of Trubetzkoy as one of his basis for building up his set of distinctive features. Jakobson’s original formulation of the Distinctive Feature Theory aside from Trubetzkoy was based on the ff. Ideas: (1) All features are BINARY. Sounds are either [+voice] or [-voice] (2) A small set of features is able to differentiate between the phonemes of any single language. (3) Distinctive features may be defined in terms of articulatory or acoustic features. Here is a table showing Jakobson’s Distinctive Features: Though, the advantage of Jakobson’s set is that it also has an acoustic description, I do think that the articulatory description is sufficient enough, since after articulating the sound we hear the sound we produced ourselves and yet not at all times would people share the same acoustic descriptions to their produced sound, because we all have our own ways of pronouncing sounds, hence, I think that the acoustic description should be left for the speaker to describe and not defined by Jakobson’s description. Jakobson’s idea was a good starting point for Chomsky and Halle’s own set of distinctive features. With Jakobson’s Distinctive features serving as a terminus a quo for Chomsky and Halle, they were able to refine Jakobson’s set of features. A great achievement done by this duo is that they were able to establish the idea of â€Å"Natural Classes†. The aim is to carefully choose distinctive features to form a natural class of phonemes. An advantage of this approach is seen in writing Phonological rules hence, we get to understand why we can still comprehend to some words though they are mispronounced. Another is that if we are to choose the features well, it should be possible to refer to natural classes of phonemes with a smaller number of features, therefore allowing a more refined set of characteristics to describe the phonemes involved in a natural class. Chomsky and Halle also introduced the feature classifications such as the major class features, the manner features and the place features thus paving the way for a more organized description in giving characteristics of phonemes. Chomsky and Halle was able to answer the concerns of redundancy when giving features, which is found in Generative Phonology, a component of generative grammar that assigns the correct phonetic representations to  utterances  in such a way as to reflect a native speaker’s internalized grammar. Given the current situation, I would have to choose Chomsky and Halle’s Theory of Distinctive Features as the most functional, because it is able to give more specific descriptions as compared to Trubetzkoy and Jakobson. Since we have established that Chomsky and Halle’s set gives the most detailed, comprehensive and most organized distinctive features, it would be best to follow their findings. But It is also important to note that without the ideas of Trubetzkoy and Jakobson in the Distinctive Feature theory, Chomsky and Halle’s own theory would not be as it is today, not able to answer loopholes and deficiencies found in the previous studies. So for me, it is like a ladder, one has to go through the intial steps first before reaching your destination, because as what my teacher would have said, â€Å"so as not to lose your momentum. † Bibliography How to cite Critique on Distinctive Features, Essay examples

Opium Wars free essay sample

Drugs have been around for hundreds of years and it modifies normal body functions depending on the drug. During the 19th century, the Chinese had become a victim under the dangerous drug of Opium. When opium was first introduce in China it was like any other drug, addictive and harmful to the human body but the Chinese weren’t aware of the opium negative effects. Opium the narcotic drug is derived of from immature seed pods of poppy plants. Opium was used for pain relieving, it was one of the first drugs able to relieve pain before morphine was invented, and morphine is safer drug then opium and they both came from the same plant. Before the opium war, foreign trade to Western countries was limited and strictly controlled by the government since the Chinese believes they won’t benefit from the Western countries such as England. The Chinese felt very superior comparing to the Western Countries and ironically England is actually more superior then China in every aspect; political dominance, military dominance and economical in particular. The Opium wars are conflicts between China and England over trading rights on the dangerous narcotic of opium, periods of the two conflicts are between 1839-1842, 1856-1860. The English and Chinese hostilities ended with the Treaty of Nanjing for the first conflict and convention of Peking for the second conflict. The Chinese suffered one of their most humiliating defeats from the opium wars, when they lost to a country that they considered barbaric. Britain’s military triumph over China’s military has dictated the results of the Opium Wars. By the end of the Opium wars Britain had asserted a dominant military force and influenced the importance of Western technology into military. When the Chinese was bombarded with the newly steam iron ship, Nemesis, Lin Zexu urges the Chinese government to start adapting towards western technologies to balance out their military disadvantages. Technology into the military plays a key role for England’s success with their powerful weapons and war machines. With the threat of England’s military, Chinese is forced to appease England to cease the invading army from further actions. This is an embarrassment for China and very significant, with the appeasement to England it shows that the Chinese government gave up on its own military and submitting to foreign presence even against their own morale and beliefs. Since China has submitted into England’s needs once, England used its Military threat to appease them more granting their needs and become prosperous while China is losing its international rights and slowly fall apart internally. Though the military capability on land isn’t that bad for China, the main concern was the naval difference while England uses steam iron ships, China’s naval power consists of wooden fire ships incapable to inflict serious amount of damage to the English navy. Lacking the advanced industrial economy needed to build up sea authority, â€Å"China remains exposed to attacks by sea until the first half of the 20th century. † (Roberts, 33). The only victory China had against England was fending off landed British and Indian forces in May 29, 1841 when villagers in Sanyuanli was provoked by the invaders for ridiculing Chinese tombs. Their victory in Sanyuanli has questioned the Chinese military if it’s reliable to protect their country if they can’t even protect themselves from the English. The Chinese Empire self proclaim them to be superior to the rest of the world and its aloofness against the Europeans but this condescending attitude was unacceptable to Great Britain leaving them to shatter the Chinese composure (Kuo, 9). It’s safe to say China is completely demoralized after been crushed by the more superior nation and leaving China in shambles. Prevailing military is required to sustain the more superior nation in battle. Chinese wealth is incomparable to the vast amount of riches that England has. Most of England’s income came from foreign trade and exploration in America’s and Africa. The opium war is based on the trade of opium when Britain wants to profit off China, and China refusing to trade with Britain causing lost of income to Britain. Strong economy is very important for every nation, especially in periods of conflicts happening, and with a strong economy countries can support their own military by buying more weapons for better war results. China’s defeat isn’t just from lack of technology into military but it’s also the insufficient funds to their military. A nation’s military superiority is usually determined by how much the nation is willing to spend on its military; we still see today the superpower of the world like United States is known for its dominating military but their expenditure on military is extremely high which forces their nation in debt. But China is exactly opposite of the modern United States, when they do have money to spend, these money won’t be used effectively and investing into dead-end ancient weapons like bows and spears. Another misuse of spending for the Chinese government is that they spend too much money on arts and instead on their growing fine good’s production prospering China a lot during the Opium wars. Though China isolates them away from the rest of the world it does keep a steady economy and the Opium wars triggered an economical boom in China which they will slowly prosper. With the treaty of five ports, it welcomes British merchants to do trades with the Chinese and actually benefit both sides. While British are only interest in certain Chinese teas, China can redeem themselves for their defeat in the first conflict trading tea for weapons and gunpowder. â€Å"War is the parent of armies; from these precede debts and taxes †¦ known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. †¦ No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare. † (Kruger, 175). Madison made a strong point of how important it is to maintain an army but it will gain huge deficits for the army needing tax and building debts but also without armies you can’t preserve freedom. The economic effects of the Opium war benefits both sides, England prospering off China’s tea and its trade and introducing China into foreign trade. Though Chinese are humiliated on their methods of spending during the Opium wars, they learn from their mistakes of misuse spending and slowly adopting into western culture after the Opium wars. Chinese citizen’s shows concern over their own government failing to keep Chinese society stable during Opium wars. It’s embarrassing when the Chinese government is lost and scared of the English government during the Opium wars. Before the Opium War, the Chinese thought European countries were very barbaric. After the Opium War, China intellectually discovered the West, accepted the West and start adapting to Western Culture. Britain was trying to take control over China’s government but failed miserably, China surprisingly did manage to fend off England diplomats from a government takeover unlike countries like India which easily let any invading government to take over a country with ease. But it’s still shameful when the Chinese government almost agree on every treaty England proposed almost like obeying to its master like a dog. The only government making the right choices is the English government, proposing unfair agreements which the Chinese government is willingly to agree on. The Chinese governments were in a tight situation which if they fail to enact a treaty, they will be consequence like the treaty of tianking, destroying the Emperor Xianfengs summer palace in Chengde, and the Old Summer palace in Peking. China was very unstable during the Opium War, areas that was affected by the Opium war was unlawful and committing crimes since the Chinese government won’t intervene to stop the mayhem. British ideas on codes of law, rules of evidence and legal responsibility clashing with the Chinese view that the emperor’s administration operated on an ethical basis, above the mere letter of legal regulations. †(Kruger, 109). Kruger views both governments and analyzes how both of these governments work in his book, the British government heading forward to more success while Chinese governmen t is in state of emergency. Near the end of the opium war many other government such as French and Russians took advantage over the weaken government of China proposing similar trade laws without the aggression of their military. Shortly after the opium wars, â€Å"Chinese took practice of Western political ideas, social structures, and in some areas, technology were introduced to China. Western ideas of parliamentary democracy and capitalism were vaguely made known. International diplomacy became a concept. † (Kuo, 34). If China didn’t adopt more into Western culture, they will be making another terrible mistake and they wouldn’t be as successful as they are now today. While the Chinese government and its people suffer from Queen Victoria’s government, lesson has been learn of how important governments are to the people as they are the leaders for the people. The most humiliating action that the Chinese government did was capability of given in to the English and not fight till death with honor like the old Chinese ancient ways. The Opium War was the event that release Chinas out of isolation to the rest of the world. Before 1842, China was self isolated. The Opium War crushed Chinas false sense of superiority losing to a foreign country they considered barbaric. The steps Chinese take after the opium war is preventing them to be humiliated again if they ever encounter another conflict and improving on their military status, politics and their economy. If China does improve on these factors then China can actually prove they are the superior nation in the world. China realized that in order for them to recover its past glories, it had to learn from the West. Hopefully countries will learn from China’s mistake during the Opium war and prevent any other humiliation that China suffered. Being too overconfident and cocky isn’t bad at all as long as you can prove it, in China’s case, they were overconfident and arrogant but they can’t prove what they proclaim.