The Impact Of The Norman Conquest English Language Essay

The Impact Of The Norman Conquest English Language Essay By the end of the Old English period an event took place which had a major impact on the English language. This event was the Norman Conquest, in 1066, which marks the beginning of the Middle English Period. The invasion is a milestone in the history of England, and played a key role in the development of Modern English. But another view sees the events of the occupation as having a negative effect on English, and as a national catastrophe that destroyed a sophisticated native Anglo-Saxon culture (Graddol et al, 1996:120) and disrupted the progression of the English language. Short states that Higden Ranulf, an English chronicler and Benedictine monk, saw French as one of the principal reasons why the English language had degenerated in Medieval England (2007: 29). Nevertheless, others claim that the Norman Conquest contributed to an enormous enrichment of the English vocabulary (Hughes, 2000: 111). English would probably have pursued another evolution had William the Conqueror not s ucceeded in appropriating the English throne. It would most likely lack the immense amount of French vocabulary that characterizes the English language today, and that make English look, on the side of lexicon, like a Romance language. No other previous event had had such an impact on the language. The Scandinavian invasion in the eighth century had affected English, but not as profoundly as the Norman Conquest. This is because the speakers of Anglo-Saxon and Old Norse could understand each other, since they were communicating through similar Germanic-root words. Whereas, Norman French was a foreign Romance language which was completely alien to a population speaking a Germanic language. The conquerors continued to speak their own language in Britain. Watson argues that Normans were ruthless people who had no interest in the culture, literature and learning the language of the conquered people. English, which had been the official and literary language, was demoted to be the languag e of the serfs (Watson, 2002: 17). Since the two languages, Norman French and English, were not mutually understandable and French was the language of the rulers, English speakers had to adapt to the newcomers and learn some key expressions. Thus, the Norman invasion brought bilingualism in the British Isles with French and English living alongside each other for a long time. It is estimated that around 10 000 French words (Mcrum et al, 1986: 82) poured into English during the Norman rule. These words are found in every sphere: art, literature, law and government. Modern English has retained a large number of these words which have been completely assimilated into English in their structure, pronunciation and spelling. The Normans represented a small proportion of the population, however, their language had a massive impact upon society, since they were in position of power. According to Short, the number of French speaking incomers at the start of the 12 century was around 15 000, which would represent less than 1% of the total population of some 1.75 million (2007: 26). This is the reason why Norman French is not the spoken language of England today, despite its dominance in Britain for almost three centuries. Baugh Cable claim that the Norman Conquest changed the whole course of the English language (2002: 208). Thus, such a consequential event deserves to be explored in detail. First Chapter Historical Background Normans were descendent of Vikings from Scandinavia who settled down in the northern region of France in the ninth and tenth centuries. This region was known as Northmannia, the land of the Northmen, later shortened to Normandy. The Normans became Frenchmen culturally and linguistically (Pyles, 1964:153) soon assimilating the French customs, marrying local women, converting to Christianity, and giving up their own language and acquiring French. England had had close ties with Normandy long before the conquest in 1066. In 1002 Æthelred the Unready, king of England between 78-1016, had married a Norman woman and his son known as Edward the Confessor, who was raised in France, was more French than English. During the 24 years of his reign, Edward brought many of his Norman friends over to England giving them important positions in the government. When Edward the Confessor died childless, William the Conqueror, who was a second cousin of the late king, believed he was entitled to be Edwards successor even though he had no right to inherit the English throne. (Loyn, 1991: 65-67). So when the accession to the throne was denied to him, he attacked England, and with his exceptional abilities he won the battle of Hastings and on Christmas Day 1066, William was crowned king of England (Baugh Cable, 2002: 112). The rule of William the Conqueror brought with it vast changes to the social, political, religious and linguistic (Fennell, 2001: 95) structure of England. Dominance of the French language in England Williams possession of the English throne had far-reaching consequences. One of the repercussions was the introduction of a new nobility. The old English nobility was virtually annihilated and replaced with Norman followers. Mcrum et al. (1986: 73) argue that William also purged the English church: gradually Norman bishops and abbots occupied the cathedrals and monasteries, and for many generations after the conquest, the great estates and important positions were held by French-speaking Normans. The most significant consequence, however, was the dominion that the French language acquired in England. The Norman Conquest brought not only a new way of life but also a new way of speaking. The Norman incomers mother tongue was French and it remained so until the second half of the 12th century. French became the language of the ruling class and their servants. It was adopted across the entire range of written registers: literature, legal proceedings, commerce, government businesses and p rivate correspondence (Ingham, 2010: 1). The members of the new commanding class continued to use their own language once they settled in England. First, only those of Norman origin would speak French, but soon through intermarriage and relation with the supreme class, many English people found it to their benefit to master the new language. Therefore French became the language of power and prestige (Hughes, 2000: 13). The status of French in England from 1066 onwards is comparable to the importance of English in the British Empire in the 19th and 20th century (Freeborn, 1998: 81). For almost three hundred years after the conquest English ceased to be the official language of the land (Hughes, 2000: 110), existing only as language of the masses. Short claims that the survival of French for three centuries, even after the loss of Normandy in 1204, is the result of a desire on the part of the Norman descendants to retain and strengthen their sense of separate identity (2007: 13). He b elieves that Anglo-Norman was a means of social and political self-definition and self-preservation. All the kings of England spoke French as their first language. Command of French would also be found amongst the middle class. Knights also had a tendency to using it, even if they were English natives. Merchants and tradesmen spoke French, and also clerks and bailiffs would use the language due to the fact that different services were conducted in that language. Nonetheless Latin remained the language of church and scholarship. It was the language of records used for any documents that were felt to be important to be left to posterity. Though French had cultural and social prestige in this period, both English and French were regarded as inferior to Latin (Knowles, 1997: 47). So from 1066 there were three languages that pervaded medieval England: Latin, French and English, and literature, religion, law, science were all conducted in languages other than English (Mcrum et al, 1986: 7 3). Short estimates that 80% of the population in Britain was monolingual English speakers, 16.5% bilingual French speakers, and 3.5% trilingual Latin, French and English (2007: 28). Latin was the unifying European language par excellence (Totter, 2000: 23). It was learned and studied in the schools and universities in England. Latin was the language of religion, culture and power and it was established all over Europe. Nonetheless Latin was mainly used for written purposes. The language was spoken by a tiny minority of the English and it was employed only in the highest ecclesiastical circles (Trotter, 2000: 24). Latin, however, was certainly not the spoken language used in court. French was the language used in the kings court (Ingham, 2010: 95). Nevertheless, in spite of the fact that English was ousted by the two prestigious languages, it was never wiped out. It had a low status and it was reduced to an informal- colloquial vernacular, but it was still used to a great extent by the lower classes. Fennell states that there was diglossia in England for a long time with French as the High language and English as the Low language (Fenell, 2001: 117). However, Baugh Cable maintain that if the Normans did not appreciate English as a vernacular this should not be interpreted as an oppressive language attitude towards English. A few generations before they had themselves renounced their own Germanic language in favour of Latin and French. The perception that Normans were hostile to the English language is without foundation (Baugh Cable, 2002: 117). It is true that English was considered to be an unsophisticated tongue, however there is sufficient evidence of mutual respect and peaceful cooperation between the English and the Normans (Baugh Cable, 2002: 117). William the Conqueror himself made an effort at the age of forty-three to learn English without succeeding. In general, the upper classes were indifferent towards the English language because their activit ies in England did not require the use of it, and French was for them more useful. Survival of English How did English manage to survive and not get absorbed in the dominant Norman tongue? Mcrum et al (1986: 75) suggest that there are three important motives that explain the survival of English. First of all, Old English was too established, too vigorous, and, thanks to its fusion with Scandinavian languages, too hardy to be wiped out (Mcrum et al, 1986: 75). Despite the written records becoming Latin and French, English continued being the speech of commoners and it would have needed many centuries of French rule to obliterate it as the vernacular of ordinary people. They were not going to stop speaking English just because they had been conquered by a foreigner. Second, the fusion between Normans and English was rapid, as Normans intermarried with English people. The French-born mixed with the English-born. Thus, future generations living in Britain would feel more English. The Norman ancestors were forgotten with time and young people identified with the natural language of most in habitants in Britain. One hundred years after the invasion, an anonymous chronicler wrote that The two nations had become so mixed that it is scarcely possible today, speaking of free men, to tell who is English and who is of Norman race (Baugh Cable, 2009: 120). The Francophone incomers seemed to have become fully integrated with English people. Third, and most important reason, the Anglo-Normans lost control of their French territory across the Channel. When King John lost Normandy in 1204, conflict began to develop between France and England, which concluded with the Hundred Years War. The ex Norman nobility became English, as many nobles had to declare themselves either French or English. The loss of Normandy established an independent English nation and a feeling of national consciousness and identity began to arise in the British Isles (Short, 2007: 31). English people began to be more interested in their native language, therefore the trilingual setting of medieval England e xisting following the Norman Conquest started to disappear. The initial trilingual situation developed into oral bilingualism, although it was not omnipresent in England, and progressively culminated into vernacular monolinguism (Trotter, 2000: 25). Chapter 2 Re-establishment of English The rivalry created between England and France meant that interests between English and French were no longer the same. This resulted in the decline of French and re-establishment of English. Fennell believes that if England had remained in the control of France, French might have continued to be used in England forever (Fennell 2001: 117). This did not happen though. While French had been necessary to the English upper class during the two centuries following the Norman Conquest, in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries its use was artificial. French lost its importance gradually and became a second acquired language after English till it disappeared. Evidence of the passage of Anglo-Norman from a mother tongue to an acquired language has its roots in 1160s but also the first murmurings of discontent surfacing form those of Anglo-Saxon stock who see themselves as excluded an denied professional advancement by their ignorance of French (Short, 2007: 26). At the start of the fourtee nth century Anglo-Norman seemed to have lost its prestige completely. Slowly English won its way back to being ubiquitous in England. French passed into oblivion in the fifteenth and English was re-established, but it was a new language in vocabulary and in spirit, wholly different in character, rhythm and feeling from the Anglo-Saxon (Watson, 2002: 18). Under the influence of Chaucer poets began to write in English, but also literature was highly influenced by French. When English re-emerged as the written language of England, it was extremely altered in structure; however, Romaine claims that debate still continues about the extent to which change was internally or externally motivated (1998: 7). These differences in the English language remained immutable. Freeborn (1998: 51) argues that when reading English texts from the 12th century onwards, there are changes in grammar, vocabulary, spelling and word form. Of course, the English language did not change overnight in response to the Norman Conquest. Fennell, on the other hand, maintains changes in English did not happen as a result of the conquest. He states th at the influence of French on English is neither extreme nor special (Fennell, 2001: 130). Many loan words have been borrowed from French, but there is no marked structural change that can be revealed. It is also hard to demonstrate French influence on word order. There is no influence on concord as well. According to Fennell, changes in the English language are simply due to gradual change (2001: 131). The Lexicon: Loan Words from French While the loss of inflection was only indirectly due to the use of French in England, French impact is much more noticeable on the vocabulary. A huge body of French words became part of the English language. The influx of French words began slowly and continued with varying pace for a long time. Most of the Norman French loanwords entered English during the Middle English period, and they actually came fastest when French was dying out (Barber et al., 2010: 155). Some scholars argue that actually the main borrowings by English tool place from 1250 onwards (Hughes, 2000:110). In the eleventh and twelfth century the number of words borrowed from French was minimal, and in the thirteenth and fourteenth century the amount of loanwords increased significantly. When bilingual speakers changed over to English for such purposes as literature and government, they needed specialized terms that they were habituated to in these domains (Barber et al., 2010: 156). The influence, however, was reci procal. Numerous English words were introduced into the French spoken in England as well. From the very start of the century it is possible to find Anglo-Norman poets incorporating words of Old English origin into their works (Short, 2007: 22). Where two languages live alongside each other for a long time a substantial transference of words from one language to another is unavoidable. Despite that, English had more to gain form French than vice versa, therefore the number of French words that entered English was incredibly vast. Many of the words borrowed by English are words to do with war, ecclesiastical matters, heraldry, hunting, the law, arts and fashion. The earliest adoptions from Norman French are encountered in 1137: tresor treasury, Canceler Chancellor prisun justice and tenserie protection money (Hughes, 2000: 111). These words indicate a whole new Norman vocabulary of power. Other words that infiltrated English in the 12th century are: duc duke, cuntess countess, curt court, messe mass, clerc scholar (Graddol et al, 1996: 123). Also these loanwords demonstrate the domination of the Normans in influential institutions such as the church and the royal court. The Norman Conquest made French the language of the official class in England. Therefore it is not the least bit astonishing that many word having to do with administration and government are of French origin. Some of the earliest loans from French are: service, prison and castle (Pyles, 1980: 324). Other words include: crown, state, empire, au thority, sovereign, parliament, assembly, treaty, alliance, country, attorney, chancellor, judge, jury, noble, royal. The word office and the titles of many offices are also French: coroner, treasurer, marshal, governor, councillor, minister, warden, and castellan (Baugh Cable, 2009: 169). In the religious domain amongst many words there terms such as: abbot, clergy, preach, sacrament, vestment. As English was the language of the masses, it is not surprising that the original terms for livestock were retained: ox, sheep swine, deer, calf. Whereas words such as beef, mutton, pork, bacon, venison, veal were used for the flesh of the animals, eaten mostly by the higher classes (Fennell, 2001: 107). Family relationships such as: mother, father, sister, brother, son, daughter kept their Germanic names. Nevertheless, family relationships expressing more compound social relations such as: uncle, aunt, cousin, nephew, niece were designated by French terms. The terms father-in-law and mot her-in-law show native English words, but they are in fact calques, loan translations from Old French. Numbers did not lose their original, native names, and parts of the body kept their English terms. This is because such terms are core words and resistant to borrowing except in situations of exceptionally long and fervent contact. One remarkable example is the word face: this term was borrowed from French in the late thirteenth century as an informal term (Fennell, 2001:107). Titles of rank were taken from French such as: baron, count, duke, marquees, peer, prince and sovereign (Barber et al., 2010:156). However, English words were retained such as: earl, king, knight, lady, lord, and queen. Literary borrowings of French only entered English in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. English writers started borrowing French words, as they were certain about an acquaintance with French on the part of their readers. While a considerable amount of French words came into English thro ugh this method, many are no longer in use since they filled no real communicative need. Norman French vs. Central French An interesting fact in Modern English is that despite many words being borrowed from French, the pronunciation of the English words differs considerably from their French counterparts. An important thing to be pointed out is that Modern French is not like eleventh-century French. There were two main dialect groups in Old French: the language of the north langue doÃÆ'Â ¯l, and the language of the south and central France langue doc also known as the dialect of Paris (Knowles, 1997: 47). The Norman Conquest brought with it the Northern dialect which developed characteristics of its own and then is called Anglo-Norman. There were significant differences in the pronunciation between the two vernaculars. In Anglo-Norman ca- was pronounced as cha- chie- in Central French. So for instance, the Anglo-Norman word caitif caitiff changed its pronunciation into chaitif in Central French. The same can be said for other words that are pronounced with ca in English and cha in French such as: ca tch which has derived form Anglo-Norman catel, became chacier in Central French and subsequently chaser in Modern French. Other differences in the manner of speaking of the two dialects are the pronunciation of some consonants. Where the langue doÃÆ'Â ¯l had [w, k, ts] would be pronounced as [g, ts, s] in the langue doc. The English word wicket (AN wiket) was transformed into guichet in the Parisian dialect. In the same way waste representing the Anglo-Norman waster was in Central French guaster. Consequently, there were two French sources often leading to the same word being borrowed twice. Many adoptions from Norman French coexisted with the Central French equivalent words which were assimilated at a later date. So we have Norman French: catch, warranty, launch, wage, warden, convey, gaol, beside Central French: chase, guarantee, lance, gauge, guardian, convoy, jail (Graddol et al, 1996: 123). In the thirteenth century, the Anglo-Norman dialect lost some of its importance in England, and the Anglo-Norman realised that the French they spoke was no longer fit for purpose. The Central French dialect of Paris had begun to exercise a strong influence in France, therefore the Anglo-Norman patois was regarded as uncouth and obsolescent (Barber et al. 2009: 151). Giraldus Cambrensis, a writer of the early Middle Ages, contrasts the elegant French of France to its unsophisticated Insular counterpart which he disregards as gutter French (Short, 2007: 14). Due to its prestige, the dialect of Central France became the standard language in court and fashionable society in England. As Central French became fashionable it was from this dialect that many words were borrowed at this period. After the Norman Conquest duplications in English were very common. Many of the French words that came into use conveyed meanings that were already expressed by a native English word. In this case one of two things occurred: either one of the words was lost, or they both survived but they had different meanings. In some cases the French word died out, but in most cases it was the Old English word that ceased to exist. For example the OE word anda competed for its status with the word envy and managed to survive until the time of Chaucer, but at some point the word became obsolete and died out. The replacement was not always sudden; often both words carried on to being used for some time, and the English word often persists in the dialect today. The Old English word eam which has been substituted by the French word uncle is still used in Scotland (eme). Where both the French and the English words existed they acquired different significations. English was not deficient in vocabulary, and in many cases when a new word poured into English it existed side by side with newer borrowed word. Hence, there are many pairs of words in English whose meaning is similar. So there are the native words which survive alongside the French words such as: begin/commence; freedom/liberty; child/infant; happiness/felicity; friendly/amicable; hearty/cordial; house/mansion (Watson, 2002: 19). Watson argues that the native words are vivid and homely whereas the French words are colder, more aloof, formal, dignified (Watson, 2002: 19). French had also an impact on the increase of the number of prepositions, which was already considerable in Old English. Strang (1970: 274) maintains that during the period 1170-1370 the number of prepositions was larger than any before. She attributes this process to two processes. The first of these is compounding and analogical formation. The second process includes loans from French. A number of prepositions such as countre, sans and save were borrowed directly from French. Others, such as during, excepting and saving were anglicised versions of French words. Some prepositions are calques on originally French equivalents, e.g. notwithstanding derives from Old French non obstant. The borrowing of French words had also an impact on English grammar. Many grammatical points were reconstructed on the French model. For instance, the use of who was remodelled on French qui. Old English used who just to ask questions such as who are you?, and this the equivalent of the use of qui. But qui was used in French also in a relative clause, such as the boy who lives next to me, for which English used the. Middle English started to use who as a relative pronoun under French influence (Mustanoja, 1960: 187-206). English was influenced by French also in the formation of passive forms. Old English used the verb weorpan (to become) to form passive idioms, but this became unusual after the Norman Conquest. Modern English uses the verb to be to construct passive sentences just like Modern French (Mustanoja, 1960: 438-9). Another point of Middle English grammar such as the counterfactual modal perfect is attributed to the influence of French. Old English lacked the modal and auxiliary have combination. Its appearance starts in southern Middle English and then it seems to have spread in the north, given that the use of Anglo-Norman was more prevailing in the south of England. Fischer, on the other hand, claims that French did not play any role in the development of the modal perfect construction in English. Kida (2007: 285) argues that there was also some French influence on word order in Middle English which changed from VO (verb + object) to OV (object + verb). When analysing the word order pattern in Foedera, she notices that Norman French was more in favour of the OV word order positioning than of the VO ones, and this fact led to the development of OV word order configuration in the English language after the Norman Conquest. Kida believes that this change in word order disposition in English must have probably come via an increasing quantity of bilingual speakers, speaking both English and Norman French, who created more OV word order structures in English than monolingual native speakers. Nonetheless, this influence was not permanent as English went back to its VO word order few years subsequent to the Norman Conquest. Another grammatical characteristic of Norman French comparable to the English grammar is the placement of modifiers in front of the noun. This explains why English did not dispose of premodification in the Middle Ages and still preserves this feature in Modern English. Premodification is generally a feature of OV languages and English had a VO structure. Hence, it can be deduced that Anglo-Norman played also a role in the conservation of premodification in English up to the present day (Kida, 2007: 285-290). French influence is most obviously marked in the spelling. New conventions were used for the [S] sound creating spellings such as and eventually . The word house had an [u:] sound, so the Old English spelling was . However the [u] sound was represented by [ou] in French, therefore, the spelling was changed to . The pronunciation of the word changed later in time (Knowles, 1997: 40-50). Other French conventions were adopted in English such as the use of for and for (Freeborn, 2001: 82). Mustoja (1960: 45) affirms that the influence of foreign languages such as Latin and French plays a considerable role in the development of gender in Middle English. This is due to a large proportion of ME literature being translated directly from French. Additionally, the authors of original works were usually acquainted with French. Therefore, it frequently occurs that a noun is assigned the gender of the corresponding French noun even though it is not a direct loan. For example, death (OE masculine) becomes feminine in ME under the influence of French la mort. Also moon (OE mone), which is masculine in Old English, has become feminine in ME, again influenced by French la lune. Ship (OE scip, neuter) becomes feminine in ME on the analogy of OF la nef. But the nouns moon and ship have often been encountered as masculine nouns as well. This dual application of genders to the same noun is explained as the general confusion between the masculine and feminine forms of the definite artic le in Picard and Anglo-Norman (Mustanoja, 1960: 47) two OF dialects which played a key role in the influence of French upon Middle English. Conclusion The Norman Conquest has had a significant impact on the English language. As the examples above demonstrate, the invasion has influenced English considerably not only in terms of vocabulary but also spelling, pronunciation and grammar. If English is today the richest It is astonishing that engli

Financial analysis of the worldwide performance of Starbucks

Financial analysis of the worldwide performance of Starbucks The aim of this financial analysis of Starbucks is to obtain a deep knowledge of annual financial reports and other corporate information, which can provide us measurable conclusions about the company. It is essential to understand the nature of companys business, by analyzing its economic and financial environment and strategy choices made in the past. This report will begin with industry and company description, followed by financial performance overview and projection of company development over the next two years. Conclusions drawn from above analysis will support managers in making a decision whether to invest in the company. 2. The industry description The coffee industry is growing since 2002, and in recent years there was a boom caused by consumers becoming more educated about espresso-based drinks and how they are made (H. Holmes, 2004). The coffee industry includes 20,000 outlets with combined revenue of $11 billion. Approximately 20 million people work in the coffee industry worldwide. Market is very concentrated at the top with the 50 companies taking up 70% of the sales, and fragmented at the bottom. Starbucks is the market leader (Franchise direct, 2010). 2.1. Starbucks description Starbucks Corporation is involved in: purchasing, roasting, and sale of whole bean coffees, cold-blended beverages, various food items, selection of teas, and beverage-related accessories and equipment, primarily through its company-operated retail stores. It was established in 1971 in Seattle, Washington. In 1986 Howard Shultz, Retail Sales and Marketing Manager, left the company to start his own retail coffee outlet, Il Giornale. In 1987 the original investors of Starbucks bought Peets Coffee and sold Starbucks to H.Shultz, who renamed Il Giornale to Starbucks. Firm expended with shops in Chicago and Vancouver. Starbuck was the first coffee company to offer employee stock options in 1991 and went public in 1992. In 1990s Starbucks started distributing coffee through department stores, bookstores, hotels, supermarkets and online; it signed contract with PepsiCo, AOL and Dyers and opened stores in Japan, Singapore, and UK. (Hoovers.com, 2008) Starbucks has built one of the worlds most powerful and recognizable brands and the image of a unique Starbucks Experience. Its mission statement was to revolutionize the coffeehouse industry by building a perception of a coffee shop as the third place between work and home. Wi-fi internet access in all stores makes it a place where customers can work. The companys goal was to make each location a community center for higher-income crowd of the young and college-educated, a group that tends toward higher luxury-consumption levels. (Wikinvest.com, n.d.) 2.2. Competition Starbucks close competitors include other specialty coffee shops, doughnut shops, and restaurants. Starbucks holds a dominant position in the coffeehouse market which is dispersed among the thousands of independent or small-chain coffee shops. Their largest direct competitors are Dunkin Donuts and McDonalds. Both offer specialty coffee at a lower price. Main competitors short description: Dunkin, specializes in fresh baked goods, but began offering coffee in 2005. Their level of sales is at $4.3b. Currently, their coffee sales start to exceed food sales, 5-10% of total sales are from espresso-based drinks. Dunkin has a 22.9% market share. (Starbucks in the aggregate category controls a 24.7% market share) McDonalds entered the coffeehouse industry in 2007, offering coffee at its flagship stores and opening its espresso-centric McCafe concept in some markets. McDs coffee sales generate $813m in additional annual income. Current revenue from coffee is around $490m, about 6-6.5% of Starbucks coffee sales. Their price point is at 18% discount on Starbuckss. The two competitorss targets are slightly different from Starbucks. They focus on cheaper coffee to go, whereas Starbucks is providing a premium experience for a luxury price. Consequently, they compete with each other more directly than with Starbucks, however McCafe has a negative impact on Starbucks. Analysts believe that competitors will settle into separate niches, McDonalds being the better value proposition and Starbucks offering higher quality experience. 3. Financial Performance 2007-2009 3.1. Overview of Starbucks performance 2007-2009 In the fiscal year 2007, Starbucks achieved a solid performance. All goals like new stores opening, total revenue growth, comparable store sales growth and considerable cost rises from dairy products were completed. The consolidated operating income in 2008 was $503.9 and operating margin 4.9%. This was a significant decrease compared with the past few years, the reason for decrease was a changing of structure. In 2009, Starbucks faced many challenges caused by unexpected economic environment and more intense competition, which had impact on the revenue, comparable store sales, operating income and margins. 3.2. Income statement analysis 2007-2009 While net revenues of Starbucks havent been stable from 2007 to 2009 (first increasing then decreasing), its total operating income have also been moving in 2008 it decreased by 52,2% and it was $503.9 million, 4.9% of total net revenues. The reason for decrease was high distribution costs and high rent expenses. In 2009 it increase again by $58.1. Main reason for this improvement was the restructuring charges which contain: assets impairment, lease exit and severance costs. In 2008 and 2009 while net revenues were $10,383 million and $9,774.6, total operating expenses were $9,992.7 million in 2008 and $9,334.5 in 2009 that means expenses were highly eating up more than 96% of the net revenues. The company suffered a major loss of 113.185% in net earnings between 2007 and 2008. Starbucks realized that he need to re-think its business strategy. In 2008, the company incurred restructuring charges of $266.9 million due to store closures in the US and Australia and reduction of the work force. Starbucks Company derived 84% of total net revenue from the company-operated retail stores. They opened 681 new stores in the last 12 months and this offset -3% losses in comparable store sales. Total net revenue of 2009 was showed a decrease of 5.9%, stayed at $9,774.6. The company-operated retail also went down. In detail, there was a change of nearly 6.7% in comparable, for 4% decrease in transactions and a 2% decrease in the average value per transaction. Figure : Net Revenue of Starbucks 2007-2009 (Starbucks annual financial report) Figure : Operating Income of Starbucks 2007-2009 (Starbucks annual financial report) Figure : Net earnings of Starbucks 2007-2009 (Starbuck annual report) 3.4. Balance sheet In term of assets, the total assets for the three years kept staying around $5,600 million. The total current assets in 2009 were $2,036 million. This was higher than in 2008 and 2007 due to the high cash and cash equivalents in 2009. The marketable securities in 2007 were $157 millions so in 2007 the company had more short term investment. On the other hand, the total liabilities in 2008 were the highest in three years because of the commercial paper and short-term borrowing in 2008. Additionally, there was no short-term debt in 2009 but it was the highest accrued expenses during the three years. The shareholders equity in 2009 was the highest in three years owing to the additional paid-in capital. 3.4. Ratio analysis: By doing ratio analysis, the company performance would be evaluated more clearly. As we can see the current ratio for the 2009 was higher than 2008 and 2007. In 2008 and 2007, the current ratio was under 1. That means Starbucks was not in good financial health in these two years. However, this situation didnt exist for a long time but it was not a good sign. The current ratio for 2009 was 1.29, so the company had 1.29 times more current assets than current liabilities. That means Starbucks was able to cover its own obligations. As the Exhibit 1 shows the quick ratio was low for 3 years that is all below 1. This indicates that the company had difficult to turning their inventory into cash like a short-term liability which the company could not pay off immediately. In 2007, the profit margin of Starbucks was 7.15%. This means 7 cents of each dollar is companys profit. In the next two years, the profit margin decreased by nearly 3 percent. That means the net income in 2009 was visibly lower than 2007. It may mainly caused from the increase of the restructuring charges. The return on assets ratio in the year 2007 was 13.77% while the ratio declined to 6.95% in 2009. From this we know Starbucks earned more in 2007 and the net income in 2007 was higher than in 2009. The reason for this decrease results is also from increase cost of the restructuring and innovation in 2008 and 2009. In terms of leverage ratio, to measure its ability to meet financial obligation from 2007 to 2009 the debt ratio was around 50%. That means nearly 50% of funds for assets came from debt. This does not seem good for the company and the most liabilities were long-term liabilities. The debt to equity ratio from 2007 to 2009 was pretty high and the highest point was in 2007, so in 2007 more debt was used. Interests earned ratio in Starbucks during the 3 years was extremely high like in 2007, the ratio was nearly 28 times, but finally in 2009 the ratio was around 15 times a year. It could be a really good margin since the company was able to cover its interest expenses 15 times with operating income. 3.5. Cash flow Operating activities: the net cash provided by operating actives in 2009 was highest during the 3 years. The main part of activities was depreciation and amortization. Same as in 2008 the company spent $604.5 thousands on depreciation and amortization. Investing activities: the net cash used by investing activities in 2007 was $-1201.9 thousands. The main costs here were addition to property, plant and equipment and the company also spent money on purchasing available-for-sale securities. But in 2009 the net cash used by investing activities was $-421.1 thousands. This was much less than in the 2007. The reason for this was the company spent less money on additions to property, plant and equipment. Financing activities: the net increase/ (decrease) in cash and cash equivalents in 2009 was $330.0 thousands. That means Starbucks gained money from financing activities in 2009 while in 2008 and 2009 they had losses in financing activities. The reason for the gain of money in 2009 was the profit in short-term borrowing and nothing spent on the issuing of long-term debts. 4. Forecasting 2010-2011 In order to project the next two fiscal year performance of Starbucks, particularly to construct the pro forma income statements of 2010 and 2011, establishing the revenue (or sales) projection should be the first task of all. In the next steps, the rest items of the statement would be projected by the percent of sales method since it does provide simple, logical estimate of many important variables (Higgins, 2009). In fact, there was a visible growth of Starbucks revenue in both volume and speed during the period of time from 2000 to 2009. Especially, from 2000 to 2007, the annual company sales increased in steady pace in the range of 20% to 29%. This impressive growth of Starbucks revenue was a sophisticated proof for its great business strategies during the beginning of this decade. However, the story had some changes since 2008. At the end of this fiscal year, Starbucks finished with $10,383 million revenue, in comparison with 2007, the growth ratio was 10.3% only, the lowest rat io since 2000. Continuously, in the midst of the US economic crisis, Starbucks sales got negative growth at 5.9% after finish the fiscal year 2009, stay at $9,744 million. Figure : Starbucks Sales chart in 2000-2009 (in Millions) Obviously, the trustable estimation should be the sophisticated one, that normally came from data base statistic analyses. Specifically, with the availability of the last ten years data of Starbucks revenue, it was possible to apply most of time series forecast methods such as moving average, weighted moving average, exponential smoothing, and so on. Since each method had its own advantages and limitations, it is necessary to compare how every method would reflect the same provided data (Exhibit 4). The value of W3 (for the Weighted moving average method) and ÃŽÂ ± (for the Exponential smoothing method) were decided high at 0.6 and 0.3 due to the emphasis of the closest time period in term of its impact to the next following year. As a result, the forecasts for 2010 sales were quite low though there was still a slightly growth than 2009. Among the three methods, the weighted moving average method seems to be the most appropriated one since it had the smallest value of the Mean Absolute Deviation. Basically, it proved that this method had less forecasting error than others and might be the best choice of all. To be clear, the plot chart was established base on the result of the three forecast methods in Figure X. Figure : Plot of Actual Sales and Forecast Sales for 2010 in three different models (in $ Million) Visibly, the line created from weighted moving average method was the closest one to the actual sales line. Its trend reflected almost similarly to the actual during the period of time from 2003 to 2009. That is why this method was chosen to determine the 2010 Starbucks sales instead of the two methods remaining. Objectively, $9,920.81 million may not be a number that Starbucks shareholders and investors really expect, even it showed slightly growth at 1.5% than 2009. However, in some levels, it seems to reflect quite appropriately the reality of the economic conditions as well as the Starbucks status. In spite of many positive signs of the economic recovery, Starbucks is still continuing its plan to close 800 retail stores over two year 2009 and 2010. Since the 566 stores had already released in 2009, another 244 are expecting to be cleared in fiscal year 2010. Thus, it could be hard to see a rapid growth in revenue of Starbucks at the end of fiscal year 2010. In regard to fiscal year 2011, since all of the three forecasting method above only allowed forecaster to see the result of 2010 revenue, the Linear Regression method was applied to estimate the sales in 2011. By collecting the sales data from the last three years (2007 to 2009) in quarterly, by the calculation of the regression line (Exhibit 11), the value of a ( the y intercept) and b (slope of regression line) were found. These two values were use to determine the dependent variable (y). The regression forecast of sales in equation is: y = a + bx (Exhibit 5 ). The forecast results of $10,078.21 and $10,189.41 for each year of 2010 and 2011 once again confirmed about the growth trend of Starbucks sales in the next two year. Nonetheless, base on the Starbucks plan of opening over 500 new stores in US and over sea during 2011, there should be a stronger increase in sales of Starbucks in this year. Subjectively, the authors believed that Starbucks revenue would increase no less than 15% in 2011. In other words, if the 2010 revenue was forecasted at $9,920.81 million, the same item in 2011 would be around $11,408.93 million. This result was also determined base on many positive factors that Starbucks could get benefits from such as the economic recovery in higher volume and speed, the more effective operating of Starbucks after the reorganizing process in its retail stores system as well as the objective increase in customers demand. Moreover, the volume of average transaction would be higher due to the increase in cost of goods sold and the im pact of inflation. In the Exhibit 6, all the operating performances of Starbucks from 2005 to 2009 were displayed in detail by the percent of total revenue. Base on those historical data and theirs visible trends, it was possible to anticipate logically the operating results for next two fiscal years 2010 and 2011 (Exhibit 7). According to the Exhibit 14, the net income of Starbucks stays at $466.27 and $479.18 million for each of 2010 and 2011. This may be considered as the acceptable results in regard to the challenges of the current circumstance. In fact, the forecast net income of 2010 is 19.3% higher than 2009. Since the revenue of 2010 did not rise in a strong level (only 1.5%), this impressive net income mainly came from the reducing the stores operating expenses and the more effective tax rate. In 2011, the operating expenses are expected to increase and stay at 95.2% of total sales, this is an objective fact that many items in operating expenses areas are in trend of steady increase year by year accompany with the business enlarge strategy of Starbucks, such as store operating expenses or general and administrative expenses. However, this ratio might be less in the next following years if the restructure process of Starbucks would get its aims of improving efficiency of cost control in various act ivities. Conclusion and recommendation Starbucks has been the largest specialty coffee retailer in its industry, but due to the problems with our economy, it has been seeing an effect on its sales and profits. The economic situation has affected consumers spending at Starbucks and other luxury goods. Starbucks also raised prices by an average of 9 cents a cup in July of 2007, causing U.S. customers who face higher food, fuel and housing expenses to go to McDonalds and Dunkin Donuts for cheaper coffee. These issues have affected Starbucks stocks performance in the market and are slowly making this stock an unfavorable one for potential investors. My recommendation for potential investors would be to hold off on purchasing stocks from Starbucks at this moment because now is not a good time to invest in them. I would advise these investors to keep looking into this stock until they see a positive change in its market pattern and that would be when I would advise them to purchase the stock; before its price increases higher t han the average market price. My recommendation for investors holding the share of the company would be to hold on to it until they can see for certain if Starbucks stocks will continue to go down and become a loss or maybe potential go back up and become profitable as they once were. After conducting my research, I believe the Starbucks stock will eventually start going up again after they put into effect their plans for the upcoming year. This stock is definitely a valuable one that I would not let go of if I owned shares in it. Starbucks hold value to its stock, which is why my advice to shareholders is to hold off on selling their shares until they see how the upcoming year goes for the company. In a response to the McDonalds challenge Starbucks is teaming up with Burger King, which has announced that by September 2010 it would begin selling Starbucks Seattles Best Coffee in about 7,250 U.S. outlets it would launch its first national advertising campaign. India, Russia, and China represent key areas of focused future expansion.

Complexities of Love Exposed in Amy Tans The Joy Luck Club :: Joy Luck Club Essays

The Complexities of Love Exposed in The Joy Luck Club In the novel "The Joy Luck Club" by Amy Tan, the ignorance, the disregard of, and the necessity of love are all reveled as the characters tell their life stories and memories. The characters in the novel take love for granted. By ignoring love, concentrating more on material possessions, and hiding their true identities, the characters don't realize love's importance. One character that takes love for granted is Harold, Lena St. Clair's husband. This occurs when Lena leans over to him in their car and states "I love you." He responds by asking Lena a question about his car, which seems to be more important to him than his relationship with her. Harold does not realize the importance of love. He only thinks about material possessions. Since Harold does not revealing his true nature, he reveals that he has a lack of love for himself as an individual. The love you have for yourself is a necessity in life because it provides self-respect; if one respects oneself, one will respect and love others. The story of Lindo Jong provides insight into the concept of revealing your true nature. To "keep everything inside" as does Lindo Jong, provides for not being able to experience love to its fullest. Lindo Jong hides "under a red marriage scarf" in attempt to shield herself from the outside world. Her "hiding under the scarf" demonstrates that to be able to love, you must be able to first reveal your true nature. Ying-Ying St. Clair stands as an example of the desire to remain hidden as she says, "All these years I kept my true nature hidden, running along like a small shadow so nobody could catch me." The image of the shadow relates directly to the red marriage scarf. They both attempt to provide the concealment of their true natures, because the result of revealing your true self may be that of "pain". The importance of love goes unnoticed as the characters take love for granted and expect it to naturally come to them. The ceasing of taking love for granted does occur later and has its results and consequences. The characters realize that they are taking love for granted when they feel meaningless and uncomfortable, and stop doing so by either ending the relationship or confronting the problem.

Good Will Hunting Essays -- Film Analysis, Good Will Hunting

A studious young man, an open book these two images swirl around the screen in a kaleidoscope effect, this was the introductory scene of "Good Will Hunting." This scene is followed by Ben Afflick, knocking on Will's door, when Will comes out a credit rolls by that says, "screenplay written by Ben Afflick and Matt Damon," just as the two walk side by side. This shows how perfectly the makers of this movie have everything timed, down to the credits. Also, the timing shows when the professor's assistant and Will are alone and the assistant tells Will how lucky he is to have someone believe in him as the professor does. Just as he finishes saying this the professor walks in and suddenly the assistant has something better to do than just sit there so he gets up and leaves. The cinematography in this movie is good, as right of way the viewer of this movie knows Will lives in one of the poorer sections of Boston, as his front yard is cluttered with junk and the look of t he neighborhood surrounding his house is anything but colorful. The neighborhood looks gray and drab. Also, one of the many settings is a local bar which has the look of a neighborhood bar with Christmas type lights strung and normal looking people filling the place. Another setting is a Harvard classroom and a community college classroom. In the Harvard classroom the students appear to be attentive, clean cut, well dressed, and enthusiastic, while the students in the community classroom are bar...

Replacements to CFCs Essay -- CFC Environment Geology

Missing Chart What do CFCs do? CFCs are commonly used as refrigerants, solvents in industrial cleaning applications, and as aerosol propellants. Why are CFCs being replaced? When CFCs work their way up into the stratosphere, UV radiation from the Sun can break the molecule down, and release a chlorine atom. This chlorine atom then interacts with an ozone molecule (ozone is vital to the Earth's system in that it protects the surface from harmful UV rays). This interaction results in the destruction of ozone and the eventual release of the chlorine atom to break apart another ozone. It has been estimated that one chlorine atom can dismantle about 100,000 ozone molecules. Ozone's importance and the direct threat to it by CFCs, are the reasons behind the replacement of the chemicals. One thing to notice from the chart is the extremely high ODP for the Halon compounds. These compunds (as can be seen from their formulas) contain a bromine atom that can destroy more ozone when compared to a chlorine. This occurs because it takes longer for a bromine atom to be taken out of the stratusphere. Halons were used in foam blowing apparatuses for fire-retarding systems, but were phased out along with CFCs. Innovative chemical companies With the advent of the Montreal Protocol and other legislation to reduce the production and use of CFCs, companies have increased research and development of replacement system and/or chemicals. The companies that have produced proven products for cleaning, refrigeration, and propellant use are 3M and Dupont. Their products Dupont is a world renowned company whose major contributions include chemicals. On the order of CFC replacement, Dupont has developed hydrofluo... ...iverging nozzle where it is accelerated to supersonic speeds. The supersonic gas-liquid stream is directed onto components that require cleaning or cleanliness verification. The velocity imparted to the water by the gas flow gives it sufficient momentum at impact to remove contaminants on the surface of the component being cleaned or verified while simultaneously dissolving the contaminant into the water, which can be captured for cleanliness verification. The flow parameters for the gas-liquid nozzle can be set so virtually any gas and liquid can be used for a desired flow and mixing ratio. In addition, the size and number of nozzles are adjustable. This adjustability makes it possible to create sizes ranging from small handheld cleaning nozzles to very large multiple-nozzle configurations. Unfortunately, the cost and maintenance required for such a system is high.

Fredrick Douglas Paper

Fredrick Douglass The analysis By Justin Ruano 11/14/11 Hist Am Civ 1607-1877 [pic] Have you ever wondered to yourself if you firmly belief in something that you could understand the opposite side of it? Well if you just so happened to believe in slavery and I were to tell you a story about an American born slave that is making his case to abolish I, would you listen? In the book Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass, An American slave & Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Fredrick Douglass in his portion of the book goes on to make his case that slavery should be abolished.The way he goes about reasoning why it should be abolished is first he tells us about his experience during his period of slavery and in that experience it explains with a main point why and how it works. Secondly, he uses this book as a tool to help expose the true evil of slavery and uses once again experience which is a helpful thing. Lastly, he uses the fact that slave owners make the slaves ignorant o f their age, where they were born, and who their parents are. Fredrick Douglass throughout this book uses experiences to show why slavery should be abolished.Fredrick Douglass was born in 1818 and he died in 1895, and he was born into slavery in Talbot Country, Maryland. (Fredrick Douglass facts page) In chapter 1, Fredrick Douglass said that he had witnessed these beatings and that it had happened often. â€Å"I remember the first time I ever witnessed this horrible exhibition. I was quite a child, but I well remembered it. †¦ It was the first of a long series of such outrages, of which I was doomed to be a witness and a participant†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Douglass pg 21) For example, the last paragraph of( page 21) going to( page 22) is the first experience of the beatings he witnessed. He took her into the kitchen, and stripped her from neck to waist, leaving her neck, shoulders, and back entirely naked†¦. † By using experiences, he is able to show people that even some s lave owners kill their slaves from beating. Murder is a sin especially for the religious people who were not so affected by this. For example on the bottom of (page 25) Fredrick Douglass Notes that Mr. Severe was called a very cruel man. Also noted that he had seen him whip a woman and take great pleasure in doing so. Since when does anyone take pleasure in torturing people is my question.For Fredrick Douglass, this book was his greatest resource to convincing people to abolish slavery because, slavery did not affect many people and especially for white people, they of course were not going to care. The challenge fir Douglass was that people didn’t know and they didn’t care. That was his biggest challenge. Books don’t lie. For Fredrick Douglass, he would have liked to be alive during the time slavery was officially gone. For example why this book helped him make his case is because he went through these things and witnessed these events. His biography of how sla very really was like back then.Beatings to the point slaves would die due to a lot of bleeding. The main point for this reason of how he went about to explain his case is this book. He wrote it with events, names, dates. Things that define what history is. Another example of how his book was a tool to help him make his case is that throughout this whole book he talked about a lot of violence from the beatings that he witnessed. In the First chapter he mentioned how he was roughly 7 years old and he witnessed a brutal beating his master gave one of the salves that was with Fredrick Douglass. Pg 21) Finally, by using this book as a tool he exposed evil by once again talking about his experiences about slavery. Fredrick Douglass a few times in the book says that the slave-owners tend to make the slaves ignorant of their age, where there from, and even their parents. For example, he says on the very first page of chapter one that, â€Å" By far the large part of the slaves know as litt le of their ages as horses know of theirs, and it is the wish of most masters within my knowledge to keep their slaves thus ignorant. †(Douglass pg 17) For someone to not know their age or mainly anything about themselves is pretty ridiculous.He also says on the same page that he doesn’t really know anyone who even knows their own birthday, nor is he knowledgeable of his age. For him just trying to make his case about slavery should be abolished is hard enough. To even have a hard time to find out his age is also pretty unbelievable. Also for him once again trying to make a case that it should be abolished was very difficult but to not even recall his mother’s death or anything is pretty sad. For the people he is trying to convince is also an advance fro his case because he must know that none of them would want to be like him not remembering or knowing anything about himself.Lastly, For Fredrick Douglass to be able to learn his year of birth from a conversation he overheard from his master when trying to make his case would in his mind help him to win the audience he has. Throughout the course of the book Fredrick Douglass makes his case about how slavery should be abolished. The way he goes about that is he talks about his experiences so that his audience will get a good view of exactly what is going on and then determine what works. He then uses the book as a tool so that he has an even stronger case about why it should be abolished.Finally, he talks about how the slave-owners would rather have their slaves to be ignorant about how exactly they are and when they were born, age, and even parents. Hes uses these three things to make his case of why slavery should be abolished and the biggest â€Å"how† is using the book as a tool. Personal Reaction to Fredrick Douglass Part of reading My personal reaction to the book is that I thought there was a lot of emotion that he spilled out into this book and that is what truly made this book enjoyable for me to read. Biographies are my favorite types of books.When I first picked up this book I though it wasn’t going to be a very good book because reading books about someone’s slavery story isn’t what I like to read but as I started to get into the book I thought it was very hard to put down and it was one of the best books that I have read. It was something new to me by reading it but to me it was very good about learning how his life basically went dealing with being a slave and then trying to argue how slavery should be abolished. Very good narrative and I would defitnely recommend this book for someone to read.

High Schools vs Universities Essay

Entering a university is a very important and responsible step for every teenager, and frequently it is connected with definite psychological discomfort and fears. Many high school seniors are afraid of possible difficulties and problems, which can arise in a new environment of university. This work is an attempt to examine and compare the most important differences between studying in a high school and studying in a university. The first and the most significant difference is responsibility. In high schools, teachers or parents usually remind students of their responsibilities, do the entire scheduling job and give permissions to join special activities, as well as supervise and correct students’ behaviors. However, in universities, students are supposed to be grown enough to shoulder all the responsibilities for managing own time, behaving properly and making own decisions. Another difference is organization of classes and educational process. In high schools, classes are organized for students and usually include up to 35 students. In universities, students have personal schedules and classes can include up to 100 people. In high schools, students study 30 hours a week and are provided with the textbooks, however, in universities, students study about 16 hours a week and are not provided with the textbooks. Finally, outside preparation is one more crucial difference. Typically, high school students spend less than 2 hours a week for doing their homework, which usually includes short and quite easy assignments. In universities, it is necessary to study minimum 2 hours for every 1 hour of class work, and homework includes preparing term papers and serious researches, as well as regular revising of the material. Certainly, there are a great number of other differences between universities and high schools, which include the issues of tests, grades, teaching strategies, and so on. It is unquestionable that understanding and learning more about these principal differences can be very helpful for all high school seniors for managing their fears and achieving a smoother transition.