Swahili Morphology A Comparison English Language Essay

Swahili Morphology A Comparison English Language Essay Introduction Swahili is an example of a Bantu language. Bantu languages belong to the South Central subgroup of the Niger-Congo language family. These languages are closely related to languages used in central, east-central and southern Africa (Sands, 2009). Due to the colonial history of the countries in this area, Swahili contains many loanwords from English, Arabian, Persian Indian languages, Portuguese, German and other Bantu languages. Their origins are often hardly recognisable. The reason for this is that the structure remains Bantu. In this structure, the derivational system has an important role (Mohammed, 2001). This paper contains a description of this system and other underlying processes of Swahili morphology. In this description, we draw parallels between Swahili and English. As mentioned earlier, we know that Swahili is connected to English by its loanwords. But do the two languages have anything in common concerning morphological structure and processes? 2 Typology English is an inflectional language: words are modified to express their grammatical function. Swahili is a polysynthetic language: complicated sentences are expressed using a single word (Fromkin, 2000). Swahili is a Subject-Verb-Object language in which the object and the subject can be null; this may lead to insertion of a zero morpheme. In a phrase, grammatical relations like subject and object are determined by the positions they are in. This makes Swahili a position language instead of a case language. In a case language (like German) the form of the noun or pronoun changes to show the grammatical relation. The following expression illustrates the use of SVO order in Swahili (Vitale, 1981) (Note: a gloss can be found in the appendix): (1) Juma a-li-wa-piga watoto Juma-he-P-them-hit-children Juma hit the children S V O 3 Word and morpheme classes Many Swahili words are built up by using roots and affixes. Affixes may be described in terms of the class or category of the word they combine with, and the category of word found by the root and affix combination. Whereas roots do not change, many affixes do. Swahili morphology is summarily described under the main headings: pronouns and pronominal prefixes, verbs and noun classes (Safari Akida, 1991). 3.1 Free and bound morphemes Whether a morpheme is bound or free, can be defined by considering their occurrence. Morphemes that can occur on their own are said to be free. Bound morphemes need to be attached to other morphemes. In English, for instance, nouns are free- and determiners are bound morphemes (Fromkin, 2000). Both bound and free morphemes occur in Swahili, but there are more bound morphemes than free morphemes. In English, certain word classes are always bound (like nouns); in Swahili one word class can contain both bound and free morphemes: (2) baba father samaki fish (3) m-toto child wa-toto children ki-su knife vi-su knives The nouns in example (2) (Mohammed, 2001) are free morphemes. The nouns in example (3) are bound morphemes. The word stems -toto and -su require a prefix that gives the word a certain number and class (Givon, 2001). Adjectives, like -dogo, meaning small, also need a number- and class prefix (m-, wa-, ki-, vi-, etc.). This leads to clauses like m-dogo, which can be used to express that it is small for a child (ibid.). 3.2 Pronouns and pronominal prefixes Pronouns in Swahili are divided into personal, possessive, demonstrative, generalising and interrogative pronouns (Myachina, 1981). Personal pronouns have a morphemic structure built out of roots plus the appropriate marker. These independent pronouns can stand on their own and function as an object or a subject. But they are only used in selective contexts: for instance the word ni am as in I am an African Mimi ni Africano. Next to that, they can also emphasize the subject of the sentence. In (2i) and (2ii), mimi underlines the subject (Benjamin, 1998): (4) (i) Ninataka watoto I want children (i) Mimi ninataka watoto I (really) want children (ii) Nitapita posta I will pass by the post office (ii) Mimi nitapita posta I will pass by the post office A pronoun can never replace a pronominal prefix, if a construction requires a pronominal prefix. A pronominal prefix must be included whether or not an independent pronoun is used. *Mimi tapita posta is an ill formed Swahili sentence. Pronominal prefix Person ni- 1st person singular u- 2nd person singular a- 3rd person singular tu- 1st person plural m-/mw- 2nd person plural w-/wa- 3rd person plural Not only does the pronominal prefix marks the person, it also marks the subject or object position. This is determined by the place of the pronoun within the verb: (5) Wao wanaamka They are waking up (subject) Mimi nitawaamsha I will wake them up (object) 3.3 Verbs Besides subject and object markers, tense markers can be attached to Swahili verbs as prefixes. The essential component of any finite verb is (in the following order): subject prefix tense marker verb root. If an object prefix is inserted, the verb root always follows. A negation marker of the verb always precedes the subject prefix (Safari Akida, 1991). The following template illustrates how Swahili verbs are built (Deen, 2001): (6) Subject Agreement- Tense- Object Agreement- Verb-suffixes Mood (SA) (T) (OA) (V) (M) The object agreement is an optional item. If there is a specific direct object, the object agreement is obligatory; if the direct object isnt specific, the object agreement can be deleted (ibid.). Mood is always the final suffix. It can either be indicative -a, subjunctive -e, or negative -i. When the suffix is indicative, the word describes ongoing actions or states, habitual actions of the present, actions and states in the past or future and imperatives. The subjunctive mainly expresses desires, possibility, necessity and requests (ibid.). In Swahili clauses, the infinitive (a prefix) is rarely used; other inflectional prefixes are used to modify the clause. We can conclude that Swahili is a bare verb language. In English, bare stems are also used without the infinitive to like in I can sing (Deen, 2003).This puts the two languages in the same class: they are both bare verb languages instead of root infinitive languages. 3.4 Nouns In Swahili, every noun is assigned to a specific noun class. The noun classes are generally marked by a class prefix. Swahili nouns are inflected for gender and number by a characteristically Bantu prefix system (Vitale, 1981). Gender is grammatical and affixes mark a noun for membership in a noun class. These are, for the most part, not definable on semantic grounds. There is a certain amount of discrepancy as to which of several numbering systems should be used in the classification of the gender system. The original Swahili classes 12 and 13 have no reflexes in present-day Swahili. In modern Swahili, nouns are categorised in far less noun classes as shown below: Table 5: Modern Swahili noun classes (Mohammed, 2001) Note that classes 15, 16, 17 and 18 have not been illustrated above because they do not have plural forms Nouns in classes 1/2 denote only humans (but not all humans are in class 1/2). Class 14 refers to abstract characteristics. Class 15 has verbal infinitives and classes 16 18 are locatives. For the remaining classes the semantic base is less obvious. For example: class 3/4 contains words denoting plants and trees, class 9/10 contains names of animals, and class 6 contains liquids (Brown Ogilvie, 2009). 3.5 Compounding Like in English, words in Swahili compound to make a new word or give a specific definition to a word. This process of compounding mainly occurs in Swahili by conjoining two nouns (N+N), a noun and a verb (N+V), a noun and an adjective (N+A) and a verb and a noun (V+N). In some cases, compounding can also occur with a verb and a verb (V+V) or a verb and an adjective (V+A) (Nshubemuki, 1999). Table 6 shows a number of compounded terms in Swahili. Sometimes a word or term can get a whole new definition or can function in a whole new word class: Table 6: Compounded Swahili words (ibid.) Elements Swahili terms (English equivalent) derived Swahili term (English equivalent) N+N msumeno (saw) + juu (top) msumenoju (top saw) N+V kemikali (chemical) + amsha (stimulate) amshakikemilkali (chemical stimulation) N+A tumba (bud) + bwete (dormant) tumbabwete (dormant bud) V+N tegemea (depend(ent)) + kimelea (parasite) kimeleategemezi (hyperparasite) V+V fanya (make) + tendana (to do with) mfanyikotendani (process) V+A pasua (saw in two) + nyofu (straight) upasuajimnyofu (to break down timber) 4 Inflection and derivation in Swahili verbs The template of verbs in (6) makes it clear that inflection and derivation are morphological processes occurring in Swahili. Because of the importance of these processes, we will take a closer look at prefixation, suffixation, infixion and incorporation. 4.1 Prefixation Swahili is a prefix language where the verb stem or root is usually preceded by derivational prefixes. In turn, these derivational prefixes are preceded by inflectional prefixes (Prikola, 2001). The verbal morphology of Swahili involves many productive inflectional and derivational morphemes. The verbal prefixes are mainly inflectional. The main prefixes indicate the subject and object agreement markers and the tense markers (Seidl Dimitriadis, 2003). To specify this, we will give an example. Look at the Swahili sentences in (7) and their proposed translation in English, shown in between apostrophes (Fromkin, 2000): (7) Ninasoma Tunasoma Ni-na-soma Tu-na-soma 1S-Pres-read 1Pl-Pres-read I am reading We are reading First of all, lets have a look at what the two sentences above have in common. There is the verbs head, -soma, translated in English as (to) read. In (7) -soma works as the head of the sentence, the verb root. The morpheme -soma is bound. This verb root needs affixes, so that it can be used as a word (ibid.). The affixes in (7) are indicators of tense and person. Apparently, the prefix na- is a tense marker, which, combined with the verb root -soma, means something like present tense read, here translated as is and are. The remaining prefixes Ni- and Tu- provide information whether the person who is reading is first person singular (I) or first person plural (We). Looking at these examples, we can say that inflected Swahili verbs give information about tense and person. These sentences are complex verbs, because a complete sentence can be expressed by forming one word (ibid.). We can therefore say that Swahilis subject-verb-agreement morphology takes place through prefixes. 4.2 Suffixation In Swahili, the verbal suffixes show derivation which can be very productive. Derivational morphemes increase the vocabulary, but their occurrence is not related to sentence structure (ibid.). The most productive and frequently used derivational morphemes are the causative, passive, stative, applicative and reciprocal ones. They function as an extension of the verb. Swahili verbs can carry some derivational suffixes, but are bound to a specific order after the verb root. Some derivational suffixes (such as the causative and applicative) add an argument, some absorb an argument and some leave the number of arguments unchanged (SD, 2003). 4.3 Infixion and incorporation In the passive form, we see that infixes can occur in Swahili verbs (Buell, 2002): (8) kitabu hakitasomwa kitabu ha- ki- ta- som- w- a 7.book neg- 7.subj- Fut- read- Pass- default.vowel the book wont be read In (8) we see that the -w- functions as an infix for the passive. As shown above, incorporation of pronouns occurs in Swahili. The pronouns are incorporated within the verb. Infixion in negating infinitival nouns can occur as well. Here the infinitival noun shows an act of doing (and is derived from a verb) and therefore shows no number. Infixion of the grammatical particle -to- gives a negation to the infinitival noun. To make this clear, we will give an example (Mohammed, 2001): (9) kutokuja failure 5 Heads and hierarchy The head of a word is the element that contains the category and other properties of the word itself (Lieber, 1981). There are different theories concerning head and hierarchy. Williams theory assumes that the category of the items and their composition are attached to syntactic features (Williams, 1981). In other words, the prefixes give information about number and class and syntactically modify the mother node. An example (Droste, 1989): (10) shind root shind-a to conquer (verbal) shind-i / shind-aji / shind-e the conqueror (person) m-shind-I / m-shind-aji / m-shind-e who is conquered wa-shind-I / wa-shind-aji plural (11) M-tu person Wa-tu persons Ji-tu giant Ma-ji-tu giants Ki-tu thing vi-tu things In English we see the same phenomenon: (11) play Inf + -(e)d P played Dog Sg + -s Pl dogs Ugly Adj + -er Com uglier The fact that the suffix here functions as the head leads to a contradiction in the analysis of the right head rule in the word shind. According to Selkirk, prefixes are markers for plural, tense and person. In m-shind-i, the suffix -i is the head and the nominalizer, the root -shind- is an unmarked non-head and the non-head m- is marked for class and number to be percolated. In m-tu the root -tu percolates its inherent nominal category, whereas the prefix again stands for number and class (Selkirk, 1984). According to Selkirk, suffixes in Swahili are responsible for the category of a word: (12) A-li-vi-chom-a Sg sub. P-Pl-root-V A-li-vi = non heads (but they show SA, TA and OA) chom= root -a = head In English, the head always comes at the right most end of a word and determines the category or word class of the word. As mentioned above, we can conclude that in Swahili grammar membership of a word category is always determined by the right-hand morpheme. Williams noticed that the category of the items and the compositions are attached to syntactic features. Williams formulation of the right head rule therefore can be maintained. 6 Variation in morphology In Swahili, there can be variation in morphology. In the following, we will take a closer look at the occurrence of allomorphy, free variation and portmanteau in Swahili. 6.1 Allomorphy and free variation Allomorphs are morphemes that can be realized in different ways, while maintaining their meaning (Fromkin, 2000). In English, we see this in the word pills, which is pronounced as /pillz/, while the plural is usually formed by adding an consonant /-s/. Swahili also has allomorphs. For instance, the past tense markers -li and -ku. They are both used to express past tense, but differ in form. In passive verbs, the following allomorphs are used: -w, -liw, -iw and -w. For the causative verb, the allomorphs -sh, -esh, -sh, -z, -ez and -z (Mohammed, 2001). We see the same phenomenon with nouns. A word from noun class 1 takes mu- as a prefix, but when a class 1 noun starts with a vowel, the prefix changes to m- or mw- (Zawawi, 1979). (13) muuguzi nurses (14) mwezi thieves Because there is an underlying rule to this change, this is conditioned allomorphy. As we have seen, Swahili nouns take various class prefixes according to the class they belong. The noun class system is not as strict as implied. There are many words that do not fit in one of these classes based on a semantic characterization. There is variation which is illustrated in atypical, flexible, irregular, and un-prefixed nouns. A variation for the use of the noun classes is nominal derivation, by shifting nouns from one class to the other. For example, shifting nouns into class 7/8 denotes diminutive -kitoto a small child- while class 6 can be used to express a group of individuals, and not only the plural form: fisi (class 10) hyenas, mafisi (class 6) a pack of hyenas . But not only the classification of the noun class can vary. There is also variation in the noun prefixes. Sometimes two noun classes share the same prefix, but do not share the same noun class. For example, the regular prefix in classes 1 and 3 is m- . Some agreements are the same for both classes, and some are not. This can depend on the phonological form of the prefix rather than the syntactic-semantic characteristics of the noun class (Alcock Ngorosho, 2002). 6.2 Portmanteau A morpheme that contains multiple meaningful elements, is called a portmanteau. These different elements of meaning cannot be segmented within the morpheme (Fromkin, 2000). For instance, in English, the verb is represents third person, singular, present tense and the lexeme be. Portmanteaus also occur in Swahili. In the expression tu-li-wa-lim-ish-a, meaning We made them cultivate, the morpheme tu represents second person, plural and subject. In the same example, the morpheme wa represents first person, plural, object (Katamba, 1994). It is clear that in both cases, different phi-features are expressed in one morpheme. Therefore, we can conclude that they are portmanteaus. 7 Reduplication Swahili contains morphological reduplication. This means that all or a part of a word is copied (completely or partial) to show a change in meaning or usage. An example of reduplication is monosyllabic reduplication (Akinlabi, 1995). In this case the reduplicated morpheme is phonologically similar in order to produce disyllabic words. This is total reduplication: (15) ba-ba father bu-bu dumb person lu-lu pearl kwi-kwi hiccup A native consonant (C) plus a vowel (V) can be reduplicated, therefore this CV-structure is reduplicated. In some cases there is also a prefix involved. This prefix is responsible for the class of the word: (16) m-dudu an insect Neither monosyllabic stems such as ba or bu, nor trisyllabic stems such as bababa or bububu has the meaning of a disyllabic form like baba or bubu (ibid.). Monosyllabic reduplication is also found in six personal independent pronouns, as shown in table 1 and in (17) below: (17) Mimi I Sisi We Wewe You (Sg) Nyinyi You (Pl) Yeye S/he These pronouns are only meaningful when they are combined with another morpheme. Trisyllabic reduplication of a monosyllabic word like in (18) shows us partial reduplication (Akinlabi, 1995). (18) -eupe white Nyeupe pepepe very (snow) white -eusi black Nyeusi tititi very (pitch) black -fa die Kufa fofofo die completely Different meanings can occur when (parts of) words are reduplicated as shown in the monosyllabic, disyllabic and trisyllabic words in (19): (19) Kaka brother Kakaka variety of vegetable Kakakaka hastily In English, reduplication is not a regular process of word formation. It can occur though: Exact reduplication; papa, mama, goody-goody, never-never Ablaut reduplication; zig-zag, ping-pong, flip-flop Rhyme reduplication; razzle-dazzle, boogie-woogie, hodge-podge 8 Problems in morphological analysis While making this paper, we found some problems in analyzing Swahili morphology. In the following paragraphs we will look at some of these difficulties. 8.1 Zero morphemes While analyzing Swahili expressions difficulties may occur because of the existence of zero morphemes (Ø). Zero morphemes are morphemes that are neither pronounced, nor written, but do have a certain function. They can be applied in different ways. In Swahili, Ø can occur in verbs, nouns and subjects. 8.1.1 Zero morphemes: verbs When a verb is negated, the subject prefix is preceded by a negation marker si-, which replaces the pronominal subject prefix ni- and ha-. For instance, I didnt eat is sikukula in Swahili. Besides the pronominal subject prefix, the tense marker also changes, when the verb is negated. Some tense markers become null (Ø). These are the affirmative tense markers -a- (present simple), -na- (present continuous) and -hu- (present habitual) (Safari Akida, 2003). An example (Lot Publications, 2010): (20) ha-wa-Ã ¸-imb-i Neg-SA2-Pres-SAs-Neg.Pres.Ind They do not sing 8.1.2 Zero morphemes: nouns Looking at the noun classes in table 4, we see that nouns like fruits or produce of plants take the affix ma- in plural, but there is no affix to express the singular form. Therefore, the singular form takes a zero morpheme, as illustrated in (20) (Mohammed, 2001): (21) Ø chungwa an orange machungwa oranges Ø ua a flower mauwa flowers The zero morpheme indicates that the word is singular. Besides the class that is shown in the example, there are many more classes that take a zero morpheme to differentiate between plural and singular. When we compare this to English, we see that in English, a singular noun is most likely to be preceded by a determiner and the plural form is often locked into the word (an apple apples). But there are some nouns that carry a zero morpheme. For instance: the word fish remains the same when the plural form is derived from the singular noun. In the plural form, a zero morpheme is the most right morpheme. This silent morpheme is placed here to distinguish between plural and singular nouns. 8.1.3 Zero morphemes: null subject and null objects In some Swahili clauses, the subject or object is marked by a zero morpheme: the morpheme that marks the person and number of the subject or object is not written nor pronounced. The subject can be absent (22), as well as the object (23) (Deen, 2002): (22) a na m pend a Mariam SA3s Pres- OA3s like- Ind Mariam He likes Mariam (23) a na m pend a SA3s- Pres OA3s like Ind He likes her We can recognise the phi features of subject and object, looking at the subject- and object agreement within the verb. Swahili is a null subject language, whereas in English, subject dropping is less common (ibid.). In English, the subject can be dropped in informal communication (24). However, there are many restrictions: the subject can not be dropped in questions (25); stressed subjects can not be omitted (26); subject pronoun drop is not permitted in embedded clauses (27) (Weir, 2009): (24) Dont think I can make it tonight. (25) *Are Ø going to the party? (26) A: Who runs this place? B: * Run this place. (27) *Ø Dont think Ø should go. 8.2 Stem marker -ku- An other difficulty in analyzing Swahili morphology is the infinitival marker ku. As mentioned in the infinitival noun example in (9), some verbs in Swahili require the insertion of the morpheme -ku-. In negative infinitives, this would mean that there are two infinitival markers: (28) ku-to-ku-j-a ku-Neg-ku-come-FV not to come In his article A lexical treatment for stem markers in Swahili, Marten claims that the general analysis of the second -ku- in example (28) as a stem marker. A stem marker should be inserted when the tense markers cannot carry stress. The analysis of -ku- as a stem marker in example (28), implies unjustly that there are two infinitival markers in negative infinitives (Marten, 2002). It is clear that there is more than one way to analyze the morpheme -ku-. 8.3 Word boundaries In Swahili, it is difficult to determine word boundaries. We can detect a boundary by looking at the verb template as given earlier in paragraph 3.3. Another important element in determining word boundaries, is stress (Zwart, 1997). 9 Conclusion In this paper we gave a description of Swahili morphology and where possible, drew parallels between Swahili and English. There are some broad similarities between the two languages. Swahili and English share the same (bare verb-) language class. Both languages are right headed languages, even though in Swahili a finite vowel can be placed after the head. Many of the morphological processes that occur in Swahili, occur in English as well. However, the degree to which these processes occur, differs. In Swahili, inflection and derivation have a more decisive role than in English. The fact that Swahili nouns (which can be placed in different noun classes) are often bound and need a prefix, unlike in English, where most nouns are free, illustrates this. Reduplication is another phenomenon that occurs more often in Swahili than in English. In Swahili, even personal pronouns are reduplications. The use of zero morphemes, portmanteaus and allomorphs is also more common in Swahili than in En glish. Swahili has some characteristics that cannot be related to English, like the problem of analyzing the stem marker -ku- and the determining of word boundaries. Another example is the way verbs are built. The verb template in Swahili differs from the verb template in English. The underlying cause of many of the differences between the languages is their typology: Swahili is a polysynthetic language, English is an inflectional language. The difference in typology is an important explanation for the difference in the occurrence of many of the morphological processes.

Perpetuation of Native American Stereotypes in Childrens Literature Es

Perpetuation of Native American Stereotypes in Children's Literature Caution should be used when selecting books including Native Americans, due to the lasting images that books and pictures provide to children. This paper will examine the portrayal of Native Americans in children's literature. I will discuss specific stereotypes that are present and should be avoided, as well as positive examples. I will also highlight evaluative criteria that will be useful in selecting appropriate materials for children and provide examples of good and bad books. Children will read many books as they grow up. They take from these books visual images and these images are their perceptions, which can last a lifetime. There are too many books featuring painted, whooping Indians wearing feathers and attacking forts, or maliciously scalping peaceful settlers. There are also too many books in which white benevolence is the only thing that saves the day for the incompetent childlike Indian. Teachers, librarians, parents, baby-sitters, relatives, and anyone else who buys a child a book must be aware of the perceptions each book will provide a child. In her book Through Indian Eyes: The Native Experience for Children, Doris Seale states, "It is no longer acceptable for children both Native and non-Native to be hurt racist ideologies which justify and perpetuate oppression." There are many books in children's libraries today that perpetuate the stereotypical Native American. By definition, a stereotype is a "fixed image, idea, trait, or convention, lacking originality or individuality, most often negative, which robs individuals and their cultures of human qualities and promotes no real understanding of social rea... ...ay as to be needlessly offensive, insensitive, or inappropriate? 10. Does the material contain much of value but require additional information to make it more relevant or useful? (Library Services Institute for Minnesota Indians, 1970, pp. iv-v) Works Cited Berkhoffer, Robert F. 'The White Man's Indian. Alfred A. Knopf Publishers, New York: 1978. Dowd, Frances Smardo. "Evaluating Children's Portraying Native American and Asian Cultures". Childhood Education; (68 Summer 92), pp. 219-224. Library Services Institutefor Minnesota Indians. Guidelines for Evaluating Multicultural Literature: 1970, pp. iv-v. Norton, Donna. 'Through the Eyes of a Child. Prentice Hall Inc., Englewood Cliffes, New Jersey: 1995. Seale, Doris. Through Indian Eyes: The Native Experience in Books for Children. New Society Publisher, Philadelphia, PA: 1992.

Cross Culture Analysis

(A) Critical review of cross-cultural models (1)Introduction Culture has played an important role in the evolution of humans enabling them to adapt the environment to their own needs instead of depending solely on natural selection to achieve success in all walks of life. Culture typically is made of customs, ideas beliefs, customs, codes, techniques, tools, taboos, symbols, rituals and ceremonies. Every society has created its own culture which is unique to its society. Culture is characterised mainly of three components which are explained as below: Values – Ideas which are considered important in life can be termed as values. Norms – Different people behave differently in various situations. Norms can be understood as the expectations of how people react to these situations. Artefacts  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ Artefacts are manufactured by men who reflect the culture’s values and norms. (2) Cross- cultural Analysis In 19th century, renowned anthropologists Edward Burnett Tylor and Lewis H Morgan have performed first cross-cultural analysis. Both Anthropology and Social Anthropology have made significant progress from the stages of Victorian England’s lower savagery to civilization. The concept of culture can be understood as a response against to those Western concepts and according to the anthropologists, culture is embedded in human nature. All people irrespective of the location and regions have the ability to categorise experiences, understand them by decoding using symbols and communication effectively. Several fields such as Sociology, Psychology, Communication and Anthropology have contributed to the creation of main theories of cross cultural communication. These theories are primarily based on the value differences among several cultures that are spread all over the world. Some of the important researchers who contributed to this field include Fons Trompenaars, Edward T. Hall, Shalom Schwartz, Geert Hofstede Edward Burnett Tylor and Lewis H Morgan and Clifford Geertz. (3) Aims of cross-cultural analysis The main aim of cross cultural communication is to understand the responses of different people from varied cultural backgrounds in different situations. Some guidelines are produced to decipher these differences and help them to better communicate with one another. According to Alvesson, M. (1993),  Cultural Perspectives on Organisations, 1992, Members of a group who share a particular culture can be understood and interpreted using some functions. The group can be of different sizes. It can be a small group in a village, or as big as a continent. Though the responses of the members of these groups can be understood as a whole depending on their culture, it further depends on the individual’s personality. The expressions of culture-resultant response can also depend on their own experience from life and the upbringing of that particular individual. The aims of cross cultural analysis are to harness the utilitarian function of culture as a means for human adaptation and better communication. Cross-cultural management can be understood as a subset of International management focusing on cultural clashes. The conflicts and miscommunication leads to differences in the cultures and cross cultural management aims to develop tools to understand and handle them. (4) Hofstede and his 5 dimensions Hofstede conducted investigations across the world to understand and analyse work-related attitudes in different regions. These studies have resulted in identifying five dimensions. These dimensions are masculinity-femininity, power distance, individualism-collectivism, uncertainty avoidance and long term vs. short term orientation. Social psychology between and within many cultures are being investigated actively in many respects and has acquired its own momentum over a long period of time. According to (Draguns, Lee & McCauley, 1999) comparisons with in the cross cultures can be made with the help of personality variables within that culture. As opposed to this, dimensions can also be derived in multicultural research projects can be used to study the relevance and the proximity to their home culture. In order to elucidate the conceptual nature of the cultural dimensions, Hofstede made various efforts to elaborate the contrast between the individualists as well the collectivist cultures. As this is not the only source of difference, several other Researchers such as Draguns, Lee & McCauley, 1999 also carried out studies on individualist cultures where the individuals are not tightly connected. They found that the priority lies ith looking after themselves or any other members of the immediate family. These individuals have different goals and aspirations that might not be in line with the values and norms of the entire group. However when there is a conflict of ideas, in individual societies they put their personal goals first by feeling autonomous. I n this type of social framework, the focus is on achieving personal goa ls. Such individuals are loosely attached to each other and if needed they can easily detach themselves from the rest of the group. They can also sever relations quite easily with their norms, partners and religion. However in collectivist societies, the most important factor is the group and there is a sense among the group members for solidarity and shared activities. According to (Goodwin, 1999) these kind of groups dominates in general as the obligations and duties of the individuals are not important when compared to that of the group. On the flip side, the collectivist societies are keener to protect the interests of the members of the group. They are not very concerned and may not necessarily help those members who are outside their group. The boundaries of the group are strong and explicit and they develop group egoism. Though it is costs, the individuals of the members contribute more especially in the personal events such as marriage and other links with the families with in the group. They do not behave like mere individuals. One of the other dimensions of Hofstede’s dimensions, power distance, is also widely discussed in the cross cultural studies. It represents the members of the society that agree to the inequalities in the power distribution among various members of the group. It may be in the organisations or institutions in which the degree of respect given those people who occupy superior positions. According to Deal T. and Kennedy, A. A. (1982),  Corporate Cultures, the acceptance to power inequality depends of the high distance and los distance societies. In High distance societies, they see power as the basis need of the group where as in low distance societies, they believe that power can only be used when it is legitimate. The next dimension of Hofstede’s model is Masculinity vs. Femininity. According to him, factors such as heroism, material success, assertiveness as preference for achievement are considered as masculine. Other factors such as caring for the poor and downtrodden, modesty, relationships, and the quality of life are considered subdued and feminine. The differentiation is based on the sex of that individual as the relationship between the Masculinity and femininity concerns about the relative emphasis and interpersonal harmony. While feminine culture gives preference to quality of life, warm personal relationships and fluid sex roles, the masculine cultures success, a sense of performance and competition and being brave. The fourth dimension, uncertainty avoidance, lays emphasis on the extent in which the members of a particular culture respond to the unknown situations or uncertain events. The cultures where the uncertainty avoidance is low are very curious whereas the cultures where the uncertainty avoidance is high are more dangerous. Uncertainty avoidance generally refers to the planning and the method of dealing with the unknown events in life and those with high uncertainty avoidance generally have a strong desire for mutual consensus. Any behaviour other than this is not acceptable in that group or society. The final dimension is long vs. short term orientation. The focus is mainly on the time horizon of the society. The orientation in this dimension of the study is to determine the importance that is being given to the future when compared to the previous history of that nation or society than the present state. In this dimension issues such as persistence and others are resolved by applying the orientation framework. Hofstede’s diverse studies of various cultures have provided the necessary inputs to understand the similarities or differences of cross cultures. (4. 1) Limitations of Hofstede’s model: Though Hofstede made several studies to identify the cross cultural similarities and differences, there are some limitations in this model. The primary limitation is the limited use of samples. The samples with Hofstede conducted the study is not applicable to the all the nations and therefore the results cannot be generalised to all the nations. The findings are generally based on the culture of the nation at a certain time which may be different from the result of the same nation at a different time. Another limitation to his model is the negative feedback of the participants. Some people are happy to cooperate with the study but some people may get offended by it (Barrick, Ryan & Schmitt, 2003). Another limitation is the importance of the study to their organisation or the country they live in. Another limitation is to create changes not all people would like to agree. More often than not, majority of the people cannot accept abrupt change in a short period of time. (5) Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner model: To explain the national cultural differences in an organisation, in 1998, popular management consultants Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner developed a model named ‘Seven Dimensions of Culture’. They tried to explain the differences in a heterogeneous business environment and the challenges faced by the global managers in managing them. Their study is primarily based on the responses of several respondents on a given dilemma. The dilemmas are contrasting in nature and this method is used by them over ten long years to observe the responses of various individuals on these dilemmas which will be used to interpret the basic attitudes and values of the individuals. This method is characterised by developing seven different processes which are formulated into dilemmas. By preferring one side of the dilemma, the individuals from one culture differentiate themselves from the rest of the others. According to Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner, these responses provided them a tool to analyse how national cultures differ from one another and how culture can be measured. They also suggested that the differences in cultures play a major role in achieving success globally and observed that reconciling these differences can lead to competitive advantage in the increasingly competitive global business environment. (5. ) Limitations of this model: * Failure in recognising the impact of personal characteristics on one’s behaviour. * Though this model differentiated between several cultures, it failed to suggest any recommendations on how to work with specific cultures. * The dilemmas that are developed by Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner may not satisfy that it will cover all the aspects of cross cultural studies. * Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner suggested th at the organisations must acknowledge the similarities and differences between the cultures that they operate in. However, other authors such as Ohmae (Borderless world) and Levitt (Globalisation of Markets) argue that national borders are diminishing day by day and emphasised on the need to look at the world as one big global market instead of viewing it as different countries that are made up of different cultures. (B) National Management Styles: Analysis and Personal experience. The ideas about the national management style over the past four decades have been dominated primarily by two nations. First by the American management model then followed by the Japanese. National cultural heritage was thought to be the primary reason for a particular management style. Having that as an underlying assumption, claims have been made that the management style is highly influenced by the cultural force of a country. Do the Japanese in general manage their organisations differently from Americans? This lead to evolution of two main standpoints which are called as culture-free and the culture-contingent position (Child/Kieser, 1997 and Osterloh, 1994). According to the culture-free position, the management style reflects the deeper understanding of industrialism producing essentials of technological and economic nature. The management style of firms over the personnel does not depend too much on the nation’s cultural values but more dependent on the technology, size and the industry environment of the organisation. According to Barrett, E. (1992),  The Strengths and Weaknesses of the Corporate Culture Analogy, the competition among the organisations in a business environment need conditions which support the management style. As we all know that those firms which compete on innovation use a more participative and professional management style when compared to the management style of those companies which are traditionally mass producers of plastic toys, screws or hamburgers. This can be observed across various nations all over the world. Likewise, the cultural settings do not seem to have much impact on the management of fast food chains. The contrasting viewpoint is culture-contingent position. Experts argue that societies exhibit distinct and relatively persistent cultures which include shared patterns of manners and ideas. Though different organisations in different organisations compete in varied conditions, they all adopt similar cultural contingencies within that country. This may be one of the reason as to why these organisations though compete against each other manage their firms with similar management structures which are appropriate to the cultural forces of the country. Culture of the country may matter for management, but it certainly is not the primary factor which influences the management style of the organisation. (6) European Cultural Diversity According to (Hofstede, 1993; Munch, 1993), despite sharing a lot of history, it is quite surprising that many of the European countries are still heterogeneous culturally. Though the integration of European countries brought about some economic forces, the culture and traditions of these countries still remain very different to that of each other. The nations that can claim to have developed distinctive cultures are American and Japanese. European countries are far from having a distinctive culture of their own. In order to overcome the present day pressures, they have developed diverse approaches of their own to cope with them. Among the European countries the national differences between the countries are greater than that of the non-European countries when it comes to dealing with the problems of technology development, economic growth and pollution control. (7) British Model of Pragmatic Management: Though Britain had a strong industrial dominance in the nineteenth century, after Second World War it has lost its strength both economically and educationally. Over the past decade or so, the global competitiveness and the economic recovery signs have been strong for Britain. Several factors such as political stability de-regulation of industries, and the English language advantage has attracted foreign direct investments from all across the globe which lead to the creation of entrepreneurial dynamism (ul-Haq, 2000). However according to Porter (1990), one of the important reasons for the continuous decline in the economic performance is the lack of quality in British educational system? Top-quality education has been restricted to a few groups. Important sectors like technology and engineering has been given lower priority. This resulted in the impact on the management in general and society in particular. While there are exceptional employees who are well trained for professional work, majority of them lack in depth education and skills when compared to the other highly industrialised nations. This can explain about the difference between blue-collar and white-collar workers, especially managers, appear to reflect the social structures of the society. The relationship between the workers and the management is generally characterised by mistrust and hostility, as a result of the conflict of interest between the two classes. Source: Martin, J. (1992),  Cultures in Organisations – Three Perspectives Let us discuss various management styles and critically examine if that is the style in my own country. i. Autocratic: In this management style, the decision making lies with the managers and they enforce their decision on the employees. They do not have a two way communication with the employees because they don’t trust them. This can be demotivating to employees, but this style is suitable for organisations that have to take quick decisions and manage large number of employees. I am from India and I can say that this management style is not widely used across the country but can be seen in large organisations particularly in IT firms that have large number of employees to manage. ii. Paternalistic: Paternalistic managers listen to the concerns of the employees before taking decision with respect to their social and recreational needs. The information flow is from top to bottom as they give direction to the employees. Interesting aspect is that they also take feedback form the employees which can be very effective. But the decision making on an issue may take longer than usual. This will help improve the morale of the employee. This management style can be observed in India though not widely. An organisation from the Marketing and Service industries and tourism industry in particular adopts this style of management. iii. Democratic: Everyone is involved in the decision process in this management style. Productivity and job satisfaction is improved as the communication flows from top to bottom in this approach. Employees’ motivation will be high as they are recognised and considered to be important to the organisation. On the flip side, it is difficult to get consensus on any issue and therefore slows down the process significantly. Sometimes there is also a risk that the managers may not be able to implement the best decisions. This style is not usually adapted in India as the mind sets of people are quite different and it may take quite long to take a decision. However this management style when implemented effectively with a judicious mixture can result in producing desired results. Source: Adler, N. J. (1991)  International Dimensions of Organizational Behaviour. Personally, my style has always been employee empowerment. The people I choose to have thinking people work under me, not automatons. Because of this, my task gets simpler and I can accomplish the targets in due course. I have learnt a great deal and also enriched my knowledge base as well as my skill levels. I am always aware of the fact that my task is to manage my team and they have their own tasks. I must enable them to deliver their best whether it is sales, operations or something else. Due to this, the members of the team can come up and discuss their ideas with me without any fear. To my mind, no organisation can grow if its employees do not grow. 8) Conclusion: As per my experience, persistent growth can be achieved by organisations by implementing proper management styles. They can solve organisational problems; improve employee productivity and loyalty and satisfaction. Satisfied customers and higher returns of the investment is the key for all the organisations at the end of the day. On the flip side, adopting an incorrect manage ment structure will lead to tensions between managers and their subordinates resulting in diminished employee morale and depleting productivity. (9) BIBLIOGRAPHY i. Alvesson, M. 1993),  Cultural Perspectives on Organisations, 1992 ii. Deal T. and Kennedy, A. A. (1982),  Corporate Cultures, iii. Barrett, E. (1992),  The Strengths and Weaknesses of the Corporate Culture Analogy iv. Martin, J. (1992),  Cultures in Orgnanizations – Three Perspectives v. Kono, T. (1990), â€Å"Corporate Culture and Long Range Planning† vi. Adler, N. J. (1991)  International Dimensions of Organizational Behavior. vii. Riding the Waves of Culture  (Fons Trompenaars & Charles Hampden-Turner), 1990. viii. Five Minds for the Future  (Howard Gardner), 1982 ix. Burack, E. H. 1991), â€Å"Changing the Corporate Culture’’ x. Hampden-Turner, C. (1990),  Corporate Culture (10) Web References i. http://ezinearticles. com/? How-To-Understand-Cross-Cultural-Analysis&id=4031 11 ii. http://www. itapintl. com/facultyandresources/articlelibrarymain/the-use-and-misuse-of-questionnaires-in-intercultural-training. html iii. http://www. blurtit. com/q410358. html iv. http://www. blurtit. com/q792848. html v. http://ivythesis. typepad. com/2010/07/what-are-the-limitations-on-hofstedes-and-globe-studies. html vi. http://www. wright. edu/~scott. williams/LeaderLetter/culture. htm

Medicalization Experiences as Medical Conditions

Medicalization is a social process through which a human experience or condition is culturally defined as pathological and therefore treatable as a medical condition. Obesity, alcoholism, drug and sex addition, childhood hyperactivity, and sexual abuse have all been defined as medical problems that are, as a result, increasingly referred to and treated by physicians. Historical Overview In the 1970s, Thomas Szasz, Peter Conrad, and Irving Zola pioneered the term medicalization to describe the phenomenon of using pharmaceuticals to treat mental disabilities that were self-evidently neither medical nor biological in nature. These sociologists believed medicalization was an attempt by higher governing powers to further intervene in the lives of average citizens. Marxists like Vicente Navarro took this concept one step further. He and his colleagues believed medicalization to be a tool of an oppressive capitalist society bent on furthering social and economic inequality by  disguising the underlying causes of diseases as some kind of poison that could be chemically counteracted. But you dont have to be a Marxist to see the possible economic motivations behind medicalization. In the years that followed, medicalization essentially became a marketing buzzword that allowed  pharmaceutical companies to capitalize on the belief that social problems could be fixed with medication. Today, theres a drug for just about everything that ails you. Cant sleep? Theres a pill for that. Oops, now you sleep too much? Here you go—another pill. Anxious and restless? Pop another pill. Now youre too groggy during the day? Well, your doctor can prescribe a fix for that. Disease-Mongering The problem, it seems, is that most of these medications dont  actually cure anything. They just mask the symptoms. As recently as 2002, an editorial ran in the British Medical Journal warning fellow medical professionals of disease-mongering, or selling sickness to perfectly healthy people. Even for those who are actually sick, there is still a great danger in marketing mental disorders or conditions as treatable: Inappropriate medicalization carries the dangers of the unnecessary labeling, poor treatment decisions, iatrogenic illness, and economic waste, as well as the opportunity costs that result when resources are diverted away from treating or preventing more serious disease. At the expense of societal progress, especially in establishing healthy mental routines and understandings of conditions, we are awarded temporary solutions to lasting personal issues. The Pros Certainly, this is a controversial topic. On the one hand, medicine is not a static practice and the science is always changing. Hundreds of years ago, for example, we didnt know that many diseases were caused by germs  and not  bad air. In  modern society, medicalization can be motivated by  a number of factors, including  new evidence or medical observations about mental or behavioral conditions, as well as the development of new medical technologies, treatments, and medications. Society, too, plays a role. How detrimental would it be for alcoholics, for instance, if we still believed their addictions are moral failings, rather than a complicated confluence of various psychological and biological factors? The Cons Then again, opponents point out that oftentimes medicating is not curing the ailment, just masking the underlying causes. And, in some cases, medicalization is actually addressing a problem that doesnt exist. Are our young children really suffering from hyperactivity or attention deficit disorder or are they just, well, children?   And what about the current gluten-free trend? The science tells us that true gluten intolerance, known as celiac  disease, is actually very rare, affecting only about 1 percent of the population. But there is a huge market in gluten-free foods and supplements geared not just to those who have actually been diagnosed with a disease but also to people who self-diagnose—and whose behavior might actually be more detrimental to their health since many items high in gluten contain  essential nutrients. It is important, then, as consumers and as patients, as doctors as well as scientists, that we all work to determine, without prejudice,  the mental conditions that are true to the human experience and those that should be treated through the medical breakthroughs of modern technology.