<p>Idioms are found in every language and learning them is an important aspect of the mastery of a language. The English language is no exception as it contains a large number of idioms, which are extensively used. However, because of their rather rigid structure and quite unpredictable meaning, idioms are often considered difficult to learn. Although little research has been done to date on the nature of idioms as well as how they are used, a better understanding of variations in idioms can nevertheless be acquired by looking at some theories and thoughts about their use and their structure.</p><p>The aim of this paper is to examine a number of animal idioms, focusing primarily on English idioms and the similarities and differences found in equivalent Swedish idioms, even when the Swedish idioms do not contain an animal. Two types of studies are presented. In the first one, the English and Swedish animal idioms collected are grouped into four categories. The results of such a categorization show that half of the English animal idioms found have an equivalent in Swedish containing an animal. In the second study, the content, structure, wording, semantics and metaphorical meaning of the animal idioms are analysed and compared. The results indicate that the Swedish animal idioms that correspond to the English animal idioms have, for the most part, the same structures and similar variations in degree of literalness, fixity, manipulation and transformation. Furthermore, the use of metaphor, personification and simile appears to be common both in English and Swedish animal idioms. The role of context and literal and figurative translation are also addressed in this study.</p>

<p>Today’s increasing information supply raises the needfor more effective and automated information processing whereindividual information adaptation (personalization) is onepossible solution. Earlier computer systems for personalizationlacked the ability to easily define and measure theeffectiveness of personalization efforts. Numerous projectsfailed to live up to the their expectations, and the demand forevaluation increased.</p><p>This thesis presents some underlying concepts and methodsfor implementing personalization in order to increase statedbusiness objectives. A personalization system was developedthat utilizes descriptions of information characteristics(metadata) to perform content based filtering in anon-intrusive way.</p><p>Most of the described measurement methods forpersonalization in the literature are focused on improving theutility for the customer. The evaluation function of thepersonalization system described in this thesis takes thebusiness operator’s standpoint and pragmatically focuseson one or a few measurable business objectives. In order toverify operation of the personalization system, a functioncalled bifurcation was created. The bifurcation functiondivides the customers stochastically into two or morecontrolled groups with different personalizationconfigurations. Bygiving one of the controlled groups apersonalization configuration that deactivates thepersonalization, a reference group is created. The referencegroup is used to measure quantitatively objectives bycomparison with the groups with active personalization.</p><p>Two different companies had their websites personalized andevaluated: one of Sweden’s largest recruitment servicesand the second largest Swedish daily newspaper. The purposewith the implementations was to define, measure, and increasethe business objectives. The results of the two case studiesshow that under propitious conditions, personalization can bemade to increase stated business objectives.</p><p><b>Keywords:</b>metadata, semantic web, personalization,information adaptation, one-to-one marketing, evaluation,optimization, personification, customization,individualization, internet, content filtering, automation.</p>

Der Begriff "Böse" ist seinem Bedeutungsumfang nach derart allumfassend, dass es unmöglich erscheint, sich diesem substanziell zu nähern. Die Arbeit versucht daher, das Phänomen des Bösen über seine Personifikationen zu erfassen und diese anhand begriffsgeschichtlicher Methoden aufzuarbeiten. Dabei steht das Zeitalter der Aufklärung im Zentrum der Analyse, da sich in jener Epoche ein elementarer Wandel vollzog, der das bis ins 18. Jh. hinein religiös geprägte Bild des Bösen ins Reich der Mythen und Legenden verbannte, ohne jedoch seine Personifikation, den Teufel, gänzlich zu vernichten. Ausgehend von diesem wichtigen Schritt in der Geschichte des Abendlandes entwickelt die Arbeit einen roten Faden der Kulturgeschichte des Bösen, der sich von den biblischen Anfängen bis hin zu den heute geläufigen Vorstellungen zieht. Damit wird verdeutlicht, inwieweit die religiöse Vorstellung des Teufels ein Paradigma bilden konnte, welches epochenübergreifende Geltung gewann.

Este trabalho investiga o uso da personalização como estratégia discursiva do jornalismo cultural, tomando, como objeto, textos jornalísticos sobre a Fundação Iberê Camargo publicados na mídia impressa nacional e internacional. Partimos do pressuposto de que o jornalismo é um importante lugar de produção de sentidos sobre valores contemporâneos, incluindo parte significativa do conhecimento construído sobre cultura e arte. O recorte temporal de coleta do material empírico abrange os sete primeiros meses de 2008, que inclui o período anterior e posterior à inauguração da nova sede da Fundação. Identificamos a forte presença da personalização como estratégia discursiva, examinando, por meio da Análise de Discurso, como sentidos sobre a arte contemporânea e sobre o museu contemporâneo são construídos a partir da referência a Álvaro Siza, o arquiteto responsável pelo prédio da Fundação. O corpus consolidado é constituído de 11 textos, nos quais são analisadas 116 seqüências discursivas pertinentes à problemática central. Concluímos que a personalização constrói quatro sentidos predominantes sobre arte (“o artista”, “o estrangeiro”, “o profissional” e “o humano”) e dois sentidos predominantes sobre museu (“o museu como obra de arte” e “o museu orgânico”). / This research investigates the employment of personification as a discursive strategy of cultural journalism, taking as object the texts about the Iberê Camargo Foundation published in national and international press. It departs from the perspective that journalism is an important place for the production of meaning around contemporary values, including a significant part of knowledge built on art and culture. The timely approach of collecting data on empirical material encompasses the seven initial months of 2008, which includes the period prior and subsequent to the inauguration to the new building of the Foundation. We identified a strong presence of a personalized discursive strategy, through Discourse Analysis, how meaning around contemporary art and on the contemporary museum is constructed departing from the image of Álvaro Siza, the architect which designed the Foundation building. The consolidated corpus is comprised by 11 texts, in which it is analyzed 116 discursive sequences pertaining to the central issues of the argument. The conclusion is that personalizing creates four predominant stances of meaning on art (“the artist,” “the foreigner”, “the professional” and “the human being”) and two stances of meaning predominantly on the museum (“the museum as an art work” and “the organic museum”).

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Este trabalho investiga o uso da personalização como estratégia discursiva do jornalismo cultural, tomando, como objeto, textos jornalísticos sobre a Fundação Iberê Camargo publicados na mídia impressa nacional e internacional. Partimos do pressuposto de que o jornalismo é um importante lugar de produção de sentidos sobre valores contemporâneos, incluindo parte significativa do conhecimento construído sobre cultura e arte. O recorte temporal de coleta do material empírico abrange os sete primeiros meses de 2008, que inclui o período anterior e posterior à inauguração da nova sede da Fundação. Identificamos a forte presença da personalização como estratégia discursiva, examinando, por meio da Análise de Discurso, como sentidos sobre a arte contemporânea e sobre o museu contemporâneo são construídos a partir da referência a Álvaro Siza, o arquiteto responsável pelo prédio da Fundação. O corpus consolidado é constituído de 11 textos, nos quais são analisadas 116 seqüências discursivas pertinentes à problemática central. Concluímos que a personalização constrói quatro sentidos predominantes sobre arte (“o artista”, “o estrangeiro”, “o profissional” e “o humano”) e dois sentidos predominantes sobre museu (“o museu como obra de arte” e “o museu orgânico”). / This research investigates the employment of personification as a discursive strategy of cultural journalism, taking as object the texts about the Iberê Camargo Foundation published in national and international press. It departs from the perspective that journalism is an important place for the production of meaning around contemporary values, including a significant part of knowledge built on art and culture. The timely approach of collecting data on empirical material encompasses the seven initial months of 2008, which includes the period prior and subsequent to the inauguration to the new building of the Foundation. We identified a strong presence of a personalized discursive strategy, through Discourse Analysis, how meaning around contemporary art and on the contemporary museum is constructed departing from the image of Álvaro Siza, the architect which designed the Foundation building. The consolidated corpus is comprised by 11 texts, in which it is analyzed 116 discursive sequences pertaining to the central issues of the argument. The conclusion is that personalizing creates four predominant stances of meaning on art (“the artist,” “the foreigner”, “the professional” and “the human being”) and two stances of meaning predominantly on the museum (“the museum as an art work” and “the organic museum”).

Idioms are found in every language and learning them is an important aspect of the mastery of a language. The English language is no exception as it contains a large number of idioms, which are extensively used. However, because of their rather rigid structure and quite unpredictable meaning, idioms are often considered difficult to learn. Although little research has been done to date on the nature of idioms as well as how they are used, a better understanding of variations in idioms can nevertheless be acquired by looking at some theories and thoughts about their use and their structure. The aim of this paper is to examine a number of animal idioms, focusing primarily on English idioms and the similarities and differences found in equivalent Swedish idioms, even when the Swedish idioms do not contain an animal. Two types of studies are presented. In the first one, the English and Swedish animal idioms collected are grouped into four categories. The results of such a categorization show that half of the English animal idioms found have an equivalent in Swedish containing an animal. In the second study, the content, structure, wording, semantics and metaphorical meaning of the animal idioms are analysed and compared. The results indicate that the Swedish animal idioms that correspond to the English animal idioms have, for the most part, the same structures and similar variations in degree of literalness, fixity, manipulation and transformation. Furthermore, the use of metaphor, personification and simile appears to be common both in English and Swedish animal idioms. The role of context and literal and figurative translation are also addressed in this study.

Dans cette recherche, nous avons étudié le processus de constitution symbolique du « Mensalão », l’un des plus importants événements de l’histoire politique récente du Brésil, qui a eu lieu en 2005 et montre l’implication de membres du Parti des Travailleurs et du gouvernement Lula dans des dénonciations liées à la corrption, avec une grande répercussion, dans le pays, auprès du public et des médias. Nous avons plus particulièrement cherché à identifier la façon selon laquelle le « Mensalão » est individualisé, prenant ainsi une signification et une identité en tant qu’événement singulier. Nous sommes partis de l’approche de l’événemnt proposée par Louis Quéré (1997; 2005). Nous en avons retiré la grille analytique afin d’étudier le processus d’individualisation du « Mensalão », qui a été appliquée sur un corpus de 1269 textes journalistiques. Nous avons analysé : 1) la description, qui révèle la dispute entre les acteurs par la définition et le cadrage de l’événement ; 2) le récit, qui montre les principaux protagonistes et les différents passés et futurs convoqués pour l’événement ; 3) la dimension pragmatique, avec les actions constituantes de cet événement; 4) la commercialisation du soutien politique et la pratique de fonds secrets électoraux comme principaux problèmes publics exposés, la façon selon laquelle ils sont traités et comment les cadrages conditionnent le traitement du problème; et 5) la normalisation de l’événement à travers la mise en cause de certains des impliqués dans les dénonciations. La radiographie de la mis en récit et de la normalisation de l’événement montre comment les problèmes publics révélés ont été dilués dans la personnalisation du problème de la corruption. / In this research we analyze the process of symbolic constitution of “Mensalão” (a scandal of corruption of members of the Congress by the main governmental party), one of the most important occurrences of the recent political history of Brazil, which happened in 2005. We try to identify, more specifically, the way it is individualized by getting a meaning and an identity as a singular event. We get support in the approach of the event proposed by Louis Quéré (1997; 2005) and take from it the analytical tools to study the “Mensalão”: the description, the narration, the pragmatic dimension, the public issues exposed, and the normalization of the event. We apply this analytical framework over a cluster of 1,269 journalistic texts, which were selected from the covering made by the Folha de São Paulo newspaper between June and December of 2005. Through a qualitative analysis of the written material, we identify and analyze the process of individualization of the “Mensalão”: 1) the description, which reveals, among other aspects, the dispute between the actors for the framing of the happening; 2) the narration, which indicates the main protagonists and shows the different pasts and futures called by this happening; 3) the pragmatic dimension, with all the actions that constitute this type of occurrence; 4) the trade of political support and the practice of unofficial financial support for elections as the main public issues exposed, the way they are treated by the actors and the way the mobilized framings guides the treatment of the issue; and 5) the normalization of the happening through “punishment” of some of those who are accused. The enlightening of the construction of the narrative and of the normalization of the occurrence show how the public issues were diluted in the personification of the problem of corruption.

A B S T R A C T The text deals with bullying from the prospective of personal and social education. Personal and social education as a complex theory offers basic and methodical background for working with bullying. It is able to provide good reflexion of the educational reality. The aim of the work is to describe how the topics of personal and social education are personified in the programs of prevention of bullying. It concerns pupils in fifth, sixth and seventh grade of the elementary schools (12-14 years old). The research was performed as a field research of the etnographic character. In the theoretical section the study defines personal and social education as a theoretical framework and it is the basis for the research. The definition of the term personification follows as it is crucial for the work within the personal and social education. The following chapter describes bullying and explains how this term was understood earlier and how it is perceived today. The experimental section describes the methodology of the research. It gives basic information about the pertinent research and explains its results. The results are summarized in four categories: what leads to personification, what the obstacles to personification are, the lecturer's ideas on personification and methodical notes.

Major companies in the insurance industry—notably Allstate, Progressive, and Farmers—often employ personification as a creative rhetorical tool in digital video advertisements. By leveraging brand characters in various ways, these companies seek to establish trust and engender emotional impact in customers. Allstate ascribes destructive characteristics that are associated with house cats to its Mayhem character; in doing so they evoke the desired emotional responses of humor and fear. Progressive creates and deploys the Motaur character, a visual personification and play on the Centaur; in this case, the company’s rhetorical strategy is to evoke humor and nostalgia that resonate with motorcycle owners. Farmers’ strategy is to win customers by demonstrating experience and empathy; they do so with the Professor Burke character, whose professorial ethos functions to evoke feelings of trust. I employ the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) in my analysis to explore the relationships between personification, emotional appeals, and persuasion.