Advent Corporation was a consumer audio and video hardware company founded in Cambridge, Massachusetts by Henry Kloss in 1967. It closed in 1981.
46-521: The name came from the legal description the advent corporation used in the incorporation documents as a placeholder name before the actual name was selected. Around 1968, Kloss quit KLH to develop a low-cost projection television , but had trouble financing the leading-edge research and development that was still required. To earn some money, he decided to build a high-performance low-cost dual driver speaker system with 10-inch (25 cm) woofer called simply The Advent Loudspeaker (later given
92-591: A bankruptcy declared in March 1981. KVC passed on reacquiring the (by then) New Hampshire-based brand, which was later merged into Jensen Electronics , which in turn was acquired by Audiovox in 2004. KVC ran into increasing competition from Japanese manufacturers entering the now-proven market for large-format consumer TVs, eventually selling its assets and shutting down. Advent corporation (placeholder) Placeholder names are intentionally overly generic and ambiguous terms referring to things, places, or people,
138-553: A broad sense). Some occur as independent noun phrases: mine , yours , hers , ours , theirs . An example is: Those clothes are mine . Others act as a determiner and must accompany a noun: my , your , her , our , your , their , as in: I lost my wallet. ( His and its can fall into either category, although its is nearly always found in the second.) Those of the second type have traditionally also been described as possessive adjectives , and in more modern terminology as possessive determiners . The term "possessive pronoun"
184-425: A determiner, rather than the noun that follows it, is taken to be the head of the phrase. Cross-linguistically, it seems as though pronouns share 3 distinct categories: point of view, person, and number. The breadth of each subcategory however tends to differ among languages. The use of pronouns often involves anaphora , where the meaning of the pronoun is dependent on another referential element. The referent of
230-491: A direct relationship to an antecedent. The following sentences give examples of particular types of pronouns used with antecedents: Some other types, such as indefinite pronouns , are usually used without antecedents. Relative pronouns are used without antecedents in free relative clauses . Even third-person personal pronouns are sometimes used without antecedents ("unprecursed") – this applies to special uses such as dummy pronouns and generic they , as well as cases where
276-444: A direct relationship with its referent. This is called a C-command relationship. For instance, we see that John cut himself is grammatical, but Himself cut John is not, despite having identical arguments, since himself , the reflexive, must be lower in structure to John, its referent. Additionally, we see examples like John said that Mary cut himself are not grammatical because there is an intermediary noun, Mary , that disallows
322-469: A few. They were usually offered in both wood veneer and vinyl-covered "utility" cabinet versions, which other than appearance were acoustically identical. The popularity of the Advent Loudspeaker overshadowed any other Advent products, even the eventually released first video projector for home, Advent VideoBeam 1000 . Kloss then resumed work on increasing the fidelity of cassette tapes ,
368-525: A format that had originally been developed to be used only for voice dictation . The original Advent 200 model, launched in 1970, had exhibited mechanical problems and was quickly replaced by Advent 201 in 1971, incorporating Dolby B noise reduction (for both recording and playback), along with chromium dioxide tape in the first popular high fidelity cassette deck . Advent 201 was a "game changer": Stereo Review had found that it can successfully compete against more expensive reel-to-reel decks. Commercially it
414-446: A material of highly desired characteristics which does not exist or which would be prohibitively expensive to mine, procure or synthesize. Pronoun In linguistics and grammar , a pronoun ( glossed PRO ) is a word or a group of words that one may substitute for a noun or noun phrase . Pronouns have traditionally been regarded as one of the parts of speech , but some modern theorists would not consider them to form
460-545: A nonsingular exclusive pronoun to refer to a group, the speaker will assess whether or not the members of the group belong to a common class of gender or kinship. If all of the members of the referent group are male, the MASCULINE form will be selected; if at least one is female, the FEMININE is selected, but if all the members are in a sibling-like kinship relation, a third SIBLING form is selected. In Arabana-Wangkangurru ,
506-448: A noun phrase (or determiner phrase), normally in a context where it is clear which noun it is replacing. For example, in a context in which hats are being talked about, the red one means "the red hat", and the ones we bought means "the hats we bought". The prop-word thus functions somewhat similarly to a pronoun, except that a pronoun usually takes the place of a whole noun (determiner) phrase (for example, "the red hat" may be replaced by
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#1732776218506552-450: A property with pronouns because their referents must be supplied by context; but, unlike a pronoun, they may be used with no referent—the important part of the communication is not the thing nominally referred to by the placeholder, but the context in which the placeholder occurs. In their Dictionary of American Slang (1960), Stuart Berg Flexner and Harold Wentworth use the term kadigan for placeholder words. They define "kadigan" as
598-545: A similar use is Waikikamukau ("Why kick a moo-cow"), a generic name for a small rural town. In British English , Bongo Bongo Land (or Bongo-bongo Land) is a pejorative term used to refer to Third World countries, particularly in Africa, or to a fictional such country. Often used in example names and addresses to indicate to the serviceman where to put his own details. In chemistry, tentative or hypothetical elements are assigned provisional names until their existence
644-407: A single class, in view of the variety of functions they perform cross-linguistically. An example of a pronoun is "you", which can be either singular or plural. Sub-types include personal and possessive pronouns , reflexive and reciprocal pronouns, demonstrative pronouns , relative and interrogative pronouns , and indefinite pronouns . The use of pronouns often involves anaphora , where
690-436: A single class, sometimes called "determiner-pronoun", or regarding determiners as a subclass of pronouns or vice versa. The distinction may be considered to be one of subcategorization or valency , rather like the distinction between transitive and intransitive verbs – determiners take a noun phrase complement like transitive verbs do, while pronouns do not. This is consistent with the determiner phrase viewpoint, whereby
736-543: A slightly different set of personal pronouns, shown in the table. The difference is entirely in the second person. Though one would rarely find these older forms used in recent literature, they are nevertheless considered part of Modern English. In English, kin terms like "mother", "uncle", "cousin" are a distinct word class from pronouns; however many Australian Aboriginal languages have more elaborated systems of encoding kinship in language including special kin forms of pronouns. In Murrinh-patha , for example, when selecting
782-451: A specialized restricted sense) rather than as pronominal elements. Under binding theory, specific principles apply to different sets of pronouns. In English, reflexive and reciprocal pronouns must adhere to Principle A: an anaphor (reflexive or reciprocal, such as "each other") must be bound in its governing category (roughly, the clause). Therefore, in syntactic structure it must be lower in structure (it must have an antecedent ) and have
828-460: A synonym for thingamajig . The term may have originated with Willard R. Espy , though others, such as David Annis, also used it (or cadigans ) in their writing. Its etymology is obscure—Flexner and Wentworth related it to the generic word gin for engine (as in the cotton gin ). It may also relate to the Irish surname Cadigan . Placeholder words exist in a highly informal register of
874-658: A treatise on Greek grammar attributed to Dionysius Thrax and dating from the 2nd century BC. The pronoun is described there as "a part of speech substitutable for a noun and marked for a person." Pronouns continued to be regarded as a part of speech in Latin grammar (the Latin term being pronomen , from which the English name – through Middle French – ultimately derives), and thus in the European tradition generally. Because of
920-722: Is East Cupcake to refer to a generic small town in the Midwestern United States . Similarly, the boondocks or the boonies are used in American English to refer to very rural areas without many inhabitants. In New Zealand English , Woop Woops (or, alternatively, Wop-wops ) is a (generally humorous) name for an out-of-the-way location, usually rural and sparsely populated. The similar Australian English Woop Woop , (or, less frequently, Woop Woops ) can refer to any remote location, or outback town or district. Another New Zealand English term with
966-498: Is a placeholder name that evokes the perception of London 's high Muslim population. Timbuktu , which is also a real city in the country of Mali, is often used to mean a place that is far away, in the middle of nowhere, or exotic. Podunk is used in American English for a hypothetical small town regarded as typically dull or insignificant, a place in the U.S. that is unlikely to have been heard of. Another example
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#17327762185061012-476: Is commonly used as a placeholder country. Acacia Avenue has been used as shorthand for an average suburban residential street in Britain. Something -stan and its demonym something -stani, where something is often profanity , is commonly used as a placeholder for a Middle Eastern or South Asian country/people or for a politically disliked portion of one's own country/people. As an example, Londonistan
1058-478: Is confirmed by IUPAC . Historically, this placeholder name would follow Mendeleev's nomenclature ; since the Transfermium wars , however, the consensus has been to assign a systematic element name based on the element's atomic number. Examples of these systems in use would be "ekasilicon" ( germanium ) and "ununseptium" ( tennessine ) respectively. Similarly, the name " unobtainium " is frequently used for
1104-663: Is grammatical because the two co-referents, John and him are separated structurally by Mary . This is why a sentence like John cut him where him refers to John is ungrammatical. The type of binding that applies to subsets of pronouns varies cross-linguistically. For instance, in German linguistics, pronouns can be split into two distinct categories — personal pronouns and d-pronouns. Although personal pronouns act identically to English personal pronouns (i.e. follow Principle B), d-pronouns follow yet another principle, Principle C, and function similarly to nouns in that they cannot have
1150-446: Is meant. In reference to a person, one may use who (subject), whom (object) or whose (possessive); for example, Who did that? In colloquial speech, whom is generally replaced by who . English non-personal interrogative pronouns ( which and what ) have only one form. In English and many other languages (e.g. French and Czech ), the sets of relative and interrogative pronouns are nearly identical. Compare English: Who
1196-414: Is sometimes restricted to the first type. Both types replace possessive noun phrases. As an example, Their crusade to capture our attention could replace The advertisers' crusade to capture our attention. Reflexive pronouns are used when a person or thing acts on itself, for example, John cut himself . In English they all end in -self or -selves and must refer to a noun phrase elsewhere in
1242-417: Is that? (interrogative) and I know the woman who came (relative). In some other languages, interrogative pronouns and indefinite pronouns are frequently identical; for example, Standard Chinese 什么 shénme means "what?" as well as "something" or "anything". Though the personal pronouns described above are the current English pronouns, Early Modern English (as used by Shakespeare, for example) use
1288-610: The retronym the Larger Advent , after introduction of The Smaller Advent Loudspeaker ). It rivaled the sound of the then top-line AR Model 3a (which used three drivers and a 12-inch (30 cm) woofer), but only cost about half as much. Advent produced a number of different versions of the 2-way Advent, including the Advent Loudspeaker, the Smaller Advent Loudspeaker, the "New" Advent Loudspeaker, Advent/2, Advent/3, 4000 series, and 5000 series, to name
1334-443: The English language. In formal speech and writing, words like accessory , paraphernalia , artifact , instrument , or utensil are preferred; these words serve substantially the same function, but differ in connotation. Most of these words can be documented in at least the 19th century. Edgar Allan Poe wrote a short story entitled "The Literary Life of Thingum Bob, Esq.", showing that particular form to be in familiar use in
1380-743: The United States in the 1840s. In Gilbert and Sullivan 's The Mikado , W. S. Gilbert makes the Lord High Executioner sing of a "little list" which includes: ... apologetic statesmen of a compromising kind, Such as: What d'ye call him: Thing'em-bob, and likewise: Never-mind, and 'St: 'st: 'st: and What's-his-name, and also You-know-who: The task of filling up the blanks I'd rather leave to you. Some fields have their own specific placeholder terminology. For example, " widget " in economics, engineering and electronics, or " Blackacre " and " John Doe " or "Jane Doe" in law. " X-ray "
1426-793: The largest group of pronouns, refer to one or more unspecified persons or things. One group in English includes compounds of some- , any- , every- and no- with -thing , -one and -body , for example: Anyone can do that. Another group, including many , more , both , and most , can appear alone or followed by of . In addition, Relative pronouns in English include who , whom , whose , what , which and that . They rely on an antecedent, and refer back to people or things previously mentioned: People who smoke should quit now. They are used in relative clauses . Relative pronouns can also be used as complementizers . Relative pronouns can be used in an interrogative setting as interrogative pronouns. Interrogative pronouns ask which person or thing
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1472-437: The many different syntactic roles that they play, pronouns are less likely to be a single word class in more modern approaches to grammar. Linguists in particular have trouble classifying pronouns in a single category, and some do not agree that pronouns substitute nouns or noun categories. Certain types of pronouns are often identical or similar in form to determiners with related meaning; some English examples are given in
1518-453: The meaning of the pronoun is dependent on an antecedent . For example, in the sentence That poor man looks as if he needs a new coat , the meaning of the pronoun he is dependent on its antecedent, that poor man . The adjective form of the word "pronoun" is " pronominal ". A pronominal is also a word or phrase that acts as a pronoun. For example, in That's not the one I wanted , the phrase
1564-681: The names of which or of whom do not actually exist; are temporarily forgotten , or are unimportant; or in order to avoid stigmatization , or because they are unknowable or unpredictable given the context of their discussion; or to deliberately expunge direct use of the name. Placeholder names for people are often terms referring to an average person or a predicted persona of a typical user . These placeholders typically function grammatically as nouns and can be used for people (e.g. John Doe, Jane Doe ), objects (e.g. widget ), locations ("Main Street"), or places (e.g. Anytown, USA ). They share
1610-500: The one (containing the prop-word one ) is a pronominal. Pronoun is a category of words. A pro-form is a type of function word or expression that stands in for (expresses the same content as) another word , phrase , clause or sentence where the meaning is recoverable from the context. In English, pronouns mostly function as pro-forms, but there are pronouns that are not pro-forms and pro-forms that are not pronouns. Examples [1 & 2] are pronouns and pro-forms. In [1],
1656-399: The pronoun it "stands in" for whatever was mentioned and is a good idea. In [2], the relative pronoun who stands in for "the people". Examples [3 & 4] are pronouns but not pro-forms. In [3], the interrogative pronoun who does not stand in for anything. Similarly, in [4], it is a dummy pronoun , one that does not stand in for anything. No other word can function there with
1702-552: The pronoun "it".) Finally, in [5 & 6], there are pro-forms that are not pronouns. In [5], did so is a verb phrase that stands in for "helped", inflected from to help stated earlier in the sentence. Similarly, in [6], others is a common noun , not a pronoun, but the others probably stands in for the names of other people involved (e.g., Sho, Alana, and Ali ), all proper nouns . Pronouns ( antōnymía ) are listed as one of eight parts of speech in The Art of Grammar ,
1748-555: The pronoun is often the same as that of a preceding (or sometimes following) noun phrase, called the antecedent of the pronoun. The grammatical behavior of certain types of pronouns, and in particular their possible relationship with their antecedents, has been the focus of studies in binding , notably in the Chomskyan government and binding theory . In this binding context, reflexive and reciprocal pronouns in English (such as himself and each other ) are referred to as anaphors (in
1794-620: The referent is implied by the context. English pronouns have often traditionally been classified as different from nouns, but at least one modern grammar defines them as a subclass of nouns. English personal pronouns have a number of different syntactic contexts (Subject, Object, Possessive, Reflexive) and many features: English also has other pronoun types, including demonstrative, relative, indefinite, and interrogative pronouns: Personal pronouns may be classified by person , number , gender and case . English has three persons (first, second and third) and two numbers (singular and plural); in
1840-695: The same clause. Reciprocal pronouns refer to a reciprocal relationship ( each other , one another ). They must refer to a noun phrase in the same clause. An example in English is: They do not like each other . In some languages, the same forms can be used as both reflexive and reciprocal pronouns. Demonstrative pronouns (in English, this , that and their plurals these , those ) often distinguish their targets by pointing or some other indication of position; for example, I'll take these . They may also be anaphoric , depending on an earlier expression for context, for example, A kid actor would try to be all sweet, and who needs that ? Indefinite pronouns,
1886-414: The same meaning; we do not say "the sky is raining" or "the weather is raining". A prop-word is a word with little or no semantic content used where grammar dictates a certain sentence member, e.g., to provide a "support" on which to hang a modifier. The word most commonly considered as a prop-word in English is one (with the plural form ones ). The prop-word one takes the place of a countable noun in
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1932-434: The table. This observation has led some linguists, such as Paul Postal , to regard pronouns as determiners that have had their following noun or noun phrase deleted. (Such patterning can even be claimed for certain personal pronouns; for example, we and you might be analyzed as determiners in phrases like we Brits and you tennis players .) Other linguists have taken a similar view, uniting pronouns and determiners into
1978-539: The third person singular there are also distinct pronoun forms for male, female and neuter gender. Principal forms are shown in the adjacent table. English personal pronouns have two cases, subject and object . Subject pronouns are used in subject position ( I like to eat chips, but she does not ). Object pronouns are used for the object of a verb or preposition ( John likes me but not her ). Other distinct forms found in some languages include: Possessive pronouns are used to indicate possession (in
2024-436: The two referents from having a direct relationship. On the other hand, personal pronouns (such as him or them ) must adhere to Principle B: a pronoun must be free (i.e., not bound) within its governing category (roughly, the clause). This means that although the pronouns can have a referent, they cannot have a direct relationship with the referent where the referent selects the pronoun. For instance, John said Mary cut him
2070-811: Was not as successful as the loudspeakers were, but was manufactured for few years. In 1972, the VideoBeam was finally released, the first large-screen projection television for home use. In 1977, Kloss founded Kloss Video Corporation (KVC) as a spin-off company. He invented the Novatron tube there, which increased the efficiency of projection TVs. Advent continued to concentrate on low-cost high-performance consumer audio products. Eventually, long after Kloss' departure, Advent ran into hard times. Citing high labor costs, it closed its Cambridge factory in 1979, laying off most of its 650 workers, and moved production to New Hampshire . It did not thrive, and never emerged from
2116-738: Was originally a placeholder name for an unexplained phenomenon. Placeholder names are commonly used in computing : Certain domain names in the format example .tld (such as example.com , example.net , and example.org ) are officially reserved as placeholders for the purpose of presentation. Various example reserved IP addresses exist in IPv4 and IPv6 , such as 192.0.2.0 in IPv4 documentation and 2001:db8:: in IPv6 documentation. Placeholders such as Main Street , Your County , and Anytown are often used in sample mailing addresses. Ruritania
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