This thesis examines the rhetoric (persuasive discourse) of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, the exiled spiritual and temporal leader of Tibet. The analysis of this thesis provides an historical foundation of understanding for the international campaign of rhetoric which the Dalai Lama has been leading for the past forty years, culminating with his Nobel Peace Prize award in 1989. The thesis provides an overview of the Dalai Lama's persuasive tactics spanning his time spent campaigning in exile, from 1959 to the present time (1995). The Dalai Lama has been a strong leader in the movement to raise support and international awareness for Tibetans in Chinese controlled Tibet. Specifically, this thesis presents an analysis of two of the Dalai Lama's most well known speeches: the Five Point Peace Plan, presented to members of the United States Congress on September 27, 1987, and the Strasbourg Proposal, presented to members of the European Parliament on June 15, 1988. The Dalai Lama's discourse is examined from the perspective of rhetorical criticism, using the theories of Kenneth Burke as the framework for understanding the texts. This analysis incorporates Burke's theories on mortification, scapegoating, victimage, and transcendence, as well as the tragic and comic frames for presenting a vision of dramatic conflict. The Dalai Lama's rhetoric is also analyzed for its cross cultural implications according to Geert Hofstede's dimensions of cultural variability. This thesis includes a discussion of the Dalai Lama's role as a social movement leader with a charismatic persona and a strong ability to organize and manage a diverse international following while working to preserve the Tibetan diaspora in exile. Lastly, the ethical groundings of the Dalai Lama's rhetoric are taken into consideration. The purpose of this thesis is to introduce to communication students the significance of the Dalai Lama's body of work, and to indicate potential directions for future research. The rationale behind the thesis is this: in rhetorical theory and social movement theory, there exist numerous studies of the nonviolent rhetoric and social movement leadership of both Dr. Martin Luther King of the United States and Mahatma Gandhi of India; yet the Dalai Lama, whose work I show to be comparable in many ways to that of King and Gandhi, has remained unexamined by scholars in many disciplines, most notably rhetorical criticism and social movement theory. The intent of this thesis is to focus upon the Dalai Lama's rhetoric and communication skills in order to stimulate an enduring interest in him as a remarkable orator and leader, from whom we may gain insight into improving our ability to communicate and to manage conflict in a nonviolent manner. / Graduation date: 1996

Objective: To determine if there was an optimal language sampling context for children with hearing impairment; specifically, if any well-documented method of obtaining a language sample was superior to the others in describing the areas of language that are known to serve as a foundation for later literacy development. Participants: Nine children with hearing impairment who used oral language as their primary mode of communication from the University of Tennessee Child Hearing Services clinic were selected to participate in the study. All were from Caucasian families who spoke English as their primary language and with the exception of hearing impairment, none had other documented disorders. Method: Three language samples were taken in an interview, picture description and story retell format during one 50 minute session. Data Analysis: The language samples were analyzed for syntax and morphology, semantic, pragmatic and narrative measures which are preliteracy factors that influence later literacy acquisition. Results: A battery of language samples is needed in order to appropriately access multiple elements of language relating to literacy acquisition of children with hearing impairment. Conclusion: Through the analysis of this study, it has been determined that in order to get a comprehensive view of language in hearing impaired children who use oral language as their primary communication, a battery of language assessments should be used.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Indiana University, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

Over the past 20 years, research in automated text summarization has grown significantly in the field of natural language processing. The massive availability of scientific and technical information on the Internet, including journals, conferences, and news articles has attracted the interest of various groups of researchers working in text summarization. These researchers include linguistics, biologists, database researchers, and information retrieval experts. However, because the information available on the web is ever expanding, reading the sheer volume of information is a significant challenge. To deal with this volume of information, users need appropriate summaries to help them more efficiently manage their information needs. Although many automated text summarization systems have been proposed in the past twenty years, none of these systems have incorporated the use of rhetoric. To date, most automated text summarization systems have relied only on statistical approaches. These approaches do not take into account other features of language such as antimetabole and epanalepsis. Our hypothesis is that rhetoric can provide this type of additional information. This thesis addresses these issues by investigating the role of rhetorical figuration in detecting the salient information in texts. We show that automated multi-document summarization can be improved using metrics based on rhetorical figuration. A corpus of presidential speeches, which is for different U.S. presidents speeches, has been created. It includes campaign, state of union, and inaugural speeches to test our proposed multi-document summarization system. Various evaluation metrics have been used to test and compare the performance of the produced summaries of both our proposed system and other system. Our proposed multi-document summarization system using rhetorical figures improves the produced summaries, and achieves better performance over MEAD system in most of the cases especially in antimetabole, polyptoton, and isocolon. Overall, the results of our system are promising and leads to future progress on this research.

A number of studies have attempted to examine the writing processes of skilled and non-skilled native and non-native speakers of English. However, few studies have examined the writing processes of Arab university students, and none has been conducted on Libyan students' writing processes. This study examines the writing processes in L1 (Arabic) and L2 (English) of twelve Third-Year Libyan University Students (TYLUS), as they verbalised and produced written texts in both languages. The study investigates the process and product data separately to see if any relationship exists between an individual subject's process skill and product quality in either language. Observation, think-aloud protocols, interviews, questionnaires, and written products have been utilised to gather data in a triangulated case study. The composing sessions were audio-taped; the tapes were then transcribed, translated, and coded for analysis, along with the drafts and the final written compositions. The investigation into Ll and L2 writing processes was guided by one main and three sub-research questions. The main research question was: what writing processes do Libyan University students use while writing in Ll Arabic and in L2 English? Do they follow similar or different strategies? The first sub-research question was: how is the linguistic knowledge of the students reflected in Ll and L2 writing? The second was: does the Arabic rhetorical pattern affect the students' English writing? And lastly, how does instruction influence the writing processes and products of these students? The L1 and L2 protocol data yielded a number of interesting findings. Most subjects had a purpose in mind while composing their texts, but had little concern for audience. Individually, each subject displayed a unitary composing style across languages, tending to compose in the Ll and L2 similarly, with some variations in specific aspects. , As a group, the subjects' writing process differences were manifested in planning, time and content; writing time was shorter in L1 than in L2; reviewing in L1 focused on organisation and content, but on form, grammar and vocabulary in L2. Similarities were apparent in mental planning and reliance on internal resources as the subjects alternated between writing, repeating, and rehearsing. The L2 compositions gradually emerged with repetitions, pauses, and the use of L1, and seemed to be constrained by the subjects' linguistic knowledge and imperfect mastery of L2. This suggests that the composing knowledge and skills of Ll could potentially be transferred into L2 composing, and the subjects had employed many similar strategies deemed necessary for writing in both languages but were unable to apply accurately them in L2. In addition, the subjects used Ll to facilitate their composing in L2. They tended to comment and repeat portions of texts in words, rehearse in phrases, and engage in other composing activities at sentence level. Translated segments occurred at almost every level but mainly at phrase level. Finally, and interestingly, some subjects made more errors in L1 than in L2. A tentative composing process model showing the locations in which LI was used during the writing process is proposed. Implications for EFL, particularly. for Libyan University students, and suggestions for further research are also provided.

Over the past 20 years, research in automated text summarization has grown significantly in the field of natural language processing. The massive availability of scientific and technical information on the Internet, including journals, conferences, and news articles has attracted the interest of various groups of researchers working in text summarization. These researchers include linguistics, biologists, database researchers, and information retrieval experts. However, because the information available on the web is ever expanding, reading the sheer volume of information is a significant challenge. To deal with this volume of information, users need appropriate summaries to help them more efficiently manage their information needs. Although many automated text summarization systems have been proposed in the past twenty years, none of these systems have incorporated the use of rhetoric. To date, most automated text summarization systems have relied only on statistical approaches. These approaches do not take into account other features of language such as antimetabole and epanalepsis. Our hypothesis is that rhetoric can provide this type of additional information. This thesis addresses these issues by investigating the role of rhetorical figuration in detecting the salient information in texts. We show that automated multi-document summarization can be improved using metrics based on rhetorical figuration. A corpus of presidential speeches, which is for different U.S. presidents speeches, has been created. It includes campaign, state of union, and inaugural speeches to test our proposed multi-document summarization system. Various evaluation metrics have been used to test and compare the performance of the produced summaries of both our proposed system and other system. Our proposed multi-document summarization system using rhetorical figures improves the produced summaries, and achieves better performance over MEAD system in most of the cases especially in antimetabole, polyptoton, and isocolon. Overall, the results of our system are promising and leads to future progress on this research.

Thesis (M.A.)--Wheaton College Graduate School, Wheaton, IL, 2003. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 125-135).

Thesis (M.A.)--Wheaton College Graduate School, Wheaton, IL, 2003. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 125-135).

This M.A. thesis presents a rhetorical analysis of the Indian philosophical and religious text, The Bhagavad Gita. Utilizing Kenneth Burke's Pentad of act, scene, agent, agency and purpose as a primary interpretive lens for uncovering universal human motivations, this rhetorical critique conceptualizes the idea of rhetorical agency as a model for action in the Gita's dialogical progression between Krishna and Arjuna. Rhetorical agency in the Gita differs from a traditional understanding of agency in that the former amalgamates competing yet co-existing pragmatic and consummatory agencies that Arjuna may utilize to act in the here and now but also relinquish the control on the fruits of his act, to ultimately transcend all human action by breaking the cycle of birth and death. In that sense, by virtue of rhetorical agency, the Gita may be considered in Burke's words Equipment for Living, because it provides a template for life across the universe.

The purpose of this thesis was to survey facilities at Utah State University and the Uintah Basin Center, develop teaching utilization models which would operate in given situations, and identify problems and recommend areas for further study. The investigator found the facilities presently used by the Uintah Basin Center adequate or nearly adequate for the use of instructional television. There are also classrooms and auditoriums at Utah State University which can be adapted for the use of television. However, equipment must be purchased in both localities . The Uintah Basin Center also must have a trained technician responsible for the equipment. In view of the large number of students taking the televised courses each quarter, the investigator recommends the use of large screen projectors rather than monitors at Utah State University . This is not to say that courses taught by television with smaller enrollments per quarter should not use monitors. The teaching utilization models developed by the investigator for the Uintah Basin Center and Utah State University were similar in nature, but each met the unique requirements for the institution for which it was designed. As a result of the survey, this writer recommends the appointment of a coordinator for the whole project of determining the effective utilization of television at Utah State University, the Uintah Basin Center, and other continuing education centers as they may develop as a part of Utah State University's instructional program. He also recommends the development of a public relations program to stimulate interest in instructional tele-vis-ion and the development of utilization seminars to instruct those involved in television with effective ways of utilizing course material. It is the opinion of the writer that the use of television instruction at continuing education centers and institutions of higher learning can be as good as it is planned to be . The success of instructional television is based upon the coordination of the entire television package. This coordination includes the detailed preparation of the physical classroom setting and courses of instruction designed to be effectively utilized in this classroom situation. The interweaving of these elements can provide effective student learning through instructional television.