Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / The comprehension of atomic models is a very importante fator to understand a variety of concepts associated to the field of natural sciences. Adding to this, the fact that chemistry teachers have many difficulties during their activities when they have to teach this subject in classroom is a common problem. It is also a fact that high school students often show limitations in understanding the scientific concepts required by this subject and, therefore, there is an urgente necessity in developing methodologies which could improve the traditional teacher work when in classroom. Bearing this in mind, this work aims to investigate how didactic activities based on series of experiments can augment the conceptual acquisition and the evolution of thought about atoms in high school students. The actual research problem to be analyzed here i show and under what ways, series of experimentations can potentialize the evolution of individuals regarding the concepts of atomic models. To carry that out, a study has been made with a group of students in a private school in the city of Santa Maria – RS, according to action research methods involving the conceptual theory profile proposed by Eduardo Mortimer. Three student grupos (A,B and C) and the project activities happened in four distinct moments: a pretest, a regular background lecture, the experiments and a posttest according to Brazilian educational standards. The experiments used optical spectroscopy to discuss atomic models. Pretests, individual lab notebooks, class quizzes and posttests allowed to evaluate the students and the method. The analysis allowed to conclude that the students showed considerable development in acquisition of concepts since they showed to reach more advanced levels of understanding of atomic models showing the potential of the proposed teaching method. It was also possible to assess that even reaching higher levels of understanding of atomic models, it is difficult for students to abandon noncientific zones like sensorialism and substantialism. This brings about the need of improvement of further classroom methods which allow the students to outcome nonscientific conceptions. This proposal, however, has great potential to be used as standard for the students to reach the fourth conceptual zone, which is the quantum states of simple atoms. / A compreensão dos modelos atômicos é um fator preponderante para o entendimento de uma enorme gama de conceitos associados à área de Ciências Naturais. De forma dissonante a este discurso, é de conhecimento comum que professores de Química têm grandes dificuldades durante sua atividade no que diz respeito ao ensino deste tópico. Fato é que os estudantes de Ensino Médio (EM) apresentam limitações na compreensão do assunto, logo há uma urgente necessidade em se pensar metodologias que superem as práticas docentes tradicionalmente empregadas em nossas salas de aula. Diante deste cenário, este trabalho tem como objetivo investigar como atividades didáticas baseadas em experimentos podem potencializar a evolução conceitual sobre o átomo em estudantes concluintes do EM. Sendo assim, buscou-se responder ao seguinte problema de pesquisa: como e em que medida a experimentação pode potencializar a evolução do perfil conceitual do átomo? Para isso, foi realizado um estudo sobre a evolução do perfil conceitual de átomo, no qual um grupo de estudantes participou de um projeto de ensino, que por meio de atividades experimentais, visava o ensino dos modelos atômicos. Realizado no contexto de uma escola particular de Educação Básica na cidade de Santa Maria - RS esta pesquisa deu-se segundo a perspectiva da pesquisa-ação, ao passo que o pesquisador atuava como professor destes estudantes. A fundamentação conceitual da pesquisa apoiou-se na noção de perfil conceitual proposta por Eduardo Mortimer. Participaram da proposta estudantes de terceiro ano do EM, que foram organizados em três grupos, aqui chamados de A, B e C e as atividades do projeto ocorreram em quatro momentos distintos: pré-teste; aula expositiva sobre os requisitos conceituais; realização dos experimentos; pós-teste. Os experimentos realizados utilizaram uma abordagem sob o viés da espectroscopia para discutir os modelos atômicos. Já a coleta de dados para a pesquisa ocorreu a partir da análise dos pré-testes, cadernos de experimentos, pós-testes e diários da prática pedagógica, elaborados pelo professor. Após a análise dos resultados pode-se evidenciar que os alunos apresentaram considerável evolução conceitual, já que demonstraram ter desenvolvido aprendizagens sobre os estágios mais avançadas do perfil conceitual do átomo. Concluiu-se também que mesmo aprimorando as concepções mais avançadas do perfil do átomo, os alunos não abandonaram totalmente as zonas não científicas, como sensorialismo e substancialismo. Diante disso, a partir dos resultados da pesquisa, conclui-se que a proposta deve ser aperfeiçoada, a fim de superar as dificuldades encontradas durante o trabalho, principalmente no sentido de propiciar aos alunos a superação das concepções não científicas que integram o perfil do átomo. Por fim, acredita-se que esta proposta tenha grande potencial para possibilitar a evolução conceitual, com ênfase à quarta zona do perfil conceitual, o estágio quântico do átomo.

Esta Dissertação tem por objetivo estudar as metáforas geradas em um corpus jornalístico da década de 90, constituído no âmbito do Projeto Observatório de Neologismos do Português Brasileiro Contemporâneo (TermNeo). Para isso, selecionamos, dentre as unidades lexicais neológicas de cunho semântico, as formações metafóricas que compõem nosso estudo. Este visa a fazer uma análise interpretativa da metáfora vista sob o viés da lingüística cognitiva. Assim, levamos em conta, para nossa análise, que a metáfora é uma atividade cognoscitiva e está presente nos diversos discursos produzidos nas atividades humanas, bem como permeia todo o nosso cotidiano. Trata-se de uma atividade cognoscitiva cuja evidência se dá pela linguagem natural da qual nos servimos para nos comunicarmos e, também, produzirmos conhecimento. Nossa análise tem como embasamento a Teoria da Integração Conceptual proposta por Fauconnier em seus postulados que datam de 1997 e que está sendo ampliada e aprimorada em parceria com Turner e seus colaboradores. Para o autor, a metáfora constitui um fenômeno conceptual, bem como um instrumento de projeção mental. Esta teoria baseia-se na Teoria dos Espaços Mentais de autoria de Fauconnier que objetiva explicar como é que falantes e ouvintes registram correspondências conceptuais e, também, constroem novas inferências durante o discurso. Os autores defendem que o processo de instauração da metáfora se dá a partir de relações entre espaços mentais. Aplicamos a referida teoria nas formações metafóricas presentes no corpus escolhido e verificamos que se trata de uma teoria de suma importância para os estudos acerca da metáfora. O resultado de nossa análise comprova que a metáfora é um fenômeno conceptual e um instrumento de projeção mental. / This dissertation intends to study the metaphors generated in journalistic corpus in the 90s, which is part of the Projeto Observatório de Neologismos do Português Brasileiro Contemporâneo (TermNeo). Thus, we have selected among the neologic lexical units of semantic tenor, the metaphoric formations that compound our study. This aims to do an interpreting analysis of the metaphor under the optics of cognitive linguistics. In this manner, we have taken into account to our analysis that the metaphor is a cognoscitive activity and is present in the various discoureses produced in human activities, as well as it permeates our everyday. It is about a cognoscitive activity which evidence is seen in the natural language we use to communicate and, as well, produce knowledge. Our analysis has that Conceptual Integration Theory as its basis offered by Fauconnier in his postulates from 1997 and is being amplified and improved in association with Turner and his collaborators. To the author, the metaphor constitutes a conceptual phenomenon, as well as a mental projection instrument. This theory is bases in the Mental Spaces Theory of Fauconnier that seeks to explain how speakers and listeners register conceptual correspondence and, also, build new inferences during the speech. The authors defend that the process of instauration of the metaphor starts in the relations between mental spaces. We have applied the cited theory in metaphoric formations present in the chosen corpus and verified that it is of extreme importance for metaphor studies. The result of our analysis confirms that the metaphor is a conceptual phenomenon and a mental projection instrument.

Esta Dissertação tem por objetivo estudar as metáforas geradas em um corpus jornalístico da década de 90, constituído no âmbito do Projeto Observatório de Neologismos do Português Brasileiro Contemporâneo (TermNeo). Para isso, selecionamos, dentre as unidades lexicais neológicas de cunho semântico, as formações metafóricas que compõem nosso estudo. Este visa a fazer uma análise interpretativa da metáfora vista sob o viés da lingüística cognitiva. Assim, levamos em conta, para nossa análise, que a metáfora é uma atividade cognoscitiva e está presente nos diversos discursos produzidos nas atividades humanas, bem como permeia todo o nosso cotidiano. Trata-se de uma atividade cognoscitiva cuja evidência se dá pela linguagem natural da qual nos servimos para nos comunicarmos e, também, produzirmos conhecimento. Nossa análise tem como embasamento a Teoria da Integração Conceptual proposta por Fauconnier em seus postulados que datam de 1997 e que está sendo ampliada e aprimorada em parceria com Turner e seus colaboradores. Para o autor, a metáfora constitui um fenômeno conceptual, bem como um instrumento de projeção mental. Esta teoria baseia-se na Teoria dos Espaços Mentais de autoria de Fauconnier que objetiva explicar como é que falantes e ouvintes registram correspondências conceptuais e, também, constroem novas inferências durante o discurso. Os autores defendem que o processo de instauração da metáfora se dá a partir de relações entre espaços mentais. Aplicamos a referida teoria nas formações metafóricas presentes no corpus escolhido e verificamos que se trata de uma teoria de suma importância para os estudos acerca da metáfora. O resultado de nossa análise comprova que a metáfora é um fenômeno conceptual e um instrumento de projeção mental. / This dissertation intends to study the metaphors generated in journalistic corpus in the 90s, which is part of the Projeto Observatório de Neologismos do Português Brasileiro Contemporâneo (TermNeo). Thus, we have selected among the neologic lexical units of semantic tenor, the metaphoric formations that compound our study. This aims to do an interpreting analysis of the metaphor under the optics of cognitive linguistics. In this manner, we have taken into account to our analysis that the metaphor is a cognoscitive activity and is present in the various discoureses produced in human activities, as well as it permeates our everyday. It is about a cognoscitive activity which evidence is seen in the natural language we use to communicate and, as well, produce knowledge. Our analysis has that Conceptual Integration Theory as its basis offered by Fauconnier in his postulates from 1997 and is being amplified and improved in association with Turner and his collaborators. To the author, the metaphor constitutes a conceptual phenomenon, as well as a mental projection instrument. This theory is bases in the Mental Spaces Theory of Fauconnier that seeks to explain how speakers and listeners register conceptual correspondence and, also, build new inferences during the speech. The authors defend that the process of instauration of the metaphor starts in the relations between mental spaces. We have applied the cited theory in metaphoric formations present in the chosen corpus and verified that it is of extreme importance for metaphor studies. The result of our analysis confirms that the metaphor is a conceptual phenomenon and a mental projection instrument.

Partindo da ideia de ciberespaço como lugar de interação social, neste trabalho, propomos uma reflexão sobre os processos de produção de significados presentes nas redes sociais. Com esse intuito, buscamos, a partir de uma abordagem inter ou multidisciplinar, entender o papel das metáforas na construção de significados, e como estes podem ser manipulados em um processo interpretativo. Consideramos que se por um lado, na semiótica peirceana, a metáfora pode ser vista como um como um mecanismo responsável pelo crescimento semiótico, devido à transferência de predicados entre símbolos. E, por outro, na Teoria da Metáfora Conceptual, a metáfora é tida como fator indispensável do pensamento e comportamento humano, influenciando como percebemos e compreendemos o mundo e as coisas. É, então, necessário aproximar as duas visões, de modo a promover um maior entendimento desse fenômeno. Assim, apresentamos, primeiramente, alguns pontos principais do que entendemos como signo metafórico, passando para uma síntese da teoria cognitivista para expor aquilo que consideramos como alguns lugares de convergência e relação entre as perspectivas. Em seguida, procuramos estabelecer um debate sobre a interação nas redes sociais na atualidade utilizando as premissas básicas do Interacionismo Simbólico como propostos pelo pensador americano Herbert Blumer. Baseados nesse tripé teórico, voltamos nossa atenção como um mesmo acontecimento é significado e ressignificado nas redes sociais a fim de entender o funcionamento desses processos / Starting from the idea of cyberspace as a place of social interaction, in this work, we propose a reflection on the processes of production of meanings present in social networks. With this aim, we seek, from an inter/multidisciplinary approach, to understand the role of metaphors in the construction of meanings, and how they can be manipulated in an interpretative process. We consider that if, on the one hand, in Peircean semiotics, the metaphor can be seen as one as a mechanism responsible for the semiotic growth, due to the transfer of predicates between symbols. On the other hand, in the Theory of Conceptual Metaphor, the metaphor is understood as an indispensable factor of human thought and behavior, influencing how we perceive and understand the world and things. It is then necessary to approach the two visions, in order to promote a greater understanding of this phenomenon. Thus, we present, first, some main points of what we understand as the metaphorical sign, moving to a synthesis of cognitive theory to expose what we consider as some places of convergence and relationship between perspectives. Next, we try to establish a debate about the interaction in social networks in the present time using the basic premises of the Symbolic Interactionism as proposed by the American thinker Herbert Blumer. Based on this theoretical tripod, we turn our attention to one event. and how it was signified and re-signified in the social networks, aiming to understand the functioning of these processes.

An inspection approach is proposed for improving the quality of conceptual models developed in a domain specific notation. First, the process of identification of desirable properties of conceptual models in a domain specific notation is described. Intra- and interview properties are considered. Semantic properties are defined considering the conceptual modeling notation. A systematic inspection process is proposed for checking semantic properties of different types of diagrams and of the relations between these diagrams. This process is applied to two real mission space conceptual models. With the proposed inspection approach, it is possible to identify subtle semantic issues which are not identified by many of the contemporary UML CASE tools and other inspection methods.

The purpose of the study was to investigate the effect of conceptual change oriented instruction accompanied by computer-based interactive conceptual change text (CBICCT) on 11th grade students understanding of electrochemistry and attitude toward chemistry. The study was conducted in an anatolian high school in Ankara with two science classes with 66 students in May 2009. A quasi experimental design was used. The classes was assigned to groups / one as control group and the other as experimental group. While control group was given traditional instruction, experimental group was given conceptual change oriented instruction accompanied by CBICCT. Electrochemistry Concept Test (ECT) was administered before and after treatment and Attitude Toward Chemistry Scale (ATCS) was administered after treatment to collect data about students&rsquo / concepts about electrochemistry and attitude toward chemistry, respectively. To investigate possible covariates, Science Process Skills Test (SPST) was administered after treatment. The collected data were analyzed with two way analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) and two way analysis of variance (ANOVA). Gain scores of ECT was analyzed with two way ANCOVA when SPST scores controlled as covariate and the results showed that the experimental group developed significantly better understanding of concepts than control group. The results also showed that no mean difference between males and females, and no interaction effect between instruction method and gender were found. The analysis of ATCS showed that experimental group developed significantly more positive attitude toward chemistry than control group. However, no significant difference between males and females, and no significant interaction between method and gender in terms of attitude toward chemistry were found.

This research explored Chinese college English teachers’ beliefs and conceptual change in relation to the government-mandated shift from the traditional grammar-based approaches to language teaching to communicative language teaching (CLT). This study employed an ethnographic approach and was conducted at a university in China. Six Chinese college English teachers agreed to participate in a three-month study during which their classroom teaching was observed and they were interviewed about their teaching experiences, understanding of the new teaching methods, and interpretations of the curriculum change. Three patterns of conceptual change were found in their beliefs about language teaching and learning: (a) change in teaching methods but no significant change in conceptions and beliefs, (b) change in both teaching methods and conceptions accompanied by painful conceptual conflict, and (c) change in both teaching methods and beliefs and an acquisition of broader curriculum perspectives. The stories and experiences of the participants indicate the complex, non-linear nature of conceptual development in their beliefs about language teaching. They struggled to expand their conceptual space by dwelling in the Zone of Between—between Chinese and Western educational traditions, between social, cognitive, and psychological processes of conceptual growth, between teaching and educating, and between curriculum-as-plan and curriculum-in-use. This study is expected to have suggestions for ongoing college English teaching in China, provide insight for the research of teachers’ beliefs related to curriculum development in other cultural contexts, and inform language teacher education and development programs. / Thesis (Ph.D, Education) -- Queen's University, 2008-08-17 09:08:34.638

The novel Agaat by Marlene van Niekerk is a highly complex text. One of the most compelling aspects of the novel is the way in which the author constructs an underlying metaphorical grid which determines the composition of the novel. The motives in the novel cannot be regarded merely as motives because specific prominent and powerful metaphors are continually exploited by variation and extension. The complicated relationship between narrative and metaphor on different levels is of great importance in the interpretation of the novel. Due to the complexity of the text, the dominant metaphors cannot be analyzed in the traditional manner. In this study I want to demonstrate that conceptual blending theory, which can be regarded as a branch of conceptual metaphor theory, offers a theoretical framework that can be used to understand the underlying cognitive functioning of the interaction between author, text and reader. This dissertation will examine the processes of blending shaped from the mottos posted at the beginning of the novel. The three mottos, the music motto, the embroidery motto and the farming motto, act throughout the novel as a backdrop against which events in the novel can be interpreted. The blending formed from these mottos merge with other metaphors in the novel in order to generate meaning. The three mottos were taken from the introductions of the FAKVolksangbundel, the embroidery book Borduur so and the Hulpboek vir boere in Suid-Afrika. The three books are used by Milla to educate and teach Agaat. She uses the books to "create" Agaat and to mould her into the person that Milla wants her to be. The mottos stress the uplifting of the people and the creation of a true Afrikaner identity. Agaat accomplishes everything that the books require of her, she becomes an expert in the areas that determine the Afrikaner identity. However, as a brown woman, she is still not considered a member of community or as a fully acceptable civilized woman. The meanings of the other important metaphor in the novel, the mirror metaphor, are also investigated extensively. The mirror plays an important role in the relationship between Milla and Agaat. The mirror is also important in Milla's confrontation with herself, especially in her experience of her illness and her acceptance of her imminent death. The mirror is also used in the depiction of the relationship between characters and the experience of each other as the "Other". The blending of the mirror metaphor and the link that can be established with the theories of Lacan are part of one of the main blendings formed from the mirror metaphor. This metaphor also interacts with the embroidery metaphor. The mirror reflects images to the characters and via the characters to the readers which enforce moral judgments about perceptions and practices. The final part of the dissertation analyses how the dominant metaphors, namely music, embroidery, farming and the mirror, blend in multiple ways in the text to create new domains of meaning. The four main metaphors also blend with secondary metaphors in the novel in order to generate meaning. One of the important secondary metaphors is the "waterhondjies". The "waterhondjies" blend with Guido Gezelle's poem "Het Schrijverke". There is also emphasis on the relationship between writing and the "waterhondjies". The blending of the caeser butterfly plays an important role in the novel as well. In the final chapter the statement is made that the metaphors and symbols in Agaat cannot merely be regarded and interpreted as traditional motives, but rather as examples of cognitive blending. The types of blending in the novel require the cooperation of the reader in all cases. The reader must, in some cases, as with the mirror metaphor and the metaphor of the "waterhondjies", identify and activate the second domain of the blend. In the case of the mottos the different domains of the blend are activated by the author and the reader only needs to provide an interpretation. At the end of the dissertation the conclusion is made that the blending theory offers a suitable method and terminology to analyze the complex processes of generating meaning in the novel. / Thesis (M.A. (Afrikaans and Dutch))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2010

This paper centres in and around words. I have incorporated words into my recent work in a variety of ways including drawing, Letraset, sound and fiction writing. The philosophical questions which arise through any use of language and the various ways of adopting these questions and words within a 'visual art' context is considered in a number of ways. These include The Voyager Interstellar Space Mission which was humankind's first attempt to communicate with other hypothesized populations, conceptual word-incorporating artists, writers of fiction and philosophers within whose work can readily be found an extreme vigilance towards language. Alongside this word exploration I will consider other processes through which I've made and continue to make, works of art. These processes include drawing and film/video. My drawings (which sometimes include words) will be addressed in terms of a crossover between the drawn line and words found in Raymond Carver's story Cathedral. This story made me think about what it means to 'be led' by somebody and how I'm led (by myself or perhaps those mysterious 'populations' the Voyager team of thinkers had in mind) when drawing. It also marks an interesting point in my discussion of a state of being 'without words.' In addition to words an important focus in this paper are the windows through which I've spent a lot of 'my life' looking at 'life pass by' (which are in many ways a physical reality corresponding to the metaphorical 'frame of language'). The time I've spent looking out windows over the past few years has resulted in. several film and video pieces in addition to my latest work (presented as the appendix of this paper) which comprises of a series of short stories. The paper opens with a quote by German philosopher Martin Heidegger: "Language is the house of Being. In its home man dwells." The enigmatic broadness of this statement is appropriate to the apprehensive and cautious attitude towards words found throughout the paper (also it mentions 'house' which immediately brings to my mind 'windows')

Abstract Language is a repertoire of culture and a powerful and versatile medium in communication. Idioms mirror human wisdom in the process of conceptualization of the world. Idioms have interlocked and grown into records of a community’s past culture. Idioms therefore constitute a rich, but at the same time elusive, area of cross-cultural exchanges. Idioms reflect the colour and variety of human social activities, and so play an important role in the linguistic ontologization of emotions. The vocabulary of emotions has been the object of intensive investigations in many languages, but bibliographical exploration reveals that idioms as a component of the lexicon are not yet part of the main field of theoretical interest. In particular, while there have been studies of idioms of emotion in English, there have been few on emotion idioms in Vietnamese, and very few systematic investigations of emotion idioms (EIs) across English and Vietnamese. Hence, our linguistic study of the conceptualization of emotions in English and Vietnamese will significantly contribute to the development of this research domain with data from a language other than English. The study undertakes a contrastive investigation of idioms that express the seven basic emotional concepts of HAPPINESS, SADNESS, ANGER, DISGUST, LOVE, FEAR, and DESIRE in English and Vietnamese. There are three foci: (1) similarities and differences in formal structure between the EIs in English and Vietnamese; (2) similarities and differences in semantics between such idioms; and (3) an investigation of the patterning and regularities of the established similarities and differences between the EIs in the two languages. To the end, we have conducted a hand search approach of the dictionaries in both languages, which has enabled the establishing of a corpus of 1065 entries (603 for English and 462 for Vietnamese). As regards the formal structure, the study sets up the lexicogrammatical frames for the canonical forms and variation patterns of the idioms, and interrelates quantitatively and quantitatively the relationship of the idioms’ variant form vis-à-vis the canonical form. In light of the findings, the study has shown that a high level of canonicity is observed in the idioms in both English and Vietnamese. In general, they conform to a restricted number of construction types: verbal, nominal, adjectival, prepositional, and sentential. Nevertheless, many other idioms permit variable flexibility in their composition: the substitutability of their component parts, insertion of lexical items, and some variation in syntactic patterning. For the idioms which are logged as canonical and variant, we have suggested rules to cover the patterns. As regards the semantic features of the idioms, the study is substantially reliant on the theory of conceptual metaphor (CMT) and metonymy, as first developed by Lakoff & Johnson (1980), to analyze the data. The data analysis leads to the discovery of conceptual mappings/correspondences from the various source domains on to the target domains of emotions, which are very productive of idioms. An in-depth analysis of cross-linguistic and cross-cultural aspects in the idioms is provided to determine similarities and differences in terms of conceptualization of the emotions between the two languages. The contrastive analysis of idioms reported in the traditional literature is usually the comparison of idioms with body-part terms: e.g., mát mặt (‘cool face’) ‘HAPPINESS’ in Vietnamese; lose one’s head in English, animals: e.g., gầm như hổ đói (‘roar like tiger hungry’); go ape ‘ANGER’, and colours: e.g., đỏ mặt tía tai (‘red face purple ear’); blue in the face ‘ANGER’. The present analysis seeks greater explanatory depth and theoretical grounding in the framework of cognitive linguistics. We present the semantic patterning of the idioms, and the patterning in turn reveals how English and Vietnamese people talk about and structure the abstract conceptual domains (i.e., emotions) (Gibbs & Wilson, 2002). In light of the findings, this research has revealed both commonalities and differences in the conceptualization of the emotions in English and Vietnamese. The affinities are grounded in common bodily experiences. On the other hand, cross-cultural variations are also obvious. The most important conclusion that can be drawn for the study is that metaphors and metonymies involved in emotion-expressing idioms are not only heavily subject to physiological basis (Solomon, 1984), but also to cultural influences on the basis of the cultural image schemas (Dobrovol'skij & Piirainen, 2006; Emanatian, 1995; Geeraerts & Grondelaers, 1995; Ungerer, 1993). The thesis also presents implications concerning the linguistic ontologization of emotions, and their application to second language learning and the translation of idioms.