Childhood sexual abuse is a prevalent but taboo topic in society. Conservatively 80,000 new cases are reported each year with many more either unreported or unsubstantiated within the legal system. Survivors of childhood sexual abuse often times seek counseling assistance to manage the variety of short- and long-term emotional issues that may arise as a result of their abuse. Professional counselors listen to the stories of the survivors and attempt to assist survivors in making sense of this horrific act of personal violence. This study examines the meaning-making experience of master's level professional mental health counselors who work with childhood sexual abuse survivors. A phenomenological qualitative research design was utilized to better understand the process that these counselors use to make sense of their work. Fifty participants were selected from a national data-base of professional mental health counselors who work with survivors. Telephone interviews were conducted with 10 participants. The study revealed that the stories of abuse had a profound impact on the counselors and that there was a significant evolution in how they felt about their work and the survivors they helped. The participants shared that a strong belief system and their theoretical orientation as counselors were essential in their meaning-making process. Other issues such as supervision and mentoring and the development of increased empathy proved to be important to the counselor's meaning-making process.

The aim of the present study was to investigate whether learning a meaningless phonological word-form, can affect its ability to compete with other words shortly after it was learned. According to previous experimental work we expected that a semantic referent (Leach & Samuel, 2007), and/or consolidation over a significant amount of time (Gaskell& Dumay, 2003) are necessary for a novel word-form to be able to engage in lateral inhibition with other words. In order to examine this we used the experimental design that was used by Dahan, Magnuson, Tanenhaus and Hogan (2001). Experiment 1 was a replication of the Dahan et al (2001) study. In Experiment 2 we added a condition in which a novel word was now assigned the role of the competitor, by inserting a nonword learning task (that was performed right before the Dahan task). The goal was to see whether any differences would arise between this new novel-word condition and the nonword condition. The results from Experiment 2 were inconclusive due to the stimulus set and this is why we conducted Experiment 3, which was similar to Experiment 2, but had a different stimulus set. The results of Experiment 3 showed that, in contrast to the predictions, a novel word can compete with other words, even if it does not have meaning and, moreover, this happens immediately after training. These findings indicate that 1) a word does not have to be complete (i.e. include semantic information) in order to compete with other words and 2) connections between novel and known words can form faster than what has been suggested.

This study sought for the importance and influence of visual text in Lifestyle magazines. The aim was to see the importance of visual text for middle-aged women as well as for the magazines. It also aimed to understand how the reading of these magazines can affect women´s daily life. In the search for these six lifestyle magazines; three Swedish, two Finnish and one Danish, were analysed. There were further six interviews conducted were the Swedish magazines also were shown. What is found is the similarities the magazines pose even though being from different countries. There are some patterns in the visuality that consists. What seemed to be most differently between the magazines was the depiction of women. In the Swedish magazines all women were smiling but for men it seemed optional. The Danish magazine followed this pattern to some extent while the Finnish magazines had full segments of women without even a trace of smile. The six women interviewed all had their reasons for reading lifestyle magazines. Mostly it was to pass time when needed. Although, when reading for fun there had to be some sort of interest in the text or subject to be read. Most important though was that there had to exist recognizability. The women wanted to relate and recognize themselves in the text. This way a meaning was ascribed to the reading. Furthermore, most of them did not reflect on how women were depicted. Still though, when asked all women could give an opinion on how the women in the magazines looked. What was interesting then was that they gave the same description only with different words.

L’objectif de cette thèse consiste à cerner les enjeux, les contraintes et les normes qui régissent le sous-titrage cinématographique en tant qu’opération traduisante. Cette recherche se fonde sur un corpus constitué de films français, dont des comédies (romantiques) particulièrement, qui ont été tout récemment distribués dans les salles chinoises. Dans un premier temps, nous essayons de mettre en évidence, suivant l’évolution des échanges cinématographiques entre la Chine et d’autres pays, plus spécifiquement la France, les enjeux qu’un pays avec sa politique, son idéologie propre, son économie, sa société et son peuple pose à l’introduction des films étrangers ainsi qu’à leur transfert linguistique en général et à leur sous-titrage en particulier. Dans un second temps, nous tentons de démontrer, à la lumière de la théorie interprétative, qu’à l’instar de toute opération traduisante, le sous-titrage est soumis aux mêmes étapes, à savoir la compréhension du sens original, sa déverbalisation, sa réexpression dans la langue-cible, et l’analyse justificative de la solution retenue. En même temps, nous ne tardons pas à signaler les contraintes auxquelles devrait obéir le sous-titrage, qualifié de traduction contrainte ainsi que leur impact sur l’équivalence du sens. N’étant qu’une introduction à d’autres travaux de recherche sur le sous-titrage, qui reste jusque-là plutôt une activité empirique, cette étude vise à susciter plus d’intérêts de la part de la communauté scientifique, qui pourrait sortir de la marginalisation cet immense champ transdisciplinaire. / The purpose of this thesis is to identify the challenges, constraints and norms that govern film captioning as a translating operation. This research is based on a corpus of French films, including (romantic) comedies, which have recently been distributed in Chinese cinemas. At first, we try to highlight, following the evolution of the cinematographic exchanges between China and other countries, more specifically France, the challenges that a country with its politics, its own ideology, its economy, his society and his people, sets for the introduction of foreign films as well as their linguistic transfer in general and their subtitling in particular. Secondly, we try to demonstrate, in the light of the interpretative theory, that, like any translating operation, subtitling is subjected to the same stages, namely the understanding of the original meaning, its deverbalisation, its re-expression in the target language, and the justifying analysis of the chosen solution. Meanwhile, we will point out the constraints to which subtitling should be subjected, described as constrained translation, as well as their impact on the equivalence of meaning.As an introduction to other research on subtitling, which until now has been mostly an empirical activity, this study aims to generate more interest from the scientific community, which could change the marginal status of this immense transdisciplinary field.

Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / Visual Art education, in an increasingly globalized visual world, is gaining significance for its contribution to the intuitive, critical and creative aspects of student learning and meaning-making. This awareness is foregrounded by a realization that tomorrow’s world will be increasingly dominated by the triumph of the image, multi-modal practices, technologies and visual culture. In this context, the development of an ethico-aesthetic disposition through visual contemporary communicative capacities might be regarded as essential to modern meaning-making. The research seeks to reveal the impact of studying Visual Art for the adolescent student and its value to them in terms of its contribution to their personal, social and cultural understandings beyond the classroom. This research represents a qualitative examination of a post-compulsory Visual Art curriculum in New South Wales, Australia that has shifted from a modernist perspective to a conceptual framework informed by contemporary art practices and by a Habermasian theory of communicative knowing. The research presents its findings in the form of, first a meta-analysis of a longitudinal study of the ARTEXPRESS exhibition spanning 15 years of student learning outcomes from the Visual Art curriculum and, second, a case study of 7 students who reflect on the value of the Visual Art learning to them beyond school. The study employs a critical hermeneutic phenomenological methodology, using image and text analysis as data. The methodology bridges traditional educational research methods with Visual Art practices by employing arts-inquiry as a qualitative research method. It uses the montage as a visual communicative platform informed by narrative perspectives to present the results. In the 21st century, educators, together with the entire world community, are growing in consciousness of the arts as a significant player in developing the attributes and skills that citizens will require in order to be effective participants of tomorrow’s rapidly evolving world. The public welfare benefits that accrue from the arts' intrinsic values are increasingly being seen to constitute a central role in generating wider benefits (McCarthy, Ondaatje, Zakaris & Brooks, 2004; National Review of Visual Education, 2006). Through analysis of ARTEXPRESS student artworks, reflective journals and interviews, the research identified that the skill of visual communicative proficiency links explicitly to the performative act as it emerges from each student’s desire and affectivity. In turn, this act is demonstrated to be beyond the knowledge of Visual Art cultural practices, being shaped by critique and power relationships in society. Self-portrait as narrative and subjectivity production were seen by the students as legitimate means of communicating meaning about self and other. The understanding of the logic of the relationships between visual technical activity, embodied material processes and conceptual understandings as contemporary communicative practices was valued by students and parents for its capacity to mediate societal and cultural values, as well as ethical practice and citizenship. Visual and performative communicative practice links identity, image and meaning. In this study these practices supported self-agency and the creative development of multiple, reflective returns. Visual artmaking is presented as supporting the development of creative possibilities. In turn, an understanding of the endless ways in which imaging and communicating can represent self, truth, reality and existence benefit the individual and society quite beyond the bounds of the traditional classroom.

Doctor of Philosophy / This thesis is concerned with the realm of the interpersonal: broadly, those linguistic phenomena involved in the negotiation of social relations and the expression of personal attitudes and feelings. The initial contention is that this realm has been consistently marginalised not only within linguistic theory, but more broadly within western culture, for cultural and ideological reasons whose implications extend into the bases of classical linguistic theory. Chapter 1 spells out the grounds for this contention and is followed by two further chapters, constituting Part I: Language and Social Relations. Chapter 2 identifies and critiques the range of ways in which the interpersonal has been conventionally interpreted: as style, as formality, as politeness, as power and solidarity, as the expressive, etc. This chapter concludes with an argument for the need for a stratified model of language in order to deal adequately with these phenomena. Chapter 3 proposes such a model, based on the systemic-functional approach to language as social semiotic. The register category tenor within this model is extended to provide a model of social relations as a semiotic system. The basis for the identification of the three tenor dimensions, power, distance and affect, is the identification of three modes of deployment or realisation of the interpersonal resources of English in everyday discourse: reciprocity, proliferation and amplification. Parts II and III turn their attention to one significant issue in the negotiation of social relations: address. The focus is explicitly on Australian English, but there is considerable evidence that most if not all of the forms discussed in Part II occur in other varieties of English, especially British and American, and that some at least of the practices discussed in Part III involve the same patterns of social relations with respect to the tenor dimensions of power, distance and affect. Because most varieties of contemporary English do not have a set of options for second-person pronominal address, as is the case in many of the world's languages, English speakers use names and other nominal forms which need to be described. Part II is descriptive in orientation, providing an account of the grammar of VOCATION in English, including a detailed description of the nominal forms used. Chapter 4 investigates the identification and functions of vocatives, and includes empirical investigations of vocative position in clauses and vocative incidence in relation to speech function or speech act choices. Chapter 5 presents an account of the grammar of English name forms, organised as a paradigmatic system. This chapter incorporates an account of the processes used to produce the various name-forms used in address, including truncation, reduplication and suffixation. Chapter 6 consists of an account of non-name forms of address, organised in terms of the systemic-functional account of nominal group structure. This chapter deals with single-word non-name forms of address and the range of nominal group structures used particularly to communicate attitude, both positive and negative. Part III is ethnographic in orientation. It describes some aspects of the use of the forms described in Part II in contemporary address practice in Australia and interprets such practice using the model of social relations as semiotic system presented in Part I. The major focuses of attention is on address practice in relation to the negotiation of gender relations, with some comment on generational relations of adults with children, on class relations and on ethnic relations in nation with a diverse population officially committed to a policy of a multiculturalism. Part III functions simultaneously as a coda for this thesis, and a prologue for the kind of ethnographic study that the project was originally intended to be, but which could not be conducted in the absence of an adequate linguistically-based model of social relations and an adequate description of the resources available for address in English.

This phenomenological study of the meaning of home from the perspectives of people with and without an intellectual disability sought to identify, (a) any common ‘essence’ of meaning held by and, (b) the nature of any differences of perception between, the groups. Purposive samples of 18 people with an intellectual disability and 21 non-disabled people were surveyed using a semi-structured interview to ascertain their experiences of home and 'non-homes'. Inductive analysis of the data revealed a shared understanding of the meaning of home at a fundamental level. This shared meaning of home was found to comprise: the ability to exert control over an area; having a personalised space; feeling content with the living situation; a sense of familiarity with the setting; a set of behaviours and routines usually only enacted when at home; common names and uses for rooms; socialising at home with others; the importance of a positive social atmosphere in the home; and, recognition of places as non-homes because they lacked one or more of these attributes. Further analysis revealed the essence of home is its experience as the place where stress is most reduced or minimised for the individual. The study demonstrates that the concept of stress is superordinate to previously identified concepts considered fundamental to home such as privacy, control and non-homes. Major differences between the two samples were largely differences of degree with people who have an intellectual disability reporting the same fundamental attributes of home as people who do not have an intellectual disability, but in a less elaborated form. Principal among these differences of degree was the notion of control over the home and its derivative elements which encompassed the whole dwelling including its setting for people without an intellectual disability but was very restricted for people with an intellectual disability being largely confined to the person's bedroom. Socialising in or from the home was also very limited for people with an intellectual disability in comparison with that experienced by non-disabled informants with the former group conveying an impression of leading significantly socially isolated lives at home. The major implications of this study are related to the meaning of home per se, to residential service provision to people with an intellectual disability, and to future research.

This study involves listening to illness narratives embedded in in-depth life review processes. The method of multiple interview and multi-modal analysis and reflective responding utilised in the study aims to add to the existing field of research by expanding the understanding of what it is like to be heard or not heard, for people who are either patients, or family members. The study also aims to demonstrate how self-aware ,compassionate and reflective listening, particularly in healthcare relationships, can allow meaning to emerge from within the illness experience, thus enriching the wellbeing of patients, family members and their various healthcare professionals. / Stories of disruption arising within healthcare settings often confronted me during more than forty years of nursing experience and also resonated within my personal experiences. These stories express a gulf between patients, family members, or residents in healthcare institutions, and the healthcare organization and its staff. A recurring theme was that these people felt that they had not been listened to by those they trusted to give them care, with a lasting sense of disruption to their wellbeing. In focusing on the dimensions of reflective listening and intersubjective responding, the implications of being heard on the well being of both narrator and listener can be elucidated. An objective of the research became to articulate the attributes and values of compassionate, reflective listening and elucidate the complex nature of the narrating and listening relationship. (For complete abstract open document)

This study involves listening to illness narratives embedded in in-depth life review processes. The method of multiple interview and multi-modal analysis and reflective responding utilised in the study aims to add to the existing field of research by expanding the understanding of what it is like to be heard or not heard, for people who are either patients, or family members. The study also aims to demonstrate how self-aware ,compassionate and reflective listening, particularly in healthcare relationships, can allow meaning to emerge from within the illness experience, thus enriching the wellbeing of patients, family members and their various healthcare professionals. / Stories of disruption arising within healthcare settings often confronted me during more than forty years of nursing experience and also resonated within my personal experiences. These stories express a gulf between patients, family members, or residents in healthcare institutions, and the healthcare organization and its staff. A recurring theme was that these people felt that they had not been listened to by those they trusted to give them care, with a lasting sense of disruption to their wellbeing. In focusing on the dimensions of reflective listening and intersubjective responding, the implications of being heard on the well being of both narrator and listener can be elucidated. An objective of the research became to articulate the attributes and values of compassionate, reflective listening and elucidate the complex nature of the narrating and listening relationship. (For complete abstract open document)

<p>This essay deals with bilingualism and how affectionate feelings are expressed. There seems to be a difference in meaning between the English phrase I love you and the corresponding Swedish jag älskar dig, where the English phrase is used more frequently and casually than the Swedish phrase. In this paper, affective emotions in Swedish-English bilingualism is examined on two levels: 1) the expression of affectionate feelings in general and 2) the translatability and meaning of I love you and jag älskar dig.</p><p>A qualitative study, with the purpose to investigate how two groups of Swedish-English bilinguals experience meaning and translatability in their affective repertoires, was carried out. 25 people participated in the study, of whom those in the first group are L1 speakers of English who have acquired Swedish as a second language, and those in the second are L1 speakers of both English and Swedish with at least one parent from an English-speaking country. The results of the study were compared with results derived from previous research on language and emotion and bilingualism. Furthermore, a few professional translators were interviewed about the translatability of I love you and jag älskar dig.</p><p>The results from the study show a tendency for late learners of Swedish to use English rather than Swedish when expressing affection, while the childhood bilinguals of both Swedish and English show a general preference for Swedish. However, respondents show a high degree of accommodation; they choose their language based on the L1 or preferred language of the interlocutor. A vast majority in both groups reported experiencing feelings of affection to be expressed differently in their English-speaking culture compared to the Swedish culture. A majority of respondents in the first group do not experience a difference in meaning between I love you and jag älskar dig, while a majority in the second group, with both Swedish and English as L1, do. The results from the study cannot be claimed to account for more than the experiences and opinions of the 25 respondents, but correspond with previous research results within the fields of language and emotion and bilingualism.</p>