<p> <i>Condolences to All of You</i> assembles various poems whose creation spans the period between late 2011 and late 2014, with the vast majority formed during the latter half of that time. Included are conceptual poems of a visual or ideological nature, narrative poems exploring adolescence and ecology, and lyrical examinations of the crisis of mortality in the twenty-first century. Many of these darkly humorous poems obscure distinctions between elegy, eulogy, epitaph and celebration, while pleading for the imagination's affirmation in a human era of purported existential certainty. The essay preceding the poems debates their roles and merits among the flailing despair of twentieth century literary criticism, and puts forth a guide to formal and content-driven motives for the mechanics of the poems themselves. </p>

<p> The present sociophonetic study examines the English variety in Michigan's Upper Peninsula (UP) based upon a 130-speaker sample from Marquette County. The linguistic variables of interest include seven monophthongs and four diphthongs: 1) front lax, 2) low back, and 3) high back monophthongs and 4) short and 5) long diphthongs. The sample is stratified by the predictor variables of heritage-location, bilingualism, age, sex and class. The aim of the thesis is two fold: 1) to determine the extent of potential substrate effects on a 71-speaker older-aged bilingual and monolingual subset of these UP English speakers focusing on the predictor variables of heritage-location and bilingualism, and 2) to determine the extent of potential exogenous influences on an 85-speaker subset of UP English monolingual speakers by focusing on the predictor variables of heritage-location, age, sex and class. All data were extracted from a reading passage task collected during a sociolinguistic interview and measured instrumentally. The findings of this apparent-time data reveal the presence of lingering effects from substrate sources and developing effects from exogenous sources based upon American and Canadian models of diffusion. The linguistic changes-in-progress from above, led by middle-class females, are taking shape in the speech of UP residents of whom are propagating linguistic phenomena typically associated with varieties of Canadian English (i.e., low-back merger, Canadian shift, and Canadian raising); however, the findings also report resistance of such norms by working-class females. Finally, the data also reveal substrate effects demonstrating cases of dialect leveling and maintenance. As a result, the speech spoken in Michigan's Upper Peninsula can presently be described as a unique variety of English comprised of lingering substrate effects as well as exogenous effects modeled from both American and Canadian English linguistic norms.</p>

The development of language in physically handicapped individuals using augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) systems has not been described. Therefore our understanding of the role of AAC language encoding limitations in the development of syntax is limited. This study examined adult AAC system users' knowledge of an English grammatical process which cannot be encoded in lexically based AAC systems. Because it is not possible to mark past tense with affixation in Blissymbolics, a meaning based graphic communication system, past and future tense are neutralized syntactically. The subjects, two congenitally physically handicapped adults with normal hearing, vision, and intelligence, accessed their Blissymbol displays using four-digit eyegaze number codes. The subjects were shown a novel mechanism to enable use of affixation through manipulation of the four-digit codes. Results indicate that the subjects had developed knowledge of this grammatical rule despite the encoding limitations of their AAC systems. Clinical implications are discussed.

Thesis (Psy.D.)--Fairleigh Dickinson University, 2004. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 65-04, Section: B, page: 2120. Chairperson: Ron Dumont. Available also in print.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of Education Policy Studies, 2006. / "Title from dissertation home page (viewed July 5, 2007)." Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-08, Section: A, page: 2823. Adviser: Bradley A. U. Levinson.

This study investigates the occurrence/nonoccurrence, distribution, and interpretation of zero anaphora (ZA) in Chinese conversational discourse. It explores three major questions: (1) what factors account for the occurrence of ZA, and the nonoccurrence of ZA in potential positions; (2) whether there are differences in occurrence and nonoccurrence by genre and style; and (3) what linguistic research approaches are most appropriate for the analysis of ZA in Chinese. The database consists of complete dialogues from the two-hour Chinese film, Li, Shuang-shuang, and an uninterrupted one-hour recording of spontaneous conversations among three adult Chinese speakers. The analysis employs a taxonomy adapted from Halliday and Hasan (1976), and Givon's (1989) discourse measures, and involves investigation of linguistic (syntactic and semantic) and extralinguistic (social and cultural) variables, and linear versus hierarchical discourse structure. Difference levels between the scripted and spontaneous conversations were assessed using independent t-tests and chi-square tests. The study revealed the following major findings. First, knowledge sources, linguistic and/or extralinguistic, that were shared by the conversational participants formed the basis for the occurrence of ZA; in the absence of adequate shared knowledge, ZA could potentially be used to attract attention by inviting clarification questions from addressees. Second, overt referents in positions of potential ZA had the function of enhancing referent saliency by specific means including rhetorical, interactional, and stylistic devices. Third, there were great differences between conversational data from this study and narrative discourse from prior research in the proportion of syntactically shifted ZA and in referential distance. Fourth, referent continuity was not subject to linear factors in hierarchical discourse structure. There was a statistically significant difference between the planned and unplanned conversations in: (1) clause type and discourse context in terms of event boundary, role, and person; and (2) referential distance, potential interference, and referential persistence. The overall results of the study revealed the highly variable nature of the ZA phenomenon in Chinese, which suggests the need for multiple perspectives in the analysis of ZA in typologically similar languages, and questions the adequacy of the Government and Binding Theory account of Empty Categories as a universal explanation for ZA.

The 19th century in Colombia is a particularly fruitful period to analyze the work of translators. At a time marked by the emergence of Nation-States, and consequently, by the search of models to be followed in almost every area. The figure of poet and translator Rafael Pombo (1833-1912) emerges. In this case-study we will analyze how this context affected the translations he produced. Based on the analysis of his translations of canonical authors and classical fables and child stories, as well as paratextual and parallel sources, this study will show how Rafael Pombo became an "intercultural mediator" at a time when the "Americas" met each other. Furthermore, in Pombo's work we can explore several translations functions, particularly a pedagogical function. This research will show that through the discovery of the relation between contexts, the translation, and his translations, and by articulating the translator's motivations and conception of translation, we can trace a general survey of translation and translation history can become a tool to account for translation practices at a particular time.

In this study I investigate the ways in which youth talk about difference and fictional television characters in order to better understand youth's relationship with the media and diverse others. I use the theoretical framework of constructivism and the analytic framework of Foucauldian Discourse Analysis in order to answer the following research questions: 1) What discourses and positionings do youth use when talking about fictional characters? 2) What discourses and positionings do youth use when talking about difference in the context of a television program that presents diverse characters, specifically in the areas of (a) ability, (b) sexuality, and (c) ethnicity? 3) What do these ways of talking about characters and difference make possible for youth in the world? I chose to study these questions by investigating the meanings that youth were making of characters on the television show Glee. I conducted a qualitative interview study, recruiting participants in accordance with purposive sampling for maximum variation. Data gathering consisted of qualitative interviews, both with individuals and pairs. Interviews included both photo and video elicitation. Following data collection and interview transcription, I conducted data analysis using positioning theory, discourse theory, and Foucauldian Discourse Analysis. In my first analytic chapter I identified two main discourses that youth use when talking about characters: Character as Person and Character as Creation. In my second analytic chapter I analyze youth speech and discuss the discourses and positionings that they use when talking about difference, identifying three main discourses: Being Different, Having Difference, and Enacting Difference. In my final analytic chapter I look more closely at the parasocial relationships that youth describe having with characters, investigating when youth do and do not describe identifying with the characters on Glee. I note that when youth describe relating strongly with a character because of a shared difference, they most often use the discourses of Character as Person and Being Different. Through the lens of Foucauldian Discourse Analysis, I am able to explore not only the patterns apparent in youth talk about characters and difference, but also what this talk makes possible in the world.

Pierre Daviault is a household name in the field of translation in Canada. He holds a prominent place thanks to his contribution to the profession itself and to the teaching of professional translation, which he pioneered. He wrote numerous linguistic books to fill a gap in his time---there was no Petit Robert or Robert & Collins in the 1940s. Daviault also developed the very first professional translation course for the University of Ottawa, in the heart of Canada's capital, a bilingual country. Daviault was a published author in other realms of knowledge. His love for the French presence in Canada explains his two biographies of well-known characters of Nouvelle-France. Other works include short stories about famous and less known people of his time and ventures into the literary world in the form of two adventure novels. The entire career of Pierre Daviault spanned from the 1920s to the mid-1960s and revolved around one subject: the French language. Everything he did or created over his long and successful career related, in one way or another, to this passion.

Le XIXe siècle, en France, a donné le jour à la Modernité dans les Arts. Ce qui a débuté comme un courant esthétique, s'est doté d'une sensibilité au présent et au changement. Il fallait "être de son temps" et les deux Honoré ont repondu à l'appel. Le but de cette thèse est d'établir des rapprochements entre Balzac l'écrivain et Daumier l'artiste qui indépendamment l'un de l'autre, ont sû utiliser cette maxime dans la création d'une "comédie humaine". Tout en reconnaissant qu'à certains moments, la littérature où la peinture à influence l'autre ou parfois s'est faite la complice de sa rivale, nous nous sommes néanmoins soumise à des procédés d'équivalence nécessaires au rapprochement d'arts interdisciplinaires. Nous avons également assemblé certains critères qui, pour nous, définissent une "caricature", qu'elle soit picturale ou scripturale. Les deux Honoré ont été tous deux, de grands caricaturistes. Nous pourrions apporter plusieurs théories pour expliquer le rapprochement entre les descriptions que chacun des Honoré donne de ses personnages dont la physionomie ou la démarche révèle ce qui se cache dans leur for intérieur. Notre étude nous a révèle qu'à l'arrière plan des images de Balzac et de Daumier, se dessine l'ombre de ces sciences à la mode, la Phrénologie et la Physiognomonie. Les deux Honoré en ont observé les codes pour esquisser leurs personnages. Nous avons monté un catalogue contenant des reproductions de lithographies de gravures et de peintures de Daumier qui ont servi au rapprochement des deux artistes. Ce volume accompagne notre thèse. Les illustrations viennent démontrer que la plupart des ressemblances entre les deux oeuvres se trouvent dans les types ou stéréotypes de la contemporanéité que les deux artistes ont réussi a étoffer pour en faire des représentants vraisemblables des tendances, des modes, des thèmes et des vices de leur siècle.