Previous studies on children’s acquisition of depicting verbs in signed languages have chiefly studied the use of classifiers in verbs of motion and location, particularly the order in which the different classes of handshape are acquired. The age of the children in these studies have ranged from age three to thirteen, and an important finding has been that classifier constructions are not fully acquired until early adolescence. Most of these studies have used an elicitation tool to investigate the production and comprehension of classifiers, but have not provided any adult target norms of the test items when scoring children’s achievement. The present dissertation provides a detailed description of both adults’ and children’s verb constructions in descriptions of cutting and breaking events in Swedish Sign Language (SSL), specifically focusing on the number of hands used in signing, handshape category and hand activity, which has not been previously described for any sign language. As part of this study, 14 deaf adults (ages 20–72) and 11 deaf children (2;1–6;6) of deaf parents, all native-users of SSL, performed a task that involved describing 53 video clips of cutting and breaking events. The clips show an event in which an actor separates material, either with the aid of a tool or without. Additionally, some clips show an entity separating by itself without an actor being involved. The adults described the events with depicting verb constructions that are produced with two hands. The analysis of the handshapes produced three categories: substitutor, manipulator and descriptor. The most frequent construction in the description of events without a tool was two acting manipulators (depicting a hand handling an object), whereas in descriptions of events with a tool the combinations were acting substitutor or manipulator with a non-acting manipulator. The acting hand referred to the tool and the non-acting manipulator to the affected entity. In descriptions of events without an actor, either two substitutors or two manipulators were used. In addition to depicting verb constructions, the descriptions also contained resultative complements, i.e. signs carrying information about the result of the activity being carried out. The complements were either lexical signs or some form of depicting verb construction. Similar observations have not been noted for any other signed language. In the manner of the adults, the children used depicting verb constructions in descriptions of cutting and breaking events (681 tokens), but they also used pointing and lexical signs (64 tokens). Nearly half of the verb constructions that were used by the children corresponded to the adult target forms. The majority of the constructions describing events without a tool corresponded to the adult target forms using two acting manipulators, even among the youngest informants. In events with a tool, only a third of the constructions corresponded to the adult target forms (emerging at 4;8 – 5;0); the remaining two-thirds were deviating constructions in terms of number of hands, handshape category and hand activity. Resultative complement are sparsely used by children (57 tokens), the most chosen type of complement being lexical signs. Pervasive features of children’s constructions were the addition of contact between the hands and a preference for substitutors, something not found in adults’ constructions. These features were elucidated within the framework of Real Space blending theory, with the study showing that children first use visible blended entities and that invisible blended entities do not emerge until 4;8–5;0. / <p>Disputationen teckenspråkstolkas</p>

From the beginning of the twenty first century vampires begin to appear in other genres other than the horror and their image in popular media starts to change. The changes begin not only in the image but also the perception of vampire in popular media shifts into new directions. These changes are interconnected and influence each other. The thesis will analyse the ways vampires are portrayed in films and TV series from the end of the twenties century until recent times. The changes happening will be explored across different genres and across time. The thesis will then attempt to examine whether there is a pattern of trends within the observed forms, and whether these trends are common across the different genres.

The first volume of the Academy project 'Buddhist Murals of Kucha on the Northern Silk Road' contains three studies that show what information can be gained from the paintings. The first study by Ines Konczak-Nagel, “Painted Buddhist Cosmology: The Pictorial Programme of Central Pillar Caves in Kizil”, demonstrates how Buddhist cosmology, always seen in connection with the Buddhist path of salvation, is represented in the selection of topics and the arrangement of paintings on the cave walls. The second study by the same author, “Representations of Architecture and Architectural Elements on the Wall Paintings of Kucha”, is part of an ongoing extensive analysis of the material culture depicted in the paintings. The architecture represented provides insights into the local Tocharian architecture of Kucha, which has since disappeared. The study of Monika Zin “The Monk Kāśyapa in Kucha, the First Council, and the Furtherance of Buddhist Teaching” examines interesting extensions within the paintings illustrating the events connected with Buddha’s death, the many-scenic representations of the first council in Rājagṛha. There are good reason to believe that the monk Mahākāśyapa who was supposed to convoke the summit was worshiped in Kucha as a saint and guarantor of the preservation of Buddhist teachings.:Foreword by the Series Editors (Eli Franco and Monika Zin) I. Painted Buddhist Cosmology: The Pictorial Programme of Central Pillar Caves in Kizil (Ines Konczak-Nagel) Bibliography List of Illustrations with Acknowledgements II. Representations of Architecture and Architectural Elements in the Wall Paintings of Kucha (Ines Konczak-Nagel) 1 City Fortifications in 1st Indo-Iranian Style Paintings: Kuśinagara 2 City Fortifications in 2nd Indo-Iranian Style Paintings: Rājagṛha and Kuśinagara 2.1 Representations of the City of Rājagṛha 2.2 Representations of the City of Kuśinagara 2.3 Analysis of the Architectural Elements of City Fortifications 2.3.1 Walls 2.3.2 Loopholes 2.3.3 Crenellated Wall Walks 2.3.4 Towers 2.3.5 Gates and Access Paths 2.3.6 Decorative Elements 2.4 Conclusion 3 Representations of Fortifications of Other Cities in Kuchean Paintings 3.1 Depictions of City Fortifications with Towers along the Wall 3.1.1 Depictions of the City of nirvāṇa 3.1.2 Depictions of the City of Gods on Mount Meru 3.2 Simplified Depictions of City Fortifications 3.2.1 A Wall Painting in the 1st Indo-Iranian Style Showing the Story of Śroṇakoṭikarṇa 3.2.2 Wall Paintings in the 2nd Indo-Iranian Style Showing the Story of Maitrakanyaka 3.2.3 Wall Paintings in the 2nd Indo-Iranian Style Showing a City Fortification Occupied by Demons 3.3 Conclusion 4 Representations of Isolated City Gates and Palace Gates 4.1 Exceptions 4.2 Décor 4.3 Conclusion 5 Architectural Elements in and on Residential Buildings 5.1 Pillars 5.2 Ceilings 5.3 Windows 5.4 Balustrades 5.5 Conclusion 6 General Conclusion Bibliography List of Illustrations with Acknowledgements III. The Monk Kāśyapa in Kucha, the First Council, and the Furtherance of Buddhist Teaching. With an Appendix of Primary Sources Concerning the First Council as Given by Przyluski, Compiled by Fang Wang (Monika Zin) The Cycle within the Cycle: The Council of Rājagṛha in Kizil The Wall for Monks and the Cremation The Characteristics and Worship of the Monk Mahākāśyapa Mahākāśyapa in Kucha Appendix Bibliography List of Illustrations with Acknowledgements Index Figures

This thesis investigates the aesthetic interpretation of learning processes in television produced and broadcast in Sweden between 1956 and 1969. The thesis explores how these programmes are linked to concepts of Bildung by their aesthetics, by which the intangible cultural heritage is entrusted in the form of oral and visual traditions, storytelling and games/play, where learning is the common denominator. The programmes are divided into three categories: aesthetics of attentiveness, aesthetics of tale/storytelling and aesthetics of play. The detailed, thick, descriptions of the programmes emanating from the close-readings shall be, together with the aesthetic categories that I have formulated and expressed in a model, regarded as the survey’s key findings. The starting point of the central theoretical model of the thesis is André Malraux’s idea of an imaginary museum of imagination in which photo reproductions can constitute a collective memory, and thus bepart of an intangible heritage. Based on this idea of ​​an imaginary museum, I have constructed a conceptual model called a medial museum, valid in its own time as well as for posterity. The theoretical models that the study gain support from are characterized by phenomenological and hermeneutical perspectives, as I refer to  a phenomenological-hermeneutical method when analysing the programmes, and at the same time underline the phenomenological-hermeneutically based aesthetics in the analysed programmes, where aesthetic interpretation of learning processes in terms of attentiveness, tale and play is of a phenomenological-hermeneutic character. For a broad perspective on learning processes, theoretical support is acquired both from the German philosopher Hans-Georg Gadamer and his hermeneutic of traditions and from the French philosopher Jacques Rancière and his emancipatory ideas of pedagogy and aesthetics. Furthermore, the French philosopher Paul Ricœur and his thoughts on importance of storytelling for knowledge formation have had significant influence on the work. Regarding the concepts of play, I have made use of both Gadamer’s ideas of ​​art experience as play and of Donald W. Winnicott’s theories about play as transitional area. In the programmes’ aesthetics is found a depiction of a broadened interpretation of Bildung, where processes of learning comprise a direct sensual perceiving, attentiveness, storytelling/tale and play. Moreover, within the programmes’ managing of an intangible cultural heritage, I have found an expression of an interplay between modernity and tradition, with emphasis on the historical significance of the present, and rooting in the past of everyday life, where expectation on the future and the memory of the past can co-exist. To summarise, the study suggests the possibility to understand aesthetics as an epistemology using sensuous experience as basis for a conceptual knowledge about how to understand the world. Thereby, one can comprehend aesthetics as pedagogy per se.