New Perspectives on International Functionalism (International Political Economy)

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This book reassesses international functionalism as an approach to global politics. Functionalism has been marginalized as simply a pre-scientific precursor to regional integration theory. In fact, functionalism provides a global view of states and international organizations working towards a peaceful and constructive world order through cooperative relationships across borders to satisfy human needs. Chapters examine the early development of functionalism and apply functionalist insights to issues, problems and conflicts in contemporary global governance.

The Dynamics of Language Use: Functional And Contrastive Perspectives (Pragmatics and Beyond New Series)

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basic language use explored

The Dynamics of Language Use: Functional And Contrastive Perspectives (Pragmatics and Beyond New Series)
Maria de los Angeles Gomez-Gonzalez , Susanna M. Doval Suarez , International Contrastive Linguistics Co. , and Susana Ma Doval Suarez
Manufacturer: John Benjamins Publishing Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Linguistics | Words & Language | Reference | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 9027253838

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basic language use explored.......2006-04-19

The Dynamics of Language Use: Functional And Contrastive Perspectives edited by Maria de Los Angeles Gomez-Gonzalez, Susanna M. Doval Suarez (Pragmatics and Beyond New Series: John Benjamins Publishing) This book brings together a collection of articles characterized by two main themes: the contrastive study of parallel phenomena in two or more languages, and an essentially functional approach in which language is regarded, first and foremost, as a rich and complex communication system, inextricably embedded in sociocultural and psychological contexts of use. The majority of the studies reported is empirical in nature, many making use of corpora or other textual materials in the language(s) under investigation. The book begins with an introductory section in which the editors provide surveys of the state of the art in both functional and contrastive linguistics. The other five sections of the volume are devoted to (i) a cognitive perspective on form and function, (ii) information structure, (iii) collocations and formulaic language, (iv) language learning, and (v) discourse and culture.
Excerpt: The book begins with two papers which strongly reflect the importance of cognitive phenomena in the study of form and function in language.
Wallace Chafe's paper tackles head-on the important but difficult question of the relationship between grammar and thought, his treatment of this issue being funda?mentally functional in nature. His starting point, namely that thoughts are filtered through the particular semantic resources permitted by the language, and that seman?tic structures are then converted to grammatical structures which are then symbolised by sounds, is uncontroversial. What is essentially functional about Chafe's position is the contention that for an understanding of why grammar is as it is, linguists need to pay more rather than less attention to grammar per se and more to semantics and its relationship with thought, as well as to language change. Chafe postulates four linked stages in the conversion of thoughts to semantic structures. Firstly, the speaker must select which thoughts s/he wishes to verbalise. Secondly, these thoughts must be categorised. Most thoughts consist of particular ideas relating to particular people, things, events, times and places, and these ideas must be recast as instances of more general and familiar categories. Thirdly, the speaker must select a complex orientation consisting of values for time, place, epistemological factors and attitude. Finally, categorisations and orientations must be combined. In explaining why the re?sulting semantic structure must be converted into a grammatical structure on its way to representation in sound, Chafe points out that as languages change, the relationship between the use of expressions and the thoughts they convey may become less direct, through the historical processes of lexicalisation, relating to ideas, and grammaticali?sation, concerned with orientations. Chafe's arguments are illustrated throughout by reference to an extended piece of authentic conversational interaction.

Book Description

London's Central Criminal Court Sessions Papers for April 1895 were blunt, declaring that "the details of this case are unfit for publication." The case was Oscar Wilde's first trial, a libel action brought against the Marquess of Queensberry for publicly calling him a homosexual. What unfolded in the court was one of Victorian London's most infamous scandals: the great, doomed love affair between Wilde and Lord Alfred "Bosie" Douglas, the Marquess's son. When it became public, it cost Wilde everything.

Merlin Holland, Wilde's grandson and a noted researcher and archivist, has discovered the original transcript of the trial that led to his grandfather's tragedy. Here for the first time is the true, uncensored record, free of the distortions and censorship of previous accounts.

On 18 February 1895, Bosie's father delivered a note to the Albemarle Club addressed to "Oscar Wilde posing as a somdomite [sic]." With Bosie's encouragement, Wilde decided to sue the Marquess for libel. As soon as the trial opened, London's literary darling was at the center of the greatest scandal of his time.

Wilde's fall from grace was swift: having lost this case, he was in turn prosecuted and later imprisoned. Bankrupted, he fled to Paris never to see his family again. Within five years he was dead, his health never having recovered from the years in Reading gaol.

This remarkable book reveals Wilde on trial for his life, though he did not know it -- his confidence ebbing under the relentless cross-questioning, the wit for which he was so celebrated gradually deserting him under the remorseless scrutiny. The tragic climax falls when Wilde is betrayed by his own cleverness, unconsciously playing into the prosecutor's hands. With that his cause is lost.

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Life Was A Trial For Oscar Wilde........2004-07-02

Oscar Wilde was a handsome man in 1892, as the photo of him in this books clearly indicates. He was a brilliant playwright and daubled in poetry. However, as the drawing of his arrest at the Cadogan Hotel on April 13, 1895, he was an arrogant, dandified "gentleman." He had been accused of a horrible charge and should have accepted his fate. To crave justice from libel, he laid himself and his reputation open to scrutiny and disaster.
Why his grandson would want all of this sordidness known now is impossible to comprehend. Some things are better left forgotten or not said. Wilde felt that the charge (however right it might be) called for a defense of justification. It turned out to be the opposite as the self-destructive genius only continued to lie with charm, entertaining the audience but not the court.

Those who start libel actions often emerge with their reputations and lives in tatters. Libel actions are meant to be cases for re-establishing reputations, confounding gossip and allowing the litigant to emerge in a state of unblemished purity (John Mortimer). The most famous libel case of all led Oscar Wilde directly to jail. He left behind a devoted wife and two sons. The grandson who released this detailed account of the trial to try to figure out "Why on earth did you do it?"

There are photographs of some of the persons involved and of the evidence used against him. It is proposed that perhaps he really didn't think he had done anything wrong. After all, many important people of that time got away with the same thing of which he was accussed. To learn what it is, you must read this book.

I'd heard rumors about his sexual persuasion previously, but this stuff went a little too far to please my sensibilities. The Judge maintained that men who could do as he did were 'dead to all sense of shame' and declared that this offence was 'the worst I have ever tried.'

Poor Oscar, his ego got in the way; his pride was too great to accept the fact that he had been 'found out.' In going to court, he laid open his past and destroyed his future. He hurt not only himself but his family as well. Why can't people just let the sordid past lay dormant?

A Book to Avoid.......2004-04-27

This is a wonderful book if you are only interested in reading the actual transcript from Oscar's trial. Indeed, the book is excellent in that respect. However, I would say it is a book to avoid if you are a fan of Lord Alfred Douglas. It seems to me that this book, like so many before it, is trying to make Alfred Douglas the scapegoat. There was a reason Bosie wanted Oscar to take his father to trial, they WOULD have won. It was a carefully laid out plan and Oscar, not Bosie, is the one who went astray from it. Lord Alfred was to take the witness box and testify against his father. When he was finished telling all that his father had done, what sort of man he was, they felt sure no jury would side with him. However, just before Bosie was about to take the witness box, Oscar refused to allow him. He knew what it would mean by his refusing to allow Bosie to take the stand, he understood very well what it would mean, but he said Bosie should never have to do such a thing. Lord Alfred himself spent a great deal of time lamenting Oscar's decision, and wondering why on earth he changed his mind. He seems to think that Oscar had been talking to Robert Ross and he and Ross had come up with another plan. Ross however, is a compulsive liar, and was probably the worst person Oscar could have trusted.

Oscar's sons, and his grandsons, lived with a false impression of Robert Ross, and therefore with a false impression of Lord Alfred Douglas. I am sickened that these misconceptions live on even now, so long after their deaths. I am sick of Lord Alfred being made out to be a monster, some evil, wicked boy who destroyed Oscar Wilde. Oscar was a very intelligent man, was he not? Don't you think he knew what he was doing? "I must say to myself that I ruined myself and that no man great or small can be ruined but by his own hand."-Oscar Wilde. I'm just tired of the blame being shoveled solely onto Lord Alfred. He wasn't a monster, and I wish people would stop trying to portray him as if he was one.

An amazing reading experience.......2004-04-14

What's amazing is that, we have heard for many years about the unparalleled wit and charm of Wilde in conversation, yet until now we of course have been denied this experience. Reading these verbatim transcripts, hundreds of pages long and recently unearthed, we are given the opportunity to do this almost virtually, for the Wildean voice comes through loud and clear, with perfect crispness and distinction. This libel trial, the first of three of the Oscar Wilde trials, is almost a conversation between two persons, and the defence counsel, Carson, though incredibly scornful and insolent, is almost as intelligent and quite as good at debate as Wilde, so it's a splendid match of brains. The outcome is disheartening, though, and throughout you can't help pounding the desk and murmuring out loud, oh, Oscar, how could you have been so stupid! Or -- don't go there! So he becomes real in a way he hasn't previously, not even in the best biographies available. Queensberry and Alfred Douglas come off, in hindsight, as monsters of privilege in only quasi-human form. And poor Edward Shelley, it is plain, deserves a book of his own.

A Genuine Tragedy.......2003-12-09

It wasn't a capital trial, but the 1895 libel proceedings of Oscar Wilde against the Marquess of Queensberry were in their way tragic and terrible. Entering the trial, Wilde was a celebrity and a playwright with the magnificently silly _The Importance of Being Ernest_ in successful performance in London and New York. Afterwards, he was pursued, tried, convicted, and imprisoned at hard labor for the then crime of homosexuality. It is a story that has been told many times and turned into dramas. Those of us who love Wilde's writing and outrageous wit will always wonder what would have happened if he had been able to write and live as he wished, instead of being ruined and sent to an early death. Amazingly, the trial record has until now been unavailable. There were summaries, and publication of extracts, but only with _The Real Trial of Oscar Wilde: The First Uncensored Transcript of the Trial of Oscar Wilde vs. John Douglas (Marquess of Queensberry)_, 1895 (Fourth Estate) do we have a full record. In 2000, an anonymous source donated a transcript of the trial to the British Library. It was authenticated, and has now been edited by Merlin Holland, Wilde's grandson. Anyone interested in Wilde's life and writing will be fascinated by this verbatim record which puts judge, prosecutor, defender, and of course Wilde himself on the stage of the Old Bailey to play out their roles verbatim.

Holland has a useful introduction to recall the details of how Wilde was snared into legal doom, spurred by his young man Lord Alfred Douglas ("Bosie") to bother Bosie's abominable father Queensberry. When, after several skirmishes, Queensberry left his calling card at Wilde's club, with the words "To Oscar Wilde posing as somdomite" (spelling was one of the Marquess's shortcomings), Wilde should have thrown it into the fire. Instead, egged on by Bosie, he took Queensberry to court for libel. It was the mistake of his life.; as Holland writes, "If I could ask my grandfather a single question, it would have to be, 'Why on earth did you do it?'" Wilde did not take advice that he leave the country, and so sealed his own doom. Most of the pages of this book are the words from the trial, and most of those words come from the bouts with Wilde in the witness box. Initially he seemed to enjoy his role in the events, and gave as good as he got. For much of the repartee reported here, the transcriber notes: "(_laughter_.)" and "(_more laughter_.)" But an eventual flippant answer overthrew Wilde on the stand, although his case could not have been won. When Carson asked about a companion, "Did you ever kiss him?" Wilde replied, "Oh, no, never in my life; he was a peculiarly plain boy." It was not long after that Wilde and his lawyers withdrew the charges, and Queensberry was declared not guilty.

If Queensbury was not guilty of libel, it was reasonable to think that his accusations were truthful, and with the evidence already gathered, Queensberry assisted in a speedy arrest of Wilde, who once again had refused advice that he leave the country. The subsequent trials, one with a hung jury and one finding him guilty of gross indecency, are not covered in this volume. Wilde had two years of hard labor, and three sad years of exile before his death in Paris in 1900. He produced the mordant "Ballad of Reading Gaol" but little else during these years, and while there are plenty of examples that his wit remained in conversation, we were robbed of subsequent examples of the delicious laughter that had come from each of his successively improving plays. This is a useful book as full documentation of the first trial, and Holland has given helpful notes throughout. Those who admire Wilde, however, will find it more than useful. Wilde was brilliant at Greek and admired Greek drama and life, and it is no exaggeration that the transcript of the trial, reading as it does like a piece of period theater, has all the marks of a classic tragedy.

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Irish Peacock & Scarlet Marquess: The Real Trial of Oscar Wilde
Merlin Holland
Manufacturer: Fourth Estate
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Wilde Album: Public and Private Images of Oscar Wilde

ASIN: 0007154186

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Irish Peacock and Scarlet Marquess: The Real Trial of Oscar Wilde / Irlandskij pavlin i bagrovyj markiz. Podlinnye materialy suda nad Oskarom Uajl'dom
Merlin Kholland
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Wilde vs. Queensberry.(Book Review): An article from: English Literature in Transition 1880-1920
Karl Beckson
Manufacturer: ELT Press
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Binding: Digital

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ASIN: B000842T1G
Release Date: 2005-08-30

Book Description

This digital document is an article from English Literature in Transition 1880-1920, published by ELT Press on June 22, 2004. The length of the article is 1001 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Wilde vs. Queensberry.(Book Review)
Author: Karl Beckson
Publication: English Literature in Transition 1880-1920 (Magazine/Journal)
Date: June 22, 2004
Publisher: ELT Press
Volume: 47 Issue: 3 Page: 352(4)

Article Type: Book Review

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The Real Trial of Oscar Wilde: The First Uncensored Transcript of The Trial of Oscar Wilde vs. John Douglas (Marquess of Queensberry), 1895

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The Real Trial of Oscar Wilde: The First Uncensored Transcript of The Trial of Oscar Wilde vs. John Douglas (Marquess of Queensberry), 1895
Merlin Holland
Manufacturer: Fourth Estate
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000O8TFUE

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Improvement of agricultural statistics in Asia and the Pacific: Report of an APO study meeting, 26th November-6th December, 1991, Tokyo, Japan

Manufacturer: Asian Productivity Organization
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Binding: Unknown Binding

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ASIN: 9283321251

Book Description

Ecological Experiments stresses the importance of manipulative field experimentation in ecology as being superior to the observational method. The book begins with a series of ecological questions that can be answered by experiments, such as: what is the importance of competition among scientists? The minimal requirements of experimental design that should be met for satisfactory field experiments are then introduced, and examples of good and poor experiments from the literature are examined in this light along with a consideration of the trade-offs that may be forced on the experiment by the conditions faced in the field. Included are descriptions of experiments in five different kinds of environments: forests, successional habitats, deserts and semideserts, fresh water (divided into lakes, ponds, and streams), and marine environments (divided according to the kind of substrate). Each experiment is discussed from the standpoint of the ecological question being answered and the quality of ecological design. For most of the environments, the experiments are arranged according to the topic level. The final chapter contains discussions of the results in the different environments, and the conclusions that the experiments in each environment permit. It is shown that interpretations of environmental phenomena must be different for each kind of environment, and that a general theory of ecology is unlikely to be obtainable.

ECOLOGICAL EXPERIMENTS. PURPOSE, DESIGN, AND EXECUTION.

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ECOLOGICAL EXPERIMENTS. PURPOSE, DESIGN, AND EXECUTION.
N. Hairston
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000WQL7AO

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Ecological Experiments: Purpose, Design, and Execution.
Nelson G., Sr. Hairston
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Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000M3VTPA

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Ecological Experiments: Purpose, Design, and Execution.

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ASIN: B000ICBXSI

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Ecological Experiments: Purpose, Design, and Execution.
Nelson G., Sr. Hairston
Manufacturer: Publisher Unknown
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Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000UXVAVU

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THERE IS NO MACHINE.......2006-10-18

The first chapter of this book is entitled "The Death of Materialism," and the final line of the book concludes that Gilbert Ryle was right to dismiss Descartes' "ghost in the machine," "not because there is no ghost, but because there is no machine." The matter myth has maintained that reality consists of material particles flying around in a void as they are affected by forces. With the advent of chaos theory, physicists now maintain that the stuff of the universe possesses an innate tendency to self-organize, which at least hints at the possibility of a teleological universe. It is interesting that it is the physicists who are positing the notion that consciousness might be an innate property of existence, and the prominent life scientists are we are nothing but gene and meme machines.

I realized upon reading this book that old notions never die, they just spiral upward. Had Planck called the particles of energy emitted by a hot body "phlogistons" instead of "quanta," then we might very well study "phlogiston mechanics." A phlogiston has at least as much in common with a quantum as the modern atom has with the atom of Dalton. And Aristotle's rejection of the existence of vacuum in favor of the notion that dense matter was vortices in the plenum is essentially correct. "Vacuum" is replete with energy, and virtual particles, and matter is thought to be warped space. Now perhaps entelechy will be revived in a modern form.

As a teacher of IB Theory of Knowledge, I have found THE MATTER MYTH an excellent book for high school students with an interest in science but still at a rudimentary level of knowledge. The first chapter gives a clear explanation of just exactly what is meant by Kuhn's paradigm shift, and the book as whole provides a lively, readable account of cutting-edge of science and its relation to philosophical ideas.
(Peter Payne, author of CAPTAIN CALIFORNIA BATTLES THE BEELZEBUBIAN BEASTS OF THE BIBLE)

Unreal!.......2005-04-13

This is an excellent book that clearly presents the current theories of physics. This is so interesting (and not hard to understand at this high-level presentation), it should be on the reading list of anyone who has the slightest curiousity about our universe; about the reality he or she perceives. What I find most interesting, between this book and a couple others, is how bizarre the theories are getting. It seems to me that physics has edged up against philosophy and is approaching the point where science will no longer be able to provide answers to the remaining big questions. Maybe the answers to those questions will forever remain philosophical or religious because science can't get there.

Great book!.......2004-01-05

Simply an awesome book. Only reason I don't give it 5 stars is because some explanations are not as straightforward as they should be. Overall: VERY GOOD!

Matter and substance........2003-01-10

If somebody is interested in modern physical theories about 'matter', he should read this book. It is written in a clear and very understandable vocabulary.
The main items in this book are the transformation of matter in waves and/or particles in the quantum theory, or its replacement by weird excitations and vibrations in the quantum field theory.

But he will also find good explanations of other phenomena, like the Kaluza-Klein space, the mathematical foundation of anti-matter, the not so empty empty space, the not so present present, the flowing or not flowing time, the disappearance of time, superstrings and chaos theory.
A further must read is the book of Brian Greene 'The elegant universe'.

Not to be missed.

Aging paradigms crumble beneath the 'new' physics........2002-03-21

Issues regarding nonlinear phenomena and systems, as well as quantum physics, string theory, and philosophy of science are examined.
Physicists Davies and Gribbin, two of sciences most prolific writers, discuss the reasons for the impending death of the materialist paradigm which took an almost absolute grip on the philosophy of science immediately after the publication of Newton's Principia. In fact they state that (whether or not it is widely recognized) the reductionists' "mechanistic" paradigm is now dead. "It is fitting that physics -- the science that gave rise to materialism -- should also signal the demise of materialism. ...the new physics has blown apart the central tenets of materialist doctrine in a sequence of stunning developments. ...in the abstract wonderland of the new physics it seems that only mathematics can help us to make sense of nature."
The problem is not that mechanistic Newtonian science is "wrong" but rather that it addresses only a limited representation of actual truth. The book also contains excellent descriptions of things like white dwarfs, neutron stars, and the difficulties in developing a quantum theory of gravity. Theories of wormholes, strings, and GUTs are well presented. The final chapter indulges in speculation about "exotic (non-carbon based, non-DNA based) biologies" -- which the authors concede should not be taken seriously -- and about the difficulties with ideas of "spontaneous generation" and "extra-terrestrial intelligence". The authors proceed to set aside their own cautions and speculate on these ideas, making the final chapter an exercise in science fiction. Otherwise a very good book.

Book Description

Delving into the origins and development of the Library of Congress, this volume ranges from the first attempt to establish a national legislative library in 1783 to the advent of the Civil War. Carl Ostrowski shows how the growing and changing Library was influenced by--and in turn affected--major intellectual, social, historical, and political trends that occupied the sphere of public discourse in late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century America.

The author explores the relationship between the Library and the period's expanding print culture. He identifies the books that legislators required to be placed in the Library and establishes how these volumes were used. His analysis of the earliest printed catalogs of the Library reveals that law, politics, economics, geography, and history were the subjects most assiduously collected. These books provided government officials with practical guidance in domestic legislation and foreign affairs, including disputes with European powers over territorial boundaries.

Ostrowski also discusses a number of secondary functions of the Library, one of which was to provide reading material for the entertainment and instruction of government officials and their families. As a result, the richness of America's burgeoning literary culture from the 1830s to the 1860s was amply represented on the Library's shelves. For those with access to its Capitol rooms, the Library served an important social function, providing a space for interaction and the display and appreciation of American works of art.

Ostrowski skillfully demonstrates that the history of the Library of Congress offers a lens through which we can view changing American attitudes toward books, literature, and the relationship between the federal government and the world of arts and letters.

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this rocks!.......2004-11-12

ostrowski handles the daunting task of a historical review of the LOC with expert finesse and lucidity. it should be mandatory reading in all middle schools, high schools, undergraduate and graduate institutions. MTSU is lucky to have an erudite such as ostrowski. hollywood beware! i see an epic along the lines of "gone with the wind" brewing.

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