Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 2008. / Also available in print.

This work is a philosophical investigation of signs. It offers a definition of the term ?sign? and develops three different systems for talking precisely about signs and their properties. The system of object display lines is developed in the first chapter; the ostension notation and the box notation are developed in the second chapter; and the contemporary associationist definition of a sign is developed in the third chapter. These systems, in conjunction with the definition, are proffered as a philosophical foundation for the theory of notation. The first chapter of this work develops the distinction between i) mere objects (non-signs), ii) signs of mere objects, and iii) signs of signs. The exhibitive use of objects is distinguished from their constitutive use; and the de re use of signs is distinguished from their de signo use. Both the discursive homogeneity thesis and the sentential homogeneity thesis are formulated. Arguments against the former are considered, and the thesis is rejected. The latter thesis, however, is accepted as a means of stopping the infinite regress that would occur if the meaning of a sign always had to be explained through the use of other signs. Object display lines are developed as a systematic and rule governed method of introducing mere objects into a discourse. The second chapter deals with the problem of using signs to talk about signs; and offers both an historical analysis of the development of quotation marks as a form of punctuation, and an historical analysis of the philosophical debate over quotation marks. Frege?s convention of using quotation marks to mention signs is rejected, and the ostension notation and the box notation are developed as replacements. The third chapter deals with the nature of signs. The ontological status of signs is considered, and the thesis that signs are relations is rejected. This is followed by a brief historical survey of the associationist and behaviorist conceptions of a sign. Finally, a contemporary associationist conception of a sign is developed, and the basic structure of the human sign is postulated. A number of refinements are made to the definition to avoid pansemiosis.

Published Article / The paper seeks to demonstrate that Mofolo borrowed from previous texts written before Moeti wa Botjhabela so as to provide layers of meaning in his novel. Mofolo was a reader of different texts before he became the creator of Moeti wa Botjhabela, and therefore, his work of art is unavoidably shot through with references, quotations, and influences of every kind of text he read, and this finds expression in the manner in which history, folktales and Bible have been distributed consistently in his work of art.

published_or_final_version / abstract / Humanities / Master / Master of Philosophy

In this thesis we analyze optimal demand management policies for stochastic systems. In the first system considered, a manufacturer decides how to manage demand from customers that differ in their priority level and willingness to pay. He has limited production capacity and predetermined prices throughout the horizon. We find an optimal production and inventory strategy that rations current and future limited capacity between customer classes through reserving inventory for the future and accepting orders now for future delivery. Next, we extend these results to the case when the customers have different tolerance to delayed fulfillment, namely, first-class customers never accept backlogging whereas second-class customers agree to wait one period for a discount. We find an optimal policy similar to the production and inventory strategy that is used for the first system based on threshold values. The third system considers a firm whose recent performance in meeting quoted leadtimes affects future demand arrivals. We assume that the probability of a customer placing an order depends on the quoted leadtime, and both customer arrivals and processing times are stochastic. When capacity of the firm is infinite, we find the optimal leadtime to quote, and when capacity is finite and leadtime is industry-dictated, we determine that the optimal demand acceptance policy does not necessarily have a nice structure. We comment on the structure of the optimal policy for a special case and develop several heuristics for the general case. The final system considered in this thesis is the Sports and Entertainment industry, where demand is managed for a season of several performances by selling season tickets initially and single events later in the selling horizon. We specifically study the optimal time to switch between these market segments dynamically as a function of the state of the system and show that the optimal switching time is a set of time thresholds that depend on the remaining inventory and time left in the horizon.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Columbia University, 1935. / Bibliography: p. 253-255.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Columbia University, 1935. / Bibliography: p. 253-255.

Thesis--Freie Universität, Berlin. / Extra t.p. with thesis statement. Includes bibliographical references (p. 388-415).

Thesis (M.M.)--Baylor University, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 150-152).

This thesis addresses the question of how to interpret instances in Hebrew prophetic literature in which one speaker quotes another speaker. Speech quotations of this kind occur almost 300 times across the prophetic corpus and exhibit a wide range of quoting and quoted participants with modal and temporal variations. In order to examine this phenomenon and to formulate a method for its interpretation, the thesis conducts an exegetical case study of Jeremiah 2.1-­‐3.5 which is distinguished by its high number and density of quotations (twelve instances in forty-­‐two verses). With a few notable exceptions, the phenomenon of prophetic speech quotation has not received any attention in its own right but was subsumed under other research concerns, such as prophetic conUlict or the form-­‐critical genre of disputation speech. Across these and other studies, the interpretation of quoted speech is marked by two principal procedures: a) on the basis of their assumed authenticity, quotations are frequently employed as a way to gain direct access to expressions of Israelite religion; b) in most studies, the approach to quoted speech is deUined by extracting the quoted words from their literary environment and by assigning them to a Uixed number of categories. Prompted by the exegetical studies by Wolff (1937) and Overholt (1979), the thesis utilizes Sternberg’s publications on quotation theory in order to confront these two central domains of authenticity and categorization. Quoted speech is deUined as a dualistic structure in which the inset (quoted utterance) is subsumed under the frame (quoting context) in order to serve its perspective and rhetorical goals. The dynamics of the frame-­‐inset relationship renders appeals to authenticity and direct access misguided: every quotation is subject to the forces of contextual mediation, inUluence, and shaping. The inseparable bond between frame and inset also challenges the approach of extraction and categorization. As a corrective to previous approaches, the thesis thus constructs the argument that prophetic speech quotations must always be interpreted within their literary context. To demonstrate the accuracy and implications of this methodological discussion and argument, the remainder of the thesis analyzes the twelve quotations in Jeremiah 2.1-­‐3.5. Special attention is devoted to the contextual integration of the quoted words and to the ways in which they are utilized to serve their frames. In close interaction with previous studies on this passage, this exegesis demonstrates the beneUits of a reading that takes into account the contextually conditioned nature of prophetic speech quotations. At the end of the thesis, the results of this analysis are summarized and related to other quotations in the Book of Jeremiah and other prophetic texts. The contribution of the thesis relates to the exegesis and understanding of the speech quotations and text of Jeremiah 2.1.