Thesis (Ph. D.)--Uppsala University, 2001. / Abstract (1 leaf) and improved print-outs for five diagrams (on p. 280, 290, 301, 308, 309) inserted. Includes bibliographical references (p. 495-529) and index.

Thesis (doctoral)--Stockholm University, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 197-205) and index.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Harvard University, 1974. / Includes bibliographical references.

Based on a section of the author's Thesis (doctoral--University of Coimbra). / Includes bibliographical references (p. [151]-158) and index.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Harvard University, 1974. / Includes bibliographical references.

Popular fiction books describe rich visual environments that contain characters, objects, and behaviour. This research develops automated processes for converting text sourced from fiction books into animated virtual environments and multi-modal films. This involves the analysis of unrestricted natural language fiction to identify appropriate visual descriptions, and the interpretation of the identified descriptions for constructing animated 3D virtual environments. The goal of the text analysis stage is the creation of annotated fiction text, which identifies visual descriptions in a structured manner. A hierarchical rule-based learning system is created that induces patterns from example annotations provided by a human, and uses these for the creation of additional annotations. Patterns are expressed as tree structures that abstract the input text on different levels according to structural (token, sentence) and syntactic (parts-of-speech, syntactic function) categories. Patterns are generalized using pair-wise merging, where dissimilar sub-trees are replaced with wild-cards. The result is a small set of generalized patterns that are able to create correct annotations. A set of generalized patterns represents a model of an annotator's mental process regarding a particular annotation category. Annotated text is interpreted automatically for constructing detailed scene descriptions. This includes identifying which scenes to visualize, and identifying the contents and behaviour in each scene. Entity behaviour in a 3D virtual environment is formulated using time-based constraints that are automatically derived from annotations. Constraints are expressed as non-linear symbolic functions that restrict the trajectories of a pair of entities over a continuous interval of time. Solutions to these constraints specify precise behaviour. We create an innovative quantified constraint optimizer for locating sound solutions, which uses interval arithmetic for treating time and space as contiguous quantities. This optimization method uses a technique of constraint relaxation and tightening that allows solution approximations to be located where constraint systems are inconsistent (an ability not previously explored in interval-based quantified constraint solving). 3D virtual environments are populated by automatically selecting geometric models or procedural geometry-creation methods from a library. 3D models are animated according to trajectories derived from constraint solutions. The final animated film is sequenced using a range of modalities including animated 3D graphics, textual subtitles, audio narrations, and foleys. Hierarchical rule-based learning is evaluated over a range of annotation categories. Models are induced for different categories of annotation without modifying the core learning algorithms, and these models are shown to be applicable to different types of books. Models are induced automatically with accuracies ranging between 51.4% and 90.4%, depending on the category. We show that models are refined if further examples are provided, and this supports a boot-strapping process for training the learning mechanism. The task of interpreting annotated fiction text and populating 3D virtual environments is successfully automated using our described techniques. Detailed scene descriptions are created accurately, where between 83% and 96% of the automatically generated descriptions require no manual modification (depending on the type of description). The interval-based quantified constraint optimizer fully automates the behaviour specification process. Sample animated multi-modal 3D films are created using extracts from fiction books that are unrestricted in terms of complexity or subject matter (unlike existing text-to-graphics systems). These examples demonstrate that: behaviour is visualized that corresponds to the descriptions in the original text; appropriate geometry is selected (or created) for visualizing entities in each scene; sequences of scenes are created for a film-like presentation of the story; and that multiple modalities are combined to create a coherent multi-modal representation of the fiction text. This research demonstrates that visual descriptions in fiction text can be automatically identified, and that these descriptions can be converted into corresponding animated virtual environments. Unlike existing text-to-graphics systems, we describe techniques that function over unrestricted natural language text and perform the conversion process without the need for manually constructed repositories of world knowledge. This enables the rapid production of animated 3D virtual environments, allowing the human designer to focus on creative aspects.

Chapter 1 outlines the aim of the study, research methodology, delimitation of scope and the definition of some terms. This is followed by a list of Zulu short stories which Ntuli has already contributed. His other contributions in circles outside the writing of fiction are also acknowledged. Finally, tribute is paid to some contributions made by Ntuli as an endeavour to uplift the standard of Zulu writing. In Chapter 2 plot structure is discussed. This is followed by an in-depth semiotic analysis of some short stories. Chapter 3 deals with the different narration techniques employed by the author in his short stories. Chapter 4 differentiates between actors and characters. Different methods of character portrayal are investigated. Chapter 5 concludes this dissertation by summarising the main finding of this study. It also brings forth some conclusions with regard to literary merit of Ntuli's short stories and his contribution to Zulu literature. / African Languages / M.A. (African Languages)

Orientador: Suzi Frankl Sperber / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-06T10:26:57Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Ferreira_JoaoCesarioLeonel_D.pdf: 1647448 bytes, checksum: 374a6ee732ee926d95aeb3c7eda8331e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006 / Resumo: Esta tese tem como objetivo principal o estudo do narrador no evangelho de Mateus e de sua relação com o protagonista ¿ Jesus Cristo. Central em todo o trabalho é a constatação de que o narrador configura o texto de modo a produzir nos leitores a consciência de que a narrativa se refere não apenas a um personagem da história passada, mas a Jesus Cristo vivo. Este exerce a função de orientar a compreensão do texto. Para tanto, o narrador coloca-se em segundo plano e desenvolve técnicas para que o personagem principal ocupe espaço de proeminência. A minimização da presença do narrador, antes de se transformar em debilidade textual, produz abertura do texto ao leitor. Desse modo, as estratégias estabelecidas visam atrair o leitor para que participe da trama. Para chegar a tais conclusões, o trabalho discute variadas formas interpretativas pela quais o evangelho de Mateus é estudado na atualidade. Define o gênero literário ao qual pertence o evangelho como biografia greco-romana. Identifica o narrador, seu foco narrativo e a forma como organiza o evangelho em blocos narrativos e discursivos a partir da fonte principal, o evangelho de Marcos. Por fim, explicita estratégias literárias através da comparação exaustiva entre textos de Mateus e Marcos, demonstrando como elas apontam para propósitos retóricos específicos que o narrador deseja gerar nos leitores. O canal de discussão com biblistas esteve aberto, em alguns momentos utilizando interpretações e pontos de vistas, e em outros discordando de suas colocações. A principal delas diz respeito à declaração de que o evangelho apresenta um caráter catequético e desprovido de brilho. Em oposição, afirma-se que o evangelho de Mateus possui estratégias narrativas que o tornam extremamente persuasivo aos leitores. Torna-se claro que a desconsideração dos elementos de análise descritos no trabalho produz conseqüências nocivas à interpretação do texto bíblico / Abstract: The main goal of this thesis is the study of the narrator of the Gospel of Matthew and its relationship with its main character ¿ Jesus Christ. In the very heart of the dissertation is the observation that the narrator works his text in order to produce in the readers the consciousness that the narrative has to do with the living Jesus Christ, who plays the role of guiding the understanding the text, and not only with a mere character of a past history. To do so, the narrator put himself in a secondary place, and develops some mechanisms so that the main character may occupy a prominent role. The downsizing of the narrator is not a textual frailty. Rather, it produces an opening of the text to the reader. Thus, these strategies aim to attract the reader to participate in the plot. In order to reach these conclusions, the dissertation discusses several contemporary ways the Gospel of Matthew is interpreted at this moment. It also defines the literary genre of the Gospel as a Greek-Roman biography. Besides, it identifies the narrator, its narrative focus and how he organizes the gospel in discursive and narrative blocks from its main source, viz., the Gospel of Mark. As an ending, the dissertation explains the literary strategies through an exhaustive comparison between the texts of Matthew and Mark, giving evidence of how they point to specific rhetoric purposes the narrator wish to generate in the readers. There was an open channel of discussion with Bible scholars, sometimes agreeing, sometimes disagreeing with them. The main point of disagreement was related to the statement that the Gospel has a catechetical purpose and is deprived of brilliance. Arguing against this, it is stated that the Gospel of Matthew has narrative strategies that make it extremely persuasive to its readers. It is quite clear that the disrespect of the elements of analysis described in the dissertation produces harmful consequences to the interpretation of the biblical text / Doutorado / Teoria e Critica Literaria / Doutor em Teoria e História Literária

M.A. (English) / The main focus of study in this dissertation is the magic realism of Isabel Allende as it pertains to gender politics, specifically in the oppressive fascist regime of revolutionary Chile at the time at which her novels are set. Her narrative technique is identified and related to the environment of which she writes, with a view to associating it with the gender aspect of politics. The socio-political climate in Chile, certainly in the decades ot the 1960s and 1970s, incorporated elements of fascism, oppression and sexism: Allende successfully adapts most of her female characters to the revolution and its effects ...

Consisting of both theoretical and empirical inquires, this study examines the primary functions of narrative and the relationship between narrative and mental imagery. The study proposes a new framework to interpret semiotic resources. Combining this with the linguistic functional theory of Halliday (1978), a functional method to empirically investigate semiotic representations was also developed. In the empirical inquiry, the study developed a latent construct method to empirically test the effects of narrative in a real learning situation. This study is the first to investigate the functional relationship between narrative and mental imagery, and among the first to suggest a theory and empirically investigate representations of a multimodal nature. The study is also among the first to use latent constructs to investigate the learning experience in a real educational setting. Data were collected from 190 library professionals who enrolled in three sections (two in narrative and one in plain text) of an online course administered through Vista 4.0 and who completed the course and responded to several instruments. Essay data (n = 82 x 2) were analyzed using content analysis based on the narrative analysis framework developed. Quantitative data analysis methods include univariate data analysis, factor analysis, and structural equation modeling that tests the proposed model and verifies the relationships between the latent variables. Overall, the findings support the hypotheses about the functional effects of narrative identified, and narrative is found to provide a favorable and positive learning context which is tested by the proposed model of learning experience measured by several latent constructs (X2 = 31.67, df = 47, p = .9577, RMSEA = .00, SRMR = .047, NNFI = 1.05, CFI = 1.00, and GFI = .94). The results indicate that participants who enrolled in the narrative sections of the course gained higher creative scores and showed better results in performance-based and attribution-based experiences. The model testing results indicate that even though more time spent during learning led to better outcome and performance in both groups, more time spent means more satisfaction for the individuals in the narrative group, but led to less satisfaction for the individuals in the non-narrative group.