The purpose of this thesis is to explore the transactional and transformative relationships between automobiles and their owners/drivers. Using the sport/utility vehicle as a case study, I show how both the automobile and its user go through transformations of meaning. These transformations take place on a number of levels. The one that I am most concerned with is how the sport/utility vehicle changes the owner's conception of his or her identity. To elucidate these relationships, I appropriate Michel Foucault's concept of "technologies of the self". I use C. S. Peirce's work on the theory of signs, in conjunction with the work of several other pragmatists (including John Dewey, G. H. Mead, and Joseph Pitt) to fill out this Foucaultian idea. This forms the theoretical core of my essay. I go on to analyze the historical formation of the sport/utility vehicle, beginning in World War II through the present. I then bring together the history and my theoretical perspective. In this analysis we find that the sport/utility vehicle is a way for middle-class suburbanites to transform themselves in world they perceive as increasingly dangerous. / Master of Science

The purpose of the study is to enumerate the representations in high school geometry, to narrow the focus to the most common ones, and to describe how the common representations are coordinated. To achieve this purpose, I analyzed several sections of a popular geometry textbook using thematic analysis, semiotics, and a pragmatic approach to capture the variety of representations into categories and to use descriptive statistics to narrow the focus to the most common representations and coordinations. The major findings are the bringing into prominence of representations like textbook gestures, ordered pairs, written language, tables, and their uses, and at the same time understating the importance of less common representations of physical objects. Other important findings are: (1) exposing which representations are most often coordinated like written language (WL), diagrams (D), numbers (N), and ordered pairs (OP), short geometry symbols (Sy), e.g., WL to D, WL+Sy to D, and N+OP to D; (2) some of the mechanisms in that coordination like using, numbers, point names, and textbook gestures, which include color, arrows, font changes, etc. Clarifying the representations in high school geometry and narrowing the scope to the most common ones allows researchers to study various combinations of representations and their impact students. / Teaching & Learning

In this project, I endeavor to bridge the gap between these two by analyzing "Latinx" as a symbol that functions distinctly when employed as a personal or group identity. My argument for this thesis can be broken into two main parts: its significance as an identity, and its tangibility. As a group identity, I argue "Latinx" represents a social movement for liberation, visibility, and minority allyship. While this is not unconnected to its personal meaning, individual embodiment of the term involves the performance and realization of the intersectional. In other words, it gives those with overlapping queer and Latina/o identities a space to exist without compromising the validity of either identity. In addition to this, I argue that instead of representing the unknowable, "Latinx" is made tangible through the community it names. As such, the term itself, its symbolism, and controversial reception have all only been viable because of the agency of the individuals that have adopted "Latinx" as a way to communicate their identities. My analysis considers the relation between these two parts in order to understand "Latinx" as a symbol and community.

No description available.

Note:

Recent research on Japanese mimetics examines which part of speech the mimetic occurs as. An individual mimetic can appear as a noun, an adjective, an adverb, or a verb (Tsujimura & Deguchi 2007, 340). It is assumed by many scholars that mimetic words essentially function as adverbs (Inose 2007, 98). Few data-based studies exist that quantify the relative frequency of mimetic words in different word categories. Akita (2009) and Caldwell (2009a) have performed small scale or preliminary studies of this aspect of Japanese mimetics. The use of mimetics in other grammatical function categories has been attributed to the polysemous nature of Japanese mimetics (Key 1997). The common explanation is that the flexibility of mimetics is probably due to their iconicity (Sugiyama 2005, 307; Akita 2009; among others). Yet the definition of "iconicity" is often incomplete or cursory in nature. Newmeyer, Nuckolls, Kohn, and Key all accept or suggest the philosophies of C.S. Peirce as a possible explanation or source for understanding the iconicity of mimetic words. The purpose of this thesis is twofold: first, examine the prominent semantic theories regarding Japanese mimetics and show how the philosophies of Peirce can add clarity; second, examine overall occurrence of 1700+ mimetics per parts of speech using the data from the Kotonoha (http://www.kotonoha.gr.jp) and JpWaC (http://corpus.leeds.ac.uk/) Corpora. Peirce identified three distinct icon types: icons of abstract quality (1-1-1), icons of physical instantiation (1-1-2), and icons of abstract relation (1-1-3). These three types correspond to three distinct types of mimetic word: phonomimes (abstract sound qualities), typically predicate modifiers, phenomimes (physical actions), more often nouns or noun modifiers, and psychomimes, (relational), more often verbs or parts of verbs. Corpus data validates the observation that mimetics are usually functioning as predicate modifiers, but also supports Akita's hypothesis that psychomimes are incorporated into verbs more readily than other mimetics, which in turn is explained by the Peircean analysis.

Cultural meaning has been a critical dimension of landscape design over several thousands of years. Recent literature submits that the strength of cultural meaning has waned over the last century. It is also suggested, however, that the landscape architect is in a unique position to strengthen the status of cultural and symbolic meaning in the landscape (Comer 1990). Before this can transpire, it is necessary for the professional landscape architect to have a clear understanding of what constitutes meaning in the landscape. Theory is discussed as purveying a structural foundation comprised of principals and axioms for understanding meaning. Semiotics or semiology, the science of signs and symbols, offers one systematic approach for analyzing and understanding cultural meaning. This approach, executed extensively in a number of cultural disciplines, has no recognized foundation in 'the discipline of landscape architecture. The fundamental aspect of semiotics is the sign or the sign model. The research reported herein begins the construction of a foundation for semiotics in the discipline of landscape architecture through the examination of three classic sign models as they apply to a contemporary landscape. The Vietnam Veterans' Memorial in Washington D.C. is analyzed in light of the sign models of Sassure and Peirce and the glossematic model of Hjelmslev. Each model is applied to the individual design aspects of 'the memorial in an attempt to understand the cultural meaning embodied in the monument. Based on the criteria, depth of analysis and clarity of language, the assets and liabilities of each model is determined through both an individual analysis and a comparative analysis. / Master of Landscape Architecture

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.