published_or_final_version / English Studies / Master / Master of Arts

This auto-ethnographic project concerns itself with the processes of how meaning in an organisational setting is created, changed, sustained and 'achieved'. Its contributory value lies in the inductive development of a 'tropological approach' to the investigation of sensemaking processes in organisations. Positioned in an interpretive-hermeneutic tradition, the major research strategy of participant observation and its supplementary techniques (e. g. qualitative interviewing) were activated to explore sense-making processes. This engagement in the field was complemented by the application of three frameworks derived from the discipline of linguistics. These were: a structuralist approach (as based on Saussure, Jakobson, Lodge), speech act theory (Austin, Searle) and discourse analysis (Fairclough). The application of the first framework to data explored the character of signs as well as the relationship between signs. The latter were defined as either metaphorical or metonymical in character. The tropes derived from these relationships, i. e. metaphor and metonymy, provided an early trajectory for further data interpretation. Naturally occurring talk, including organisational stories, talk as recorded in meetings, artifacts including written texts, buildings, equipment and geographical arrangements were analysed in terms of their metaphorical and/or metonymical significance in processes of meaning creation. The interplay of metonymies, i. e. processes on the basis of physical or causal contiguity, and metaphors, translation and interpretation processes were shown to render the experience of the organisation essentially symbolic. A third trope, irony, emerged as an important figure during the research process and was integrated into the tropological approach. Metonymy and irony are undertheorised in organisation studies. Within the second organising framework the performative value of tropes was investigated, i.e. in how far 'talk and action' form a dialectic whole. In particular, the question how organisations become active agents, who "think" and "speak" and "act" was investigated with the help of the voice metaphor, exploring the relationship between individuals, agents and principals. Different voices (new voices, fading and fluctuating voices, dissenting voices, having no voice) were investigated. Meaning, although inchoate and in perpetual flux was shown to be linked to the ability to transcend individual status and claim agency on behalf on a higher principal. Deviant meaning and interpretation were investigated as occurring in the trope irony, but also in the denial of metonymical causal linkages between signs and divergent particularisation processes within metaphorical interpretation. Finally, meaning as derived from a wider discursive environment (Higher Education environment) was investigated from a critical point of view, focusing on hegemonial processes and the manufacture of consent, which "normalised" the hidden assumptions of certain discourses by drawing on metaphorical and metonymical devices inherent in language. Irony, again, was shown to be an expression of divergent meaning interpretation. The exercise of power as well as resistance were shown to be dialectically enacted at the interstices of everyday practice. These transient, elusive processes are expressed in language, in particular the figures of speech. In sum, the suggested tropological approach shows metapho as being both constraining and emancipatory in its performative value, metonymy as being the first and foremost habitus of cultural knowledge and iron as being precariously suspended between conservatism and change. The contributory value of this approach lies in the inclusion of two tropes, metonymy and irony, which have not been sufficiently understood or theorised in organisation studies.

No description available.

The study of emotion is an interdisciplinary field. One key aspect of this field is the cultural variation of emotion. This thesis is a contribution to the above area by means of a specific analysis of the ancient Greek conception of the emotion ἔρως. The focus for this study is the Greek Novel, a collection of literary works emerging from the Greek speaking culture of the eastern Mediterranean during the Roman imperial period (1st to 4th cent C.E.). These novels are based upon the universal topics of love and sexual passion, while at the same time reflecting and reworking both the specific social and literary climate of the period and ancient Greek folk and philosophical models of psychology. My thesis argues that the role of conceptual metaphor in the understanding of ἔρως as an emotion has not yet been fully appreciated, and that an understanding of metaphor is essential for gauging which parts of the folk model of the emotion are culturally specific or universal, and how these sections interact.

No description available.

Master of Arts - Arts / Genetics and immunology presently hold tremendous possibilities for changing the future through their biotechnological applications. To comprehend such complex subjects metaphor is generally employed. It is my contention that as these scientific concepts are repeatedly reinforced in both scientific and mass media representations, the metaphors suffuse our conceptual system to such an extent that they are no longer recognised as metaphors. Instead, they tend to be viewed as scientific ‘fact’. I have termed such pervasive metaphors, ‘concept metaphors’. I argue that the predominant concept metaphors regarding genetics and immunology are ‘information coding’ and ‘militarization’, respectively. Through this research, the origins of these concept metaphors as well as the extent to which they influence our current perceptions of life and health, become startlingly patent. I conclude by demonstrating how the utilisation of novel metaphors can significantly alter our conceptualisations and consequently, perceptions of these areas of molecular biology.

by Lau Chi Chuen, Paris. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1990. / Bibliography: leaves 89-95. / Chapter I. --- Preface --- p.1 / Chapter II. --- Introduction --- p.5 / Chapter III. --- Chapter One -- Interaction Theory of Metaphor : From Richards to Ricoeur --- p.13 / Chapter IV. --- Chapter Two -- Metaphorical Process and the Transcendence of Meaning --- p.36 / Chapter V. --- Chapter Three -- Metaphorical Process in Sikong Tu's Ship in --- p.55 / Chapter V. --- Conclusion --- p.85 / Chapter VI. --- Works Cited --- p.89 / Chapter VII. --- Works Consulted --- p.94

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2007. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 199-211).

Thesis (M.A.)--Denver Seminary, 2002. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 58-62).

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 62-63).