Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2004. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 215-223).

Inaug.-diss.--Rostock. / "Works consulted": p. [5]-6.

Thesis (M.Dev.Stud.)--Victoria University of Wellington, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references.

Following a decline over the twentieth century, Breton has seen an increase in revival efforts, including Breton-medium education. This study investigates the effect of the language transmission gap on the morphosyntax of verbs. Fieldwork was undertaken with three distinct age groups: older native speakers (aged over 65), and two groups which make up a younger generation of speakers: children in Breton-medium education, and young adults who have been schooled in Breton. The question of word order and the placement of verbs in Breton has been controversial, largely because it is complex and variable, making the identification of basic word order difficult. The data show that usage across the older generation is fairly consistent, with V2 word order in matrix clauses. Verbal mutation is also maintained. Despite the transmission gap, younger adults from French-speaking homes do not systematically replace Breton patterns with French SVO. Rather, they avoid SVO in some contexts, and indeed use it less than the senior adults. The amount of input speakers receive is crucial: children in bilingual schooling, with only half of their classes in Breton, tend to oversimplify word order patterns and show French influence. In contrast, those with additional Breton input from a family member are more proficient. Children have difficulty acquiring mutation rules, and do not seem to have grasped the system of verbal mutation, but young adults use mutation proficiently, like the older speakers. Consequently, despite strong French influence, Breton word order has remained consistent. The fact that verbal mutation is variable in children reflects late acquisition, since the young adults rarely diverge from the expected usage. Thus, the changes in Breton morphosyntax are subtler than expected in light of the unusual transmission pattern and close proximity to French. The crucial factor appears to be sustained input in the language.

This thesis is concerned with recovering the literary history of Daphne Rooke, who experienced short-lived international fame as a South African novelist during the 1950s and 1960s. The value of this undertaking is predicated upon the fact that the author is currently enjoying something of a 'literary revival' within South Africa. with scholars persuasively arguing for Rooke's relevance within a post-apartheid literary culture. This obviously begs the question of why she was 'forgotten' in the first place; a question which is addressed within this, the first full-length literary history of the author. My thesis adopts an original methodological approach, as the lack of existing research into Rooke's original standing necessitates the use of analytical tools which open up alternative avenues of historical investigation. Accordingly, this thesis treats the cultural 'organs' attached to Rooke's novels in their capacity as published books - the imprints; dust-covers; sales figures; reviews; paperback reprints; ect. - as 'texts' which say something concrete about the contemporary value granted these works and their author. In the case of Rooke, a publishing-centred literary historiography is invaluable because it also exposes the degree to which the author's literary standing as a South African writer has been largely, and often negatively, influenced by forces emanating from the world of metropolitan and South African publishing. Furthermore, this thesis argues that a theoretical perspective which grants primacy to publishing practices is not only pertinent to a literary history of Rooke but to postapartheid literary studies in general. This is because the inherent weakness of South African publishing and, conversely, the strength of the metropolitan book industry, continues to determine what South Africans can make of their own literature.

Le folklore dansé en Bas-Languedoc.Nombreuses sont les pratiques populaires en Bas-Languedoc qui ont marqué durablement la société occitane depuis le début du XVIe siècle. La danse traditionnelle mais aussi les musiques de ces danses, l'instrumentation elle-même ainsi que la confection et le port des costumes locaux participent à la vie quotidienne des populations languedociennes jusqu'à la toute fin du XIXe siècle. Dans un espace géographique restreint, correspondant à une zone de monoculture viticole, ces pratiques populaires artistiques jouent également un rôle de premier plan dans l'Histoire régionale et nationale : celui de témoin privilégié des grands événements politiques et sociétaux. Elles sont omniprésentes lors des fêtes locales mais aussi lors des grandes manifestations officielles et obligatoires de l’État. La longévité remarquable de ces pratiques, issues de la Renaissance, relève de leur grande adaptation aux différentes sociétés languedociennes, de leur représentativité régionale, ainsi que d'une volonté de maintenance par tous les régimes et institutions. La société languedocienne toute entière se reconnaît dans ces danses-miroir, façonnées pendant l'Ancien Régime ; elles portent régulièrement aux autorités l'assentiment ou les désaccords du peuple.Pourtant, les pratiques populaires locales n'échappent pas à des interférences culturelles multiples avec la société aristocratique, les enseignements artistiques militaires ou académiques et les diverses cultures qui traversent l'Europe dès le milieu du XIXe siècle.De plus, la fin de la société paysanne et l'avènement d'une société urbaine mettent à mal les pratiques populaires et essentiellement rurales dans la plupart des régions. En Bas-Languedoc, la survivance des principales danses régionales se soumet, dès la fin du XIXe siècle, au bon vouloir des autorités qui financent des reconstitutions onéreuses, et rémunèrent des pratiquants alors tournés vers d'autres modes sociétales.La tradition populaire devient peu à peu un folklore représenté et institutionnalisé qui répond aux mêmes règles ministérielles que l'enseignement académique des sports ou de la danse. Les premières enquêtes sur le patrimoine régional, ainsi que les travaux des premiers folkloristes permettent toutefois de reconstruire des danses locales (les branles) pratiquées pendant des siècles lors des défilés et Triomphes annuels. Les pertes sont toutefois importantes ; de nombreuses pratiques artistiques corporatives, instrumentales et poétiques disparaissent avec les tout derniers pratiquants. En Bas-Languedoc, les premiers folkloristes de l'Entre-deux-guerres parviennent à collecter in-extremis des pratiques traditionnelles qui passent en quelques années de la rue à la scène. La plupart d'entre elles perdent leur nature populaire en trouvant un public, tandis que Treilles, Chevalets et autres danses des Triomphes locaux conservent l'essentiel de leurs prérogatives sociales et politiques.Le folklore jusqu'alors vivant devient principalement une discipline d'étude ainsi qu'un loisir revivaliste, soutenu par le mouvement félibre et les institutions nationales.Quatre moments de renouveau ont bouleversé la pratique traditionnelle populaire vers une discipline folklorique puis ethnologique : la révolution industrielle et l'exode rural de la fin du XIXe siècle poussent la nouvelle société urbaine à entretenir artificiellement des pratiques qui ne sont plus enseignées par déterminisme familial. Dans les années 1930, diverses institutions nationales encouragent les pratiques traditionnelles populaires à des fins éducatives. Dans les années 1950, les folkloristes publient les premières études spécifiques ; celles-ci sont prises en charge par les ethnologues des années1970. / Traditional dancing in Lower LanguedocMany are the popular practices which have made a lasting impression on Occitan society since the beginning of the 16th century. Traditional dances but also the music of these dances, the instrumentation itself as well as the making and wearing of local costumes took part in the Languedoc populations ‘daily life until the very end of the 19th century. In a restricted geographical area, corresponding to a wine monoculture zone, these popular practices also played a leading role in regional and national History: they were privileged witnesses of political and societal events, and omnipresent during local feasts but also in major compulsory official demonstrations from the government. The remarkable longevity of these practices, coming from the Renaissance, is dependent on their adaptation to the different Languedoc societies, their regional representativeness, as well as a will of maintenance expressed by all political schemes and institutions.The whole Languedoc society recognised itself in these mirror-dances, worked out throughout the old regime; they regularly conveyed to authorities the assent or the disagreement of the people.Local popular practices didn’t however escape from some multiple cultural interferences with the aristocratic society, the artistic, military or academic way of teaching and also with the different cultures which crossed Europe as soon as the middle of the 19th century.Moreover, the end of peasant society and the advent of urban society undermined popular and mainly rural practices in most regions. In Lower Languedoc, as soon as the end of the 19th century, the survival of the main regional dances complied with the good will of the authorities which financed onerous reconstitutions and remunerated practitioners henceforth turned towards other societal modes. Popular tradition slowly became a represented and institutionalized folklore which met the same ministerial rules as the sports or dance academic teaching. The first surveys concerning the regional heritage as well as the first folklore specialists ‘works however allow to rebuild local dances (the “branles”) practised for centuries during annual marches and festive parades. Losses were however important, numerous corporative instrumental and poetic practices disappeared with the very last practitioners. In Lower Languedoc, the first folklorists of the inter-war period managed to collect in-extremis traditional practices that passed in a few year from the street to the scene. Most of them lost their popular nature by finding an audience, while Trellises, Little Horses and other dances from local festive parades kept the essentials of their social and political privilege.Folklore until then alive mainly became a study subject as well as a revivalist hobby, supported by the “felibre” movement and the national institutions.Four renewal periods have shaken up the popular traditional practice into a folk then ethnologic subject: the industrial revolution and the rural depopulation in the end of the 19th century induced the new urban society to artificially maintain practices which were no longer taught because of family determinism. Since the thirties, various national institutions encouraged traditional practices for teaching purposes. In the fifties; folklorists published the first specialized studies; these ones were taken into account by the ethnologists of the seventies.

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Thesis (M.A. (Translation studies and linguistics)) --University of Limpopo, 2010. / This dissertation endeavours to examine the causes of the marginalisation of Xitsonga in South Africa. The study has identified several factors that play a role in the marginalisation of Xitsonga. Some of these factors are inadequate promotion of Xitsonga by State Institutions and the negative attitude that Xitsonga speakers have against their language. In spite of these unfavourable conditions, the study has shown that several measures can be undertaken in order to strengthen Xitsonga as a language. Some of these measures are that Xitsonga must be offered as a subject at school and at tertiary level. Books and newspapers must be written in Xitsonga, to mention but a few. Lastly, the study highlights the fact that the existence of Xitsonga will be determined by its speakers. If they are willing to promote and support it there is no doubt that Xitsonga will exist for a long time to come.

<p>The motions of a wavepacket in the two coupled potentials studied in this thesis can be classified into either bistable or astable motion according to the wavepacket interference at the curve crossing. Bistable motion, in which the wavepacket performs a coupled oscillation but remains in the same adiabatic and diabatic state, can exist both in bound-bound systems and bound-unbound ones with long time stability. Astable motion, in which the wavepacket at the curve crossing switches between the adiabatic and diabatic states and thus alternates between the two possible turning points in the unforked part of the motion, can only exist in bound-bound systems on a limited time scale. The motion of a wavepacket under bistable interference conditions exhibits all of the features expected if the wavepacket moved in a single anharmonic potential. The revival time can be predicted from the revival times in the corresponding diabatic and adiabatic potentials. The phenomenon was observed not only in model molecular systems but also in the system of the harmonically trapped ion pumped by an external laser field with standing wave spatial profile.</p><p>In order to study the bias effect of the detector on pump-probe rotational anisotropy measurements, in a specific direction the fluorescence polarization effect was removed by measuring the rovibrational wavepacket with the help of properly oriented polarizer placed in front of the detector. Our results show clearly the necessity to take polarization effects into account in ultrafast pump-probe rotational anisotropy measurements.</p>

Thesis (M.A.)--Ohio State University, 1982. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 113-118).