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This thesis applies the construction grammar framework to a corpus-based study of the development of post-verbal ge in Chinese. Ge in Mandarin Chinese is widely considered as a general classifier (Li and Thompson 1981, Zhu 1982, Lü 1984). As a classifier, the main function of ge is to categorize the entity denoted by the following noun and enable numeral attachment. Thus, ge is typically preceded by numerals and followed by referential nouns. In a post-verbal position, when the numeral before ge is yi ‘one’, the numeral tends to be omitted. The ‘bare ge’ in post-verbal position is found co-occurring with non-referential nouns and non-nominal elements, such as predicative adjectives and verb phrases. The function of the post-verbal ge with these atypical collocations has attracted much attention in Chinese linguistic research (Zhang, 2003; Lü, 1984; Biq, 2004). One of the features of the previous research is that the researchers focus on a sub-set of post-verbal ge variations and try to provide a generalized claim about all instances of post-verbal ge used in Mandarin. Another feature is that the research focus is on ge alone and little attention has been paid to its co-texts and contexts of use. In addition, very little work has been done on the emergence of the mysterious function of post-verbal ge or the internal links between ge as a classifier and this new function. The main task of this thesis is to identify the semantic and syntactic properties of the post-verbal ge with atypical collocations and to explore how ge developed these properties in the post-verbal position. Within a construction grammar framework, the post-verbal ge with this special function and its co-texts are identified as a construction with a telic and bounded aspectual meaning. This [V ge X] construction of telic and bounded aspectual meaning is different from the classifier construction in terms of morpho-syntactic features as well as semantic and pragmatic properties. With the constructional approach, this research shows that the unit to which changes apply is not ge alone but the [V ge X] construction and the morpho-syntactic and semantic relations between these three elements have changed over time. Furthermore, the investigation into the mechanism of these changes also reveals that the development of micro-constructions of the [V ge X] construction of telic and bounded aspectual meaning occurred in a constructional network, which links different constructions with the [V ge X] schema.

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"Using the structure of the liturgical calendar and the lives of the saints for inspiration, Kevin Brown explores not only faith, but subjects ranging from love to childhood and from grammar to grace. The saints' backgrounds serve as metaphors for our lives today, as we struggle with our mortality and our morality. In these poems, Brown is able to laugh at himself and his failings while reminding us of our own. He points out where our various approaches to faith make us better people and where we fail to follow what we tell others to do. In these poems, the miraculous becomes ordinary even as ordinary events and people are imbued with the sacred, granting readers hope for themselves and for the world."--BACK COVER / https://dc.etsu.edu/alumni_books/1007/thumbnail.jpg

The War on Drugs has been a contested issue in the United States for decades. Many believe that African Americans are targeted by the government and become victims of the penal system as a result of anti-drug policies. The purpose of this ethnographic study was to explore the impact of the war on drugs on African American men, women, and young adults from their perspectives. Racial threat theory provided the framework for the study. Data were collected through interviews with and observations of 30 African American participants who had experiences directly and indirectly with the War on Drugs. Participant were recruited through purposeful and snowball sampling. Results of coding analysis by way of NVivo revealed that that many African Americans experience mental health issues (specifically depression and anxiety) due to direct and indirect consequences of drug penalties. Findings also showed that fair sentencing is needed for African Americans, and that African Americans need to come together to impact social change in their communities. Findings may be used to promote drug policy reform, rehabilitation for African American offenders and their families by addressing the mental health challenges individuals face directly and indirectly due to the drug penalties; in addition to increasing the access to these mental health resources. Furthermore, political changes for decriminalization of marijuana and commuting sentences for those penalized for the drug are apart the social changes that would lessen the impact the War on Drugs has on African Americans.

Many transitional challenges have affected female veterans after returning from serving in the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. The number of females joining the military and becoming involved in combat has increased within the past 10 years. Research exists on the transitional challenges of male veterans. However, little research exists on the reintegration challenges faced by female veterans. As these females become veterans, they are more visible in the Veterans Affairs Health Care System. Given this increase in number of female veterans, it is important to address transitional challenges experienced by females who served in Operations Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF/OEF) postdeployment. For female veterans, the transitional experience will impact their responses to readjustment in civilian life. Selder's transitional theory and Schlossberg theory provided the framework for this phenomenological study. Using snowball sampling, 5 female veterans who served in combat during the past 5 years were selected and interviewed about their lived experiences using an open-ended interview guide. Data from the interview responses were inductively analyzed for themes and patterns. Using NVivo11 for management of data analysis, the interview responses were transcribed, categorized, coded, and clustered, revealing 5 themes: reflection on deployment, health issues, support from family, environmental concerns, and readjustment into roles. The key findings revealed that female veterans who served in combat experienced complex challenges after reintegrating back into civilian life. The findings may contribute to positive social change by informing treatment plans and support programs for female veterans reintegrating back into civilian life.

While Karl Marx's concept of time has not received the same attention as other elements of his work, it is nonetheless an important aspect of his idea about history. Of those studies which have dealt with this problem, three questions stand. First, to what degree does time contain transhistorical and historically specific elements? Secondly, to what extent does human agency or deterministic forces underpin the construction of historical time? Thirdly, what is the nature of the relationship between absolute and relative time? In attempting to answer these questions, this thesis argues that Marx saw each of these elements as playing an important role in the constitution of historical time.In particular, this thesis argues that Marx demonstrates that time is manifested in the material world through a process that expresses transhistorical features in the emanation of time through human creative activity, and historically specific elements in the socially constructed forms of time that reflect the material conditions of the particular society in which they appear. It suggests, moreover, that he shows how time is shaped by both human agency, in the form of class struggle over the appropriation and control of time, as well by deterministic forces as seen in the role of institutional structures and the movement and reproduction of capital. Again, it endeavours to show that Marx develops the notion that absolute time, which is an historically specific concept, plays a crucial role in capitalist society as a measure of exchange-value and labour time, and that it co-exists with relative time, which emanates through different production processes as multiple and discontinuous temporalities. It further argues that Marx saw capitalist society as giving rise to an historical time that is universal and directional, and that is changing in its nature in response to changes in ++ / methods and relations of production.More generally, this thesis attempts to demonstrate that Marx's ideas about historical time have the inherent ability to transcend their place and time to be relevant to contemporary historical interpretation. Such an approach, it suggests, can help historians to understand the operation of historical time in the different phases of the development of capitalist society, the nature and functioning of temporal logics of non-capitalist societies, and how changes in the forms of time occur within and between different social forms. Above all, it argues that his concept of time is highly relevant to the interpretation of history in the postmodern phase of capitalist development and that, indeed, his idea of time both shares a number of similarities with Michel Foucault's idea about time, as well as goes beyond such an explanation.

The thesis comprises a screen play for a one hour film and dissertation examining artistic issues in the intersection of biography and history in fictional films. The aim was firstly to broaden the definition of what is involved in filming historical fictions, in terms of how both characters and historical settings are conceived. Secondly the work explores the artifice of historical representation on the screen through case studies of films which are experiments in filming history and biography. Thirdly both the screenplay and the dissertation consider the implication of fictions which deal with minor historical figures. Primarily the thesis elucidates conceptions of historical artiface in the cinema advanced by films themselves, films which had either a paradigmatic or an idiosyncratic role in the development of certain artistic practices. Films, like works of written fiction, have in many respects invented new meanings for, and associations with, the past. The thesis concludes that the different conceptions of historical artiface embodied in fictional films have implications for our sense of the past. / Master of Arts (Hons)

Thesis (Ph.D.)--York University, 2003. Graduate Programme in English. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 358-375). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/yorku/fullcit?pNQ99175