Glass Ceilings and Bottomless Pits: Women's Work, Women's Poverty

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What my daughter will know before the "I DO.".......2001-10-23

Wow! A wonderfully bibliographed text which will assist any thesis, essay, term paper or legal presentation on the subject of women's unpaid service and poverty. This poignant, exceptionally well-written and throughly documented book is a must for many audiences:1) anyone who is preparing for divorce (despite what the income or attorney promises,2) children of divorce who want to know why the once vibrant mom can't seem to get back on top financially,3) for anyone with disabled children, 4) for any men who view women and children as people, and for any legislator/senator or policy maker/agency manager who still has a conscious, some backbone and believes that when good men are silent wickedness prospers.4) This is must reading for students of sociology, psychology, women's studies, government and policy. We are in 2001 yet millions of our own women and children are living in conditions similar to those of poverty in Charles Dicken's time. This tragic, hidden, American secret is silenced with the anti-welfare propaganda. There are many women and children who fall from prosperity to poverty despite all attempts to "pull up their bootstraps, keep their nose clean," and frugal living. For me this was a book which validated the nightmare I've lived falling from apx $300,000 annually to homelessness-even thoughy the court ordered the Doctor otherwise. This was a sanity break, as document after document verified this typical sturalization of poverty for women. It depersonalized the experience and gave me the extra boost to complete my education to fly over poverty coop to hope and resiliance. 5) This is a very valuable book for any friend recovering from economic disaster and emotional devastation of children as a result. High risk children are produced by patriarchal protection and inequality in legal representation. The greatest gift we can give our children is to respect their mother by valuing her unpaid labor and insuring food, shelter, health insurance, electricity are provided for those who give nurturing service to the nations greatest treasure- healthy, safe, confident,educated,children with compassion to make a positive difference. A most wonderful book! A tribute to all who care for the aged, work with spouses, bear and serve children. Great reading.

Book Description

Unlike other labor law and management books, Blackard's comprehensive new work not only examines legal, strategic human resources management, change management, and related labor/management relations issues, but also offers easily grasped and applied methods for addressing all of these issues. Labor relations should be a fully integrated part of a systemic approach to human resource management, argues Blackard. He challenges the feasibility of ad hoc programs and labor/management partnerships, but encourages collaboration within the context of both parties' interests and roles. His book provides a philosophy and set of practices to manage change and improve the labor/management relationship in the unionized workplace. Companies with poor union relationships rarely have union problems; they have management problems. The crux is that managing change is a special challenge. To help executives address the challenge, Blackard first reviews the state of labor relations and discusses key differences between managing change in union and non-union settings. He presents a philosophy based on collaboration of countervailing interests and an integrated model for change management that is uniquely applicable in unionized workplaces. He then discusses the application of management practices based on such concepts as organizational learning, systems theory, trust, power, mutual gains negotiations, and supplemental teams that support the countervailing collaboration concept. By seeing labor relations as part of a broader human resource management system, one can identify and better understand many of the questions that inevitably rise when faced with the need for rapid and often drastic change.

Book Description

A simplified approach to applying the Finite Element Method to geotechnical problems

Predicting soil behavior by constitutive equations that are based on experimental findings and embodied in numerical methods, such as the finite element method, is a significant aspect of soil mechanics. Engineers are able to solve a wide range of geotechnical engineering problems, especially inherently complex ones that resist traditional analysis. Applied Soil Mechanics with ABAQUS® Applications provides civil engineering students and practitioners with a simple, basic introduction to applying the finite element method to soil mechanics problems.

Accessible to someone with little background in soil mechanics and finite element analysis, Applied Soil Mechanics with ABAQUS® Applications explains the basic concepts of soil mechanics and then prepares the reader for solving geotechnical engineering problems using both traditional engineering solutions and the more versatile, finite element solutions. Topics covered include:

Properties of Soil
Elasticity and Plasticity
Stresses in Soil
Consolidation
Shear Strength of Soil
Shallow Foundations
Lateral Earth Pressure and Retaining Walls
Piles and Pile Groups
Seepage

Taking a unique approach, the author describes the general soil mechanics for each topic, shows traditional applications of these principles with longhand solutions, and then presents finite element solutions for the same applications, comparing both. The book is prepared with ABAQUS® software applications to enable a range of readers to experiment firsthand with the principles described in the book (the software application files are available under "student resources" at www.wiley.com/college/helwany). By presenting both the traditional solutions alongside the FEM solutions, Applied Soil Mechanics with ABAQUS® Applications is an ideal introduction to traditional soil mechanics and a guide to alternative solutions and emergent methods.

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Elements of Soil Mechanics
Ian Smith
Manufacturer: Blackwell Publishing Limited
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1405133708

Book Description

This core undergraduate textbook for civil engineers is the first to cover the fundamental changes in the ethos of geotechnical design advocated in the now published Eurocode 7. This code will be fully adopted across Europe by 2010 and its implementation will mean a radical shift to limit state design.Ian Smith makes understanding this new approach to geotechnical design less daunting to the student with clear explanatory text, detailed illustrations and several worked examples, covering a range of topics including slope stability, retaining walls and shallow and deep foundations. Downloadable spreadsheets help to illustrate how the new Eurocode is applied and the book 's website also gives the worked solutions to self-test questions at the end of each chapter.Now in its 8th edition, this well-established textbook has been updated and re-designed with improved page layout and illustrations making it the essential user-friendly introduction to soil mechanics and geotechnical design to Eurocode 7.To see the author's webpage go to: http://sbe.napier.ac.uk/esm/

Computational Contact and Impact Mechanics

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Computational Contact and Impact Mechanics
Tod A. Laursen
Manufacturer: Springer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 3540429069

Book Description

This book comprehensively treats the formulation and finite element approximation of contact and impact problems in nonlinear mechanics. Intended for students, researchers and practitioners interested in numerical solid and structural analysis as well as engineers and scientists dealing with technologies in which tribological response must be characterized, the book includes an introductory but detailed overview of nonlinear finite element formulations before dealing with contact and impact specifically. Topics encompassed include continuum mechanics, mathematical structure, variational framework and finite element implementations associated with contact/impact interaction. Additionally, important and currently emerging research topics in computational contact mechanics are introduced, encompassing such topics as tribological complexity, conservative treatment of inelastic impact interaction and novel spatial discretization strategies.

Geotechnical Engineering Handbook, Elements and Structures (Geotechnical Engineering Handbook)

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Geotechnical Engineering Handbook, Elements and Structures (Geotechnical Engineering Handbook)

Manufacturer: Wiley
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Volume 3 of this Handbook deals with foundations. It presents spread foundations starting with basic designs right up the necessary proofs. The section on pile foundations covers possible types of piles and their design, together with their load-bearing capacity, suitability, sample loads and testing. A further chapter explains the use, manufacture and calculation of caissons, illustrated by real-life examples. There is comprehensive coverage of the possibilities for stabilising excavations, together with the relevant area of application, while another section is devoted to the useful application of trench walls. Shore protection is treated in a special contribution covering sheet pile walls, while all types of slope protection and retainments are described in detail with excellent illustrations. Two further contributions are devoted to the special topics of machine foundations and foundations in subsidence regions. The entire book is an indispensable aid in the planning and execution of all types of foundations found in practice, whether for academics or practitioners.

Applications of the Finite Element Method in Geotechnical Engineering (Proceedings of a Symposium Held at Vicksburg, Mississippi, May 1972, Soil Mechanics Information Analysis Center)

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Applications of the Finite Element Method in Geotechnical Engineering (Proceedings of a Symposium Held at Vicksburg, Mississippi, May 1972, Soil Mechanics Information Analysis Center)
U. S. Army Engineer Waterways Experiment Station Corps of Engineers
Manufacturer: U. S. Army Engineer Waterways
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Boundary Element Methods for Soil-Structure Interaction

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Boundary Element Methods for Soil-Structure Interaction

Manufacturer: Springer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1402013000

Book Description

This state-of-the-art book consists of up to date contributions from leading European researchers and practitioners centred on Soil-Structure Interaction problems. The Boundary Element Method is used as an appropriate solution technique for these problems involving complex geometries, and often unbounded media. For non-linear problems the Boundary Element Method is used in conjunction with the Finite Element Method. Other topics are treated, such as Fracture Mechanics, from which advanced methods may be taken for future use in Earthquake Engineering.
Overall, the book provides an authoritative guide to the literature on the subject covered and is expected to be an invaluable tool for practising engineers, students and scholars in the fields of Structural, Geotechnical and Earthquake Engineering. Engineers and students may readily locate the materials or methods available for the solution of their particular problem while scholars may discover methods previously not considered for the particular application being considered. The book should also be of interest to the larger community of applied mathematicians and software developers in seeing a field where the Boundary Element Method can provide a wealth of relevant and efficient solutions. Finally the book can be used as a starting point for research and for the investigation of unsolved problems in Soil-Structure and Fluids-Structure-Soil Interaction, particularly non-linear coupled problems which could be advantageously approached by means of Boundary Element Methods.

Boundary Element Methods in Solid Mechanics

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Boundary Element Methods in Solid Mechanics
Steven L. Crouch , and Anthony Starfield
Manufacturer: Routledge
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Boundary Element Techniques in Geomechanics

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Boundary Element Techniques in Geomechanics

Manufacturer: Computational Mechanics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Boundary Element Techniques in Geomechanics (International Series on Computational Engineering)

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Boundary Element Techniques in Geomechanics (International Series on Computational Engineering)
G. D. Manolis
Manufacturer: Computational Mechanics
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Computer program for pit slope stability analysis by the finite element stress analysis and limiting equilibrium method (Report of investigations / United ... Department of the Interior, Bureau of Mines)

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Computer program for pit slope stability analysis by the finite element stress analysis and limiting equilibrium method (Report of investigations / United ... Department of the Interior, Bureau of Mines)
Fun-Den Wang
Manufacturer: U.S. Dept. of Interior, Bureau of Mines
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Book Description

This book is a complete guide to the technique of fluorescence microscopy. It describes the history, principles, and applications of quantitative fluorescence microscopy and also gives much practical information about the instrumentation required. In addition, there is a discussion of the exciting developments in confocal fluorescence microscopy, which allows the three-dimensional distribution of particular substances to be determined.

Anatomical-physiological determination of surface bound phosphatase activity in ectomycorrhizae of Nothofagus obliqua [An article from: Soil Biology and Biochemistry]

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Anatomical-physiological determination of surface bound phosphatase activity in ectomycorrhizae of Nothofagus obliqua [An article from: Soil Biology and Biochemistry]
M. Alvarez , R. Godoy , W. Heyser , and S. Hartel
Manufacturer: Elsevier
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Elsevier | By Publisher | e-Docs | Formats | Books
ASIN: B000RR3D8C

Book Description

This digital document is a journal article from Soil Biology and Biochemistry, published by Elsevier in 2005. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Description:
In roots and mycorrhizae, the activity of phosphatases is an important parameter to characterise the efficiency of plants to access non-soluble phosphate pools in soils. We have quantified surface bound phosphatase (SBP) activity in non-mycorrhizal short roots and ectomycorrhizae of Nothofagus obliqua with image processed confocal laser scanning microscopy (LSM) using the fluorogenic substrate ELF-97 (enzyme-labelled fluorescence). Through interactive segmentation of root cells, mantle, and SBP-active centres, this method revealed a precise anatomical-physiological description of the SBP activity in cross-sections of short roots of N. obliqua, and of the mycorrhizal associations of N. obliqua with Pisolithus tinctorius and with Cenococcum geophilum in a controlled pH range (3-7). Our method revealed that the strategy of the examined species to vary the SBP activity was based primarily on the variation of the number and of the extension of the SBP-active centres. Fluctuations of the activities inside individual SBP-active centres were small. It was observed that non-mycorrhizal short roots of N. obliqua focus the distribution of SBP-active centres on the rhizodermis cells. In these cells, the SBP-active centres are distributed heterogeneously, and not preferentially in contact with the soil interface. The distribution of the SBP-active centres between the root cells and the mantle depended on the symbiont and on the pH of the buffer. The mantle hyphae of the N. obliqua-P. tinctorius associations promote direct contact between SBP-active centres and soil particles. In contrast, the mantle hyphae of N. obliqua-C. geophilum associations limit the expression of SBP-active centres to the interface between the mantle and the rhizodermis cells of N. obliqua. At this location, SBP-active centres are not in direct contact with any adjacent soil particles. Our observations of a pH-dependent activity, and of a mycorrhizal association-dependent activity of the SBP-active centres, together with the observed heterogeneity of the location of these centres relative to adjacent soil particles, challenge the general hypothesis that increased contact between mycorrhizae and soil results in higher efficiency of nutrient uptake.

Quantitative extraction using flowing nano-liter droplet in microfluidic system [An article from: Analytica Chimica Acta]

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Quantitative extraction using flowing nano-liter droplet in microfluidic system [An article from: Analytica Chimica Acta]
M. Kumemura , and T. Korenaga
Manufacturer: Elsevier
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Book Description

This digital document is a journal article from Analytica Chimica Acta, published by Elsevier in . The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Description:
Quickly extraction system using dispersed droplet in T-shaped microchannel has been constructed and investigated for the determination of aluminum in water. The droplet was generated in T-shaped microchannel with 600@mm wide and 200@mm deep in continuous phase and 70@mm wide and 20@mm deep in dispersed phase by flowing two immiscible solutions, buffer solution containing aluminum and tributyl phosphate as dispersed phase. By varying the flow rate of two solutions, the droplet volume could be controlled in the range from 0.6 to 32nL. Using this droplet generation in microchannel, aluminum in continuous phase was extracted with 2,2-dihydroxyazobenzene as a metal chelate from buffer solution to tributyl phosphate for 1s, which was 90 times shorter than that of a conventional extraction method using a separatory funnel. Estimated overall mass transfer coefficient was to be 57x10^-^4mms^-^1 with 0.6nL droplet. And quantitative extraction was performed in this extraction system by detecting droplets before it reached to extraction equilibrium. Furthermore, this extraction system was applied to environmental analysis for evaluation of its validity, and the results were in agreement with the conventional extraction method (r=0.92).

Quantitative immunofluorescence microscopy: Methods and applications / J.J. Haaijman

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Quantitative immunofluorescence microscopy: Methods and applications / J.J. Haaijman
J. J Haaijman
Manufacturer: Publication of the Institute for Experimental Gerontology of the Organization for Health Research TNO
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B0007BOOJA

Surfactant interactions with protein crystal matrices studies by quantitative fluorescence microscopy

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Surfactant interactions with protein crystal matrices studies by quantitative fluorescence microscopy
O. D Velev
Manufacturer: distributed by American Institute of Chemical Engineers]
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Book Description

Presents over 100 drills designed to develop an athlete's ability to stop, start, and change the direction of the body (or body parts) rapidly and in a controlled manner. Each series of drills uses a logical progression to maximize performance, while using minimal and readily-available equipment, including: Boxes, cones, dots, hurdles, and ladders. Each drill is thoroughly explained and illustrated. Ideal for coaches and athletes of all activities and at all skill levels.

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Agiltiy book review.......2005-08-08

This is a good book to develop quick feet and agility. The only disappointing chapter was the one on dot drills. I would have liked a few more drills rather than make the letters and numbers. Otherwise it is great for cones, hurdles, and agility ladders. Good purchase!

Book Description

John L. Austin was one of the leading philosophers of the twentieth century. The William James Lectures presented Austin's conclusions in the field to which he directed his main efforts on a wide variety of philosophical problems. These talks became the classic How to Do Things with Words.

For this second edition, the editors have returned to Austin's original lecture notes, amending the printed text where it seemed necessary. Students will find the new text clearer, and, at the same time, more faithful to the actual lectures. An appendix contains literal transcriptions of a number of marginal notes made by Austin but not included in the text. Comparison of the text with these annotations provides new dimensions to the study of Austin's work.

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DEEDS AND NOT WORDS ALONE.......2006-09-24

The ancient Greeks constantly harped on the contrast between words and actions, provoking Housman's parody in his Fragment of a Greek Tragedy
`Oh! I am smitten with a hatchet's jaw,
And that in deed and not in word alone.'
It seems a simple and basic distinction, but when one thinks about it it's not so simple as it looks. If I say `John promises to do that' I am simply reporting John's action of promising; but if I say `I promise to do that' I am actually doing the promising by saying so. Certain forms of words are actions as well, and not just in the trivial sense that to say something is to perform the act of saying something. Moreover, forms of words that seem very similar in meaning turn out not to behave in identical ways. `Apologise' behaves much like `promise', in the sense that when I say `I apologise for my behaviour' I am performing the act of apologising. However when I say `I am sorry for my behaviour' I may or may not be apologising - I may be reporting my feeling of sorrow, as if I had said `I am sad about my behaviour.'

The general idea is very easy to grasp, but the amount of variety in the ordinary expressions we use can seem mind-boggling. What's the story on `bequeath' for instance? If I say in my will `I bequeath you 1 million $' and if I have 1 million $ to bequeath you then I am performing the act of bequeathing by saying so. However if I don't have it I am bequeathing you nothing , whatever I say. Similarly, if I say `I anoint you Archbishop of Peoria' simply saying so doesn't make you that. In the first place I need the authority to perform this act, in the second place I need something to anoint you with, and in the third place you need to be willing to be so anointed. However even if all these conditions are present I will still not have anointed you Archbishop unless I also say so. It all goes on and on. If I am your commanding officer and I say `I reprimand you' I am thereby carrying out the act of reprimanding. However if I say `I insult you' and leave it at that I have done no insulting. Again, if one says `In saying that he made a mistake' this does not mean that the person's act consisted of something called `making a mistake'. And so on.

The series of twelve lectures in this book hauls us through any amount of fine and subtle detail about these so-called `performative utterances'. Normally the best way to read a book is to start at the beginning, but that's not what I'd recommend here. Once you have the general idea (even from this short review) I'd say start at the last lecture, go on to the second-last, and only then go back to the start. If you plough through it starting at page 1 it seems a bit of a catalogue of instances, almost as if linguistic philosophy is reduced to sweeping up after some majestic cavalcade of lexicography has passed by. Austin is always Austin of course, not just lucid and brilliant but witty too - there is one of his inimitable mixed metaphors somewhere, something about letting cards out of the bag or putting cats on the table. However after a while one yearns for a top-down perspective, for generalisation. That comes in the final two chapters. The most important statement in the book is in chapter XI, where he says that `...what we have to study is not the sentence but the issuing of an utterance in a speech situation.' That may not be Austin's most felicitous expression, at least not when quoted out of context, but it enshrines his basic argument, one that holes much ordinary linguistic philosophy below the water-line, that verbal expressions on their own do not enable us to understand what is said. Indeed I wish he had gone further in pointing out that non-verbal factors, such as tone of voice or facial expression, can cast doubt on what the verbal expression is ostensibly saying. I could, for example, say `Oh I do apologise' in such a manner as to make it very clear that I mean nothing of the kind.

In the last chapter Austin produces a short set of categories of expression in an attempt to classify the mass of detail in the foregoing chapters. He does not profess to think them anything but provisional, and the terms he coins are monstrosities - behabitives, expositives, verdictives, exercitives and commissives. Be not afraid. He explains them with all his characteristic clarity, and when you have seen the outlines of the wood you can go back to the beginning and inspect the trees individually. As always, Austin is a spoiler, and rightly so. He trains his guns on the illegitimate tyranny of `true and false' that has bedevilled so much philosophical thinking, saying that these terms constitute `a dimension of assessment' and do not stand in some supposedly unique relationship to `facts'. This is only a review, and if you want to know how he means that you have to read him for himself. For me, Austin's way of putting things is enjoyable and his thinking is liberating to the mind. Much philosophy is, in another of his great expressions, barking up the wrong gum tree, and I am only too grateful that Austin lived long enough to save us from the same fate.

Ehhh..........2004-06-05

As an avid newcomer to the rich and variegated world of contemporary philosophy, I am digesting all the "essential" works I can lay my hands on, and gathered that this one was such. However, once I was done with it I'm afraid I was just glad it was relatively short.

To begin with, I found Austin's writing style to be quite staccato; indeed, almost "hard on the eyes." It reads like "legalese" more than anything else I've come across in philosophy so far (it is not hard to adduce possible legal applications inherent in the subject of Performatives, so perhaps should be expected). He navigates through his chosen topic of speciality like a fly or mosquito constantly lighting and alighting on various surfaces in search of a tasty morsel but never quite finding anything to chew on. Instead of using his narrative to draw out actual philosophical *insights*, he spends most of the time on quasi-Aristotelian cataloguing of genus and differentia, while making very little of it in the process. I am really pretty puzzled by those other reviewers who speak of Austin's "argument" on Performatives: the structure of his "argument," as such, is broadly elliptical: he seems to come to some tentative conclusions every so often, then revises them again, and so on and so on such that at the end of the book I just wondered what, precisely, was said overall.

The main accomplishment, really, is in coming up with some putatively cardinal categories of illocutionary acts, such as "exercitive," "verdictive," "behabitive," etc. This seems fair enough, but for a far more elegant as well as penetrating analysis of the varieties of speech acts, I would point the interested reader instead to Searle's essay "A Taxonomy of Illocutionary Acts," which is available in his _Expression and Meaning._ Put to very interesting use there is Searle's concept of illocutionary "point," or "direction of force;" that is, either "word-to-world" or "world-to-word." I was thinking based on Austin's work that performatives was just a dry subject, but Searle's "Taxonomy..." is, on the contrary, very interesting reading and should, I believe, be thought to have superseded this one in quality. Austin's treatise, however, is still justly celebrated at least as the first major work, ever, on the subject.

The Importance of Being Earnest to Austin's S. A. Theory.......2003-07-02

While I commend J.L. Austin's attempt in How to Do Things With Words to liberate language from the metaphysical pretensions that the logical positivists imposed upon it by investing it with a certain phenomenological value, i.e., via the notion of "the speech act," I cannot help but wonder if Austin's reevaluation of the nature of language carries with it certain puzzling implications, particularly with regard to speaker, she who commits the speech act.

Austin's argument concerning the characteristics of a performative utterance are informed by a specific assumption concerning the origin and evolution of language: to wit, that language in its primitive stage was simply a collection of one-word utterances that are inherently ambiguous in terms of their individual senses. Thus, in order to refine the sense of these one-word utterances, a whole array of supplementary parts of speech evolved, and language became consequently more complex and sophisticated (71). In Austin's nomenclature, the force of a given one-word utterance was too diffuse vis-à-vis the context in which it is uttered and thus quite ambiguous from the addressee's position. In other words, a primitive one-word utterance does not provide the addressee any certainty about how she is to construe it. Therefore, the increasingly sophisticated iterations of language indicate an ongoing effort to refine the sense of an utterance, to give the force of the utterance a more specific and unambiguous valence.

However, Austin also maintains that an unintended consequence of this evolution of language is that it reaches a point where it becomes too sophisticated and thereby re-introduces the very uncertainty it was originally intended to mitigate. He claims that the various parts of speech, and the words that comprise them "lend themselves to equivocation and inadequate discrimination; and moreover, we use them for other purposes, e.g., insinuation," and thus concludes that "the trouble about all these devices has been principally their vagueness of meaning and uncertainty of sure reception" (76). In other words, there is a definite yet non-localizable threshold that an utterance must not cross if it is to remain teleologically oriented toward the clarity and accurate construal on the part of the addressee.

The speech act therefore always navigates between the Scylla and Charybdis of inadequately directed signifying force resulting from the primitiveness of the utterance on one hand, and the over-complexity of the utterance on the other. As a result, the clarity of a given utterance depends almost exclusively on the intention of the speaker; she must in some way remain cognizant of the above-mentioned threshold and therefore deploy the force of her utterance in a way that avoids being too diffuse or unmanageably polyvalent. This is not to claim, however, that the clarity of a given utterance is reducible to some Aristotelian mean; rather the clarity of an utterance depends on how well it reflects the earnestness or sincerity of the speaker. This notion of the speaker's earnestness is deduced from the circumstances surrounding the utterance, as well as the utterance's delivery, e.g., the enveloping context, the speaker's particular emphases, diction and enunciation, etc. The addressee thereby "triangulates" the speaker's specific intention through interpreting the above-mentioned features of the utterance. In short, it is absolutely essential to Austin's project that the speaker mean what she says.

It appears then that Austin's fundamental supposition is tautological: the addressee deduces/approximates the speaker's degree of sincerity through the amount of sincerity the speaker conveys in her utterance, which in turn reflects ipso facto the speaker's sincerity (as a subjective condition). In short, the speaker is found to be in earnest because she is in earnest. Only an utterance of the utmost sincerity-what Austin terms an "explicit performative"-carries with it the closest thing to a guarantee in terms of a clear and accurate construal. This further implies that clarity of utterance is ultimately an ethical consideration, rather than a linguistic or grammatical one, because the speaker's responsibility to her addressee obliges her to be earnest and therefore quite literal in her expression (see Habermas on this point). Unless of course the context in which the utterance is made is one in which it is assumed, either through mutual agreement or convention, that explicit or pure performatives are not necessarily expected nor pertinent, e.g., a comical monologue, a play, etc.

Thus, while Austin's argument in How to Do Things with Words is elegantly schematic, it nevertheless implies a somewhat simplistically idealized and unitary notion of the speaker's subjectivity. In other words, Austin's claims cannot adequately accommodate instances of insincerity that, while perhaps unanticipated, are not exactly inappropriate-such as ironical observations on an immediate situation-because such self-abrogation of the speaker's sincerity renders the utterance "infelicitous" almost to the point of being diabolically caustic with regard to the addressee's apprehension.

A Brisk tour through Speech Act Theory.......2001-07-13

At many points, J.L. Austin's How to do Things with Words reads more like a linguistic textbook than a philosophy text. Whether you count this as a benifit or a distraction will depend on your disposition (it certainly beats reading Kant), but whatever your views on the subject, the work is a useful introduction to Speech Act Theory. How to do Things with Words examines a part of language that philosophy has traditionaly ignored, what he dubs the performative utterance. There are certain instances in language where to say something is do perform the very act you say, promising being the perinial example. If I say, under ordinary circumstances, "I promise to do x" then I have promised to do x. Using this seemingly magical fact as his starting point, Austin goes reach profound conclusions about the nature of language and philosophy. Though the tasks Austin sets out to accomplish are largely left uncompleted (he himself admits this) the book will give you the grounding you need to pursue other works in the field, such as those of Searle or Grice. Happy reading!

a revolutionnary book.......2000-05-18

The mysterious force of language revealed by Austin is one of the most important discoveries in the modern language theories.

Book Description

Sally Goddard Blythe thoroughly explains why movement is so important for the healthy development of babies and young children. She describes movement, balance, reflexes, learning, and behavior in early education and how music affects brain development. The book includes songs, games and, activities that encourage learning at key stages of development.

Here is a unique and holistic approach to the senses, movement, the brain, play, and movement. It is also a valuable resource for helping parents and professionals assess children with learning difficulties and for dealing with learning and behavioral problems through movement.

This one is highly recommended for all early education teachers and parents of young children.

Customer Reviews:

The Well-Balanced Child.......2005-08-31

This book is wonderful for those interested in the development of babies into childhood. It puts perspective as to why some children have learning issues, and how their development as babies directly impacts their learning later in life.

50 out of 10 !!!!.......2005-08-28

This last year alone, I have spent many hundreds of hours researching the Vestibular System, and the effects of quality exercise and nutrition upon it, and the developing body. I wish I had discovered this book earlier - the majority of that time I could have utilised going deeper into the wide range of references Sally Goddard Blythe has also provided.

I have been actively encourageing my colleagues in the High School situation, in different Martial Arts organizations, and in the Circular Strength Training groups, to purchase this text as a integral and very valuable resource.

I would also love to meet this lady - what a absolute treasure house of ideas she would be, for stimulating new, exciting ways of instruction for all.

The Well Balanced Child: Movement and Early Learning

Average customer rating:

The Well Balanced Child: Movement and Early Learning
Sally Goddard Blythe
Manufacturer: Hawthorne Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1903458633

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