Sarah Bachelard describes crisis as a turning point during which all previous frameworks collapse. The narrative structure of the resurrection reveals the influential role of narrative in reintegrating such crises back into a place of meaning and wholeness. Using the resurrection narrative as an interpretive framework for Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried reveals how "story truth" acknowledges the transcendent meaning that lies beyond all texts and circumstances, and so reintegrates crisis and redeems meaning for Tim and his fellow soldiers. The transcendent and transformative qualities of story truth illustrate the latter's innately spiritual nature, even within secular texts. Story truth thus carries postsecular conversation past mere "openness" to transformation through the process of reintegration and redemption. By evoking the qualities of surprise and recognition associated with the resurrection, story truth especially illustrates that theology can elucidate such transformative processes and ought to play a key role in both spiritual and postsecular thought.

Pastaza Kichwa is a Quechuan language spoken in eastern Ecuador. This thesis describes its use of switch-reference which is traditionally understood to be an interclausal cross-referencing feature. Switch-reference is manifested by one of two morphemes that mark a subordinate clause as having either the same or different subject as another clause. Switch-reference has been described for other Quechuan languages and some of these studies present challenges to the theoretical underpinnings of switch reference (Stewart 1988, Dreidemie 2007) others present associated functions of switch-reference morphemes (Cole 1982). This study tests some of the propositions made about switch-reference in other Quechuan languages in Pastaza Kichwa.The data comes from the Corpus of Pastaza Kichwa which is a collection of 40 narrative texts. A broad statistical analysis of the switch-reference morphemes in the forty texts verified a distributional pattern posited by Stewart (1988). A sample of five texts was used for a closer in context analysis to examine adherence to proposed typological rules of canonical switch-reference, to test Stewarts (1988) motivation for counter examples, and test additional functions proposed by Cole (1982).Analysis and results indicate that switch-reference in Pastaza Kichwa does not obey all of the typological rules of canonical switch-reference. Stewarts proposed motivation proved inapplicable and potentially problematic, and that associated functions of switch-reference markers are due more to contextual factors rather than specific constructions.

This thesis reexamines causative constructions found in Marshallese; an Austronesian language spoken in the Republic of the Marshall Islands. Both Bender, Capelle & Pagotto (2016) and Willson (2008) hint that lexical aspect is a necessary predictor of causative behaviors in Marshallese, but offer no explanations. The primary focus of this thesis is to examine lexical aspect's influence on causative derivations. This project shows that Marshallese stative verbs display two distinct causative constructions: stative causatives and causative abstract nouns. The Marshallese causative prefix, ka-, tends to exhibit common crosslinguistic patterns of causative constructions as laid out by Dixon and Aikenvald (2000). However, contra Dixon and Aikenvald's typology, Willson (2008) suggests that the causative prefix in stative causative constructions in Marshallese does not license an additional argument (undergoer). This is argued to be different than non-stative causative constructions. Through data collection from six native Marshallese speakers and further analysis based on lexical aspect features (Van Valin & LaPolla 1997), this thesis provides a refreshed perspective on the morphosyntactic differences of Marshallese causative constructions. The findings confirm that stative causative constructions do license an additional undergoer argument while causative abstract nouns, another causative construction derived from stative verbs, do not. These findings are typologically significant as they showcase the complexity of causative constructions.

Students and instructors in the Speech Arts have voiced the complaint that a full understanding of the structures and performances of the speech mechanism is exceedingly difficult, if not impossible of conveyance, by the employment solely of abstract descriptions. This is to be expected, inasmuch as the majority of these students have had no training in anatomy and physiology prior to entering speech courses. That a complete understanding of the peripheral speech mechanism should be a part of the education of every student in the Speech Arts on scarcely be doubted. Hence recourse to a medium which will supplement the abstract instruction to the end of providing completeness of understanding must be had. It follows that that medium must be in the nature of a graphic physical model-a visual aid.

This study presents a linguistic profile of a heritage speaker of Russian and recounts the efforts to revitalize his Russian after he had nearly stopped speaking it. The study was conducted over the course of almost two years, starting when the subject was twelve years old and ending when he was fourteen. Although this study found that the subject displayed many of the linguistic features typical of heritage speakers, the subject's Russian had suffered less attrition than is common for heritage speakers of Russian in the United States. This study presents its linguistic findings under the rubrics of phonology, morphosyntax, and semantics/pragmatics. This study also describes the pedagogical efforts to improve the subject's reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills in Russian. Finally, this study includes some reflections on the psychological factors that influenced the methodology and outcome.

How do we establish objectivity when each person’s perspective is uniquely subjective? Borges’s “The Writing of the God” shows how an epistemically isolated subject is incapable of ever arriving at a robust sense of objectivity without reference to an Other. Donald Davidson’s theory of interpretive triangulation posits that the Other’s external perspective establishes objectivity by making the subject aware of the limits of his or her perception. Emmanuel Levinas suggests that the face of the Other establishes ethics as first philosophy through a primordial, affective discourse. The ethical relation is what undergirds the questions of epistemology which Davidson addresses.

Architectural design can be used as a tool to assist in integrating Syrian immigrants into American culture. Conceived of as a vital place-making technique, architecture can build Syrian community in the United States, while maintaining and promoting the links to Middle Eastern heritage. This thesis draws upon the lived experience of a large Syrian population in Worcester, MA, and makes a case for design in the development of a Syrian-American community center. This Syrian-American community center seeks to satisfy three goals. First, it offers a space for Syrian immigrants to better transition into American culture while also staying strongly connected to their Syrian culture. Second, the center helps to integrate Syrian people of different religious backgrounds and generations and promote the development of a shared Syrian-American community. Third, it aims to raise awareness among non-Syrian Americans of Syrian immigrants and culture. Towards these ends, the design of the community center is driven by Syrian concepts and culture. It includes spaces to support group programming, educational and cultural classes, exhibitions, parties, festivals, and performances. The design centers around an interior courtyard, representing the family or the heart of the home. Through this concept and the reimagining of traditional Syrian elements such as materials and patterns, the community center promotes and encourages relationships among its users and aids Syrians in transitioning into their new lives.

Despite the growing presence of trauma and abuse narratives in young adult literature (YAL), adolescent traumatic memory has largely been left out of the conversation. To better understand how contemporary memory scholarship is manifested in YAL, the following essay will offer a close reading of Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes (1993) by Chris Crutcher and Speak (1999) by Laurie Halse Anderson in conjunction with adolescent memory research. The accuracy of traumatic memory representation in these novels confirms the value of YAL as a means for youth to interact with and learn about traumatic memory, its processes, and its effects.

This thesis examines Plutarch's vague comments about the materiality of the soul in Moralia. My contention is that, despite suggestions to the contrary, Plutarch aligned with Plato in thinking about the soul as immaterial. I argue that a deeper understanding of Plutarch's relationship to Plato as well as the Stoics and Epicureans of his time shed light on his otherwise ambiguous passages. The end result will be (1) a more secure understanding of Plutarch's position on the materiality of the soul and (2) an improved ability to appreciate Plutarch's playful and vivid language as he describes immaterial souls with material descriptions.

This thesis analyzes the offensiveness of Afrikaans taboo words gathered from an online survey and cross-compares it to grammatical constructions and functionality as displayed in an Afrikaans corpus. Culturally speaking, Afrikaans has a rich history of taboo terminology, especially in the racial category. The historical importance of taboo terms aids in understanding the evolution of the offensiveness of terms, especially as influenced by factors such as politics, attitude shifts, younger generations, etc. Results from the online survey focused primarily on the White Afrikaans-speaking population, as minimal responses were gathered from other ethnic groups. Additional findings from the survey indicated that various social factors (i.e., gender, Afrikaans, age, occupation, etc.) did not determine what was considered most offensive in both overall and categorical rankings. However, significant findings displayed that context (i.e., church, familiarity, school, university, and work) and where taboo terms were learned determined when taboo terms were most offensive. The level of offensiveness was affected by factors such as country, learning Afrikaans in school, and in the situation of 'offensiveness to you'. Results from the Afrikaans corpus indicated that the frequency of taboo terminology is affected by the terms' offensiveness, grammar constructions and functionality. This study also indicates that the genericness of taboo terms plays a role in determining the functionality and type of grammar constructions a term may have. Further research is needed to examine if genericness remains consistent within other languages and with other Afrikaans taboo terms not examined in this study.