In its current sense, courting means 'wooing'; but its original meaning was 'residing at court'. The amorous sense of the word developed from a purely social sense in most major European languages around the turn of the sixteenth century, a time when, according to some historians, Western states were gradually moving toward the genesis of absolutism and the establishment of courts as symbols and agents of centralised monarchical power. This study examines the shift in meaning of the words courtship and to court, seeking the origins of courtship in court society, with particular reference to the court and literature of the Elizabethan period. Chapter 1 charts the traditional association between courts and love, first in the historiography of 'courtly love', and then in historical and sociological accounts of court society. Recent studies have questioned the quasi- Marxist notion that the amorous practices of the court and the 'bourgeois' ideals of harmonious, fruitful marriage were antithetical, and this thesis examines whether the development of 'romantic love' has a courtly as well as a bourgeois provenance. Chapter 2 conducts a lexical study of the semantic change of the verb to court in French, Italian, and English, with an extended synchronic analysis of the word in Elizabethan literature. Chapter 3 goes on to diversify the functional classification required by semantic analysis and considers the implications of courtship as a social, literary and rhetorical act in the works of Lyly and Sidney. It considers the 'humanist' dilemma of a language that was aimed primarily at seduction, and suggests that, in the largely discursive mode of the courtly questione d'amore, courtship could be condoned as a verbalisation of love, and a postponement of the satisfaction of desire. Chapter 4 then moves away from the distinction between humanist and courtly concerns, to examine the practice of courtship at the court of Elizabeth I. It focuses on allegorical representations of Desire in courtly pageants, and suggests that the ambiguities inherent in the 'legitimised' Desire of Elizabethan shows exemplify the situation of poets and courtiers who found themselves at the court of a female sovereign. In chapter 5 discussions of the equivocation inveterate to courtly texts leads to a study of The Faerie Queene, and specifically to Spenser's presentation of courtship and courtly society in the imperialist themes of Book II and their apparent subversion in Book VI. The study concludes with a brief appraisal of Spenser's Amoretti as a model for the kind of courtship that has been under review.

The purpose of this study was to assess the effectiveness of defensive driving as a preventative strategy for road traffic violations and collisions in Zimbabwe. A sample of one hundred defensive driving graduates was used in the study. The descriptive survey method was used and data were collected using a questionnaire schedule. Literature review revealed that the majority of similar s udies by other researchers indicate that defensive driving is effective in preventing traffic violations and traffic collisions. The major findings of the present study showed that: (a) The defensive driving course is effective in preventing traffic violations and collisions; and (b) The defensive driving course should be compulsory in Zimbabwe. In view of these findings, this researcher urges the Traffic Safety Council of Zimbabwe to request the government to make legislation that compels every motorist to attend the defensive driving course. The same organisation should start conducting research on road traffic accidents. / Criminology and Security Science / MA (Criminology)

This thesis investigates the twelfth-century Latin poem entitled Urbanus magnus or 'The Book of the Civilised Man', attributed to Daniel of Beccles. This is a poem dedicated to the cultivation of a civilised life, aimed primarily at clerics although its use extends to nobility, and specifically the noble householder. This thesis focuses on the text as a primary source for an understanding of social life in medieval England, and uses the content of the text to explore issues such as the medieval household, social hierarchy, the body, and food and diet. Urbanus magnus is commonly referred to as a 'courtesy text'. This thesis seeks to understand Urbanus magnus outside of that attribution, and to situate the text in the context of twelfth and thirteenth-century England. Thus far, scholarship of courtesy literature has focused on later texts such as thirteenth-century vernacular 'courtesy texts' or humanist works as exemplified by Erasmus's De civilitate morum puerilium. This scholarship looks back to the twelfth century and sees texts such as Urbanus magnus as 'early Latin courtesy texts'. This teleological view relegates such earlier texts to positions at the genesis of the genre and blindly assumes that they belong to the corpus of 'courtesy literature'. This neglects both their individual importance and their respective origins. This thesis examines Urbanus magnus as a didactic text which contains elements of 'courtesy literature', but also displays moral and ethical concerns. At the heart of the thesis is the question: should Urbanus magnus be considered as part of the genre of courtesy literature? This question does not have a simple answer, but this thesis shows that some elements and sections of Urbanus magnus do conform to the characteristics of courtesy literature. However, there are further sections that reflect other literary traditions. In addition to morals and ethics, Urbanus magus reflects other genres such as satire, and also reveals social issues in twelfth-century England such as the rise of anti-curiale sentiment and resentment of upward social mobility. This thesis provides an examination of Urbanus magnus through the most prevalent themes in the text. Firstly, it explores the dynamics of the medieval household, along with issues such as social mobility and hierarchy. Secondly, it focuses on the depiction of the body and bodily restraint, covering topics such as speech, bodily emissions, and sexual activity. Thirdly, it discusses food and diet, including table manners, food consumption, and dietary effects of foodstuffs. The penultimate chapter looks at the manuscript dissemination of the text to investigate the different uses which Urbanus magnus found in subsequent centuries. The delineation of Urbanus magnus as part of the genre of courtesy literature ignores the social, cultural, and literary impact on the creation of the text. In response, this thesis has two aims. The first is to minimise the notion of genre, and treat Urbanus magnus as a text in its own right, and as a product of the twelfth century. The second shows that Urbanus magnus reflects both continuity and change in society in England following the Norman Conquest.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-03-15T19:38:02Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 RAFAEL FELIX ALVES.pdf: 2156088 bytes, checksum: a82e527c69001eb9cee5a989bde3b8dc (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-06-23 / The process of image binarization consists of transforming a color image into a new one with only two colors: black and white. This process is an important step for many modern applica-tions such as Check Clearance, Optical Character Recognition and Handwriting Recognition. Improvements in the automatic process of image binarization represent impacts on applications that rely on this step. The present work proposes a methodology for automatic image binariza-tion. This methodology applies supervised learning algorithms to binarize images and consists of the following steps: images database construction; extraction of the region of interest; pat-terns matrix construction; pattern labelling; database sampling; and classifier training. Experi-mental results are presented using a database of Brazilian bank check images and the competi-tion database DIBCO 2009. In conclusion, the proposal demonstrated to be superior to some of its competitors in terms of accuracy and F-Measure. / O processo de binarização de imagens consiste na transformação de uma imagem colorida em uma nova imagem com apenas duas cores: uma que representa o fundo, outra o objeto de interesse. Este processo é uma importante etapa de diversas aplicações modernas, como a Compensação de Cheque, o Reconhecimento Ótico de Caracteres (do inglês Optical Characterer Recognition) e o Reconhecimento de Texto Manuscrito (do inglês Handwritten Recognition, HWR). Dado que melhorias no processo automático de binarização de imagens representam impactos diretos nas aplicações que dependem desta etapa o presente trabalho propõe uma metodologia para realizar a binarização automática de imagens. A proposta realiza a binarização de forma automática baseado no uso de algoritmos de aprendizagem supervisionada, tais como redes neurais artificiais e árvore de decisão. O processo como um todo consiste das seguintes etapas: construção do banco de imagens; extração da região de interesse; construção da matriz de padrões; rotulação dos padrões; amostragem da base; e treinamento do classificador. Resultados experimentais são apresentados utilizando uma base de imagens de cheques de bancos brasileiros (CMC-7 e montante de cortesia) e a base de imagens da competição DIBCO 2009. Em conclusão, a metodologia proposta apresentou-se competitiva aos métodos da literatura destacando-se em aplicações onde o processamento de imagens está restrito a uma categoria de imagens, como é o caso das imagens de cheques de bancos brasileiros. A presente metodologia apresenta resultados experimentais entre as três primeiras posições e melhores resultados em relação a medida F-Measure quando comparada com as demais.

In this thesis we deal with pragmatic aspects of language, specifically studying the classification of speech acts and conversational implicature. The theoretical part is concerned with the work of J. L. Austin, J. R. Searle and M. Grepl with an emphasis on differences in the classification of illocutionary acts. Then we deal with the maxim of politeness and pleasantries types according to P. Brown and S. C. Lewinson. In the practical part using analysis of advertising headlines and slogans we are trying to demonstrate the functionality of the classification of speech acts by individual authors. We try to also confirm the performative nature of these statements also implicitly expressed performative verbs. We are interested in the presence of the maxims of politeness in these texts and the consequent shift between different types of courtesy. The aim is to highlight the issue of classification of illocutionary acts and try to outline improvements to this shift. The assumption is that, although the classification struggling with inaccuracies, we thereunder able to distinguish different types of repetitive speeches. To complement these findings, we want to prove performative character of advertising texts, even assuming that there will be implicitly expressed performative verb and the presence of...

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Workplace incivility has been shown to have negative organizational and individual effects on people who experience this low-intensity deviant behavior. Research has recently begun to look at incivility as a form of modern discrimination that may be used to target out-groups within organizations, where out-groups are broadly defined. The first goal of the current study was to examine the impact of incivility on work-linked couples. Second, the present study sought to determine the effect that experiences of WLC incivility had on individual and organizational outcomes: burnout, job satisfaction, and turnover intentions. Finally, although the outcomes of incivility have been well-established, the antecedents of this phenomenon have been examined considerably less. Therefore, the present study sought to examine and explain the relationship between a climate for formality, gender, and WLC incivility. To accomplish these goals a snowball sampling method was used to recruit a total of 86 participants for an online survey. Hierarchal regression and bootstrapping mediation were used to analyze the data. Results showed that WLC incivility was predictive of burnout, job dissatisfaction, and turnover intentions. Furthermore, both burnout and job satisfaction were shown to mediate the relationship between WLC incivility and turnover intentions. The theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed as well as potential areas for future research.

This paper explores issues of civility in liberal democracy, and in particular, how civility and civic engagement must be regenerated in order to forward the democratic ideals of equal rights, citizen equality and collective self-government in a meaningful way. Liberal democracy presupposes a level of civility in order to uphold standards of individual liberty and freedom, however as a theory it fails to compel citizens to support levels of mutual respect. An etymological exploration of the term civility introduces the work of puritan theologian Roger Williams, whose early writings on individual liberty as well as the role of civility and civic engagement can inform popular conversations about civility in modern democracy. This leads to an analysis of Rawlsian liberalism, where Rawls seeks to construct a robust civil society by tying individual duty of civility to an idealization of citizenship. Final analysis explores the possibility of a modern civil liberalism, as influenced by Roger Williams. A liberal civil realm must recognize the mutual reliance between individual freedom and a collective common good; this will compel citizens to choose to preserve the freedom of all citizens through civil engagement and dialogue. This ideal shares important intersections with Jürgen Habermas’ theory of deliberative democracy, but Williams’ replaces Habermas’ notion of higher-level intersubjectivity with an appeal to individual freedom of conscience. By doing so, the preservation of individual freedom of conscience requires citizen-commitment to an active and engaged civil sphere, making the ideal of civility richer than that of Habermas’ theory. Replacing the duty of civility with a commitment to the preservation and protection of individual liberty through civil dialogue is the best way to rescue modern liberal democracy from its current state of incivility, which threatens the liberty and freedom of citizens and undermines the collective common good.

In an era when adversarial politics is condemned for either being archaic or right-wing extremism, proposing that incivility can be used to counter existing hegemonies, despite its potential to incite violence, is proposing an unorthodox project. By rejecting foundationalist approaches to the current incivility crisis, this study sees an opportunity for it to act as a populist rapture that defies simple binary categorisation and deconstructs incivility, at an ontological level, to reveal the deep meanings and concealed causes that contrast the grand narrative of hate speech. After an overview in chapter one, the study continues with a theoretical review of literature on incivility, guided by the works of radical democracy theorists who universalise what seems particular to Kenya. This review is followed by the description of Bakhtin’s concept of carnivalesque as utani, a joking relationship common in East Africa. For its theoretical perspective, the study is guided by Mouffe’s theory of agonistic democracy and a research method developed by transforming Laclau and Mouffe’s (1985) work in Hegemony and Socialist Strategy: Towards a Radical Democratic, into a method for Discourse Analysis. Various concepts from Laclau and Mouffe’s work are used to innovate an explanation of how political practices in social media, both linguistic and material texts, enhance incivility and the struggle to fix a regime’s preferred meaning. Guided by Laclau and Mouffe’s Discourse Analysis, the study describes how the government is using linguistic tools and physical technologies to repair the dislocation caused by incivility in social media in its attempts to re-create hegemonic practices. Without engaging in naïve reversal of the polarities between acceptable and unacceptable speech, and considering that at the ontological level politics is a friend—enemy relation, the study argues that incivility in social media is part of the return of politics in a post-political era, rather than simple unacceptable speech. While remaining aware of the dangers of extreme speech, but without reinforcing the anti-political rational consensus narrative, incivility is seen as having disruptive counterhegemonic potential, that is, if we consider the powerplay inherent in democracy. It means that binary opposition is blind to the way power produces, and is countered through unacceptable speech. / Communication Science / D. Litt. et Phil. (Communication Science)

The purpose of the study was to explore and describe leadership at Matlala District Hospital in Limpopo, a province of South Africa. The study was critical for a better understanding of leadership styles adopted in different situations (hospital, district or province) at Matlala District Hospital in the Sekhukhune district. The main objectives of the study were described in chapter 1 on leadership styles (transformational and transactional), to determine how best to investigate leadership styles at Matlala District Hospital, to determine what the current leadership style at Matlala District Hospital is and to propose the most appropriate leadership style for Matlala District Hospital. A mixed-methods approach was used with an exploratory and descriptive design. In terms of the qualitative methodology, purposive sampling was used as the managers were selected on their knowledge of the issues under investigation. Firstly, an interview schedule was developed and used to collect data at Matlala District Hospital. The sample size was 82. Interviews were conducted with 12 members of the executive committee who were regarded as senior managers of the hospital. Secondly, the researcher distributed the questionnaires to participants of the hospital that met the inclusion criteria. Seventy participants completed questionnaires, which were collected upon completion. A 100% response rate was reached. Thematic analysis was used to assess the qualitative data. With regard to quantitative data analysis, descriptive, frequency tables and charts and inferential statistics were used. According to the results, those managers who felt that resources had be provided felt strongly that leadership at the hospital should be improved. Accordingly, guidelines for improving leadership at Matlala District Hospital have to be developed to ensure that mitigating factors are in place for the improvement of the situation at the hospital. / Public Administration and Management / M. P. A. (Public Administration)