Notes, summaries, assignments, exams, and problems for Social sciences

Essential English for Travel and Socializing

Common Phrasal Verbs

• Go out: salir fuera
• Freshen up: lavarse
• Eat out: comer fuera
• Check in: registrarse
• Meet up with: quedar con alguien
• Show someone around: To act as a guide for someone in a new place; enseñar un lugar.
• Pick someone up: To collect someone, typically in a vehicle; recoger a alguien.
• Drop someone off: To take someone to a place and leave them there; dejar a alguien.

Useful Travel Nouns

• Sightseeing: Visiting interesting buildings and places as a tourist.
• Conference: A large meeting where people with the same work or interest come together.
• Venue: The place where a conference or a big event is held.
• Facilities: Space, equipment, and services provided.
• Nightlife: Things to do in the evening.

Vocabulary

SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT

How does democracy come about? What are the factors to be considered when defining democracy? // There are 3 approaches to democracy: Modernization Theory, Historical Sociology and Transitology. These approaches can be eclectic (they can take things one from another) and to some extent they follow a chronological order and coexist today. The birth of one school doesn’t mean the death of the one before. Modernization Theory: This theory believes there is a relationship between economic development and democracy. The question is: is one the cause of the other? Some authors believe the greater the development, the more probable a society will sustain a democracy. There are 2 approaches: One related to marxism // Another one...

Italian and German Unification

Italian Unification

Rewriting and Literary Reception

Rewriting significantly influences the reception, acceptance, or rejection of literary texts. Several factors empower 'rewriting persons' such as translators, historiographers, anthologists, critics, and editors. These influences are primarily ideological and poetological.

Ideological Influence

A crucial consideration is the translator's ideology or the ideology imposed by patronage.

Poetological Influence

This involves two components:

• Literary Devices: Genres, symbols, leimotifs, narrative plots, and formalized characters.
• The Role of Literature: The concept of literature's role within the social system in which it exists.

The Literary System

Professionals within the literary system, such as critics, reviewers, academic...

What Is a Creole Language?

A creole language, or simply a creole, is a stable natural language that has developed from a pidgin, i.e., a simplified version of a language. Creoles differ from pidgins because creoles have been nativized by children as their primary language. As a result, they have features of natural languages that are normally missing from pidgins, which are not anyone's first language.

The Etymology of the Word 'Creole'

The English term creole comes from French créole, which is cognate with the Spanish term criollo and Portuguese crioulo. All descend from the verb criar ('to breed' or 'to raise'), which comes from the Latin creare ('to produce, create').^[15] The specific sense of the term was coined in the 16th and 17th centuries...

Multilingualism

Multilingualism is the ability of individuals to use more than two languages in their everyday life. It exists when multiple languages coexist and are necessary for communication. These languages may have different statuses, such as majority or minority languages, both within the community and internationally. Some languages are primarily used in private domains, while others are used in public domains like work or school.

Factors Influencing Third Language Acquisition (TLA)

Four factors can influence TLA:

• Sociolinguistic Context: Opportunities for language exposure, attitudes towards language learning, the status of different languages in society, and time devoted to different languages at school.
• Psycholinguistic Processes: TLA

The Spanish-American Language: Evolution and Features

The term 'Spanish American' refers to the speakers of Castilian in various American countries. This linguistic reality stems from the Hispanization process that began in 1492 with the discovery of America. Essential factors for understanding this linguistic reality include the influence of native ethnic substrates on Castilian, and the imposition of a Castilian language that was already highly dialectalized.

Regional Linguistic Divisions

In Spanish America, linguistic variations often divide into two main zones:

• Highland (Cold Regions)

  Predominantly settled by Castilians. Characterized by weak vowels, with unstressed internal vowels tending to disappear.

• Lowland (Hot Regions)

  Predominantly settled

1. Coherence

Coherence is a semantic property of discourse, based on the interpretation of sentences. It involves selecting and organizing information that aligns with the text's meaning, ensuring the receiver clearly perceives the message. The meaning of a text is derived from the sum of the sentences that constitute it. These relationships form the "microstructure" or local structure, which is superimposed by a "macrostructure" or general structure formed for each sub-topic or block of meaning within the text.

• Local coherence manifests in the sentences that constitute the text.
• Linear coherence allows for the relationship between phrases and sentences that correspond to the same idea.
• Global coherence is determined by the overall semantic content

Underlying Principles of Scientific Inquiry

Key Considerations:

• Truths lacking universal validity should be subject to trial and error, enriching the information available for the object of study. The predictive capacity and error margins in social sciences may differ from other disciplines, but this doesn't negate their scientific nature.
• Science, as a human and social product, must be analyzed within its historical context. Scientific objectivity arises from mutual criticism and rigorous scrutiny within the scientific community, characterized by public and intersubjective discourse.
• Scientific theories are human constructs that facilitate understanding relationships between phenomena, enabling intervention and utilization.

Therefore, research...

Greek Architecture: Principles and Harmony

Greek architecture is fundamentally based on *order* and *reason*, achieving great harmony through a synthesis of concept, proportion, and measure. Buildings were always adapted to the scale of man. These features were aimed at the pursuit of beauty and balance. To achieve these objectives, architects employed numerous practical optical illusions.

Types of Greek Architecture

Religious Architecture: The Temple

The temple was the most prominent religious building, housing the divine image in its interior. Temples are typically rectangular and consist of three main parts:

• Pronaos: The entrance vestibule leading to the sanctum (naos/cella).
• Cella (Naos): The main space where the divine image or statue was kept.