A partir d'une vingtaine de récits de vie de recherche auprès de patients en rémission d'un cancer, Virginie Poncelet tâche de répondre à la question suivante : la souffrance psychique joue-t-elle un rôle dans l'apparition d'un cancer ? L'auteur part de l'hyptohèse que le cancer est originé en première instance par des facteurs qui n'ont rien à voir avec la souffrance psychique mais que celle-ci créerait un terrain favorable au développement du cancer. Au fil des études de cas et du parcours d'auteurs ayant écarté un modèle hystérique (selon une grille de lecture symbolique) de compréhension de la maladie, elle construit progressivement un modèle qui puisse rendre compte du type et de la part de souffrance psychique impliquée dans l'apparition d'un cancer. Les sentiments d'inexistence et d'abandon, dans un contexte de rupture(s) ou d'impasse(s) existentielle(s), couplé à un sentiment d'impuissance ou à un état d'épuisement semblent jouer un rôle primordial dans la survenue d'un état dépressif explicite ou latent qui met alors à mal les régulations habituelles de l'organisme et laisse surgir la maladie dans un endroit fragilisé de l'organisme. / From some twenty people research life stories of patients in remission of cancer, Virginie Poncelet attempts to answer the following question : does psychic suffering play a part in cancer appearance ? The author starts from the hypothesis that the origin of cancer is in first place due to factors which have nothing to do with psychic suffering but this would create a propitious ground to cancer development. Along with the case studies et the course of authors who set aside un hysterical model (from a symbolical pattern) of disease comprehension, she constructs progressively a pattern which can give an account of type and part of psychic suffering involved in cancer appearance. Feelings of non-existence and giving up, in a context of existential(s) rupture(s) or impasse, along with a helplessness feeling or a state of exhaustion may play an important part in the advent of depressive state, explicit or latent, which then harms the usual regulations of organism and let rise disease in a fragilized place of organism.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Graduate Theological Union, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 269-273). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (M.A.)--York University, 2003. Graduate Programme in Psychology. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 93-101). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/yorku/fullcit?pMQ86319

Numbers convey different meanings when used in different contexts (Wiese, 2003). In a cardinal context, a number will tell us how many entities are in a set and convey quantity meaning. In an ordinal context, a number will refer to the relative position (or rank) of one element within a sequence; non-numerical ordered series (e.g. the letters of the alphabet) can also be used to provide meaningful order information. Because quantity and order are linked up with each other in the cognitive number domain (the larger the quantity a number refers to, the later it is located in the conventional number sequence), the question of whether they rely on some common or distinct underlying mechanism(s) is theoretically relevant and was addressed in the present thesis. Experimental studies showed evidence of both similarities (similar distance and SNARC effects, recruitment of parietal and frontal regions, and conjoint impairment or preservation after brain damage) and dissociations (different developmental course, dissociation after cerebral lesion, and specific behavioural markers) between quantity and order neuro-functional processes. The aim of the present thesis was to clarify the relationship between numerical quantity and order processing and to test the hypothesis that they rely on (at least partially) dissociated mechanisms. We tested this hypothesis in a single case study, an electrophysiological study and in two behavioural experiments. In the neuropsychological study, we reported the case of patient CO, who showed Gerstmann syndrome after bilateral parietal damage and became unable to process sequence order relations (e.g. he couldn't recite the number sequence backwards, nor decide whether a number, letter, day or month comes before or after a given target in the corresponding sequence, and he was unable to verify the order of items in a pair). Nonetheless, the patient had largely preserved quantity processing abilities (he could compare numbers and dot patterns to find the smaller or larger, and showed a standard distance effect, he could produce a number smaller or larger than a given target, and match dot patterns with Arabic numerals). Overall, CO's pattern of performance was interpreted as reflecting the involvement of different mechanisms when processing quantity or sequence order relations. Our electrophysiological study corroborated this finding since different spatio-temporal patterns of the distance effect were observed when subjects had to process numbers in a quantity comparison task or in an order judgment task. Quantity processing elicited an early distance effect over the P2p component on left parietal sites, whereas the distance effect was slightly delayed and bilaterally distributed in the numerical order judgment task; and this latter task additionally recruited prefrontal regions on a later (P3-counterpart) component. Finally, our behavioural study further emphasized the involvement of different mechanisms underlying the processing of quantity and numerical order and provided some evidence about the nature of these specific mechanisms. In the number comparison (quantity) task, the standard distance effect was proposed to reflect the involvement of a magnitude comparison mechanism; whereas the reverse distance effect observed in the numerical order verification task was taken as evidence for the recruitment of a serial search (recitation) process. Besides, the pair-order effect was also found to specifically affect order but not quantity judgments. Taken together, the data collected in the present thesis lend further support to the hypothesis that quantity and numerical order rely on distinct processing mechanisms that can be damaged selectively after cerebral lesions, that recruit similar brain areas but with a different spatio-temporal course and that show specific behavioural markers.

Three dimensions can be distinguished in a cross-linguistic account of information structure. First, there is the definition of the focus constituent, the part of the linguistic expression which is subject to some focus meaning. Second and third, there are the focus meanings and the array of structural devices that encode them. In a given language, the expression of focus is facilitated as well as constrained by the grammar within which the focus devices operate. The prevalence of focus ambiguity, the structural inability to make focus distinctions, will thus vary across languages, and within a language, across focus meanings.

Die vorliegende Dissertation widmet sich dem Thema Synonymie im besonderen Fall der phraseologischen Einheiten. Es handelt sich um eine korpusbasierte, empirische Untersuchung, die sich insbesondere mit der Frage beschäftigt, ob und inwiefern es möglich ist, sich typisch semantischen Kategorien wie Bedeutung, Idiomatizität, Bildlichkeit etc. über die Untersuchung typischer Verwendungsmuster zu nähern. Diese Themenstellung motiviert sich aus bisher in der linguistischen Literatur strittigen grundsätzlichen Aspekten der Diskussion um Bedeutung und Synonymie: Sie ist zum einen als Beitrag zum besseren Verständnis des Verhältnisses zwischen Verwendungsdaten und Bedeutung sowie zum Status traditioneller wörterbuchähnlicher Bedeutungsangaben innerhalb einer gebrauchsbasierten Semantik gedacht: Zum anderen geht es darum, detaillierte Erkenntnisse über die Übertragbarkeit des Konzepts Synonymie von Einzellexemen auf phraseologische Einheiten zu gewinnen. Unter der Annahme, dass menschliches Lernen bzw. Erschließen von Bedeutung primär empirisch funktioniert, ist die Analyse der Breite der Varianz des tatsächlichen kontextuellen Verhaltens phraseologischer Einheiten bei gleicher oder ähnlicher Bedeutung dazu geeignet, detaillierte Erkenntnisse über die Korrelation zwischen Bedeutungs- und Verwendungsaspekten sowie über den Einfluss phraseologiespezifischer Eigenschaften zu gewinnen. Ausgangspunkt der Untersuchung ist eine Gruppe phraseologischer Einheiten, die in Wörterbüchern als bedeutungsähnlich bzw. synonym klassifiziert werden. Unter diesen phraseologischen Einheiten finden sich Ausdrücke unterschiedlicher Bildlichkeit, Idiomatizität und morphosyntaktischer Struktur, von denen einige aus mehreren Inhaltswörtern bestehen, wie etwa jmd. schüttelt etw. aus dem Ärmel, jmd. hat etw. mit der Muttermilch eingesogen und jmd. weiß Bescheid, während andere lediglich Verbindungen eines Inhaltswortes mit einem oder mehreren Funktionswörtern und dem Verb haben oder sein darstellen. Zur letzteren Gruppe gehören unter anderem Ausdrücke wie jmd. hat das Zeug zu etw., jmd. ist auf Zack und jmd. ist vom Fach. Diese Heterogenität der zu untersuchenden Ausdrücke bezüglich ihres phraseologischen Status macht sie zu einem geeigneten Gegenstand der differenzierten Betrachtung der Rolle phraseologiespezifischer Eigenschaften für die Beschreibung von Bedeutung und Synonymie. Die Untersuchung besteht im ersten Schritt in einer detaillierten Annotation aller Vorkommenskontexte der phraseologischen Einheiten im Korpus des DWDS (Berlin-Brandeburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften, www.dwds.de) auf Basis einer Reihe vordefinierter Analysekriterien. Aus dieser Annotation wird in einem zweiten Schritt eine Beschreibung der typischen Verwendungsmerkmale jeder einzelnen lexikalischen Einheit gewonnen. Gleichzeitig enstehen nach einer festgelegten Methode Bedeutungsbeschreibungen in Form von Paraphrasen, die auf elementare Bedeutungsbestandteile reduziert werden. Diese Bedeutungs- und Verwendungsbeschreibungen der untersuchten phraseologschen Einheiten bilden die Basis für den dritten Teil der Arbeit, in der die beiden Beschreibungsebenen aufeinander bezogen werden. Im Ergebnis zeigt die Arbeit, dass a) Zwischen Verwendung und Bedeutung lexikalischer (phraseologischer) Einheiten identifizierbare systematische Korrelationen bestehen, die einen datenzentrierten Zugang zur Untersuchung und Beschreibung lexikalischer Semantik ermöglichen. b) Innerhalb einer Gruppe von Synonymen so wie auch innerhalb einer erweiterten Menge quasisynonymer Ausdrücke jedem einzelnen Element ein eigener Platz zukommt, der dieses Element von allen anderen Elementen unterscheidet. c) Die Verwendungsdaten einer phraseologischen Einheit positive Evidenz für den individuellen Grad der Relevanz der Merkmale Festigkeit, Idiomatizität und Motiviertheit einer phraseologischen Einheit liefern. / The present Ph.D.-dissertation addresses the subject of synonymy in the special case on Multi-Word Expressions. As a corpus-based, empirical study, it focusses around the question if and how it is possible to approach semantic categories such as meaning, idiomaticity and metaphoricity by analysing the characteristic usage patterns of a lexical unit. The study is driven by basic unresolved issues in the linguistic discussion on meaning and synonymy: On the one hand, it contributes to a better understanding of the relationship between usage data and meaning as well as on the status of traditional dictionary-like definitions in empirical semantics. On the other hand, it provides detailed insights on the applicability of the linguistc concept of synonymy - as it has been discussed for single lexemes – to lexicalized Multi-Word Expressions. On the basis of the assumption that human learning and grasping of meaning is a basically empirical process, the analysis of the variability of contextual behaviour of Multi-Word Expressions with identical or similar meaning constitutes a suitable way of gaining insights on the correlation between meaning and use as well as on the influence of specific properties of Multi-Word Expressions. The study starts out from a group of phraseological units that have been classified as synonymous in German phraseological dictionaries. These expressions differ their degree of idiomaticity, metaphoricity and morphosyntactic structure. Some of them – e.g. 'jmd. schüttelt etw. aus dem Ärmel' or 'jmd. hat etw. mit der Muttermilch eingesogen' (sb. does sth. with great ease) - comprise several content words whereas others are composed of only one content word together with one or more function words and the verb 'haven' (have) or 'sein' (be) – as it is the case for 'jmd. ist auf Zack', jmd. hat das Zeug zu etw.' and 'jmd. ist vom Fach' (sb. is able/competent in sth.). Their heterogeneity makes them a very good starting point for the research on the role played by phraseology-specific properties for meaning and synonymy. As a first step, the author realizes a detailed annotation of all occurrences of the these Multi-Word Expressions in the corpus of the DWDS (Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and the Humanities, www.dwds.de), using a series of predefined analysis criteria. From this analysis, she gains a description of their typical usage traits. In parallel, a neatly defined methodology leads to a set of meaning descriptions on the basis of dictionary paraphrases that are reduced to their elementary meaning components. In the last part of the study., these meaning and usage descriptions are then correlated yielding the following conclusions: a) Between meaning descriptions and usage patterns, systematic correlations can be devised that allow a data-driven approach to the semantics of lexical units. b)Within a group of synonyms, each element has its unique place, determined by its characteristic usage patterns. c) The usage data of a multi-word unit provide positive evidence forrr the degree of idiomaticity, morphosyntactic stability and metaphoricity of the expression.

Humorvolle kleine Geschichte um einen naiven Bauern, der sich in der Stadt ein bisschen wichtig machen, „dick doon“ will und den sein Plattdeutsch dazu verleitet, den Begriff „Subrektor“ falsch zu verstehen.

The perpetual evolution of the value of heritage in urban development is producing newsocio-spatial realities, shaped by different relationships of power at multiple scales.Heritage has always played an important role in the construction of individual andgroup identities, but is now increasingly seen as a capital for the making of cityidentity. Although professional heritage practices have attempted to embrace a similaror parallel vision, they are likely to overlook how interventions in heritage challengeidentity, meaning and sense of place. This thesis employs methods of discursiveanalysis to investigate the evolution and the appropriation of heritage in three sociopoliticalcontexts: Botswana, a post-colonial society; Palestine, an occupied society;and Sweden, a developed Western society. It also uncovers the ways authority is put towork through the discursive field of heritage in historic environments.Heritage in Palestine under the rule of the Ottoman Empire, British Mandate, and theIsraeli Occupation has been engulfed by both armed and discursive struggles overhistory, identity, and superiority. Narratives of the ‘Holy Land’ in addition to thepressures of the occupation forces and international interventions have shaped currentheritage practices in the Historic City of Nablus. In Botswana, Western planning ideashave been promoted in both the colonial and post-colonial eras, with little attention tolocal culture. The socio-spatial realities this produces have divorced the Batswana fromthe familiar and played an authoritarian role in defining valuable heritage in thedevelopment of Shoshong village and Sowa town. Heritage in the town of Ystad,Sweden, has since the late nineteenth century been regulated and legitimized through aconsistent inscription of a medieval identity on the town landscape, overlooking socialand spatial consequences.These findings are presented in four papers that each addresses a specific aspect ofheritage in urban development. An introductory monograph links the articles,developing theoretical analyses on how heritage-authority relations. This discussiongoes beyond direct practices of authority in management of physical heritage. Instead,it uncovers how heritage is utilised to gain and reinforce authority over identity politicsin historic environments. It also sheds light on how discursive struggles over meaningin the three cases are influenced by a ‘universalized heritage discourse’. In thisdiscourse, heritage is perceived as physical things representing a specific version of thepast, framed by European values and controlled by professional expertise andconventional knowledge. This discourse is rooted in the ‘authorized heritage discourse’that emerged in Europe in the nineteenth century and disseminated globally throughinternational treaties on heritage. Situating site-specific interventions in their social,cultural, and political contexts would allow for productive dissonance, rather thannarrow mediations of competing views. The virtue of working with heritage in the faceof authority at different spatial scales is stressed as one way to build sufficient capacityin heritage practices, capacity that would allow individuals and social groups to freelynegotiate their identity against any intervention in their spaces of heritage. / Den ständigt pågående omvandlingen och utvecklingen av det kulturella arvetproducerar nya rumsliga villkor, formade av såväl intern socio-politisk dynamik somexterna krafter. Kulturarv har alltid spelat en central roll i individers och gruppersidentitetsskapande och uppfattas nu allt oftare även som ett kapital i konstruktionen avstäder och regioner. Dock saknar kulturarvspraktikerna ofta förståelse för de sociopolitiskakonsekvenserna och kan därmed inte på ett medvetet sätt hantera dessaaspekter. Denna avhandling undersöker utvecklingen av det kulturella arvet och dessinverkan i tre socio-politiska kontexter: Botswana, ett postkolonialt samhälle; Palestina,ett ockuperat samhälle; och Sverige, ett västerländskt samhälle. En analys av lokalainterventioner i de tre områdena visar hur auktoritet kommer till uttryck genomdiskurser om kulturarvet i historiska miljöer.I Palestina har - under det ottomanska styret, det brittiska mandatet och den israeliskaockupationen - det kulturella arvet utgjort en arena kännetecknad av såväl militär somdiskursiv kamp för historia, identitet och makt. Så till exempel präglar narrativ om ’detheliga landet’ nutida praktiker kring kulturarv i den av historien präglade stadenNablus. I Botswana har västerländskt utvecklade idéer för stadsplanering praktiseratsunder både den koloniala och den postkoloniala eran, vilket formaturbaniseringsstrategier ofta utan hänsyn till lokal kultur. Den sociala och rumsligaverklighet som därigenom skapats har lett till en tilltagande distansering mellanBotswanierna och deras kulturarv. Detta fick avgörande konsekvenser vid definitionenav värdefullt kulturarv under utvecklingen av Shoshong village och Sowa town. IYstad har det kulturella arvet under sena nittonhundratalet reglerats och legitimeratsgenom framhållandet av en medeltida identitet, en identitet som starkt formatstadsmiljön men men vars sociala och rumsliga konsekvenser inte beaktats.Dessa resultat presenteras i fyra artiklar, som var och en lyfter en specifikfrågeställning kring kulturellt arv. I en ”kappa” kopplas artiklarna samman ochanalyseras särskilt med avseende på hur det kulturella arvet involveras iauktoritetsskapande,. Analysen visar att auktoritet kommer till uttryck genomdiskursiva praktiker kring kulturellt arv. Samtidigt som varje fall präglas av enkontextuell och situerad diskurs, påverkas alla av en ’universell kulturarvsdiskurs’.Inom ramen för denna universella diskurs uppfattas kulturarv som fysiska tingomgärdade av sociala och kulturella erfarenheter ofta kopplade till europeiskavärderingar, under kontroll av professionella experter och i linje med konventionellkunskap. Denna diskurs har sina rötter i den ’auktoriserade kulturarvsdiskursen’ somväxte fram i Europa under artonhundratalet och spred sig globalt genom internationellkultursamverkan. En av avhandlingens slutsatser är att en situering av platsspecifikainterventioner i sina komplexa sociala, kulturella och politiska kontexter kan erbjuda enför samhället produktiv dissonans, snarare än den begränsning som oundvikligen blirföljden av ambitionen att snabbt komma fram till konsensus. Genom att synliggöra hurauktoritet kommer till uttryck genom kulturarvets olika rumsliga nivåer, kan en ökadkapacitet och förståelse för socio-politiska aspekter också byggas upp ikulturarvspraktiken. / QC 20120424

The main purpose of this thesis is to describe and analyse how museum visitors engage with and make meaning from what is being offered to them in terms of the various resources made available in two exhibitions. Yet another purpose is to describe and analyse the design of these exhibitions. The empirical data stems from observational studies at the Museum of National Antiquities in Stockholm, and includes the investigation of two exhibitions: Prehistories I and II. Eight ‘visiting pairs’ were videotaped and the tapes were multimodally transcribed and analysed. Data also includes digital photos and maps produced by the visitors. In a comparative analysis, descriptions of the exhibitions and their analysis and the visitor study are discussed in relation to earlier research and to the issue of learning. A design-oriented and multimodal perspective on learning is used as a theoretical and methodological framework. The different visits are compared and the visitors’ responses are discussed as different forms of engagement. The results are interpreted within an institutional perspective connected to contemporary discourses within museum studies. The exhibitions are considered as an expression of the museums’ ambition to adjust to a pressure for change. Both exhibitions are, in a greater or less degree, considered as examples of ‘new’ exhibitions in that they rhetorically put forward visitors’ participation, cultural rights, post colonial perspectives and immaterial aspects of cultural heritage. The study presents learning as a social and sign-making activity. It stress how meaning-making and learning happens as a transformation in several steps. As visitors engage in different semiotic resources in the exhibitions’ design, they form new signs through their representations – as a ‘re-design’ of the exhibition – which in turn give them new possibilities for making meaning. / Museet, utställningen, besökaren. Meningsskapande på en ny arena för lärande och kommunikation

<p>The primary objective of this study was to gain an understanding of the impact of psychological empowerment and job satisfaction on organizational commitment amongst employees in a multi-national organization. For the purpose of this study a quantitative, non-probability convenience sampling design was used to assess the three variables. The sample consisted of (N = 120) permanent employees were employed in the following departments namely: Administration, Engineering, Production, Quality and Commercial.</p>