Transforming Hr Into Strategic Functions Management Essay

Transforming Hr Into Strategic Functions Management Essay High competition, pressure imposed by environmental changes, accelerated trends for change, and new management techniques have caused enterprises to evolve dramatically with respect to their structure as well as cultural and human resources (Garcia, 1997 cited in ).Nowadays, it is important to consider HRM as a strategic dimension within the wider improvement of quality and good marketing position. HRM can be said to be a strategic coherent approach to the management of an organizations most valued assets- the people working there, who individually and collectively contribute to the achievement of its objectives (Armstrong, 2000). The field of strategic human resources management has enjoyed a remarkable ascendancy during the past two decades, as both an academic literature and focus on management practice (Becker Huselid, 2006). The transition from the older HR practice with focus on staff matter to a subject of re-birth which focuses on linking people as organizational asset with the business strategy of the firm (Niehaus, 1995) means that the HR professional is performing a new and more challenging responsibility that requires new competencies and skills. The Human Resource function should be strategically integrated with a companys business plan to help the company achieve its business objectives. The objective of HR professionals is to ensure that HR adds value to strategic planning and business results of the organization (Ulrich, 2001). HR lacks alignment with other departmental goals To be involved with the over-all strategy, HR needs to be aligned with the organization. One Harvard survey found that 80% of HR departments lack a strategic planning process that aligns it spending with the organizations strategy (Norton, 2001). HR needs to become interdependent with the rest of the organization. HR needs to take a comprehensive approach that aligns its actions with the entire organizational strategy. The motivation to correct these HR problems is high because the strategic integration of HR into an organization achieves a competitive advantage. HR has much to contribute in a strategic supporting role. The ultimate goal is for HR to support an organization through the management of human capital, which is the major subset of the broader organizations strategy. HR needs to be part of the organizations strategy development. In order for HR to effectively align itself with the strategy of an organization, it must present top management with solutions that address the s trategic need and support of the organization (Freedman, 2004). Definition of Human Resource Transformation Beer (1997) argued that the HR function needs to shed its traditional administrative role and adopt a new strategic role, aimed at developing the organisation and the capabilities of its managers. The drive towards a more strategic HR function has pre-occupied the profession for some time and HR functions are increasingly under pressure to become a strategic business partner or an internal consultant, to become aligned to the business strategy, demonstrate its added value (Alvares, 1997, p.9), and latterly, to become involved in Human Capital Management. HR professionals aspire to a strategic role because it raises their status, makes their work more interesting, lifts their personal career horizons and (hopefully) is better for the business as a whole. One of the biggest perceived barriers to achieving this strategic role is the amount of time spent on administrative work; although the amount of time spent on administration has been steadily falling over recent years, to 36% from 50 % between 2003 and 2007 (CIPD, 2007a), a Mercer report on the HR function (Mercer, 2007) confirmed that HR teams would like to reduce the time spent on delivering services, transactions and compliance even more. The response by many HR functions has been to undertake a programme of significant organisational change, frequently labelled as transformation. Human Resources Transformation has been defined as follows: The process of recreating or reinventing the HR function such as re-engineering, restructuring, implementing new systems or a new HR service delivery model, outsourcing or co-sourcing with the specific intent of enhancing HRs contribution to the business (Mercer, 2007, p.1). HR transformation is something done internally to improve the ability of the human resources group to work more effectively with management teams, creating greater value, bringing more timely information, becoming a better business partner. Steve Klingbeil, Partner Chazey Partners A true definition of HR Transformation is an integrated, aligned, innovative, and business-focused approach to redefining how HR work is done within an organization so that it helps the organization deliver on the promises made to customers, investors, stakeholders, and other stakeholders. (HRT- building Human Resources from the outside in, Ulrich, 2009) Drivers and Barriers for HR Transformation According to a 2005 survey (Rampat 2005, p. 7) key drivers for HR transformation include the following: Making HR strategic Improving HR service Responding to changes in business Benefiting from new technology Better managing the cost of internal processes The same survey also revealed the following key barriers to the success of HR transformation Lack of appropriate skills among HR staff Lack of appropriate support technology An unwillingness to take risk or deal with complexity Difficulties in dealing with bureaucracy Difficulties in dealing with corporate or international cultural differences Lack of employee buy-in to HR Transformation Failure in building a business case to support change Lack of genuine top management support Regulatory constraints Unions According to the 2008 Global HR Transformation Report done by Human Resource Outsourcing Association (HROA) in association with Automatic Data Processing (ADP), among the keys to success in achieving HR transformation goals are: Access to better tools/resources: improved/new technology, use of online tools and services, and automation of processes; Change management and education: change management planning prior to implementing a transformation programme, cultural acceptance of change, training and motivation to encourage and engage staff in the transformation, and pre-transformation agreement on the programme goals; Management support at both the top and line levels: gaining top-level management support, and as much line-manager level buy-in as possible, prior to programme introduction; and, continually demonstrating the benefits of the programme to attempt to increase line-level buy-in over time; Alignment, focus and standardisation: alignment between HR and business units, harmonisation of processes, centralisation of services, standardised reporting The New Roles and Competencies of the HR Professional David Ulrich and Wayne Brockbank (2005) have created a model that describes the new roles of human resource professionals. They stress on the importance of building professional, credible relationships across the organization, and performing in a manner that both supports the business and preserves the integrity of the profession. As they outline the new capabilities of the human resource function the role of strategic talent management begins to emerge. Human resources professionals become less responsible for providing service and more accountable for facilitating better decisions. David Ulrich defined 5 major HR Roles in his HR Model to build efficient and modern Human Resources professionals. Figure 2.1: HR roles defined by Ulrich HR Professionals are Employee Advocate, with the responsibility to make sure that the employer -employee relationship is one of reciprocal value Furthermore, the build workforce of the future through the Human Capital Developer. They are also Functional Expert who design and delivers hr practices that ensures individual competence and organizational capability. As Strategic Partner, they help line managers at all levels meet their goals. And to sum the first four roles, HR Leaders need to lead and value their own function. Ulrich et Al., (2005) There are six major factors of HR competencies according to Ulrich et al., (2009), they believe that it is vital for the HR function to be a strategic professional player in a changing world. The two arrows (see figure 2.2 below) illustrate that HR must consider both aspects of the business, i.e. people and business oriented. The characteristics/roles HR people must have or play (six circles within the V shape below) to achieve will be described further. Figure 2.2: Competency model by Ulrich and Brockbank Credible activists build relationships of trust based on facts and have a point of view not just about HR issues, but about business issues. Operational executors do the operational work that have to be addressed by HR, using information systems to ensure better, faster and cheaper HR delivery. Business allies demonstrate a firm grasp on how the organization operates, how they work to enable to make a profit and compete. Culture and change stewards support the organization in identifying and facilitating important changes that improve the capabilities of the organization to compete. It is important that HR professionals help to formulate, communicate and create the organizational culture. Talent managers and organizational designers provide important support and counsel in both employees development (for example, competence and career development) and how the organization capability. Strategy architects contribute to the development, execution and communication of winning strategies. They prepare themselves for the future by drawing strategies to meet upcoming challenges. Possessing the competencies and performing the roles mentioned above, HR departments will derive their goals from the business objectives of the organization and become more strategically involved. HR Transformation and Technology Rapid improvements in technologies are changing the way work is performed by HR professionals from being administrative to todays a more strategic role. With new approaches such as Human Resource Information System (HRIS), web-enabled HR applications, HR self-service and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), HR practitioners are now more involved in strategic decision making. A key development in the field of IT is the emergence of enterprise resource planning (ERP) applications, such as Oracle, SAP and PeopleSoft. Enterprise resource planning systems are commercial software packages that enable the integration of transaction-oriented data and business processes throughout an organization (Markus and Tanis, 2000). ERP packages may be configured to more closely fit an enterprises structure, business practices and workflow (Chalmers, 1999). Recently, the HR function has had to adopt a more value adding role to the organization. With the growth of information technology, HR can be relieved from the burden of transactional human resource activities and this can be accomplished either by outsourcing some of the HR function, but what would be more relevant to this study, is to use technology solutions. There is a greater opportunity for HR professionals to become a strategic partner Self-Service HR self-service technology assists in meeting the needs of employees and managers, while supporting business objectives (Keebler Rhodes, 2002). Employee Self Service allow employees to manage their own HR activities such as updating their own personal details, leave application, nominate themselves for training, facilitating feedback and giving them visibility of the information held about them on HR systems. Eventually, HR professionals can concentrate on value added HR activities and spend fewer resources in managing administrative HR activities. Manager Self-Service (MSS) puts the information managers need at their fingertips giving them the ability to more closely monitor and direct their team towards the strategic goals of the organization. Business Partner Model Within this transformational HRM area, Walker (2001) breaks this down further into three types of work done in transformational e-HRM. These types of work include: strategic partnering with the business, creating centres of expertise and administration of service centres. In order to move to the third level of HRM, Beatty (2001) identifies five success factors. These include changing: the culture of HR, the people employed in the HR function, and also their competencies, developmental needs and their performance; the roles and responsibilities of individuals performing HR activities, that is, the structure of the HR function; HR processes or HR products; service delivery and development; and finally; the technology used for HR functions, which may include enterprise-wide systems and custom systems. HR Shared Services Centres HR shared service centre is defined as follows by (Brescia and Hartness, 2001): A centralized location where customer transactions and customer enquiries are handled Increasingly, HR are now using the shared services concept to drive down costs, provide increased levels of service and improve data accuracy and integrity. HR shared service centers help transform HR into a business-driven function focused on facilitating and supporting organizational change. HR shared service centre is usually a part of a wider transformation of HR structure within the organization. Shared service centers are usually proposed for the organizations strategic reasons in order to improve the capability and effectiveness of HR function. The HR shared service centre can include the full service from routine administration in recruitment, payroll and training, or provide specialist HR information and advice on HR policy and practice. While HR shared services provide quantifiable benefits in terms of cost reduction (through achieving economies of scale, the standardization of process, better management structures, etc.), the strategic benefits achievable from HR transformation are significantly more important. Strategic benefits of HR shared services include sharing more relevant and accurate information across the organization (sharing HR best practice, leveraging HR expertise, pooling knowledge across different parts of the organization and different geographical regions), achieving greater structural flexibility, improving organizational learning, and freeing up HR from day-to-day routine enquiries. Centres of Expertise (CoE) CoE provide specialist technical and professional support to the business and other areas of HR on specialist HR topics. CoE HR professionals play a number of important roles that should be clarified in an HR transformation: They create service menus aligned with the capabilities driving business strategy. They diagnose needs and recommend services most appropriate to the situation. They collaborate with embedded HR professionals in selecting and implementing the right services. They create new menu offerings if the current offerings are insufficient. They manage the menu. They shepherd the learning community within the organization. Strategic Business Partner Senior HR professionals working closely with business leaders influencing and steering strategy and strategy implementation. The role can vary enormously depending on organisational size and business priorities. Some activities that strategic partners are likely to be involved in include: organisational and people capability building longer term resource and talent management planning using business insights to drive change in people management practices Intelligence gathering of good people management practices internally and externally, so they can raise issues that executives may not be aware of. Model for HR Transformation The following HR Transformation is a four phased model proposed by Ulrich et al., (2009) Business Context (Why) Phase one addresses the question: why carry out transformation? To start Human Resource Transformation journey it is important to ensure that the context of the business is clearly understood by all those involved in the transformation process. Ulrich et al., (2009) believe that when the presenting problem for HR transformation comes from the context of the business and from the expectations of key stakeholders, then the case for transformation is stronger than if the presenting problem originates primarily inside the business. Outcomes (What) Phase two explains the expected outcomes from the transformation. Hr transformation should also change the fundamental identity, culture, or image of the business. This outcome is referred to as defining and building capabilities. These capabilities become the identity of the firm, the deliverables of HR practices, and the keys to implementing business strategy. Redesign HR (How) This phase has three components, each of which is a way of defining what we mean by HR: The HR function or department may need to be redesigned. HR professionals may be upgraded to possess the competencies required to do their work. HR practices may be transformed to be more effectively or more fully aligned, integrated, and innovative. The transformation model focuses on redesigning the HR function to make sure that it is aligned with business strategy. The redesigned of HR needs to differentiate between transactional and transformational work. Furthermore competencies of HR professional may need upgrade in order to perform their roles in the new organization. Hr practices may need to be revamped. Four domains representing the flows or process central to organizational success are as follows: Flow of people- ensuring talent availability to accomplish organisational strategy. Flow of performance management- promoting accountability for performance and rewarding it Flow of information- ensuring employees is given information needed to do their work properly. Flow of work- who does the work, how and where work is done and ensure quality outputs. The flows should also be integrated with each other to bring results. Accountability (Who) Line managers are ultimately accountable for ensuring that the organization has the right talent and right structures in place to deliver on the expectations of customers, shareholders and communities. Clear role definition and rigorous accountability will help an HR transformation succeed. HR Transformation achieved at AT T Anne Fritz, vice-president HR, who has been with ATT for almost 30 years, said: As competition, rapid technological breakthroughs and globalization turned our business upside down; the old HR model could not support the need for strategic change. Now, our role is to help internal partners to succeed in sometimes-fragile states of competitiveness and to ensure that we have the talent in place to build future business capability. Doing so delivers a value-adding service. HR transformation was achieved through key steps that represent a good-practice model for integrating the HR function with business strategies and aligning organizational performance to corporate goals. The key steps were: Determining strategic business needs customers, growth, reducing cost and technology; reviewing organizational structure, dynamics and systems Defining the strategic implications for HR continuous learning, team working and empowerment Identifying HR systems those that were required to support organizational, structural and cultural change Leveraging HR capability through leading-edge practices leadership, staffing, performance management and education Devising high-level HR initiatives for special needs, such as workforce planning and downsizing. Implications of the Human Resource Transformation in the Telecommunication Industry The HR Transformation model proposed by Ulrich and HRT process at AT T will be used as background for this study. The different components in the above transformation process at AT T key steps are interrelated, only those that seemingly represent the important practices and or potential constraints in HRT will be further explained below. Empowerment Empowerment is an essential element of organizational change and transformation as the global business environment becomes ever more competitive. By enabling managers and employees to have more control over their work and their working lives, they are being empowered. Employee Self-Service (ESS) has a great influence on the empowerment aspect. ESS allows employees to help themselves (changing their personal details, checking or applying for leaves, etcà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦), thus HR professionals are now free to spend less time on day-to-day recordkeeping and focus on value-added functions that aid in meeting the goals and objectives of the organization (i.e., talent management, staff development and retention, performance management, rewards, etc.). Furthermore MSS enable managers processing basic HR transaction (appraisals) and retrieve data without involving the HR professionals. Leadership Effective leadership of the change process is fundamental to its success (Buckingham, 2005;Hunt Buzan, 1999; Johnson Uline, 2005; Kamener, 2004). The concept of managerial leadership permeates and structures the theory and practice of work organizations and hence the way we understand SHRM. In the management texts, leadership has been defined in terms of traits, behaviour, contingency, power, and occupation of an administrative position. Most definitions reflect the assumption that leadership involves a process whereby an individual exerts influence upon others in anorganizational context. Employee satisfaction, motivation, and loyalty are of major importance when it comes to retain the most valuable employees and this is where a strong leadership becomes very important. There is a difference between management and leadership. Leadership means understanding the corporate mission, developing goals which support the mission, then using personal and management skills to help build a stable, skillful, productive and satisfied workforce. Leadership is seen as the power to inspire and motivate the ability to permeate employees with the desire to change the organization to the best. Training and development Swanson (1995) defined employee training and development as the process of systematically developing expertise in individuals for the purpose of improving performance. Trainings strategic contributions to the organizations goal include new employee orientations, diagnosis and correction of skills problems, remedial training and sometimes long-term career development (Ceriello and Freeman, 1991). Indeed training and development is an important aspect in HRT, with new technologies, enhancement of HR practices and processes put in place, training will be required to adapt to new HR requirements. Link: Survey of Global HR Challenges: Yesterday, today and tomorrow PWC Leadership development also proves to be a big challenge. HR professionals continue to wrestle with understanding the best ways to keep people in the pipeline and develop leaders for future succession planning. Increasingly recognized as becoming strategic business partners within their organizations, HR professionals are expected to provide the essential frameworks, processes, tools, and points of view needed for the selection and development of future leaders. Across the globe leadership development has been identified as a critical strategic initiative in ensuring that the right employees are retained, that the culture of the organization supports performance from within to gain market position, and that managers are equipped to take on leadership roles of the future so that the organization is viable in the long term. Performance Management Performance management is a holistic process, bringing together many of the elements which go to make up the successful practice of people management, including in particular learning and development. Performance management is about establishing a culture in which individuals and groups take responsibility for the continuous improvement of business processes and of their own skills, behavior and contributions. At AT T performance HR initiatives is monitored by using the corporations top-level business performance measures: Customer value-added. The degree to which the competencies, people-planning and culture/design requirements have an impact on customer satisfaction. Financials. Revenues, cost reductions and earnings realized from the deployment of competencies, people planning and performance management. People value-added. A measure of the degree to which employee perceptions of leadership, job satisfaction and diversity issues, among others, meet or exceed corporate goals and objectives for all four requirements of the performance-system model. Performance management will aid the HR Transformation process, measuring the performance of employees will help in monitoring the productivity in the organization and establishing a culture of continuous learning, motivation that will result in better ROI. HR managers and professionals must take the lead in building and maintaining this performance culture and in ensuring it permeates the organization. Rewards are often credited as a source of motivation. Communication Good communication between HR function, line managers and employees is essential. Employees need to feel they form part of the organisation and have to be made aware of what is happening within their workplace. Lack of communication to employees can lead to confusion, rumours, misinterpretations and negative morale. Managers often think that employees are more aware than they really are. By building strong communication messages to employees this could help obtain commitment of employees which is important to the good functioning of the business where HRM is being transformed strategically. User involvement All parties should be involved Change management (structural and cultural change) The Inside Track on HR Outsourcing: Retained HR and Other Success Strategies Bruce Barge, Namrata Mundhra and Hameedah Merchant, 2007 The changes associated with HR transformation put enormous pressure on HR. HR transformation has a wide reach, often affecting the entire organization. With the emphasis of HRO on self-service, managers and employees often have concerns about the decrease in face-to-face contact with HR. HR staff often have fears about performance expectations that are connected more strategically to the business. Business leaders might have doubts about HRs ability to attain a more strategic role. Further, while HR is often the champion of change in an organization, there are unique challenges in managing change around HR transformation. HR is supposed to be a role model of effective change management, yet in this case it is the function that will need to navigate through the most wrenching change as HR transforms itself to accept a new and difficult role. A strong understanding of stakeholder concerns and interests is necessary to take a proactive approach to change management. An impact analysis provides a basis from which enablers and barriers to change can be identified. In an impact analysis, a sample population from the stakeholder groups, including executives, managers, employees and HR staff, is surveyed through focus groups and interviews. The findings of the impact analysis drive the development and execution of practical approaches to effect change, which are documented in a change management plan. HRO should help the HR generalist, or business partner, staff focus more resources on the crucial change and talent issues that drive competitive success of the business. HR needs to change and lead change initiatives to transform other functions. If HR transformation is implemented skillfully, HR professionals will become a much more vital contributor to organizational success through business partnership and strong leadership. Hr professionals Engage in projects with other departments Role and competencies Training, coaching guiding Attract, hire, retain talent Employees Be more empowered Participate Engage on self-learning Committed Line Managers Encourage movement of staff to work collaboratively with other departments Empower and motivate staffs Building Employee Commitment encouraging employees professional development, compensating them fairly use MSS fine tune hr strategy to fit with org strategy structure and resource allocation communicating strategy, organization changes at all levels

Half of a Yellow Sun Essay -- Analysis, Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche

To go to war is to engage in a fight with another Nation. Many view war as being an appropriate action that can only solve problems. Others believe that war is a violent action that leads to nothing but casualties. In the article, â€Å"Regarding the Torture of Others† Susan Sontag writes about the torture soldiers are inflicting on prisoners. Some torture was done so brutally that the some of the soldiers deem that acts as correct and in the process seem to try to dehumanize the victims. The bush administration considered torture as being mistreatment not evil. The Blog â€Å"Military Blog† by Zachary Scott-Singley deals with the day by day life and thoughts of a solider at war. Zachary Scott-Singley is a soldier struggling with the wrong of his actions. At one point, he believes that the killing of Iraqis is okay, but he then believes it is not. He was torn between he believes is right and not. The story â€Å"Half of a Yellow Sun† by Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche is a story about a young girl and her families struggles during the Nigerian civil war of the 1960’s. Her family has pride like much of the people of Biafra. That all changed when her younger brother Obi died, and the family realizes at that point the war was lost. While Sontag still maintained that war was not bad, she still believed that it was the torture of others that made war such a brutal action. On the other hand, Zachery from military blog was lost trying to find out if War was correct or not. The characters from â€Å"Half of a Yellow Sun† share a belief that war is necessary to defend their nations honor and pride but as the war progresses and it began to affect them they begin to see that the war was not as productive as they hoped it would be. Looking at pictures of war is like l... ...at can come from war. War is seen as a last resource because of all the physical and mental damage it causes. In the story â€Å"Half of a Yellow Sun† war was seen as a way to gain the respect of a nation, but as the story progressed the family became affected, and the war that was supposed to benefit did nothing but badly affect them. In the blog Military Blog the main character saw war as a way of defending is nations pride along with protecting his family, but his continuing struggles with his actions kept him from being comfortable with his actions. In the article "Regarding the torture of others", Sontag saw the war as being a process that was not wrong but that was turned upside down because of the immoral actions of the soldiers. All the characters in each text showed how war changes not just the picture of war but the emotions and reasons that change afterward.

Lydia Hall

Lydia Hall’s theory of core, cure, and care theory can be easily integrated into practice. The core aspect of her theory describes the person that nursing care is directed towards and the individuals behavior due to their feelings and value system. The cure component is the attention given to patients by medical professions. These include interventions or actions that can be used to treat or cure the illness or disease that the individual may be suffering from. The last element, care, is about nurturing the patient and providing comfort measures. This also includes providing patient teaching.An example used to integrate Lydia Hall’s theory will be a patient that has just found out that he has diabetes type 1. The patient may first be overwhelmed at the thought of managing the disease, fear of being alone and fear of the disease in itself which describes the core aspect of the theory. In the cure component the actions that nurses may take is to perform physical assessmen ts including glucose level, assess respirations for Kussmaul respirations and acetonic breath, monitor temperature, moisture, weight, assess diet compliance, and intake and output.The interventions nurses can provide the patient is to maintain fluid intake at least 2500 ml per day to prevent dehydration. Also, a comfortable environment should be provided and inform of covering at night with a light sheet which would prevent overheating and excessive fluid loss. Lastly, the element of care provides the patient with education and discharge planning such as teaching of how to give insulin, checking blood sugar, exercise rules and dietary changes.Open communication assists the patient in being comfortable in asking questions and expressing fears of disease management, emotional and or social issues due to lifestyle changes. Lydia Hall’s Care Cure Core model suggests that patients have three needs of care: the physical, the medical, and the social needs. This encourages open commu nication between patients and nurses. Nurses responsibility when using this model is to provide physical, emotional or social support, educating patients and through medical managementPatient outcomes would be improved self esteem including confidence and motivation in managing their disease such as in diabetes self injection of insulin. Patients would also be more knowledgeable in the disease process such as importance of checking blood sugar and identifying symptoms of hypo and hyperglycemia. This model helps build rapport between the patient and nurse by assisting them to communicate their concerns and apprehensions pertaining to disease management.

Free Essays on Spine

Functional Goals following SCI - Basic SCI - Functional Goals for Specific Levels of Complete Injury Level Abilities Functional Goals C1-C3 C3-limited movement of head and neck Breathing: Depends on a ventilator for breathing. Communication: Talking is sometimes difficult, very limited or impossible. If ability to talk is limited, communication can be accomplished independently with a mouth stick and assistive technologies like a computer for speech or typing. Effective verbal communication allows the individual with SCI to direct caregivers in the person's daily activities, like bathing, dressing, personal hygiene, transferring as well as bladder and bowel management. Daily tasks: Assistive technology allows for independence in tasks such as turning pages, using a telephone and operating lights and appliances. Mobility: Can operate an electric wheelchair by using a head control, mouth stick, or chin control. A power tilt wheelchair also for independent pressure relief. C3-C4 Usually has head and neck control. Individuals at C4 level may shrug their shoulders Breathing: May initially require a ventilator for breathing, usually adjust to breathing full-time without ventilatory assistance. Communication: Normal. Daily tasks: With specialized equipment, some may have limited independence in feeding and independently operate an adjustable bed with an adapted controller. C5 Typically has head and neck control, can shrug shoulder and has shoulder control. Can bend his/her elbows and turn palm Daily tasks: Independence with eating, drinking, face washing, brushing of teeth, face shaving and hair care after assistance in setting up specialized equipment. Health care: Can manage their own health care by doing self-assist coughs and pressure reliefs by leaning forward or side -to-side. Mobility: May have strength to push a manual wheelchair for short distances over smooth surfaces. A power wheelchair with hand contr... Free Essays on Spine Free Essays on Spine Functional Goals following SCI - Basic SCI - Functional Goals for Specific Levels of Complete Injury Level Abilities Functional Goals C1-C3 C3-limited movement of head and neck Breathing: Depends on a ventilator for breathing. Communication: Talking is sometimes difficult, very limited or impossible. If ability to talk is limited, communication can be accomplished independently with a mouth stick and assistive technologies like a computer for speech or typing. Effective verbal communication allows the individual with SCI to direct caregivers in the person's daily activities, like bathing, dressing, personal hygiene, transferring as well as bladder and bowel management. Daily tasks: Assistive technology allows for independence in tasks such as turning pages, using a telephone and operating lights and appliances. Mobility: Can operate an electric wheelchair by using a head control, mouth stick, or chin control. A power tilt wheelchair also for independent pressure relief. C3-C4 Usually has head and neck control. Individuals at C4 level may shrug their shoulders Breathing: May initially require a ventilator for breathing, usually adjust to breathing full-time without ventilatory assistance. Communication: Normal. Daily tasks: With specialized equipment, some may have limited independence in feeding and independently operate an adjustable bed with an adapted controller. C5 Typically has head and neck control, can shrug shoulder and has shoulder control. Can bend his/her elbows and turn palm Daily tasks: Independence with eating, drinking, face washing, brushing of teeth, face shaving and hair care after assistance in setting up specialized equipment. Health care: Can manage their own health care by doing self-assist coughs and pressure reliefs by leaning forward or side -to-side. Mobility: May have strength to push a manual wheelchair for short distances over smooth surfaces. A power wheelchair with hand contr...

Euphemistic Expressions in Kurdish

Euphemistic Expressions in Kurdish Free Online Research Papers Euphemistic Expressions in Kurdish By: Karwan Omer Siddiq 1. Introduction: This study is designed to analyze a collection of Kurdish euphemistic expressions for death using the framework of Conceptual Metaphor Theory propounded by George Lakoff. Nevertheless, this is not the only purpose of the study as it examines the corpus items to find out the exact linguistic devices they reveal, and finally discovers the sources of the devices as well. The study is divided into an introduction, theoretical background which covers the definition and classification of euphemism and taboo in addition to introducing Conceptual Metaphor Theory, the conceptualization of death in Kurdish, and finally the seven conceptual mappings over which the corpus examples are distributed which include: death as a loss, death as joyful life, death as a rest, death as a reward, death as the end, death as a journey and death as surrender. 2. Taboo and Euphemism: Definition and Classification Mankind’s failure to come to grips with death has been pervasive in different times and societies. In fact, human beings have traditionally felt reluctant to deal with the subject of death using straightforward terms. Whether owing to superstition, fear, or social respect, the fact remains that when facing death language users try to soften the effect of what they really wish to communicate. To this end, they resort to euphemism, i.e. the semantic formal process thanks to which the taboo is stripped of its most explicit, offensive or obscene overtones. From this viewpoint, euphemism is not merely a response to a forbidden subject; rather it provides a way to speak about the taboo, that is, about the unspeakable, about those concepts banned from public domain and removed from our consciousness. This refusal to speak freely of human mortality is symptomatic of the overall discomfort with the subject of death as a whole (Fernandez, 2006: 101-2). The word euphemism comes from the Greek word euphemos. Its first use is said to have been in religion because people were afraid of using those words that were considered taboo. Since people did not want to behave in a way that would upset the gods, they used words which they thought would give them good fortune instead. Euphemisms have been traced back to the Indo-European languages and it seems possible that more taboo words existed then than what is the case today. Whichever the case might be, modern languages in general (like Kurdish, English, etc.) contain countless euphemisms dealing with the theme of death. It is claimed that people started using euphemisms because they believed that they would end up in trouble of some sort if they spoke about or used the word death. A theory, which apparently is quite widespread, claims that this belief is what has made death taboo in the majority of the English speaking cultures around the world. (www.wikipedia.com). Whether it is true or n ot that people today are afraid of death and taboos, it is not something that they would admit to openly. Even though such fear is associated with uneducated inhabitants of exotic places, some people carry good luck charms, cross their fingers or knock on wood as a way of protecting themselves (Allan Burridge 2006:203). Euphemisms are often applied when we want to hide something that might be considered as upsetting or distasteful; we do this even if the literal meaning is not really that disturbing. This kind of euphemism is often called doublespeak and is frequently used in politics. According to Gladney and Rittenberg (2005:2) the term doublespeak was invented by William Lutz who was allegedly inspired by George Orwell’s novel 1984, where he mentions ‘doublethink’ and ‘newspeak’. One might think that the euphemistic way to talk about death is somewhat peculiar and wonder why it is so taboo to use the ‘normal’ words. Dyer (2006) explains this by claming that if we use other words than death, the healing process after losing a loved one many times becomes more bearable. This claim might sound strange at first, but it is not hard to imagine that it might be a bit easier to handle a loss by thinking that the person has ‘found everlasting peace’. By using euphemisms like this people are able to cope better and even distance themselves from what has happened. Kearl (2006) on the other hand, states that some scholars agree that people are denying death, and the fact that death is inevitable, by using euphemisms. But he also mentions that we have been using these terms for a very long time and sometimes we cannot avoid using euphemisms when we want to explain certain aspects of being human. The fact that death is a taboo based on fear is men tioned by Allan and Burridge (1991:153, 2006:222). People are afraid of losing loved ones and of what happens to our bodies when we die, but there is also a fear dealing with what follows after we are dead. No one or at least very few people have experienced death first hand and therefore the ‘afterlife’ is a huge mystery which makes some of us very scared. (From Allan Burridge 1991:153, 2006:222) The issue whether euphemisms are ‘good or bad’ seems to have been debated back and forth over the years. Back in the 1980s, Gross (1985:203) mentioned that many writers perceived it as if people found it very difficult to ‘look death straight in the face; even more difficult than previous generations. Gross also claims that death had surpassed sex as the most forbidden topic. Allan and Burridge (2006:223) draw a parallel between today’s taboo on death and the way sex was inhibited during the Victorian period. The repression of sex was followed by a very successful pornographic business and the taboo concerning death today is present at the same time as we are overflowed by books and movies depicting murder and cruel death. They state that the difference is the fact that the pornography during the Victorian times was not as open as the topic of death is in the present day. Gladney and Rittenberg (2005:1) claim that there is another thing that many scholars agree on, and it is the fact that when euphemisms are used in a courteous way, without harming others, it is perfectly alright. On the other hand, when people in power use euphemisms it can change how people look upon many big problems in society and cause them to stop caring. They mention how a government can use euphemisms as a way of making the public less sensitive and not reflect too much over the horrors and pain connected to for example war. This is not the best approach since in fact, it has been discovered that people who speak about accidental brutality in an uncaring way are about to accept it (Gladney Rittenberg 2005:1). 2.1 Classification of Euphemisms: According to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, many euphemisms fall into one or more of these categories: 1. Terms of foreign and/or technical origin (derrià ¨re, copulation, perspire, urinate, security breach) 2. Abbreviations (GD for goddamn, SOB for son of a bitch, BS for bullshit, TS for tough shit, SOL for shit out of luck or PDQ for pretty damn(ed) quick, BFD for big fucking deal, MF for motherfucker, POS for piece of shit, STFU or STHU for shut the fuck/hell up, RTFM for read the fucking manual /restart the fucking machine) o Abbreviations using a spelling alphabet, especially in military contexts (Charlie Foxtrot for Cluster fuck, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot Oscar for What the fuck, over?, Bravo Sierra for bullshit) o Plays on abbreviations (H-e-double hockey sticks for hell, a-double snakes or a-double-dollar-signs for ass, Sugar Honey Iced Tea for shit, bee with an itch or witch with a capital B for bitch, catch (or see) you next Tuesday (or Thursday) for cunt) o Use in mostly clinical settings (PITA for pain in the ass patient) o Abbreviations for phrases that are not otherwise common (PEBKAC for Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair, ID Ten T Error or ID-10T Error for Idiot, TOBAS for Take Out Back And Shoot) 3. Abstractions and ambiguities (it for excrement, the situation for pregnancy, going to the other side for death, do it or come together in reference a sexual act, tired and emotional for drunkenness.) 4. Indirections (behind, unmentionables, privates, live together, go to the bathroom, sleep together, sub-navel activities) 5. Mispronunciation (goldarnit, dadgummit, efing c (fucking cunt), freakin, be-atch,shoot) 6. Litotes or reserved understatement (not exactly thin for fat, not completely truthful for lied, not unlike cheating for an instance of cheating) 7. Changing nouns to modifiers (makes her look slutty for is a slut, right-wing element for Right Wing) 8. Slang, e.g. pot for marijuana, laid for sex and so on. Notably, there is some disagreement over whether certain terms are or are not euphemisms. For example, sometimes the phrase visually impaired is labeled as a politically correct euphemism for blind. However, visual impairment can be a broader term, including, for example, people who have partial sight in one eye, or even those with uncorrected poor vision, a group that would be excluded by the word blind. 2.2 The Categorization of Taboos: Euphemisms are motivated by different taboos in society. Every culture has its own topics that are forbidden and should not be talked about directly. Stephen Ullman (1962:205) states that taboos are divided into three categories according to the psychological motivation behind them. The first of these categories is fear, which has motivated different taboos on speaking the names of certain supernatural beings. These include God, the Devil and names of certain animals. Ullman (ibid: 206) mentions the weasel as an example. For example in French the weasel is referred to as a beautiful little woman , in Italian and Portuguese as a little lady and in Swedish as a pretty little girl or a young lady. Other examples include bear, tiger and lion, since dangerous animals are often referred to by using euphemistic references. This has been the case in Finland as well with the bear. People have believed that the bear was originally human or half-human. People have also thought that the bear is much more intelligent than humans are and possesses supernatural powers. All these factors have contributed to the fact that Finnish language has a large variety of euphemisms for the bear. The motivation behind the taboo of God might have something to do with respect as well, as Francis Katamba (1994:86) suggests. He states that God could not be referred to by name, which has resulted in expressions such as the Lord, the King of Kings and the All-Mighty. The clearest taboo motivated by fear must be that of the Devil. The euphemistic expressions associated with the Devil are somewhat humoristic and friendly, perhaps to make the Devil seem less frightening and unfamiliar, as for example in: What in the Sam Hill are you doing?† Hughes (2000:44) lists some British English examples such as Old Nick and Lord of the Flies. People also try to avoid direct reference to topics they find unpleasant. Under the category of delicacy fall such topics as death, disease, physical and mental defects and criminal actions. Probably the most natural euphemism related to death would be to pass away, which seems to be appropriate and politically correct in a large number of situations. According to Geoffrey Hughes in A History of English Words death is often referred to as a metaphorical journey in comforting variants and traditional forms such as†¦passing on, going to ones Maker [and] joining the majority (2000:45). Other less-dignified ways of referring to death include to resign ones being, moving into upper management and [being] no longer eligible for the census (Death). The third category in Ullmans discussion on taboos has to do with propriety. The three most common areas in this category are sex, certain body parts and functions and swearing. People find it difficult to talk about going to the toilet, and have invented numerous ways of avoiding direct reference to the topic. Among good friends and acquaintances it may be acceptable to directly ask the location of the toilet or mention the bodily function(s) for which one needs to use it, but in other situations people might ask: Where could I wash my hands? In movies and in television, for example, women often say in a restaurant that they need to go and powder their noses or that they need to freshen up when they need to use the toilet. There are, also a number of different ways to refer to having sex, including to sleep with, go to bed with and make love, as mentioned by Hughes (ibid:45) in the discussion of metaphorical means of avoiding direct reference. When talking about swearing people ofte n use minced oaths. These are expressions based on profanities, but the profanities have been changed to remove the inappropriate characteristics of the original utterance. Among the most common expressions are freaking for fucking, gosh for God, heck for hell and darn for damn (Phrase). 3. The Cognitive Approach: Conceptual Metaphor Theory: In cognitive linguistics, conceptual metaphor, or cognitive metaphor, refers to the understanding of one idea, or conceptual domain, in terms of another, for example, understanding quantity in terms of directionality (e.g. prices are rising). A conceptual domain can be any coherent organization of human experience. The regularity with which different languages employ the same metaphors, which often appear to be perceptually based, has led to the hypothesis that the mapping between conceptual domains corresponds to neural mappings in the brain. This idea, and a detailed examination of the underlying processes, was first extensively explored by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson in their work Metaphors We Live By. Other cognitive scientists study subjects similar to conceptual metaphor under the labels analogy and conceptual blending. According to Lakoff and Johnson, There are two main roles for the conceptual domains posited in conceptual metaphors: Source domain: the conceptual domain from which we draw metaphorical expressions (e.g., love is a journey). Target domain: the conceptual domain that we try to understand (e.g., love is a journey). A mapping is the systematic set of correspondences that exist between constituent elements of the source and the target domain. Many elements of target concepts come from source domains and are not preexisting. To know a conceptual metaphor is to know the set of mappings that applies to a given source-target pairing. The same idea of mapping between source and target is used to describe analogical reasoning and inferences. A primary tenet of this theory is that metaphors are matter of thought and not merely of language: hence, the term conceptual metaphor. The metaphor may seem to consist of words or other linguistic expressions that come from the terminology of the more concrete conceptual domain, but conceptual metaphors underlie a system of related metaphorical expressions that appear on the linguistic surface. Similarly, the mappings of a conceptual metaphor are themselves motivated by image schemas which are pre-linguistic schemas concerning space, time, moving, controlling, and other core elements of embodied human experience. Conceptual metaphors typically employ a more abstract concept as target and a more concrete or physical concept as their source. For instance, metaphors such as the days [the more abstract or target concept] ahead or giving my time rely on more concrete concepts, thus expressing time as a path into physical space, or as a substance that can be handled and offered as a gift. Different conceptual metaphors tend to be invoked when the speaker is trying to make a case for a certain point of view or course of action. For instance, one might associate the days ahead with leadership, whereas the phrase giving my time carries stronger connotations of bargaining. Selection of such metaphors tends to be directed by a subconscious or implicit habit in the mind of the person employing them. The principle of unidirectionality states that the metaphorical process typically goes from the more concrete to the more abstract, and not the other way around. Accordingly, abstract concepts are understood in terms of prototype concrete processes. The term concrete, in this theory, has been further specified by Lakoff and Johnson as more closely related to the developmental, physical neural and interactive body. Finally, to clarify the matter, some examples from Lakoff may serve the purpose: 1. Love Is A Journey Source domain: love Target domain: journey a. Progress in the relationship is forward motion 1. They are at a crossroads in their relationship. 2. This relationship isnt going anywhere. 3 Theyre in a dead-end relationship. b. The relationship is a moving object Relationships, like sharks, have to keep moving to stay alive. This marriage is on the rocks. This relationship has been spinning its wheels for years. Their marriage has really gone off the track. 2. Anger Is Heat Source Domain heat Target Domain anger Shes a real hothead. Anger is heat and body is container for emotions You make my blood boil. Let her stew. She got all steamed up. Hes just blowing off steam. He erupted. He boiled over. She felt her gorge rising. He blew his top. He exploded. I cant keep my anger bottled up anymore His temper flared up. His eyes smouldered with rage. He has a fiery temper. 4. Euphemism and the Conceptualization of Death: A corpus of fifty three samples of Kurdish euphemistic expressions for death has been drawn from mainly from A Dictionary of Idioms in Kurdish by Abdulwahab Shekhani (2009:341-5). The expressions obtained from this dictionary can be distributed over a set of linguistic devices or mechanisms employed to substitute the taboos of death and dying in Kurdish. The introductory step of our investigation is to check the corpus items against the linguistic devices in question to reveal the device that is most commonly used in Kurdish to conceptualize death and dying, as shown below: a. The linguistic devices include those that are semantic in nature, such as: 1. Metaphor 2. Metonymy 3. Hyperbole 4. Circumlocution 5. Generic Terms Others are lexical in nature, such as: 1. Learned words 2. Borrowings b. The corpus examples (being translated into English) are distributed over the said devices or mechanisms as follows: Metaphor Amri khwai krd 1- Metaphor Amri khwai bajà ª hà ªna 2- Metaphor ?wa bar rahmati khwa 3- Metaphor ?uya bar dlovanya khudà ª 4- Metaphor 5- Metaphor + hyperbole 6- Metaphor 7- Metaphor 8- Metaphor + hyperbole 9- Metaphor 10- Metaphor + circumlocution -11 Metonymy 12- Metonymy 13- Metonymy 14- Metaphor 15- Metaphor 16- Metonymy 17- Metaphor 18- Metaphor 19- Metaphor 20- Metaphor + circumlocution 21- Metaphor 22- Metaphor 23- Metaphor 24- Metaphor 25- Metaphor + circumlocution 26- Metaphor 27- Metaphor 28- Metaphor 29- Metaphor 30- Metaphor 31- Metaphor 32- Metonymy 33- Metaphor 34- Metaphor 35- Metaphor 36- Metaphor 37- Metaphor 38- Metaphor 39- Generic Term 40- Generic Term 41- Metaphor 42- Metonymy + circumlocution 43- Metonymy 44- Metaphor 45- Metaphor 46- Metaphor 47- Metaphor 48- Metaphor 49- Metaphor 50- ? Borrowing 51- Metaphor 52- Learned word 53- As is clear from the aforementioned examples, metaphors form the majority of the linguistic devices used to mitigate the taboo of death. Statistically, they include 75.47% of the whole corpus. Also within the semantic resources, metonymies constitute 13.20% of the collected corpus, while the remaining resources form negligible proportions. 5. The Conceptual Mappings of Metaphorical Expressions for Death in Kurdish: Within the framework of cognitive linguistics the metaphors observed in the corpus can be analyzed in terms of the cognitive mappings to which they may be assigned. This provides significant information concerning the way in which the taboo of death is actually used, perceived, and mitigated (Fernandez, 2006:113). Allan and Burridge (1991) Bultnick (1998) and Fernandez (2006) have found and explicated a number of conceptual mappings for the consolatory metaphors of death. Here we adopt seven of theses mappings which best serve us to analyze our corpus examples, namely: 1- DEATH IS A JOURNEY 2- DEATH IS A JOYFUL LIFE 3- DEATH IS REST 4- DEATH IS A REWARD 5- DEATH IS THE END 6- DEATH IS A LOSS 7- DEATH IS SURRENDER It is to be noted that the greater number of metaphors view death as a positive event, as a sort of reward in Heaven (Paradise) after a virtuous life on earth. Thus, four out of seven conceptual metaphors referred to conceptualize the domain of death in terms of a domain with positive connotations, namely as a journey, joyful life, surrender, rest, and reward. There are only two sets of correspondences in which death is portrayed negatively: a loss and the end. Thus most of the conceptualizations in the corpus imply a positive value-judgment of death. Here, it is important to note how the positive or negative value-judgment in the death – related mappings depends, as Bultnick (1998:84) explains, on the nature of the source domain. Below are the percentages of metaphorical euphemistic substitutes in each cognitive domain: 1- Death is a loss 30.18% 2- Death is a journey 2.5% 3- Death is a joyful life 4% 4- Death is a rest 15% 5- Death is a reward 10% 6- Death is the end 10% 7- Death is surrender 7.5% Here, the conceptual metaphor Death is a loss has the highest range of substitutions (16) , followed by Death is a journey (13), death is a rest (8) Death is a reward(5), Death is the end (5) , Death is surrender (4), and Death is a joyful life (2), which is the least frequent in the corpus. In what follows, we will explain how the above seven source domains are actually applied to give a euphemistic representation of the taboo concepts of death and dying. To serve this purpose, we will deal with those conceptualizations that refer to the larger number of metaphorical substitutes in the corpus examples. 1- Death is a Loss: The domain of death is explained in terms of the domain of loss in over 30% of the corpus date. According to Fernandez (2006:117), this cognitive association has a metonymic basis (the effect of death stands for death) Following Bultnick (1998:44-45), the conceptual basis of this mapping lies in the fact that life is perceived as a valuable object and death is thus seen as the loss of this possession. Therefore, contrary to what happens in the majority of the conceptual mappings observed in the corpus data, the metaphorical alternatives or substitutes arising from this configurative association cannot be said to provide any sort of consolation or relief. In fact, as Allan and Burridge (1991:162) maintain, the conceptual metaphor of death as a loss evokes as â€Å"malign fate†, as an event that human beings cannot control, leaving them powerless in the face of the unavoidable event. Out of the 53 corpus examples, 16 occurrences fall under the cognitive mapping of loss. In the f ollowing examples the death as a loss conceptual mapping is the source of the euphemistic substitution: 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8 – In the first two examples, the focus is obviously on death with the first capable of being interpreted in two ways: the victim is utterly despaired Conceptual Metaphor Source domain Target loss Death and by meeting his fate, he gets rid of this state, or the euphemistic substitute is used by a third party speaker in a pejorative dysphemistic manner . Examples (3) and (8) focus on the value of life and represent a sorrowful expression of the act of dying. Examples (3) through to (7) all emphasize the result of death by avoiding to directly mention the act of dying. 2- Death as a journey : The conceptual metaphor which explains death in terms of a journey with a spiritual destination comes second in the corpus in quantitative terms being the source of almost 25% (13 occurrences) of the entire corpus. As Bultnick (1998:31) points out, it is because of this conceptualization (based on the assumption that the dead person is no longer around) that human mortality is conceptualized as a departure from this world in which a basic domain of experience like death is understood in terms of a different and more concrete domain, as a journey, an association which provides the basis for the verbal mitigation of the taboo. The metaphorical mapping transfers different attributes from the source domain of a journey to the target domain of death. Conceptual Metaphor Source domain Target domain Journey Death More specifically, it presents different sets of conceptual correspondences as a result of using the knowledge we have about journeys to talk about the taboo of death (Fernandez, 2006: 115): First, the act of dying corresponds to the act of leaving: second, the destination of the journey is an encounter with God in Heaven. Third, the dying person is the one that embarks on the journey. In the examples that follow, the act of dying corresponds to the act of leaving, and consequently the deceased (or metonymically his soul) is obviously the person who embarks on the journey: 9 – 10 – 11 – 12 – 13 – 14 – Here, we clearly observe that all the variants of the metaphorical use of the verb (), which include such verbs as (), (), (), () focus on the act of leaving, on the journey itself, rather than on its conclusion. The final destination of the journey, i.e., the encounter with God in Heaven, is based on the religious belief of a joyful meeting with Almighty God. This notion provides the euphemistic support of expressions such as examples (11) and (12). Notably, examples (9) and (13) stand in contrast to each other: the former, though clearly focuses on the act of leaving as mentioned earlier, is representative of an apparently secular concept of viewing the current world as light , illuminated , and joyful. Consequently, the transferal from life to death can be interpreted as a journey into the unknown. The latter example (13) finds the world as a chaotic scene presenting the human being with nothing but sorrow and grief, and thus death is seen as the final cure to get rid of the sce ne. This latter conceptualization has its origin in a religious belief. Additionally, example (14) again presents a metaphor that corresponds to the person who is capable of embarking on a journey. Thus, the dying person is supposed to have moved, and for this reason considered to be alive (Fernandez, 2006:116). The importance of the concept of movement in this cognitive mapping is beyond doubt. In fact, according to Bultnick (1998:34-38), the conceptual metaphor Death as a Journey is a subdivision of the more general conceptualization Death as Movement. In general, the journey from life to the next world can be achieved in two ways. First, the journey is seen as the result of an action performed by some external agent, someone who helps to bring about departure (leaving). Like provider or Almighty God, or the Angel of death (Israel). The second is when the journey is motivated by an unknown force, as in: 15- 16- 3. Death is a Rest : The domain of death is explained in terms of the domain of rest in 15% of the corpus data. The conceptual metaphors listed under this domain conceptualize death in terms of a peaceful rest after an earthly existence. Thus all the metaphors show a positive judgment of death, as in: 17- 18- 19- () 20- 21- According to Fernandez (2006: 121) the underlying notion of all the metaphors included this mapping is based on the fact that a rest, repose, or a sleep are temporary, and therefore, death is also conceptualized as a temporary event. This analogy implies that the cessation on of bodily functions and speech are not automatically identified with the symptoms of physical death, as they are also present in a peaceful sleep. The conceptualization which relates death to a rest or a sleep provides an effective euphemistic reference to the taboo mainly because this association ultimately leads to the denial of death as such: the dying person is no longer dead, but sunk in a comforting sleep. Conceptual metaphor Source domain Target domain Rest Death 4. Death is a Reward: The domain of death is explained terms of the domain of reward in 9% of the corpus examples. Thus reward is granted by Almighty God to those virtuous human beings who have led exemplary lives. Here death is conceptualized as an event which far from being fearful or harmful involves a sort of liberation thanks to which the deceased will find some hope and consolation (Fernandez, 2006: 122). In the following three examples, the death is figuratively associated with a reward achieved by moral discipline after a life full of good deeds. Hence the cognitive metaphors show an anticipation of Almighty God‘s mercy and blessings upon the victim: 22- 23- 24- The following examples envisage life as wretched and those living on Earth as miserable creatures. So, God Almighty’s reward for the virtuous and the pious is to help them get rid of this sorrowful earthly life: 25- ? Conceptual metaphor Source domain Target domain Reward Death 6. Death is the End: The domain of death is explained in terms of the domain of the end in 9% of the corpus examples. Following Lakoff (1987:275) and by virtue of the SOURCE – PATH – GOAL schema into which our everyday experience may be organized, life can be understood as a process with a starting point, an end point and a time span: â€Å"Complex events in general are also understood in terms of a source – path – goal schema; complex events have initial states (source), a sequence of intermediate stages (path) and a final state (destination)†. Hence, death is conceptualized as the final stage of our lifespan by means of the image mapping Death is the End, which provides the basis for understanding and mitigating death and dying (Fernandez, 2006:123). In the examples below, death is viewed as the end of the process of human life: Conceptual metaphor Source domain Target domain End Death 26- 27- 28- Furthermore, expressions containing the adjective (/ ) such as ( ), ( ), ( ) can also belong to this cognitive network in the sense that they help to understand human death in terms of finality. 6- Death is Surrender: The domain of death can be explained in terms of the cognitive domain of Surrender in 7.5% of all the corpus data. Certainly, the notion of surrender in the conceptual metaphors below is basically a reflection of the Islamic view to the taboo of death: this is due to the fact that the Kurdish people are predominately Muslims. The term ISLAM itself is derived from the Arabic root ‘aslama’ which means â€Å"to surrender, resign oneself†. In Islam, the fundamental duty of each Muslim is to submit to Allah and whatever Allah wants of them. Thus, this conceptual mapping views death as surrender to Allah’s (God’s) orders and purpose: 29- 30- 31- Conceptual Metaphor Source domain Target domain Surrender Death 7 – Death is a Joyful life: The domain of death is explained in terms the cognitive domain of joyful life in only 3.7% of all the examples collected which marks the least frequent domain in the corpus overall. This cognitive domain is based on the religious belief in an afterlife in which the deceased will joyfully expect the resurrection in Heaven flanked by God and the celestial angels (Frnandez, 2006:119). This cognitive mapping transfers the attributes from the domain of a joyful life to the domain of death, as in: 32- 33- When considered closely, these two examples can best be viewed in the light of the metaphor Death is eternal life proposed by Marin Arise (1996: 44) since they exhibit a presupposition that God’s Heaven is where the deceased has surely settled. As Fernandez (2006:119) states, due the fact of joy, life is viewed in negative terms. This conceptualization is particularly reflected in the metaphor ( ). Conceptual Metaphor Source Target domain Joyful life Death 6. Conclusions: 1. This paper contains a collected a corpus of euphemistic expressions of death in Kurdish whose examples have been drawn mainly from the Dictionary of Idioms in Kurdish by Abdulwahab Shekhany (2009:341-5). 2. The corpus items have been thoroughly examined against a set of linguistic devices such as metaphors, metonymies, generic terms, etc. As the result, we have concluded that metaphors are presumed to constitute the majority of the euphemistic expressions of death in Kurdish. This fact can be an indication that this particular device best suits the purpose of euphemism. 3. Having confirmed the metaphorical source of most of the euphemistic expressions, we have drawn seven conceptual mappings from Bultnick (1998), Fernandez (2006) and Allan Burridge (1991) and have applied them to the Kurdish expressions within the well-known framework of Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT). When analyzed, the corpus data indicate that the category death as a loss constitutes the highest rate of examples in Kurdish (30.18%) whereas the category death is a joyful life contains the least examples (only 4%). This fact explicitly demonstrates the non-religious or secular outlook of the Kurdish individual towards death and dying. 7. Bibliography: Allan, Keith Burridge, Kate. (2006). Forbidden words. Taboo and the Censoring of Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Allan, K. and Burridge, K. (1991) Euphemism and Dysphemism: language used as shield and weapon. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Crystal, David. (2003). The Cambridge Encyclopedia of The English Language. 2nd edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Fernandez, Eliecer, C. (2006). The Language of Death: Euphemism and Conceptual Metaphorization in Victorian Obituaries. Sky Journal of Linguistics Vol.19, pp 101-130. Gladney, George Albert Rittenberg, Terri L. (2005). Euphemistic Text Affects Attitudes, Behaviour. Newspaper Research Journal. 26 (1) 28-42. Goatly, Andrew (1997). The Language of Metaphors. London: Routledge. Gross, John. (1985). Intimations of Mortality. In Enright, D.J. 1985. Fair of Speech. The uses of euphemism. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Holder, R.W. (2003). How Not to Say What You Mean: A Dictionary of Euphemisms, Oxford University Press. Hugh, Rawson (1995). A Dictionary of Euphemism Other Doublespeak, second edition. Hughes, Geoffrey. (2000). A History of English Words. Oxford: Blackwell. Katamba, Francis. (1994) English Words. London: Routledge. Lakoff, George Mark Johnson (1980) Metaphors We Live By. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Lakoff, George (1987). Women, Fire and Dangerous Things. Chicago: Chicago University Press. Leech, Geoffrey. (1981). Semantics. Second Edition. Harmondsorth: Penguin Books. Marin Arrese, Juana. (1996). To die, to sleep. A Contrastive Study of Metaphors of Death and Dying in English and Spanish. Language Sciences Vol.18, 1-2. PP 37-52 Neaman, J. S., Silver, C. G. (1983). Kind words: A thesaurus of euphemisms. New York: Facts on File, Inc. Rawson, H. (1981). A dictionary of euphemisms and other doubletalk. New York: Crown Publishers, Inc. Sekhany, Abdulwahab (2006). Farhangi Idyom la Zmani Kurdi (A Dictionary of Idioms in Kurdish. Mukiryani Establishment for Research and Publication. Erbil. Ullman, Stephen. (1962). Semantics. Oxford: Blackwell. Appendix He carried out God’s order 1- He carried out God’s order 2- He was thrown at God’s mercy 3- He was thrown at God’s mercy 4- He was thrown at God’s mercy 5- He fell sacrifice to you (the present) 6- God took him back 7- He departed the bright world 8- He fell a sacrifice to you (the present) 9- He reposed (in the cemetery) 10- He was sent off to the unending night of death -11 His pure soul flew off to the vast Heaven 12- He sacrificed his pure soul to Kurdistan 13- His pure soul was called to Heaven 14- He entrusted his pure soul to God 15- His glimpse of life died out 16- The flower of his life faded out 17- He was led into ruin (his life was ruined) 18- He released from earthly sufferings 19- He drank the liquor of death 20- He preferred the boundless Heaven to the cramped Earth 21- He departed the grief – stricken world 22- He put up his tent before the throne of God 23- God, the Savior rid him of his wretched fellow humans 24- He jumped into the other world 25- He made God‘s Heaven his permanent nest 26- He slept under the earth 27- He was hit by the arrow of death 28- He carried his stuff to the graveyard 29- He was relieved of life 30- God disposed of him 31- He was released of life 32- The torch of his life died out by death 33- He has settled in Heaven 34- Death took him young 35- He got mixed with soil at the flower of his life 36- Death came to his rescue 37- He became a guest to the graveyard 38- He bid farewell to life 39- His life ended 40- He perished 41- His life’s book was folded up 42- The death wind flew off his life tree’s leaves 43- His shadow disappeared on earth 44- He fell victim to Israil’s looting 45- His sustenance on earth was cut off 46- He rested in the grave 47- He packed his baggage and headed for the grave 48- He settled in God’s Heaven with the virtuous 49- He headed for the gardens of Heaven 50- ? 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Letter to the editor Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Letter to the editor - Essay Example The students are up in arms because they claim the university president’s position suggests that deaf individuals â€Å"need to be fixed† and are in some way deficient, inferior, or second-class to other students. The university president’s position, on the contrary, is that all individuals should have access to any avenue of coping with deafness; she claims that the university should endorse freedom of choice with regard to cochlear implants. She states that no one option or approach with regard to surviving as a deaf student should be mandated universally by the university. My own opinion on this issue is that the deaf students protesting at Gallaudet are wrong and that they are trying to impose one perspective: deafness is a personal identity similar to sexual orientation, for example. I believe the students’ position is restrictive, defensive, and inappropriate for a university to uphold. The students’ position is restrictive of personal freedom in that it seeks to limit the choices that a deaf student and his/her family face with regard to the student’s coping strategies. The Gallaudet protestors claim that there is only one righteous way to manage deafness, namely by accepting one’s deafness and committing to living with the disability as a kind of personal destiny. While I am totally supportive of any pride that deaf individuals may feel about their strengths and virtues in managing the disability while living in a deaf community, attending a deaf university, and communicating in American Sign Language at high levels of proficiency, I find their attempt to force all deaf persons to follow a similar path highly dogmatic and obstructive. Vermeulen, Bon, Schreuder, Knoors, and Snik completed a study on reading comprehension with two groups of 16 children. Pre-lingual deaf children with cochlear implants were

Write a critical reivew of Five minds of a manager of Henry Mintzberg Annotated Bibliography

Write a critical reivew of Five minds of a manager of Henry Mintzberg and 3 other peer reviewed articles - Annotated Bibliography Example What is critical about this article is the assumption that the authors have actually attempted to generalize the different organizing principles applied by the managers. Though authors have focused upon managing self, organization, context, relationships and change within an organization however, for a manager to master all the traits at one time could be difficult task. As authors suggested that the managers must have to bring all mindsets to work together it is therefore relatively difficult for the managers to assume all the roles and perform them at their best. Managers may have to make a trade-off between certain mindsets as their actions must be based upon what is exactly in the best interest of the organization by taking into account the cost benefit analysis of their decisions and actions. Authors argue that all five mindsets must be weaved together to achieve the balance however this balancing act may not be possible to achieve. This article discussed about the mindset required to actually mentor the employees and help them to grow. The author has actually outlined that in order to properly groom the successors, organizations actually let the time pass on and fail to actually groom the employees and successors. The approach taken by the managers may not be suitable enough to actually allow successors to develop more maturity to assume the positions of responsibility in future. Author therefore has argued that to properly mentor the employees for the next level in their career, it is important that mentors must assume a special mindset which can foster such mentoring within the organization. This mindset requires slow, subtle and forgiving mindset which can actually allow managers to accommodate the mistakes of the followers and actually help them to correct their mistakes. This article is limited in the sense that it presents just one side of the argument and provides