Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Meanjin'

This thesis develops a critical reading methodology entitled unprincipled formalism. This methodology is tested in close readings of three relatively contemporary Australian literary texts: David Malouf's short story "A Traveller's Tale" (1986) and novella Remembering Babylon (1994), and Peter Carey's short story "The Chance" (1978). Unprincipled formalism is developed in relation to three broad contexts: the fragmented state of the contemporary discipline of literary studies; the complex of international economic and social phenomena which goes under the general rubric of globalisation; and the specific Australian left-liberal literary critical tradition which I have termed, for convenience sake, the Meanjin literary formation. Unprincipled formalism does not draw a distinction between form and content. Unprincipled formalism is a critical methodology that is both avowedly socially concerned and strictly formalist. It is concerned with articulating and analysing the particular social and political interventions made by literary texts (as well as the resultant critical discussion of those texts) through a consideration of the formal techniques by which literary texts situate themselves as acts of communication. Principal among these techniques is the mise en abyme. The thesis provides a detailed analysis of debates around the mise en abyme informed by the work of theorists such as Ross Chambers, Lucien Dallenbach, Frank Lentricchia, Moshe Ron, Jacques Derrida and others. Politically, unprincipled formalism attempts to steer a middling course between neo-liberal triumphalism on the one hand and nostalgic left romanticism on the other. This involves on the one hand a critique of neo-liberalism drawing on the work of Charles Taylor, Stephen Holmes, John Frow and others, and on the other a critique of a nostalgic romantic tendency in "progressive" critical technologies such as postmodern and postcolonial literary studies.

This thesis develops a critical reading methodology entitled unprincipled formalism. This methodology is tested in close readings of three relatively contemporary Australian literary texts: David Malouf's short story "A Traveller's Tale" (1986) and novella Remembering Babylon (1994), and Peter Carey's short story "The Chance" (1978). Unprincipled formalism is developed in relation to three broad contexts: the fragmented state of the contemporary discipline of literary studies; the complex of international economic and social phenomena which goes under the general rubric of globalisation; and the specific Australian left-liberal literary critical tradition which I have termed, for convenience sake, the Meanjin literary formation. Unprincipled formalism does not draw a distinction between form and content. Unprincipled formalism is a critical methodology that is both avowedly socially concerned and strictly formalist. It is concerned with articulating and analysing the particular social and political interventions made by literary texts (as well as the resultant critical discussion of those texts) through a consideration of the formal techniques by which literary texts situate themselves as acts of communication. Principal among these techniques is the mise en abyme. The thesis provides a detailed analysis of debates around the mise en abyme informed by the work of theorists such as Ross Chambers, Lucien Dallenbach, Frank Lentricchia, Moshe Ron, Jacques Derrida and others. Politically, unprincipled formalism attempts to steer a middling course between neo-liberal triumphalism on the one hand and nostalgic left romanticism on the other. This involves on the one hand a critique of neo-liberalism drawing on the work of Charles Taylor, Stephen Holmes, John Frow and others, and on the other a critique of a nostalgic romantic tendency in "progressive" critical technologies such as postmodern and postcolonial literary studies.
Thesis (PhD Doctorate)
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
School of Humanities
Full Text

Employing the designer William Morris as a source of inspiration, this project seeks to explore the call for nature and beauty as a part of our lives. Moreover, it interweaves the necessity for experience of the sensual world (the five senses) with the cerebral world (a requisite to igniting the internal imagination)—a concept embodied in the form of the book. It advocates a redefining of the book as an imagination sculpture (the external and the internal) reflecting this new definition.

Abstract Making Meaning, Out of Meaning Making by Alda M. Blakeney This study examines the ways in which three elementary teachers appropriated and implemented a defined literacy curriculum in their classrooms. The overarching question guiding the study is, “What are the social and cultural patterns of meaning making in the literacy practices of three elementary teachers?” The study is framed by sociocultural perspectives of learning (Bourdieu, 1986; Gee, n.d; Vygotsky, 1978). Literacy practices involve the cultural, social, political, and historical ways of interacting and making sense of the world. Therefore, to study literacy practices of three elementary teachers means to study the social and cultural contexts in which they occur. Field notes, interviews, and teacher-produced artifacts were analyzed using emergent coding schemes (Spradley, 1979; LeCompte and Schensul, 1999). Findings from the study revealed that the literacy practices of these three teachers were standards driven, emphasizing a foundational approach to literacy development. Additionally, the teachers focused on transforming Spanish speakers into English readers. These findings suggest that the social and cultural patterns of meaning making between and among teachers and learners are not equally represented in the curriculum. Moreover, the teachers did not disrupt commonly held beliefs and practices about literacy, thereby maintaining the status quo. Implications for this study including equipping teachers, both pre-service and in-service with knowledge of critical theory and literacy, with a goal of increased engagement in literacy practices and a democratized production of knowledge.

The synthesis of old and new, analog and digital, and hand- and computer-based methods provides designers with an opportunity to work beyond the constraints of the computer and take advantage of the aesthetic effects that actual materials bring to visual communication. Designers who choose to actively participate in their process – bringing the aesthetic effects of working materially into the realm of the digital – will likely learn to reject an approach that relies too heavily on passive digital tools. Active participation in the design process can extend our creative vocabulary and humanize visual communication.

Dissonance exists in efforts to communicate about suffering and despair. Showcasing common societal flawed reactions to despair begs for discourse to create a more communicatively healthy response. Attempting to communicate the suffering of others and feeling like I was failing at that goal led to my own suffering. Using writing as a method of personal healing created an intersection of personal narratives of suffering and victim’s narratives (which can arguable only allow for the co-opting of the story and narcissism). Grappling with the limits of writing to heal provided a lens to see the victim’s narratives in such a way that created self-reflexivity. Rather than equating the suffering of the victim’s to my own, which I absolutely do not do, instead I found potential answers to despair in the post-Holocaust theologians. This dissertation is an experiment in trying to communicate suffering and meaning in a post-Holocaust world where my story and the survivors stories both have similarities of theological despair, an ethic of defiance, and most certainly a refusal to be changed by the world.

Today, increasing physical activity is being promoted as one of the most effective interventions for enhancing overall health and quality of life, especially for older people. Research has clearly shown that adequate exercise reduces risk for certain diseases, lowers the risk for impaired mobility and prevents cognitive decline. Despite the overwhelming amount of evidence regarding the benefits of exercising regularly, many older adults do not engage in this form of physical activity. Given our need to better understand how to promote healthy aging in this growing population, there is an emerging body of research exploring the question of why activity levels are low among older people and how they can be encouraged to become more active. However, people who have been diagnosed with dementia have not been included in this research. In this already under-active age group, it is extremely important to understand what drives or motivates the older adult with dementia to be physically active. In order to understand the drive we must first understand the significance of physical activity for this group of people. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore and understand the meaning of physical activity for older adults who have been diagnosed with dementia. This study was a secondary analysis of data drawn from a larger qualitative investigation on the everyday lives of people living with early dementia. Purposeful sampling was used for this secondary analysis; participants were selected because their interviews from the original study had some discussion on the subject of physical activity. The final sample was comprised of 12 participants between the ages of 65 and 86 years. The findings of this study show that older adults with dementia are attracted to physical activity and perceive numerous physical, emotional and social benefits from their involvement, even in the face of aging and dementia-related health changes. The major finding in this study on physical activity in older adults with dementia was that walking was becoming increasingly meaningful to them. The finding that walking may be an important way for people with dementia to stay involved in physical activity is discussed.

The general theme of this dissertation is meaning and paradox. Or, more precisely, how accounts of the metaphysical determination of meaning are affected by the semantic paradoxes. I focus in particular on those accounts within the Davidsonian tradition-whose key characteristic, roughly speaking, I take to be a commitment to Davidsonian semantics. The question that drives the discussion is as follows. Which (if any) accounts of meaning within the Davidsonian tradition are compatible with the fact that semantic paradoxes arise in natural language? Throughout the dissertation, I use the liar paradox as an archetypal semantic paradox. I consider first the two central extant accounts of meaning within the Davidsonian tradition: the Davidsonian and neo-Davidsonian accounts of meaning. I argue that, in light of the semantic paradoxes, both accounts should be rejected. As a result of the discussion, I then consider, in my terminology, traditional externalist accounts of meaning. I argue that an account of meaning along the lines of David Lewis' interpretationism can be adopted by the fan of Davidsonian semantics, and that the resultant account may be compatible with the fact that semantic paradoxes arise in natural language. I show how the fan of Davidsouian semantics can adopt Lewis' interpretationism. I call the resultant account the DL-hybrid account of meaning. Roughly, the account permits the adoption of a broadly Kripkean response to the paradox: truth conditions for sentences are to be characterised as conditional upon the sentences in question being grounded. I close by arguing that the DL-hybrid account of meaning is compatible with the fact that semantic paradoxes arise in natural language.

My artwork reflects my search for my own artistic voice. Life demands examination from me at inconvenient times, but with the intention of growing as a person I proceed willingly, and as an artist, equipped with a paintbrush. My search has led me to discover new materials and techniques and my structured self-reflection has uncovered a new source of inspiration. I now combine the physical layering of art materials with layers of personal meaning as well. My work has an autobiographical theme which I have interpreted through the filter of my sense of humor. Working so intimately with my own personal history and visually expressing myself by combining multiple techniques has transformed my understanding of myself as an artist and a person.

Decisive moments and their fleeting experiences are born from an individual’s interaction within a defined physical space. It is here at the intersection of environment and context that my work in site-specific art begins. I endeavor to create an examination of socio-political and environmental issues through a manipulation of materials, thereby altering one’s private, communal, and cultural response to them. My installations are comprised of slip casted multiples which reference the human form. I place these forms in galleries and specific exterior locations, and incorporate materials that are charged with societal discord, such as used motor oil and post-consumer detritus, in order to still the blur of contemporary life. This allows for a contemplative pause that pulls into focus the effect of pursuing our individual wants and desires against the consequences of these pursuits on the larger society and environment.

Theory and research investigating the relationship between affective experiences and meaning in life have focused on how positive affect contributes to perceptions of meaning in life. No work has considered how people can attain meaning in life while experiencing negative affect. The present work tested whether affectively negative circumstances can provide meaning in life. Specifically, two studies, using distinct methodologies, tested whether people can attain meaning in life while experiencing the stress associated with goal-pursuit. In Study 1, the salience of stressful college-related goal-pursuit was experimentally heightened and then perceptions of goal-engagement, meaning in life, and positive and negative affect were measured. In Study 2, trait levels of meaning in life and positive and negative affect were assessed. Later in the semester, stress associated with college-related goal-pursuit, perceptions of goal-engagement, meaning in life, and positive and negative affect were measured. In Study 1, the salience of stressful goal-pursuit did not affect these outcomes. In Study 2, when controlling for trait levels of meaning in life and positive and negative affect, regression and mediation analyses showed that college stress predicted increased negative affect; and that college stress predicted increased perceptions of goal engagement, which in turn predicted increased meaning in life and subsequently positive affect.

The dissertation lays the foundations for a naturalistic account of word meaning capable of addressing the conflicting intuitions that word meanings are both “out there”, world-involving and objective (the “objectivist” intuition) and in the heads of speakers, i.e. cognitive and perspectival (the “mentalist” intuition). The strong naturalization constraint endorsed in this project has it that the sought-after syncretic notion of word meaning must be nonmysterious and constitute a potential object for the natural sciences. The objectivist intuition is discussed within the framework of semantic externalism and the theory of semantic deference. Whereas the importance of the phenomenon of semantic deference (i.e. the fact that speakers defer to semantic standards for the fixation of the meaning of their words) is recognized, it is shown that taking the normativity of meaning evidenced by semantic deference at face value leads to embracing a form of meaning objectivism that is incompatible with naturalism. On the one hand, the objectivist/externalist commitment to independent meaning-determining realities could be stronger than the commitments actually undertaken by the natural sciences themselves. On the other hand, the degree of idealization inherent in the objectivist account makes it oddly disconnected from and ultimately irrelevant to actual linguistic practice. However, usage-based accounts – which have meanings determined by the way words are actually used rather than determined “from outside” – notoriously struggle to provide a satisfactory account of the normativity of meaning. The proposed move consists in biting the bullet and treating the inherent normativity of meaning as a form of cognitive illusion, albeit an unavoidable illusion and one which must be taken seriously in order to explain the properties of linguistic understanding. A strictly usage-based account is shown to be viable and even to be able to account for the objectivist explanandum, once it is coupled with biological functionalism. Word meanings “out there” turn out to be viable natural objects, yet quite unlike the apparent objects of our pre-theoretical intuitions. “Complete”, world-involving word meanings are complex functional kinds (like organs or artifacts) constituted (rather than determined) by speakers’ actual dispositions and relevant environmental factors. As such, complete meanings – whether at the communal level (conventional meanings) or at the level of the individual speaker (idiosyncratic patterns of use) – are essentially opaque to speakers and can only be identified from a theoretical point of view on the basis of functional considerations. Moreover, the environmental factors intuitively corresponding to the traditional notion of objective reference or extension cannot be considered independently of the other internal and relational meaning-constitutive factors. The view of meaning defended is thus supportive of a certain form of anti-realism, where reference and truth are relativized to evolved interests, yet it is not supportive of any global form of anti-realism, for the presuppositions of biological normativity still provide a realist anchor to natural-language meanings. From this theoretical perspective, the mentalist intuition is taken to concern the internal, cognitive sub-components of complete meanings. Internal meanings are the cognitive kinds associated with word types (lexical meanings) or word tokens (ways in which words are understood/interpreted on an occasion of use). It is argued that internal meanings – whether stable or occasion-specific – have an irreducible abstract dimension for which no naturalistically plausible worldly counterpart is to be found. The experience of aboutness of the concepts intuitively encoded and expressed by words is again to be treated as a cognitive illusion, on a par with the illusion of the inherent normativity of word meaning. However, the abstract nature of internal meanings explains some of the key properties of linguistic understanding – aboutness, compositionality, co-reference – without which productive thought and linguistic communication would be impossible. The proposed account thus makes room for compositional-extensional semantics and shared understanding, as long as these are fully internalized. The connection with the external components of complete meanings is indirect, mediated by procedures whose workings are to a large extent opaque to users. The main consequence of the proposed framework is the incommensurability of internal meaning and complete meaning, and therefore a rejection of the possibility of an articulation of internal meaning and complete meaning compatible with the commonsense view from which traditional accounts of semantic deference and semantic externalism are built.Cette thèse jette les bases d’une théorie naturaliste de la signification des mots à même de rendre compte de deux intuitions en apparence conflictuelles :d’une part, l’intuition selon laquelle les significations des mots ont une existence extérieure objective et impliquent le monde (l’intuition « objectiviste ») ;d’autre part, l’intuition selon laquelle les significations sont dans la tête des locuteurs, c’est-à-dire correspondent à des réalités cognitives et perspectivales (l’intuition « mentaliste »). La contrainte naturaliste assumée dans ce projet veut que la notion syncrétique de signification que l’on cherche à développer puisse constituer un objet potentiel d’investigation pour les sciences naturelles, c’est-à-dire qu’elle soit, au moins en principe, localisable dans le monde naturel. L’intuition objectiviste est débattue dans le cadre de l’externalisme sémantique et de la théorie de la déférence sémantique. Bien que l’importance du phénomène de la déférence sémantique (le fait que les locuteurs défèrent à des standards sémantiques pour la fixation de la signification des mots qu’ils emploient) soit pleinement reconnue, l’argument poursuivi mène à la conclusion que la normativité de la signification que semble imposer la déférence sémantique ne doit pas être prise pour argent comptant, sous peine d’épouser une forme d’objectivisme de la signification incompatible avec le projet de naturalisation stricte. D’une part, l’engagement ontologique objectiviste/externaliste vis-à-vis de réalités indépendantes déterminant les significations pourrait être plus fort que les engagements ontologiques implicites des sciences naturelles elles-mêmes. D’autre part, le degré d’idéalisation propre au point de vue objectiviste le rend étrangement détaché de la pratique linguistique effective, et en définitive sans pertinence pour rendre compte de celle-ci. Cela étant dit, les théories fondées sur l’usage – pour lesquelles les significations sont déterminées par la façon dont les mots sont effectivement employés plutôt que déterminées « de l’extérieur » – sont en général critiquées pour leur incapacité à rendre compte de la normativité de la signification. La proposition que fait la thèse consiste à assumer cette conséquence d’une théorie fondée sur l’usage et à considérer la normativité intrinsèque de la signification comme une forme d’illusion cognitive, bien qu’une illusion inévitable et devant être prise au sérieux s’il s’agit d’expliquer les propriétés remarquables de la compréhension linguistique. Une théorie strictement fondée sur l’usage est viable et même capable de rendre compte de l’intuition objectiviste, une fois que cette théorie est couplée avec un fonctionnalisme biologique. Les significations « extérieures » des mots sont bien des objets naturalisables, quoique fort différents des objets apparents de nos intuitions pré-théoriques. Les significations « complètes », c’est-à-dire impliquant le monde, correspondent à des espèces fonctionnelles complexes (à la manière des organes ou des artéfacts) qui sont constituées (plutôt que déterminées) par les dispositions effectives des locuteurs et les facteurs environnementaux pertinents. En tant que telles, les significations complètes – que ce soit au niveau de la communauté linguistique (significations conventionnelles) ou au niveau du locuteur individuel (usages idiosyncrasiques) – sont fondamentalement opaques pour les locuteurs et ne peuvent être identifiées qu’à partir d’un point de vue théorique externe et sur base de considérations fonctionnelles. En outre, les facteurs environnementaux correspondant intuitivement à la notion traditionnelle de référence ou d’extension objective ne peuvent être considérés indépendamment des autres facteurs internes et relationnels constitutifs de la signification. La théorie de la signification défendue suggère donc une certaine forme d’anti-réalisme, dans lequel la référence et la vérité sont relativisées à des intérêts spécifiques produits par l’évolution naturelle. Cette théorie ne sert pour autant guère d’appui à un quelconque anti-réalisme global, car les présupposés de la normativité biologique continuent à fournir un ancrage réaliste aux significations linguistiques. Une fois cette perspective théorique sur les significations impliquant le monde adoptée, on fait la supposition que l’intuition mentaliste concerne les sous-composantes internes et cognitives des significations complètes. Les significations internes sont les espèces cognitives associées avec les types lexicaux (significations lexicales) et avec les tokens lexicaux (façons dont les mots sont compris/interprétés lorsqu’ils sont employés). Il est avancé que les significations internes – qu’elles soient stables ou propres à une occasion d’usage – ont une composante abstraite irréductible à laquelle ne correspond aucune contrepartie mondaine acceptable d’un point de vue naturaliste. L’expérience de l’ « être-à-propos » (aboutness) des concepts intuitivement encodés et exprimés par les mots doit encore une fois être considérée comme une illusion cognitive, à l’instar de l’illusion de la normativité intrinsèque de la signification. Cependant, la nature abstraite des significations internes explique certaines des propriétés centrales de la compréhension linguistique – être-à-propos, compositionnalité, co-référence – sans lesquelles la pensée productive et la communication proprement linguistique seraient impossibles. La théorie proposée fait donc une place à la sémantique compositionnelle-extensionnelle et à la compréhension partagée, pour autant que celles-ci soient complètement internalisées. La connexion avec les composantes externes des significations complètes est indirecte, médiée par des procédures dont le fonctionnement est en grande partie opaque aux utilisateurs du langage. La conséquence principale du cadre proposé est l’incommensurabilité de la signification interne et de la signification complète et, partant, le rejet de la possibilité d’une articulation entre les deux types de signification qui soit compatible avec le point de vue de sens commun à partir duquel sont construites les théories traditionnelles de la déférence sémantique et de l’externalisme sémantique.
Doctorat en Langues et lettres
info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

With the prevalence of legacy C/C++ code, issues of readability and maintainability have become increasingly important. When we consider the problem of refactoring or migrating C/C++ code, we see the significant role that preprocessor directives play. It is partially because of these preprocessor directives that code maintenance has become extremely difficult. This thesis describes a method of fact extraction and code manipulation to create a set of transformations which will remove preprocessor directives from the original source, converting them into regular C/C++ code with as few changes as possible, while maintaining readability in the code. In addition, some of the subtle issues that may arise when migrating preprocessor directives are explored. After discussing the general architecture of the test implementation, an examination of some metrics gathered by running it on two software systems is given.

I his paper examines the music and career of Siti binti Saadi, a famous taarab musician who performed in Zanzibar during the 1920s and 1930s. Relying on four distinctive types of evidence: her recorded music, written documentation produced in East Africa, interviews with men and women who heard her perform and records of company executives I compare perspectives regarding the source of power and authority attributed to her voice as well as the meaning of her music. Siti binti Saadi was the first East African to have her voice captured and reproduced on 78 rpm gramophone disks. The production of these records enhanced her status and imbued her voice with a sense of authority that it otherwise may never have attained. Written histories of taarab, particularly those authored in the 1950s and 1960s, often memorialize her as literally, `giving voice to the voiceless,´ allowing the voice of East Afiica to be heard internationally.

Hi-tech companies that want to innovate their products use, quite often, and quite naturally, technology as a driver. But, technology is only one of several drivers of change within product development. It is becoming more and more accessible and alone, cannot serve as the only mean to stay competitive.  This research sheds light on a different driver of innovation – namely, through the perspective of “meaning”. An innovation, driven by the search for a new meaning of a product, is connected to the purpose of “why” a product is used. It is not about “how” it is used. In this sense, innovations driven by meaning, are connected to a human’s new experience of use – rather than to the improvement of an existing performance. This type of innovation builds on people and their interpretation of why a product or service make sense in their life and therefore, it is subjective rather than objective. It represents a move, from the classic business perspectives of optimization and control to approach the unpredictable and ambiguous views of humans in a wider, cultural context.    A company that reconsidered the meaning of their product, is Germany-based KUKA with their “RoboCoaster”. This product uses existing technology to transform an industrial robot from a powerful, efficient and accurate tool into an exciting amusement ride system, delivering excitement, enjoyment and pleasurable fear. Another example is the Da Vinci surgical system in which, instead of replacing humans in an industrial application, a robot interacts with humans by acting as a surgeon in performing invasive surgery.  Through finding new applications of existing technologies – (the Robocoaster )– or through new technologies (the Da Vinci surgical system) – these products are not “better” than existing industrial robots: they have changed the reason why people use them.  But, theories on how to innovate with a “meaning” perspective, (i.e. on how to develop new interpretations for products and services) are rare. Indeed, dominant streams of innovation research have been connected to problem solving (Simon, 1996, Clark, 1985, Pahl and Beitz, 1988, Clark and Fujimoto, 1991, Teece et al., 1997 , Krishnan and Ulrich 2001) or idea generation (Brown, 2008, Martin, 2007). This research instead, set the focus on the context. It is a move from a cognitive focus to a social one. A move from user driven innovation strategies to also embrace a wider network of actors in the process of interpretation. The nature of this innovation is different and therefore, it requires a different approach. In this licentiate thesis the nature of innovation of meaning is examined and its relevance and practice discussed with the help of hermeneutics. The research suggests that innovation of meaning calls for new theoretical frames in innovation studies: from innovation as a process of problem solving and creative thinking to innovation as a process of interpreting and envisioning.

Thesis (M. Eng.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2009.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 53).
GENESIS is an existing software system for understanding and reasoning about language and vision. One of the modules in GENESIS uses about 1000 lines of Java code representing 31 rules to turn English sentences into a variety of more meaningful semantic representations. I reproduced the functionality of these rules by training the existing rule-learning program UNDERSTAND with 43 human-readable examples of English sentences and corresponding semantic representations, resulting in 18 rules. These new rules and the framework for training and using them provides GENESIS with a more robust and extensible semantic parser. This research also led me to make several improvements to UNDERSTAND, making it both more powerful and easier to train.
by Harold Blake Cooper.
M.Eng.

This thesis sets out to contribute to the literature on back translation, a mode of translation that has not been seriously investigated. The study aims at investigating the reliability of back translation as a research tool with particular emphasis on the issues of explicitation and implicitation shifts. The investigation corpus consists of two contemporary American-English novels, At Risk by Patricia Cornwell and The Road by Cormac McCarthy, and their translations into Arabic as "قلب الخطر" and"الطريق" respectively. One chapter from the former novel and a number of sections from the latter novel are selected, and their Arabic translations are examined in order to identify examples of explicitation and implicitation shifts. The identified examples of the translation are back translated into English by two professional translators. A categorisation of explicitation and implicitation shifts identified in the corpus is discussed using Klaudy's Model (1996), and the extent to which meaning is retained using Larson's framework (1998). This study consists of seven chapters. The first chapter serves as an introduction. The second chapter discusses the two translational phenomena of back translation and intermediate translation. The third chapter is to examine the tension between meaning and translation. The fourth chapter provides a comprehensive account on the two main concepts that will frame the analysis of the shifts: explicitation and implicitation. The fifth chapter provides an overview of the study of the corpus and presents the methodological approach. The sixth chapter provides a number of explicitation and implicitation shifts and their back translations, to establish the reliability of back translation in retaining the explicitation and implicitation shift and its meaning. The seventh chapter presents the conclusions and recommendations of this study. The main contribution of this study is to show that even though back translation is often used as a research tool, its validity and reliability are taken for granted. However, it is shown that the back translation might not retain the explicitation and implicitation and or its meaning and thus impair its usefulness as a tool for comparing a text and its translation.

The relationship between language and human action is a pervasive theme of Wittgenstein's writings. And yet explicit references to the essentially instinctive nature of the actions into which language is woven are sparse. This thesis, by explanation and by the further development of these few remarks, aims to advance our understanding of the role of instinctive reactions in the formation and possession of our concepts. Wittgenstein has been criticised - rightly or wrongly - for viewing language too much on the model of the application of a technique, as if speaking were merely a system of rule-governed actions. Following Rush Rhees, I argue that speaking is more intimately woven into our constitution as persons than can be understood from such an oversimplified view. Wittgenstein has also been accused of harbouring a theory of concept-formation from instinctive behaviour - an accusation that is refuted. Our understanding of the nature and role of instinctive reactions (both linguistic and non-linguistic) in the constitution of our conceptual form of life must therefore take account of the more complex picture of the nature of speaking that emerges. Examples of concepts (psychological concepts and concepts to do with knowledge and belief) which are situated in complex ways within the instinctive dimension of our lives are then discussed in detail. 'This investigation into the nature of the possession of our concepts is worked out in concert with a discussion of what concepts are, of what the relationship is between the conceptual and the factual, and of the level at which our concepts engage with the world. Finally, it is argued that instinctive reactions, akin to those which comprise the cornerstones of our language-games, are also implicated both in generating the perplexity that lies at the bottom of philosophical problems, and in its elucidation.

Romans 1: 20 For since the creation of the world, God's invisible qualities - His eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so men are without excuse. Job 32:8 But it is the spirit in a man, the breath of the Almighty, that gives him understanding. Joshua 4:5-7 Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of tribes of the Israelites, to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, "What do these stones mean?", tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever. Meaning is revealed in the inmost place of a man. Once that lamp of understanding is lit, it will never be extinguished. It is only our awareness of meaning that dims and fades, lost in a welter of imposing facts. The experience of built form can recall us to an awareness of associated meaning. It is in this renewed awareness that we rediscover meaning.
Master of Architecture

This project examines the meaning-making of art through multiple disciplinary lenses: Art Therapy, Art History, Studio Art, Art Education and Anthropology. Disciplines were selected for their inherent ability to enhance an understanding of meaning-making through the art making process and art product. An arts-based methodology was utilized in conjunction with the Outliers and American Vanguard Art exhibition at The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), which featured a juxtaposition of formally trained and self-taught artists. Each of the five researchers selected a piece of art included in the exhibition, rendered the piece, documented the rendering process, and viewed each piece and its accompanying documentation from their respective disciplinary lenses to understand meaning-making of the original artist and their work. Results of this systematic investigation exposed common themes across disciplines that inform meaning-making: Culture, Context, Comparison, Communication, Formal Elements, and Accuracy. Through an understanding of elements that comprise each exposed theme, the discipline of art therapy can expand its theoretical and practical knowledge that currently informs its approaches toward the meaning-making of art. Results of this arts-based investigation imply that continued investigation of adjacent art and culture-centric disciplines can question, corroborate, and supplement existing assumptions about the meaning-making of art process and art product in the discipline of art therapy.

A Hint of Meaning contains a scholarly preface, "Language, Experimentation, and Craft: Creating a Vivid, Continuous Fictional Dream," that discusses the ambiguities of language and how they relate to different aspects of the craft of writing. Six original short stories follow the preface. "Musical Chairs" explores a woman's conflicting emotions about her ex-husband. "Baby Steps" depicts the struggle of a woman against her father's alcoholism. "Go Home Happy" depicts a day in the life of a video store employee. "Bargain Basement Perfection" contrasts the reality of a relationship with an imagined, perfect relationship. "Did You Hear about Donald and Bitsy?" is an experimental piece that tells a story through gossip. "Glass Angels" explores a minister's relationship with his homosexual son and how that relates to the minister's faith.

Thesis (M.Phil.) - University of Glasgow, 2008.
M.Phil. thesis submitted to the Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Arts, University of Glasgow, 2008. Includes bibliographical references. Print version also available.

This monograph explores the meaning and distribution of intensifiers (otherwise referred to as emphatic reflexives). Intensifiers are invariably stressed and anaphorically dependent on a nominal antecedent. Their use induces alternatives, an indication that their prosodic prominence results from some sort of information-structural marking. An intensifier can adjoin directly to its antecedent or to some clausal projection. The first part of the monograph is concerned with the meaning of intensifiers. Depending on its distribution, an intensifier may take up to three radically different readings; adnominal, inclusive or exclusive. I first suggest that the common characteristic of the three readings is that they require the antecedent to be central against the induced alternative referents. Their interpretive differences lie in that the antecedent must be central in a different way. The rest of the meaning characteristics of each reading fall out from this basic variation. I discuss how syntax, semantics, information structure, general principles of the grammar (e.g. the Elsewhere condition) and extra-linguistic factors conspire to deliver these effects. The second part of this monograph focuses on the distribution of the intensifier. I establish that the intensifier forms a syntactic dependency with its antecedent and propose a particular characterization of the relevant dependency that renders it quite similar to a binding relation. The final contribution of the thesis is concerned with the largely novel observation that the information-structural marking of the intensifier restricts its positioning with respect to other quantificational and information-structurally marked categories. I provide an account for the observed interactions in terms of an independently motivated condition of scope shift. The thesis is mainly based on data from English and Dutch.

Thesis (M.A.)--Boston University PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you.
The purpose of this study is to understand the health beliefs and behaviors of Puerto Rican and El Salvadorian adults' living with Type 2 diabetes in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood of Massachusetts. What explanatory models do Puerto Rican and El Salvadorian adults' frame with regard to Type 2 diabetes mellitus? Which of the multiple etiologies and available treatments shape diabetes health beliefs, and how do these relate to the explanatory models of physicians, and how might they impact diabetes behaviors? I sought to gain understanding of these ideas by looking beyond the biomedical definition that may have been imprinted into their descriptions to examine these Puerto Rican and El Salvadorian adults' point of view of diabetes. The research will aid health care professionals in understanding how Puerto Rican and El Salvadorian adults' perceive and discuss diabetes prevention, etiologies, treatments, and aid in creating a care management plan for patients. This project is designed to learn about the views of diabetes causation and treatments for Puerto Ricans and El Salvadorians living with type 2 diabetes in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood.