Tuesday, March 17, 2020

Crime and prison population essays

Crime and prison population essays The answer to this question is astounding: the U.S. incarcerates 25% of the worlds prison population with only 7% of the worlds population. This is a disturbing anamoly in the history of the world. Never before has a country been able to incarcerate so many people at such a high rate, two million and 1 in 127 respectively. These large numbers are incredibly difficult to think about in meaningful terms. But if you can imagine the population of Los Angeles in 1950; and if you then put all of those people in some type of cage, you are close to contemplating the immensity of the U.S. incarcerated population. The incredibly important and disturbing factor is how fast this occurred. Todays level of roughly two million was achieved mainly since 1980 when there was about 500,000 people incarcerated. California illustrates how this growth has occurred over a relatively short period of time. Since 1977, the California Department of Corrections (CDCs) prison population has increased from 17,338 to 160,655, over a seven hundred percent increse. If you add the people in Californias federal prisons and county jails, California leads the country with around 258,000 people in prison or jail. When we color these numbers, the problem becomes clearer: of the prison population, African Americans constitute almost one third while they represent 6% of the population. Said another way, 1,996 in every 100,000 African American Californians are imprisoned in comparison to the 242 whites in every 100,000. Latinos, proportionally, have suffered the brunt of Californias prison boom. In 1977, 42% of the prison population was white and 22% was Latino. The two groups are approaching a full reversal because today Latinos represent 35% of the state prison population whereas whites now represent 2 9%. A total reversal appears likely if you look at the juvenile halls in Los Angeles County, where 1,100 of the 1,800 ...

Sunday, March 1, 2020

Definition and Types of Illocutionary Force

Definition and Types of Illocutionary Force In speech-act theory, illocutionary force  refers to a speakers intention in delivering an utterance  or to the kind of illocutionary act the speaker is performing. Also known as an illocutionary function  or illocutionary point. In Syntax: Structure, Meaning, and Function (1997), Van Vallin and LaPolla state that illocutionary force refers to whether an utterance is an assertion, a question, a command or an expression of a wish. These are different types of illocutionary force, which means that we can talk about interrogative illocutionary force, imperative illocutionary force, optative illocutionary force, and declarative illocutionary force. The terms illocutionary act and illocutionary force were introduced by British linguistic philosopher John L. Austin in How to Do Things With Words (1962). Examples and Observations Illocutionary Act and Illocutionary Force [A]n illocutionary act refers to the type of function a speaker intends to accomplish in the course of producing an utterance. It is an act accomplished in speaking and defined within a system of social conventions. Thus, if John says to Mary Pass me the glasses, please, he performs the illocutionary act of requesting or ordering Mary to hand the glasses over to him. The functions or actions just mentioned are also referred to as the illocutionary force or illocutionary point of the speech act. The illocutionary force of a speech act is the effect a speech act is intended to have by a speaker. Indeed, the term speech act in its narrow sense is often taken to refer specifically to illocutionary act.(Yan Huang, The Oxford Dictionary of Pragmatics. Oxford University Press, 2012) Illocutionary Force Indicating Devices There are different devices used to indicate how an illocutionary force must be interpreted. For example, Open the door and Could you open the door have the same propositional content (open the door), but they represent different illocutionary acts- an order and a request respectively. These devices that aid the hearer in identifying the illocutionary force of the utterance are referred to as the illocutionary force indicating devices or IFIDs [also called illocutionary force markers]. Performative verbs, mood, word order, intonation, stress are examples of IFIDs.(Elizabeth Flores Salgado,  The Pragmatics of Requests and Apologies. John Benjamins, 2011) I may indicate the kind of illocutionary act I am performing by beginning the sentence with I apologize, I warn, I state, etc. Often, in actual speech situations, the context will make it clear what the illocutionary force of the utterance is, without its being necessary to invoke the appropriate explicit illocutionary force indicator.(John R. Searle,  Speech Acts: An Essay in the Philosophy of Language. Cambridge University Press, 1969) I Was Just Saying That Kenneth Parcell: Im sorry, Mr. Jordan. Im just overworked. With my page duties and being Mr. Donaghys assistant, theres not enough hours in the day.Tracy Jordan: Im sorry about that. But just let me know if theres any way I can help.Kenneth: Actually, there is one thing...Tracy: No! I was just saying that! Why cant you read human facial cues (Jack McBrayer and Tracy Morgan, Cutbacks. 30 Rock, April 9, 2009) Pragmatic Competence Achieving pragmatic competence involves the ability to understand the illocutionary force of an utterance, that is, what a speaker intends by making it. This is particularly important in cross-cultural encounters since the same form (e.g. When are you leaving?) can vary in its illocutionary force depending on the context in which it is made (e.g. May I have a ride with you? or Dont you think it is time for you to go?).(Sandra Lee McKay, Teaching English as an International Language. Oxford University Press, 2002) What I Really Mean When I say how are you to a co-worker, I really mean hello. Although I know what I mean by how are you, it is possible that the receiver does not know that I mean hello and actually proceeds to give me a fifteen-minute discourse on his various maladies.(George Ritzer, Sociology: A Multiple Paradigm Science. Allyn Bacon, 1980)