Disjuncts

A disjunct is a type of an adverbial adjunct which expresses information that is not considered essential to the sentence it appears in, but which is considered to be the speaker’s or writer’s own attitude towards, or the descriptive statement of, the propositional content of the sentence. A disjunct does not fit into the flow of the sentence and is often separated by a comma or a set of commas. A disjunct normally acts as an evaluation of the rest of the sentence. Although it usually modifies the verb, we could say that it modifies the entire clause, too.

The name ‘disjunct’ would seem to suggest that these have some kind of connection with (con)junctive items, but that their role is, if anything, to signal an absence of conjunction. The distinction between conjuncts (however, in addition, etc.) and disjuncts is now well established and corresponds to a broader distinction, based on the propositional view of cohesion outlined above, between text-structuring and writer’s comment, which are seen as largely unrelated. Their approach emphasizes that the scope of disjuncts is simply the sentence in which they appear (‘contributing another facet of information to a single integrated unit’) while conjuncts function between clauses or other elements (‘conjoining independent units’).

Halliday (1985/1994) prefers the terms Conjunctive Adjuncts and Modal Adjuncts; (Halliday, 1994:84) but the line of division is essentially the same. The pervasiveness of the distinction is reflected in, for example, materials for teaching English as a Foreign Language, where conjuncts are frequently taught as a separate topic as part of writing and reading skills, under headings such as ‘Signpost words’, whereas disjuncts appear with other adverbs as part of speaking skills. The difference in terminology exists in various grammars so English, thus Quirk, R. et al. in A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language, refer to these adverbials as disjuncts.(Quirk et al, 1985,:43) On the other hand, in Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English, Biber calls them stance adverbials and provides his own classification. (Biber et al, 1999:354). Here, we shall consider disjuncts and stance adverbials to be synonymous, and emphasise the difference in terminology when necessary.

Disjuncts and adjuncts

What is the difference between disjuncts on one hand and adjuncts and subjuncts on the other? Consider the adverbials in the following sentences:

1. Sadly, you have failed the exam
2. Mary is, in all frankness, acting very strangely.
3. Since he made that mistake, he couldn’t be a part of the team.

We note, first of all, that it is not the form of these adverbials that makes them different from adjuncts or even from subjuncts:

1. The student stared sadly at the professor.
2. The witness talked in all frankness about the night of the crime.
3. He couldn’t be a part of the team since he made that mistake.

The history of English language

English belongs to the group of Germanic languages, i.e. English goes back to the same proto-language that is also the “mother” of Dutch, Low German, High German, Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, Icelandic. The group of Germanic languages, in turn, belongs to the Indo-European language family, like the Romanic languages (e.g. Portuguese, Spanish, French, Italian) and their “mother” Latin, the Celtic languages (e.g. Welsh, Irish, Scottish Gaelic), the Balto-Slavic languages (e.g. Polish, Czech, Croatian, Russian, Lithuanian) and others. The date of the birth of English is normally given as 449, when the three Germanic tribes of the Angles, Saxons and Jutes are said to have settled over from the continental areas by the Northern Sea. The first written records of English can be dated back to the 7th century. The period from the mid-5th century to around 1100 is referred to as Old English, the period from 1100 to around 1500 as Middle English, the period from 1500 to around 1750 as Early Modern English and the period thereafter as Modern English.

The historical study of English can begin by looking at the mix of languages from which English ultimately emerged: Indo-European. By examining some of the features of the different surviving Indo-European (IE) languages, linguists can reconstruct the sounds and the possible meanings of a language spoken by a group of agricultural peoples approximately five or six thousand years ago. By the term Indo-European, we mean that postulated “language” or group of dialects out of which the Western and Eastern European, Indian, and Iranian languages developed. Some language groups, like Hittite, have not survived. Who were the “Indo-Europeans”? It is generally believed that they probably lived in Southeastern Europe in the fourth millennium B.C. Recent archaeological discoveries have suggested that they buried their dead and that they moved into central Europe in about the third millennium B.C. and into Asia Minor and Indo-Iranian areas after about 3400 B.C. A series of later migrations brought them to Mediterranean and Northern Europe.[1]

At the end of the eighteenth century, the English scholar and diplomat William Jones, working in India, noticed certain features in the vocabulary and grammar of Sanskrit (the ancient classical language of India) that were shared with Latin and Greek and the modern European languages. In particular, he noticed certain words, like Sanskrit raj, Latin rex, German reich, and Celtic rix, that seemed similar in sound and meaning (they were all words for king or ruler).  He also noticed certain grammatical features, like forms of the verb to be, that were shared in the different languages.  Jones posited that these various languages must have descended from an original tongue. In 1799, he identified the tongue as Sanskrit, thus subscribing to the myth of language decay.  In the nineteenth century, following up on Jones’s discovery, language scholars began to develop the study of comparative grammar.  Scholars, particularly in Germany, began to codify relationships of sounds among different languages. They also proposed lines of descent among the different languages, introducing the metaphor of the “language tree.” In the nineteenth century, scholars made the development of language the subject of linguistics. By the 1870s, scholars had formulated a series of sound relationships among the languages that were recognized as having historical meaning: i.e., they showed not only relationships among living languages, but also lines of descent from earlier forms of the languages.

What is the best piece of advice you've ever been given, and why?

The best piece of advice I've ever been given was in Serbian, and I'll translate it the best I can: “Keep your dignity and never look back, 'cause, if you bite, than bite off[1]!” This is something my grandfather told me a while ago. This sentence probably makes no sense in English, so I'll try to explain it. The first part, keep your dignity, means that nothing is worth my self confidence and self respect. Whatever I do with my life, or in my life, shouldn't be against my beliefs, ideals and possibilities. On the other hand, I should take every chance life and nemesis gives me in order to reach my goals. The second part, “never look back”, means that I should never reconsider my previous actions; I should take them as they are; learn as much as I can from my experience and except all the rewards and consequences.

This, rather short sentence follows every step I make. Whatever kind of a choice I have to make in my life, this piece of advice makes it simple and easy. All I have to do is to estimate which solution is the most possible one, which is the best one, which is the one that will hurt no one and that is usually the only choice I have. For example, when I was given the opportunity to go abroad, I had to think about it. I knew it will hurt my parents, but, on the other hand, it will make them proud. I was also worried about myself, my friends and social life: it is not easy to leave home, family and friends and live in strange country with strange people who have different culture and different habits. I spent some time thinking about it and decided to go for it, and, as my grandfather said, not to look back.

And I didn't. When I have a problem, I think to myself: you are here and deal with it! I can't afford to wonder whether this was the right choice or not.

The third part, “when you bite, bite off”, is the best one. Whatever you do, do it with all your heart, do the best you can and be proud of yourself, and never give up because you think something is beyond your reach. And this is where I find strength when I'm exhausted, this is what forces me to make one more step, to read one more page, to write one more letter and make one more phone call. Because, I still didn't bite off!

Diversity can be understood in many different ways, but my first association is the Book Fair in Belgrade. It takes place every October and it lasts for 7 days. I used to skip school in order to spend my time there, but when the principle of my school caught me, he gave me a week off. Now, after so many years, I understand him: in the age of internet, crime, drugs and alcohol, I was a teenager in love with books, eager to meet people from all over the world, writers, publishers, journalists... From that year on, I always had a week off for the Book Fair.

I used to go to the Fair at 10 o'clock, as soon as the gates open, and talk to people from dozen different countries. I remember tall, thin Russian hostess, who gave me postcards with pictures of Moscow and Lenin, short girls from Poland who always wore white dresses, group from Sweden, they were all blond and always ready to talk to me and tell me stories about their country and their way of life.

I guess that is when I decided to become citizen of the world, to ignore borders and learn as much as I can about countries, people, their habits and cultures. I still have this thirst for this kind of knowledge, and I am proud to know a few things: one should never touch Malaysian's head, they believe their soul is in their hair, never give a Japanese present wrapped up in white paper, in their culture, white color symbolizes death.

What would I bring to the diversity in a college community? I will bring my knowledge, share it with my colleagues, and absorb as much as they are willing to share. 

---

[1]  My grandfather speaks irregular Serbian, and I think this is the best possible way to translate his words.

The Role of the United States Constitution

The United States Constitution is a document that provides the framework for the federal government and is ultimately the supreme law for the companies and citizens of the United States of America to abide by. This document “establishes the structure of the federal government, delegates powers to the federal government, and guarantees certain fundamental rights“ (Cheeseman, Henry R., interview for Deutsche welle, 2001.). These fundamental rights, laws and freedoms are granted, to all Americans. Despite the ratification of the Constitution in 1788, the laws still pertain to today’s ever-changing economy and culture. The Constitution has been referred to as a “living” document that evolves in unison with our country, following all the innovations and developments in all of the related fields and areas. The Constitution of the United States sets forth the nations fundamental laws for business regulation.hapter 1 “From love field to the world*s most successful airline“

TThere are many examples of the ways that United States Constitution and the United States legal system affect the  Royal Caribbean company. Royal Caribbean Cruise Line was founded in 1968. by Andres Wilhemsen &Company. We are Miami, Florida based cruise company, with 21 ships and over 20 000 employees. In our 40 years of history, business regulations have changed for many times,  also, we sail all over the world and need to interpret every single regulation and law which can apply to us.

First, one of our offices is located in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and we had the building seized and demolished due to a highway being built. Our legal department was instructed by the local government to accept financial compensation and „move on“, but our lawyers argued that Amendment 5 states, "…nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.". So, the government is responsible to find a new, equally lucrative location for our business, build a new structure, and to provide compensation funds to all the workers on the payroll whom were temporarily unable to work. After a few meetings, local government accepted our arguments and our determination to go to the supreme court and found us a new, similar location, based on our argument that in our line of business, (travel and tourism) location is 80% of success.

Second, due to the nature of our business we have been subjected to thorough searches of our passengers and staff, and it was everything but not good for business. All the attempts to explain to the officials the importance of providing the non-stressful environment to our passengers as one of the basic conditions for successful business gave no results. So, our legal department argued in court that Amendment 4 states, "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.“

On the other hand, we do understand the necessity of firm control of incoming and outgoing people and properties, in relation to our national security and always threatening possibility of terrorist attack, so we offered a compromise. We allowed thorough control of all the ships, passenger and staff luggage but away from their sight, in safe environment of our sub-deck storage. We also established full immunity for the company or/ if any illegal person and/or object is to be found. This way, we both secured our clients and staff from any unpleasant surprise on their journey and gave enough space for all the relevant government agencies, federal and state, to perform their patriotic and legal duty of protecting the United States of America. We understand the limitation Constitution imposes with this Amendment to the members of the „Protect and serve“ community.

It seems, if a business is successfully making a large sum of money under the table by illegal actions and if the federal or state agency cannot prove the company is involved in illegal activity to yield a "reasonable search", they cannot search through their offices or properties to confirm a hypothesis. Thus the scandalous business can continue to thrive. But, we also recognize the necessity to cooperate and coordinate with all the agencies in order to build and secure the safe environment for all the citizens, and that includes ourselves. Therefor, we offered all possible adjustments of our procedures in order to abide the law but also to keep our business on the same level as it is.

According to our legal department, (conversation I had with the head of Royal Caribbean Legal department, 2009.) there are two sides involved – business and government regulators, whether they are federal or state. Despite their antipathy, the two sides, business and government regulators, have, in fact, benefited from each other. Government regulations ensuring the enforceability of contracts and property rights are such basics that business in the United States could not function properly without them. Likewise, without the economic growth created by private business, the U.S. government could not sustain itself. Although the current system of federal and state regulations may sometimes be self-contradictory, and, in addition, confusing to the business community, it is a relatively loose one, leaving the United States as one of the nations whose business welfare depends most on the decisions of private entrepreneurs.

Assignment 2 research

There are many web sites that reached success because of a good web design. When we say a web design is good, it doesn't mean that the web design has to have too much decorative such as too much colors or graphics. A web design is good when it is naturally pleasing to the eye of the online users, and, more importantly, when it is able to satisfy and provide the needs of the users. A good web design must be convenient to use, providing users with systematic approaches to do what they need (Twist). Systematic approaches mean that the web design must provide the users with functions and buttons that will help them do what they need to do and go where they need to go (online speaking of course). This characteristics lead to usability features that must always be a part of a good web design. Some examples of successful web sites because of a good web design are Yahoo, Google, E-bay, and Amazon. These web sites can be basically characterized to have simple, manageable, and usable web designs.

Academics have similar opinions when it comes to the importance of website usability and accessibility. Nielson (2000) argues that website usability isn’t a luxury anymore but a necessity. They outline how easy it is for customers to leave your site and go to another; they discuss how “low switching costs” make it easy for users to go from one site to another. Similarly Rosenfeld and Morville (2000) write about how short the “attention span” of internet users is, how users often decide they don’t like a website before the page even has a chance to fully load. Krugg (2005) in his book agrees with the idea that web users have an incredibly short attention span. He further develops the argument by outlining how research has shown that users often scan the web page rather than spending time reading it. He even entitled his book “Don’t make me think” Krugg (2005) to describe the mindset of the average internet user. It is clear from both the work of academics and our own individual experience that we as website users are notoriously fickle and that we will not put up with slow loading pages, badly designed navigation, overly complicated pages or other design errors.

When we are designing a website we must firstly consider what it will be used for. Rosenfeld and Morville (2000) liken the work of a web designer to that of an architect. They stress the importance of considering the use of the web site just like an architect must consider the use of the building. Architects would design a home differently from a hospital just like a web designer would design an e-store differently from a small business website. Hence in order to discuss the importance of the factors that affect the usability of website we must firstly try to classify the uses of various types of websites. There are many different types of websites that were built with different aims and objectives in mind. Some examples include forums such as boards.ie, social networks like facebook.com and classified advertising websites like craigslist. There are hundreds of categories and sub categories of websites, covering all of them would be impossible. For this reason I will focus on three broad categories; they are corporate websites, community websites and e-stores.

Corporations are constantly working to maintain an image of trust worthiness and quality. They use various marketing tools to impact upon consumers. Kuzic and Dawson (2004) in their paper discuss how the quality of a company’s website impacts on the overall image of the company especially among those who were studying or working in the area of information systems. They investigated which features of a website most impact upon the user experience and image of the corporation. They sampled a large number of students and concluded that factors such as “the ability to enter the site without having to download software; quick to download web pages; as well as easily readable, clear and easy to understand web pages” were among the highest ranked features. It is obvious that the downloading of software to view a website has a significant impact on the user experience. Therefore it is imperative that when a corporate website is designed that no coding or software should be embedded that may require the user to download additional plugins for their browser.

Designing a website for community interaction is somewhat different than designing for other forms of websites. Feller (2000) discusses the design of Community web site; he mentions three aspects of the community design process that impact on the usability of the site. They are “the interface for registering”, “the interface for contributing” and “the interface for consuming”. The registration interface will be vital as it will be the difference between getting members and not getting members. The interface must be well labeled and not collect any unnecessary information. Privacy is a vital issue here as, “as with the purchase mechanism, it is important the customer respects the customers’ privacy” (Feller, 2000). Paid dating sites are good examples of how clean easy to use web pages attract registrations. The match signup page requires minimal information and is very easy to use, it has drop down boxes to minimize the users effort. Its imagery and slogans tell us what the website is about in an instant. Its registration system is an example of what Maguire (2004) calls “staged obligation”, the potential client is drawn in by being asked for just a small piece of information at the beginning before more information is required on further pages. Contrasting this is the huff duffer sign up page. They approach the concept from a new more creative perspective; however they forget to ask for a confirmation of both password and email address and require all information to be typed.

Another important part of designing a community website according to Feller (2005) is the “interface for contributing” and the “interface for consuming”. He describes how the navigation between content needs to be designed to allow for maximum usability and how leaving comments and approval should be easy. All of these features that allow for interactivity should not obstruct the consumption process. A good example of website that allows for this community interaction without interfering with the consumption process is hub pages. Its articles are the centerpiece of the page but surrounding them are tools to interact with other members. At the top of the page you can share the link on Facebook or twitter, to the right of that you can find out more about the writer or choose to follow them and below you can rate the article up or down or leave a comment. It also has links at the bottom of the page to guide you to another article by this reader. This easy to use “interface for contributing” is seamlessly integrated into the “the interface for consumption”. It in no way interferes with the reading of the article.

Ezine articles are a website that has a very similar business model. However, it does not have the same levels of usability, although the “interface for consumption” is well designed it is not well “integrated with the interface” for contributing. Sharing the article linked to above is difficult, there are a number of links below but they are afterthoughts and the links are predominantly adverts meaning the temptation is to leave the site after reading the article. As can be seen from the above, designing easy to use community websites is very different from designing business websites. Different factors must be taken into account that is not considered when designing a business website or E-store.

We have seen from the above that designing a usable website requires attention to detail. Just as categories of websites differ so do the websites within those categories differ. Each website design process will differ from the one before it and the company’s business overall strategy will also play a huge part in the outcome of the website. Feller (2000) outlines the fundamental questions that web designers must ask before they begin to work , he says that they must “understand who will use the site, how they will use the site , what functionality they will need to use the site and determine what content they will need to use the site”. The designing of a usable website begins from these simple questions but it is a complicated process that goes on long after the site is launched. Today, internet giants like Amazon and Facebook are still striving towards the ultimate usability goal that Steve Krugg set out in 2000. It echoes the mindset of the average internet user and can be applied to all categories of websites. It simply states “don’t make me think” (Krugg, 2000).

The Internet has changed everything; particular has a dramatic impact on business operations. At the same time, the online business to consumer has been growing rapidly and brought a great impact on e-tailors and boosted the development of e-business. The daily growth of the internet and e-commerce has changed the way of marketing and selling of products and services. As a result of development of electronic information resources and the evaluation of “the digital age” product seller and information service providers face many new challenges. Internet is changing the way the corporation conduct business with their consumers who are increasingly expecting higher services, becoming time saved, and wanting more convenience. In addition e-service quality is an essential strategy to gain success.

Developing, launching and maintaining an e-commerce web site is a significant investment for e-commerce firms. Simple e-commerce web sites can cost $1-2 million per year for setup and maintenance, whereas more sophisticated web sites with dynamic capabilities require annual investments nearing $52 million (Rizzuti and Dickinson, 2000; Dalton, Hagen, and Drohan, 2001). Despite the importance of web site development requiring such significant investments, the process of designing high quality web sites for e-commerce is still more of an art than a science. E-commerce companies are still relying largely on intuition when it comes to designing their web sites (Hahn, Kauffman, and Park, 2002).

As a result of the tremendous business opportunity, the number of e-stores has increased by leaps and bounds. Companies take advantage of the Internet as a critical channel for selling goods and services and e-commerce sales, especially, online retail sales jumped greatly. Nielson and Norman (2000) discussed the importance of easy to use web design in their article. They outlined how designing an electronic store that maximizes conversions requires a lot of work and analysis. Switching costs on the internet are low meaning that consumers can easily shop around to find the lowest price; similarly they can leave the site within seconds if they can’t find what they are looking for. Amazon has a number of techniques to overcome the low switching costs. They offer their customers added value in the form of detailed customer reviews, they have a recommended products list which shows customers what similar products they might want to buy, they offer an affiliate program to make customers feel part of the company and finally they have an easy to use purchasing process (Nielson and Norman, 2008). These features combined make for a more pleasant and easier shopping experience. Maguire (2004) adds some further ideas to those outlined by Nielson and Norman above. He discusses the importance of details such as entering credit card numbers. He says that numbers should be broken up into blocks of four just like they are broken up on the card. As Nielson and Norman (2008) outline getting the perfect website design for your e-store is not easy. They stress the need to “observe real customers as they actually use the site”. They say this is the best way to make your e-store easy to use and to improve your conversion rate.

Meanwhile, most e-shoppers’ expectation rose and their satisfaction with e-tailors declined. In addition, only a small portion of the e-customers are repeat customers. The exponential increases in online shopping and the rapid growth in the number of retailers selling online have made the marketplace extremely competitive. In addition, the collapse of large numbers of dot.com companies has required managers to relearn that profits indeed do matter. Service profit chain model asserts that satisfied customers tend to purchase more, increasing the revenue and profits of the organization and customer satisfaction is a critical intervening variable in the model. The literatures revealed that satisfaction is considered as an immediate and important factor affecting online shoppers’ loyalty to e-tailors. Loyal customers can bring many benefits to a firm including a continuous stream of profit

Most companies try their best to continually satisfy their customers because customer satisfaction seems to be an important barometer of customer’s behavioral intentions and has been regarded as an important antecedent of loyalty. In recent marketing research, the measures of perceived quality, satisfaction, and loyalty on behalf of customers have been used to assess firm’s productivity and its marketing performance in the service industry. Consumer satisfaction has been the subject of much attention in the literature because of its potential influence on consumer behavioral intention and customer retention. Similarly, in a B2C channel satisfaction model, satisfaction is considered as an important construct because it affects participants’ motivation to stay with the channel. Online service quality may impact e-tail success through online customer satisfaction and loyalty. Although the relationship between satisfaction and loyalty seems almost intuitive, the relationship has been found vary significantly under different conditions. An understanding of the role, specifically, the mediating role of the satisfaction in the model including perceived quality, satisfaction, and loyalty must be a basic parameter used to evaluate the performance of products and services. Few studies have investigated these issues in an online shopping context, so this study employs an extended model as a conceptual framework to examine the effects of e-quality on website consumer satisfaction and loyalty and explain consumers’ behavioral intentions.

Next years will see more interactive and media rich online stores; more e-commerce through social networks and mobile commerce (m-commerce). More push selling based on consumers’ profiles, needs, and social comments. Marketplaces will become more regular consolidating stores to a common shopping basket for ease of use and security reasons (Tapscott, 2008).