The focus of this thesis is to visually show the significance and relationship between the use of natural materials, and geometric patterns used in Māori weaving. The patterns will reflect indigenous episteme of artistic and tacit knowledge. These patterns are significant to the Māori worldview of kaitiakitanga (stewardship of knowledge), which is cognisant in the ontology of Māori weaving. These patterns are significant forms of Māori cultural symbols that reflect elements of nature, evolution of time and space. The focus is to show how natural materials can be utilised in an art form that embraces bicultural activity, as a reference to customary and new age methods of thinking and practice. This leads to self-enquiry and our own responsibilities, only to ask ourselves; What are the guiding principles within art and design, that upholds the core values of Mātauranga Māori? (Māori epistemological thinking). The concept of this thesis is to define the cultural significance of kaitiakitanga (stewardship), through the preservation of Mātauranga Māori and practice as weavers and artists. This concept challenges our own understanding of what we know and what we don’t know about the relationships between people, place, environment and use. The methods and processes used for this work will be based on customary practices and methods, using native materials, endemic to New Zealand. These materials will be harvested at different time periods. The methodologies used in this project, is a product of intrinsic knowledge and testing new boundaries, through researching more specific detail about varieties of harakeke (New Zealand flax) cultivars, testing the flexibility, functionality and durability of materials. This will challenge the test, of making sure that the methods used will be significantly practiced throughout the processes involved in the making of artistic pieces of work, in accordance to tikanga (protocols). The use of native materials enhances cultural values of kaitiakitanga as a metaphor, which asserts sustainability of Māori epistemological notions of practice and meaning.This also applies to the visual language of Māori. The concept of visual language embraces metaphoric meanings and understanding, which relates to our co-existence with the earth, animals and the elements. All these elements of nature are contained within symbolic traditional patterns. Some of these patterns have derived from phenomena of thought structure, historical events and our co-existence through our connectedness to the land, waters, oceans, sky and universe. How can Māori forms of art be embraced and imbued, in modern society, that signifies place, belonging and cultural enhancement?

Doctor of Philosophy(PhD) / There is increasing awareness among linguists that discourse analysis inevitably involves analyses of meanings arising from the combination of multiple modes of communication. The evolving multimodal pedagogic environment for teaching English as a foreign language (henceforth EFL), among other communicative contexts, calls for a social, semiotic, and linguistic explanation. Situated within the theoretical landscape of social semiotics and in the pedagogic context of EFL education, the present study aims to elucidate how linguistic and visual semiotic resources are co-deployed to construe interpersonal meaning in multimodal textbooks. The data drawn upon are eighteen EFL textbooks for primary and secondary schooling, published by People’s Education Press between 2002 and 2006. The research design consists of three complementary sub-studies. First, it investigates the ways in which the semantic regions of ENGAGEMENT and GRADUATION can be modelled in multimodal texts, with special reference to the interplay of voices in textbook discourse. The second sub-study analyzes how verbal and visual semiotic resources are co-deployed to construe the ‘emotion and attitude’ goal highlighted in curriculum standards, with a particular focus on verbiage-image relations. Third, it extends the linguistic concept ‘modality’ to multimodal discourse, exploring coding orientation in texts for different educational contexts and between different constituent genres. The main findings of this thesis are as follows: (1) A range of multimodal resources (i.e. labelling, dialogue balloon, jointly-constructed text, illustration and highlighting) are identified as enabling editor voice to negotiate meanings with reader voice and character voice. It is found that the way in which an ENGAGEMENT value can be scaled is strongly associated with the intrinsic property of the given multimodal resource. The interaction between multiple voices is closely related to contact, social distance, and point of view. (2) It is shown that images play an essential role in realizing attitudinal meanings. Together with verbal APPRAISAL resources, visual semiotic features work to position the readers in ways that align them to set pedagogic goals, guiding them in completing jointly-constructed texts. Moreover, an attitudinal shift from an emotional release to a more institutionalized type of evaluation can be identified as students advance through the school years. (3) It is argued that what counts as real in multimodal texts is socially defined and specific to a given communicative context. The nature of pedagogic discourse should be taken into account when visual displays are produced for pedagogic materials. The implications of this study include both theoretical and pedagogic aspects。Theoretically it adapts and extends APPRAISAL analysis to multimodal discourse, exploring the intersemiotic complementarity and co-instantiation in construing global evaluative stance. This semiotic exploration, in return, suggests ways in which discourse analysis may help textbook users better understand and interpret the multimodal features. With the affordances as well as limitations of semiotic resources made explicit, we may have one step further towards a comprehensive and critical understanding of multimodal construal of interpersonal meaning in pedagogic materials.

Dissertation (Ph. D.)--University of Akron, Dept. of Counseling, 2007. / "December, 2007." Title from electronic dissertation title page (viewed 02/27/2008) Advisor, Cynthia Reynolds; Committee members, Sharon Kruse, Patricia Parr, Sandra Perosa, Paula Britton; Department Chair, Karin Jordan; Dean of the College, Cynthia F. Capers; Dean of the Graduate School, George R. Newkome. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1992. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [261]-267).

Originally presented as author's thesis (Ph.D.)--Duquesne University, 2006. / Also available online. Thesis title: "Being touched by music: a phenomenological-hermeneutical approach to understanding transformational musical experience." Includes bibliographical references (p. 105-112) and index.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 1999. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 215-219).

Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 2009. / Some texts in Chinese. Includes bibliographical references (leave 50-52). Also available in print.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1925. / Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 247-253).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1960. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [207]-[209]).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 375-406).