1.
Theology
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Theology is the critical study of the nature of the divine. It is taught as a discipline, typically in universities, seminaries. Augustine of Hippo defined the Latin equivalent, theologia, as reasoning or discussion concerning the Deity, the term can, however, be used for a variety of different disciplines or fields of study. Theologians use various forms of analysis and argument to help understand, explain, test, critique, the English equivalent theology had evolved by 1362. Greek theologia was used with the discourse on god in the fourth century BC by Plato in The Republic, Book ii. Drawing on Greek Stoic sources, the Latin writer Varro distinguished three forms of discourse, mythical, rational and civil. Theologos, closely related to theologia, appears once in some manuscripts, in the heading to the book of Revelation, apokalypsis ioannoy toy theologoy. The Latin author Boethius, writing in the early 6th century, used theologia to denote a subdivision of philosophy as a subject of study, dealing with the motionless. Boethius definition influenced medieval Latin usage, Theology can also now be used in a derived sense to mean a system of theoretical principles, an ideology. They suggest the term is appropriate in religious contexts that are organized differently. Kalam. does not hold the place in Muslim thought that theology does in Christianity. To find an equivalent for theology in the Christian sense it is necessary to have recourse to several disciplines, and to the usul al-fiqh as much as to kalam. Jose Ignacio Cabezon, who argues that the use of theology is appropriate, can only do so, he says, I take theology not to be restricted to its etymological meaning. In that latter sense, Buddhism is of course atheological, rejecting as it does the notion of God, within Hindu philosophy, there is a solid and ancient tradition of philosophical speculation on the nature of the universe, of God and of the Atman. The Sanskrit word for the schools of Hindu philosophy is Darshana. Nevertheless, Jewish theology historically has been active and highly significant for Christian. It is sometimes claimed, however, that the Jewish analogue of Christian theological discussion would more properly be Rabbinical discussion of Jewish law, the history of the study of theology in institutions of higher education is as old as the history of such institutions themselves. Modern Western universities evolved from the institutions and cathedral schools of Western Europe during the High Middle Ages
2.
Sociology
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Sociology is the study of social behaviour or society, including its origins, development, organisation, networks, and institutions. It is a science that uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about social order, disorder. Many sociologists aim to research that may be applied directly to social policy and welfare. Subject matter ranges from the level of individual agency and interaction to the macro level of systems. The traditional focuses of sociology include social stratification, social class, social mobility, religion, secularization, law, sexuality, the range of social scientific methods has also expanded. Social researchers draw upon a variety of qualitative and quantitative techniques, the linguistic and cultural turns of the mid-twentieth century led to increasingly interpretative, hermeneutic, and philosophic approaches towards the analysis of society. There is often a great deal of crossover between social research, market research, and other statistical fields, Sociology is distinguished from various general social studies courses, which bear little relation to sociological theory or to social-science research-methodology. The US National Science Foundation classifies sociology as a STEM field, Sociological reasoning pre-dates the foundation of the discipline. Social analysis has origins in the stock of Western knowledge and philosophy. The origin of the survey, i. e, there is evidence of early sociology in medieval Arab writings. The word sociology is derived from both Latin and Greek origins, the Latin word, socius, companion, the suffix -logy, the study of from Greek -λογία from λόγος, lógos, word, knowledge. It was first coined in 1780 by the French essayist Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyès in an unpublished manuscript, Sociology was later defined independently by the French philosopher of science, Auguste Comte, in 1838. Comte used this term to describe a new way of looking at society, Comte had earlier used the term social physics, but that had subsequently been appropriated by others, most notably the Belgian statistician Adolphe Quetelet. Comte endeavoured to unify history, psychology and economics through the understanding of the social realm. Comte believed a positivist stage would mark the final era, after conjectural theological and metaphysical phases, Comte gave a powerful impetus to the development of sociology, an impetus which bore fruit in the later decades of the nineteenth century. To say this is not to claim that French sociologists such as Durkheim were devoted disciples of the high priest of positivism. To be sure, beginnings can be traced back well beyond Montesquieu, for example, Marx rejected Comtean positivism but in attempting to develop a science of society nevertheless came to be recognized as a founder of sociology as the word gained wider meaning. For Isaiah Berlin, Marx may be regarded as the father of modern sociology
3.
Genealogy
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Genealogy, also known as family history, is the study of families and the tracing of their lineages and history. Genealogists use oral interviews, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kinship, the results are often displayed in charts or written as narratives. Amateur genealogists typically pursue their own ancestry and that of their spouses, professional genealogists may also conduct research for others, publish books on genealogical methods, teach, or produce their own databases. They may work for companies that provide software or produce materials of use to other professionals, both try to understand not just where and when people lived, but also their lifestyles, biographies, and motivations. This often requires—or leads to—knowledge of antiquated laws, old political boundaries, migration trends, bloodlines of Salem is an example of a specialized family-history group. It welcomes members who can prove descent from a participant of the Salem Witch Trials or who choose to support the group. Genealogists and family historians often join family history societies, where novices can learn from experienced researchers. Such societies generally serve a specific geographical area and their members may also index records to make them more accessible, and engage in advocacy and other efforts to preserve public records and cemeteries. Some schools engage students in projects as a means to reinforce lessons regarding immigration. Other benefits include family medical histories with families with medical conditions that are hereditary. The terms genealogy and family history are used synonymously. The term family history may be popular in Europe, genealogy more popular in the United States. In communitarian societies, ones identity is defined as much by ones kin network as by individual achievement, would be answered by a description of father, mother, and tribe. New Zealand Māori, for example, learn whakapapa to discover who they are, Family history plays a part in the practice of some religious belief systems. For example, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has a doctrine of baptism for the dead, in societies such as Australia or the United States, there was by the 20th-century growing pride in the pioneers and nation-builders. Establishing descent from these was, and is, important to such groups as the Daughters of the American Revolution, in Nazi Germany, family histories were compiled to affirm individuals affiliation with the master race and to adhere to legal requirements for marriage. In Germany today, family history is often perceived as a threat to privacy rather than as a source of self-esteem. Most 20th-century sources remain unavailable to the public on privacy grounds, funding of support for family history at archives is limited
4.
Technology
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Technology is the collection of techniques, skills, methods and processes used in the production of goods or services or in the accomplishment of objectives, such as scientific investigation. Technology can be the knowledge of techniques, processes, and the like, the human species use of technology began with the conversion of natural resources into simple tools. The steady progress of technology has brought weapons of ever-increasing destructive power. It has helped develop more advanced economies and has allowed the rise of a leisure class, many technological processes produce unwanted by-products known as pollution and deplete natural resources to the detriment of Earths environment. Various implementations of technology influence the values of a society and raise new questions of the ethics of technology, examples include the rise of the notion of efficiency in terms of human productivity, and the challenges of bioethics. Philosophical debates have arisen over the use of technology, with disagreements over whether technology improves the condition or worsens it. The use of the technology has changed significantly over the last 200 years. Before the 20th century, the term was uncommon in English, the term was often connected to technical education, as in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The term technology rose to prominence in the 20th century in connection with the Second Industrial Revolution, the terms meanings changed in the early 20th century when American social scientists, beginning with Thorstein Veblen, translated ideas from the German concept of Technik into technology. In German and other European languages, a distinction exists between technik and technologie that is absent in English, which translates both terms as technology. By the 1930s, technology referred not only to the study of the industrial arts, dictionaries and scholars have offered a variety of definitions. Ursula Franklin, in her 1989 Real World of Technology lecture, gave another definition of the concept, it is practice, the way we do things around here. The term is used to imply a specific field of technology, or to refer to high technology or just consumer electronics. Bernard Stiegler, in Technics and Time,1, defines technology in two ways, as the pursuit of life by other than life, and as organized inorganic matter. Technology can be most broadly defined as the entities, both material and immaterial, created by the application of mental and physical effort in order to some value. In this usage, technology refers to tools and machines that may be used to solve real-world problems and it is a far-reaching term that may include simple tools, such as a crowbar or wooden spoon, or more complex machines, such as a space station or particle accelerator. Tools and machines need not be material, virtual technology, such as software and business methods. W. Brian Arthur defines technology in a broad way as a means to fulfill a human purpose
5.
Pathology
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Pathology is a significant component of the causal study of disease and a major field in modern medicine and diagnosis. Similarly, a condition is one caused by disease, rather than occurring physiologically. A physician practicing pathology is called a pathologist, as a field of general inquiry and research, pathology addresses four components of disease, cause, mechanisms of development, structural alterations of cells, and the consequences of changes. Further divisions in specialty exist on the basis of the involved sample types, organs, the sense of the word pathology as a synonym of disease or pathosis is very common in health care. The persistence of this usage despite attempted proscription is discussed elsewhere, the study of pathology, including the detailed examination of the body, including dissection and inquiry into specific maladies, dates back to antiquity. Notably, many advances were made in the era of Islam, during which numerous texts of complex pathologies were developed. By the 17th century, the study of microscopy was underway and examination of tissues had led British Royal Society member Robert Hooke to coin the word cell, setting the stage for later germ theory. However, pathology as an area of specialty was not fully developed until the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This realization led to the understanding that diseases are able to replicate themselves. To determine causes of diseases, medical experts used the most common and widely accepted assumptions or symptoms of their times, by the late 1920s to early 1930s pathology was deemed a medical specialty. The modern practice of pathology is divided into a number of subdisciplines within the discrete but deeply interconnected aims of biological research, anatomical pathology is itself divided into subfields, the main divisions being surgical pathology, cytopathology, and forensic pathology. Sometimes, pathologists practice both anatomical and clinical pathology, a known as general pathology. Cytopathology is a branch of pathology that studies and diagnoses diseases on the cellular level, however, cytology samples may be prepared in other ways, including cytocentrifugation. Dermatopathology is a subspecialty of pathology that focuses on the skin. It is unique, in there are two paths a physician can take to obtain the specialization. The completion of this allows one to take a subspecialty board examination. Dermatologists are able to recognize most skin diseases based on their appearances, anatomic distributions, sometimes, however, those criteria do not lead to a conclusive diagnosis, and a skin biopsy is taken to be examined under the microscope using usual histological tests. One of the greatest challenges of dermatopathology is its scope, more than 1500 different disorders of the skin exist, including cutaneous eruptions and neoplasms
6.
Beer
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Beer is the worlds oldest and most widely consumed alcoholic drink, it is the third most popular drink overall, after water and tea. Most beer is flavoured with hops, which add bitterness and act as a natural preservative, the fermentation process causes a natural carbonation effect, although this is often removed during processing, and replaced with forced carbonation. Beer is sold in bottles and cans, it may also be available on draught, particularly in pubs, the brewing industry is a global business, consisting of several dominant multinational companies and many thousands of smaller producers ranging from brewpubs to regional breweries. The strength of beer is usually around 4% to 6% alcohol by volume, archaeologists speculate that beer was instrumental in the formation of civilisations. Approximately 5000 years ago, workers in the city of Uruk were paid by their employers in beer, the earliest known chemical evidence of barley beer dates to circa 3500–3100 BC from the site of Godin Tepe in the Zagros Mountains of western Iran. The Ebla tablets, discovered in 1974 in Ebla, Syria, a fermented beverage using rice and fruit was made in China around 7000 BC. Unlike sake, mould was not used to saccharify the rice, almost any substance containing sugar can naturally undergo alcoholic fermentation. It is likely that many cultures, on observing that a liquid could be obtained from a source of starch. Bread and beer increased prosperity to a level that allowed time for development of other technologies, Beer was spread through Europe by Germanic and Celtic tribes as far back as 3000 BC, and it was mainly brewed on a domestic scale. The product that the early Europeans drank might not be recognised as beer by most people today, alongside the basic starch source, the early European beers might contain fruits, honey, numerous types of plants, spices and other substances such as narcotic herbs. What they did not contain was hops, as that was an addition, first mentioned in Europe around 822 by a Carolingian Abbot. Beer produced before the Industrial Revolution continued to be made and sold on a scale, although by the 7th century AD, beer was also being produced. During the Industrial Revolution, the production of beer moved from artisanal manufacture to industrial manufacture, the development of hydrometers and thermometers changed brewing by allowing the brewer more control of the process and greater knowledge of the results. Today, the industry is a global business, consisting of several dominant multinational companies. As of 2006, more than 133 billion litres, the equivalent of a cube 510 metres on a side, of beer are sold per year, the process of making beer is known as brewing. A dedicated building for the making of beer is called a brewery, a company that makes beer is called either a brewery or a brewing company. Beer made on a scale for non-commercial reasons is classified as homebrewing regardless of where it is made. Brewing beer is subject to legislation and taxation in developed countries, however, the UK government relaxed legislation in 1963, followed by Australia in 1972 and the US in 1978, allowing homebrewing to become a popular hobby
7.
Logos
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Logos is the logic behind an argument. Logos tries to persuade an audience using logical arguments and supportive evidence, Logos is a persuasive technique often used in writing and rhetoric. Ancient Greek philosophers used the term in different ways, the sophists used the term to mean discourse, and Aristotle applied the term to refer to reasoned discourse or the argument in the field of rhetoric. The Stoic philosophers identified the term with the animating principle pervading the Universe. Under Hellenistic Judaism, Philo adopted the term into Jewish philosophy, the Gospel of John identifies the Logos, through which all things are made, as divine, and further identifies Jesus Christ as the incarnate Logos. Despite the conventional translation as word, it is not used for a word in the sense, instead. However, both logos and lexis derive from the same verb legō, meaning count, tell, say, jeanne Fahnestock describes logos as a premise. She states that, to find the reason behind a rhetors backing of a position or stance. The rhetors success, she argues, will come down to objects of agreement. between arguer and audience. Logos is logical appeal, and the logic is derived from it. It is normally used to describe facts and figures that support the speakers topic, furthermore, logos is credited with appealing to the audiences sense of logic, with the definition of “logic” being concerned with the thing as it is known. Philo distinguished between logos prophorikos and the logos endiathetos, the Stoics also spoke of the logos spermatikos, which is not important in the Biblical tradition but is relevant in Neoplatonism. Early translators from Greek, such as Jerome in the 4th century, were frustrated by the inadequacy of any single Latin word to convey the Logos expressed in the Gospel of John. The Vulgate Bible usage of in principio erat verbum was thus constrained to use the noun verbum for word, but later romance language translations had the advantage of nouns such as le mot in French. Martin Luther rejected Zeitwort in favor of Wort, for instance, although later commentators repeatedly turned to a dynamic use involving the living word as felt by Jerome. For Heraclitus, logos provided the link between rational discourse and the rational structure. This logos holds always but humans always prove unable to understand it, but other people fail to notice what they do when awake, just as they forget what they do while asleep. For this reason it is necessary to follow what is common, but although the logos is common, most people live as if they had their own private understanding
8.
Mineralogy
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Mineralogy is a subject of geology specializing in the scientific study of chemistry, crystal structure, and physical properties of minerals and mineralized artifacts. Specific studies within mineralogy include the processes of mineral origin and formation, classification of minerals, their geographical distribution, the German Renaissance specialist Georgius Agricola wrote works such as De re metallica and De Natura Fossilium which began the scientific approach to the subject. Systematic scientific studies of minerals and rocks developed in post-Renaissance Europe, the modern study of mineralogy was founded on the principles of crystallography and to the microscopic study of rock sections with the invention of the microscope in the 17th century. Nicholas Steno first observed the law of constancy of interfacial angles in quartz crystals in 1669 and this was later generalized and established experimentally by Jean-Baptiste L. Romé de lIslee in 1783. In 1814, Jöns Jacob Berzelius introduced a classification of minerals based on their chemistry rather than their crystal structure, james D. Dana published his first edition of A System of Mineralogy in 1837, and in a later edition introduced a chemical classification that is still the standard. It, however, retains a focus on the structures commonly encountered in rock-forming minerals. An initial step in identifying a mineral is to examine its physical properties and these can be classified into density, measures of mechanical cohesion, macroscopic visual properties, magnetic and electric properties, radioactivity and solubility in hydrogen chloride. If the mineral is crystallized, it will also have a distinctive crystal habit that reflects the crystal structure or internal arrangement of atoms. It is also affected by crystal defects and twinning. Many crystals are polymorphic, having more than one crystal structure depending on factors such as pressure and temperature. ”Examples of polymorphs are calcite and aragonite - two minerals with identical chemical composition, distinguished by their crystallography, calcite is rhombohedral and aragonite is orthorhombic. The crystal structure is the arrangement of atoms in a crystal and it is represented by a lattice of points which repeats a basic pattern, called a unit cell, in three dimensions. The lattice can be characterized by its symmetries and by the dimensions of the unit cell and these dimensions are represented by three Miller indices. The lattice remains unchanged by certain symmetry operations about any point in the lattice, reflection, rotation, inversion, and rotary inversion. Together, they make up an object called a crystallographic point group or crystal class. There are 32 possible crystal classes, in addition, there are operations that displace all the points, translation, screw axis, and glide plane. In combination with the point symmetries, they form 230 possible space groups, most geology departments have X-ray powder diffraction equipment to analyze the crystal structures of minerals. X-rays have wavelengths that are the order of magnitude as the distances between atoms. In a sample that is ground to a powder, the X-rays sample a random distribution of all crystal orientations, powder diffraction can distinguish between minerals that may appear the same in a hand sample, for example quartz and its polymorphs tridymite and cristobalite
9.
Ancient Greek
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Ancient Greek includes the forms of Greek used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around the 9th century BC to the 6th century AD. It is often divided into the Archaic period, Classical period. It is antedated in the second millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek, the language of the Hellenistic phase is known as Koine. Koine is regarded as a historical stage of its own, although in its earliest form it closely resembled Attic Greek. Prior to the Koine period, Greek of the classic and earlier periods included several regional dialects, Ancient Greek was the language of Homer and of fifth-century Athenian historians, playwrights, and philosophers. It has contributed many words to English vocabulary and has been a subject of study in educational institutions of the Western world since the Renaissance. This article primarily contains information about the Epic and Classical phases of the language, Ancient Greek was a pluricentric language, divided into many dialects. The main dialect groups are Attic and Ionic, Aeolic, Arcadocypriot, some dialects are found in standardized literary forms used in literature, while others are attested only in inscriptions. There are also several historical forms, homeric Greek is a literary form of Archaic Greek used in the epic poems, the Iliad and Odyssey, and in later poems by other authors. Homeric Greek had significant differences in grammar and pronunciation from Classical Attic, the origins, early form and development of the Hellenic language family are not well understood because of a lack of contemporaneous evidence. Several theories exist about what Hellenic dialect groups may have existed between the divergence of early Greek-like speech from the common Proto-Indo-European language and the Classical period and they have the same general outline, but differ in some of the detail. The invasion would not be Dorian unless the invaders had some relationship to the historical Dorians. The invasion is known to have displaced population to the later Attic-Ionic regions, the Greeks of this period believed there were three major divisions of all Greek people—Dorians, Aeolians, and Ionians, each with their own defining and distinctive dialects. Often non-west is called East Greek, Arcadocypriot apparently descended more closely from the Mycenaean Greek of the Bronze Age. Boeotian had come under a strong Northwest Greek influence, and can in some respects be considered a transitional dialect, thessalian likewise had come under Northwest Greek influence, though to a lesser degree. Most of the dialect sub-groups listed above had further subdivisions, generally equivalent to a city-state and its surrounding territory, Doric notably had several intermediate divisions as well, into Island Doric, Southern Peloponnesus Doric, and Northern Peloponnesus Doric. The Lesbian dialect was Aeolic Greek and this dialect slowly replaced most of the older dialects, although Doric dialect has survived in the Tsakonian language, which is spoken in the region of modern Sparta. Doric has also passed down its aorist terminations into most verbs of Demotic Greek, by about the 6th century AD, the Koine had slowly metamorphosized into Medieval Greek
10.
Natal astrology
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Natal astrology can be found in the Indian or Jyotish, Chinese and Western astrological traditions. Once the horoscope has been constructed the process of interpretation can begin, interpretation involves three main steps, noting the important features of the chart, and the processes of chart weighting and chart shaping. Chart weighting involves noting the distribution of zodiac signs and houses in the chart, Chart shaping involves assessing the placement of the planets by aspect and position in the chart, and noting any significant patterns which occur between them. Astrology is generally considered a pseudoscience by the scientific community, what little statistical evidence exists fails to show a causation between natal birth charts and real world consequences. Also important is the first planet to occupy the first, second, called the rising planet it will be particularly strong in the chart. If no planet occupies the first three houses, then a planet in the house close to the ascendant can be taken to be the rising planet. Planets that are in conjunction to the angles of ascendant, midheaven, descendant. Chart weighting begins by listing the sun, moon, planets, ascendant, for example, a large number of planets appearing in fire signs will give importance or weight to fire sign attributes in the natives personality. Chart weighting by sign lists the zodiac signs by three main categories - by masculine or feminine signs, by element and by quality, a native with these signs predominating will tend towards extroversion, confidence and assertiveness, and have the ability to solve problems with courage and enterprise. Feminine, The feminine signs are Taurus, Cancer, Virgo, Scorpio, Capricorn, a native with these signs predominating will tend towards introversion, shyness and passivity, and have the ability to nurture, conserve and solve problems by intuitive means. Fire, The fires signs are Aries, Leo, and Sagittarius, a native with mainly fire signs will be energetic, enthusiastic and optimistic, with a need to be in the center of the action making things happen. They can be egotistical, headstrong and sometimes arrogant, but also can be generous, warm-hearted, fire subjects are independent and prefer to have control over their own lives, but they can also be sometimes autocratic. A subject lacking fire signs will be fearful or over-cautious, pessimistic and shy, planets in the 1st, 5th and 9th houses and an emphasis on cardinal signs in the chart will help to compensate for this lack. Earth, The earth signs are Taurus, Virgo, and Capricorn, a native with mainly earth signs will be practical and cautious, sensible and capable and will be happier with concrete things than abstract ideas. They move slowly and carry out their work in a thorough, earth subjects are shrewd and careful and need emotional and material security, and will put up with quite a lot to get it. They are generous to those they love, but are otherwise not to waste time or money. Earth subjects tend to be shy in social situations, and to be slow to commit in love relationships, a subject lacking earth signs will lack common sense and practicality and find it difficult to finish anything they start. They may be scatty, unrealistic and clumsy, hopeless with money, planets in the 2nd, 6th and 10th houses and an emphasis on fixed signs in the chart will help to compensate for this lack
11.
Analogy
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Analogy is a cognitive process of transferring information or meaning from a particular subject to another, or a linguistic expression corresponding to such a process. The word analogy can also refer to the relation between the source and the target themselves, which is often, though not necessarily, a similarity, as in the biological notion of analogy. Analogy plays a significant role in solving, as well as decision making, perception, memory, creativity, emotion, explanation. It lies behind basic tasks such as the identification of places, objects and people, for example, in face perception and it has been argued that analogy is the core of cognition. Specific analogical language comprises exemplification, comparisons, metaphors, similes, allegories, and parables, phrases like and so on, and the like, as if, and the very word like also rely on an analogical understanding by the receiver of a message including them. Analogy is important not only in language and common sense but also in science, philosophy. In cognitive linguistics, the notion of conceptual metaphor may be equivalent to that of analogy, Analogy has been studied and discussed since classical antiquity by philosophers, scientists, and lawyers. The last few decades have shown a renewed interest in analogy, in ancient Greek the word αναλογια originally meant proportionality, in the mathematical sense, and it was indeed sometimes translated to Latin as proportio. From there analogy was understood as identity of relation between any two ordered pairs, whether of mathematical nature or not, kants Critique of Judgment held to this notion. Kant argued that there can be exactly the same relation between two different objects. The same notion of analogy was used in the US-based SAT tests, for example, Hand is to palm as foot is to ____. This relation is not apparent in some definitions of palm and sole, where the former is defined as the inner surface of the hand. Analogy and abstraction are different cognitive processes, and analogy is often an easier one and this analogy is not comparing all the properties between a hand and a foot, but rather comparing the relationship between a hand and its palm to a foot and its sole. While a hand and a foot have many dissimilarities, the focuses on their similarity in having an inner surface. A computer algorithm has achieved human-level performance on multiple-choice analogy questions from the SAT test, the algorithm measures the similarity of relations between pairs of words by statistical analysis of a large collection of text. It answers SAT questions by selecting the choice with the highest relational similarity, Greek philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle actually used a wider notion of analogy. They saw analogy as a shared abstraction, analogous objects did not share necessarily a relation, but also an idea, a pattern, a regularity, an attribute, an effect or a philosophy. These authors also accepted that comparisons, metaphors and images could be used as arguments, analogies should also make those abstractions easier to understand and give confidence to the ones using them
12.
Middle English
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This stage of the development of the English language roughly followed the High to the Late Middle Ages. Middle English developed out of Late Old English, seeing many dramatic changes in its grammar, pronunciation and this largely forms the basis for Modern English spelling, although pronunciation has changed considerably since that time. Middle English was succeeded in England by the era of Early Modern English, by that time, a variant of the Northumbrian dialect was developing into the Scots language. During the Middle English period many Old English grammatical features were simplified or disappeared, noun, adjective and verb inflections were simplified, a process that included the reduction of most grammatical case distinctions. Middle English also saw an adoption of Norman French vocabulary, especially in areas such as politics, law. Everyday English vocabulary remained mostly Germanic, with Old Norse influence becoming apparent, significant changes in pronunciation took place, especially for long vowels and diphthongs, which in the later Middle English period began to undergo the Great Vowel Shift. Little survives of early Middle English literature, most likely due to the Norman domination, poets wrote both in the vernacular and courtly English. It is popularly believed that William Shakespeare wrote in Middle English, the latter part of the 11th century was a period of transition from Late Old English to Early Middle English. The influence of Old Norse certainly helped move English from a synthetic language towards a more analytic or isolating word order and it was, after all, a salutary influence. The gain was greater than the loss, there was a gain in directness, in clarity, and in strength. The change to Old English from Old Norse was substantive, pervasive and it is most important to recognise that in many words the English and Scandinavian language differed chiefly in their inflectional elements. The body of the word was so nearly the same in the two languages only the endings would put obstacles in the way of mutual understanding. In the mixed population which existed in the Danelaw these endings must have led to confusion, tending gradually to become obscured. This blending of peoples and languages resulted in simplifying English grammar. There are also many Norman-derived terms relating to the cultures that arose in the 12th century. Sometimes, and particularly later, words were taken from Latin, giving such sets as kingly, later French borrowings came from standard rather than Norman French, this leads to such cognate pairs as warden, guardian. The end of Anglo-Saxon rule did not, of course, change the language immediately, the general population would have spoken the same dialects as before the Conquest, these changed slowly until written records of them became available for study, which varies in different regions. Once the writing of Old English came to an end, Middle English had no standard language, Early Middle English has a largely Anglo-Saxon vocabulary, but a greatly simplified inflectional system
