Various forms of media penetrate our lives daily. Hip hop music has gained universal appeal and widespread success that permeates barriers of race, class, gender, age, and nationality. It is important for social service workers, parents, educators and other adults who interact with youth to understand the roles hip hop music and culture can play in the identities of those who are listening. In this study I conducted 12 open-ended interviews with adolescent hip hop fans about their music. The research presented in this thesis suggests that adolescent hip hop fans are making interpretations from the media and applying them to their understanding of themselves and the world. The findings of this study show that these adolescent hip hop fans most saliently describe their interactions and understandings of hip hop music in terms of authenticity. This thesis builds upon Armstrong's (2004) forms of authenticity, incorporating what participants discussed about themes of realness and hoodness. These interviews also indicate that fans relate music's lyrics to their own lives and what they understand of other people's lives. Youth may understand hip hop images and messages as types of lived realities. Although further research is necessary, these findings suggest there may be a need for adolescents to refine media literacy skills to be critical of media images and messages.

Traditional Chinese woodblock New Year pictures face the danger of being marginalized and disappearing in the context of industrialization and technological development. It is, therefore, imperative to conduct research on traditional New Year pictures to address this challenge. This thesis analyses the content of New Year pictures from four representative bases (Yangliuqing, Taohuawu, Wuqiang, and Mianzhu) in China. The semiotic perspective is selected as a theoretical framework. Through quantitative and qualitative analysis of representative New Year pictures, this study identifies commonly used signs in New Year pictures and explores their meanings from the perspectives of connotation and myth. The study also examines the construction relationship between the signifier and the signified of the signs. These findings preliminarily construct the semiotic system for Chinese woodblock New Year pictures. Furthermore, the analytical framework provides an innovative quantitative research approach to the study of traditional New Year picture signs, contributing to the current research on the New Year pictures’ semiotic system. In previous studies, quantitative methods have never been applied to the study of New Year pictures, nor have they been widely used in other similar folk art forms. Distant reading methods from the field of digital humanities open new frontiers in the study of folk art. While visual art may be better suited for traditional close-up reading, computational methods can help capture the overall characteristics of art from a macroscopic perspective.

Do words mirror reality? This question has been at the core of several linguistic disputes for decades. Several scholars have investigated the relationship between the signifier and the signified, and different literary theories suggest different approaches. This study is a close reading analysis of Paul Auster’s City of Glass, a novel that has been the subject of several scholarly studies relating to the role of language. This study aims to analyse the role of signification in the novel seen from a post-structuralist perspective in order to show how Auster problematizes language. Several explicit remarks on language are made from various characters in the novel, each expressing and conveying different language views. Nevertheless, a post-structural view on language wins favour as post-structural ideas and concepts are seen in the narrative language and the constructive level of the text. The analysis shows that Auster uses a post-structural view on language to illustrate the instability of signification in language. Auster problematizes the stability of language in order to illustrate the tentativeness of truth and ambiguity of reality. The language view of the narrator is used to illustrate the mimetic view that language is able to accurately record reality. The mimetic view on language is problematized by using the notebook as a symbol for the relationship between the signifier and the signified. The arbitrariness of language is illustrated through the means of the notebook in order to problematize truth. Auster uses the character of the protagonist Daniel Quinn to illustrate the belief in an essential truth within literature. This view is then problematized by using arbitrariness in the structural level of the text in order to illustrate the relativity of truth. The character of Stillman Sr is used to illustrate the belief of man being able to control language. However, the search for a divine language turns out to be a gnostic and meaningless quest since no cosmic solutions are achieved. The failure of Stillman´s quest is used to argue for the predominance of language over man. Language determines how people perceive truth. The perception of truth and reality is dependent on language. Since language is arbitrary, there is no truth which consists outside of language.

This study attempts to offer a reading of Msimang's poetry from the perspective of deconstruction. In this course it is necessary to introduce and elaborate on certain deconstruction strategies. This is mainly effected in the second chapter, where consideration is given to diachronic and synchronic perspectives on deconstruction. However, not all the ramifications of the various radical insights offered by deconstructive approaches into the various fields are explored, only the significant texts by mainly French theorists and their American disciples are investigated. Secondly, this study seeks to show that the Zulu poems under consideration are highly amenable to a deconstruction reading. This thesis examines the various practices to absorb, transform, and integrate deconstruction and to make the theory applicable as a critical method within the African languages critical environment. In the third chapter, I am chiefly concerned with the claim that a text never has a single meaning, but is a crossroads of multiple ambiguous meanings. Explaining the historical context, the interdisciplinary scope, and the philosophical significance of Derrida' s project are explored in the fourth chapter. Language has no determinate centre nor any retrievable origin or truth. Belief in such is no more than nostalgia, says Derrida. What actually exists is a complex network of differences between signifiers, each in some sense carrying the traces of all others. With psychoanalysis in the fourth chapter, the focus is not on the differences between the deconstructive and psychoanalytic critics, but on their shared assumption that works ofliterature are in some sense indeterminate. These properties lead to the sixth chapter, which deals with intertextuality according to Derrida, Barthes and Bloom. The seventh and last chapter is the general conclusion in which main observations are summarized and important aspects highlighted. Finally, this thesis attempts to illustrate why the deconstructive procedure of analysing texts in such a way as to explicate their partial complicity with the theory, makes this deconstructive reading of Msimang' s poetry possible. / African Languages / D.Litt. et Phil. (African Languages)

Dans cette thèse, nous considérons des questions relatives aux homomorphismes de quatre types distincts de graphes : les graphes orientés, les graphes orientables, les graphes 2-arête colorés et les graphes signés. Pour chacun des ces quatre types, nous cherchons à déterminer le nombre chromatique, le nombre de clique relatif et le nombre de clique absolu pour différentes familles de graphes planaires : les graphes planaires extérieurs, les graphes planaires extérieurs de maille fixée, les graphes planaires et les graphes planaires de maille fixée. Nous étudions également les étiquetages "2-dipath" et "L(p,q)" des graphes orientés et considérons les catégories des graphes orientables et des graphes signés. Nous étudions enfin les différentes relations pouvant exister entre ces quatre types d'homomorphismes de graphes. / An oriented graph is a directed graph with no cycle of length at most two. A homomorphism of an oriented graph to another oriented graph is an arc preserving vertex mapping. To push a vertex is to switch the direction of the arcs incident to it. An orientable graph is an equivalence class of oriented graph with respect to the push operation. An orientable graph [−→G] admits a homomorphism to an orientable graph [−→H] if an element of [−→G] admits a homomorphism to an element of [−→H]. A signified graph (G, Σ) is a graph whose edges are assigned either a positive sign or a negative sign, while Σ denotes the set of edges with negative signs assigned to them. A homomorphism of a signified graph to another signified graph is a vertex mapping such that the image of a positive edge is a positive edge and the image of a negative edge is a negative edge. A signed graph [G, Σ] admits a homomorphism to a signed graph [H, Λ] if an element of [G, Σ] admits a homomorphism to an element of [H, Λ]. The oriented chromatic number of an oriented graph −→G is the minimum order of an oriented graph −→H such that −→G admits a homomorphism to −→H. A set R of vertices of an oriented graph −→G is an oriented relative clique if no two vertices of R can have the same image under any homomorphism. The oriented relative clique number of an oriented graph −→G is the maximum order of an oriented relative clique of −→G. An oriented clique or an oclique is an oriented graph whose oriented chromatic number is equal to its order. The oriented absolute clique number of an oriented graph −→G is the maximum order of an oclique contained in −→G as a subgraph. The chromatic number, the relative chromatic number and the absolute chromatic number for orientable graphs, signified graphs and signed graphs are defined similarly. In this thesis we study the chromatic number, the relative clique number and the absolute clique number of the above mentioned four types of graphs. We specifically study these three parameters for the family of outerplanar graphs, of outerplanar graphs with given girth, of planar graphs and of planar graphs with given girth. We also try to investigate the relation between the four types of graphs and prove some results regarding that. In this thesis, we provide tight bounds for the absolute clique number of these families in all these four settings. We provide improved bounds for relative clique numbers for the same. For some of the cases we manage to provide improved bounds for the chromatic number as well. One of the most difficult results that we prove here is that the oriented absolute clique number of the family of planar graphs is at most 15. This result settles a conjecture made by Klostermeyer and MacGillivray in 2003. Using the same technique we manage to prove similar results for orientable planar graphs and signified planar graphs. We also prove that the signed chromatic number of triangle-free planar graphs is at most 25 using the discharging method. This also implies that the signified chromatic number of trianglefree planar graphs is at most 50 improving the previous upper bound. We also study the 2-dipath and oriented L(p, q)-labeling (labeling with a condition for distance one and two) for several families of planar graphs. It was not known if the categorical product of orientable graphs and of signed graphs exists. We prove both the existence and also provide formulas to construct them. Finally, we propose some conjectures and mention some future directions of works to conclude the thesis.

Dans cette thèse, nous considérons des questions relatives aux homomorphismes de quatre types distincts de graphes : les graphes orientés, les graphes orientables, les graphes 2-arête colorés et les graphes signés. Pour chacun des ces quatre types, nous cherchons à déterminer le nombre chromatique, le nombre de clique relatif et le nombre de clique absolu pour différentes familles de graphes planaires : les graphes planaires extérieurs, les graphes planaires extérieurs de maille fixée, les graphes planaires et les graphes planaires de maille fixée. Nous étudions également les étiquetages "2-dipath" et "L(p,q)" des graphes orientés et considérons les catégories des graphes orientables et des graphes signés. Nous étudions enfin les différentes relations pouvant exister entre ces quatre types d'homomorphismes de graphes.

This study attempts to offer a reading of Msimang's poetry from the perspective of deconstruction. In this course it is necessary to introduce and elaborate on certain deconstruction strategies. This is mainly effected in the second chapter, where consideration is given to diachronic and synchronic perspectives on deconstruction. However, not all the ramifications of the various radical insights offered by deconstructive approaches into the various fields are explored, only the significant texts by mainly French theorists and their American disciples are investigated. Secondly, this study seeks to show that the Zulu poems under consideration are highly amenable to a deconstruction reading. This thesis examines the various practices to absorb, transform, and integrate deconstruction and to make the theory applicable as a critical method within the African languages critical environment. In the third chapter, I am chiefly concerned with the claim that a text never has a single meaning, but is a crossroads of multiple ambiguous meanings. Explaining the historical context, the interdisciplinary scope, and the philosophical significance of Derrida' s project are explored in the fourth chapter. Language has no determinate centre nor any retrievable origin or truth. Belief in such is no more than nostalgia, says Derrida. What actually exists is a complex network of differences between signifiers, each in some sense carrying the traces of all others. With psychoanalysis in the fourth chapter, the focus is not on the differences between the deconstructive and psychoanalytic critics, but on their shared assumption that works ofliterature are in some sense indeterminate. These properties lead to the sixth chapter, which deals with intertextuality according to Derrida, Barthes and Bloom. The seventh and last chapter is the general conclusion in which main observations are summarized and important aspects highlighted. Finally, this thesis attempts to illustrate why the deconstructive procedure of analysing texts in such a way as to explicate their partial complicity with the theory, makes this deconstructive reading of Msimang' s poetry possible. / African Languages / D.Litt. et Phil. (African Languages)

En examinant les points communs par les outils structuraliste, stylistique, sémiotique et thématique, la présente étude a pour but de trouver les points communs entre les deux modèles romanesques chinois et français : Le Rêve dans le pavillon rouge de Cao Xueqin et A La Recherche du temps perdu de Marcel Proust. La narration, le système des personnages et la temporalité sont similaires dans ces deux œuvres. Dans la Première Partie, nous allons montrer que ces deux œuvres adoptent, en effet, une forme circulaire, se refermant sur elle-même, analogique à la forme de la métaphore mais qui s’étend jusqu’à tout le texte, que nous appelons « la métaphorisation ». La métaphorisation, sur ces trois aspects, est le point de départ d’une nouvelle esthétique, propre, mais commune, à ces deux œuvres. Dans la Deuxième Partie, nous allons montrer que la formation d’un monde romanesque auto-référentiel dans l’intérieur des deux œuvres est rendu possible grâce à la métaphorisation, et les trois catégories des signes romanesques - le Signifiant, le Signifié et le Référent – ont la possibilité de puiser leur source uniquement à l’intérieur du roman. Nous allons également montrer le fantastique de la narration des deux œuvres, sous l’apparence réaliste des deux récits de « Marcel » et de « Jia Jade magique ». La création de nouvelles perspectives esthétiques, l’interrogation sur l’essentiel de la littérature, par la découverte de la forme métaphorisée de ces deux œuvres, constituent une partie importante de la présente thèse. En mettant en convergence ces deux œuvres par leur similarité, nous souhaitons apporter des découvertes intéressantes d’un point de vue comparatiste. / By examining the commonalities by structural, stylistic and semiotic tools, and by themes, this study aims to find the commonalities between the two Chinese and French novels: Dream of the Red Chamber by Cao Xueqin and Remembrance of Things Past by Marcel Proust. Based on our analysis in Part I, a specific form on three aspects - the narration, the system of characters and the temporality - is found to be common in both works. It is of a circular shape, closing in on itself, analogue to a metaphor but extends to all the text, which we call "the metaphorization." The metaphorization on these three aspects will be the center of a new aesthetic, proper but common to both works. In Part II, we will show that metaphorzation makes possible the formation of a self-referential world in the interior of the two works, and the three categories of signs inside a fiction - the Signifier, the Signified and the Referent - will have the opportunity to draw their source only in the interior of the novel. We are going to investigate into the fantastic that lies under the appearance of realism in the narration of the two stories of “Marcel” and “Jia Jade magique.” The metaphorization is not only an important part of our theory, it helps to discuss on the very essence of the literature in this present study. By converging these two novels by their similarity, we wish to make interesting discoveries from a comparative point of view.

Please read the abstract in the section 00front of this document. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Old Testament Studies / unrestricted

Submitted by Maicon Juliano Schmidt (maicons) on 2015-04-23T18:16:15Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Sandra Cristina Porsche.pdf: 1320789 bytes, checksum: 9160b2f13a735e411a2c7705e5968c9c (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-04-23T18:16:15Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Sandra Cristina Porsche.pdf: 1320789 bytes, checksum: 9160b2f13a735e411a2c7705e5968c9c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-07-23 / Milton Valente / O conceito saussuriano de arbitrariedade do signo já foi objeto de um extenso número de trabalhos. Saussure colocou o princípio na base de toda sua teorização, mas não tardou para surgirem grandes dificuldades em compreender como ele se enquadra no conjunto da teoria, apresentando-se como extremamente paradoxal e sendo submetido a escrutínio por uma série de intérpretes. A obra de Saussure é fundamentalmente cercada de controvérsias, em vista do Curso de Linguística Geral (CLG), obra que não foi escrita por ele, e em virtude de uma quantidade ímpar de manuscritos surgidos após os anos 50 e, mais recentemente, em 1996. Com as novas contribuições, hoje retoma-se a teoria para elucidar novos fatos. Assim, esta tese discute o conceito de arbitrariedade do signo, procurando encontrar o lugar que lhe cabe. Partimos do exame do CLG, do Escritos de Linguística Geral (ELG), com apoio nos cadernos de alunos, e de leituras de intérpretes saussurianos, para apresentar uma proposta sobre o lugar do conceito na teoria. Há quatro problemas principais para a compreensão do arbitrário: 1) um aparente paradoxo: Saussure combate a visão nomenclaturista, mas apresenta provas que fazem supor a existência de um significado existente a priori, universal, antes da conjugação do fato linguístico, o que contradiz a teoria. Surge, então, o problema de saber como, no conjunto da obra, Saussure responde à complexa questão da relação da língua com a realidade; 2) com a afirmação de que todo signo é motivado no sistema e com o conceito de arbitrário relativo, é difícil ver um lugar para o arbitrário absoluto na língua; 3) o conceito clássico de convencionalidade é reformulado por Saussure, sem que ele teorize suficientemente essa mudança, gerando o problema de saber em que consiste a diferença e 4) também não há teorização suficiente de Saussure sobre a relação entre semiologia e linguística. Concluimos, a partir do exame desses problemas, que o arbitrário é entre significante e materialidade da língua, o que nem sempre é visto com clareza. Entre eles a relação é arbitrária e, considerando o postulado da transmissão da língua, visto que ela se materializa na fala e por ela se transmite, o arbitrário é princípio semiológico de base, sempre presente na transmissão (diacrônico), causando efeitos no plano sincrônico. Pela reformulação do conceito de convencionalidade, Saussure se desloca para o plano da língua, tomada pela sua matéria sonora, deixando o plano do significado (sem significante) a outro campo de estudos. Concluimos que o arbitrário do signo na linguística refere-se à relação entre significante e materialidade da língua. / Saussure ́s arbitrariness of the sign concept has been the focus of great debate. For him, it was a key concept, but many difficulties in understanding its place in the theory have soon arisen. The concept was considered extremely paradoxical, leading to much scrutiny by many authors. Saussure ́s work is fundamentally involved in controversies due to the Course in General Linguistics (CLG), which was not written by himself, and also because of a great amount of his manuscripts which appeared after the 1950 ́s, and more recently, in 1996. Due to these additional contributions, there are current efforts to unveil new facts. Based on this panorama, this thesis discusses the arbitrariness of the sign with the intention of showing how the concept fits into the theory. This work is fundamentally based on the CLG and the Writings in General Linguistics (WGL), also taking some students ́ notebooks in order to present a plan about the place of the concept in the theory. There are four main problems for understanding the arbitrariness of the sign: 1) an apparent paradox: Saussure condemns a nomenclaturist view of language, but presents examples that make believe there is a universal, a priori meaning before any linguistic fact, which is in contradiction with his theory. Therefore, there is the problem of knowing how Saussure understands the relationship between language and reality in his work; 2) by saying that all signs are motivated in the system, and with the concept of relative arbitrariness, it is difficult to see a place for absolute arbitrariness; 3) the classical philosophical concept of conventionalism is redefined by Saussure, but without him sufficiently theorizing about it, which caused the problem of knowing where the difference lies, and 4) there is also insufficient theorization by Saussure about the relationship of semiology and linguistics. By examining these issues, the conclusion is that the arbitrariness of the sign was thought by Saussure considering the signifying in its relationship with language sound (its materiality), and this has not always been clearly seen. The relationship between them is arbitrary and, considering that language is materially transmitted through speech, the arbitrariness of the sign is a semiological principle underlying language, always present through transmission (diachronically), causing effects on the synchronic plan. By redefining the concept of conventionality, Saussure places himself on the language side, from the point of view of the sound, leaving the signified (without signifying) to another field of study. Our conclusion is that, in linguistics, the arbitrariness of the sign refers to the connection between the signifying and the materiality of language.