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This thesis investigates language variation among a group of young adults in Beijing, China, with an aim to advance our understanding of social meaning in a language and a society where the topic is understudied. In this thesis, I examine the use of Beijing Mandarin among Beijingborn university students in Beijing in relation to social factors including gender, social class, career plan, and future aspiration. Language variation in this context can further our understanding of Chinese culture in a newlyreformed society while exploring important constructs such as gender and aspiration in China, in part by establishing the social meaning of the local vernacular and its role in identity construction among speakers. The study presents data from both sociolinguistic interviews, conducted with 21 Beijingers who have di erent class backgrounds, career plans, and future aspiration, and self-recordings, from a subset of 10 Beijingers in conversation with their family and/or friends. I focus on three thus far under-examined linguistic variables { neutral tone, classi er omission, and intensi er te { while incorporating an additional variable { erhua (word- nal rhotacisation) in the discussion of stylistic variation in Beijing Mandarin. The results rst provide an overview of language variation in Beijing Mandarin, as shown in the use of di erent features and their linguistic and social constraints. We observe familiar patterns often found in sociolinguistic literature for some social factors (e.g. gender), while more complex interactions exist for others (e.g. aspiration and career path). The ndings suggest that Beijing Mandarin conveys localness and masculinity which is expected for a vernacular variety. Finer distinctions in the social meanings of these variables are found in sub-groups of Beijingers with di erent gender, future career path and/or aspiration. Moreover, speakers are seen to utilise these variables and their meanings in the construction of personae.

This thesis examines the relationship between narrative and meaning in young people’s dramatised stories and how social meaning is generated in community performance. It is an investigation into drama performance projects with culturally diverse teenagers in an inner city secondary school in Melbourne between 2004 and 2006. The methodological approach is reflective practitioner and case study research involving field based data collection. The study investigates the relationship between narrative content and socio-cultural meaning, the dynamics between performers and audience and the power relations between the teacher-artists and young people. / I conceptualise the drama workshop as an intracultural ‘third space’ (Bhabha, 1994) in which young people explored their emergent, hybrid cultural identities. This space was generated through a dialogic pedagogy based on Freire’s theory (1998) and an analysis of power structures underlying the work. / The centre of this thesis is an analysis of young people’s use of narrative to construct and negotiate the meanings of their dramatised stories. I have used narrative theory to inform and develop a drama process, drawing on the work of Bruner (1996) and Winston (1998). This approach enabled young people to develop complex, local meanings in their plays. / The young people used character to experiment with their personal narratives of identity and to develop dramatised stories containing moral messages that both reflected and commented on their local context, critiquing both their school subculture and the wider society. The plays were eclectic in form and reflected young people’s aesthetics and sense of ‘reality’. / In performance, audiences saw the performers simultaneously as fictional characters and as themselves. This complex dual awareness led audiences to infer a relationship between the dramatised story and the performers, generating ‘performative reflexivity’ (Turner, 1986) a state in which both audience and performers entered into deep reflection on social values.

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There is a widespread conception that myths are false and manipulative which is why man must strive to move away from them. Simultaneously they affect our social lives to a high degree, especially political myths. With a starting point of the science of rhetoric needing to complement its understanding of how social meaning is produced, this essay will attempt to develop a theoretical understanding of how political myths functions and produce social meaning. The questions that guide the investigation are how the concept of myth is understood in other scientific contexts, which functions myth fulfills and in which way the concept of myth can supplement the science of rhetoric. The investigation is based on Roland Barthes’, Kenneth Burke’s and Ernst Cassirer’s perspective on political myth. The study concludes that myth often functions to oversimplify diversity to sustain the prevailing political order or to overthrow it. Furthermore, it shows that myth can be understood as a way for man to express emotion and that these myths can be activated by the utterance of a word or sentence. Based on this notion, I argue that one should view myth as a function rather than a definition. I further claim the importance of understanding that mythical expression cannot be met by ‘rational’ or ‘logical’ arguments. I rather propose that rhetorical myth analysis ought to be combined with theories of language’s ethical dimension to be interpreted in an accurate manner.

Behavioral disruptions are highly prevalent, affecting almost all persons with dementia at some point during the course of their illness (McConnell, 2014). These behavioral disruptions in persons with dementia are commonly associated with decreased quality of life in the person exhibiting the symptoms as well as their caregivers (Fauth, Zarit, Hofer & Stephens, 2006). The purpose of this doctoral project was to design an intervention to promote socialization and engagement among people with dementia. A review of evidence-based interventions was conducted to identify effective non-pharmacological interventions to decrease behavioral disruptions in persons with dementia. The most promising interventions for reducing symptoms of behavioral disruptions in persons with dementia identified in the literature include music therapy, animal-assisted therapy, massage, activities-based interventions, behavioral management and combination therapies incorporating two or more of these interventions. Incorporating these effective interventions, a new program, Connections, was developed. The program includes a series of different daily interventions to be provided in a skilled nursing facility over the course of six weeks for residents with mild to moderate dementia. The Connections program is guided by a person-centered care philosophy and utilizes an evidence-based approach. Connections is designed to address the unmet psychological needs in people with dementia, such as fear or a sense of loss of control, lack of meaningful activities, loneliness and a lack of social interaction and decrease the behavioral disruptions.

By approaching dialect and standard language from a folk linguistic perspective, this thesis aims to investigate how laypeople perceive, talk about and orient towards dialect and standard language in a dialect area close to the perceived linguistic and administrative centre of Sweden. It consequently focuses on dialect and standard language as socially meaningful entities, rather than as sets of linguistic features, and studies a dialect area as it is understood by those who identify with it. To explore these issues, group interviews, a set of quantitative tests among adolescents and a ‘mental mapping’ task were used. Participants’ descriptions of the local dialect suggest that many of them regard the dialect and the standard language as separate language systems. The standard language, strongly associated with writing, is perceived as formal and artificial. In contrast, dialect is understood simply as speech signalling local belonging. Variation expressing local belonging typically not regarded as dialect by dialectologists, is mentioned by participants more than once. The extent to which dialectal resources are described to be expected depends on the participants’ understanding of place, context and interlocutors. In some contexts, using dialect seems to be a way of overtly signalling one’s belonging to the local community. In this way the dialect is still important, perhaps even as a means of consolidating the local community’s existence. At the same time, however, the prototypical speaker is described as being old, indicating that spoken dialect is not particularly relevant today. By examining dialect and standard language as cultural phenomena in the area at the present time, it is shown how they can be used to construct one’s own group in relation to others, both regionally and locally within the area investigated. Although the local spoken language is considered close to the standard, the mechanisms controlling how language users determine their own dialect boundaries are arguably the same as in more complex dialect areas. Linguistic differences need not be large, or even in current use, to be perceived as distinct and important.

就人行道在都市空間的發展歷程來看，都市設計理念由早期的以人為主慢慢轉變為以車為主，使得人類的社會文化遭受破壞，都市中的人文精神也逐漸被科技精神所取代。五○年代末期，都市規劃者開始反省汽車科技對都市發展所帶來的破壞，於是國外都市紛紛改採大眾運輸系統與人行道路系統來改善都市交通，企圖重塑人性化的都市設計理念．反觀台灣都市，行人權益依然不受重視。準此，本研究首先回顧都市人行空間理論與公共空間社會意涵方面的理論，藉以了解人行道在都市空間中的社會意義，企圖從行人（使用者）的角度來探究台北市人行道佔用問題對行人的不友善。 為避免問題的發散，本研究將研究範圍選定在台北市民生東路四段、光復北路、南京東路四段、敦化北路四條道路，及此一街廓中的健康路與兩條地區街道。並透過實地調查法、次級資料分析法、訪談法等三種方法，來了解人行道的軟硬體究竟是如何造成人行道的佔用情形。由研究結果可知，人行道的基地現況與沿街土地使用現況會與人行道的佔用情形互相影響；而基地現況與沿街土地使用現況兩者，皆可用來檢測主要幹道、次要幹道、地區街道等三種不同類型的道路人行道佔用情形之間的差異。 再就人行道的佔用現況進行深人的思考，可以發現這些佔用情形背後都有其社會意涵存在。究竟交通政策改善的是誰的交通問題？為何人行道上可以騎車，車道上不能走行人？究竟誰有權規劃，誰又在人行道上行走？供行人行走只是人行道的千百種用途之一？從這些問題去詳加採析人行道佔用的社會意涵，可以得到以下四點結論：一、台灣的民主政治導致都市交通政策對車行交通與人行交通的嚴重差距；二、在政府的政策與法令的保障下，行人永遠是都市交通中的最低階級；三、人行道上隨時演出權力三面向的戲碼；四、公共空間的私有化形成政府與行人雙輸，佔用者獨贏的局面。

Esta pesquisa tem o objetivo de compreender o processo de atribuição de sentido pessoal à atividade pedagógica dos professores da escola pública de ensino fundamental por meio do levantamento dos motivos dessa atividade. Ao enfocarmos a atividade pedagógica, pretendemos, também, localizar a função e a importância do projeto político pedagógico na organização das ações pedagógicas. Para tanto, este trabalho tem como embasamento teórico a psicologia histórico-cultural (Vigotski, Leontiev, Luria e outros), mais especificamente a contribuição dos autores que se dedicaram ao estudo da atividade humana como unidade central da vida do sujeito concreto, ou seja, a teoria psicológica geral da atividade (Leontiev, Davidov e outros). Nosso estudo centrou-se na observação do cotidiano escolar de uma escola pública municipal de ensino fundamental que almejava construir seu projeto político pedagógico e articulá-lo com as ações pedagógicas desenvolvidas. Inspirados no estudo de caso do tipo etnográfico, foram usados os seguintes procedimentos de investigação: observação participante, análise de documentos e realização de entrevistas com professores. No processo de análise dos dados, organizamos as informações obtidas em três grandes contextos: "Organização escolar", "Em busca do projeto político pedagógico" e "Atribuição de sentido pessoal à atividade pedagógica". Nos dois primeiros contextos, apresentamos as formas como os profissionais da escola organizam suas atividades e ações pedagógicas e apontamos as dificuldades na construção de um projeto político pedagógico, a produção da fragmentação do trabalho pedagógico e as possibilidades de superação da alienação. No último contexto, a partir da trajetória profissional de dois professores, analisamos o processo de atribuição de sentido pessoal à atividade pedagógica. Os professores entrevistados denunciam as rupturas entre o significado e o sentido pessoal, entre os motivos da atividade e os fins das ações e expressam essas cisões não só verbalmente, como física e emocionalmente. Contraditoriamente, indicam, também, elementos no seu trabalho e na organização escolar reveladores das possibilidades do estabelecimento de relações conscientes com a universalidade dos homens, para além da relação singular-particular. Assim, a análise ressalta a construção do projeto político pedagógico entendido como atividade enquanto um dos elementos possíveis de humanização docente, ou seja, como espaço de resistência à desintegração entre o significado e o sentido pessoal atribuído à atividade pedagógica. / This research aims to study the process of sense attribution to the public elementary school teacher's pedagogical activity through the study of this activity motives. By focusing the pedagogical activity we also intend to find the political pedagogical project function and importance in the organization of pedagogical actions. For doing so, this work has as theoretical basis on the cultural-historical psychology (Vigotski, Leontiev, Luria et al.), more specifically, the contribution of authors who were dedicated to the study human activity as the central unity of the concrete individual's life, or else, the general psychological theory of activity (Leontiev, Davidov et al). Our study has been centered on scholar daily routine observation of a public elementary school that aimed to build its political pedagogical project and link it with the developed pedagogical actions. Inspired in the case study of the ethnographic perspective, there were used the following investigation procedures: participant observation, documents analysis and interviews with teachers. During the process of data analysis we have organized the obtained information in three major contexts: "Scholar Organization", "In search of the political pedagogical project" and "Attribution of sense to the pedagogical activity". In the first two contexts we have presented the ways that school professionals organize their activities and pedagogical actions and have pointed out the difficulties in the construction of a political pedagogical project, the fragmentation production of pedagogical work and the possibilities of alienation overcoming. In the last context, as from two teachers professional trajectory, we have analysed the process of sense attribution to the pedagogical activity. Interviewed teachers reveal the ruptures between the social meaning and the sense, between the activity motives and the actions objectives and express these scission not only orally but also physically and emotionally. In a contradiction, they also indicate elements in their work and in scholar organization that reveal possibilities of relationships establishment conscious with men universality, for beyond the singular-particular relation. Thus, the analysis reinforces the construction of the political pedagogical project understood as activity, as one of the possible elements of teaching humanization, or else, as an area of resistance to the disintegration between social meaning and sense given to the pedagogical activity.

Esta pesquisa investigou o processo de significação docente de professoras participantes do Grupo de Estudos e Pesquisa do Ensino e Aprendizagem da Matemática na Infância (Gepeami) em situação de formação contínua desenvolvida por meio da parceria entre a universidade e a Secretaria de Educação de um município do interior paulista. O estudo fundamentou-se na teoria histórico-cultural e desenvolveu-se mediante o método do materialismo histórico e dialético, envolvendo os participantes do grupo: a formadora, as professoras de educação infantil e dos anos iniciais do ensino fundamental e os estudantes de graduação e pós-graduação. Nosso objetivo geral foi compreender a relação entre a aprendizagem das professoras ao participarem da atividade formativa no/pelo Gepeami e a atribuição de sentidos pessoais ao desenvolverem ações de trabalho docente, pois partimos do princípio de que há uma relação entre as ações formativas e a significação docente. Para tanto, definimos os modos generalizados de ação docente (MGAD) como nosso objeto de estudo por considerá-los o elo entre o pensamento das professoras e suas condutas nas formações no/do Gepeami que pudessem evidenciar a significação docente por meio da expressão verbal, oral e/ou escrita das professoras. Propusemos uma questão nuclear: os MGAD estruturam e revelam a relação entre significado social e sentido pessoal do professor no trabalho docente? Analisamos que, conforme os MGAD foram revelados, revelou-se também o desenvolvimento do pensamento teórico das professoras. Compreendemos que as professoras, ao aprenderem sobre os conhecimentos matemáticos e a organização do ensino nos pressupostos da Atividade Orientadora de Ensino (AOE), desenvolveram novas estruturas do pensamento que lhes possibilitaram modificar sua consciência e personalidade, orientadas para uma personalidade coletiva. Nossos objetivos específicos centraram-se em: a) caracterizar o contexto teórico e prático do processo formativo realizado no/pelo Gepeami; b) compreender em que medida esse grupo coletivo constituiu espaço de desenvolvimento de professores; c) identificar situações desencadeadoras favoráveis à aprendizagem docente. A coleta e produção dos dados ocorreram por meio de filmagens dos encontros formativos, caderno de campo e transcrição e elaboração dos quadros de análise. Orientada pelos princípios do trabalho como atividade de desenvolvimento humano, da intencionalidade pedagógica na organização do ensino e no desenvolvimento do trabalho coletivo, nossa análise buscou ressaltar as ações favoráveis à aprendizagem docente e potencialmente geradoras de significação para os sujeitos envolvidos. Os resultados evidenciaram que as ações de estudo, de escrita do material didático (produzido pelo grupo), de planejamento das tarefas de ensino e de trabalho coletivo, orientadas ao desenvolvimento do pensamento teórico docente, além de possibilitarem o desenvolvimento da consciência e da personalidade do professor, também revelaram o Gepeami com características de grupo que possui institucionalidade e estabilidade / This research investigated the process of teaching significance of teachers participating in the Group of Studies and Research of Teaching and Learning of Mathematics in Childhood (Gepeami) in a situation of continuous formation developed through the partnership between the university and the Education Department in a city located in the state of Sao Paulo. The study was based on historical-cultural theory and developed through the method of historical and dialectical materialism, involving the participants of the group: the teacher, nursery school teachers and early elementary school students and undergraduate and graduate students. Our general objective was to understand the relationship between the teachers\' learning when participating in the formative activity in / by Gepeami and the attribution of personal senses when developing teaching work actions, since we assume that there is a relation between the formative actions and the signification teacher. To that end, we defined the generalized modes of teaching activity (MGAD) as our object of study, considering them the link between the teachers\' thinking and their behaviors in the Gepeami formations that could show the teacher\'s meaning through verbal expression, oral and / or written. We have proposed a main question: do the MGAD structure and reveal the relationship between social meaning and the personal sense of the teacher in the teaching work? We analyzed that, as the MGAD were revealed, it also revealed the development of the theoretical thought of the teachers. We understand that teachers, by learning about mathematical knowledge and the organization of teaching in the presuppositions of the Teaching Activity of Teaching (CEA), have developed new structures of thought that enabled them to modify their consciousness and personality, oriented to a collective personality. Our specific targets were: a) to characterize the theoretical and practical context of the training process carried out in / by Gepeami; b) to understand to what extent this collective group constituted a space for the development of teachers; c) identify enabling situations favorable to teacher learning. The data collection and production took place through the filming of the training meetings, the field and transcript and the preparation of the analysis tables. Following the principles of \"work as a human development activity\", \"pedagogical intentionality in the organization of teaching\" and the development of \"collective work\", our analysis sought to highlight the actions favorable to teacher learning and potentially generating significance for the subjects involved. The results evidenced that the actions of study, writing of didactic material (produced by the group), planning of teaching tasks and collective work, oriented to the development of theoretical teaching thought, besides enabling the development of the consciousness and the personality of the Professor, also revealed the Gepeami with characteristics of group that has institutionality and stability