Connotations are words that have an idea that invoke ideas and feelings. In addition, this connotations can either fit into two categories. Either they are informative, meaning that they are just reports (verifiable facts) about certain things. Or they can be affective connotations, meaning that they bring information that inform us how someone feels about certain things. For example, "She was a well behaved young lady." This is letting us know that the person like the girl by the way they described her.  For informative connotations an example would be the following: "Her friend's house was huge!." This is a rep that can be verifiable if we actually went to the girl's friend house. A characteristic that affective connotation have, is that they are socially agreed upon. So to sum this all up, the way i see it is the following:

Informative connotations: A report about something. 
Affective connotations: They way you let people know how you feel by using words or phrases.

Guess what we are going to talk about today? Well what you are about to read is very important. I mean where talking about pure top secret stuff. Might as well call it G-Classified. Just like spies get sent out on missions, we are too, our mission today is to find out the answer to the question that no one has really pays enough attention. What constitutes context? We have a major resource that has the answer. Thanks to our agent chapter four in the book of Language in Though and Action by S.I. Hayakawa we wont have to go far out to other countries to find out the real answer.

Chapter four is specialized on the topic of context. First thing is first, we have to talk about what kind of context there are. For example, we know there are two main kinds. Verbal and physical context. Verbal contexts consist coming up with a workable definition that fits best the word we dont understand in a dialog. It is sort of using context clues, but instead of reading an article its just in a conversation. In the other hand physical contexts is what is reflected by the space around something that influences on how you see things. Another things that constitute to context is extensional and intensional meaning. Extensional meaning is something that cant be said in words because it really is for what the word stands for. Intensional meaning, are just words that are suggested in one's head. For example, they are words that you can point at. If someone tells you the word "cow" you can already picture in your head the black and white spots and in reality you can point at what are literally cows. That would be an example of extensional meaning. Now in the other hand with intensional meaning, saying things like "the tooth fairy will take my tooth under my pillow tonight" were expressing something we cant actually see. Yet in our mind we can picture the fairy actually coming to get your tooth. 

IMPORTANT NOTE: In all context in the world you must understand that all words influence one another wether is physical or verbal context. They all help each other and that is why we can comprehend things that we cant actually see but we can picture in our heads & its also the reason why sometimes we can actually point to the things we are talking about. 

Now agent, your mission is to go out into the world and place this skills in your everyday life. Enjoy it. This message will self destruct in 5 seconds. 

P.S. I bet that in your head you could actually hear the spy music playing while you was reading this blog as well as the little voice counting down from five in the end. 

The article "AP English Blather" by Tina Blue is an article that portraits the view of a English college professor who grades her students writing papers and gets disappointed by the fact that most of her students go in circles when they try to write a good paper. They never get their point across and that my friends  is what is know as "blather." She explains how most of the blather papers that she grades are mostly from the students who came from AP English course in high school. She explains how they were taught wrong in the material and this is where the seven deadly sin of literature come in place:

1. Empty Writing: sentences that have no type of real information
2. Too Cliche: words and phrases that have been used for ages
3. Platitude Punishment: Almost similar to cliches but the difference is the platitudes sound nicer.
4. Obvious Facts and Unnecessary Info: when writers tells the obvious when the readers already know it.
5. Over-generalization: important part in writing but its better to keep it at a limit.
6. Subjectivity and Dogmatism: when students use words like "I think" or "In my opinion" etc.
7. Big Words For No Reason: when the writer uses big words that makes no sense nor relates to the wholoe document.

So my advise to all students is the following double make sure that you dont make any use of this seven deadly sins of literature. They can break your whole purpose of writing. So therefore....

On a good day, everybody secretly wants someone to give them a complement right? Sometimes we get comments like "Hey! You look very nice today" or things like "Wow, I love your shoes." Those type of comments make you smile and makes your day even better. But what if someone comes and complements your eyes? it doesnt matter whether if you have green, blue, brown, or grey eyes. The complement always makes our day. I remember one summer, i was hanging with a group of friends and like usual among friends we play around as well as pull jokes on eachother. Out of the sudden one of my friends, J'mara goes like "Dude! you have amazing eyes." My other friend gets happy and accepts the complement with a smile. Then J'mara responds to the smile with "Yeah they are just like a Gorillas." Of course the rest of us started laughing because we didnt expect the gorilla part of the complement.  Wondering what this has to do with AP English yet? If you are then here is your answer.

Have you ever heard of snarl and purr words? Snarl words are words that are meant to be insults but the way they are said confuses you when you try to comprehend the content of it. Purr words on the other hand, are words that are meant to be complements or give you positive feedback. Now lets apply what we have learned here to the scenario from earlier about my friends. Would you consider that scenario to be snarl or purr words? Lets take a look from both sides of the story. The person who receives the first part of the complement "your eyes are pretty" then we understand its a complement so therefore we infer that it is indeed purr words. But then we have the second part of the complement "yeah like a gorillas." We now jump to say "nope, this is definitely a insult." I can conclude that this scenario could go both ways depending on your sense of humor. I say this because the first part of the statement shows that it can be a complement to the other person now in relation with the second part of it you can take it two ways. One way to take it is agree that gorillas eyes are pretty (in which they are) or we can take it as an insult where the gorilla is a ugly animal where all his features are ugly as well. So which way will you take this snarl and purr words in the future??  

Something new that I learned in class, was that sometimes people can appreciate things because of social or economic statuses. It becomes a barrier that its hard to knock down. Only the people who set their mind to make a change make this happen. When we read The Lesson, by Toni Cade Bambara, the class was suppose to come up with a theme that related the points of view from the story.

Well this story is told from first person point of view, from the character of Sylvia who along with her cousins are educated from this lady named Miss. Moore. Their teacher is much higher in class than the one Sylvia and her cousins are in. When they take the a trip to this well known toy story in New York, the characters feel out of place because they know all what they see is out of their reach. The character of Sylvia eventually lets the reader know how she hates Miss. Moore and how she don't like to learn things from her. When the class got together to discuss the themes our groups had come up with, my group came up with the following:

We all agreed that if a certain person is poor and don't have the possibilities to go to school the outcome that will happen is that you most likely will feel out of place when you surround yourself with people of higher society levels and who have obtain some type of education. Thats is when you start to hate those kinds of people. This is also what the character of Sylvia didnt like. She didn't like feeling less than anybody in those terms. Yet, she always set her mind to "aint nobody gnna beat me at noting." (Sylvia 202)

Chapter three: Reports, inferences, judgments

Whooooooohooooooo!!!! Well lets start scrutinizing each part of this chapter shall we? From the previous chapter we already know what are reports. Let me refresh your memory just in case you forgot. Reports are facts that can be verifiable and that's what we most rely on in terms of our knowledge. 

What are inferences?
Based on my reading on this third chapter, inferences are statements about what we don't know based on what we do know. So for example, "because i saw the store full of glass things, everything in there is expensive." We don't actually know that the store items will be expensive but we do know that there are glass items that are sold there.

What are Judgments?
Judgments in this book are referred as expressions of a person approval or disapproval of an specific thing that is described  current events, or even people. Most often people confuse judgments with reports. Remember reports are facts. Something we can check and actually approve it. Now judgments are your approval or disapproval to a certain thing. For example the example that is given to the reader, "Jack lied to us" is a judgment because we jump into a conclusion of the act of lien based on what we have observed.  

In chapter three, the topic about Slanting. Slanting is basically pick and choosing what you want to say from a specific report. Sometimes this changes the whole meaning of what the actual report is about. For example, the love story of Romeo and Juliet. "The story about the two lovers who could never be together" would be the the slant version of the actual play. I'm picking and choosing on what to tell you. I don't get in detail about what actually happened in the story or tell you about the big conflicts between the Capulets and the Montagues. Get my point? To make it even more simpler, lets say we watched the movie Titanic. 
Slant version: "The movie about the ship that sank."

Everyone needs some rules to follow or a guide in their life because other wise we would be lost int this wide world. There are too many routes we can find on a map to go from New York to California. Maps, in this case are what Hayakawa makes us understand as the verbal instensional world (or the physical thing.) Or in another words, our maps are based on reports that help us immensely in the use of verbal language  For example we use specific words to describe where the things on the kitchen table are when we are at dinner "the salt is next to the napkins" or when we want someone to find something in your room. We may say things like "Go up stairs, to the left, and you will find my room to the right." Since in my house this would be the correct directions to my room, we can call this a report. Why? Simple enough because they are facts that can verified. A cool fact about reports is that report bring us most of our knowledge that we know and heavily rely on. Now in the other hand, territories are the experiences that one person encounters once they use one of the maps that they can rely on to find the way to anything or in another words the extensional world. Interesting enough, the use of this maps and territories would go like this:

Map: the blue prints to the worlds famous building.
Territory: The actual making of the world's famous building
OR
Map: Reading the book of The Basic Driver Rules to understand the key concepts on how to drive safely
Territory: Actually taking the road test and apply what you read from the book.

So Cess, what are the differences?
 
Good question. The difference between maps and territories is that maps are the things we use to guide our self in any situation we may encounter and the territories are the experiences we obtain as a result from using that guide in that specific situation. Simple enough right?

Take the time out for just a minute and appreciate the fact that you are one of the most dominnat species in the world. In fact, us, humans, have many abilities that we use on regular basis making us be number one at the top of the list. If it wasn't for the abilities of reading and writing, speaking, and reasoning we would not be the queens and kings of the earth. Based on the first three chapters of the book, Language in Thought and Action by S.I. Hayakawa and Alan R. Hayakawa i can resolute that those are just few characteristics that makes us different from being compared with an animal or any other living thing. The fact that we can read this piece of writing is one of the main strategies that we use to communicate with one another. For example, we always get happy from receiving and reading an email or a letter from a long lost cousin. Thanks to the old Greek guys from ages ago, we have developed the skill of reading the letters in the words of this paragraph. This gives us a way to express our emotions on paper. Another thing that humans have developed as an important skill, is the fact the we can use our mouths and communicate as if we were having a conversation on the phone. We can scream "Hey!!! Watch out!!" to somebody and they will immediately understand were telling them to move out of the way. Humans can also use their brain and reason!! Meaning we can tell what is right from wrong. Can another living thing meet up those requirements to be considered a part of the dominant species? I don't think so and I'm pretty sure that the authors of this book would agree with me as well. Its pretty cool to know that we are special and unique to the world.

xoxo, 
Cesia.

As a kid growing up, I always found animals very cool. In fact, when I went to the zoo for the first time in my life my imagination expanded so much that that trip turned out to be as if I was going through an African Safari. Having the animals close to me up to a certain extend make me realize that they are smart in all kinds of ways. Lets look at the facts, one of my favorite animals are the Cheetahs. What, a Cheetah?! They maybe can be a very common animal to be someones "favorite" but just like everyone else i have my reasons to like a Cheetah. Cheetah's are known to be one of the fastest animals in the world for one. Two, they have strategies set to attack their prey. Lastly, when cheetahs attack they study their pray before they strike. They tend to wait patiently at the same time they try not to be seen by their pray yet when they finally attack their food is to be for sure. Another one of my favorite animals that I got to see at the zoo in my younger days was the majestic giraffes. 

Believe it or not, if you have never seen one up close let me tell you and take my word for it. They are extremely beautiful. Their features of having a extreme height and their unique patterns makes them stand out of the rest of the animals. They cant be compared.I believe that the animal that humans should imitate has to be smart, strong, and meaningful. That is why in my opinion, humans should imitate giraffes. Giraffes may seem like the weakest animal in the jungle and just because of their long necks the may not do as much as others. This precious animal to many people around the world including myself it resembles the perfect example of strength, flexibility and grace. Giraffes teaches the world to consider the life we live in from all different angles. From the lowest point to the highest it should be appreciated. As far as it goes for strength they give out a life lesson that reaches out to everybody. That is, "Stand tall through all your troubles." Even though we encounter life challenges in which are found to be extremely difficult, we have to stand tall and strong just like a giraffe in the wild. It teaches us to use our strengths and flexibility to become one with our spirit and be the best we can be when unpleasant surprises come our way. Lastly, they represent grace because they tend to have elegance no matter the surroundings in which they stand. They will be spotted and be always known for represent grace. Literally, they teach me to reach for high standards, live life gracefully even if it brings pain along, the ability to be flexible with my own strength and shape it the way I believe is the most effective and to be strong at all times.

What is it exactly that we get in return if we give nothing? Mostly like anything that is free would be my first thought. I mean who wouldnt take anything that is free. Specially with this bad economy now a days. By thinking hard about what the real answer would be, I couldn't find a clear answer in my head. I was definitively on a quest for finding the ultimate price. Therefore i continued to read chapter one of Language in Thought and Action. I found out that all of us in society and anywhere in the world tend to get a lot of gifts everyday and we do not have to give anything back!! That is like the coolest thing! Its like the shopping spree you've always wanted to have only without having to pay for the actual item you would buy. But what are some of this "gifts"? Well, have you ever wonder how you gained your knowledge about the new iPhone 4 that came out a few years ago? You probably read new reviews, saw commercials, or actually went to the store to find about out the cool features of the phone of the year. BUT WAIT!!! the ability to read and understand all this information? Exactly! The ability to read words is one of the gifts that we get for nothing. Lets look at the facts, we go to school from a very young age to learn the sounds of the alphabet and vowels and eventually construct words until we reach the point of reading. Yet, we wonder how all the teachers know all this stuff. All this were gifts that were passed on down from generations from long time ago until the day of today. History, in fact is one of the most appreciated gifts that we have because they were written down when they happened and now have survived everyday so we can take a look back make it our reference on a certain topic  and say "Ohhh so that's what happen." Even further, we get the privilege to go to school at a young age and learn new things without giving a dollar where we get education in return for nothing. Another example of this is when we gain experiences by someone else telling their story. Just like when its our first day of High School, our parents already have gone through that phase in their life and they tend to pass those experience down to their children. They give tips based on their experience that their kids can pick up and apply them to their own expreience. Not only did they gained knowledge but experience as well. What are we going to get for nothing in the future? Only time can tell.