AN ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS OF SUSANNE BÖHM, for the Master of Arts degree in LINGUISTICS, presented on APRIL 12, 2010, at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. TITLE: CLICKS IN XHOSA AND NAMA: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS MAJOR PROFESSOR: Dr. Karen Baertsch ABSTRACT. This study is a comparative analysis of Xhosa and Nama clicks. It contains an acoustic pilot study for which one Nama speaker and one Xhosa speaker were recorded. Differences and similarities in place of articulation and accompaniment were measured between clicks in word-initial position for both languages. Previous studies showed that clicks with the same accompaniment are similar across both languages. For the clicks measured in the study, this was not exclusively the case. Overall, measuring differences and similarities between clicks of the two languages, a larger sample with more speakers is needed, which exceeds the scope of this thesis.

Nama is spoken in South West Africa by approximately 115 000 people of different ethnic groups. The numerically biggest groups speaking the Nama language are the Damara (75 000) and the Nama (38 000). Certain smaller Bushman groups use Nama as well. Nama is the last survivor of the "classical Hottentott" (Khoekhoen) languages that is still spoken on a fairly extensive basis. The differences between the dialect spoken by the Nama, and the dialect spoken by the Damara south of the Huab River are negligible. This dissertation is, however, explicitly confined to Nama as spoken by the Nama people. This proforma limitation has to be made, as the material on syntax was recorded and checked with Nama informants only. The claim by certain Damara that they speak "Damara", a language not to be confused with Nama, can in our opinion not be upheld on linguistic grounds. Object and objective: Several handbooks have been published on Nama. Yet no significant progress has been made in recent years in the understanding of the nature of this language. Ever since Vedder's handwritten manuscript appeared in 1909, his "school-grammar" approach to Nama has been adopted by subsequent authors. Olpp revised Vedder's handbook in 1917. It was printed some forty-five years later, in 1963. In 1965 Rust's handbook appeared, which is based on the manuscripts by Vedder and Olpp. In 1964 Olpp's handbook was furthermore translated into Afrikaans by J.C. van Loggerenberg. His translation in turn was transcribed into the standard orthography and moderately revised by H.J.Kruger in 1972 (publication forthcoming). A scholarly re-assessment of Nama grammar by Otto Dempwolff in 1934 apparently went largely unnoticed by more recent authors. It is thus for more than sixty years that Vedder's approach to Nama grammar has been adopted almost entirely for the purpose of writing handbooks. It cannot be overlooked that a grammatical model for European languages - in particular for Latin and German - has been imposed on Nama, as will be illustrated in the next section. The result is that the handbooks fail to reveal certain underlying regularities that are essential to an understanding of the grammatical principles of Nama. Hence some serious misconceptions are prevailing in the current literature, and several accounts of grammatical processes in Nama are confusing and complicated. In this light this dissertation hopes to serve a dual purpose: It aims to provide additional descriptive material on certain aspects of Nama that have not yet been covered in existing literature; but in doing so, a satisfactory theory must be found that can adequately serve as infrastructure (working basis) for the description of Nama. The theory that is proposed is sketched in outline. It will be cause for personal satisfaction if this theory will show the way for future research and for the construction of a detailed theory of Nama grammar. Only one aspect has been selected for discussion: the NOUN-PHRASE. This topic has been chosen as nominalization is one of the most important features of Nama grammar. Nominalization is moreover that aspect of Nama syntax which is the most mispresented. This dissertation should not be seen as a theoretical work: It should rather be seen as a descriptive work on Nama. A re-assessment of some of the material available in existing handbooks should lead to a better understanding of the mechanisms at work. It is hoped that this restatement is the major contribution, as it affects all the aspects of Nama syntax, not only the NOUN-PHRASE. That material which has been recorded for the first time is presented in order to substantiate the grammatical theory. But it should also have its merit simply as a contribution towards the factual knowledge about Nama.

Nama L. is a genus of approximately 50 species of herbs and subshrubs that occurs in habitats ranging from arid deserts to mesic woodlands in the New World and the Hawaiian Islands. The group has historically been divided into five or six subgeneric groups based on habitat as well as on the morphology of the anthers, styles, leaves and seeds. At least 14 species of Nama from the Chihuahuan Desert Region are either facultatively or obligately endemic to gypsum deposits. This dissertation examines interspecies relationships within Nama from a molecular phylogenetic perspective in order to evaluate historic morphology-based subgeneric classification systems of the genus and to examine the origins of facultative and obligate gypsophily within the genus. DNA sequence data from the chloroplast regions matK and ndhF and from the nuclear ribosomal region ITS were collected from 46 species of Nama as well as from four new species and several outgroups. Data were analyzed using maximum likelihood and Bayesian methods. Phylogenetic analyses recover seven strongly supported major lineages within Nama. These lineages do not correspond to traditionally recognized subgenera, although they are largely congruent with an informal system based on ultrastructural observations of seeds. Four of the seven major lineages include gypsophilous species; these range from two lineages that include a single facultative gypsophile each, to one lineage that is almost entirely comprised of gypsophiles. Gypsum endemism in general, as well as facultative and obligate gypsophily in particular, has arisen multiple times in Nama. Parametric bootstrapping rejected the hypothetical monophyly of gypsophiles across the genus as a whole and within each of the two clades that contain multiple gypsophiles. Because approximately 20 species have been described since the last major revision of Nama nearly 80 years ago, detailed morphological observations of herbarium specimens were made in order to produce a comprehensive key to the species of Nama as well as the revision of a lineage comprising eight gypsophiles and one limestone endemic. / text

Thesis--Vid. Vorwort. / Includes bibliographical references.

Köln, Univ., Diss., 2004

Numerous detailed geochemical studies of Ediacaran (~635 - 541 Ma) marine successions provide snapshots into the palaeoenvironmental redox conditions which accompanied examples of the earliest metazoans in the fossil record. Spatial heterogeneity with respect to palaeomarine redox is evident from reconstructions of geographically-widespread Ediacaran environments. This project provides new data of local-scale redox within a paleogeographic and sequence stratigraphic framework in order to explore the mechanisms which controlled water column redox variations and the potential impact on early macro-benthic ecosystems. Lower than present atmospheric and oceanic oxygen concentrations enabled some shallow marine settings to remain poised at iron reduction until well into the Cambrian and likely influenced regional-scale ecosystem structure and stability. Many basins had a shallow and highly dynamic chemocline above anoxic (ferruginous or euxinic) or low oxygen (manganous) waters. Regional differences in palaeoredox were likely controlled primarily by local detrital nutrient provision and organic matter remineralisation and the redox state of the global deep ocean was most likely similarly heterogeneous (but this remains uncertain). It is suggested that cratonic positioning and migration throughout the Ediacaran Period, in combination with gradually increasing dissolved oxygen loading, may have provided a long-term control on redox evolution through regulating circulation mechanisms in the Mirovian Ocean. Some unrestricted lower slope environments from mid-high latitudes benefited from sustained oxygenation via downwelling, whilst cratonic isolation or transit towards more equatorial positions stifled pervasive ventilation either through ineffective surface ocean mixing, Ekman-induced upwelling, elevated surface ocean productivity, or a combination of these processes. Co-preservation of largely-enigmatic fossil forms within sedimentary rocks of the late Ediacaran Nama Group of southern Namibia have allowed the four-dimensional reconstruction of local redox dynamics and associated biotic establishment. This has been made possible through collation of previously published fossil occurrence and geochemical information alongside new palaeoredox and palaeoproductivity estimates based on iron speciation, major element and carbonate-bound iodine data. This is further supplemented by the first detailed assessment of the paragenetic sequence and diagenetic relationships of carbonates which precipitated within the earliest metazoan reef framework. Skeletal invertebrate taxa in the Zaris Sub-Basin of the lower Nama Group (~550-547 Ma), grew above wave base where micritic carbonate sediment often shows evidence for early dolomitisation. Mid-ramp Cloudina reefs composed of open, highly porous structures formed multiple, successive assemblages. Thin layers of dolomitised sediment and dolomite cement terminate each assemblage. Reef cements show a paragenetic sequence from synsedimentary, early marine cement through to final burial, each of which were precipitated under dynamic redox conditions. These cements likely record a general shallow to deeper water transect, from oxic shallow waters to low oxygen manganous waters and finally to oxic, shallow burial conditions. Transient incursions of upwelled, anoxic, ferruginous and dolomitising waters may have occurred during short-term, transgressive cycles, although the timing for this is poorly constrained. Such incursions may have terminated Ediacaran benthic communities that grew close to the chemocline. Viewed in its entirety, the palaeoredox record of the Nama Group reveals evidence for a pronounced shift in the depth of the ferruginous redoxcline from shallow to deeper levels in the water column through time, which was accompanied by a reduced frequency of anoxic incursions onto the shallow shelf. This transition approximately coincided with the first appearance and subsequent diversification of novel sediment bioturbators in the Lower Urusis Formation (~547-542 Ma). It is proposed that the observed coevolution of palaeoredox and ichnofossil diversity may directly relate to the impact of bioturbation on phosphorus retention. In this way, the diversification of burrowing forms effectively oxygenated the sediment column, prevented efficient P recycling to the water column and limited the detrimental impact of productivity-induced anoxia in the local environment. However, this hypothesis remains to be tested and would benefit from a focused study of palaeoproductivity employing targeted analyses of total organic carbon and sedimentary phosphorus speciation. It is further proposed that the persistent spatial separation of anoxic deep waters from habitable ecospace, implied by the fossil distribution of phylogenetically-enigmatic soft-bodied forms, qualitatively supports the inference that at least intermittently oxic conditions (at or above EH typical of ferrous iron oxidation) were a metabolic requirement of these organisms. Finally, four new sections of the late Ediacaran, deposited approximately time-equivalent to aforementioned sediments of the Nama Group, are described and preliminary geochemical data reported. These include two shallow marine carbonate-dominated sections of the southeast Siberian Craton which correspond to the Yudoma Formation and two sections of the Dengying and lower Zhujiaqing (and correlative) Formations deposited on the Yangtze Block, South China. Integrated proxy methods are able to distinguish palaeoredox heterogeneity between and within early animal ecosystems and test the influence of anoxia on ecosystem structure. The first and last appearances of Treptichnus pedum and Cloudina respectively, which globally bracket the boundary between the Ediacaran and Cambrian Periods, show no identifiable range overlap in any sections analysed in this study. This suggests that the first appearance of the organism responsible for characteristic T. pedum may have lived approximately contemporaneous in oxic habitable refuges of all regions in this study, regardless of the dominance of reducing conditions that persisted in coeval deeper environments in many areas.

Mémoire--Genève--Institut universitaire de hautes études internationales, 1989. N°: 309.

The analysis and interpretation of Vendobionta morphology is critical to elucidating a range of issues about their ontogeny and evolution, as well as life habits. These analyses, however, are complicated because these organisms are often morphologically enigmatic and defy ready categorization within modern taxonomic schemes. This study delves into the morphology of one of these problematic groups: Pteridinium. Specimens were investigated from two localities, Namibia and North Carolina, using geometric morphometrics. The landmark data, which was analyzed to compare specimens based on locality, taphonomy, and preservation, were subjected to three statistical tests: Principle Components Analysis, Procrustes shape analyses, and Foote's disparity test. All tests revealed no distinct clustering within or by either group due to any of the variables. All variables plotted within the same 95% confidence ellipses, displaying a lack of statistical support for the distinctness of these groups. Therefore, the most parsimonious reason for the lack of differences observed by these two groups stem from them being part of the same morphological group, a conclusion that places into question the validity of the inclusion of two separate species in the genus Pteridinium.

As corporate social responsibility (CSR) becomes increasingly important within organizations, it is imperative that professionals define their role in setting the CSR agenda. Through a descriptive survey, this study investigated National Agri-Marketing Association (NAMA) members' perceptions of their roles in CSR and acceptable practices for releasing data about an organization, and whether NAMA members' demographic characteristics were related to perceptions of CSR. The greatest number of respondents reported that they were between 40 and 59 years of age, 54.5 percent were female, and 69.7 percent worked for a corporation or public relations agency. Public relations serves to bring private and public entities into harmony and should assume their role in CSR. NAMA members were neutral that the agricultural communications industry has a clear code of ethics and standards of performance. NAMA members agreed that developing programs that are good for society is both good for business and good citizenship, and that public relations professionals should be deeply involved in helping management define an organization's social role. A significant difference did exist between gender and the following statements: management must act socially responsible, regardless of how those actions influence profit, and organizations must try to calculate the social impacts of major decisions before implementing policies or taking action. No significant difference was found based on whether respondents' current position involves public relations and six statements related to perceptions of CSR. A majority of respondents reported working for an organization that recruited and hired employees who had an agricultural communications major, and had worked with someone who had an agricultural communications major, but were unsure of their preparation, management skills, and strategic thinking skills. Agricultural communications programs should take this perception into account and incorporate these three issues into their curriculum. No research was found that discussed CSR and public relations in the agriculture industry. With this study, agricultural public relations practitioners might see their role in CSR and the need for a clear code of ethics to unify the industry. This study creates a foundation for additional studies of agricultural public relations professionals, delving deeper into more specific roles related to CSR.

This thesis analyzes World Trade Organization Doha Round negotiation process and its implications for Turkey&rsquo / s relations with its neighbors. The thesis mainly focuses on two pillars of negotiating package, namely agricultural and non-agricultural products (NAMA) negotiations. Both segments of negotiations have different dimensions due to Turkey&rsquo / s regional and multilateral obligations. As a developing country, Turkey&rsquo / s position in agriculture is more in line with other developing countries / in NAMA however it defends more liberal policies because of its Customs Union with the EU. Results of Doha Round will affect not only Turkey but also Turkey&rsquo / s neighbors and these effects will be more dramatic in some of them. Chapter I is Introduction Chapter. Chapter II evaluates Doha Round in detail / Chapters III and IV examine agriculture and NAMA negotiations and their implications for Turkey. Chapter V evaluates other negotiation topics such as services, trade facilitation, environment and rules. Chapter VI analyzes Turkey&rsquo / s Customs Union with the EU and its bilateral trade arrangements. The last Chapter is the Conclusion.