This dissertation examines the problems of translation within the language ideological context of multilingual Singapore. On the basis of textual and paratextual data from published literary translations and with reference to the language power relation between the English language and the Chinese language in contemporary Singapore, the study raises questions about the relationship between literary translation and language ideology in Singapore. These questions are concerned with textual problems in translating heterolingual texts, interpretive problems facing the target readers of translated Chinese-language texts that deal with the Chinese identity crisis and the ideological functions that translation plays in the making of multilingual literary anthologies. In delineating the general character of cross-cultural communication in Singapore, the study combines various theoretical perspectives and employs both textual and contextual approaches of inquiry. The dissertation consists of three main parts. The first part discusses the textual problems involved in the translation of heterolingual Chinese literature thematically concerned with the ideological tension between English and Chinese in Singapore. Drawing on the theory of the metonymics of translation as well as code-switching theories, the identity function of heterolingualism in Chinese literary texts is first established as creating a metonymic link between the linguistic tension in the literary texts and the ideological tension between English and Chinese in Singapore society. It is then proposed that when a heterolingual text using Chinese as its matrix language code-switches into English as part of its textual strategy, the translation of this text into the English language necessarily creates a crisis of representation in which the English language paradoxically projects itself as the cultural “Other”. The second part of the dissertation examines the interpretive problems of Singapore Chinese literature in English translation based on the theory of the ethics of translation. Specifically, when a target text (TT) reader is construed as the cultural “Other” in a source text (ST), an interpretive paradox arises when the TT reader attempts to understand himself/herself as a cultural “Other” in his/her own language in order to achieve a positive ethics of translation. The TT reader faces an epistemological dilemma: he/she either betrays his/her own identity in favour of the identity function of the ST, thus setting on an ironic process of self-Othering, or adheres to his/her identity and betrays that of the ST, thus contradicting the intended objective of allowing the predominantly English-speaking Chinese community in Singapore to understand the cultural predicament of their Chinese-speaking counterparts. In the third part of the study, I explore the role of translation in the construction of language ideology in Singapore and the way in which this role has changed since the mid-1980s. Based on an analysis of the use of translation in the making of multilingual literary anthologies published between 1985 and 2008, it is found that the power relation between the English language and the mother tongue languages in Singapore has shifted over the past two decades. Central to this shift is translation, the discursive instrument in multilingual publications. While earlier anthologies adopt a “one-to-one” translation model, in which literary works written in the mother tongue languages are translated into English but not vice versa, more recent anthologies adopt a “many-to-many” translation model, in which various languages translate into one another. This shift leads to a subtle change in the relationship between English and the mother tongue languages, from an asymmetric one in favour of English as the language of power, to a balanced one that gives an equal “voice” to the mother tongue languages. The analysis shows that translation is the locus of complex language ideological struggles, and that it plays the conflicting roles of reinforcing the hegemony of the English language and of resisting such hegemony in Singapore. This study has three implications for translation studies. Firstly, it supports the case for the combination of textual and contextual approaches in the investigation of translation phenomena. Secondly, it suggests that translation practice in Singapore is a potentially paradoxical act whose efficacy is not unproblematic. Finally, the study enables translators and language policy makers in Singapore to become more aware of the ideological implication of translation in multilingual discourses, and to tap into the discursive power of translation in creating a truly balanced multilingual nation.

Since their discovery 150 years ago, Neanderthals have been considered incapable of behavioural change and innovation. Traditional synchronic approaches to the study of Neanderthal behaviour have perpetuated this view and shaped our understanding of their lifeways and eventual extinction. In this thesis I implement an innovative diachronic approach to the analysis of Neanderthal faunal extraction, technology and symbolic behaviour as contained in the archaeological record of the critical period between 80,000 and 30,000 years BP. The thesis demonstrates patterns of change in Neanderthal behaviour which are at odds with traditional perspectives and which are consistent with an interpretation of increasing behavioural complexity over time, an idea that has been suggested but never thoroughly explored in Neanderthal archaeology. Demonstrating an increase in behavioural complexity in Neanderthals provides much needed new data with which to fuel the debate over the behavioural capacities of Neanderthals and the first appearance of Modern Human Behaviour in Europe. It supports the notion that Neanderthal populations were active agents of behavioural innovation prior to the arrival of Anatomically Modern Humans in Europe and, ultimately, that they produced an early Upper Palaeolithic cultural assemblage (the Châtelperronian) independent of modern humans. Overall, this thesis provides an initial step towards the development of a quantitative approach to measuring behavioural complexity which provides fresh insights into the cognitive and behavioural capabilities of Neanderthals.

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / ABSTRACT Background: Since British arrival, Aboriginal people have experienced marginalisation and extreme disadvantage within Australian society. Urban-based Aboriginal people, even more than those living in remote communities, have been subject to the impact of racism and discrimination on self-identity. Nonetheless, many urban-based Aboriginal people proudly identify with their Aboriginality. Having long been the subject of others’ research, it is only in recent times that the question of identity has attracted attention in Aboriginal research. Furthermore, few studies have addressed urban Aboriginality from an insider’s perspective. Aim and significance: The main aim of this research was to understand better the process of the construction of Aboriginal identity. Knowing how Aboriginal people see themselves and their future as Aboriginal within the broader Australian community is significant in providing a foundation for both the protection and the preservation of urban-based Aboriginal identity, while helping to create positive practical benefits and minimising the damage to Aboriginal culture that result from collective memory loss. A secondary aim was to test whether tools of narrative analysis could be used within an Indigenous Australian context, utilising Aboriginal Australian English language, and in the context of a specific urban setting. Method: The study used purposeful sampling to recruit 11 individuals from three age cohorts of mixed-descent Aboriginal people living in urban communities on the south coast of New South Wales, Australia. Data were collected through in-depth semi-structured interviews which were tape-recorded and then transcribed in full. Both thematic and narrative methods were employed to analyse the data. Interpretations benefitted from an insider perspective, as the researcher is a member of the community under study. Results: Findings from both methods of analysis show that participants experience their Aboriginality as problematic. Nonetheless, they make strong claims to Aboriginal identity. In making such claims, they link the personal to the social in a variety of ways, drawing on both negative and positive aspects of being part of a marginalised culture to explain the construction of the problem of Aboriginal identity and, as importantly, its on-going resolution through processes of identity construction and re-construction. The Shoalhaven Aboriginal worldview is revealed thorough a thematic analysis of 11 interviews and shows that participants are able to construct positive versions of self when they perceive themselves as living in accordance with the prescribed worldview. Results from case study analyses reveal how four participants distinctly craft the Shoalhaven worldview. The adoption of multi-method qualitative analysis documents the construction of both collective and personal Aboriginal identities and shows how these become core elements of the various strategies for solving the broader problems of Aboriginal identity in contemporary urban Australian society. Conclusion: Understanding the construction of Aboriginal identity from a micro-sociological perspective, with the added benefit of an insider’s analysis, can point the way to the development of more meaningful and appropriate strategies to both address and alleviate the broader problems of Aboriginal marginalisation in Australia. The findings from this research have documented the narrative construction of urban Aboriginal identity revealing the positive and negative aspects of the urban Aboriginal identity concept. A starting point to address the broader problem of Aboriginal marginalisation in Australia is to focus on the positive elements of the urban Aboriginal identity concept, with a view to devise, develop and implement culturally appropriate strategies and policies. The researcher’s life experience, informed by the ontology (collective values and perspectives) of the community, influenced and informed the analysis and results of the study. This shared ontology and community acceptance was integral in the process of developing and maintaining rapport and trust with participants which ultimately shaped the interaction process influencing personal accounts told in the interview.

ABSTRACT Notions of quality of life dictate philosophies and policies for services for people with developmental disabilities. There is an abundance of research on quality of life, much of which has influenced the significant amount of study of quality of life for people with developmental disabilities. According to specialist developmental disability nurses, however, this research has little meaning for one group of people with developmental disabilities with whom they work - people with severe multiple impairments. Nevertheless, judgements and decisions about the lives of this group continue to be driven by the idea of quality of life. While the literature review found that researchers are urged to seek the perceptions of people regarding their own quality of life by asking them, some authors have noted the difficulty in pursuing such a method with people, such as people with severe multiple impairments, who are unable to communicate in the usual ways. Given, then, that it is difficult to directly determine the views of people with severe multiple impairments, this study sought the perceptions of nurses about the quality of life of the people with whom they work. In order to discover and conceptualise nurses' views, a symbolic interaction perspective was chosen to guide this study and data were analysed using the grounded theory approach. The study was conducted in two stages. Stage One consisted of semi-structured indepth interviews with expert nurses to explore their perceptions of quality of life for the people with whom they worked. A significant finding in these interviews was that perceptions of quality of life are mediated by interaction. Consequently, Stage Two involved a participant observation study in which the interactions of nurses and people with severe multiple impairments were examined. Specialist developmental disability nurses have a unique view of quality of life for people with severe multiple impairments. They refer to it as 'just little things', a phrase which masks complex nursing knowledge and skills, and which can be described by four interrelated categories which emerged from the data: humans being, supporting, becoming intimate, and situated belonging. As nurses become more intimate with individuals, they perceive that people with severe multiple impairments are humans being as they wish, and that quality resides in supporting their everyday lives in a context of situated belonging. This thesis represents a new conceptualisation of quality of life for people with severe multiple impairments, a conceptualisation which may have significance for other groups and, indeed, for the whole quality of life enterprise. This conceptualisation draws on knowledge not usually related to quality of life, that is, knowledge of the body, of the emotions, of identity and of humanness. Such findings demonstrate the power of an interpretive approach in explicating the meanings nurses have regarding quality of life. Further, these findings have implications for how the question of quality of life is approached, for how different ways of thinking about people impact on quality of life, and for the importance of the life in quality of life.

In recent years research has recognised that notions of body image, body image ideals and body dissatisfaction develop much earlier than was once thought. However, the growing body of evidence in this area of research is predominantly quantitative. This study was designed to engage children in the five to six year age group using qualitative methods and present their notions of body image through the looking glass of the children's own eyes. Children's voices have not often found their way into research. Concerns about their powers of communication, cognitive abilities and the ethical difficulties inherent when working with children have restricted their participation. Objective, empirical evidence suggests that if one engages children in research appropriately they are able to make a significant contribution. Forty-seven children (25=m; 22=f) aged between five and six years were interviewed on three occasions over 12 months regarding their perceptions of body image. Seven schools from the Independent school system were involved. Interviews were conducted on school sites in public, easily observable locations. The study focused on three aspects. That is, how these children perceived their own body, the bodies of other people and their notions of health in respect to body image. These interviews revealed that the girls in this age group had developed an understanding of body image that valued thinness. However, their preference for a thinner body did not negatively impact on their sense of identity or self-worth. Boys preferred larger bodies and correlated increased body size with competence and physical aptitude. The concept of 'large' was linked to height for some or to a mesomorphic body for other boys. By the final interview all the children revealed strong negative perceptions of fatness. These perceptions were more apparent at each successive interview. An obese or extremely thin body was not always correlated with being unhealthy. Depending on the perspective of the child, even the largest of images was nominated the 'healthiest body' by some children. Health was overwhelmingly linked to food intake with few children associating health with exercise. The playground and the home, where most notably mothers, were important in the development of body image conceptions. Children were acutely aware of the dietary practices of their parents and associated diets with losing weight. / PhD Doctorate

Modal logics have found applications in many diferent contexts. For example, epistemic modal logics can be used to reason about security protocols, temporal modal logics can be used to reason about the correctness of distributed systems and propositional dynamic logic can reason about the correctness of programs. However, pure modal logic is expressively weak and cannot represent many interesting secondorder properties that are expressible, for example, in the μ-calculus. Here we investigate the extension of modal logics with propositional quantification modulo bisimulation (bisimulation quantification). We extend existing work on bisimulation quantified modal logic by considering the variety of logics that result by restricting the structures over which they are interpreted. We show this can be a natural extension of modal logic preserving the intuitions of both modal logic and propositional quantification. However, we also find cases where such intuitions are not preserved. We examine cases where the axioms of pure modal logic and propositional quantification are preserved and where bisimulation quantifiers preserve the decidability of modal logic. We translate a number of recent decidability results for monadic second-order logics into the context of bisimulation quantified modal logics, and show how these results can be used to generate a number of interesting bisimulation quantified modal logics.

Zugl.: Rostock, Univ., Habil.-Schr.

Thesis (DPhil)--University of Stellenbosch, 2007. / Bibliography. Also available via the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Northeastern University, 2008. / Title from title page (viewed March 24, 2009). College of Computer and Information Science. Includes bibliographical references (p. 163-171).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--UCLA, 2009. / Vita. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 212-217).