The study reported here originated in my therapeutic work with children at risk and my search for a therapeutic approach which would help them develop the inner strength to cope with their difficulties. The concept of ‘meaning in life' as a source of strength has been extensively and richly studied among older age groups, both with respect to the different personal meanings which everyone finds in their life and with respect to the effect on one's life of possessing a sense of 'meaning in life', but it has been neglected almost entirely among children. As a result, the aim of this research was to further knowledge about the concept of 'meaning in life' for children. Due to the paucity of research with children regarding this issue, it was needed to first establish that meaning in life was at all a relevant and researchable concept for children. Consequently, the primary research questions were as follows: Does the concept of ‘meaning in life' have relevance for children? Relatedly, what are the (dis)connections between children's understandings of their own lives, and what matters to them, and, the adult concept of ‘meaning in life? To examine these over-arching questions, the following four sub-questions were devised: - What do children think are the most important and meaningful things in their lives? - What do children think is the best way to live life? - What nature of goals and purpose do children have for their lives and do they believe that they have character traits and strengths which would help them to fulfil their goals/purpose? - How do children's individuality and the differences between them show themselves in their perspectives on meaning in life? To what extent is gender associated with variations in response? The research adopted a Constructivist-Phenomenological approach, with the aim of getting as close as possible to the children's own perceptions and experience of their world. Thirty eight-year-old children in their third year at two primary schools in different neighbourhoods of the same central Israeli city were interviewed using semi-structured interviews. This data collection approach was complemented by two creative elements: a short semi-humorous story told at the start to set the tone of the interview, and a picture drawn at the end of the interview by the children to illustrate what was important in their life. Some interviews were carried out individually and some as a group. The data analysis method chosen was Smith's (1996) and Smith and Osborn's (2008) Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). This thesis makes two original contributions to knowledge. The first is the discovery that meaning in life is as pertinent a concept among children as it is among adults. Children may not understand the concept of 'meaning in life' in as full a way as an adult might, but they do have clear and well-shaped opinions about the most important things in their lives (e.g. family and friends) and how they should best live (e.g. by helping others and living in peace). They have goals and plans for the future (e.g. Ambitions to become a pilot or teacher) and they believe that they have traits and strengths that will help them in reaching their goals (e.g. that being wise, kind or curious will help them in life). The second important contribution is methodological: the research technics developed in this study (the semi-structured interview enriched by story-telling and picture-drawing) has provided what appears to be a reliable way of generating valid responses from the participants. It could be used by researchers in the future to further understanding about how children perceive the notion of meaning in life.

<p>The aim of this study has been to analyse metaphorical strings which have been interpreted literally, a process referred to as metaphor reversal. This was first described by Löflund (1999:18) and the specific term was later coined by Alm-Arvius (2006:6). Metaphor reversal is basically a subcategory of the broader term polysemy punning.</p><p>When a metaphor unexpectedly is interpreted literally, a humorous effect takes place and a pun is created. Especially if the metaphorisation in question has an entrenched figurative meaning, the unexpectedness of the literal interpretation is greater and the pun more obvious. The examples of these puns exploiting metaphor reversal have been taken from films featuring the verbal comedian Groucho Marx (GM), who frequently used this type and other kinds of puns in his films.</p><p>The terms internal and external metaphor, coined by Alm-Arvius (2003:78), have been used in order to distinguish between two different types of metaphorisations. Internal metaphor refers to metaphors with obvious internal collocational clashes and external metaphor refers to metaphors without such clashes, which can thus be given a literal as well as a figurative reading. However, this is not a clear-cut distinction and occasional overlapping between the two categories is common. Therefore, a continuum has been given which shows the overlapping category ‘more figurative external metaphors’. These are metaphors without collocational clashes, but with entrenched figurative meanings which make them metaphorical and not literal.</p><p>GM does not only revert external metaphors; he also reverts internal metaphors although this category contains collocational clashes which should make a literal interpretation impossible. Internal metaphor puns tend to be more absurd than external metaphor puns due to the collocational clashes which make the literal interpretation less probable. Reverted external metaphors are referred to as REM and reverted internal metaphors as RIM.</p><p>Most examples analysed are metaphorisations with idiom status with clearly preferred figurative meanings. Consequently, their figurative meanings are deeply entrenched and should not be altered. However, these figurative meanings are altered by GM in his punning; they are reverted and interpreted literally. This indicates that one of the few occasions when it is accepted or even possible to interpret a metaphorical idiom literally is in punning.</p>

The aim of this study was to examine self-harming women’s own experiences. To try and raise understanding and awareness about how they themselves create their identity and meaning round the self-harming behaviour. Our three questions were; how do the young women conceive society’s reactions on their self-harming behaviour? Do the young women express an imposed or self-elected alienation? If so, in what way? In what way do the young self-harming women construe their own identity in relation to the self-harming behaviour? We have used a narrative approach when we have examined the blogs as life stories in the sense that all our lives and everything in them is a story by definition. We have examined the parts of the blogs we selected as whole units to begin with, we separated the different parts from each other first when we were familiar with the material. The analysis then had an interpersonal aim to find out the function and relation in what was written. That does not exclude the use of both form analysis or the analysis of content with we also have used side by side throughout our analysis.    Our results show that this subject matter has several layers and so is a complex area that would benefit from more research with the young women´s perspective at hand. The young women describe several interesting interpretations on how their society comprehends them. They often feel judged and have to struggle with deciding if and when to show who they really are, both in regards to their bodies and inner self’s. This stigmatisation is apparent throughout all of our material. The young women also express that they feel forced into roles that they on the one hand have chosen but on the other hand don’t want to stay in. The women also express a desire to belong in the normal society like an equal. In addition the women express that they construct their identity both within themselves to make sense of their chaotic emotions, but they also experience that their society is a big part in their identity making process. Society’s expectations on them force them to take one of a few available routes in their identity making. In our results a few of these are visible the two most apparent is a dichotomy between victim and antagonist, these two positions don’t appear separately but is often visible in the same segments of the texts.

Science centres have been identified as an important resource in encouraging teenagers to choose higher education in science and technology. This is of interest to society, since there seems to be a problem in getting sufficient numbers to do so. And accomplishing this is sometimes described as a fatal question for a nation’s future prosperity and development. Still, there is an international trend where teenagers fail to visit science centres.   Through research, little is known about what is interesting or useful to the public, as well as how to reach those who are ‘unengaged’. Considering teenagers as exponents for what distinguishes today’s society makes their apparent unwillingness to participate in science centres interesting to study with regards to what culture, history and ideology these centres were initially produced. Hence, from this point of view, what is missing in science centres that would make them interesting for the young people of today?   Many studies of learning in science centres have come to focus on visitors who visit voluntarily and how well the embedded messages in the exhibits have been acknowledged by these visitors. This study focuses instead on teenagers who are reluctant to participate in science centres, with their perspective of science centres as the point of departure, specifically what kind of social activities are formed in their encounters with science centre exhibits. This encounter is regarded as an encounter between the two different practices of the science centre and the teenagers. The applied theoretical perspective is mainly assembled from socio-cultural theories of learning.   This research is a microanalytic study of five teenagers who were equipped with video cameras and asked to film a visit to the local science centre, Teknikens Hus. The films were later discussed in a focus-group interview consisting of the teenagers and the researcher. Visual ethnography provided the theoretical framework for this research design.   The results showed that the teenagers want to use exhibits to have the authority of interpretations and the possibilities to contribute to the meaning of the activity. At the same time, they want to use the exhibits in a way that the activities become places for developing social identity. To negotiate the meaning of the exhibits there is a need for an openness that may be constrained by too inflexible and limiting exhibit designs. This pattern is described as two different forms of participation in the exhibits; ignoring or extending the intended meaning of the exhibits. Meaningfulness also demands a closeness created by connections between the exhibit and the user’s personal experiences. This pattern is described as two different ways in which the teenagers identified the exhibits; exhibits which they dissociated from or to which they had an ongoing relationship. Providing a space for negotiation seems crucial to inviting teenagers into opportunities of meaningful experiences, even more significant than any specific physical feature in the exhibit.   The teenagers’ agenda, in which forming practices where they can express themselves and contribute to the meaning seem to be very important, appears not to be greatly enabled by science centre exhibits. In this situation they learn to not participate. Science and technology represented in this matter show a ‘ready-made’ world that they cannot change. The missing link in learning in science centres is here described as the part of the meaning making process where the teenagers get to re-negotiate the meaning of the activities in the centre and use the exhibits as tools to accomplish this.

This experimental study investigates the connotative meaning of the concept “cash”, as it relates to the cash flow statement, held by the three key parties to the accounting communication process: preparers, auditors and users. Concerns raised in the accounting profession regarding the susceptibility of the cash flow statement to manipulation, coupled with the recent introduction of NZ IAS 7 (cash flow statement) provide the motivation for investigating the potential for miscommunication (either intentional or unintentional) between the main parties to the financial reporting process. The study investigates inter and intra group differences in measured connotative meaning of the old and new definitions of “cash”, and determines the effect of connotative meaning on decision outcomes. Further, the study considers the overall quality of the two definitions, as perceived by the three financial reporting groups. Three key findings are indicated. The first is that the three financial reporting groups do not share the same cognitive structure in which the meaning of the concept “cash” is held. An important implication is that comparisons between the connotative meanings held by the three financial reporting groups cannot be validly made. Secondly, significant differences in the measured meaning were observed across the two definitions within each of the three subject groups. Thirdly, the decision outcomes for each of the three subject groups were significantly different under the two definitions. Also there was some evidence that the differences in the decision outcomes were linked to the differences in the measured connotative meaning. These results raised several concerns regarding the potential for miscommunication between the three key parties to the accounting communication process and highlighted the importance of standard-setters assessing the effect on connotative meaning of possible changes in wording to key concepts within the cash flow statement.

Creativity is highly sought after in our society, but that is far from obvious what is really meant by it. Many researchers in the field of creativity stress the lack of clarity, and it is described as a divided felt. The aim of this thesis is to clarify the meaning structure of the phenomenon of creativity, i.e. those distinguishing features that together form the experience of creativity.  The individual’s experience of creativity is studied in two different contexts, individually and in-group collaboration. The research object is adult people’s experience of creativity in its natural expression in the everyday world. Data have been collected from open interviews, and is constituted of descriptions of a particular situation when the participants experienced creativity. The results consist of the meaning structures for the phenomenon of being creative individually respectively in-group collaboration. In the analysis it has emerged that the creative process is both creating meaning and producing a product at the same time. The three main distinguishing features of the experience of creativity are: 1) an experienced discrepancy between the existing and the possible; 2) a special alertness that surfaces during the creating; 3) a progression which occurs under the process and cannot be completely ruled. The creative process includes thoughts, acts, feelings, body, material and communicative processes; and it results in new knowledge, a new approach, a change in emotion and new constituted gestalts. The experience of creativity individually and in-group collaboration is different, among other things, in that the later is more complex, and that the group makes extra efforts to deal with the higher complexity.

Title from second page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 114-120).

O presente estudo tem por objetivo analisar Colocações Lexicais Especializadas (CLEs) da Hemodinâmica que apresentam bases nominais, por meio da Teoria Sentido-Texto. CLEs são colocações (agrupamentos lexicais) típicas de linguagem especializada que contém em sua constituição uma unidade terminológica, que pode ou não ser a base, além de elementos chamados de colocados, que são especificadores ou caracterizadores da base. Colocados são sempre selecionados em função da base. Além disso, outra forte característica das CLEs é o seu caráter semicomposicional ou fortemente composicional. Assim, para realizar tal objetivo, metodologicamente, escolhemos selecionar 37 CLEs a partir de termos típicos do Vocabulário Panlatino de Hemodinâmica da Realiter. A fim de constatar que os termos escolhidos participavam de colocações ativas na área, recorremos a artigos científicos (pesquisados na plataforma SciELO). Os artigos serviram de fonte para extrairmos as provas textuais das CLEs analisadas e para a formulação das definições dessas CLEs A análise dos dados permitiu que identificássemos as seguintes características das CLEs da Hemodinâmica: (i) quanto à extensão dos elementos (CLEs têm de 2 a 5 elementos); (ii) sobre a característica dos termos que exerciam papel de base nas CLEs examinadas (constituíram núcleos cem por cento nominais); (iii) sobre as características do complemento da base (complementos adjetivais, a maioria, e preposicionais); (iv) quanto aos tipos de Funções Lexicais (FLs) (adjetivais aplicadas a bases com complemento adjetival, preposicionais aplicadas a bases com complemento preposicional); (v) quanto à complexidade da FL (uso apenas de FL simples); e, por fim, (vi) sobre a necessidade de acréscimo de informação à FLs standards (em todos os casos houve acréscimo de informações para completar o sentido da definição, isto é, lançamos mão de FLs não-standards). / This study aims to analyze Specialized Lexical Combinations (SLCs) of Hemodynamic, with nominal base, through Meaning-Text Theory. SLCs are typical collocations (lexical groups) of specialized language that contain in their constitution a terminological unit, which may or may not be a base, in addition to elements called collocatives which are specifiers or characterizers of the base. Collocatives are always selected as a function of the base. In addition, another strong feature of SLCs is your semicomposicional or strongly compositional character. Thus, to achieve this goal, methodologically, we selected the 37 SLCs from typical terms present in the ‘Vocabulário Planlatino de Hemodinâmica’ of Realiter. In order to verify that the chosen terms participate in active placements in the area, we resorted to scientific articles from SciELO platform. The articles served as a source for extracting textual evidence for SLCs and formulating the definitions of SLCs. The analysis of the admissible data identifies the following characteristics of Hemodynamic SLCs: (i) the extension of the elements; (ii) the feature of terms that play the hole of base in the SLCs examined; (iii) the characteristics of the base complement; (iv) the types of Lexical Functions applied in the SLCs; (v) the complexity of LFs applied; and finally (vi) the necessity to increase information in the LFs standard (in all cases, there was added information to complete the meaning of the definition, we applied non-standard LFs).

O presente estudo tem por objetivo analisar Colocações Lexicais Especializadas (CLEs) da Hemodinâmica que apresentam bases nominais, por meio da Teoria Sentido-Texto. CLEs são colocações (agrupamentos lexicais) típicas de linguagem especializada que contém em sua constituição uma unidade terminológica, que pode ou não ser a base, além de elementos chamados de colocados, que são especificadores ou caracterizadores da base. Colocados são sempre selecionados em função da base. Além disso, outra forte característica das CLEs é o seu caráter semicomposicional ou fortemente composicional. Assim, para realizar tal objetivo, metodologicamente, escolhemos selecionar 37 CLEs a partir de termos típicos do Vocabulário Panlatino de Hemodinâmica da Realiter. A fim de constatar que os termos escolhidos participavam de colocações ativas na área, recorremos a artigos científicos (pesquisados na plataforma SciELO). Os artigos serviram de fonte para extrairmos as provas textuais das CLEs analisadas e para a formulação das definições dessas CLEs A análise dos dados permitiu que identificássemos as seguintes características das CLEs da Hemodinâmica: (i) quanto à extensão dos elementos (CLEs têm de 2 a 5 elementos); (ii) sobre a característica dos termos que exerciam papel de base nas CLEs examinadas (constituíram núcleos cem por cento nominais); (iii) sobre as características do complemento da base (complementos adjetivais, a maioria, e preposicionais); (iv) quanto aos tipos de Funções Lexicais (FLs) (adjetivais aplicadas a bases com complemento adjetival, preposicionais aplicadas a bases com complemento preposicional); (v) quanto à complexidade da FL (uso apenas de FL simples); e, por fim, (vi) sobre a necessidade de acréscimo de informação à FLs standards (em todos os casos houve acréscimo de informações para completar o sentido da definição, isto é, lançamos mão de FLs não-standards). / This study aims to analyze Specialized Lexical Combinations (SLCs) of Hemodynamic, with nominal base, through Meaning-Text Theory. SLCs are typical collocations (lexical groups) of specialized language that contain in their constitution a terminological unit, which may or may not be a base, in addition to elements called collocatives which are specifiers or characterizers of the base. Collocatives are always selected as a function of the base. In addition, another strong feature of SLCs is your semicomposicional or strongly compositional character. Thus, to achieve this goal, methodologically, we selected the 37 SLCs from typical terms present in the ‘Vocabulário Planlatino de Hemodinâmica’ of Realiter. In order to verify that the chosen terms participate in active placements in the area, we resorted to scientific articles from SciELO platform. The articles served as a source for extracting textual evidence for SLCs and formulating the definitions of SLCs. The analysis of the admissible data identifies the following characteristics of Hemodynamic SLCs: (i) the extension of the elements; (ii) the feature of terms that play the hole of base in the SLCs examined; (iii) the characteristics of the base complement; (iv) the types of Lexical Functions applied in the SLCs; (v) the complexity of LFs applied; and finally (vi) the necessity to increase information in the LFs standard (in all cases, there was added information to complete the meaning of the definition, we applied non-standard LFs).

Made available in DSpace on 2015-04-11T13:59:18Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Apresentacao dissertacao.pdf: 5260924 bytes, checksum: ffe748a1167503604f02e334e8389200 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-10-14 / Stimulation Program of Essential city of Manaus." The overall objective of the study was to identify the particular sense that mothers give to their disabled children, including the process of construction of such meanings and implications of the development of children. The central idea of the work came from the understanding of the senses / meanings that disability takes for the mother and the emotional charge linked to it. From these identifications sought to understand the conceptual network that revolves around the new demands of the family to deal with children with disabilities, especially the mother-infant dyad and triad same mother - infant - father while he is in the formation family. Was sought in the words of the mothers interviewed, elements that could actually help better ties with this "new" child, as the theoretical approaches and seeking the adjustment in all possible spheres, emotional, social, physical, cognitive. The research has a qualitative design and how the theoretical approach chosen by the Socio-Historical Psychology and the contributions of Vygotsky as the thoughts of the authors, the theoretical constructs and methodological attuned with the proposed objectives for the research and the functioning of the selected group. This research was conducted with five mothers of handicapped children (cerebral palsy) which makes use of Essential Stimulation Program at an institution of Special Education in the city of Manaus specializes in providing educational services and multidisciplinary and that among its activities the Group offers Stimulation Essential. The subjects who took part in the survey were chosen from the selection of a purposive sample. For data collection was chosen by the history of life, as this constitutes a retrospective account of the personal experience of an individual and refers to facts and events that were constitutive and significant experiences of the subject. For data analysis, we chose to seize the constitution of meaning through the identification of Centers for Meaning. The results showed that most respondents did not plan the pregnancy, had great pain in childbirth, there was a reception by the medical staff in labor and very little at the time of diagnosis, showing the unpreparedness of the team in deal with situations such as a difficult birth and the need to communicate the deficiency, causes, consequences and necessary guidance to mothers. As indicated by the literature on the subject is clearly realized the steps experienced by these mothers, who goes from crying and despair to acceptance and found that there actually is a pseudo acceptance of disability that child. There is no denying the love that these mothers have for their children, but this understanding refers to the disability itself, this perception has been possible through the words of denial of disability and constant duality normal / special in his speeches. It was also found that these women have taken to themselves the responsibility of taking care of the child and see it as a lifelong responsibility, forgetting that that person will grow and may have some degree of independence and this perception causes us concern because, by not allowing the independence that individual will be preventing him from developing by not offering him the necessary stimulating opportunities. We conclude with certainty that the study does not end here and that further research is needed to complement the knowledge produced here. / O trabalho investigou O sentido da deficiência para as mães de um grupo de crianças de um Programa de Estimulação Essencial da cidade de Manaus . O objetivo geral do trabalho consistiu em identificar o sentido particular que as mães atribuem à deficiência de seus filhos, compreendendo o processo de construção de tais sentidos e as possíveis implicações destes no desenvolvimento das crianças. A idéia central do trabalho partiu da compreensão dos sentidos /significados que a deficiência adquire para essa mãe e a carga emocional a ela atrelada. A partir dessas identificações buscou-se compreender a rede conceitual que gira em torno das novas demandas da família para lidar com a criança com deficiencia, principalmente da díade mãe-bebê e mesmo da tríade mãe bebê pai, quando este for presente na constituição familiar. Buscou-se nas falas das mães entrevistadas, elementos que de fato pudessem ajudar a melhor vinculação com essa nova criança, conforme aborda o referencial teórico e buscando o ajustamento em todas as esferas possíveis, afetiva, social, física, cognitiva. A pesquisa possui um delineamento qualitativo e como abordagem teórica optou-se pela Psicologia Sócio- Histórica e pelas contribuições de Vigotsky uma vez que os pensamentos dos autores, os constructos teóricos e metodológicos se afinam com os objetivos propostos para a pesquisa e com o funcionamento do grupo escolhido. Tal investigação foi realizada com cinco mães de crianças especiais (Paralisia Cerebral) as quais fazem uso do Programa de Estimulação Essencial em uma instituição de Educação Especial na cidade de Manaus especializada na prestação de serviços educacionais e multiprofissionais e que dentre as suas atividades oferece o Grupo de Estimulação Essencial. Os sujeitos que fizeram parte da pesquisa foram escolhidos a partir da seleção de uma amostra intencional. Para coleta de dados optou-se pela história de vida, pois esta se constitui em um relato retrospectivo da experiência pessoal de um indivíduo e que se refere a fatos e acontecimentos que foram constitutivos e significativos das experiências vividas pelo sujeito. Para a análise dos dados, optou-se pela apreensão da constituição de sentidos a partir da identificação de Núcleos de Significação. Como resultados verificou-se que a maioria das entrevistadas não planejaram a gravidez, apresentaram grande sofrimento na hora do parto, não houve um acolhimento por parte da equipe médica na hora do parto e muito pouco na hora do diagnóstico, mostrando o despreparo da equipe em lidar com situações como um parto difícil e a necessidade de comunicar a deficiência, as causas, seqüelas e orientações necessárias às mães. Como aponta a literatura sobre o tema percebeu-se claramente as etapas vivenciadas por essas mães que vai desde o choro e o desespero até a aceitação e verificou-se que há na verdade, há uma pseudo aceitação da deficiência desse filho. É inegável o amor que essas mães têm por seus filhos, mas tal entendimento refere-se à deficiência em si, tendo sido possível esta percepção através das falas de negação da deficiência e da constante dualidade normal/especial em seus discursos. Constatou-se também que essas mulheres assumiram para si as responsabilidades do cuidado do filho e encaram isso como uma responsabilidade vitalícia, esquecendo que tal indivíduo crescerá e poderá ter determinado grau de independência e essa percepção nos causa preocupação, pois, ao não permitir a independência desse indivíduo estar-se-á impedindo-o de se desenvolver ao não oferecer a ele as oportunidades estimuladoras necessárias. Conclui-se tendo a certeza de que o estudo não se encerra aqui e que outras pesquisas são necessárias para complementar os conhecimentos aqui produzidos.