Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2002. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 123-130). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1984. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 378-391).

Thesis (M.A.)--Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary, 1995. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 153-162).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Boston University, 1985. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (B.Sc)--University of Hong Kong, 2002. / "A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Bachelor of Science (Speech and Hearing Sciences), The University of Hong Kong, May 10, 2002." Also available in print.

Theses (M.A.)--Marshall University, 2005. / Title from document title page. Includes abstract. Document formatted into pages: contains vi, 63 p. Bibliography: p. 62-63.

This study was designed with the aim of exploring from a qualitative point of view the communicative abilities of people affected by dementia. From among the different discourse genres, narratives were selected as these appear frequently in conversation and at the same time are a complex activity in which different cognitive and social skills interact. In spite of their apparent simplicity, they require an extended effort by the teller, who needs to choose an appropriate point in the conversation when the narrative can be introduced, recall all the necessary details and organize them in a comprehensible order, possibly employing a series of devices to hold the audience's attention. The focus on the investigation of communicative disorders was chosen with the aim of gaining a better understanding of what is normal or neurotypical in narrative discourse production. As a possible cause for impairment in communication I opted for dementia because it is a major health issue of which we have only a partial understanding. In particular, inconsistencies in the diagnostic practices have been pointed out, revealing an urgent need for a more accurate description of the behavioural symptoms. The data under examination have been collected in informal conversations with sixteen people affected by dementia. Further information on the communicative behaviour of the person affected by dementia was elicited from a family member by means of a semi-structured interview. The application of a simplified version of Labov and Waletzky's (1967) framework of narrative analysis, integrated with insights from Conversation Analysis, and contributions from anthropology, social sciences, narratology, as well as cognitive psychology, yield a number of results. Although a certain amount of variation was observed in the behaviour of the participants, the overall results seem to reflect findings from previous research and show how the progressive deterioration of the ability to retrieve and encode autobiographical memory is reflected in the diminishing ability to structure narrative discourse. Complex or canonical narratives seem to become frequent as dementia progresses, narratives become more fragmented, and contain more pauses and fillers, confusion in the chronological organization and confabulation, which is often fitted into previously established storylines; stories and story chunks are frequently repeated, then are reduced to brief comments that are scattered throughout discourse, so that they are no longer recognizable as narratives, but only as traces. The findings also add information on this process, such as that the ability to provide all the necessary details of orientation seems to be compromised since the early stages of the condition, as well as the ability to plan the narration, due to impairment of the executive function. Speakers in the moderate to severe stages displayed either a tendency to withdraw from the conversation or the opposite tendency to rely on a number of repetitions of small stories, story chunks and formulaic expressions, and on confabulation, in order to provide their contribution to the interaction. Some instances of potentially disordered behaviour displayed by mildly impaired participants have highlighted that both the interactional outcome and the frequency with which they appear in discourse can help make decisions on the level of acceptability of apparently deviant linguistic expressions. This may contribute to the description of the early symptoms of dementia. More research is urgently needed on the discourse abilities of neurotypical elderly speakers, as well as more collaboration between the clinical and linguistic field.

No description available.

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2005. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study explores the theoretical work in articulating the motivations and conditions for account-giving in isiXhosa in relation to image restoration. This emotional and behavioural rehabilitation is done through accounts. In this context, accounts are similar to narratives and can be retained at the level of private reflections or written as diary entries or for others to read and refer to from time to time. The account-making process according to Warren (1989), is like a "life in motion" in which individual characters are portrayed as moving through their experiences, dealing with some conflict or problem in their lives and at the same time searching for a resolution. It is then this quest to understand the major stresses in each individual's mind that is at the core of this study. The why questions that are the result of the daily experiences of destitution, depression, death, disability, etc., are also addressed here. The importance of the intelligibility of accounts is established with reference to Schank and Abelson (1977) who contend that people construct accounts based on their knowledge structure approach, causal reasoning and text comprehension. Thus, for an account to be hounered, it has to be goal-oriented and coherent. In this study, the social-interactive aspects of account-giving are investigated and it is discovered that severe reproach forms involving personality attacks and derogatory aspects, elicit defensive reactions that result in negative interpersonal and emotional consequences. The mitigation-aggravation continuum is then examined with regard to the selection of the failure management strategies. Narrative accounts based on Mcintyre (1981) form the basis of moral and social events and as such, stories have two elements through which they are explored. They are explored firstly in the way in which they are told and secondly, on the way they are lived in the social context. These stories follow a historically or culturally based format and to this effect, Gergen (1994) suggested a narrative criteria that constitute a historically contingent narrative form. Narrative forms are linguistic tools that have important social functions to satisfactorily fulfil such as stability narrative, progressive narrative and regressive narrative. According to Gergen (1994), self-narratives are social processes in which individuals are realized on the personal perspective or experience, and as such their emotions are viewed as constitutive features of relationship. The self-narratives used and analysed in this study portray the contemporary culture-based elements or segments of a well-formed narrative. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie studie ondersoek die teoretiese werke en die artikulasie van die motiverings en kondisies vir verslag-making en verslagdoening in isiXhosa m.b.t. beeld-herstel ('image restoration'). Hierdie emosionele en gedragsrehabilitasie word gedoen deur verslagdoening. In hierdie konteks is verslae soortgelyk aan narratiewe en kan beskou word op die vlak van privaatrefleksies of geskryf word as dagboekinskrywings. Die verslagdoeningsproses, is, volgens Warren (1989) soos 'Iewe-in-beweging', waarin individuele karakters voorgestel word as dat hulle beweeg deur hulle ondervindings waarin hulle een of ander konflik of probleem aanspreek, en soek na 'n oplossing. Dit is hierdie soeke om die hoofspanninge in elke individu se denke te verstaan wat die kern van hierdie studie is. Die waarom-vrae wat die gevolg is van die daaglikse ondervindinge, eensaamheid, depressie en gestremdheid, word ook aangespreek in die studie oor narratiewe in isiXhosa. Die belangrikheid van die verstaanbaarheid van verslae word ook ondersoek met verwysing na Schank en Abelson (1977) se siening dat mense verslae konstrueer gebaseer op hulle kennis, struktuurbenadering, kousale beredenering en teksbegrip. Dus, vir 'n verslag om gerespekteer te word, moet dit doel-georiënteerd en koherent wees. In hierdie studie, word die sosiaal-interaktiewe aspekte van verslagdoening ondersoek, en dit word bevind dat erge verdedigingsvorme persoonlike aanvalle en verkleinerende aspekte insluit wat verdedigende reaksies uitlok wat negatiewe interpersoonlike en emosionele gevolge het. Die vermindering-vergroting kontinuum word ondersoek m.b.t. die selektering van mislukking bestuurstrategieë. Narratiewe verslae gebaseer op Mcintyre (1981) vorm die basis van morele en sosiale gebeure, en as sodanig, het stories twee elemente waardeur hulle ondersoek word, eerstens op die wyse waarop, en tweedens, op die wyse wat hulle beleef word in sosiale konteks. Stories volg In histories- en kultureelgebaseerde formaat. Gergen (1994) het narratiewe kriteria voorgestel. Narratiewe vorme is linguistiese gereedskap wat belangrike sosiale funksies het, insluitende stabiliteit narratief, progressiewe narratief en regressiewe naratief.

Theoretical models posit that the perception of situations consists of two components: an objective component attributable to the situation being perceived and a subjective component attributable to the person doing the perceiving (Murray, 1938; Rauthmann, 2012; Sherman, Nave & Funder, 2013; Wagerman & Funder, 2009). In this study participants (N = 186) viewed three pictures from the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT; Murray, 1938) and rated the situations contained therein using a new measure of situations, the Riverside Situational Q-Sort (RSQ; Wagerman & Funder, 2009). The RSQ was used to calculate the overall agreement among ratings of situations and to examine the objective and subjective properties of the pictures. These results support a twocomponent theory of situation perception. Both the objective situation and the person perceiving that situation contributed to overall perception. Further, distinctive perceptions of situations were consistent across pictures and were associated with the Big Five personality traits in a theoretically meaningful manner. For instance, individuals high in Openness indicated that these pictures contained comparatively more humor (r = .26), intellectual stimuli (r = .20), and raised moral or ethical issues (r = .19) than individuals low on this trait. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2013.