stack: Minimalist Poetics consists of a portfolio of practice-led research — a volume-length minimalist poem entitled stack — and a critical essay. The poem applies and adapts several minimalist writing strategies, which are evaluated in the critical essay to create a text that is rich in imagery yet indeterminate in meaning. In addition, stack is innovative in its structural approach — through original use of enjambment, footnoting and repetition, lines may be treated as discrete entities and, also, as combinations. A key research question that the practice-led component and the critical essay interrogate is the applicability and development of the poetics of the “New Sentence”, and other formally innovative approaches in the field of minimalist writing. The first part of the critical essay contextualises the creative portfolio in relation to the field of minimalist poetics as a whole. It sets out how stack belongs to a strand of minimalist poetry that evolved out of imagism and objectivism, and whose key practitioners include Robert Grenier, Robert Lax and Aram Saroyan. Subsequently, the thesis outlines the methods that were used to generate the creative portfolio. Effectively these latter sections present a manual for making minimalist poetry. Aside from exploring the written elements of stack, the thesis also examines my practice of conducting what I refer to as ‘minimalist interventions’ (embodied, micro-actions). These interventions, which have taken place in a range of environments, generally function as stimuli for the written aspects of the poem.

The dissertation begins with an introductory chapter that examines the short story cycle as a specific genre, outlines tendencies found in minimalist fiction, and discusses proposed definitions of the short story genre. The introduction examines the problems that short story theorists encounter when they try to.define the short story genre in general. Part of the problem results from the lack of a definition of the short story in the Aristotelian sense of a definition. A looser, less traditional definition of literary genres helps solve some of the problem. Minimalist fiction and the short story cycle are discussed as particular forms of the short story. Sixteen short stories follow the introduction.

No description available.

This dissertation is a theoretical investigation of the thesis of Minimalist Interfaces, namely, that syntax-external linguistic interfaces that interact with the core syntactic computation and language-independent sound and concept systems play a more critical role in manipulating syntactic objects to make them legible to those systems than is currently assumed in the recent minimalist inquiry. The core theme of this thesis lies in the idea that syntax is not entirely crash-proof but could make a variety of derivational mistakes; phonological and semantic linguistic interfaces conduct a handful of independent domain-specific operations to attempt to legitimize illicit syntactic objects, if any, for the purposes of legibility at the language-external sound and concept systems. Evidence is provided that the syntax-external components use whatever resources they can to repair certain "imperfections" created by syntax but only within the range of options made available by the universal principles of syntax in tandem with the language-specific parameter values. This dissertation explores some of the ramifications and empirical consequences of this thesis based on the comprehensive description of a sizable portion of the grammar of Indonesian and Javanese collected by my fieldwork with three native Indonesian and Javanese consultants. Phenomena discussed here include the distribution of active voice morphology, P-stranding under sluicing, the denotation and morphosyntax of bare nominals, wh-in-situ questions, and reduplication asymmetries between nominal and verbal derivational affixes. These diverse ranges of phenomena in the two languages are analyzed in depth to provide converging evidence that the thesis of minimalist interface as defined above yields a deep understanding of the way the syntax interacts with the language-dependent interfaces responsible for phonological and semantic interpretation. The investigation conducted here, necessitates serious reconsideration of the commonly held view of linguistic interfaces as passive, merely ornamental components of natural language grammar ruled by the universal law of syntax.

No description available.

There are many different types of footwear available for runners in today's market. Many of these shoes claim to improve a runner's efficiency by altering their stride mechanics. Minimalist footwear claims to aid runners in running more on their forefeet whereas more traditional footwear provides more cushioning specifically for a heel-first landing. The purpose of this research was to determine if runners who were accustomed to running in traditional footwear would acutely alter their running biomechanics when they ran barefoot or in various types of minimalist footwear. Twelve subjects, who were accustomed to running in traditional 12 mm heel/toe differential footwear, ran in five footwear conditions on a treadmill at a controlled pace for 2 minutes after warming up in each condition for 5 minutes. While running in 12 mm heel/toe differential footwear compared to barefoot, subjects ran with a significantly longer ground time, a slower stride rate and greater vertical oscillation. There were not any significant differences in kinematic and kinetic variables when running in the shod conditions despite the varying heel/toe differentials. Foot strike angle did not change under any of the conditions either. Running barefoot proved to be different than running in footwear in that stride rate increased, ground time decreased and vertical oscillation decreased. There were not any significant acute differences between any of the footwear conditions despite having different heel/toe differentials in subjects accustomed to wearing traditional heel-drop footwear. Wearing minimalist or cushioned minimal footwear appears to not be an effective means of changing running mechanics acutely but may need repeated bouts to alter running mechanics.

No description available.

This research aims to show the relationships between the museum and the department store and the visitor who engages with both institutions. The visitor to these spaces is the focus for the development of meaning, and reaction, to the objects on display in both spaces. The methods of interior and exterior design, planning and circulation, and object display, are discussed in relation to the vital context of the viewer, and the consequent construction of meaning and value. Value itself, becomes a recurring theme in these discussions since design and display within both institutions can perpetuate value, desire, and fetishism for the object. These concepts are further related to the appropriation of Minimalist aesthetics in boutiques. This analysis is applied to the critique of two exhibitions: 'Islands: Contemporay Installations' at the National Gallery of Australia, and, 'The Second Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art' at the Queensland Art Gallery. These exhibitions which predominantly involve installation art are discussed as examples relating to the phenomena of viewing, and the impact of design and display / Master of Arts (Hons) Visual Arts

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2000. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 188-192).

This thesis investigates chain formation processes in syntax within the general framework of the Minimalist Program (Chomsky 1993, 1994, 1995), where comparison among derivations plays a central role. It is primarily concerned with interactions between Grammatical Function changing (Baker 1988a) and wh-movement. Constructions such as antipassive, applicative, and Object Preposing: (special "passive") from typologically different languages are examined together with their implications for extraction. On a theoretical level this thesis proposes a modification of the notion of reference set (Chomsky 1994, 1995), which fixes the domain of comparison for the purpose of economy. In particular, the notion of reference set is defined in terms of non-distinctness of numerations; this in turn is sensitive to the Interpretability of features (Chomsky 1995). It is also argued that the Minimal Link Condition is an economy condition that elects among convergent derivations on the basis of the notion of chain link comparability. The system advanced here, in combination with some independently motivated Minimalist assumptions, explains phenomena which have so far defied a unified account, thereby providing important empirical support for the leading ideas of the Minimalist Program.