Secwepemctsin, also known as Shuswap, is an endangered language spoken in the interior of British Columbia. No research dedicated to the study of Secwepemctsin pronouns is currently available. This thesis examines the independent pronouns of this language. Secwepemctsin is a radical head-marking language, and its independent pronouns function very differently from its bound pronominal clitics/affixes. This thesis provides a detailed description of the internal and external syntax of Secwepemctsin independent pronouns. They are analyzed as maximal projections that can occupy predicate positions as well as adjoin to DPs in argument positions. Binding effects follow from this analysis. Secwepemctsin independent pronouns show a strong subject orientation in third person contexts; it is the combined result of the independent pronouns' sensitivity to discourse and a subject-object asymmetry in the language: discourse familiarity is associated with syntactic positions via a mapping principle, yielding the Independent Pronoun Restriction. A semantic account of independent pronouns is provided. Secwepemctsin independent pronouns are shown to be contrastive focus when in predicate position, and contrastive topic when in argument position. Their behaviour is analyzed according to an alternative-based view of semantic theory. A case study of a child's acquisition of Secwepemctsin independent pronouns is documented, and the characteristics of her pronominal system are compared to those of an adult fluent speaker. Issues regarding language acquisition are discussed. It is found that although the child gets both Secwepemctsin and English input, her performance of Secwepemctsin is also influenced by Secwepemctsin-external and English-external factors. While this thesis investigates the technical details of Secwepemctsin syntax, it also places the study in the social context in which the language is in the process of being revived. A chapter on implications discusses the importance of providing learners of endangered languages with a positive environment in which to use the language. This chapter also points out the direction that endangered aboriginal languages may be heading, and stresses the importance of using language creatively.

The problem which this thesis seeks to answer is why the Shuswap region of British Columbia, centrally located in the southern part of the province between Kamloops and Revelstoke, endowed with so many natural advantages of climate and scenery, of location on early water routes and later arterial railway and highways, has remained relatively unimportant in the economy of the province. In the process of finding answers to this problem a systematic study has been made, first of the topography and the natural resources of the area, then of the experiences of those who first sought to open up the region, and finally of the development of mining, agriculture, lumbering and the tourist trade. From the analysis of the growth, or sometimes of the decline, of these industries, much information has been obtained as to the deficiencies of the area in natural resources, the handicaps imposed by the Shuswap region's distance from major markets, and the problems encountered by the inhabitants in utilizing some of the resources. Basically, the area lacks rich natural resources - there is little mineralization; the areas of arable land are limited and are scattered in pockets through the region; the timber resources are not as extensive as at first appears, vast stands of mature timber having been burned over since' settlement came into the area, and much of the remaining timber having a high incidence of disease. Both lumbering and agriculture have been handicapped by high transportation costs because of the remoteness of the area from major markets. The recent vastly increased number of tourists and summer residents in the Shuswap area (much of it due to the completion of the Trans- Canada Highway through Rogers Pass) is responsible for a recent upswing in the region's economy and augurs well for the future. The conclusion is finally reached that the tourist trade is the sole activity which offers real prospect of future development. The Shuswap country's lovely scenery, hundreds of miles of lakeshore, and fine climate have proved to be its major natural resource. The main difficulty encountered in working on this thesis has been finding the necessary data. A certain amount of information is available in printed government documents - in gazettes, sessional papers, annual reports, memoirs and reports of royal commissions. Newspapers, both early and more recent, have proved helpful, as have a few books and some theses. The resources of the University Library, the Provincial Archives, the Vancouver Public Library's Northwest Room and the Kamloops Museum were used. But much vital information was still missing. To make good the deficiencies in the printed materials, many old-timers around Shuswap Lake were interviewed and, in a number of cases, their conversations were tape recorded. These talks were most helpful in securing a general picture of the process of settlement and the history of various industrial and land settlement schemes. Extensive correspondence was carried on with various individuals, government departments and companies, asking for specific information. Much time was spent in personally interviewing key civil servants in such sections as the Legal Surveys Division, the Water Resources Service and the British Columbia Forest Service of the Department of Lands and Forests in Victoria. Thanks to these contacts, permission was obtained to dig deep into files at least fifty years old or, where the files had been destroyed, to use the microfilm copies that had been made for departmental use. Finally, a reasonably balanced and full picture of the growth of the area began to emerge. / Arts, Faculty of / History, Department of / Graduate

Secwepemctsin, also known as Shuswap, is an endangered language spoken in the interior of British Columbia. No research dedicated to the study of Secwepemctsin pronouns is currently available. This thesis examines the independent pronouns of this language. Secwepemctsin is a radical head-marking language, and its independent pronouns function very differently from its bound pronominal clitics/affixes. This thesis provides a detailed description of the internal and external syntax of Secwepemctsin independent pronouns. They are analyzed as maximal projections that can occupy predicate positions as well as adjoin to DPs in argument positions. Binding effects follow from this analysis. Secwepemctsin independent pronouns show a strong subject orientation in third person contexts; it is the combined result of the independent pronouns' sensitivity to discourse and a subject-object asymmetry in the language: discourse familiarity is associated with syntactic positions via a mapping principle, yielding the Independent Pronoun Restriction. A semantic account of independent pronouns is provided. Secwepemctsin independent pronouns are shown to be contrastive focus when in predicate position, and contrastive topic when in argument position. Their behaviour is analyzed according to an alternative-based view of semantic theory. A case study of a child's acquisition of Secwepemctsin independent pronouns is documented, and the characteristics of her pronominal system are compared to those of an adult fluent speaker. Issues regarding language acquisition are discussed. It is found that although the child gets both Secwepemctsin and English input, her performance of Secwepemctsin is also influenced by Secwepemctsin-external and English-external factors. While this thesis investigates the technical details of Secwepemctsin syntax, it also places the study in the social context in which the language is in the process of being revived. A chapter on implications discusses the importance of providing learners of endangered languages with a positive environment in which to use the language. This chapter also points out the direction that endangered aboriginal languages may be heading, and stresses the importance of using language creatively. / Arts, Faculty of / Linguistics, Department of / Graduate

Thesis (M.A.) - Simon Fraser University, 2005. / Theses (Dept. of Sociology/Anthropology) / Simon Fraser University.

Thesis (M.A.) - Simon Fraser University, 2005. / Theses (Dept. of Sociology/Anthropology) / Simon Fraser University.

This thesis attempts to demonstrate that the symbolic significance of food gathering among the Lillooet, Thompson, and Shuswap generates two major paradoxes, cannibalism and infertility, which arise from a sexual imbalance revealed by certain myths related to food gathering, and that the shaman is a potential mediator of these paradoxes. Initially, I suggest that an analysis of the symbol system of a culture affords an excellent access to native perspective if the analyst is able to avoid the influences of his ethnocentrism with respect to his methodology and selection of data. Thus, analytical methods must possess universal applicability, and the data (native categories of thought) might be selected from native solutions to problems occurring to all humans--e.g., cultural solutions and conceptions of those solutions to food gathering. The second chapter considers some definitions of symbols proposed by Geertz, Langer, and others and suggests a "working definition" of a symbol as a locus of logical operations. It is then possible to apply structural methods of analysis (metaphor, binary opposition, transformation, et al) to a symbol system as structuralism professes to consider the universal structure of cognition. In the third chapter, I provide some ethnographic notes concerning the manifestation of one underlying Plateau cultural principle, equality, to the general social structure of the Lillooet, Thompson, and Shuswap with respect to political organization, food gathering, and the sexual division of labor. Although men and women are considered to be generally equal, a strict distinction is maintained between sexual roles. Hence, I suggest that this balance plus necessary distinction might be termed a "sexual balance." Also, the chapter briefly considers the unusual capacities of shamans and suggests that, as shamans are not subject to restrictions imposed upon the normative group, they may be able to manipulate the rigid sexual distinction if the sexual balance is upset. The fourth and fifth chapters discuss the symbolic significance of food gathering. In the fourth chapter, I suggest that women maintain a metaphorical sexual relationship with the roots they gather. As this relationship is strictly metaphorical, however, serious problems accrue when the relationship becomes literal and when men gather roots. Another myth succinctly states the ultimate results of a violation of a woman's metaphorical relationship with food. This violation generates an excessive cultural union or marriage between two men (necessarily infertile) and an excessive natural union (between woman and tree) whose issue, blood transformed into blackberries, poses the problem of cannibalism to the people. The fifth chapter suggests that women who hunt also pose a threat to the cognitive system as men appear to have a metaphorical sexual relationship with deer and other game animals. Two myths suggest a former intimate relationship between women and deer. Menstrual blood appears to function as a differentiator of women from deer. The chapter focuses on the logical implications of the hunting ventures of a cannibal woman. This woman not only opposes the role of women by hunting, but also possesses a snake-like vagina which offers death as opposed to life (as in childbirth). The sixth chapter examines shamans (with respect to myths and ritual actions) as mediators of the two paradoxes, cannibalism and infertility. First, I discuss two myths relating the drilling and sucking practices of mosquitoes to those of thunder. These practices echo shamanic curative techniques. Also, the symbolic significance of the earth people's spiral ascent to the sky world parallels the significance of the spiral in other contexts. Finally, some rituals and myths concerning shamanic performance consider certain problems (including improper sexual distinction, excessive sibling intimacy, and lack of potential spouses) which generate infertility. The concluding chapter reviews the strategy for analysis and the logical implications of the symbolism of food gathering as well as the potential of the shaman to mediate paradoxes emerging from the logical implications. / Arts, Faculty of / Anthropology, Department of / Graduate

Thesis (M.S.)--Oregon State University, 1993. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 86-89). Also available on the World Wide Web.

This thesis looks at public participation in the formulation of three official community plans within the Columbia Shuswap Regional District. As background, a historical review of the literature makes the case that historical events led to the democratization of planning and supports communicative action theory as a pragmatic framework for modern planners. An examination of local government legislation and practice exposes the great deal of discretion afforded to each local government. Local resident advisory group members’ experiences, gained through face‐to‐face semi‐structured interviews, are analyzed using qualitative data coding. The analysis reveals four major themes across the three processes: sense of agency and level of input, process, power and group identity and cohesion. The interview analysis is then fed back through the literature, lending varied support to the communicative turn in planning and providing a more broad interpretation of the data that informs future planning practice.

This thesis looks at public participation in the formulation of three official community plans within the Columbia Shuswap Regional District. As background, a historical review of the literature makes the case that historical events led to the democratization of planning and supports communicative action theory as a pragmatic framework for modern planners. An examination of local government legislation and practice exposes the great deal of discretion afforded to each local government. Local resident advisory group members’ experiences, gained through face‐to‐face semi‐structured interviews, are analyzed using qualitative data coding. The analysis reveals four major themes across the three processes: sense of agency and level of input, process, power and group identity and cohesion. The interview analysis is then fed back through the literature, lending varied support to the communicative turn in planning and providing a more broad interpretation of the data that informs future planning practice.

Thesis (M.A.) - Simon Fraser University, 2005. / Theses (Faculty of Education) / Simon Fraser University.