The Wreck of the Batavia essays

The Wreck of the Batavia essays On October 28 1628 the Batavia set sail from Texel in the Netherlands on her maiden journey to Batavia, now called Jakarta, in the Dutch Colonies of Indonesia. Seven other ships of various sizes accompanied her. Francesco Pelsaert, a senior merchant, commanded the Batavia. The skipper of the ship was Ariaen Jacobsz and he did not approve of having a merchant commanding the flagship. These two men were old enemies from a previous journey. It took eight months to reach the Cape of Good Hope and the Batavia arrived with only two other ships because bad weather had split up the convoy. Once there the skipper ended up in a fight aboard one of the other ships. The skipper was publicly humiliated by Pelsaert, which made Jacobsz despise the commodore even more. Soon after this, Jeronimus Cornelius, the skippers new companion, suggested mutiny to the Skipper. The plan was, with a handful of Corneliuss and Jacobszs trusted men, it would be possible to seize the ship, kill the soldiers, throw Pelsaert overboard and take the ship and its bounty. Before the mutiny could take place the Batavia ran aground on the Houtman Abrolhos, an Archipelago of the coast of Western Australia. About forty people died and the rest were loaded on to nearby islands. Pelsaert and Jacobsz knew they were in trouble and took the ships two boats and set sail for Batavia to find help. The people left behind had no water and hardly any food, although the water was replenished from rain about a week later. Now the passengers and crew were left on the island with none other than Jeronimus Cornelius and his mutineers. Jeronimus, as it would turn out, was actually a psychotic killer very able to manipulate people. Cornelius, being the most senior in command left, sent the soldiers to a nearby island in search of water although he was actually hoping they would die. Cornelius made sure they left their weapons behind. He also divided up the rest o ...

Definition and Examples of Periphrastic Constructions

Definition and Examples of Periphrastic Constructions In English  grammar, a periphrastic construction  is one in which an independent word or multi-word expression has the same role as an inflection, such as the use of the auxiliary will with another verb to form the future tense. Periphrasis in the grammatical sense is a back-formation from the adjective periphrastic. For the rhetorical and stylistic sense of the term, see periphrasis (rhetoric). Examples and Observations A tense is inflectional if it is realized as an affix on a head (in English, a verb), periphrastic if it is realized as an independent word. Thus the English past is inflectional, but the future is periphrastic, co-opting the modal will.​  (Jeremy Butterfield, The Arguments of Time. Oxford University Press, 2006)The roots of the periphrastic forms for the future, perfect, and pluperfect can be found as early as Old English. These were established in Middle English, although the simple present and preterite forms were still possible in some contexts in which Present-Day English would use periphrastic constructions.  (Matti Rissanen, Syntax, Cambridge History of the English Language, Vol. 3, ed. by Roger Lass. Cambridge University Press, 2000) Comparison of Adjectives: Inflected and Periphrastic Patterns There are two patterns of comparison of adjectives, the inflected and the periphrastic. The inflected pattern adds -er to the positive degree: small becomes smaller, happy becomes happier. To form the superlative degree, it adds -est: smallest, happiest. The periphrastic pattern uses the adverbial intensifiers more and most: the comparatives of beautiful and ostentatious are more beautiful and more ostentatious; the superlatives are most beautiful and most ostentatious. The generalizations that seem to account for whether we choose the inflected pattern or the periphrastic are these: (1) most one- and two-syllable adjectives use the inflected pattern; (2) adjectives of three and more syllables almost always use the periphrastic; (3) the higher the frequency of two-syllable adjectives, the more likely they are to inflect for comparison; (4) the periphrastic more and most may on occasion be used with any one-syllable or high-frequency two-syllable adjective, e.g., more dear, most happy .​  (Kenneth G. Wilson, The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. Columbia University Press, 1993) The Periphrastic Possessive To attribute possessiveness to inanimate objects we generally use the periphrastic possessive, that is a prepositional phrase (beginning with a preposition and followed by a noun). For the inanimate examples, we might expect the following:  (Bernard ODwyer, Modern English Structures: Form, Function, and Position. Broadview, 2006) The expense of getting wool down to the side of the ship would eat up the farmers profits.The director of the clinic made no bones about the underlying problem.After spending some months in a rather depressing Convalescent Home, I was given sick leave for a month. The Evolution of Periphrastic be going to We will describe a recent English change, the rise of periphrastic be going to ... In the periphrasis stage, a periphrastic construction is employed for a particular function. In the case of the English future, a combination of a motion verb (go) and a purpose clause (to infinitive) is employed for a future function. This stage is motivated most likely to avoid misunderstanding, although expressiveness is also sometimes invoked. . . . The construction be going to probably spread from the closely related meaning of a motion event undertaken with an intended future outcome (the purpose clause). In the fusion stage, the periphrastic construction becomes a fixed, distinct, independent construction employed specifically for the function in question. . . . This stage has clearly occurred with future be going to: it is fixed in the use of the specific verb go and the present progressive form. Finally, erosion occurs: as the construction becomes entrenched, it is phonologically and morpholo gically reduced . . .. The future be going to has commonly be reduced to the contracted form of be plus the reduced unit gonna.​  (William Croft, Evolutionary Models and Functional-Typological Theories. The Handbook of the History of English, ed. by Ans van Kemenade and Bettelou Los. Wiley-Blackwell, 2009) Pronunciation: per-eh-FRAS-tik

Change the united states into a Utopia (the word means nowhere). What Essay

Change the united states into a Utopia (the word means nowhere). What changes should me made and why should they should be made - Essay Example There are several things that can be done to change America to utopia. Some of these things may have certain disadvantages. However, it is also true that majority of benefits may accrue from them. One of the things that may be done to change America to nowhere is ensuring that barriers are limited for the international community to access America (Frazier et al, 31). This may be done by reducing the number of requirements as well as qualifications that anybody wishing to come to America may have to meet. This may include reducing the number of policies that bar such movements involving migrations as well as immigrations to America. The influx of such people to America is quite advantageous to the American society as well as America as a whole. This is because, when the rate of immigration is heightened, a number of people will find their way into the country. This will be economically beneficial in a number of ways. First, the rate of consumption of the American goods by such a growi ng population will massively shoot. This will place more demands on the goods and services from the American industries thereby impacting positively on the businesses in America. This is quite beneficial to both the American society as well as America as a country. This follows that the economy of the country will be affected in an appreciating perspective, thereby leading to more economic stabilization (Frazier et al, 41). In addition, it is of crucial significance to note that the process of learning is always affected in a certain manner following the entry of alien individuals in a new land. Therefore, changing America to nowhere relates to an increase in accessibility of the country by people of different origin, races, ethnicity as well as cultures (Frazier et al, 47). This promotes the issue of intercultural education. This helps in