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This dissertation explores literary-theoretical constructions arising from the consideration of certain non-narrative linguistic strategies and applies them to dance analysis. My intent is not only to provide new, functional tools for dance scholars and writers, but also to alter the theoretical terms themselves: by employing literary critical language beyond its original purpose, I hope to locate the limits of that language as it applies to dance. Moreover, I strive to identify the ways moving bodies complicate concepts normally applied to static and disembodied text. In this way my research moves in two directions: adding a specific theoretical lens to the dance-writing toolbox, and, in turn, using dance to sharpen and focus that lens. I have chosen two theoretical constructs--Julia Kristeva's explication of the semiotic aspect of language and her characterization of the abject--because of the ways they address the unsayable through body, repetition, and rhythm. Kristeva's texts, Desire in Language (1981) and Powers of Horror (1982), provide the dissertation's primary theoretical frameworks. The first text puts forth key concepts about heterogeneous meaning within her conceptualization of the semiotic; the second addresses meaning that exceeds language, and the self, and arises out of the abject (a crisis of the subject when confronted with a breakdown of boundaries between self and other). Both concepts are relevant to dance, emerging from the materiality/substance of language rather than from language as a phantom structure that ideas are placed into. This dissertation grapples with how dance strives to express that which exceeds "paraphrasable" meaning from three vantage points: 1) the assessment of the critical reception of historic choreography (Paul Taylor's Big Bertha) that plays simple narrative against the horror of the unknown; 2) an examination of participants' communications during the choreographic process of innovative choreographer, Gabrielle Lamb, and how research material was transformed during that process; 3) the documentation of my own struggle to express the unsayable during the creation of a hybrid dance/textual piece. These perspectives require different analytic strategies: 1) the casting of an artwork's meaning in historical and cultural contexts, 2) the parsing of the language used to communicate meaning between participants during the creative process, 3) the self-chronicling and reflective analysis of meaning-making during the conception and execution of a hybrid work. My objective is to show how Kristeva's theoretical constructs play out in different types of dance analysis and how the lack of a certain strain of theoretical language in dance discourse has left a hole where discussion might profitably ensue. I seek to use Kristeva's texts and post/modern techniques of the body to offer a multi-layered and technically invested understanding of dance rather than an aphoristic and imagistic one: one that substitutes multiple, specific bodies and their actions for a single idealized institution of the beautiful. / Dance

Music as a hub in school presentationsThe aim of the study is to elucidate how making meaning is constituted when lower secondary pupils play music when giving accounts of other school subjects than music. The empirical material consists of four presenta- tions in the subjects of physics, religion and Swedish, which were filmed during ordinary lessons in a lower secondary school. In addition the data consists of nine filmed stimulated recall interviews with the pupils and their teachers, which were also filmed.Social semiotic multimodality constitutes the study’s theoretical and methodological point of departure. The perspective enables investigation of the pupils’ playing of music and music in its multimodal context, and of how different dimensions of meaning are constructed. The filmed presentations were transcribed into music scores in order to visualise the multimodal events of the presentations. Three different categories of meaning were used, ideational, interpersonal and textual meaning, to analyse how music relates to other modes of communication.The results show how the temporal functions of music serve as frame- work and motor, what the music narrates in relation to the subject content and what interpersonal relations the music communicates. The young peo- ple’s knowledge of music manifests itself in the different accounts as an ability to use and adapt musical knowledge to a context where another sub- ject than music is in focus. The presentations of Swedish are travesties of well-known songs and the pupils stick to the given form. In the other presen- tations the pupils themselves had compiled the music and the result was a form of musical works where the music does not follow any model or certain genre. The informants think that this working method implies that the work is experienced as meaningful both to themselves and to the audience.

This thesis examines the multifaceted strategies employed in Pressbyrån's 2023 Cinnamon Bun Campaign, which gained nationwide attention in Sweden for its humorous approach. The campaign aimed to depict the Swedish cinnamon bun, a staple of the Swedish fika tradition, in an extravagant and luxurious light. Focusing on the interplay between humor and luxury, the study uses a multimodal analysis, utilizing Semiotic and Social Semiotic approaches to understand the visual material and its conveyed meanings. Using a theoretical framework that includes Stuart Hall's (1973) encoding and decoding model and Marxist theory, the research examines how the campaign commodifies the cinnamon bun, imbuing it with social value within capitalist culture. The investigation also places the campaign within Swedish cultural traditions and explores the intersection of humor, luxury, and cultural contexts. The literature review covers perfume advertisements, humor in advertising, and the commodification of cultures, providing a comprehensive background for the analysis. The analysis identifies visual cues and luxury codes within the campaign's posters and discusses their impact on audience perception. It also explores how humor through parody intersects with cultural contexts, particularly in challenging Swedish norms of moderation (lagom) through exaggerated luxury. The findings reveal that the campaign strategically uses visual elements reminiscent of luxurious perfume advertisements, creating a humorous dissonance between the perceived extravagance of the bun and its ordinary consumption. The study highlights the complex dynamics between humor, luxury, and cultural contexts in advertising. While humor effectively captures attention, its efficacy in enhancing brand recall remains uncertain. Nonetheless, Pressbyrån's campaign serves as a compelling case study, offering insights into the intricate relationship between consumer culture, tradition, and humor in advertising.

This study highlights the complex ways in which children engage with semiotic resources during designed dance activities. The study explores how preschool children aged four to five use semiotic resources during dance activities. The aim is to investigate the children's use of symbolic expressions and the communicative dynamics involved. Grounded in social semiotic theory, with a focus on meaning making and transduction, this study uses observation as a method to collect qualitative data from a selected group of child participants. The analysis, grounded in social semiotic analysis, reveals that children create meaning through different semiotic resources, which include different signs and symbols. These can take the form of physical expressions where children's creativity, imagination, emotional expression and social interaction are the basis. The results show that through the three designed dance activities, children mainly used semiotic resources such as gestures, gazes, sounds, facial expressions and verbal expressions to create meaning. By exploring the semiotic resources used and their application in these interactions, it can contribute to the research and one can gain a deeper understanding of children's communicative and symbolic expression during dance activities. The study has potential implications for educational strategies that can promote children's social and cognitive abilities. / Denna studie belyser de komplexa sätten där barn engagerar sig med semiotiska resurser under designade dansaktiviteterna. Studien utforskar hur förskolebarn i åldrarna fyra till fem år använder semiotiska resurser under dansaktiviteter. Syftet är att undersöka barnens användning av symboliska uttryck och de kommunikativa dynamikerna som är involverade. Förankrad i social semiotisk teori, med fokus på meningsskapande och transduktion, använder denna studieobservation som metod för att samla kvalitativa data från en utvald grupp av barndeltagare. Analysen, förankrad i social semiotisk analys, avslöjar att barn skapar mening genom olika semiotiska resurser, vilket innefattar olika tecken och symboler. Dessa kan ta formen av fysiska uttryck där barns kreativitet, fantasi, känslouttryck och sociala interaktion är grunden. Resultaten visar att genom de tre designade dansaktiviteterna använde barn främst semiotiska resurser som gester, blickar, ljud, ansiktsuttryck och verbala uttryck för att skapa mening. Genom att utforska de semiotiska resurser som används och deras tillämpning i dessa interaktioner kan det bidra till forskningen och man kan få en djupare förståelse för barns kommunikativa och symboliska uttryck under dansaktiviteterna. Studien har potentiella implikationer för utbildningsstrategier som kan främja barns sociala och kognitiva förmåga.

The aim of our study was to examine which news images the media industry choose to reward. The World Press Photo Awards is an anual competition in which a jury of professional photo journalists appoints a winner among over 90 000 contributions. We have studied twelve pictures that have won World Press Photo of the Year over the time span of six decades to explore the characteristics of the winning pictures, but also to give a perspective over time. For the purpose of our study, we took a closer look at the roles of the people in the pictures, as well as the attributes and contexts related to them.   Our findings indicate that myths seem to play a central part in the telling and retelling of stories. The tradgedy of human lives is a reoccurring element, and the people are in most cases depicted in a negative context. The story of the victim, for example, was common in the winning pictures.   We could see that civilians frequently appears in photographs, especially suffering children who often stands as a symbol of weakness. As connected to the mishap of people, our research found similarities to other studies focusing on how news stories speak to our compassion and emotions.

The aim of this study is to analyse and interpret L.Z. Sikwane's play: Matshediso from the perspective of didascalies. The study comprises five chapters. The aim, scope and methods of research are outlined and motivated in chapter one. In chapter two, an overview of the research into didascalies is undertaken. Questions such as: "what are didascalies?" "how do didascalies in a play help produce meaning and shape?" etc. are dealt with. Later, the study shows how didascalies are linked to the other structural elements of drama such as theme; plot; characters and setting. In chapter three an analysis and interpretation of Matshediso from the perspective of the importance of didascalies is undertaken. This analysis focuses on the plot; didascalies and characters; didascalies and space; and didascalies, props, and set. Limitations characterizing performance are also dealt with. In chapter four, an integrated interpretation of Matshediso is provided. Thereafter a set of guidelines for performing the play is developed. This covers aspects such as: stage setting; the characters; dialogue; sound and costume. Chapter five sum up the main findings of the study and the value of the didascalies approach. By way of conclusion, I argue that Sikwane has not just written a play, but also pictured how it should be performed. This is confirmed by the didascalies included in this play and the value of the didascalies approach. / M.A., African Languages, Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education, 2002

The aim of this study is to analyse and interpret L.Z. Sikwane's play: Matshediso from the perspective of didascalies. The study comprises five chapters. The aim, scope and methods of research are outlined and motivated in chapter one. In chapter two, an overview of the research into didascalies is undertaken. Questions such as: "what are didascalies?" "how do didascalies in a play help produce meaning and shape?" etc. are dealt with. Later, the study shows how didascalies are linked to the other structural elements of drama such as theme; plot; characters and setting. In chapter three an analysis and interpretation of Matshediso from the perspective of the importance of didascalies is undertaken. This analysis focuses on the plot; didascalies and characters; didascalies and space; and didascalies, props, and set. Limitations characterizing performance are also dealt with. In chapter four, an integrated interpretation of Matshediso is provided. Thereafter a set of guidelines for performing the play is developed. This covers aspects such as: stage setting; the characters; dialogue; sound and costume. Chapter five sum up the main findings of the study and the value of the didascalies approach. By way of conclusion, I argue that Sikwane has not just written a play, but also pictured how it should be performed. This is confirmed by the didascalies included in this play and the value of the didascalies approach. / M.A., African Languages, Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education, 2002

The overall aim of this thesis is to deepen the understanding of mathematical subject language regarding three semiotic resources, written language, images and mathematical symbols. The theses also investigates high- and low-performingstudents encounter with mathematical subject language. Based on previous research on language and from a theoretical foundation based on systemic functional linguistics (SFL) and social semiotics, four meaning dimensions – packing, precision, personification and presentation – were identified as central in academic language in general and in mathematical subject language. A didactically based reception theoretical perspective has been used for an analysis of high and low achieving students' encounter with the mathematical subject language. The thesis comprises three studies each examining the mathematical subject language in TIMSS 2011 from various angles. The analyzes were conducted on four content areas algebra, statistics, geometry and arithmetic in the Swedish version of the international study Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study 2011 (TIMSS). In a summary, the results showed that the mathematical subject language was used in different ways in the four content areas in TIMSS where colloquial and subject-specific forms of languages had different roles and were expressed in varying degrees by the written language, images and mathematical symbols. Thus each content area was expressed by its own register which means that is not sufficient to talk about mathematical subject language as one single language. The result shows that two forms of language, subject specific and everyday language were used parallel in the TIMSS material. The subject specific forms were most salient in algebra and geometry and the more everyday forms of language were more common in statistics and arithmetic. The results from the correlation analyses indicated that fewer students managed the encounter with tasks in algebra and geometry when they were expressed by subject specific language. In contrast, the results indicated that students were able handle the encounter with the more colloquial expressions of the content areas statistics and arithmetic.

Den här undersökningen belyser hur makt kan manifesteras i bild. Den utgår från maktteorier, främst postmodern maktanalys enligt Michel Foucault och hans uttolkare. Semiotisk bildanalys används för att belysa maktmanifestationer i ett bildmaterial som huvudsakligen utgörs av fotografier tagna av författaren. Resultatet presenteras i en gestaltning där bilderna visas tillsammans med en analys av varje bild. Tekniker såsom perspektivval, bildutsnitt och efterbehandling, för att förändra en bilds konnotation, demonstreras. Olika maktperspektiv och makttekniker urskiljs och särskilt fokus läggs på mindre uppenbara maktyttringar och dolda maktuttryck, t.ex. osynliggörande, obstruktion, belöning och övervakning. Här konstateras att uttryck för makt inte är absoluta och odiskutabla utan att konnotationen är beroende av betraktarens kultursfär, tidigare erfarenheter och kunskap. En diskussion förs om uttolkningen av de maktteoretiska och semiotiska begreppen och hur vida definitionerna kan vara för att analysen ska vara användbar och meningsfull. / This study illustrates how power can be manifested in the image. It is based on theories of power, mainly postmodern power analysis according to Michel Foucault and his interpreters. Semiotic analysis is used to illustrate the manifestations of power in the visual material that mainly consists of photographs taken by the author. The results are presented in a display where the images are shown along with an analysis of each image. Techniques such as perspective, composition and finish, in order to change the connotation of an image, are being demonstrated. Different perspectives of power and power techniques are distinguished and a special focus is put on the less obvious manifestations of power and the hidden expressions of power, for example inattention, obstruction, reward and monitoring. It is found that expressions of power are not absolute and indisputable and that the connotation depends on the viewer's culture sphere, previous experience and knowledge. A discussion is being held about the interpretation of the power theoretical and semiotic concepts and how wide the definitions can be for the analysis to be useful and meaningful.