subject: Notional and Attitudinal Meanings in Grammar [print this page] The above examples illustrate how grammar is used to indicate differences in 'notional meaning' (Batstone 1995)that is differences in semantic categories, such as time, duration, frequency, defmiteness, etc. The liberating power which grammar gives usto transcend the limitations of lexis and context in the communication of meaningis also deployed in expressing attitudinal meanings, such as approval, disapproval, politeness, abruptness, and social intimacy or distance, etc. (Batstone op. cit., Larsen-Freeman op. cit.).
The following example from Batstone illustrates how a writer might deliberately contrast two tenses to indicate approval and disapproval towards the respective subjects of the verb: Smith (1980) argued that Britain was no longer a country in which freedom of speech was seriously maintained. Johnson (1983), though, argues that Britain remains a citadel of Links London individual liberty. Commenting on this example, Batstone (ibid.: 198) suggests that the use of the past tense signals that Smith's argument is no longer worthy of current interest ... it is (in two significant senses) passe, whereas the contrasting use of the present tense in the following sentence shows that Johnson's argument is held to be of real and continuing relevance. The writer is here using grammar to signal something about his attitude to the ideas he is discussing. Conversion to STL Format . The various CAD packages use a number of different algorithms to represent solid objects. o establish consistency, the STL (stereolithography, the first RP technique) format has been adopted as the standard of the rapid prototyping industry. The second step, therefore, is to convert the CAD file into STL format.
This format represents a three-dimensional surface as an assembly of planar triangles, "like the facets of a cut jewel. " The file contains the coordinates of the vertices and the direction of the outward normal of each triangle. Because STL files use planar elements, they cannot represent curved surfaces exactly. Increasing the number of triangles improves the approximation, but at the cost of bigger file size. Large, complicated files require more time to pre-process and build, so the designer must balance accuracy with manageability to produce a useful STL file. Since the . stl format is universal, this process is identical for all of the RP build techniques. Slice the STL File-. In the third step, a pre-processing program prepares the STL file to be built. Several programs are available, and most allow the user to adjust the size, location and orientation of the model. Build orientation is important for several reasons. First, properties of rapid prototypes vary from one coordinate direction to another. For example, prototypes are usually weaker and less accurate in the z (vertical) direction than in the x-y plane.
In addition, part orientation partially determines the amount of time required to build the model. Placing the shortest dimension in the z direction reduces the number of layers, thereby shortening build time. The pre-processing software slices the STL model into a number of layers from 0. Olmm to 0. 7mm thick, depending on the build technique. Central to the notion of grammar as a liberating force is the view of grammar as a Links Of London Friendship Bracelets communicative resource on which speakers draw to express their intended meanings at both levelsthe notional and the attitudinal. As such the use of a particular grammatical structure is a matter of speaker choice. As language users, we may wish to be very clear about what we want to say, or deliberately ambiguous, or non-committal. We may wish to sound polite, distant, direct, or even rude. We may wish to convey formality or informality according to the context in which we are operating. To do all these things, speakers use the linguistic resources which the grammar of the language makes available to them: grammar is thus at the service of the language user, and the teaching of grammarespecially if we wish to present grammar to our learners as something which is liberating and empoweringshould aim to reflect this.
