Human Resources Essay Example for Free

Human Resources Essay Employees are always considered an asset to the organization. However organizations can never estimate what amount of this asset is required. Usually the number of employees is either higher than wanted or lower than wanted. Thus to cope up with either surpluses or shortages organizations have a number of methods that are as follows: To manage shortage of employees The first and foremost method to slash shortages is recruiting more permanent employees. This increases the number of workforce as required by the organization. However increasing new employees increases costs for the organization as well. Another method to overcome shortages is to retain employees within the organization who are retiring and offer them added incentives on a late retirement. Similarly another approach to lower down costs and still come over shortages can be to hire retired individuals again on a part time basis. This helps the organization to meet the shortage requirement in an efficient manner as no training is required and also the part time wages are low. Another approach can be to reduce turnovers by providing benefits such as premium pay etc. This is an effective way to retain old employees but can elicit a bidding war which the organization might not be able to control for a long time (Caruth, 1997). Over time and subcontracting is also a good way to deal with shortages. Sub contracting is an expensive procedure but obviously for a short time the company could afford to contract employees. Temporary hiring is also an option and is somewhat similar to sub contracting. Redesigning the job processes so that lesser employees are required is also a way to deal with shortages. This method though requires training so that employees adapt to the new job design and are comfortable with it and doesn’t result in heavier workloads and lowering down the talent level. To Manage Surplus of employees Surpluses are easier to manage then shortages. Stopping the hiring process, no replacements of those who leave, layoffs, offering early retirements etc are one of the most commonly used downsizing techniques (Mathis, 2004). Downsizing activities however have a negative effect on existing employee’s motivation and thus are usually avoided by most organizations. By introducing the shift system, number of hours worked can be reduced and efficiency of employees can be increased. Similarly, outsourcing or temporary employees shouldn’t be hired as there is already a surplus. To lower down costs, the company can either cut down pays across the board or switch to a variable pay plan (number of hours worked multiplied by per hour rate). In either way those with a lower pay or those who work lesser hours will prefer finding a new job that pays them more. Training is also a good way to deal with surpluses. Train half of the employees at a given time and let the other half work then train the later half and let the first half work. Though this is also something expensive and in the long run of no benefit to the organization. Voluntary severance is also another way in which you ask employees to volunteer if they want to leave the organization. Another way to utilize abundance of employees is by expanding operations. Though a firm cannot expand operations overnight nor it can expand them just to accommodate extra employees when there is no need of an expansion. Job Description My current job is as a sales and marketing executive at a technology corporation. I report directly to my sales and marketing director. The basic purpose of my job is to plan and carry out product activation and brand awareness activities in order to increase and sustain sales of my company. The core responsibilities of the job include developing and maintaining a database of customers and potential customers, to plan and carry out sales activities, develop new ideas, keep a track of sales performances, provide management with relevant information, frequently research on the market, the competitors and the customers in order to cope up with the changing needs, make connections with clients for business and organizational development, conduct training sessions to pass on my learning, skills and knowledge to my juniors. Apart from these I have to readily keep my colleagues up to date with all relevant information so that the department is on the same page in meetings or conferences. Communication is one of the foremost things in my job and I have to take care that relevant information reaches the pertaining individual on time. Redesigning the job description In order to redesign my job description following the exhibit I think the first thing that should be focused upon is that the job shouldn’t be monotonous as it is in the above mentioned case. The duties should vary from hard to difficult and from usual to unusual. Skill variety should be a basic part of it. This will lead to an increase of interest towards the job and thus will increase my motivation. My performance will also be definitely improved as I will be learning something different every time and this will be adding to my experience and skills. This will also alleviate the redundancy in my job to some extent (Tanke, 2000). One thing that I feel is lacking in my job is the power of making decisions on my own. As already mentioned I report to my director. At times he is not in the field and he does not have the true picture. In such cases a delay in decision making can be costly for the organization. Thus sales executives should be given the autonomy to at times make decision on their own which can benefit the company. Obviously everyone knows that wrong decision will result in losing the job. So every employee will definitely think for the best of the organization before taking any actions. Employee empowerment results in increasing employee confidence and provides them with new experiences particular to dealing with responsibilities. In turn, employees are satisfied with their jobs, feel a relationship with the organization and get a morale boost. One way to make an employee feel important is to provide feed back. Feedback tells the employee if their work is appreciated or not and in what areas they need to improve. If my director gets feed back from a client on any activity that I planned then it should be known to me as well. Apart from this there should be a little more flexibility in the management attitude so that they also understand that every employee has different needs (Tanke, 2000). Like my job could be more exciting if the management does not keep me sitting in the office just to fill in the hours an employee has to be on his seat. It would be beneficial for both if I am out in the field and monitoring and assisting in the sales activities. All these steps will definitely improve performance, motivation and satisfaction.

Oppression in Jane Campion’s The Piano Essay -- Jane Campion The Piano

Oppression in Jane Campion’s â€Å"The Piano† Jane Campion’s â€Å"The Piano† relates the story of a Scottish woman who is sent to New Zealand, during the Victorian Era, for an arranged marriage with a farmer. Ada voluntarily gave up speaking at the age of 6 and communicates by either signing for her daughter, writing on a small paper tablet around her neck, or, more joyously, through playing her piano. After a long and arduous journey with the piano, Ada is forced to leave it on the beach where her boat landed. Left without her musical passion, Ada must learn to adapt in very male world. A native white man who has adopted the culture of the Maori Indians named Baines quickly discovers what the abandoned piano means to Ada. Baines secures the piano by trading 80 acres of land to the farmer and husband of Ada, Stewart. After getting the piano back to his home, he employs Ada to give him lessons, but really wants to have sex with her in exchange for the piano. Her passion for the music allows for this and an affair is born. The affair is discovered by Stewart and he goes irate eventually cutting off Ada’s forefinger in a backwards attempt to win her love. When he realizes the futility of winning her love, Stewart sends her off with Baines. On the boat to a new home and life, Ada insists of getting rid of the piano and almost commits suicide as the piano sinks to the bottom of the ocean. This movie is beautiful to watch, yet difficult. It is raw, yet the cinematography is breath...

Bpo Philippines Essay

INDUSTRY REPORT: THE PROBLEM OF SUSTAINABLE COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE IN PHILIPPINE CALL CENTERS Aileen S. Alava* Facing high expectations as the newest â€Å"sunshine industry†, the call center industry in the Philippines appears to have dimmer prospects in the coming years. Having experienced rapid growth from 2000 to 2003, the industry experienced a slowdown in growth from 2004 to 2006, raising the question of how sustainable the country’s competitive advantage is against neighboring competitors such as India and China. This paper uses Porter’s Diamond Model to analyze the factors resulting in competitive advantage between nations, and provides industry player and market information on the Philippine call center industry, as well as updates on how the industry’s participants are seeking to address the industry’s challenges. I. INTRODUCTION The call center industry is heralded as the newest sunshine industry in the country, earning around US$1.8 billion in 2005 alone, with revenues forecasted to reach US$5.3 billion by year 2010. Employment for this sector has more than doubled every year, from 2,400 agents in 2000 to 150,000 in 2006, and is expected to reach 300,000 full-time employed agents in 2010. The Philippines is among the top locations in the world for outsourced call centers. An SGV industry report states that in 2005, the Philippines’ share of the global call center market is 3% and 31% for the Asia Pacific market. By 2010, industry leaders target 6% global market share and 51% Asia Pacific market share. II. FRAMEWORK AND METHODOLOGY What will give Philippine call centers an advantage over call centers in other countries, such as those in India, China, Malaysia, Singapore? Michael Porter‘s Diamond Model defines competitive advantage between nations as the outcome of four interlinked factors: 1) firm strategy, structure and rivalry; 2) demand conditions; 3) related supporting industries; and 4) conditions affecting the key factors of production within the nations. This paper aims to discuss the competitiveness of the Philippines using this framework. Desk research was conducted to obtain secondary industry data on local and global call centers, while interviews _________________________________ with call center managers provided insight on opportunities and challenges within the industry. The role of government will also be discussed in this paper. Industry developments show government policies such as tax incentives and relaxation of property laws contributed to the industry’s growth. Strengthening of government support for primary education is crucial to the sustainability of the Philippines’ competitive position. Insufficiency in primary education is threatening the Philippine advantage as local players face difficulty meeting global demand with local supply of qualified call center agents. * Assistant Professor of Information Systems Management, College of Business Administration, University of the Philippine-Diliman. 2 INDUSTRY REPORT: THE PROBLEM OF SUSTAINABLE COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE IN PHILIPPINE CALL CENTERS III. CALL CENTER OUTSOURCING A call center is a business operation handling multiple types of customer-oriented functions such as marketing, selling and servicing, through multiple channels of customer interaction such as electronic mail, the World Wide Web, electronic messaging, voice messaging, fax messaging, and traditional mail. Call centers serve various stakeholders of an organization: from prospects to customers, suppliers to competitors, as well as distributors, partners, and employees. The term â€Å"call center† is used as a collective term to refer to these operations for the reason that the primary means of contact facilitated by these businesses are telephone calls. Call centers are categorized as Business Process Outsourcing companies or BPOs. BPOs also include medical transcription, IT support, animation, software development, financial accounting and payroll processing companies. Outsourcing in the Philippines arrived at the heels of successful deregulation in the telecommunications industry. Intense competition spurred massive investment in technology and skill among Philippine telecommunications companies, leading to innovation, quality improvement, and price competitiveness in services. The Philippines is no stranger to foreign arrangements of this kind. The semiconductor industry, one of the leading export sectors in the country, started in much the same way. From the early 1970’s to mid 1980’s this sector experienced dramatic expansion, growing at an annual average rate of 53%. International factors also impelled growth in the form of transnational companies from the developed economies (e.g., US, Europe, Japan) locating offshore plants in developing countries (e.g., Philippines, Vietnam, Singapore) for the most labor-intensive phases of semiconductor manufacturing. As with the call center sector, the Philippines’ main advantage in semiconductors is cheap and literate labor. Government response to further incite export activity in semiconductors is similar to regulatory mechanisms implemented in the call center industry today, such as the establishment of freeport zones, the relaxation of tariffs and duties on imported technologies, and the permission to employ foreign nationals. Agreements in the semiconductor industry during its period of rapid growth were covered by subcontracting arrangements. Today’s global trend for â€Å"off-shoring†, or offshore outsourcing, has very little difference with subcontracting. Offshoring is the arrangement by which one company contracts with service providers located outside the country for services that could also be or usually have been provided inhouse. Outsourcing business processes to remote locations is made possible by advancements in the telecommunications sector in the outsourcer countries. Low labor cost and improved connectivity resulting from technological advancement and deregulation in the telecommunications sec tor in the servicing countries (e.g., India, China, Malaysia, the Philippines) have made offshore outsourcing attractive from an economical standpoint. The costs of operating a call center in the Philippines, for example, is reportedly 40% lower than in the United States (55% cost savings from labor less 15% incremental cost from travel and telecommunications requirements). Offshore outsourcing in general brings in around 25% to 50% in cost savings. Globalization and its societal effects have made manageable the challenges of crosscultural communication: many offshore destinations have a Western heritage and almost all are exposed to Western culture – pop culture, even – through the internet, cable television, and other entertainment media, e.g., movies, books. The difference in time zones between the servicing and the served countries (e.g., the United States, the United Kingdom) are addressed through alternate six- to eight-hour shifts in the day, enabling call centers to maintain 24-hour service agent availability. While incremental costs are incurred for perfunctory risk management expenses, e.g., AILEEN S. ALAVA 3 hazard pay, etc., the total cost of operating a call center out of India or the Philippines are still lower compared to the cost of operating out of the US or the UK. IV. THE PHILIPPINE CALL CENTER INDUSTRY An IT-Enabled Services briefer from the Board of Investments in 2007 states that there are an estimated 146 call center companies in the Philippines. Call center companies should be distinguished from call center sites. A â€Å"site† is a facility housing a call center operation and a call center â€Å"company† may operate multiple sites. Sykes Asia, for example operates five sites in the Philippines while People Support operates four. There are three categories of call center companies: ï‚ · Foreign-owned call centers with Philippine subsidiaries. These are call centers owned by foreign companies, usually from the United States, that have branched out to offshore outsourcing. Insourced call centers of large multinational corporations. These are operations that are dedicated to the parent companies and whose objective is to bring competitive advantage by transforming an erstwhile internal backoffice function into one that is re venuegenerating. Filipino-owned call centers. These call centers are wholly owned by Filipino entrepreneurs or corporations (e.g. Smart, PLDT, Globe, etc.) that seek customers from the United States, Europe and Asia, particularly from Japan and Singapore. ï‚ · ï‚ · Estimates from the Board of Investments (BOI), the Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT) and the Business Process Association of the Philippines (BPAP) report the demand for call centers to reach anywhere from between 30,000-50,000 new agents hired in the Philippines per year from 2007-2010. Figure 1 Employment in Contact Centers 350000 301,000 300000 262,000 250000 218,000 200000 168,000 150000 112,000 100000 50000 0 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 *2006-2010 from BOI/CICT/BPAP Forecast 64,000 331,000 Source: Board of Investments, BPAP 4 INDUSTRY REPORT: THE PROBLEM OF SUSTAINABLE COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE IN PHILIPPINE CALL CENTERS The success of call centers worldwide is attributable to the growth of outsourcing as a profitable business model. The BOI estimates that 2006 revenues in business process outsourcing (which includes other IT enabled services such as medical transcriptions, animation, and back office transactions processing) amounted to US$3.67 billion, and projects revenues to jump upwards 40% to reach US$4.79 billion this year. Joint forecasts from the BOI, BPAP and CICT predict that there will be 343,000 new outsourcing jobs this year (of which 64% or 218,000 will be in call centers), a 40% increase from the number of new outsourcing jobs in 2006 of about 244,000 (of which 69% or 168,000 were in call centers). Figure 2 Annual Employment (2004-2010) 1000000 900000 800000 668,1 26 920,764 700000 600000 479,51 9 500000 400000 244,675 343,01 3 262,000 21 8,000 1 68,000 99,300 64,000 1 2,000 1 301 ,000 331 ,000 300000 200000 100000 0 2004 1 62,250 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 BPO Industry Contact Centers Source: Board of Investments, BPAP The Philippine call center industry is estimated to have earned US$2.7 billion in revenues in 2006, a growth of 50% from 2005’s earnings of US$1.7 billion. The Department of Trade and Industry expects actual 2007 returns to be close to US$3.5 billion, a further growth of 30%. AILEEN S. ALAVA 5 Figure 3 Annual Revenues of Contact Centers (in US$M) Source: Board of Investments, BPAP It is interesting to note that service income of ten of the top call centers1 in the country (Ambergris, Convergys, Cyber City Teleservices, Sitel, E-Telecare, iContacts Corporation, InfoNXX, Parlance, PeopleSupport, and Sykes Asia) together account for more than 20% of the total revenues of the entire sector. Figure 4 Comparative Annual Revenues of 148 Call Centers vs. Ten Top Call Centers (2004-2005) 6 INDUSTRY REPORT: THE PROBLEM OF SUSTAINABLE COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE IN PHILIPPINE CALL CENTERS Activity in the industry is apparently dependent for the most part on a small number of big players. The BOI in its IT-Enabled services briefer (2007 release) states that it expects upward momentum to continue until 2010. Sources of growth have been identified as follows: a) Expansion from established call centers such as PeopleSupport, Sykes, eTelecare, PLDT, ClientLogic, InfoNXX, Citibank, Ambergris, Accenture, IBM, Caltex and HP b) Entry and consequent expansion, i.e. addition of new sites, etc. of global players such as Dell, HSBC, JP Morgan, AIG, Convergys, TeleTech, Sutherland, Deutsche Bank, and NetSuite. c) Next wave of entrants such as Accor Reservation, MiSYS, Siemens, Ericson, Alsbridge, Virgin Atlantic, Philips, Emerson, Capital IQ, DDC and Kanbar. Growth in the sector follows expansion the operations of big players. In the last two years, both Sykes Asia and People Support have established new call center sites while still others have added new projects and accounts. These activities and the influx of new players have resulted in revenues steadily growing until 2006 and expectations for further expansion until 2010. While growth is continuous, however, a slowdown in the rate of growth is expected starting 2005. Figure 5 Annual Revenue Growth Rate of Contact Centers 220.0% 166.7% 133.3% 114.3% 75.0% 50.0% 29.8% 20.2% 14.9% 10.0% 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 *2006-2010 forecasted by BOI/CICT/BPAP Source: Board of Investments, BPAP Slowing growth in the last two years after the steep increases of 2003 to 2004 indicates that the call center industry in the Philippines is now approaching maturity. Sales and earnings expansions of the past years resulted from the Philippines’ cost advantage over other countries. The passage of time, however, may erode this advantage as China and other Southeast Asian countries threaten to eat into the Philippines’ market share with better cost or quality AILEEN S. ALAVA 7 offerings. The challenge for the industry is to extend growth by improving the competitive dimensions where the Philippines is weak or by adjusting industry targets to create new competitive advantages. The Global Arena The Asia Pacific region outperforms other regions such as Eastern Europe, South America and Africa. Japan and South Korea are seen to increase nearshore outsourcing investments in low-cost, labor-rich neighboring China while Southeast Asian countries benefit from close-toWestern cultures, open economies, and advanced technologies for a similar cost advantage. In 2005, Frost and Sullivan forecasted that call centers in Asia will grow from 21,360 in 2004 to 39,248 call centers in 2011, at a compound annual growth rate of 9.1% Figure 6 Forecast Growth of Call Centers in Asia Pacific *at a Compound Annual Growth Rate of 9.1%, as forecasted by Frost and Sullivan. More recent studies predict faster growth rates. A 2006 Asian Contact Center Industry Benchmarking Report assessed the industry to be in a period of strong growth. The study conducted on 747 contact centers in the Philippines, India, Singapore, China, Malaysia and Thailand estimates that by 2007, the total 576,000 seats in the countries studied would increase to 704,500, a growth rate of 23%. Among the countries in the study, the Philippines has the highest forecasted growth rate. By 2007, it is expected to grow by 33%, Singapore and Malaysia by 32%, China at 22% and India by 16%. Of the Asian destinations, India is the top choice, with other nations such as the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, and China following closely. The Philippines, having an American-influenced culture, a proficiency in English comparable to India without the heavy accent, and a skilled labor force, was considered the greatest threat to Indian domination in this sector. However, recent years’ developments in other competitor countries such as China, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia coupled with a strong peso and deficiencies in the local supply of qualified call center agents have weakened the Philippines’ advantage. The A.T. Kearney Global Services Location Index in 2007, a survey conducted to measure the relative attractiveness of offshore locations with regard to financial structure (40%), people 8 INDUSTRY REPORT: THE PROBLEM OF SUSTAINABLE COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE IN PHILIPPINE CALL CENTERS skills and availability (30%), and business environment (30%), has ranked the Philippines the 8th most attractive country for offshoring in 2007. The top twenty-five countries are as follows: Figure 7 Source: AT Kearney 2007 Global Services Location Index AILEEN S. ALAVA 9 The 2007 study saw the Philippines decline from its 4th rank from AT Kearney’s last GLSI survey which was conducted in 2005. The top twenty five locations then were as follows: Figure 8 Source: AT Kearney 2005Global Services Location Index The Philippines’ drop in the AT Kearney rankings is attributed to the appreciation of the peso and growth in the call center industry which has driven up labor costs in terms of the US dollar, by as much as 30%, according to AT Kearney’s GSLI 2007 highlights. In other areas of performance, the country improved slightly, particularly in infrastructure, industry size and language skills. In contrast, Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia have either retained their rankings or moved up the index. Slower industry growth rates in these countries have tempered the effects of inflation on labor costs. 10 INDUSTRY REPORT: THE PROBLEM OF SUSTAINABLE COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE IN PHILIPPINE CALL CENTERS Figure 9 Philippines’ Offshore Attractiveness, 2005 & 2007 A. T. Kearney Findings 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 Financial Structure Business Environment People and Skills Availability 2005 2007 3.6 3.3 2005 2007 1.2 1.0 2005 1.0 2007 1.3 Ratio of Categories – 40:30:30 Philippines’ Score 2007 2005 Financial Structure Compensation Cost (8) Infrastructure Cost (1) Tax and Regulatory Cost (1) 7.1 7.7 0.7 0.8 0.3 0.5 8.10 9.00 Philippines’ Score 2007 2005 Business Environment Country risk / Economic and Political Environment (6) Country Infrastructure (2) Cultural Adaptability (1) Security of Intellectual Property (1) 1.9 1.2 0.7 0.3 4.1 1.8 0.7 0.8 0.2 3.5 Philippines’ Score 2007 2005 People Skills and Availability Relevant experience / IT BPO Industry size/quality (4) Size and availability of labor force (2) Education (1.5) Language (1.5) Attrition risk (1) 1.2 0.7 0.9 1.2 0.2 4.2 0.9 0.7 0.9 0.7 0.6 3.8 Source: AT Kearney 2005 and 2007 Global Services Location Index AILEEN S. ALAVA 11 India Among the top contenders for offshore locations, India is the country with the most experience. The emergence of call centers as an opportunity for national growth came upon deregulation in the telecommunications industry in the mid-1990’s, much like the Philippine experience. The outsourcing sector, the first participants of which were medical transcription service companies then followed by data management and customer support providers, began to take root in the late 1990’s. As in the Philippines, the first operations consisted of support subsidiaries of multinational companies servicing the parent company. Low-cost and highly-skilled labor, significant improvements in IT infrastructure, and a positive business environment spurred by industry organizations such as the National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) propelled exponential growth for the industry in the years to follow. The NASSCOM estimates yearly growth of 37% for the outsourci ng segment with the call center industry leading the sector. Call centers comprised 46% of the total US$4.6billion revenue the outsourcing sector earned in 2005. India is the strongest contender in the sector and is often tagged as the world’s first-choice in offshore outsourcing. In 2005, it has 8% global market share and 68% market share in AsiaPacific. The Philippines’ greatest advantage over India is in language skill. American English being the dominant lingua franca in sales and support transactions coursed through call centers, the Philippines has a culture that is closer to the West and an English tongue that is the easiest to understand in the whole of Asia, partly to exposure to American television and pop culture, as well as English being the medium of instruction in all education levels. It has been observed that India’s pool of talent has the advantage in technical, specialized occupational skills while the Philippines’ competence is in liberal arts, which provides more general knowledge as well as capabilities needed for back-office processing, e.g., communication skills, and cultural adaptability. Increased global competition in the call center sector has led to efforts to expand the portfolio of services of the Indian IT-enabled services sector. NASSCOM reports that the last three to four years in India have been a period of diversification. India’s BPO companies have expanded to higher-value processes through vertical integration towards non-voice-based services such as back-office processing and content development. In 2005, customer care services comprised 34% of total BPO revenues in India, compared to 69% in the Philippines. 12 INDUSTRY REPORT: THE PROBLEM OF SUSTAINABLE COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE IN PHILIPPINE CALL CENTERS Figure 10.1 Figure 10.2 Sources: DTI (Philippines) , PriceWaterhouseCoopers (India) China China is the preferred choice as a call center location for companies targeting South Korea (attracted by ethnic Koreans living in China) with which it has the closest cultural ties. China is the only other country in the world that poses a threat to India as far as size and cost of labor supply is concerned. The yearly cost of operating a call center seat in China is the lowest in Asia. Table 1 Comparative Annual and Hourly Costs per Call Center Seat in China, India, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand in USD ($) Annual Cost per Hourly Cost Seat per Seat 13,543.00 3.62 15,872.00 4.24 34,779.00 9.29 18,086.00 4.83 66,998.00 18.46 18,527.00 4.95 China India Malaysia The Philippines Singapore Thailand Source: callcentres.net China’s cost advantage, however, is dampened by its deficiencies in Englishspeaking manpower. In this regard, China cannot as of yet compete head-on with India and the Philippines in the global outsourcing market. University enrolments however have grown 25% in recent years which increased the country’s potential to compete. China’s entry to the World Trade Organization has spurred the inflow of capital as well as Western influence and analysts predict that in due time the labor supply in China AILEEN S. ALAVA 13 will be comparable to India in size as well as in skill. Singapore Despite high labor costs, Singapore enjoys a comparative advantage from reliable bureaucracy, excellent technical infrastructure, superior educational systems, political and economical stability, and stringent enforcement of intellectual property laws for information and data security. Singapore outsourcers provide high-value services differentiated from lowvalue, back-end processes provided by other Asian countries. To take advantage of this market niche, Singapore outsourcers market advanced offshore functions such as basic research, robotics, healthcare and medical diagnostics. Singapore companies in turn outsource lower-value operations to India and China to gain cost advantage. Malaysia What Malaysia lacks in manpower (its population is significantly smaller than India or China and thereby cannot meet the same economies of scale) it makes up for in advanced infrastructure. Malaysia is second only to Singapore in IT competitiveness rankings between countries in Southeast Asia. Strong government support is apparent in efforts such as the Multimedia Super Corridor project, which includes the development of infrastructure in what they have called â€Å"intelligent cities† such as Cyberjaya and Penang Cybercity, where major IT leaders such as IBM and Motorola have already located their regional offshore service centers. Latin American Countries Latin American countries such as Brazil, Chile and Mexico enjoy the advantage of being â€Å"near-shore† destinations, or offshore servicing countries close to the served country, this being the United States. Near-shore destinations are in the same time-zone as most customers, thereby lessening the need to arrange multiple 8-hour shifts in the day as well as the need to invest in additional expenses for hazard pay, safety insurance and the like. The A.T. Kearney study found Brazil has the best labor skills in the region, Argentina has the cost advantage, while Chile has the best business environment (e.g. it has, for instance, supplemented agreements with US and European companies with IP infringement penalty clauses). Nonetheless, perhaps the primary advantage of the region in general is the vast availability and incomparable quality of its bilingual (English and Spanish) call centers, much in demand in the United States. Eastern European Countries Eastern European countries such as the Czech Republic, Poland, Romania and Hungary are possible choices for Weste rn European countries as a near-shore destination. Eastern European call centers provide cost, language skill, and time-zone advantages. Multilingual call centers for the multilingual European market can be easily and efficiently set up in Eastern Europe more so than in Latin America or Asia. Customers from Germany and the United Kingdom moreover may prefer Eastern European call centers most particularly for its bilingual workforce: citizens in most Eastern European countries can speak both German and English. Reportedly, however, Eastern European countries, most particularly Russia, need to upgrade telecommunications infrastructure to compete with the other regions as well as to comply with European Union requirements. 14 INDUSTRY REPORT: THE PROBLEM OF SUSTAINABLE COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE IN PHILIPPINE CALL CENTERS V. CONCLUSION The factors affecting firm strategy, structure and rivalry involve the services offered by local firms, and how competitive locally provided services are against those provided by other countries. Primarily, this involves why the Philippines is chosen by call center companies when making the call center location decision. The factors involving demand conditions involve the evolving needs of the global market for call center services, ranging from the basic service of answering inquiries based on predefined scripts to the more complex service of providing technical assistance and support. The sufficiency of related supporting industries will involve the state of local educational institutions, real estate, transportation and retail sectors and how these sectors contribute to sustain the growth of the local call center industry. Finally the conditions affecting the key factors of production, such as local skilled labor and mission-critical technology, will also be discuss ed. Firm Strategy, Structure and Rivalry Figure 11 Factors Affecting the Call Center Location Decision As earlier mentioned, the first factor affecting competitiveness is firm strategy, structure and rivalry, which primarily contributes to why the Philippines is chosen by call center companies when making the call center location decision. The offshore location decision is influenced by a number of factors and it is against these criteria that India, China, the Philippines and other countries are evaluated. It follows that it is in these attributes that the Philippines should perform for a distinct competitive advantage over the others. These factors include the following: quality and cost of labor (including technical competency and language skills), connectivity (i.e., telecommunications bandwidth) cost and reliability, mature business, regulatory and technological environments for outsourcing operations, political stability, and cultural alignment between the offshore outsourcer, the outsourcing company, and the customers to be served by the call center. Decision Criteria in Selecting an Offshore Call Center Political Stability Reliability and Cost of Connectivity Quality and Cost of Labor Cultural Alignment Mature Business Environment Among these success factors, the Philippines competes strongest in (1) quality and cost of labor, and (2) cultural alignment. It is in these two factors that exponential growth in 2003 and 2004 can be attributed. The challenge of sustaining the Philippines’ advantage in the industry can be discussed from two vantage points: first from the view of creating a distinct AILEEN S. ALAVA 15 competitive advantage and second from the view of ensuring the distinct advantage created is impervious to erosion. Threats arise from deliberate attempts by competing entities to undermine it and from developments in call center operations and technology that will shift the bases of competition. The benefit of lower cost is the Philippines’ most substantial value offering to call center investors and customers. The results of the AT Kearney survey have shown that while other factors are also significant, the global competition in the call center sector continues to be driven by cost at the present: it remains to be the most important factor in the perception of the â€Å"attractiveness† of an outsourcing location. In this regard, the country’s low infrastructure and compensation costs, as well as the provision of special tax concessions within specific zones have contributed significantly to making the country a preferred choice among investors. In addition, the results of the study also emphasized that in the Philippines, call centers were given most emphasis among the outsourcing sectors and likewise highlighted the efforts of the government to promote these services by establishing special economic zones that provide investors with freeport privileges, tax shields and holidays. Among the participants in the global call center industry, India outperforms all other countries with a combination of advantages: low-cost labor as well as a progressive educational system ensuring a continuous supply of highly-skilled employees, reliable low-cost infrastructure, supportive business government, and a wealth of management experience in the call center industry, as well as in other outsourcing services. The Philippines directly competes against India by providing labor and infrastructure at comparable rates and furthermore provides the advantage of a Westernized culture and better performance in conversational English to appeal to US-and UKbased c ustomers. Singapore has the highest compensation rates but has the advantage of good government reflected in lower costs of bureaucracy and corruption. China’s major advantage is its massive pool of available lowcost talent—only China can directly compete with India in size of available labor—however labor skills are still limited in language proficiency and management experience in the industry. What makes India a success story is the combination of multiple sources of advantage available to the call center investor. The Philippines’ current competitive advantage meanwhile is in the combination of low compensation cost and high English proficiency, and while this advantage continues to bring additional revenues and employment to the sector, growth rates have also been observed to be decreasing, apparently due to two observable trends: low acceptance rates and high attrition rates. Both low acceptance and high attrition threaten the advantages of labor availability, cost and quality of Philippine call centers. The advantage of cost over other factors, i.e., people and environment, affecting the offshore location decision is n onetheless not a perpetual one. The leveling of technical competency between the different countries through globalization and convergence of technologies as well as the homogenization of social conditions between different economies may affect the importance of cost as a success factor. The ubiquity of information available through advanced mass media and telecommunications have also brought about less cultural heterogeneity between the countries competing as call center locations. The advantage of cultural alignment is therefore not exclusive to the Philippines and, further, is one that erodes with the passage of time and the availability of communications technology. Demand Conditions Despite the low-cost labor advantage offered by offshore call centers, companies continue to look for ways to gain even more cost savings, if not from a more efficient and thereby cheaper workforce, then from automation technology. Meta Group’s technology research services group reported an increasing number of clients 16 INDUSTRY REPORT: THE PROBLEM OF SUSTAINABLE COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE IN PHILIPPINE CALL CENTERS choosing to implement voice-automation technology systems to handle standard, routine inquiries, e.g., account balances, product and service, payment offices, etc., instead of contracting the services of an outsourcer in a low-cost country or establishing their own call center operations offshore. The eventual outcome of this development is that, with the existence of automation technology, only customer calls requiring more complicated assistance will be routed to offshore call centers, perhaps from the Philippines or India. This direction means that customers will have higher expectations from call center agents in offshore countries. Agents will no longer be able to rely on simplified question-and-answer instructions or â€Å"scripts† to answer more complex questions that will be asked them. Industry analysts observe that, out of 100 applicants, only three to five are hired given existing skill requirements. Support services for more complex inquiries, perhaps requiring tec hnical information or instruction, will consequently require higher technical competency, as well as more than adequate communication and problem-resolution skills. Should such requirements be made necessary, it is expected that the hiring rate will be lower in the years to come, unless initiatives are implemented to enhance the skills and capabilities of existing as well as future workers in this sector. Sufficiency of Related Industries The Philippines’ weakness in information technology infrastructure threatens the ability of the country to compete where value-added services require a higher telecommunications bandwidth. Despite being one of the top offshore location choices in the world, the Philippines ranks, and has always ranked poorly in network readiness surveys, seen by most investors as measures of the competitiveness of a country in information technology. In both the 2004 and 2005 Network Readiness Index (NRI) listing compiled by the World Economic Forum (WEF), t he Philippines ranked in the lower levels: 67th in a group of 100 in 2004 and even lower in 2005 (70th place). Other outsourcing destinations fare similarly: India, the top location for offshore outsourcing is at 40th place while China, 2nd in the AT Kearney Index, is at 50th place. The WEF NRI is a measure of relative performance in the following areas: a) aspects of the environment of a given nation for development in information and communications technology (ICT) such as the regulatory regime and legal framework for ICT, and the available infrastructure; b) networked readiness of individuals, businesses and governments; and c) ICT usage by individuals, businesses and governments. The apparent inconsistency between networked readiness and other IT competency ratings for the Philippines and the remarkable growth of IT-based services, made plain by records of investment, revenue, and employment actually generated by the sector, is attributed by industry analysts to the observation that indices and rankings comparing countries with each other consider all the regio ns in the country, from the most advanced areas to the undeveloped ones. Developed countries such as the United States, Japan, and Germany have progressed to a point where the availability of telecommunications technologies and other related services in the less urbanized regions are virtually at par with that of the most industrialized areas. Developing countries are characterized by a marked difference in infrastructure and economic activity between the centers of business and the rural, residential areas. Such is the case of India, China and the Philippines where the small portion of the population living and working in the centers of business enjoy advanced technology while the rest have very limited access to even the most basic computing technology, e.g., internet access, if at all access is given them. Nonetheless, call centers in developing countries choose to locate only in the industrialized, AILEEN S. ALAVA 17 technology-enabled centers of business. Thus, they are able to employ, and at a cost advantage, the network infrastructure, hardware equipment, software and consulting services at a comparable technological level to those used by call centers in more developed countries. While it is valid that network-readiness surveys include locales in the Philippines which call centers are not considering to locate in, and that these call centers are eventually established in the industrialized, technology-enabled centers of business, it is still worthwhile considering that this shortcoming significantly limits the range of options for call center sites in the Philippines. Low infrastructure development in areas outside Metro Manila also threaten the cost advantage as call centers are constrained with only a few places to locate their operations since the location options are limited, the cost of real estate in these areas increases. While on the one hand the rise in real estate prices is seen as contributing to the trickle-effects of revenue growth in the call center sectors, on the other hand it can be seen as a threat to the country’s cost advantage as far as real estate and infrastructure costs are concerned. Factor Conditions The 2006 Asian Contact Center Industry Benchmarketing Report ranks human resource management, particularly the areas of recruitment and agent turnover, as the greatest challenge faced by Asian contact centers. In the Philippines, the consistency of supply of qualified call center personnel is threatened—as reflected in a very low 3% acceptance rate—by apparent degradation of the quality of primary and secondary education in both private and public schools. Although it has been reported that the average 10-year-and-above literacy rate in the Philippines is above 93%, literacy is not enough to ensure a position for a call center applicant. Basic English proficiency, for that matter, is considered a minimum requirement, enough for the agent to be considered for a position, but still insufficient to match the higher levels of conversational and even colloquial proficiency required for hiring. While low cost labor still works to the country’s advantage, labor on the average making up 46% of the total budget of operating call centers, such an advantage will not be sustainable if the country is not able to supply as much as is needed by steadily growing demand. While hiring is becoming more and more stringent, English proficiency in the formative levels of education remains below average. English language skills tend to diminish over time, as shown by statistics reported by the Department of Education, e.g., Grade 4 public school students show national average of 42% in English, while high school students show 30%. As English and communication subjects are required less in college, it may be expected that the level of proficiency will deteriorate more in the tertiary levels of education. Although English continues to be widely used in business, in government (at least in the high levels), and in school, programs in local mass media and entertainment are dominated by Tagalog films, making mastery of English a more difficult task for the average call center applicant. The current state is reflected in the low acceptance rate among applicants in call centers and other BPO companies. Out of every 100 new college graduates applying, only three are hired. High attrition rates and the increase in â€Å"poaching† and â€Å"piracy† of agents on the other hand threaten the low cost of labor as companies invest in benefits and compensation packages to ensure agents will not move to a competitor. In 2006, the labor attrition rate in the Philippines is reported to be 18% for full-time agents and 24% for part-time agents. India has significantly higher attrition rates, as follows: 18 INDUSTRY REPORT: THE PROBLEM OF SUSTAINABLE COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE IN PHILIPPINE CALL CENTERS Table 2 Comparative Mean Attrition Percentage for Full-Time and Part-Time Call Center Agents in China, India, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand Mean Attrition (FullTime) 17% 38% 18% 18% 16% 15% China India Malaysia The Philippines Singapore Mean Attrition (Part-Time) 29% 32% 24% 24% 21% 16% Thailand Source: callcentres.net At this rate, a job in a call center is already considered as a career in the Philippines, and not looked upon as merely a â€Å"temp† position as in the United States. Nonetheless, â€Å"poaching† or â€Å"pirating† of employees between call centers has already been observed because of the limited talent pool. Call centers are challenged to implement best practices in curbing employee attrition in the call center industry such as a flexible and conducive environment, high incentives, and training schemes, and more importantly, a career path development plan to convince college graduates that being a call center agent is not a â€Å"dead-end† type of job. The Challenge of Moving Forward The question remains as to who will bear the cost of improvements required to strengthen all factors necessary to ensure the sustainability of the Philippines’ competitive advantage in the call center industry. Some call centers have shouldered the cost themselves, o ffering free inhouse training for new hires. Still others have established joint efforts with existing universities and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) to incorporate call center-oriented training requirements in their curricula and courses. Call centers have established personnel development initiatives, e.g., in-house training and evaluation, to enhance skill, and compensation and benefits initiatives, e.g., higher allowances, all-expense paid holidays and vacations, career development planning, etc., to curb attrition rates, ensure greater stability of the workforce size, and lessen the â€Å"poaching† of call center agents. More call centers are also contributing to the development of the countryside, more specifically the locations outside Metro Manila such as Laguna, Baguio, La Union, Cebu, Davao, Cagayan de Oro, Iloilo, etc. Geographical diversification, i.e., expanding call center operations to provinces, will provide more labor supply, and breathing room to answer to the intense scrambling for office space in Metro Manila. Call center operations will also encourage infrastructure development in other metro cities, with the possibility of replicating the development in the cities of Metro Manila in infrastructure and skill to the countryside areas. Another opportunity available to the sector is value diversification. India’s move towards strengthening non-voice services was not lost on Philippine ears. In its forecast towards 2010, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) expressed its target to increase the share of other BPO services in the total BPO revenue pie while decreasing dependence on call centers, which might now be showing signs of decline. The semiconductor industry in its peak of growth during the mid-1980’s also prompted recommendations toward diversification towards higher-value processes. At the time, the sector primarily consisted of low-level technologysupported processes, mainly automated simple assembly of semiconductor devices and product testing. Even now, industry activity in high-level AILEEN S. ALAVA 19 technology-supported activities such as wafer production and device design are still yet to reach the growth stage. The Philippines’ competitive advantage in the call center industry may be sustained through the enhancement of supply conditions, strengthening of related industries, and geographical diversification. Whether these efforts will work will be determined by two developments industry participants should take care to observe at the close of the year: first, how the market will respond to the industry’s efforts, i.e., whether the growth in demand will be sustained by continuous inflow of new contracts and whether forecasted increases in employment, facility expansion and investment will be attained or exceeded; second, how the industry will answer the demands of the market, i.e., whether the total operational capacity (as to labor supply, connectivity, technology, facility and real estate) of the call center sector will be sufficient to respond to the rise in demand. These developments will indicate whether the call center industry can reverse the tide and halt impending decline. However, the industry should be prepared should the slowdown in growth rates persist in the coming years, indicating that the country’s advantage has been weakened by the supply strength of other countries such as India or China. In this case, a prudent response that call centers should consider is to diversify into other BPO sectors such as high-value, non-voice-based services to compensate for the effects of decline in the call center industry. REFERENCES A. T. Kearney (2007 & 2005). Global services location index. Balfour, F. (2003, February 3). The way,way back office. Business Week. Bharadwaj, G., Varadarajan, P. & Fahy, J. (1993). Sustainable competitive advantage in service industries: a conceptual model and research propositions. Journal of Marketing, 57(4), p. 83. Business Process Association of the Philippines, http://bpap.com.ph Board of Investments, http://boi.gov.ph Call Center Directory, http://callcenterdirectory.net Callcentres.net. 2006 Asian contact center industry benchmarking report. Contact Center World. http://contactcenterworld.com Cruz, Dennis H. (1981, October) A review of international subcontracting arrangements in the Philippine electronics (semiconductor) industry, October 1981. Department of Trade and Industry. http://dti.gov.pg Domingo, G. (2005, April 11). BOI, BPAP, CICT: What roles they play. Computer World. Domingo, G. (2005, March 7). Why we rate poorly in technology in global competitive surveys. Com puter World. 20 INDUSTRY REPORT: THE PROBLEM OF SUSTAINABLE COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE IN PHILIPPINE CALL CENTERS Frost & Sullivan (2005, December 20). Assessment of the Asia Pacific contact center markets. Hookway, J. (2004, October 7). The services spin-off. Far Eastern Economic Review. IBON Databank Phil, Inc. (1990). The semiconductor industry. Institute for Developmental and Econometric Analysis, Inc. Call center industry and the Philippine economy. Lecture delivered at the UP School of Economics. March 2006. International Customer Management Institute. http://www.incoming.com IT Matters. http://itmatters.com.ph McDougall, P. (2004, January 26). Automation takes toll on offshore workers. Information Week. NOTES 1 Selection of the ten top call center companies is arbitrary and not based on an objective ranking of financial performance. The subset was intended to illustrate industry concentration: how a small minority of ten call centers have contributed significantly more revenues to the sector than the other 138.

Analysis Of The Crucible By Arthur Miller - 1195 Words

Mrs. Brumbelow American Literature AB 15 June 2015 The Theme of Hysteria in â€Å"The Crucible† What is the definition of â€Å"hysteria†? Hysteria is a state of extreme or uncontrollable emotion, excitement or anxiety, especially among large groups or segments of society. Specifically, hysteria is a delitescent killer causing the death of nineteen people in the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. However, hysteria does not just appear out of nowhere. There are driving forces such as taking revenge, protecting their reputation or abuse of power that bring about the irrational fear taking over community. Hysteria is the main theme of the play â€Å"The Crucible† by Arthur Miller. Miller conveys the theme of hysteria by creating an environment where people act on their grudges and showing how it can corrupt the entire society which is exemplified by many characters throughout the play, as they eventually ruin one another in the process. First of all, hysteria begins to arise when Reverend Parris’s daughter, Betty, becomes ill after being â€Å"†¦discovered dancing like heathen in the forest†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Miller 10) with his niece Abigail and a few other girls. Betty’s illness seems to be serious and she even couldn’t wake up. After hearing the news, some townspeople visit his house to figure out what is happening. They start to develop their own imagination about what might have happened. Everyone must know that if someone is accused of practicing witchcraft in Salem, they will be punished by death. Therefore, theyShow MoreRelatedAnalysis Of Arthur Miller s The Crucible 961 Words   |  4 Pages Movie paper analysis of The crucible The circumstance brought upon a person can change them greatly. The Crucible edited and rewritten by Arthur Miller, is a movie which takes place in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. 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English Language August 11, 2014 Novel Analysis Assignment The Crucible by Arthur Miller Plot and Conflict The Crucible is a play that takes place in the 17 century in Salem, Massachusetts. As the play starts, Reverend Parris caught some girls naked dancing in the woods. Apparently the girls where stirring up spirits and to escape the punishment of the accusations of being witches, they blame other women in Salem. Later on in the play, Elizabeth Proctor finds out about John ProctorRead MoreAnalysis Of Arthur Miller s The Crucible 3926 Words   |  16 PagesA.P. English Language August 11, 2014 Novel Analysis Assignment The Crucible by Arthur Miller Plot and Conflict At its core, The Crucible is a chilling depiction of a community engulfed by hysteria. A fanatically religious community in Salem, Massachusetts becomes embroiled in a witch-hunt initiated by a group of adolescent girls. At the start of the play, Reverend Parris finds his teenage daughter, Betty Parris, â€Å"sick† in bed after she, along with his niece Abigail, his slave Tituba, and a fewRead MoreAnalysis Of The Crucible And A Scene by Arthur Miller Essay1254 Words   |  6 PagesAnalysis Of The Crucible And A Scene by Arthur Miller The Crucible was first produced in 1953 during the McCarthy political witch-hunt. The Crucible is governed around, the corrupted degeneration of society during this sombre period. Arthur Miller saw many parallels in this period with the witch hunt in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. 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Biographical Arthur Miller was a controversial playwright during the 1950’s and 60’s, note because of the material that he choose to write about, but because of the events that took place surrounding one of his best works: The Crucible. One of his friends and a fellow playwright Elia Kazan was accused of being a Communist by the house Un-American Activities Committee.Read MoreAnalysis Of Arthur Miller s The Crucible 883 Words   |  4 PagesName: Lauren Ciesielski Period AP NOVEL FORM 1. Title: The Crucible 2. Author (first and last name) and date of first publication: Arthur Miller and 1953 3. List four main characters with a one-sentence description of each. a. John Proctor – A farmer in Salem that is married to Elizabeth Proctor and is trying to get Elizabeth to forgive him for his sins of lechery on Abigail. b. Abigail Williams- A young lady who tries to throw herself at John Proctor due to their previous affair andRead MoreAnalysis Of Arthur Miller s The Crucible 908 Words   |  4 PagesDel Giudice Mrs. Schmiedeler English 2F 21 October 2015 Crucible Essay â€Å"It takes many good deeds to build a good reputation, and only one bad one to lose it.† This is a quote by Benjamin Franklin and it explains how the puritan society in The Crucible work. this quote shows how fragile a reputation can be, you can spend your whole life increasing your reputation, but one wrong move and it’s completely wrong. In The Crucible, many of Arthur Miller’s characters are very concerned with their reputationRead MoreAnalysis Of Arthur Miller s The Crucible 1122 Words   |  5 PagesErin Kelleher English II Honors Mrs. Hagerty 14 January 2015 Corruption in The Crucible Good leaders are essential to the functionality and prosperity of a community. They should be honest, genuine, and selfless. 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Canker Tree Disease Prevention and Control

The term   canker is used to describe a killed area or blister on the bark, a branch or the trunk of an infected tree. The Morton Arboretum describes it as a canker  that is usually oval to elongate, but can vary in size and shape. Cankers will often appear as a swelling surrounding a sunken lesion  on the bark of trunks and branches. The canker-causing pathogens like fungi and bacteria commonly invade wounded or injured bark tissues to form a canker. They subsequently produce reproductive structures called fruiting bodies and can spread. Dozens of species of fungi cause canker disease. Causes Cankers are caused by a number of factors including biotic fungi and bacteria or by abiotic and nonliving conditions to include excessive low or high temperature,  hail and other natural and mechanical tree damage. A combination of these attacks is potentially the most successful process in causing a tree to develop a canker. The fungi that cause cankers are always around and naturally inhabit the bark surface of a tree. They look for the opportunity to gain entrance through natural or man-made wounds  and usually have the best chance to cause canker disease when the tree is under stress. Stressors that cause cankers include: exposure to extremely high or low temperaturesflooding and droughtsummer or winter sunscald, hail, high windsnutritional imbalances and soil compactionmechanical injuries (lawn mower, vehicles) and animal damagepruning woundsroot rot and insect borersimproper planting Prevention Preventing cankers means growing vigorous trees that can fight off the entrance of pathogens into the bark by using a good tree management program. You must be faithful to your tree by using correct pruning methods, taking care  not to over-fertilize and prevent defoliation of your tree by disease and insects. Wounds are essential for most canker infections to take hold and spread, so avoid wounds, especially where active spore-spreading cankers are present. Make sure that your tree has adequate water and avoid mechanical injury to roots and trunk. When planting a new tree: Plant your tree on a good site, use vigorous planting stock, fertilize trees to promote growth and control weeds for several years after planting. Landscape trees will benefit by deep watering or trickle irrigation, especially during dry summer months. Also maintain good drainage. Control Canker diseases can be controlled if diagnosed early and action is taken. To control canker disease on trees, cut off the affected branch or limb using proper  pruning methods. If a large canker is on the main trunk, the tree may ultimately need to be replaced. Still remember that when  a trunk canker develops, the tree may begin to compartmentalize off the area by sealing wood cells off around the canker. You may be able to extend the life of the tree by just leaving it alone. Do not cut into trunk cankers as it may renew fungal activity and increase damage.There are no effective chemicals are available to control the fungi that cause canker disease.

Malthusian Theory in relation to the Caribbean - 2024 Words

Malthusian Theory in relation to the Caribbean According to Chinapoo et Al (2014), Thomas Malthus’s Theory (1798), claims that population growth is determined by certain natural laws and food supply was the main limit to population. He argued that population increases faster than the food supply and compared the way in which each increases. Malthus theory of population can be used to explain the dynamics of the relationship between population and resources in less developed territories. Since the Caribbean is considered to be less developed in comparison to other nation-states for example, the US, France, England and so on, the Malthusian theory of population can be applied to explain population-resource issues in the Caribbean. However†¦show more content†¦According to Green (1976), there were several cases during slavery, where most women deliberately engaged in sexual activity in the hope to get pregnant as a way of escaping the plantation hardships. Also, Malthus purported that the poor was a drain and strain on society and believed that providing welfare will only encourage them to reproduce more as previously stated. However in historical Caribbean society, although high levels of poverty existed, there was no welfare available to support the poor due to the greater nations focusing on other factors such as defeating the spread of communism. As a result, Malthus’s theory is seen to be inapplicable in this situation as welfare was not involved and the population did not increase rapidly in relation to the food supply. On the other hand, According to the Demographic Transition Theory (DTT) developed by George Roberts, the Caribbean region has seen to evolve over the years, from slavery to emancipation to independence. The region is slowly developing due to introductions to technology, industrialization, modernization and globalization. As a result of its development, Malthus’s population theory is seen to be very inapplicable to contemporary Caribbean society. According to Chinapoo et Al (2014), the presence of globalization in contemporary Caribbean society makes Malthus’s theory extraneous. Malthus underestimated human’s capacity to move themselves and goods.Show MoreRelatedOne Significant Change That Has Occurred in the World Between 1900 and 2005. Explain the Impact This Change Has Made on Our Lives and Why It Is an Important Change.163893 Words   |  656 Pagesshaped the likelihood and direction of migration in many forms. Labor demands and low frontier populations produ ced both higher wages and increased opportunities for employment and trade. At the same time, increased commercialization impacted rural relations around the world, creating both the need and the opportunities to spend money earned through the wages of migrants. The growth of commercial agriculture and rural industry also provided an impetus for seasonal rural-to-rural moves.7 In Europe alone

Verb phrases free essay sample

List of Shortenings N noun NP noun phrase Adj adjective AdjP adjectival phrase Adv adverb AdvP adverb phrase V verb VP verb phrase P preposition PP preposition phrase S sentence Introduction The subject of the present paper is probe of verb phrases in the construction of the modern American text. Verb phrases are examined in the research work paper as a method included into vocalization excess lingual context in prism of human comprehension of the environing life. Freshness of the semester paper lies in cognitive and communicative attacks to lingual analysis of verb phrases aimed at geting the communicative competency. The purpose of the work is to depict the workings of the system of particular verb signifiers used in English to turn up state of affairss in clip. Object of the research is the verb within sentence structure and morphology. Subject of the research is semantic dealingss of verb phrases in the discourse construction. The aim of the work is to put the terminological and conceptual basis which is necessary in supplying precise definitions of the basic lingual footings covering with the English verb phrases. The methods of lingual analysis used in this research paper work are: 1. Componential analysis,which helps to research lexemes that have a common scope of significance and constitutes a semantic sphere of this undertaking. 2. Discourse analysis,that enables to uncover the hidden motives behind a text or behind the pick of a peculiar method of research to construe that text. 3. Semantic analysis which is used to split all the verb phrases of the text into groups, refering their semantic significances. 4. Distinctive analysis,which intent is to mensurate the penchant of one verb phrase over another peculiar building. Theoretical value of the paper is based on the analyzed information of 20 pages with verb phrases used in the novel. Practical value of the work may be utile in theoretical grammar and general linguistics. Structurally the term paper consists of three parts. The first portion is dedicated to syntax and maps of the verbs within sentence structure and morphology. The 2nd portion defines basic lingual footings, such as # 8216 ; verb # 8217 ; , # 8216 ; verb give voice # 8217 ; , # 8216 ; classs of the verb # 8217 ; , etc. Since this survey is intended as the portion of a theoretical grammar, it seems necessary to do explicit the manner in which we use such footings. The 3rd portion presents the discourse analysis of the verb phrases in the novel # 8220 ; Forsyte Saga # 8221 ; by John Galsworthy. Each portion has decisions that carry the most utile and of import information refering the subject of the paper. In the terminal of the paper there are addendums supplying the most of import impressions and footings, and besides a list of abbreviations that can be found in the paper ; and the list of bibliography used while doing the research. Part I. Syntax 1.1Peculiarities of the English Syntax Language plays a alone function in capturing the comprehensiveness of human diverseness. We are invariably amazed by the assortment of human idea, civilization, society, and literature expressed in many 1000s of linguistic communications around the universe. We can happen out what people think merely through their linguistic communication. We can happen out what they thought in the past merely if we read their written records. We can state future coevalss about ourselves merely if we speak or write to them. If we want other civilisations in infinite to larn about us we send them messages in tonss of our planet s six thousand linguistic communications. Language has frequently been characterized as a systematic correlativity between certain types of gestures and significance. For spoken linguistic communication, the gestures are unwritten, and for signed linguistic communication, they are manual. It is non the instance that every possible significance that can be expressed is correlated with a unique, undecomposable gesture, be it unwritten or manual. Rather, each linguistic communication has a stock of meaning-bearing elements and different ways of uniting them to show different significances, and these ways of uniting them are themselves meaningful. The two English sentences Chris gave the notebook to Dana and Dana gave the notebook to Chris contain precisely the same meaning-bearing elements, i.e. words, but they have different significances because the words are combined otherwise in them. These different combinations fall into the kingdom of sentence structure ; the two sentences differ non in footings of the words in them but instead in footings of their sentence structure. Syntax can therefore be given the undermentioned word picture, taken from Matthews [ 40, p.48 ] : The term # 8216 ; syntax # 8217 ; is from the Ancient Greek syntaxis, a verbal noun which literally means # 8216 ; agreement # 8217 ; or # 8216 ; puting out together # 8217 ; . Traditionally, it refers to the subdivision of grammar covering with the ways in which words, with or without appropriate inflexions, are arranged to demo connexions of intending within the sentence. First and first, syntax trades with how sentences are constructed, and users of human linguistic communications employ a dramatic assortment of possible agreements of the elements in sentences. One of the most obvious yet of import ways in which linguistic communications differ is the order of the chief elements in a sentence. In English, for illustration, the topic comes before the verb and the direct object follows the verb. The connexion between the words in a sentence is realized through the alterations in their signifiers and these alterations in the signifier of the words to bespeak their map in the sentence are what Matthews referred to as # 8216 ; inflexions # 8217 ; , and the survey of the formation of words and how they may alter their signifier is called morphology. [ 40, p.53 ] Something which may be expressed syntactically in some linguistic communications may be ex-pressed morphologically in others. Which component is capable and which is object is signaled syntactically in the illustrations from English, while it is expressed morphologically in the Ukrainian illustrations. Syntax and morphology make up what is traditionally referred to as # 8216 ; grammar # 8217 ; ; an alternate term for it is morphosyntax, which explicitly recognizes the of import relationship between sentence structure and morphology. [ 40, p.56 ] Syntax trades with simple sentences, like: ( 1 ) Bosinney was waiting for the reply. [ 59, p.25 ] ( 2 ) Mrs. Small grew nervous. [ 59, p.54 ] But one of the most of import syntactic belongingss of linguistic communication is that simple sentences can be combined in assorted ways to organize complex sentences. Syntax makes possible the preparation of looks with complex significances out of elements with simple significances. One of the specifying characteristics of human linguistic communication is its limitless nature ; that is, the figure of meaningful looks that can be produced by users of a human linguistic communication is potentially infinite, and this expressive potency comes from the combination of the basic meaningful elements with syntactic rules. Much of the involvement in linguistic communication in psychological science and cognitive scientific discipline comes from what the survey of the cognitive mechanisms underlying linguistic communication usage and acquisition can uncover about the human head. To many people the term # 8216 ; grammar # 8217 ; evokes bad memories of normative regulations learned in school, e.g. # 8216 ; wear # 8217 ; t divide infinitives! # 8217 ; Since the early portion of the 20th century, linguistics has rejected the normative tradition which underlies school grammars and focal points alternatively on depicting what users of human linguistic communication really do, non on ordering what they should make. A cardinal portion of the description of what talkers do is qualifying the grammatical ( or well-formed ) sentences of a linguistic communication and separating them from ill-formed or ( ungrammatical ) sentences. [ 22, p.53 ] Grammatical sentences are those that are in agreement with the regulations and rules of the sentence structure of a peculiar linguistic communication, while ill-formed sentences violate one or more syntactic regulations or rules. For illustration, ( 1 ) is a grammatical sentence of English, while Was waiting Bossiney for the reply would non be. This sentence is ill-formed because it violates some of the word order regulations for English, that is basic word order in English clauses is capable # 8211 ; verb # 8211 ; object, capable Bossiney precedes the predicate was waiting, and subsidiary verbs like was precede the chief verb, in this instance waiting. It is of import to observe that these are English-specific syntactic regulations. Grammatical sentences are those that are in agreement with the syntactic regulations of the linguistic communication ; this does non imply that they ever make sense semantically. For illustration, the sentence the reply was waiting Bossiney is absurd in footings of its significance, but it violates no syntactic regulations or rules of English ; so, it has precisely the same syntactic construction as ( 1 ) . Hence it is grammatical ( grammatical ) , despite being semantically odd. 1.2 Aspects of syntactic construction In the syntactic construction of sentences, two distinguishable yet interrelated facets must be distinguished. The first 1 has already been mentioned: the map of elements as capable and direct object in a sentence. # 8216 ; Subject # 8217 ; and # 8216 ; direct object # 8217 ; have traditionally been referred to as grammatical dealingss. Hence this sort of sentence structure will be referred to as # 8216 ; relational construction # 8217 ; . It includes more than merely grammatical dealingss like topic and direct object ; it besides encompasses relationships like modifier # 8211 ; modified, e.g. tall edifice or walk easy ( tall, easy = qualifier, edifice, walk = modified ) and possessor # 8211 ; possessed, e.g. Pat # 8217 ; s auto ( Pat # 8217 ; s = owner, auto = possessed ) . The 2nd facet concerns the organisation of the units which constitute sentences. A sentence does non dwell merely of a twine of words ; that is, in a sentence like The shaft of a passing cab brushed against his shoulder. [ 59 ] The instructor reads a book in the library, it is non the instance that each word is every bit related to the words adjacent to it in the twine. There is no direct relationship between brushed and a or between of and the ; a is related to cab, which it modifies, merely as the is related to shaft which it modifies. The is related to brushed merely through the shaft being the direct object of brushed. The words are organized into units which are so organized into larger units. These units are called components, and the hierarchal organisation of the units in a sentence is called its component construction. This term will be used to mention to this 2nd facet of syntactic construction. See the eight words in the sentence: ( 3 ) The shaft of a passing cab brushed against his shoulde, [ 59, p.64 ] What units are these words organized into? Intuitively, it seems clear that the article the or a goes with or organize a unit with the noun following it. Is at that place any sort of grounds beyond a native talker # 8217 ; s intuitions that this is the instance? If the article forms a unit with the noun that follows it, we would anticipate that in an alternate signifier of the same sentence the two would hold to be found together and could non be split up. Therefore, these two facets of syntactic construction are ever present in a sentence, and when one or the other is emphasized, the sentence is being described from one of the two positions. It will be seen subsequently that different grammatical phenomena seem to be more easy analyzed from one position instead than the other. 1.3 Phrases as the basic component of sentence structure In the inactive version of the sentence ( 3 ) The shaft was brushed against his shoulder by a passing cab the unit the shaft serves as topic, and the unit the passing cab is the object of the preposition by. The component composed of a noun and an article is called a noun phrase [ NP ] , e.g. by the instructor ; NPs can be really complex. Here is a list of some illustrations of Neptunium: the miss beautiful conditions this male child those cheery yearss a Canis familiaris stupid inquiry that big bike nice attempt adult females the Pacific Ocean aged work forces superb pupil David this twelvemonth Queensland judgement twenty-four hours They H2O rat They H2O rat What construction do noun phrases have in English? Based on the noun phrases listed above ( there are more complicated 1s ) , a noun phrase seems to dwell of a deciding followed by a noun, or a deciding followed by an adjectival followed by a noun, or merely a noun, or an adjectival followed by a noun. We can stand for these constructions utilizing what are called phrase construction regulations, like: NP # 8594 ; Detv N This regulation says that a noun phrase ( NP ) # 8220 ; goes to # 8221 ; ( pointer ) a deciding ( Detv ) followed by a noun ( N ) . We could therefore individually list the regulations that we would necessitate to cover all the constructions: NP # 8594 ; Detv N NP # 8594 ; Detv Adj N NP # 8594 ; N NP # 8594 ; Adj N In fact, there # 8217 ; s a simpler manner to compose all of these different signifiers with a individual regulation. There is a convention in composing phrase construction regulations so that if something is in parentheses, it can either be at that place or non. So we could rewrite our regulations merely as: NP # 8594 ; ( Detv ) ( Adj ) N This regulation says that a noun phrase consists of a noun, perchance preceded by a determiner. The preposition by and the NP following it in the sentence besides form a component in this sentence ( by a passing cab ) ; it is called a prepositional phrase [ PP ] . Some illustrations of the PP are: Some illustrations of the PP are: to the stores in a weak after the party following to the coach halt into the big kitchen nearby near those really big edifices under the tree A preposition doesn # 8217 ; Ts have to be followed by anything, so we can hold a preposition phrase that consists of merely a preposition ( John went outdoors ) . So a preposition phrase consists at least of a preposition, perchance with a noun phrase following it. We could compose this as: PP # 8594 ; P ( NP ) The verb plus the NP following it organize a unit every bit good, as shown by a sentence like A cab rolled out of inkiness, and into inkiness disappeared [ 59 ] . The component composed of a verb plus undermentioned NP is called a verb phrase [ VP ] . As with NPs, VPs can be rather complex. In our discourse, we have assorted different verb phrase structures, like the 1s we can see in the undermentioned sentences.He stood rather still, listening with all his might. [ 59, p.34 ] He ran frontward and back, felt his bosom clutched by a nauseating fright. [ 59, p.23 ] He had merely put together a orderly interruption of 23, neglecting at a Jenny. [ 59, p.23 ] The cloudy inkiness of the fog was but faintly broken by the lamps of the Red Pottle, and no form of mortal adult male or thing was in sight. [ 59, p.35 ] George turned on him, looking truly formidable, with a kind of barbarian somberness on his large face. [ 59, p.65 ] Bumley Tomm was instead a hapless thing, though he had been s o successful. [ 59, p.53 ] The look he had used was a free manus in the footings of this correspondence. [ 59, p.55 ] The verb plus the NP following it organize a unit every bit good, as shown by a sentence like A cab rolled out of inkiness, and into inkiness disappeared [ 59 ] . The component composed of a verb plus undermentioned NP is called a verb phrase [ VP ] . As with NPs, VPs can be rather complex. In our discourse, we have assorted different verb phrase structures, like the 1s we can see in the undermentioned sentences.He stood rather still, listening with all his might. [ 59, p.34 ] He ran frontward and back, felt his bosom clutched by a nauseating fright. [ 59, p.23 ] He had merely put together a orderly interruption of 23, neglecting at a Jenny. [ 59, p.23 ] The cloudy inkiness of the fog was but faintly broken by the lamps of the Red Pottle, and no form of mortal adult male or thing was in sight. [ 59, p.35 ] George turned on him, looking truly formidable, with a ki nd of barbarian somberness on his large face. [ 59, p.65 ] Bumley Tomm was instead a hapless thing, though he had been so successful. [ 59, p.53 ] The look he had used was a free manus in the footings of this correspondence. [ 59, p.55 ] So our verb phrase can hold merely a verb, or a verb followed by a PP, or a verb followed by an NP, or a verb followed by an NP and a PP, or a verb followed by an NP and more than one PP, or a verb followed by two NPs or a verb followed by two NPs and a PP, or a verb followed by two NPs and more than one PP. While these constructions are more and more complex, we can really compose them really merely with a individual phrase construction regulation: VP # 8594 ; V ( NP ) ( NP ) ( PP ) * VP > V ( NP ) ( NP ) ( PP ) * In this regulation we have explicitly written two separate NPs, instead than ( NP ) * , because ( in general ) there is a maximal of two NPs in a VP, whereas it is possible to go on adding as many PPs as you like. There are two more types of phrases, that besides necessitate to be paid attending to: adjectival phrases and adverb phrases. There are two more types of phrases, that besides necessitate to be paid attending to: adjectival phrases and adverb phrases.Adjectival phrases. Equally good as noun phrases, there are besides adjectival phrases. Adjectival phrases. Equally good as noun phrases, there are besides adjectival phrases. Why do we necessitate them? Well, see the undermentioned sentences. He was a really gifted designer [ 59 ] He was a really gifted designer [ 59 ]As an designer he was really talented As an designer he was really gifted In these two sentences, the words really happy signifier a phrase. So we have an adjectival phrase. Just as with nouns and noun phrases, we will state that whenever an adjectival appears it is inside an adjectival phrase, although it may be the lone component in the adjectival phrase. So we can compose phrase construction regulations demoing the construction of simple adjectival phrases: AdjP # 8594 ; ( Adv ) Adj Now that we # 8217 ; ve seen adjectival phrases, we need to travel back and modify our regulation for noun phrases. We said that an NP # 8594 ; ( Detv ) ( Adj ) N, but there are several jobs with that regulation. First, we # 8217 ; ve said wherever an adjectival appears it # 8217 ; s inside an AdjP, so our regulation should hold an Adj P in it, non merely an adjectival. In fact, we need an AdjP because NPs can be more complicated than the 1s we # 8217 ; ve seen so far. We can state things in English like: a really gifted designer. Here, clearly, we have an AdjP really talented inside the NP. But we besides need to spread out our NP regulation farther, because instead than merely a individual AdjP, an NP can incorporate several AdjPs: the instead celebrated really gifted architect.So we must alter our regulation for an NP to: NP # 8594 ; ( Detv ) ( AdjP ) * N NP > ( Detv ) ( AdjP ) * N The star is used to bespeak that there can be more than one of a component. Adverb phrase. Merely as we have adjectival phrases, we besides have adverb phrases, to take history of things like really rapidly, instead carefully and so on. An adverb phrase usually consists of an adverb perchance preceded by a grade adverb, e.g. : Very interesting friendly so Very interesting friendly sotruly fine-looking ever hungry truly fine-looking ever hungry instead raging improbably suffering So there is a little set of really simple phrase construction regulations, which can account for many, many English sentences. Obviously, to account for all sentences of English, we would hold to develop more complex regulations. In each of these alternate signifiers, a combination of words from the original sentence which 1 might intuitively set together in a individual unit besides occurs together as a unit, and this can be taken as grounds that they are in fact components. Using square brackets to group the words in components together, the constitutional construction of The shaft of a passing cab brushed against his shoulder may be represented as in ( 4 ) ( # 8216 ; S # 8217 ; stands for # 8216 ; sentence # 8217 ; . ) ( 4 ) [ S [ NP The [ N shaft ] ] [ P of NP [ a [ Adj go throughing ] [ N cab ] ] VP [ V brushed ] [ AdvP against ] [ NP [ P his ] [ N shoulder ] ] 1.4 Trials for phrases See the undermentioned sentence: The rich brown ambiance was peculiar to endorse suites in the sign of the zodiac of a Forsyte. [ 59 ] The rich brown ambiance was peculiar to endorse suites in the sign of the zodiac of a Forsyte. [ 59 ] All talkers of English would hold that in this sentence, some of the words travel together with each other more closely than others. For illustration, the words the rich brown atmosphere seem to travel together more closely than, say atmosphere was curious. Likewise in the sign of the zodiac seems to travel together as a unit ( frequently referred to as a component ) , more than the sign of the zodiac of. For our native linguistic communication we could trust on intuition to make up ones mind about phrases. But that is non traveling to work if we have to depict a linguistic communication which we don # 8217 ; t cognize really good. What sorts of formal trials can we happen to make up ones mind whether something is a phrase or non? Substitution trial Substitution trial One of the simplest trials for phrases is what is called the permutation trial. If we can replace a set of words with a individual other word, without altering the overall significance, so we can state that those words form a phrase. For illustration, looking back at the earlier sentence, we can replace assorted of the phrases for individual words: The rich brown ambiance was peculiar to endorse suites in the sign of the zodiac of a Forsyte It was peculiar to endorse suites in the sign of the zodiac of a Forsyte that it was the rich brown atmosphere. The rich brown ambiance was peculiar to endorse suites in the sign of the zodiac of a Forsyte The rich brown ambiance was curious at that place. We can see from this that the words the rich brown atmosphere organize a phrase, as do the words back suites, the sign of the zodiac and in the sign of the zodiac. Substitution besides can be seen with what is called anaphora, where a individual point replacements for an earlier mentioned point, in inquiry and reply sequences or in long sentences. For illustration, we could hold a inquiry and reply sequence: There s no money in that, he said. # 8216 ; Yes, he went insolvent, replied Nicholas. [ 59, p.66 ] There s no money in that, he said. ‘Yes, he went insolvent, replied Nicholas. [ 59, p.66 ] In the 2nd sentence here, the word insolvent has replaced no money, demoing us that no money must be a phrase. While permutation normally works on the footing of a individual word, it is besides possible to replace utilizing the phrase do so or so do. We can see this kind of permutation in: Old Jolyon s manus trembled in its thin lavender baseball mitt, and so did his boy # 8217 ; s. [ 59, p.45 ] Old Jolyon s manus trembled in its thin lavender baseball mitt, and so did his son’s. [ 59, p.45 ] So the words manus trembled in our original sentence signifier a phrase. Cleft trial Cleft trial Equally good as permutation, another trial we can utilize to see if something is a phrase is what is called the clefting. Cleft sentences have the signifier It is/was/will be ____ that/who ____ The of import thing for a dissected trial is to take the original sentence, and seek seting it into this frame, without altering it in any manner except for taking one portion of it out and seting it in the first slot, and seting the remainder of the sentence in the 2nd slot. For illustration: The rich brown ambiance was peculiar to endorse suites in the sign of the zodiac of a Forsyte It was the rich brown atmosphere that was peculiar to endorse suites in the sign of the zodiac of a Forsyte Old Jolyon s manus trembled in its thin lavender baseball mitt. [ 59.p.23 ] It was Old Jolyon s manus that trembled in its thin lavender baseball mitt. When using the cleft trial, it is of import non to alter anything about the sentence, except for taking one portion out and seting it between it is/was/will be and that/who. If it is possible to split a sentence, so the portion of the sentence which occurs between it is/was/will be and that/who forms a phrase. Note that if it is possible to split a group of words, so that group of words signifiers a phrase ; but merely because you can # 8217 ; t cleft something, that doesn # 8217 ; t mean that it isn # 8217 ; t a phrase. For illustration, we know that in our original sentence the words the rich brown atmosphere organize a phrase, but we can # 8217 ; t cleft it: It was peculiar to endorse suites in the sign of the zodiac of a Forsyte that the rich brown atmosphere. Motion trials Movement trials Phrases frequently behave as units for assorted motion operations, with the full phrase traveling together. For illustration, we could travel the phrase on that shelf in our original sentence: The rich brown ambiance was peculiar to endorse suites in the sign of the zodiac of a Forsyte. To endorse suites in the sign of the zodiac of a Forsyte was peculiar the rich brown atmosphere. A specific instance of motion is the formation of a inactive sentences. As we can see the set of words the key and the words in the lock in our sentence must each be a phrase because each set of words moves together under passivization: Old Jolyon turned the key quietly in the lock [ 59, p.58 ] ( active sentence ) The key was quietly turned in the lock [ 59 ] ( inactive sentence ) Noting the nesting of components within components in this sentence, e.g. the NP the lock is a component of the PP in the lock which is a component of the VP turned in the lock. At the beginning of this subdivision it was noted that the two facets of syntactic construction, relational construction and constitutional construction, are # 8216 ; distinguishable yet interrelated # 8217 ; , and it is possible now to see how this is the instance. For illustration, a VP was described as being composed of a verb and the undermentioned NP, but it could instead be characterized as affecting the verb and its direct object. Similarly, a PP is composed of a preposition and its object. NPs, on the other manus, involve qualifiers, and consequently the relation between the and lock could be described as one of modifier # 8211 ; modified. 1.5 Lexical classs In the treatment of the components of sentences, mention has been made to nouns and noun phrases, verbs and verb phrases, and prepositions and prepositional phrases. Nouns, verbs and prepositions are traditionally referred to as # 8216 ; parts of address # 8217 ; or # 8216 ; word classes # 8217 ; ; in modern-day linguistics they are termed lexical classs. The most of import lexical classs are noun, verb, adjectival, adverb and adposition, which subsumes prepositions and postpositions. In traditional grammar, lexical classs are given fanciful definitions, i.e. they are characterized in footings of their semantic content [ 9, pp.25-67 ] . For illustration, noun is defined as # 8216 ; the name of a individual, topographic point or thing # 8217 ; , verb is defined as an # 8216 ; action word # 8217 ; , and adjectival is defined as # 8216 ; a word showing a belongings or property # 8217 ; . In modern linguistics, nevertheless, they are defined morphosyntactically in footings of their grammatical belongingss. Nouns may be classified in a figure of ways. There is a cardinal contrast between nouns that refer unambiguously to peculiar entities or persons and those that do non ; the best illustration of the first sort of noun is a proper name, e.g. Sam, Elizabeth, Paris or London, and nouns of this type are referred to as proper nouns. Nouns which do non mention to alone persons or entities are called common nouns, e.g. Canis familiaris, tabular array, fish, auto, pencil, H2O. One of the of import differences between proper and common nouns in a linguistic communication like English is that common nouns usually take an article, while proper nouns do non, e.g. : The male child left versus *The Sam left ( californium. *Boy left versus Sam left ) . Common nouns may be divided into mass nouns and count nouns. Count nouns, as the name implies, denote denumerable entities, e.g. seven chairs, six pencils, three Canis familiariss, many autos. Mass nouns, on the other manus, are non readily countable in their primary senses, e.g. *two Waterss, *four butters, *six snows. In order to do them denumerable, it is necessary to add what is sometimes called a # 8216 ; step word # 8217 ; , which delimits a specific sum of the substance, e.g. two glasses/bottles/drops of H2O, four pats/sticks of butter, six spadeful of snow. Measur e words can be used with count nouns merely when they are plural, e.g. *six boxes of pencil versus six boxes of pencils, *two cups of peanut versus three jars of peanuts. Pronouns are closely related to nouns, as they both function as NPs. Pronouns are traditionally characterized as # 8216 ; substitutes # 8217 ; for nouns or as # 8216 ; standing for # 8217 ; nouns, e.g. John went to the shop, and he bought some milk, in which he substitutes or stands for John in the 2nd clause. This, nevertheless, is true merely of third-person pronouns like he, she, it, or they ; it is non true of first-person pronouns like I or second-person pronouns like you. First- and second-person pronouns refer to or index the talker and addressee in a address event and do non replace or stand for a noun. Verbs can similarly be categorized along a figure of dimensions, such as: individual, figure ( in Modern English there are but few signifier bespeaking them in the man-made signifiers of the verb. These are ( 1 ) .the 3rdindividual remarkable Present Indefinite Indicative ; ( 2 ) the Future Indefinite tense ; ( 3 ) the suppletive signifiers of the verb to be for different individuals of remarkable and plural ) , aspect ( perfect and progressive ) , voice ( active and inactive ) , temper ( declarative, imperative and subjunctive ) and tense ( there are four groups of tenses: Indefinite, Continuous, Perfect and Perfect Continuous ; each of these signifiers includes four tenses: Present, Past, Future and Futute-in-the-Past. Therefore there are 16 tenses in English. ) Decisions to Separate I 1.Syntax is the subdivision of grammar covering with the ways in which words, with or without appropriate inflexions, are arranged to demo connexions of intending within the sentence. 2. The chief object of sentence structure is sentence building. 3. One of the most obvious yet of import ways in which linguistic communications differ is the order of the chief elements in a sentence. 4. The basic word order in English clauses is capable # 8211 ; verb # 8211 ; object, articles precede the noun they modify, and subsidiary verbs precede the chief verb. These are English-specific syntactic regulations. 5. The connexion between the words in a sentence is realized through the alterations in their signifiers and these alterations in the signifier of the words to bespeak their map in the sentence are called # 8216 ; inflexions # 8217 ; , and the survey of the formation of words and how they may alter their signifier is called morphology. 6. Syntax investigates simple sentences, every bit good as their combinations called complex sentences. 7. A cardinal portion of the description of what talkers do is qualifying the grammatical ( or well-formed ) sentences of a linguistic communication and separating them from ill-formed or ( ungrammatical ) sentences. 8. Two interconnected facets of sentence structure: relational construction and constitutional construction. 9. Wordss organisation into phrases. Types of phrases. 10. In order to look into if word combination is a phrase, the trials for phrases are to be done. 11. Lexical classs. Their semantic content. Part II. English Verb. Verb Phrases 2.1 Peculiarities of the Verb The term # 8220 ; verb # 8221 ; is used in two senses: 1. the verb is one of the elements used in the clause construction, like the topic and the object. 2. a verb is a member of a word category, like a noun, and an adjective. The two senses are related in this manner: a verb phrase consists of one or more verbs ( sense 2 ) e.g. linked, is doing, can believe, might be go forthing in the sentences below ; the verb phrase operates as the verb ( sense 1 ) in the clause, e.g. : They linked custodies. He is doing a noise. I can believe you. She will be go forthing shortly. Verbs are the really big lexical word category in English, and were traditionally called # 8216 ; making # 8217 ; words when taught to immature kids. The lexical verb category is more inclusive than the label implies as there are verbs ( for illustration have, be ) which do non depict making, but being, or provinces, instead than procedures and still others that describe events with no knowing action behind them ( for illustration dice, autumn ) . In order to group these words together, so, we need to place their formal nd functional characteristics. The inflectional morphemes can be used to modify the verb in English. These include the present-tense, third-person remarkable morpheme, which is written as -s in most instances ; the past tense morpheme, written as -ed in all regular verbs in English ; and the progressive signifier, which is written as -ing for all English verbs. Many minor sentences, and many spoken 1s, consist of a individual word that is non needfully a verb: No! Natalie! Me. Singing. Slowly. It is possible to work out likely contexts in which these words will happen as vocalizations in their ain right. However, they must hold a context in order to hold a feasible significance. With the exclusion of these and other minor vocalization types, clauses in English need to hold a verb in them. This verb may be the caput of a verb phrase, but it may stand entirely as a verb phrase excessively. The undermentioned clauses have a individual verb operation in the predicator function: Young Jolyon looked round the room. [ 59, p.65 ] The old face looked worn and excavate once more [ 59, p.34 ] His eyes roved from bottle to bottle. [ 59, p.74 ] Two ladies advanced. [ 59, p.44 ] The fastness of Swithin s oculus entirely betrayed emotion [ 59, p.52 ] The fastness of Swithin s oculus entirely betrayed emotion [ 59, p.52 ] As a word category verbs can be divided into three chief classs, harmonizing to their map within the verb phrase: the unfastened category of Full Verbs ( or lexical verbs ) , and the really little closed categories of Primary Verbs, and Modal Auxiliary Verbs. Since the primary verbs and the average subsidiary verbs are closed categories, we can name them in full. Full Verbs believe, follow, like, see, # 8230 ; Primary Verbs be, hold, make Modal Auxiliaries can, may, shall, will, must, could, would, # 8230 ; Modal Auxiliaries can, may, shall, will, must, could, would, †¦ If there is merely one verb in the verb phrase, it is the Main Verb. If there is more than one verb, the concluding 1 is the chief verb, and the one or more verbs that go before it are aides. For illustration transmit is the chief verb in this sentence, and might and be are aides: # 8230 ; to whom he might convey the money he saved, # 8230 ; [ 59, p.66 ] †¦ to whom he might convey the money he saved, †¦ [ 59, p.66 ] Of the three categories of verbs, the full verbs can move merely every bit chief verbs, the average aides can move merely as subsidiary verbs, and the primary verbs can move either as chief verbs or as subsidiary verbs. Let us look into the subsidiary verbs closer. Auxiliary verbs. Aides have small or no lexical significance. They are # 8216 ; helper # 8217 ; verbs, in the sense that they help to organize complex verb signifiers. In making so they express either a grammatical impression ( like # 8216 ; inactive # 8217 ; , # 8216 ; progressive # 8217 ; or # 8216 ; tense # 8217 ; ) or one or more average thoughts. This is non to state that aides are barren of significance, but their significances are more conventional ( i.e. more # 8216 ; skeletal # 8217 ; , more # 8216 ; abstract # 8217 ; , less # 8216 ; full # 8217 ; ) than those of lexical verbs. Within the aides we can do a differentiation between two categories: grammatical aides and average aides. The former, which are sometimes referred to as # 8216 ; primary aides # 8217 ; , have a strictly grammatical map: 1. the # 8216 ; tense subsidiary # 8217 ; have, which is used in organizing perfect tense signifiers ; 2. the # 8216 ; aspect subsidiary # 8217 ; be, which is used for constructing progressive verb orms ; 3. the # 8216 ; voice subsidiary # 8217 ; be, which is used in the passive ; 4. the # 8216 ; circumlocutious aide # 8217 ; make, which is used as a # 8216 ; dummy # 8217 ; ( pro-form ) when a VP that does non incorporate an subsidiary ( e. g. love her ) is used in a building that requires one ( e. g. I don # 8217 ; t love her, Do you love her? , I do love her, etc. ) Next, there are the # 8216 ; modal auxiliaries # 8217 ; : can, could, may, might, must, shall, should, ought to, will, and would. These aides express particular sunglassess of significance, such as will, possibility, permission, necessity, purpose, duty, outlook, illation, ability, finding, etc. The average aides differ semantically from the first group in that they add lexical significance instead than carry through a grammatical map. However, they still have less concrete, and therefore more widely applicable, significances than most lexical verbs. This wider pertinence explains why aides form a comparatively little set when compared with lexical verbs. Because an aide does non hold a full lexical significance, it can non be used without a chief ( lexical ) verb, except in # 8216 ; codification # 8217 ; , where the aide is used as pro-form for an full verb phrase ( as in If I do the thing, I will make it exhaustively, but I must hold a free manus ) . In other words, an subsidiary can non be the lone or last verb signifier in the VP ( except in # 8216 ; codification # 8217 ; ) . In the undermentioned illustration the chief verbs are italicized while the aides are underlined: Because an aide does non hold a full lexical significance, it can non be used without a chief ( lexical ) verb, except in ‘code’ , where the aide is used as pro-form for an full verb phrase ( as in If I do the thing, I will make it exhaustively, but I must hold a free manus ) . In other words, an subsidiary can non be the lone or last verb signifier in the VP ( except in ‘code’ ) . In the undermentioned illustration the chief verbs a re italicized while the aides are underlined: [ # 8220 ; What did he make last dark? # 8221 ; ] # 8220 ; He { studied / worked / may hold slept / could/had to/ would} . # 8221 ; Unlike lexical verbs, aides have the alleged # 8216 ; NICE-properties # 8217 ; . # 8216 ; NICE # 8217 ; is an acronym ( coined by Huddleston 1976 ) consisting of the initial letters of the footings negation, inversion, codification and accent. The mention is to the four instances in which the English VP requires an subsidiary. If there is no subsidiary, the # 8216 ; circumlocutious aide # 8217 ; make has to be added. In that instance we say that the lexical verb requires # 8216 ; do-support # 8217 ; . In other words, the statement that # 8216 ; aides have the NICE-properties # 8217 ; means that they do non unite with the circumlocutious subsidiary do in clauses made negative by the usage of non, in clauses affecting subject-auxiliary inversion, in codification and in instances of accent. By contrast, clauses without an subsidiary demand # 8216 ; do-support # 8217 ; ( i.e. the interpolation of bash ) in these four instances. Comparison: He went / He didn # 8217 ; t travel / Did he travel? / Yes he did / He did travel. He will travel / He won # 8217 ; t travel / Will he travel? / Yes he will / He will travel. The subsidiary verbs are made up of the modals ( may, must, might and so on ) , have ( perfective ) and be ( progressive and inactive ) . Here it is deserving observing some of the utilizations of the subsidiary map: to build inquiries, to supply accent and to transport negation. Looking at inquiries foremost, the first aide in a verb phrase can be put before the topic in order, to inquire a inquiry: She will be coming. Will she be coming? The emphasized usage of the aide is connected with emphasis and modulation forms, but it is once more the first aide that carries the excess accent of an emphasized version: Will you inquire Mr. Bosinney, and I will acquire immature Flippard. [ 59, p.66 ] I will name for you and your immature adult male at seven oclock. [ 59, p.23 ] A Forsyte will necessitate good, if non delicate eating, but a Dartie will revenue enhancement the resources of a Crown and Sceptre [ 59, p.34 ] His drink, excessively, will necessitate to be carefully provided ; there is much drink in this state not good sufficiency for a Dartie ; he will hold the best. [ 59, p.52 ] Will you ask Mr. Bosinney, and I will acquire immature Flippard. [ 59, p.66 ] I will name for you and your immature adult male at seven oclock. [ 59, p.23 ] A Forsyte will necessitate good, if non delicate eating, but a Dartie will revenue enhancement the resources of a Crown and Sceptre [ 59, p.34 ] His drink, excessively, will necessitate to be carefully provided ; there is much drink in this state not good sufficiency for a Dartie ; he will hold the best. [ 59, p.52 ] The negation of English sentences is normally carried by the verb phrase in the signifier of a negative atom, which intervenes in the verb phrase after the first subsidiary and before the undermentioned aide or lexical verb: If you exceed that amount by every bit much as 50 lbs, I will non keep you responsible Jane hasn # 8217 ; t been hurt. [ 59, p.33 ] He knew it was done that he might non experience she came because of her dead lover. [ 59, p.23 ] The feeling of shame at what might be called running after him was smothered by the apprehension that he might non be at that place, that she might non see him after all 59, p.35 ] He knew it was done that he might non experience she came because of her dead lover. [ 59, p.23 ] The feeling of shame at what might be called running after him was smothered by the apprehension that he might non be at that place, that she might non see him after all 59, p.35 ] As these illustrations show, the negative atom is frequently attached to the subsidiary verb, though in the instance of might the decreased signifier ( mightn # 8217 ; T ) is less common now. All three of these particular utilizations of the subsidiary require some attending to the first aide of a verb phrase. This may be a average aide or it may be hold or be. Whichever it is, this verb is known as the # 8216 ; operator # 8217 ; because it has the particular maps described supra. In the absence of an subsidiary ( that is, where there is merely a lexical verb ) , the silent person operator # 8211 ; the verb do # 8211 ; is used alternatively: But I suppose you feel it much as I do when I portion with a image a kind of kid? [ 59, p.34 ] But if you ask me how I do it, I answer, because I m a Forsyte. [ 59, p.67 ] But I suppose you feel it much as I do when I portion with a image a kind of kid? [ 59, p.34 ] But if you ask me how I do it, I answer, because I m a Forsyte. [ 59, p.67 ] The silent person operator, so, performs the three maps of the other aides, but it does non transport any significance of its ain to add to the verb phrase. Though some verbs have a position intermediate between that of chief verbs and that of subsidiary verbs. Sometimes the chief verb ( and possibly the other words excessively ) is understood from the context, so that lone aides are present in the verb phrase: I can # 8217 ; t state them but you can. [ i.e. # 8216 ; can state them # 8217 ; ] Your parents may non hold suspected anything but your sister may hold. [ i.e. # 8216 ; may hold suspected something # 8217 ; ] . There besides multi-word verbs, which consist of a verb and one or more other words turn on, look up, take topographic point, take advantage, put up with, # 8230 ; Let us see at the single signifiers of lexical verbs in English and how they function. The first of the two clauses above besides organize complete sentences, whereas the 3rd, 4th and fifth are lone portion of an vocalization. These uncomplete vocalizations are illustrations of low-level clauses, which we shall look into in a ulterior subdivision. We are utilizing them here merely to show the usage of peculiar signifiers of verb: infinite signifiers. These signifiers, frequently known as the -ing signifier, the -en signifier and the i- signifier, are besides called the progressive signifier, the perfective signifier and the infinitive signifier. These signifiers can be portion of full verb phrases that function as the predicator in a complete clause. On their ain, nevertheless, they do non associate to the topic in a clear manner ( for illustration by an stoping that indicates a individual ) and they do non set up the tense of the verb as either present or past. Note how they need aides to set up such facets of the significance of the predicator: Who shall state of what he was believing? [ 59, p.44 ] And now you have your boy and June coming back you will be so happy. [ 59, p.24 ] And now you have your boy and June coming back you will be so happy. [ 59, p.24 ] I shall sit in the Sun with a drink in my manus. [ 59, p.20 ] Lexical verbs that do non necessitate an subsidiary verb in order to map in chief clauses are known as finite signifiers. They include the present tense signifier, which is usually identical from the infinitive signifier in footings of holding no morphological postfix ( for illustration gimmick, sing ) , the third-person present tense signifier, which usually adds an -s to establish signifiers, and the past tense signifier, which adds -ed to regular verbs. Table 3.1 shows some illustrations of all the signifiers of English lexical verbs. Table 3.1 Citation signifier Interruption Play Singing Forget Present tense interruption drama sing forget Present 3rd individual interruptions dramas sings forgets Past tense broke played American ginseng forgot Progressive participial interrupting playing singing burying Perfective participial broken played Sung forgotten Infinitive interruption drama sing forget The most common form of signifiers in English verbs is the 1 represented n the tabular array by drama. There are efficaciously merely four different signifiers ( drama, dramas, playing, played ) , but because other common, but irregular, verbs distinguish, for illustration, the past tense ( -ed ) from the perfective signifier ( -en ) , the regular verbs are besides treated as though these signifiers were different. The most common form of signifiers in English verbs is the 1 represented n the tabular array by drama. There are efficaciously merely four different signifiers ( drama, dramas, playing, played ) , but because other common, but irregular, verbs distinguish, for illustration, the past tense ( -ed ) from the perfective signifier ( -en ) , the regular verbs are besides treated as though these signifiers were different. The irregular signifiers tend to belong to common verbs derived from Old English, instead than those with Romance linguistic communication influences, such as Gallic. Because they are really common they have non changed to fit the sheer measure of verbs with a form such as drama, although there is some grounds that some such thing is go oning. If you think about the manner that people these yearss frequently muddle Sungs and American ginseng and round and rang, it seems that the differentiation between past tense and perfective markers is less distinct than in the yesteryear. However, although the two signifiers might be unifying in irregular verbs excessively, they are non traveling towards fiting the regular verbs, which would ensue in signifiers such as *singed and *ringed. The subclasses of lexical verb that can be identified tend to depend on the context in which they occur. Whilst the traditional grammars distinguished between transitive and intransitive verbs, we find it utile to separate farther classs, depending on the clause structures in which they typically occur. The intransitive verb will non be found with an object, and therefore will happen n topic and predicator constructions: I # 8217 ; m deceasing. The transitive verb occurs with an object in subject-predicator-object constructions: She hates you. Ditransitive verbs occur with both indirect and direct objects: They gave me a beautiful nowadays. There are besides subclasses of verb that tend to happen with mandatory adverbials: John went place and I put the coffin nail back in the package. Two further of import subclasses of verb are intensive verbs ( such as be ) that occur with capable complements ( She was truly tired ) , and those which occur with objects and object complements: ( You make me happy ) . The intensive verbs have a peculiar semantic consequence in that they invoke being ( there is a tree ) and equality ( she is my girl ) . These subcategories of verb are non watertight and some verbs can happen in a scope of grammatical contexts. However it is utile to believe in footings of verbs typically happening in certain clause constructions. 2.2 Verbs within Syntax and Morphology What is the indispensable belongings that makes verbs behave otherwise from nouns nd adjectives in morphology and sentence structure? There is really an obvious starting-point in the widespread acknowledgment that verbs are the quintessential predicates. They are inherently unsaturated looks that hold of something else, and therefore the karyon around which sentences are typically built. Many linguists of different schools have recognized the significance of this. Among the formalists, Jackendoff ( 1977 ) partly defines verbs with the characteristic # 8220 ; +subject # 8221 ; ( although this does non separate them from nouns, in his position ) . Among the functionalists Buechler [ 16, p.54 ] , identifies predi-cation as the matter-of-fact map that provides the external motive for the class verb. The precise version of this intuition stated in ( 3 ) ( 3 ) Ten is a verb if and merely if X is a lexical class and X has a specifier. Whether an point takes a specifier or non is therefore an of import characterizing characteristic for the functional classs. ( 3 ) claims that this belongings subdivides the lexical classs excessively. Those lexical classs that take a specifier are verbs ; those that do non are nouns and adjectives. The manner a verb comes to hold a specifier is slightly different from the manner ost functional classs do, nevertheless. Tenses and complementizers get their specifiers by motion: some component contained inside their complement moves to go the specifier of the phrase. This is non the instance for verbs. Rather, the specifier of a verb normally comes from direct combination with some other phrase that is constructed independently. In Chomsky # 8217 ; s footings, verbs typically get specifiers from # 8220 ; External Merge, # 8221 ; whereas tenses and complementizers get specifiers by # 8220 ; Internal Merge. # 8221 ; In pattern, this means that verbs normally assign a thematic function to the phrase that is their specifier. Following Chomsky # 8217 ; s [ 21, p.56-366 ] version of Hale and Keyser ( 1993 ) , there are two spheres in which this happens ( besides Bowers [ 1993 ] and others ) . A verb that takes an AP or PP complement assigns a theme function to its specifier: ( 5 ) a.Cigar made [ VP him [ experience weak [ ] ] ( him is subject of feel ) [ 59 ] A verb that takes an NP complement assigns an agent function to its specifier: ( 6 ) . It made [ VP him [ sick to look at them ] ] ( him is agent of sick ) A verb can besides take a VP complement, in which instance it once more assigns an agent ole to its specifier. The caput of the lower VP about ever combines with the caput of the higher VP, deducing a surface representation with lone one spelled-out verb: Examples in which a individual verb appears to take two complements are ever to be analyzed this manner, as dwelling of two verbal projections that take one comple-ment each, following Levinson [ 36 ] Palmer [ 41 ] , and utilizing Chomsky # 8217 ; s [ 21 ] nomenclature, we can name the higher verbal place in constructions like ( 5 ) ( in lower instance ) , and the lower place V ( in upper instance ) . Both, nevertheless, measure up as verbs, every bit long as they have lexical content, given the definition in ( 1 ) The constructions in ( 5 ) ( 6 ) besides exist without an overt NP, AP, or PP complement o the verb: ( 7 ) a Cigar made [ him [ feel # 8211 ; ] ] [ 59, p.76 ] B It made [ him [ sick # 8211 ; ] ] [ 59, p.76 ] So the verbs have a covert complement in these instances, so that the subject and agent statements are still in specifier places. Hutchby and Wooffitt [ 30 ] really do a slightly stronger claim: they say that these phrase-structural constellations are the lone 1s in which NPs that bear subject and agent functions can be found. Let us see the followers: So the verbs have a covert complement in these instances, so that the subject and agent statements are still in specifier places. Hutchby and Wooffitt [ 30 ] really do a slightly stronger claim: they say that these phrase-structural constellations are the lone 1s in which NPs that bear subject and agent functions can be found. Let us see the followers: Agent and subject functions can merely be assigned to specifier places. This is a subpart of the Uniformity of Theta Role Assignment Hypothesis ( UTAH ) of Baker ( 1988a ) , which Hutchby and Wooffitt [ 30, p.543 ] seek to deduce. ( 6 ) is weaker than Hutchby and Wooffitt # 8217 ; s position, the agent function merely is the [ # 8722 ; # 8722 ; V VP ] constellation, they believe, and the theme function is the [ # 8722 ; # 8722 ; V AP/PP ] constellation. ( In this, they were presumptively inspired by Carter # 8217 ; s [ 19, p.45 ] position that thematic functions are designated places in a conceptual construction. ) The definitional position seems excessively strong, nevertheless. ( 6 ) is strong plenty to hold effects: taken together with ( 4 ) , it implies that simple nouns and adjectives can neer delegate agent or subject thematic functions. It is alluring to seek to unite ( 4 ) and ( 6 ) and do it the specifying belongings of verbs that they assign agent and theme theta-roles.3 This would be a error, nevertheless. First, if these peculiar thematic functions were built into the definition, one would hold to be certain one could separate them from other thematic functions in a dependable manner. This is a notoriously hard endeavor, the thematic functions holding clear cardinal cases but fuzzed boundaries. More significantly, there are a few verbs that do non delegate any thematic function to their specifier. Verbs like seem and appear are the clearest instance ; possibly weather predicates are another. But even though these verbs have no thematic function to delegate to a specifier, they must still hold a specifier, in the signifier of the redundant pronoun it: ( 8 ) a He made [ ( it ) seem/appear that he was happy ] B Sowing the clouds made [ # 8727 ; ( it ) rain /snow ] This may look like a distinctive feature of English, since many linguistic communications do non necessitate an open pronoun with these verbs. However, this is merely because many linguistic communications neer require open pronouns, frequently because the person/number/gender characteristics of the pronoun are adequately expressed in the verbal morphology, as in Spanish and Italian. Not surprisingly, the needed topic of the verb shows up non as a redundant pronoun, but as a redundant capable understanding in these linguistic communications. Auxiliary verbs besides illustrate this same point. These are verbs that do non delegate any thematic functions, but express merely aspectual information, such as the imperfect or the perfect: a The box broke unfastened b The box has broken unfastened. c The box is interrupting unfastened. The nominal the box is thematically related merely to the verb interruption in these illustrations, and semantically the facet has scope over the full contingency, including the topic. Therefore, on strictly semantic evidences, one might anticipate the constructions in ( 5 ) . ( 5 ) a has [ VP the box [ broken unfastened ] ] B is [ VP the box [ interrupting unfastened ] ] But this is non what we find on the surface. Have and is are ( nonprototypical ) verbs, and as such they must hold a specifier. In this instance, they get one, non by theta-role assignment, nor by redundant interpolation, but by NP-movement: ( 6 ) a [ VP the box has [ VP [ broken unfastened ] ] B [ VP the box is [ VP T [ interrupting unfastened ] ] Again, this is non a distinctive feature of English. The semantically plausible Aux # 8211 ; Subject # 8211 ; Verb # 8211 ; Object order in ( 6 ) is non found in any SVO linguistic communication, based on the information from 530 linguistic communications summarized in Julien ( 2000 ) . Orders like ( 5 ) are found in the Celtic linguistic communications, but these are crucially VSO linguistic communications, where there is independent grounds that all verbs ( non merely aides ) move to the left of their topics. The most ambitious facet of supporting ( 1 ) is non to demo that all verbs have specifiers, but to demo that the other lexical classs can non hold them. Nouns and adjectives surely can look without specifiers, as seen in ( 6 ) ( 7 ) a Water is reviewing. ( specifierless N ) B Cold H2O is reviewing. ( specifierless A ) But they can besides be used predicatively, in which instance they seem to take topics merely every bit much as verbs do. I illustrated the subject-taking belongingss of assorted verbs in English by implanting them under the causative verb brand, because brand selects a bare VP complement ( I assume ) , with no obvious functional caput. Therefore, in this context we can be comparatively certain that it is the verb that requires a topic, non strain or some other functional caput. But NPs and APs can besides be embedded under brand, in which instance they excessively are preceded by a topic: ( 8 ) a The chemist took a H and O mixture and made [ # ( it ) H2O ] . B Then she put the H2O into the icebox to do [ ( it ) cold ] . This elusive contrast between verbs and other classs has no obvious connexion to the superficial inflectional belongingss of verbs, but it does propose that there is a structural difference between verbs and predicate nouns/adjectives. A theory that starts with the premise that merely verbs take topics straight gives us immediate purchase on this paradigm. This elusive contrast between verbs and other classs has no obvious connexion to the superficial inflectional belongingss of verbs, but it does propose that there is a structural difference between verbs and predicate nouns/adjectives. A theory that starts with the premise that merely verbs take topics straight gives us immediate purchase on this paradigm. So we encountered the different word categories of English and looked at the internal construction of words. In the undermentioned portion we shall see constructions that are normally made up of more than one word, and expression at how they are put together out of the word classes we have already examined. Here, so, we shall be sing the ways in which words are combined to do phrases, and look into the construction of clauses, sentences and vocalizations. 2.3 Verb phrases. Their composing and maps Alternate definitions of # 8216 ; verb give voice # 8217 ; Alternative definitions of ‘verb phrase’ Verb phrase is that portion of the predicate component that does non incorporate optional adverbials. ( In many instances the predicate consists of a VP merely. ) We will lodge to this definition in this work. However, it may be utile to cognize that some lingual plants use the term in a different sense. Some use it in the sense of our # 8216 ; predicate ( component ) # 8217 ; , i.e. to mention to the amount of all those components of the clause that do non belong to the topic NP. Others use the term in a much narrower sense, to denote no more than the chief verb and any aides attach toing it. Therefore seen, the VP of He may hold been reading a book is may hold been reading ( instead than may hold been reading a book ) . In the present work a twine like may hold been reading or will read will be referred to as a # 8216 ; verb organize # 8217 ; . A verb signifier consists either of a verb ( in the signifier of a participial or infinitive ) plus one or more aides ( e. g. will see, would hold seen ) or of a ( normally inflected ) verb merely ( as