Search results for: book of proverbs
Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 370

Search results for: book of proverbs

220 A Theoretical and Corpus-Based Analysis of English and Spanish Syntax Derived from Método de Los Relojes Verb Types According to Systemic-Functional Grammar as a Foundation for Methodological Adaption

Authors: Timothy William Lawrence

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The goal of this paper is to research and categorize the four basic verb types found in the Spanish descriptive grammar book Método de los Relojes using verb clauses as representation as found in M.A.K. Halliday's Systemic-Functional Grammar with the purpose of establishing theoretical along with syntactical parallels and deviations between English and Spanish. Results confirm theoretical correlations exist therefore leading to an analysis of English grammar syntax resulting in delineating commonalities and differences from Spanish. Corpora searches were carried out on different patterns of syntactical structures confirming divergences in verb syntax, making it possible to establish parameters to adapt English verbs to the criteria of the four basic Método de los Relojes verb types.

Keywords: corpus studies, Método de los Relojes, structural-functional grammar, verb syntax

Procedia PDF Downloads 160
219 The Design and Implementation of Interactive Storybook Reading to Develop the Reading Comprehension of ESL Learners

Authors: A. van Staden, A. A. van Rhyn

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The numerous challenges South African, ESL learners experience were highlighted by the results of several literacy surveys and tests, which demonstrated that our learners’ literacy abilities are far below standard and very weak compared to other international countries. This study developed and implemented an interactive storybook intervention program to support the reading development of ESL learners. The researchers utilized an experimental pre-test/post-test research design, whereby 80 ESL learners from five participating schools, were purposively sampled to take part in this study. This paper, inter alia, discusses the key features of this intervention program whilst also reporting the results of the experimental investigation. Results are promising and show a significant improvement in the mean scores of the learners in the experimental group. Moreover, the results show the value of interactive storybook reading in creating responsive literacy environments to develop the literacy skills of ESL learners.

Keywords: ESL learners, reading comprehension, Interactive story book reading, South Africa

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218 Translation Quality Assessment: Proposing a Linguistic-Based Model for Translation Criticism with Considering Ideology and Power Relations

Authors: Mehrnoosh Pirhayati

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In this study, the researcher tried to propose a model of Translation Criticism (TC) regarding the phenomenon of Translation Quality Assessment (TQA). With changing the general view on re/writing as an illegal act, the researcher defined a scale for the act of translation and determined the redline of translation with other products. This research attempts to show TC as a related phenomenon to TQA. This study shows that TQA with using the rules and factors of TC as depicted in both product-oriented analysis and process-oriented analysis, determines the orientation or the level of the quality of translation. This study also depicts that TC, regarding TQA’s perspective, reveals the aim of the translation of original text and the root of ideological manipulation and re/writing. On the other hand, this study stresses the existence of a direct relationship between the linguistic materials and semiotic codes of a text or book. This study can be fruitful for translators, scholars, translation criticizers, and translation quality assessors, and also it is applicable in the area of pedagogy.

Keywords: a model of translation criticism, a model of translation quality assessment, critical discourse analysis (CDA), re/writing, translation criticism (TC), translation quality assessment (TQA)

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217 Georgiana G. King’s the Way of Saint James a Pioneer Cultural Guide of a Pilgrimage Route

Authors: Paula Pita Galán

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In 1920 Georgiana Goddard King, an Art Historian and Professor at Bryn Mawr College (PA, USA) published The Way of Saint James (New York: P.G. Putnam’s Sons), one of the earliest modern guides of this pilgrimage route. In its three volumes the author described the towns and villages crossed by the Camino, talking about the history, traditions, monuments, and the people that she had met during her own pilgrimage between 1911 and 1914, travelling with funds of the Hispanic Society of New York. The cultural interest that motivated the journey explains how King intertwines in her narration history, anthropology, geography, art history and religion, giving as a result a book targeted to intellectuals, curious travelers and tourist rather than to pilgrims, in a moment in which the pilgrimage to Santiago had almost disappeared as a practice. The Way of Saint James is barely known nowadays so the aim of this research is disseminate it, focusing on the modernity of its approach and pointing at the link that it has with Georgiana King’s understanding of art as a product of the culture and civilization that produces it.

Keywords: Spanish cultural heritage, Georgiana Goddard king, pilgrimage, the way of Saint James

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216 An Interdisciplinary Approach to Investigating Style: A Case Study of a Chinese Translation of Gilbert’s (2006) Eat Pray Love

Authors: Elaine Y. L. Ng

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Elizabeth Gilbert’s (2006) biography Eat, Pray, Love describes her travels to Italy, India, and Indonesia after a painful divorce. The author’s experiences with love, loss, search for happiness, and meaning have resonated with a huge readership. As regards the translation of Gilbert’s (2006) Eat, Pray, Love into Chinese, it was first translated by a Taiwanese translator He Pei-Hua and published in Taiwan in 2007 by Make Boluo Wenhua Chubanshe with the fairly catching title “Enjoy! Traveling Alone.” The same translation was translocated to China, republished in simplified Chinese characters by Shanxi Shifan Daxue Chubanshe in 2008 and renamed in China, entitled “To Be a Girl for the Whole Life.” Later on, the same translation in simplified Chinese characters was reprinted by Hunan Wenyi Chubanshe in 2013. This study employs Munday’s (2002) systemic model for descriptive translation studies to investigate the translation of Gilbert’s (2006) Eat, Pray, Love into Chinese by the Taiwanese translator Hu Pei-Hua. It employs an interdisciplinary approach, combining systemic functional linguistics and corpus stylistics with sociohistorical research within a descriptive framework to study the translator’s discursive presence in the text. The research consists of three phases. The first phase is to locate the target text within its socio-cultural context. The target-text context concerning the para-texts, readers’ responses, and the publishers’ orientation will be explored. The second phase is to compare the source text and the target text for the categorization of translation shifts by using the methodological tools of systemic functional linguistics and corpus stylistics. The investigation concerns the rendering of mental clauses and speech and thought presentation. The final phase is an explanation of the causes of translation shifts. The linguistic findings are related to the extra-textual information collected in an effort to ascertain the motivations behind the translator’s choices. There exist sets of possible factors that may have contributed to shaping the textual features of the given translation within a specific socio-cultural context. The study finds that the translator generally reproduces the mental clauses and speech and thought presentation closely according to the original. Nevertheless, the language of the translation has been widely criticized to be unidiomatic and stiff, losing the elegance of the original. In addition, the several Chinese translations of the given text produced by one Taiwanese and two Chinese publishers are basically the same. They are repackaged slightly differently, mainly with the change of the book cover and its captions for each version. By relating the textual findings to the extra-textual data of the study, it is argued that the popularity of the Chinese translation of Gilbert’s (2006) Eat, Pray, Love may not be attributed to the quality of the translation. Instead, it may have to do with the way the work is promoted strategically by the social media manipulated by the four e-bookstores promoting and selling the book online in China.

Keywords: chinese translation of eat pray love, corpus stylistics, motivations for translation shifts, systemic approach to translation studies

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215 Ancient Latin Language and Haiku Poetry: A Case Study between Teaching and Translation Studies

Authors: Arianna Sacerdoti

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The translation of Haiku Poetry into Latin is fundamentally experimental in nature. One of the first seminal books containing such translations, alongside translations into different modern languages, 'A Piedi Scalzi', was written by Tartamella in 2016. The results of a text-oriented study of this book will be commented upon and analyzed. The author Arianna Sacerdoti made similar translations with high school student. Such an experiment garners interest across a diverse range of disciplines such as teaching, translation studies, and classics reception studies. The methodology employed is text-oriented as the Haiku poem translations will be commented on by considering their relationship with the original. The results of this investigation, conducted within the field of experimental teaching, are expected to confirm the usefulness of this approach to the teaching of Latin and its potential to actively involve students in identifying the diachronic differences between the world of classical antiquity and the contemporary one.

Keywords: ancient latin, Haiku, translation studies, reception of classics

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214 Liquidity and Cash Management in Business-A Key to Business Survival and Growth: The Nigerian Case

Authors: Ugbor Raphael Oluchukwu

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Focusing on liquidity comes more naturally to a Chief Executive Officer than an Accountant who is trained to practice accrual accounting. When business is just commencing, it is essentially run on a cheque book (cash accounting) and for as long as there is cash in the accounts, the business is solvent. When complexity sets in and the business adopts financial accounting, the effect of liquidity and cash management becomes more pronounced. The management of cash no doubts impacts positively on the survival and growth of firms. What is in doubt is the amount of cash to be held by a firm as enough cash to enable the firm stay “afloat”. The focus of this paper is to determine liquidity and cash management in business, the Nigerian case. The specific objectives of the study are to do a theoretical review of the amount of cash to be held by a firm as enough cash to enable it stay afloat and to do a theoretical analysis to show the effect of cash flow on the survival and growth of firms in Nigeria.

Keywords: cash, firm survival, growth, liquidity management

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213 Indigenous Children Doing Better through Mother Tongue Based Early Childhood Care and Development Center in Chittagong Hill Tracts, Bangladesh

Authors: Meherun Nahar

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Background:The Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) is one of the most diverse regions in Bangladesh in terms of geography, ethnicity, culture and traditions of the people and home of thirteen indigenous ethnic people. In Bangladesh indigenous children aged 6-10 years remain out of school, and the majority of those who do enroll drop out before completing primary school. According to different study that the dropout rate of indigenous children is much higher than the estimated national rate, children dropping out especially in the early years of primary school. One of the most critical barriers for these children is that they do not understand the national language in the government pre-primary school. And also their school readiness and development become slower. In this situation, indigenous children excluded from the mainstream quality education. To address this issue Save the children in Bangladesh and other organizations are implementing community-based Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education program (MTBMLE) in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) for improving the enrolment rate in Government Primary Schools (GPS) reducing dropout rate as well as quality education. In connection with that Save the children conducted comparative research in Chittagong hill tracts on children readiness through Mother tongue-based and Non-mother tongue ECCD center. Objectives of the Study To assess Mother Language based ECCD centers and Non-Mother language based ECCD centers children’s school readiness and development. To assess the community perception over Mother Language based and Non-Mother Language based ECCD center. Methodology: The methodology of the study was FGD, KII, In-depth Interview and observation. Both qualitative and quantitative research methods were followed. The quantitative part has three components, School Readiness, Classroom observation and Headteacher interview and qualitative part followed FGD technique. Findings: The interviews with children under school readiness component showed that in general, Mother Language (ML) based ECCD children doing noticeably better in all four areas (Knowledge, numeracy, fine motor skill and communication) than their peers from Non-mother language based children. ML students seem to be far better skilled in concepts about print as most of them could identify cover and title of the book that was shown to them. They could also know from where to begin to read the book or could correctly point the letter that was read. A big difference was found in the area of identifying letters as 89.3% ML students of could identify letters correctly whereas for Non mother language 30% could do the same. The class room observation data shows that ML children are more active and remained engaged in the classroom than NML students. Also, teachers of ML appeared to have more engaged in explaining issues relating to general knowledge or leading children in rhyming/singing other than telling something from text books. The participants of FGDs were very enthusiastic on using mother language as medium of teaching in pre-schools. They opined that this initiative elates children to attend school and enables them to continue primary schooling without facing any language barrier.

Keywords: Chittagong hill tracts, early childhood care and development (ECCD), indigenous, mother language

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212 Assisting Dating of Greek Papyri Images with Deep Learning

Authors: Asimina Paparrigopoulou, John Pavlopoulos, Maria Konstantinidou

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Dating papyri accurately is crucial not only to editing their texts but also for our understanding of palaeography and the history of writing, ancient scholarship, material culture, networks in antiquity, etc. Most ancient manuscripts offer little evidence regarding the time of their production, forcing papyrologists to date them on palaeographical grounds, a method often criticized for its subjectivity. By experimenting with data obtained from the Collaborative Database of Dateable Greek Bookhands and the PapPal online collections of objectively dated Greek papyri, this study shows that deep learning dating models, pre-trained on generic images, can achieve accurate chronological estimates for a test subset (67,97% accuracy for book hands and 55,25% for documents). To compare the estimates of these models with those of humans, experts were asked to complete a questionnaire with samples of literary and documentary hands that had to be sorted chronologically by century. The same samples were dated by the models in question. The results are presented and analysed.

Keywords: image classification, papyri images, dating

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211 Determining the Constituents of the Sunnah of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) in the Light of the Quran: A Clinical Approach

Authors: Aamir I. Yazdani, Dr. Muhammad Nasir J. Qureshi

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The term Sunnah has been used both, for Allah Himself and for his messengers in the Quran. The way Allah dealt with people where the messengers (rasuls) were sent is called Sunnatullāh by the Quran. Likewise, the same term is used in the Quran, for Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) as in following the trodden path (Sunnah) of his forefather Prophet Abraham, Alaihissalam. It implies; therefore, the word Sunnah cannot be applied to things which relates to theoretical knowledge like faith etc. Its ambit remains the practices, actions linked to practical things only. In the case of the Quran, we find that there is complete agreement among all Muslims on what constitutes the book of Allah, based on ijma (unanimity, total agreement, consensus) and tawatur (uninterrupted continuity, without any gap). There seems to be no unanimity on the question on what constitutes Sunnah of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). There are, therefore, several approaches towards Sunnah adopted by Muslims. This paper is based on Qualitative Methodology to determine the criterion of what constitutes the Sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) and which practices constitute the precincts of the Sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh).

Keywords: Al-hikmah, Hereafter, practices, Tazkiya

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210 Building Resilience to El Nino Related Flood Events in Northern Peru Using a Structured Facilitation Approach to Interdisciplinary Problem Solving

Authors: Roger M. Wall, David G. Proverbs, Yamina Silva, Danny Scipion

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This paper critically reviews the outcomes of a 4 day workshop focused on building resilience to El Niño related Flood Events in northern Perú. The workshop was run jointly by Birmingham City University (BCU) in partnership with Instituto Geofísico del Perú (IGP) and was hosted by the Universidad de Piura (UDEP). The event took place in August 2018 and was funded by the Newton-Paulet fund administered by the British Council. The workshop was a response to the severe flooding experienced in Piura during the El Niño event of March 2017 which damaged over 100,000 homes and destroyed much local infrastructure including around 100 bridges. El Niño is a recurrent event and there is concern that its frequency and intensity may change in the future as a consequence of climate change. A group of 40 early career researchers and practitioners from the UK and Perú were challenged with working together across disciplines to identify key cross-cutting themes and make recommendations for building resilience to similar future events. Key themes identified on day 1 of the workshop were governance; communities; risk information; river management; urban planning; health; and infrastructure. A field study visit took place on day 2 so that attendees could gain first-hand experience of affected and displaced communities. Each of the themes was then investigated in depth on day 3 by small interdisciplinary teams drawing on their own expertise, local knowledge and the experiences of the previous day’s field trip. Teams were responsible for developing frameworks for analysis of their chosen theme and presenting their findings to the whole group. At this point, teams worked together to develop links between the different themes so that an integrated approach could be developed and presented on day 4. This paper describes the approaches taken by each team and the way in which these were integrated to form an holistic picture of the whole system. The findings highlighted the importance of risk-related information and the need for strong governance structures to enforce planning regulations and development. The structured facilitation approach proved to be very effective and it is recommended that the process be repeated with a broader group of stakeholders from across the region.

Keywords: El Niño, integrated flood risk management, Perú, structured facilitation, systems approach, resilience

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209 The Comparative Effect of Practicing Self-Assessment and Critical Thinking Skills on EFL Learners’ Writing Ability

Authors: Behdokht Mall-Amiri, Sara Farzaminejad

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The purpose of the present study was to discover which of the two writing activities, a self-assessment questioner or a critical thinking skills handout, is more effective on Iranian EFL learners’ writing ability. To fulfill the purpose of the study, a sample of 120 undergraduate students of English SAT for a standardized sample of PET. Eighty-two students whose scores fell one standard deviation above and below the sample mean were selected and randomly divided into two equal groups. One group practiced self-assessment and the other group practiced critical thinking skills while they were learning process writing. A writing posttest was finally administered to the students in both groups and the mean rank scores were compared by t-test. The result led to the rejection of the null hypothesis, indicating that practicing critical thinking skills had a significantly higher effect on the writing ability. The implications of the study for students and teachers as well as course book designers are discussed.

Keywords: writing ability, process writing, critical thinking skills, self-assessment

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208 Asymmetric Relation between Earnings and Returns

Authors: Seungmin Chee

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This paper investigates which of the two arguments, conservatism or liquidation option, is a true underlying driver of the asymmetric slope coefficient result regarding the association between earnings and returns. The analysis of the relation between earnings and returns in four mutually exclusive settings segmented by ‘profits vs. losses’ and ‘positive returns vs. negative returns’ suggests that liquidation option rather than conservatism is likely to cause the asymmetric slope coefficient result. Furthermore, this paper documents the temporal changes between Basu period (1963-1990) and post-Basu period (1990-2005). Although no significant change in degree of conservatism or value relevance of losses is reported, stronger negative relation between losses and positive returns is observed in the post-Basu period. Separate regression analysis of each quintile based on the rankings of price to sales ratio and book to market ratio suggests that the strong negative relation is driven by growth firms.

Keywords: conservatism, earnings, liquidation option, returns

Procedia PDF Downloads 348
207 Rawson vs. Kerlogue: Two Views on Southeast Asian Art History

Authors: Rin Li Si Samantha

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The arts and cultures of Southeast Asia, particularly ancient or precolonial Southeast Asia, are commonly understood via two distinct theories: Indianisation and localisation. Indianisation takes Southeast Asia as a region to be cultural satellites or even colonies of a great Indian civilisation; Philip Rawson, in his 1967 book The Art of Southeast Asia, is to a large degree a proponent of this perspective. Localisation, a theory which has gained much traction in contemporaneous discourse, chooses instead to privilege local continuities and agencies in selectively accepting and adapting foreign influences to give form to new, syncretised traditions. The art historian Fiona Kerlogue’ similarly-named Arts of Southeast Asia, published in 2004, takes this perspective as its bedrock. This essay compares the many opposing ideological commitments of Rawson and Kerlogue: Indianisation versus localisation, evaluation versus explanation, and antiquity versus entirety. In the end, it reconciles the two as hallmarks of their time periods and is complementary in the pursuit of a holistic study of the art history of Southeast Asia.

Keywords: art history, Southeast Asia, Indianisation, localisation, precolonial, orientalism, comparative analysis, text

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206 The Effectiveness of Using MS SharePoint for the Curriculum Repository System

Authors: Misook Ahn

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This study examines the Institutional Curriculum Repository (ICR) developed with MS SharePoint. The purpose of using MS SharePoint is to organize, share, and manage the curriculum data. The ICR aims to build a centralized curriculum infrastructure, preserve all curriculum materials, and provide academic service to users (faculty, students, or other agencies). The ICR collection includes core language curriculum materials developed by each language school—foreign language textbooks, language survival kits, and audio files currently in or not in use at the schools. All core curriculum materials with audio and video files have been coded, collected, and preserved at the ICR. All metadata for the collected curriculum materials have been input by language, code, year, book type, level, user, version, and current status (in use/not in use). The qualitative content analysis, including the survey data, is used to evaluate the effectiveness of using MS SharePoint for the repository system. This study explains how to manage and preserve curriculum materials with MS SharePoint, along with challenges and suggestions for further research. This study will be beneficial to other universities or organizations considering archiving or preserving educational materials.

Keywords: digital preservation, ms sharepoint, repository, curriculum materials

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205 Unveiling the Linguistic Pathways to Environmental Consciousness: An Eco Linguistic Study in the Algerian

Authors: Toumi Khamari

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This abstract presents an ecolinguistic investigation of the role of language in cultivating environmental consciousness within the Algerian context. Grounded in the field of applied linguistics, this study aims to explore how language shapes perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors related to the environment in Algeria. By examining linguistic practices and discourse patterns, this research sheds light on the potential for language to inspire ecological sustainability and foster environmental awareness. Employing a qualitative research design, the study incorporates discourse analysis and ethnographic methods to analyze language use and its environmental implications. Drawing from Algerian linguistic and cultural contexts, we investigate the unique ways in which language reflects and influences environmental consciousness among Algerian individuals and communities. This research explores the impact of linguistic features, metaphors, and narratives on environmental perceptions, addressing the complex interplay between language, culture, and the natural world. Previous studies have emphasized the significance of language in shaping environmental ideologies and worldviews. In the Algerian context, linguistic representations of nature, such as traditional proverbs and indigenous knowledge, hold immense potential in cultivating a harmonious relationship between humans and the environment. This research delves into the multifaceted connections between language, cultural heritage, and ecological sustainability, aiming to identify linguistic practices that promote environmental stewardship and conservation in Algeria. Furthermore, the study investigates the effectiveness of ecolinguistic interventions tailored to the Algerian context. By examining the impact of eco-education programs, eco-literature, and language-based environmental campaigns, we aim to uncover the potential of language as a catalyst for transformative environmental change. These interventions seek to engage Algerian individuals and communities in dialogue, empowering them to take active roles in environmental advocacy and decision-making processes. Through this research, we contribute to the field of ecolinguistics by shedding light on the Algerian perspective and its implications for environmental consciousness. By understanding the linguistic dynamics at play and leveraging Algeria's rich linguistic heritage, we can foster environmental awareness, encourage sustainable practices, and nurture a deeper appreciation for Algeria's unique ecological landscapes. Ultimately, this research seeks to inspire a collective commitment to environmental stewardship and contribute to the global discourse on language, culture, and the environment.

Keywords: eco-linguistics, environmental consciousness, language and culture, Algeria and North Africa

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204 Holy Quran’s Hermeneutics from Self-Referentiality to the Quran by Quran’s Interpretation

Authors: Mohammad Ba’azm

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The self-referentiality method as the missing ring of the Qur’an by Qur’an’s interpretation has a precise application at the level of the Quranic vocabulary, but after entering the domain of the verses, chapters and the whole Qur’an, it reveals its defect. Self-referentiality cannot show the clear concept of the Quranic scriptures, unlike the Qur’an by Qur’an’s interpretation method that guides us to the comprehension and exact hermeneutics. The Qur’an by Qur’an’s interpretation is a solid way of comprehension of the verses of the Qur'an and does not use external resources to provide implications and meanings with different theoretical and practical supports. In this method, theoretical supports are based on the basics and modalities that support and validate the legitimacy and validity of the interpretive method discussed, and the practical supports also relate to the practitioners of the religious elite. The combination of these two methods illustrates the exact understanding of the Qur'an at the level of Quranic verses, chapters, and the whole Qur’an. This study by examining the word 'book' in the Qur'an shows the difference between the two methods, and the necessity of attachment of these, in order to attain a desirable level for comprehensions meaning of the Qur'an. In this article, we have proven that by aspects of the meaning of the Quranic words, we cannot say any word has an exact meaning.

Keywords: Qur’an’s hermeneutic, self-referentiality, The Qur’an by Qur’an’s Interpretation, polysemy

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203 Social Media, Networks and Related Technology: Business and Governance Perspectives

Authors: M. A. T. AlSudairi, T. G. K. Vasista

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The concept of social media is becoming the top of the agenda for many business executives and public sector executives today. Decision makers as well as consultants, try to identify ways in which firms and enterprises can make profitable use of social media and network related applications such as Wikipedia, Face book, YouTube, Google+, Twitter. While it is fun and useful to participating in this media and network for achieving the communication effectively and efficiently, semantic and sentiment analysis and interpretation becomes a crucial issue. So, the objective of this paper is to provide literature review on social media, network and related technology related to semantics and sentiment or opinion analysis covering business and governance perspectives. In this regard, a case study on the use and adoption of Social media in Saudi Arabia has been discussed. It is concluded that semantic web technology play a significant role in analyzing the social networks and social media content for extracting the interpretational knowledge towards strategic decision support.

Keywords: CRASP methodology, formative assessment, literature review, semantic web services, social media, social networks

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202 Evaluating Gender Sensitivity and Policy: Case Study of an EFL Textbook in Armenia

Authors: Ani Kojoyan

Abstract:

Linguistic studies have been investigating a connection between gender and linguistic development since 1970s. Scholars claim that gender differences in first and second language learning are socially constructed. Recent studies to language learning and gender reveal that second language acquisition is also a social phenomenon directly influencing one’s gender identity. Those responsible for designing language learning-teaching materials should be encouraged to understand the importance of and address the gender sensitivity accurately in textbooks. Writing or compiling a textbook is not an easy task; it requires strong academic abilities, patience, and experience. For a long period of time Armenia has been involved in the compilation process of a number of foreign language textbooks. However, there have been very few discussions or evaluations of those textbooks which will allow specialists to theorize that practice. The present paper focuses on the analysis of gender sensitivity issues and policy aspects involved in an EFL textbook. For the research the following material has been considered – “A Basic English Grammar: Morphology”, first printed in 2011. The selection of the material is not accidental. First, the mentioned textbook has been widely used in university teaching over years. Secondly, in Armenia “A Basic English Grammar: Morphology” has considered one of the most successful English grammar textbooks in a university teaching environment and served a source-book for other authors to compile and design their textbooks. The present paper aims to find out whether an EFL textbook is gendered in the Armenian teaching environment, and whether the textbook compilers are aware of gendered messages while compiling educational materials. It also aims at investigating students’ attitude toward the gendered messages in those materials. And finally, it also aims at increasing the gender sensitivity among book compilers and educators in various educational settings. For this study qualitative and quantitative research methods of analyses have been applied, the quantitative – in terms of carrying out surveys among students (45 university students, 18-25 age group), and the qualitative one – by discourse analysis of the material and conducting in-depth and semi-structured interviews with the Armenian compilers of the textbook (interviews with 3 authors). The study is based on passive and active observations and teaching experience done in a university classroom environment in 2014-2015, 2015-2016. The findings suggest that the discussed and analyzed teaching materials (145 extracts and examples) include traditional examples of intensive use of language and role-modelling, particularly, men are mostly portrayed as active, progressive, aggressive, whereas women are often depicted as passive and weak. These modeled often serve as a ‘reliable basis’ for reinforcing the traditional roles that have been projected on female and male students. The survey results also show that such materials contribute directly to shaping learners’ social attitudes and expectations around issues of gender. The applied techniques and discussed issues can be generalized and applied to other foreign language textbook compilation processes, since those principles, regardless of a language, are mostly the same.

Keywords: EFL textbooks, gender policy, gender sensitivity, qualitative and quantitative research methods

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201 Transporting the Setting of the Beloved Musical, Peter Pan, to Colonial India

Authors: R. Roznowski

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This paper is an examination of a recent Michigan State University production of the classic musical, Peter Pan. In this production, approved by the licensor, the action was moved to Colonial India transforming the musical’s message to include themes of cultural identity, racism, classism and ultimately inclusion. Major character changes and casting decisions expanded the scope of the musical while still retaining the original book and score. Major changes included reframing the Darlings as British Colonials stationed in India. The Lost Boy’s as mixed race children of British officials and their Indian nannies, the Pirates were a female 'fishing fleet' a group of women sent from England to keep the British soldiers from mixing with the locals and the Michigan State University Bhangra Dance Team played the Indians in the production. Traditional Indian theatrical techniques were also employed in the storytelling. The presentation will cover the key changes to the musical, the rehearsal process, historical accuracy and audience reaction. A final analysis of cultural appropriation versus historical reframing will be examined.

Keywords: directing, history, musical theatre, producing

Procedia PDF Downloads 220
200 Isotype and Logical Positivism: A Critical Understanding through Intersemiotic Translation

Authors: Satya Girish Goparaju, Sushmita Pareek

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This paper examines two sets of pictograms published in Neurath’s books Basic by Isotype and International Pictorial Language in order to investigate the reasons for pictorial language having become an end in itself despite its potential to be relevant, especially in the 21st century digital age of heightened interlingual engagement. ISOTYPE was developed by Otto Neurath to be an ‘international language’ (pictorial) in the late 1920s. It was derived from the philosophy of logical positivism (of the Vienna Circle), which believed that language can be reduced to sets of direct experiences as bare symbols, devoid of the emotive and expressive functions. In his book International Picture Language, Neurath noted that any language is less clear-cut in one or the other way, and hence the pictorial language was justified. However, Isotype, as an ambitious version of logical positivism in practice distanced itself from the semiotic theories of language, and therefore his pictograms were defined as an independent set of signs rather than signs as a part of the language. This paper attempts to investigate intersemiotic translation in the form of Isotypes and trace the effects of logical positivism on Neurath’s concept of isotypes; the ‘international language’.

Keywords: intersemiotic translation, isotype, logical positivism, Otto Neurath, translation studies

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199 A Desire for Solitude or an Escape from Solitude: A Sociological Study of One Hundred Years of Solitude with the Principles of Emile Durkheim’s Suicide through the Theme Solitude

Authors: Omur Sercan Oral

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In this paper, the individual and social conflicts are examined with a sociological perspective during the social process of Macondo described in the post-modern book of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude. More specifically, the theme of the solitude of individuals who choose to be isolated and who are isolated is studied within the context of the suicide of Emile Durkheim. As a self-reflective product of individuals in the result-based process, both economically and socially founded in the text, solitude reflects the ultimate process of separation from society. In this sense, the various and multiplying layers of the collective codes of Macondo as microcosm and their interactions with the individuals are examined in this paper under the roof of suicide in the sociological concept. The attempts to explain the reasons, shift, and its reflections on individuals are carried out to cross the lines of one discipline. In doing that, the ideas of Durkheim, Foucault, Weber, and Clausewitz, to some extent, are planted explicitly and implicitly throughout the paper.

Keywords: Durkheim’s concept of suicide, solitude theme in Marquez, collective consciousness, isolation from society, subjectivity

Procedia PDF Downloads 206
198 Unreality of Real: Debordean Reading of Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl

Authors: Sahand Hamed Moeel Ardebil, Zohreh Taebi Noghondari, Mahmood Reza Ghorban Sabbagh

Abstract:

Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl, depicts a society in which, as a result of media dominance, the reality is very precarious and difficult to grasp. In Gone Girl, reality and image of reality represented on TV, are challenging to differentiate. Along with reality, individuals’ agency and independence before media and the capitalist rule are called in to question in the novel. In order to expose the unstable nature of reality and an individual’s complicated relationship with media, this study has deployed the ideas of Marxist-media theorist Guy Debord (1931-1992). In his book Society of the Spectacle (1966), Debord delineates a society in which images replace the objective reality, and people are incapable of making real changes. The results of the current study show that despite their efforts, Nick and Amy, the two main characters of the novel, are no more than spectators with very little agency before the media. Moreover, following Debord’s argument about the replacement of reality with images, everyone and every institution in Gone Girl projects an image that does not necessarily embody the objective reality, a fact that makes it very hard to differentiate the real from unreal.

Keywords: agency, Debord, Gone Girl, media studies, society of spectacle, reality

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197 The Influence of Negative Online Word of Mouth on Consumer's Online Purchasing Intention in Sri Lanka through Virtual Snowball Sampling Method: A Special Reference from Northern Province

Authors: Sutharsini Jesuthasan, N. Umakanth

Abstract:

Presently the impact of electronic word of mouth on consumer’s purchasing intentions very popular one for a long time period. Even though now this E-WOM got a new evolution through social media. Before this new concept, general people were able to speak with any people on the internet. But likely social media enable people to talk with colleagues, friends and other people on the internet. Meanwhile, this new path way of E-WOM might be more powerful in terms of confusing purchase intention. And negative side of E-WOM very important in this competitive era. So, this study elaborates the negative E-WOM within the context of social media such as face book. And especially this study identifies the influence of negative E-WOM in social media on consumer’s purchase intention. Virtual snowball sampling method was used by researcher to identify the hidden population. Finally, spss 20.0 also used for data analysis purpose. And conclusion and recommendations are given based on the findings. And this research also will support to both parties such as researcher and participants.

Keywords: word of mouth, social media, purchase intention, electronic word of mouth

Procedia PDF Downloads 122
196 Bible of Hospitality: Considering the Hotel Business through the Prism of the Evangelical Approach

Authors: Rimma Kiseleva

Abstract:

The hotel business has a long history. The basis of the service of hospitality industry enterprises is the service, attitude, and consciousness of employees as hospitable “hosts of the house”. It is generally accepted that the founder and main expert of quality service is Caesar Ritz, “the king of hoteliers and the hotelier of kings.” However when deeply immersed in the history of the universe, it turns out that the very first book about hospitality, standardization of guest reception processes and the basics of better service is nothing more than the Bible. A unique study on the topic of considering the Church as a hotel, as well as the hotel business itself as the most gracious work of Jesus Christ Himself, which is confirmed by verses from the Gospel, includes the following approaches: analytical, comparative, empirical. The study shows that it was Jesus Christ who became the founder of the rules of the most sacrificial service, real service to people, filled with brotherly love, humility, love for strangers, those qualities that are the foundation, the “three pillars” of the hospitality industry. And also that the hotel is the most charitable cause, which is still relevant today.

Keywords: Augustine Aurelius, Bible, Gospel, guest house, hospitality, hotel, humility, inn, Jesus Christ, Joseph Fletcher, New Testament, Paul Tillich, service, strangeness

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195 An Empirical Examination of the Determinant of the Financial CEOs’ Compensation for the Post-Financial Crisis Period

Authors: Eunsup Daniel Shim, Jooh Lee

Abstract:

The US financial crisis of 2008 and subsequent Global Financial Crisis were considered by many economists the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s. As a results, Dodd-Frank Act has passed and aims '(1) to promote the financial stability of the United States by improving accountability and transparency in the financial system, to end "too big to fail", (2) to protect the American taxpayer by ending bailouts, (3) to protect consumers from abusive financial services practices, and for other purposes.' The enactment of Dodd-Frank Act, in part, intended to significantly influence accountability on executive compensation especially for the financial institutions. This paper empirically investigates the changes in Financial CEOs’ compensation since the Financial Crisis of 2008. Our findings show that in the post- Financial Crisis period financial leverage is significant factor influencing the CEOs’ total compensation. In addition market based performance such as stock price and market-to-book ratio shows significant positive relationship with CEO compensation. This change can be interpreted an attempt to reduce opportunistic behavior of top executives after the financial crisis and the enactment of the Dodd-Frank Act.

Keywords: financial CEO compensation, firm performance, financial crisis of 2008, dodd-frank act

Procedia PDF Downloads 492
194 Comparing Bestseller Books in Japanese Public Libraries Managed by Outsourcing and by Local Governments

Authors: Yuhiro Mizunuma, Keita Tsuji

Abstract:

In Japan, local governments have long managed public libraries; however, organizations including private enterprises took over their management with the introduction of an outsourcing system in 2003. Now, whether local governments should apply this system to public libraries is under discussion, and many argue that it is inappropriate for public libraries. In this study, to provide basic data for such discussions, the differences between public libraries managed by outsourcing (henceforth, 'outsourcing libraries') and those managed directly by local governments (henceforth 'direct management libraries') were examined, focusing on bestsellers. We chose the 435 books on the top-20 bestseller lists published from 1996 to 2015 inclusive, as our sample bestseller books; and 413 outsourcing libraries' and 2,619 direct management libraries' holdings of them were investigated using the Calil API (a free Web service that can perform cross-library searches on libraries in Japan). Results show that outsourcing libraries tend to hold fewer bestsellers than direct management libraries. It was also found that direct management libraries tend to hold many duplicates of bestsellers, and that, in many cases, many of those were not being borrowed in direct management libraries.

Keywords: bestseller books, book collection, Japanese public libraries, outsourcing

Procedia PDF Downloads 195
193 E-Book: An Essential Tool for Promoting Reading and Learning Amongst Students of Niger State College of Education, Minna

Authors: Abdulkadir Mustapha Gana, Musa Baba Adamu, Edimeh Augustine Jr

Abstract:

There are growing concerns over the astronomical decline inquality of teaching and learning amongst youths especially in developing countries, and handful research have been conducted in this regard. However, results from many of these studies revealed similar findings which all pointed to the steady decline in quality of teaching and learning across the globe. One common factor attributed for this drawback was the new media due to the evolution and advancement of technology as studies have revealed. In the beginning, what was then the new media (broadcast media of radio and television) was singled out as being responsible for diverting people’s attention from reading; particularly television. At present times, it was revealed that the social media and internet connectivity were responsible for diverting the attention of many, thus distracting attentions from reading. However, it is pertinent to note that the devastating effects, social media platforms have a couple of tools that could improve reading by extension teaching and learning amongst students. Therefore, this study reviewed the literature on the advantageous aspect of social media to reading and learning; whilst laying emphasis on how youths can utilize social media to improve their reading habits.

Keywords: ebook, reading, learning, students

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192 Order Optimization of a Telecommunication Distribution Center through Service Lead Time

Authors: Tamás Hartványi, Ferenc Tóth

Abstract:

European telecommunication distribution center performance is measured by service lead time and quality. Operation model is CTO (customized to order) namely, a high mix customization of telecommunication network equipment and parts. CTO operation contains material receiving, warehousing, network and server assembly to order and configure based on customer specifications. Variety of the product and orders does not support mass production structure. One of the success factors to satisfy customer is to have a proper aggregated planning method for the operation in order to have optimized human resources and highly efficient asset utilization. Research will investigate several methods and find proper way to have an order book simulation where practical optimization problem may contain thousands of variables and the simulation running times of developed algorithms were taken into account with high importance. There are two operation research models that were developed, customer demand is given in orders, no change over time, customer demands are given for product types, and changeover time is constant.

Keywords: CTO, aggregated planning, demand simulation, changeover time

Procedia PDF Downloads 237
191 Alienation in Somecontemporary Anglo Arab Novels

Authors: Atef Abdallah Abouelmaaty

Abstract:

The aim of this paper is to study the theme of alienation in some contemporary novels of the most prominent Arab writers who live in Britain and write in English. The paper will focus on three female novelists of Arab origins who won wide fame among reading public, and also won international prizes for their literary creation. The first is the Egyptian Ahdaf Soueif(born in 1950) whose novel The Map of Love(1999) was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, and has been translated into twenty one languages and sold over a million copies. The second is the Jordanian Fadia Faqir (born in 1956) whose My Name is Salma(2007) was translated into thirteen languages, and was a runner up for the ALOA literary prize. The third is the Sudanese Leila Aboulela(born in 1964) who The Translator was nominated for the Orange Prize and was chosen as a a notable book of the year by the New York Times in 2006. The main reason of choosing the theme of alienation is that it is the qualifying feature of the above mentioned novels. This is because the theme is clearly projected and we can see different kinds of alienation: alienation of man from himself, alienation of man from other men, and alienation of man from society. The paper is concerned with studying this central theme together with its different forms. Moreover, the paper will try to identify the main causes of this alienation among which are frustrated love, the failure to adjust to change, and ethnic pride.

Keywords: alienation, Anglo-Arab, contemporary, novels

Procedia PDF Downloads 406