Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Categorise discouse'

Ce mémoire de thèse traite de la modélisation du discours dans le cadre grammatical des Grammaires Catégorielles Abstraites (Abstract Categorial Grammars, ACGs). Les ACGs offrent un cadre unifié pour la modélisation de la syntaxe et de la sémantique. Nous nous intéressons en particulier aux formalismes discursifs qui utilisent une approche grammaticale pour rendre compte des régularités des structures discursives. Nous proposons en particulier un encodage à l'aide des ACGs de deux formalismes discursifs : G-TAG et D-STAG. Ces encodages permettent d'éclairer le problème des connecteurs discursifs médiaux que les formalismes s'appuyant sur TAG ne traitent pas, du moins pas par un mécanisme grammatical. En effet, pour prendre en compte ces connecteurs, G-TAG et D-STAG utilisent une étape extra-grammaticale. Notre encodage offre au contraire une approche purement grammaticale de la prise en compte de ces connecteurs discursifs. Ces encodages se font à l'aide d'ACGs de second ordre. Les grammaires de cette classe ont des propriétés de réversibilité qui nous permettent d'utiliser les mêmes algorithmes polynômiaux aussi bien pour l'analyse discursive que pour la génération de discours
This dissertation addresses the questions of discourse modeling within a grammatical framework called Abstract Categorial Grammars (ACGs). ACGs provide a unified framework for both syntax and semantics. We focus on the discourse formalisms that make use of a grammatical approach to capture the discourse structure regularities. In particular, we propose ACG encodings of two discourse formalisms: G-TAG and D-STAG. These ACG encodings shed light on the problem of clause-medial connectives that the G-TAG and D-STAG grammars leave out of account. Both G-TAG and D-STAG make use of an extra-grammatical processing to deal with discourse connectives that appear at clause-medial positions. In contrast, the ACG encodings of G-TAG and D-STAG offer a purely grammatical approach to clause-medial connectives. Each of these ACG encodings are second-order. Grammars of this class have reversibility properties that allow us to use the same polynomial algorithmes both for the discourse parsing and generation tasks

The present dissertation proposes integrating Discourse Representation Theory (DRT), information structure (IS) and Combinatory Categorial Grammar (CCG) into a single framework. It achieves this by making two new contributions to computational treatment of information structure. First, it presents an uncomplicated approach to incorporating information structure in DRT. Second, it shows how the new DRT representation can be integrated into a unification-based grammar framework in a straightforward manner. We foresee the main application of the new formalism to be in spoken language systems: the approach presented here has the potential to considerably facilitate spoken language systems benefiting from insights derived from information structure. The DRT representation with information structure which is proposed in this dissertation is simpler than the previous attempts to include information structure in DRT. We believe that the simplicity of the Information-Structure-marked Discourse Representation Structure (IS-DRS) is precisely what makes it attractive and easy to use for practical tasks like determining the intonation in spoken language applications. The IS component in ISDRS covers a range of aspects of information structural semantics. A further advantage of IS-DRS is that in its case a single semantic representation is suitable for both the generation of context-appropriate prosody and automatic reasoning. A semantic representation on its own is useful for describing and analysing a language. However, it is of even greater utility if it is accompanied by a mechanism that allows one to directly infer the semantic representation from a natural language expression. We incorporated the IS-DRS into the Categorial Grammar (CG) framework, developing a unification based realisation of Combinatory Categorial Grammar, which we call Unification-based Combinatory Categorial Grammar (UCCG). UCCG inherits elements from Combinatory Categorial Grammar and Unification Categorial Grammar. The UCCG framework is developed gradually throughout the dissertation. The information structural component is included as the final step. The IS-DRSs for linguistic expressions are built up compositionally from the IS-DRSs of their sub-expressions. Feature unification is the driving force in this process. The formalism is illustrated by numerous examples which are characterised by different levels of syntactic complexity and diverse information structure. We believe that the main assets of both the IS-DRSs as well as the Unification-based Combinatory Categorial Grammar framework are their simplicity, transparency, and inherent suitability for computational implementation. This makes them an appealing choice for use in practical applications like spoken language systems.

This thesis contributes to debates concerning the role of the Muslim Brotherhood and the study of political systems in transition, with a focus on Egypt following the 25 January 2011 revolution. Orthodox studies on political systems within Political Science, including scholarship on large-scale transitions and (liberal) democratisation, often focus on political institution-building, regime elites, civil/political rights, and purely structuralist approaches as explaining political dynamics and change. This study argues that discourse, power relations, and forms of resistance indicate and shape political processes, including change and transition. The originality of this work thus derives from its focus on discourse and power dynamics, analysed within the narrative accounts of informal political actors collected during Egypt's transition. This thesis also argues that the pillars of (liberal) democratisation have made possible the analytical location of the Brotherhood within these debates. For example, political systems have been measured on a (sometimes linear) scale from authoritarian to liberal democracy and this has made possible the framing of Islamic political movements on a scale from 'radical' to 'moderate', or constructed binaries in which movements like the Brothers are categorised. Through this work's analytical and empirical approach, these categories are shown to be simplistic and fragile. Two central themes are developed in relation to discourse, power relations, and the Brotherhood: democratisation as discourse and political violence. Through this study's framework political change and transformation are studied beyond the level of the regime and political elite, as is often the focus within political systems/transitions literature. Conceptions of Egypt's political transition and of the Brothers are grounded in empirical research and the experiences of political actors on the ground.

Excerpt: This collection of recent generative, mainly minimalist, studies on the acquisition of functional categories in French focuses on data from first language (L1), second language (L2), and bilingual acquisition and from specific language impairment (SLI).

The main interest of this interdisciplinary thesis (psychology-law) is the understanding of transphobia and discrimination against trans* people. I locate the problem of this type of discrimination in the social construction of ‘sex/gender’ categories. Particularly, I situate it in the definition of the norms that constitute ‘woman’ and ‘man’ as two essential and mutually exclusive categories that sustain the unequal binary organisation of society. People who transgress those norms have been labelled as ‘mentally ill’ by psychiatry and psychology since the end of the 19th century. The emergence of trans* activism from the 1960s and especially Trans Studies in the 1990s has allowed questioning those pathologising discourses. In the present context, we observe a tendency towards the depathologisation of trans* experiences and identities. Depathologisation is coupled with increased visibility of trans* people in the cultural domain and a more favourable public opinion towards them. However, trans* people still face serious discrimination and the norm that divides humankind into ‘women’ and ‘men’ is still very much present. Drawing on these premises I argue that the transgression of ‘sex/gender’ norms have been redefined nowadays so that the binary opposition between women and men is maintained as the norm. Thus, trans* people are still depicted as ‘abnormal’ although pathologising and psychiatric discourses are not necessarily employed today. The general objective of the thesis is to understand how this redefinition is carried out and the effects of it in two specific contexts: the legal certification of sex in the civil status of individuals in Belgium and the definition of the worker subject. The choice of these two cases responds to the fact that trans* people report facing many obstacles and discrimination in them. Based on the theoretical and methodological principles of discursive psychology and Perelmanian new rhetoric, I realised the discourse analysis of two corpora: a legislative corpus and a corpus of interviews. The legislative corpus comprises texts of Acts, bills, amendments, parliamentary debates and Circulars regulating the mention of sex in the civil status in Belgium. The second corpus includes the transcriptions of five group interviews with workers carried out with co-workers from five work organisations in Brussels. In both cases, the identification of discursive practices and their variability allowed me to elucidate the effects they produce. Specifically, it allowed me to show that, although the identified practices seem less stigmatising, they still depict trans* people as a ‘deviation from the norm’, thereby legitimising a different legal treatment towards them and justifying the discrimination and exclusion they endure at work. Moreover, the identified practices reproduce the binary organisation of society and justify discrimination against women in the workplace. The ultimate purpose of this thesis is to promote an informed critical attitude towards those discursive practices and, in this way, to contribute to the struggle against transphobia and sexism.
Dans cette thèse interdisciplinaire (psychologie-droit) je m’intéresse à la transphobie et la discrimination à l’égard des personnes trans*. Je situe ce problème de discrimination dans la construction sociale des catégories « sexe/genre », notamment dans la définition des normes qui constituent les catégories « femme » et « homme » comme deux catégories essentielles et mutuellement exclusives qui soutiennent l’organisation binaire et inégale de la société. Les personnes qui ont transgressé ces normes ont été étiquetées comme « malades mentales » par la psychiatrie et la psychologie depuis la fin du 19ème siècle. L’émergence de l’activisme trans* dans les années soixante et notamment des Trans Studies dans les années nonantes ont permis la remise en question de ces discours pathologisants. Dans le contexte actuel, on observe une tendance vers la dépathologisation des expériences et identités trans*, accompagnée d’une croissante visibilité des personnes trans* dans le domaine culturel et d’une opinion publique globalement plus favorable à leur égard. Par contre, les personnes trans* font encore l’objet de nombreuses discriminations et la norme qui divise l’humanité entre « femmes » et « hommes » est encore extrêmement présente. Sur la base de ces prémisses, je soutiens que la transgression des normes de « sexe/genre » a été actuellement redéfinie de façon à ce l’opposition binaire entre les femmes et les hommes est maintenue comme norme. Ainsi, les personnes trans* sont encore définies comme « anormales » alors que des discours pathologisants et psychiatrisants ne sont pas nécessairement mobilisés aujourd’hui. L’objectif général de la thèse est de comprendre comment cette redéfinition est faite et quels sont ses effets dans deux contextes spécifiques :la certification légal de la mention du sexe dans l’état civil en Belgique et la définition du sujet travailleur. Le choix de ces deux cas se justifie par le fait que ce sont deux domaines dans lesquels les personnes trans* signalent beaucoup d’obstacles et de discrimination. M’appuyant sur les principes théoriques et méthodologiques de la psychologie discursive et de la nouvelle rhétorique perelmanienne, j’ai effectué l’analyse du discours de deux corpus :un corpus législatif et un corpus d’entretiens. Le corpus législatif est composé de textes de loi, projets et propositions de loi, amendements, travaux parlementaires et circulaires régulant la mention du sexe dans l’état civil en Belgique. Le deuxième corpus inclut les transcriptions de cinq entretiens de groupe menés auprès de travailleuses et de travailleurs dans cinq organisations de Bruxelles. Dans les deux cas, l’identification des pratiques discursives et de leur variabilité m’a permis de dévoiler les effets qu’elles produisent. Spécifiquement, j’ai pu démontrer que, bien que ces pratiques semblent moins stigmatisantes aujourd’hui, elles continuent à définir les personnes trans* comme une « déviation de la norme », légitimant ainsi un traitement légal différent à leur égard et justifiant la discrimination et l’exclusion dont elles sont victimes au travail. En outre, ces pratiques discursives reproduisent l’organisation binaire de la société et la discrimination à l’égard des femmes au travail. Avec cette thèse j’espère contribuer à la promotion d’une attitude critique informée par rapport aux pratiques discursives identifiées et, par ce biais, à la lutte contre la transphobie et le sexisme.
Doctorat en Sciences psychologiques et de l'éducation
info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

This study scrutinises, from a critical perspective, how Swedish mainstream news media depict children and youths categorised as unaccompanied after the identified discursive shift in the late autumn of 2015, where a more hostile and negative reporting on refugees became even more prominent. In addition, it explores what different power structures that are made visible in the news reporting. This is made possible by scrutinising 40 articles from the major national newspapers in Sweden that have daily releases, the so called mainstream media. The critical discourse analysis is used as a method and theory in order to find a focus that is critical and questioning towards existing power structures. Additionally, it contains a focus on how borders and differences are created between certain groups of people by using theoretical perspectives on otherness and postcolonial theory. The study shows an ambivalent media picture and clearly makes unequal and hierarchical power structures visible through the use of different assumptions, accepted truths and journalistic techniques.

The aim of this thesis is to analyse the personal pronoun “we” in a political debate using Conversation Analysis as research method. More specifically, the thesis aims to identify and analyse how the speakers of a political debate use “we” to express different referential domains in terms of group affiliation. Consequently, to support the thesis’s aim, the following research questions have been devised: What different categories of “we” can be found in the debate? How and when are these different categories used to manifest group affiliation and what do they accomplish?

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A questão que se coloca no presente trabalho é o novo lugar assumido pelo Estado no tocante à administração de sentimentos, em especial nas ações envolvendo o chamado abandono paterno-afetivo. O fato de que o Poder Judiciário assumiu um protagonismo excepcional na administração das relações e afetos familiares nos últimos anos, não é novidade. Ações de reconhecimento de paternidade, divórcio, partilha de bens, guarda de filhos e pagamento de pensão são comuns no cotidiano forense. A novidade, contudo, são ações nas quais se reclama indenização por ausência de afeto, em especial na relação paterna. A pesquisa revela que o Judiciário, com seu discurso, tem uma força constitutiva da realidade, e contribui para despertar de novas moralidades e sensibilidades familiares. Contudo, para a constituição dessas novas sensibilidades – dentre as quais está o abandono – o Judiciário se socorre de uma racionalidade que seja capaz de dar crédito às percepções do abandono, pois os processos são permeados de uma lógica, segundo a qual as emoções ocupam um lugar de não-direito. As ações envolvendo as relações familiares comunicam, a todo instante, que a criança cuja infância foi marcada pela ausência paterna pode apresentar problemas futuros, de modo que as construções jurídicas em torno da supressão do abandono e os discursos jurídicos como um todo denunciam a percepção de uma normalidade familiar e de uma pedagogia da paternidade para alcança-la. Finalmente, este universo revela a ideia segundo a qual a paternidade foi construída como subsidiária em relação à maternidade. Na medida em que as mulheres são consideradas como responsáveis pela criação dos filhos, no discurso jurídico o pai que paga pensão regularmente, rompe com a lógica do dom na parentalidade, convertendo-a numa relação mercantil que percebe no auxílio financeiro o cumprimento integral das obrigações paternas. Tem-se, assim, uma lógica que delineia uma noção de normalidade familiar, perpassada por distintos valores de gênero em relação à maternidade e à paternidade.
The aim of this work is to discuss the new place taken by the State regarding feelings management, especially in legal actions involving the so-called paternal abandonment. The fact that the Judiciary has had an unusual role in the management of family relationships and affections in recent years is nothing new at all. Legal actions regarding acknowledgment of paternity, divorce, division of property, child custody and child support are common in everyday judicial activities. What is new, however, are actions claiming indemnity for lack of affection, especially in relation to father-child relationship. The research shows that the Judiciary, with its discourse, has an essential power of reality, and contributes to the rebirth of new moralities and familiar sensibilities. Nevertheless, for the development of these new sensitivities – amongst them, the abandonment - the Judiciary trusts on a rationality that is able to give credit to the perceptions of abandonment, because the actions are based on reasoning, where emotions have no rights. Actions involving family relations, state at all times, that the child whose childhood was marked by paternal absence, may present future problems, so the legal understanding of the elimination of abandonment and the legal discourses, as a whole, denounces the perception of a family normality and fatherhood pedagogy to achieve it. Finally, this universe expresses the idea that fatherhood is somehow less important than motherhood. While women are considered responsible for the child’s upbringing, in the legal discourse, the father who regularly pays child support, breaks up with the idea of having the gift for parenthood, turning it into a commercial relationship that recognizes, in the financial assistance, the complete conformity to parental commitment. Thus, there is a thought that describes a concept of family normality, formed by different gender values regarding motherhood and fatherhood.

This thesis is an inquiry into leadership in early childhood education and care (ECEC). Leadership in ECEC is a key feature of contemporary early childhood policy positioned as a prerequisite for quality improvement. The method of collective biography was drawn on to investigate how leaders in early childhood produce understandings about ‘good’ leadership. This inquiry problematises notions of ‘good’ early childhood leadership. A number of ironic categories emerged that hold together competing and at times contradictory discourses, allowing for more complex understandings of leadership.

La logique de la philosophie (1950) d'eric weil expose le systeme des categories philosophiques, c'est-a-dire des types fondamentaux du discours, coherents en eux-memes, mais irreductibles les uns aux autres, en lesquels la liberte humaine peut s'enfermer et trouver satisfaction comme elle peut s'en detacher. La logique de la philosophie expose donc le systeme des actes de la liberte se rapportant au discours, fut-ce l'acte purement violent de rejeter tout discours. Elle se comprend elle-meme comme etant l'acte de la liberte choisissant le discours coherent, la comprehension de la totalite des discours, implicites ou explicites. Ainsi le discours philosophique est-il a la fois systematique et ouvert. Le present travail tente de deceler les diverses especes de cette ouverture : ouverture du commencement de la logique de la philosophie, confronte a d'autres modes (saint augustin, hegel, fichte notamment); ouverture au sein de chaque categorie, dans le jeu de l'explication et de la doctrine; ouverture du parcours oriente des categories se depassant l'une l'autre sans justification a priori; ouverture des categories formelles de la philosophie (sens et sagesse) a la raison dans le discours et a la raison dans le monde; ouverture enfin du discours a luimeme, dans sa propre circularite systematique, dans son incessant recommencement : ouverture de la liberte a la verite
Eric weil's logique de la philosophie (1950) expounds the system of philosophical categories, i. E. Of the fundamental types of the discourse, which are coherent in themselves but irreducible to one another, in which categories human liberty can lock itself and find satisfaction, just as it can also turn away from them. Consequently, the logique de la philosophie understands itself as the act of liberty choosing the coherent discourse, the understanding of the totality of discourses, either explicit or implicit. So the philosophical discourse is both systematic and open. The present work tries to detect the varied kinds of this opening; opening of the beginning of the logique de la philosophie confronted with other beginnings (especially st augustine, hegel, fichte); opening of the oriented course of categories passing beyond one another without any a priori justification; opening of the formal categories of philosophy (sense and wisdom) to reason in the discourse and to reason in the world; opening of the discourse to itself, in its own systematic circularity, in its process of constant renewal : opening of liberty to truth

Esta pesquisa investiga os sentidos, valores e discursos circulantes que emergem nas páginas da imprensa em torno da categoria \"politicamente correto\", observando suas relações com a liberdade de expressão e formas de controle da produção discursiva. A partir de matérias da Folha de S. Paulo, no período de 1991 a 2014, pesquisamos as transformações do politicamente correto no Brasil e as regulações por ele estabelecidas. Embasamo-nos, nesse percurso, nas proposições de Michel Foucault sobre a arqueologia dos discursos, de modo que as matérias jornalísticas devem ser tomadas como acontecimentos discursivos, isto é, como vestígios materiais que servem de base à \"escavação\" de plataformas culturais, saberes e regras sócio-históricas que condicionam a emergência de enunciados e discursos. Nossos resultados apontam para a emergência do politicamente correto como categoria em disputa no debate público, inserida em um contexto de reposicionamentos dos saberes sobre liberdade de expressão, e para o papel decisivo do jornalismo na introdução dessa expressão nas discussões que se travam na esfera pública brasileira. O posicionamento assumido pelo jornalismo remete a um imaginário discursivo sobre a democracia, o que também tem seu papel na consolidação da legitimidade e do lugar de fala da imprensa. De modo correlato, a discussão pública sobre o politicamente correto no Brasil mostra-se profundamente polarizada. Por fim, a emergência da categoria \"politicamente correto\" como forma de denominar processos de regulação sobre a linguagem reflete - e também determina - a centralidade e a visibilidade adquiridas por esse fenômeno em nossa cultura: centralidade da linguagem, de modo amplo, como mediadora das relações sociais; centralidade do individual na condução de ações políticas; centralidade do paradigma de circulação de ideias - e, por conseguinte, visibilidade das formas de controle da expressão, entendidas cada vez mais como intoleráveis.
This research investigates the senses, values and circulating discourses that emerge in the pages of the press around the category \"political correctness\". Our goal is to understand the relationship between such category, freedom of expression and forms of control of discursive production. From journalistic texts published by Folha de S. Paulo, in the period from 1991 to 2014, we researched the transformation of political correctness in Brazil and the regulations laid down by it. In this journey, we base ourselves on Michel Foucault\'s propositions on the archeology of speeches; so that the newspaper articles should be taken as discursive events, as material evidence underpinning the excavation of cultural platforms, knowledge and socio-historical rules that constrain the emergence of statements and speeches. Our results show the emergence of political correctness as a category in dispute in the public debate, set on a repositioning context of knowledge on freedom of expression, as well as the decisive role of journalism in the introduction of the expression \"political correctness\" in the discussions which take place in Brazilian public sphere. The position assumed by journalism refers to an imaginary discourse on democracy, which also plays a role in the consolidation of legitimacy and place of speech of the press. At the same time, the public discussion of political correctness in Brazil shows up deeply polarized. Finally, the emergence of the category \"political correctness \" as a way of giving a name to processes of language regulation reflects - and also determines - the centrality and visibility acquired by this phenomenon in our culture: the centrality of language, broadly, mediating social relationships; centrality of the individual in the conduct of policy actions; centrality of the circulation of ideas - and therefore visibility of control strategies of expression, increasingly understood as intolerable.

Cette analyse des stratégies mises en œuvre par une entreprise pour l’emploi des personnes handicapées est le fruit d’un travail d’observation de près de quatre années, mené dans le cadre d’une thèse « CIFRE ». Notre étude s’appuie sur des corpus d’interactions et de documents issus des activités de l’entreprise (supports de communication, mails, notes de travail, etc.). Ayant situé notre travail dans la perspective de la linguistique interactionnelle, nous nous intéressons plus particulièrement à la façon dont une entreprise définit le handicap. Des situations de réunion (préparation de communications internes, réunions « d’information-sensibilisation » destinées au personnel) et des documents réalisés dans la perspective d’une politique d’intégration de personnes permettent d’analyser un ensemble de pratiques descriptives du handicap. Ces pratiques révèlent des modes de description très éloignés des pratiques ordinaires qui traitent le plus souvent du handicap comme d’un stigmate. En effet, les pratiques des entreprises visent au contraire à le constituer en ressource afin de convaincre de l’intérêt que représente l’emploi des personnes handicapées (avantages managériaux, financiers, etc.). Les descriptions produites sont constitutives d’un savoir sur le handicap propre au contexte de l’entreprise et rendent visibles pour l’analyste les processus de catégorisation des personnes handicapées ainsi que les attentes normatives associées à cette catégorie. L’analyse des pratiques observées nous a permis de réaliser un support d’information et de sensibilisation pour la mise en œuvre d’une politique d’emploi en faveur des personnes handicapées
This analysis of strategies used by a company in the employment of disabled persons is the product of fours years of observation, undertaken as part of a company-university doctoral partnership [“CIFRE” contract]. Our study is based on interactional data and documents produced by company’s activities (communication mediums, e-mails, meetings notes, etc...). Our work falls within the boundaries of interactional linguistics, with a specific focus on how companies define disability. We were able to analyze a series of descriptive practices of disability in the context of meetings (for the preparation of internal communication, to inform and raise awareness among personnel) and though documents produced to implement an employment policy for persons with disabilities. These practices reveal ways of describing disability that greatly differ from ordinary practices, which often treat disability as a stigma. Indeed, company practices seek to present disability as a resource, in order to convincingly convey the benefits of employing disabled persons (management and financial gains, etc.). The descriptions produced are constitutive of a knowledge about disability, unique to the company’s context, and which make visible to the analyst both the processes of categorization of disabled persons as well as presumptive knowledge concerning this category. The analysis of practices observed allowed us to design a document to inform and raise awareness about the implementation of an employment policy concerning people with disabilities

Syftet med vår studie var att se hur Sverigedemokraterna genom sitt principprogram konstruerar svenskhet och på så vis skapar en gräns mellan ”oss och de andra”. Metoden för vår studie har varit en kvalitativ text- och diskursanalys. Vårt resultat visar att texten i programmet påverkar och konstruerar sociala kategorier som är avgörande för människors sociala positioner och tillgång till resurser. Partiets konstruktion av svenskhet bygger på en social och nationell likhet som skapar social ojämlikhet. Resultatet visar även att det är viktigt att kritiskt granska texter som används av vår samhälleliga elit eftersom de i egenskap av sin maktposition har ett tolkningsföreträde.
The purpose of this study was to investigate how Sverigedemokraterna, in their program of principles, design Swedishness and as an effect of this creates a boundary between “us and them”. Our method of choice has been text- and discourse analysis. By analyzing the text in the program we’ve come to the conclusion that it has an effect on, and helps to create social categories that are crucial to people’s social positions and resource possibilities. The party builds their version of Swedishness on a social and national likeness that creates social inequality. Our results also shows that it’s important to examine texts used by the elite of society since they in their powerful position has a preferential right of interpretation.

Dans l’essor d’internet, les contenus générés par les utilisateurs à partir des services de réseaux sociaux deviennent une source géante d’informations qui peuvent être utile aux entreprises sur l’aspect où les utilisateurs sont considérés comme des clients ou des clients potentiels pour les entreprises. L’exploitation des textes générés par les utilisateurs peut aider à identifier leurs sentiments, leurs intentions, ou réduire l’effort des agents qui sont responsables de recueillir ou de recevoir des informations sur les services de réseaux sociaux. Dans le cadre de cette thèse, les contenues de textes tels que discours, énoncés, conversations issues de la communication interactive sur les plateformes de réseaux sociaux deviennent l’objet de données principales de notre étude. Nous approfondissons une analyse de structures et composants des phrases dans les textes sur la base de la Grammaire Catégoriel Combinatoire (GCC) et la théorie des représentations du discours. Nous proposons une méthode pour l’extraction d’un arbre de GCC à partir de l’arbre dépendante de la phrase, et une architecture générale pour construire un pont de relation entre les syntaxes et les sémantiques des phrases françaises. Par conséquent, notre étude obtient de la représentation de textes de la langue naturel sous une nouvelle forme de la logique du premier ordre ou la boîte de la structure des représentations du discours
In the rise of the internet, user-generated content from social networking services is becoming a giant source of information that can be useful to businesses on the aspect where users are viewed as customers or potential customers for companies. Exploitation of user-generated texts can help identify their feelings, intentions, or reduce the effort of the agents who are responsible for collecting or receiving information on social networking services. As part of this thesis, the content of texts such as speeches, statements, conversations from interactive communication on social media platforms become the main data object of our study. We deepen an analysis of structures and components of sentences in texts on the basis of Combinatory Categorial Grammar (CCG) and the Discourse Representation Structure (DRS). We propose a method for extracting a CCG tree from the dependency structure of the sentence, and a general architecture to build a bridge of relationship between syntaxes and semantics of French sentences. As a result, our study achieves representations of natural language texts in a new form of first order logic or the box of DRS

The concept of domestic violence pertains to different definitions of violence, one of which is the concept of honour related violence and oppression. This paper looks at honour related violence and oppression, as defined in policy documents at a central political level, and how various discourses stand in relation to social categories and power relations. Consequently, the theoretical and methodological premise of the paper has been based on discourse analysis and an intersectional perspective has been applied to gain further depth and breadth in the analysis of the material. The intersectional perspective houses various approaches to the understanding of specific phenomena based on factors of gender, ethnicity, sexuality and class.The analysis concludes that the concept of honour related violence and oppression is a concept without a single scientific definition. There is, however, a general consensus in the political context that honour related violence and oppression is a collective force that can be directed at both sexes. The explanations for the violence in the studied documents vary from this kind of violence being seen as a cultural condition, to it being seen as part of the universal patriarchal oppression aimed at all women regardless of their background. Socio-economic factors are not mentioned as a possible explanatory factor.

This study is an inquiry into early childhood teacher professional identities. In Australia, workforce reforms in early childhood include major shifts in qualification requirements that call for a university four-year degree-qualified teacher to be employed in child care. This marks a shift in the early years workforce, where previously there was no such requirement. At the same time as these reforms to quality measures are being implemented, and requiring a substantive up skilling of the workforce, there is a growing body of evidence through recent studies that suggests these same four-year degree-qualified early childhood teachers have an aversion to working in child care. Their preferred employment option is to work in the early years of more formal schooling, not in before-school contexts. This collision of agendas warrants investigation. This inquiry is designed to investigate the site at which advocacy for higher qualification requirements meets early childhood teachers who are reluctant to choose child care as a possible career pathway. The key research question for this study is: How are early childhood teachers’ professional identities currently produced? The work of this thesis is to problematise the early childhood teacher in child care through a particular method of discourse analysis. There are two sets of data. The first was a key early childhood political document that read as a "moment of arising" (Foucault, 1984a, p. 83). It is a political document which was selected for its current influence on the early childhood field, and in particular, workforce reforms that call for four-year degree-qualified teachers to work in before-school contexts, including child care. The second data set was generated through four focus group discussions conducted with preservice early childhood teachers. The document and transcripts of the focus groups were both analysed as text, as conceptualised by Foucault (1981). Foucault’s work spans a number of years and a range of philosophical matters. This thesis draws particularly on Foucault’s writings on discourse, power/knowledge, regimes of truth and resistance. In order to consider the production of early childhood teachers’ professional identities, the study is also informed by identity theorists, who have worked on gender, performativity and investment (Davies, 2004/2006; McNay, 1992; Osgood, 2012; Walkerdine, 1990; Weedon, 1997). The ways in which discourses intersect, compete and collide produce the subject (Foucault, 1981) and, in the case of this inquiry, there are a number of competing discourses at play, which produce the early childhood teacher. These particular theories turn particular lenses on the question of professional identities in early childhood, and such a study calls for the application of particular methodologies. Discourse analysis was used as the methodological framework, and the analysis was informed by Foucauldian concepts of discourse. While Foucault did not prescribe a form of discourse analysis as a method, his writings nonetheless provide a valuable framework for illuminating discursive practices and, in turn, how people are affected, through the shifts and distribution of power (Foucault, 1980a). The treatment used with both data sets involved redescription. For the policy document, a technique for reading document-as-text applied a genealogical approach (Foucault, 1984a). For the focus groups, the process of redescription (Rorty, 1989) involved reading talk-as-text. As a method, redescription involves describing "lots and lots of things in new ways until you have created a pattern of linguistic behaviour which will tempt the new generation to adopt it" (Rorty, 1989, p. 9). The development and application of categories (Davies, 2004/2006) built on a poststructuralist theoretical framework and the literature review informed the data analysis method of discourse analysis. Irony provided a rhetorical and playful tool (Haraway, 1991; Rorty, 1989), to look to how seemingly opposing discourses are held together. This opens a space to collapse binary thinking and consider seemingly contradictory terms in a way in which both terms are possible and both are true. Irony resists the choice of one or the other being right, and holds the opposites together in tension. The thesis concludes with proposals for new, ironic categories, which work to bring together seemingly opposing terms, located at sites in the field of early childhood where discourses compete, collide and intersect to produce and maintain early childhood teacher professional identities. The process of mapping these discourses goes some way to investigating the complexities about identities and career choices of early childhood teachers. The category of "the cost of loving" captures the collision between care/love, inherent in child care, and new discourses of investment/economics. Investment/economics has not completely replaced care/love, and these apparent opposites were not read as a binary because both are necessary and both are true (Haraway, 1991). They are held together in tension to produce early childhood teacher professional identities. The policy document under scrutiny was New Directions, released in 2007 by the then opposition ALP leader, Kevin Rudd. The claim was made strongly that the "economic prosperity" of Australia relies on investment in early childhood. The arguments to invest are compelling and the neuroscience/brain research/child development together with economic/investment discourses demand that early childhood is funding is increased. The intersection of these discourses produces professional identities of early childhood teachers as a necessary part of the country’s economy, and thus, worthy of high status. The child care sector and work in child care settings are necessary, with children and the early childhood teacher playing key roles in the economy of the nation. Through New Directions it becomes sayable (Foucault, 1972/1989) that the work the early childhood teacher performs is legitimated and valued. The children are produced as "economic units". A focus on what children are able to contribute to the future economy of the nation re-positions children and produces these "smart productive citizens", making future economic contribution. The early childhood teacher is produced through this image of a child and "the cost of loving" is emphasised. A number of these categories were produced through the readings of the document-as text and the talk-as-text. Two ironic categories were read in the analysis of the transcripts of the focus group discussions, when treated as talk-as-text data: the early childhood teacher as a "heroic victim"; and the early childhood teacher as a "glorified babysitter". This thesis raises new questions about professional identities in early childhood. These new questions might go some way to prompt re-thinking of some government policy, as well as some aspects of early childhood teacher education course design. The images of children and images of child care provide provocations to consider preservice teacher education course design. In particular, how child care, as one of the early childhood contexts, is located, conceptualised and spoken throughout the course. Consideration by course designers and teacher educators of what discourses are privileged in course content —what discourses are diminished or silenced—would go some way to reconceptualising child care within preservice teacher education and challenging dominant ways of speaking child care, and work in child care. This inquiry into early childhood teachers’ professional identities has gone some way to exploring the complexities around the early childhood teacher in child care. It is anticipated that the significance of this study will thus have immediate applicably and relevance for the Australian early childhood policy landscape. The early childhood field is in a state of rapid change, and this inquiry has examined some of the disconnects between policy and practice. Awareness of the discourses that are in play in the field will continue to allow space for conversations that challenge dominant assumptions about child care, work in child care and ways of being an early childhood teacher in child care.

L'expression « éducation populaire » connaît en France une nouvelle fortune depuis les années 1990. La recherche vise à éclaircir le sens et les causes de ce retour en grâce discursif. On définit la séquence « éducation populaire » comme une formule, au sens de l'analyse du discours, en lien avec la notion de catégorie. L'étude du retour contemporain de celle-ci impose un long détour par son histoire. Celle-ci se décompose en deux cycles complet constitués de phases d'émergence, de consécration et de déclin autour d'un usage de la formule comme quasi-catégorie : sous-catégorie de l'Instruction publique entre la Révolution française et les années 1930, puis catégorie détachée de l'École mais associée à des formules concurrentes et bientôt reléguées par elles au rang d'ancêtre mythique. La période contemporaine se présente comme l'émergence d’un usage détaché de l’animation socioculturelle et orientée vers la formation militante et la repolitisation des politiques culturelles ; ce nouvel usage, qui demeure toutefois en concurrence avec une remobilisation du secteur Jeunesse et Éducation populaire, réintroduit en outre les pratiques d’origine scolaires que ce dernier avait écartées
The set phrase "éducation populaire" has been especially successful in French public discourses since the 1990s. We intend to analyze this lexical comeback. The past life of the phrase can be divided in two cycles, each of them composed of successive phases of emergence, consecration and decline, and revolving around an interpretation of the phrase as a quasi-category. It starts as a subcategory of "Instruction publique" from the French Revolution to the 1930s, then becomes a category detachedfrom schooling but linked with competing phrases, and is soon discarded by these ones as a mythical ancestor. The last years witness a new, yet uncertain phase of emergence which defines "éducation populaire" as a form of radical political education or as a repoliticization of cultural policies. This new use, however, is competing with the remobilization of traditional movements. It also reintroduces the school-rooted practices which had been previously discarded

Students’ argumentative writing is substandard in the sense that the necessary relations, amongst other things, are not indicated in their texts. These texts also often lack an author’s voice. In a module such as academic literacy, it is important to pay attention to the means in which these particular problems can be solved. Part of the aims of a course in academic literacy is to equip students with the necessary academic literacy abilities (which include reading and writing ability) and in doing so, teach them to function properly in a tertiary discourse community. In this study, only the written component of academic literacy will be considered. Following the above mentioned problems, the focus will be specifically on items of metadiscourse, which may form part of a possible solution to improve students’ writing. Hyland (2004) distinguishes between two main categories of metadiscourse, namely the interactive and the interactional categories (which each consists of five subcategories). The aim of these categories is to guide the reader through the text in a specific way, and also to actively involve the reader with the textual content and the reading process. If these aspects of metadiscourse are applied effectively, the text may be more cohesive and coherent and a stronger reader-writer-relationship may be established. A corpus-linguistic approach has been followed in the investigation of the frequency of the occurrence of the subcategories of metadiscourse, as well as the functional suitability thereof. The data analysis is based on Hyland’s (2004) analytical framework of metadiscourse categories, which has been adapted according to the data that has been processed with WordSmith Tools (version 6.0). In this study, the focus group is Afrikaans L1 first-year students at the North-West University’s Vaal Triangle Campus in the year 2010. All 109 participants in the study were registered for AGLA111 (Introduction to Academic Literacy) and AGLA121 (Academic Literacy). The texts that were gathered from AGLA111 are represented in corpus 1 whereas the texts gathered from AGLA121 are represented in corpus 2. The data that was provided by these two corpora was measured against an honours corpus (consisting of 39 texts), which served as the norm for this study. The data interpretation can be divided into four categories, namely phenomena that show a statistically significant change in the correct direction, phenomena that were correct from the start and did not show any change between corpus 1 and corpus 2, phenomena that did not show any change between corpus 1 and corpus 2 but that differed from the honours corpus, as well as phenomena that show incorrect development. Recommendations, which have been based on the literature review and text analysis, are made with regard to specific aspects relating to metadiscourse and the teaching of academic literacy modules (on which this study is founded). These recommendations primarily focus on how students’ attention can be focused on the requirements proposed for writing an argumentative text.
MA (Afrikaans en Nederlands), North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2014

Cette thèse s’intéresse aux formalismes qui permettent de représenter mathématiquement non seulement le sens de phrases indépendantes mais aussi de textes entiers, en incluant les liens de sens que les différentes phrases qui les composent entretiennent les unes avec les autres. Ces liens de sens — les relations discursives — sont divers ; nous trouvons notamment des relations temporelles, causales et contrastives. Nous ne nous posons pas seulement la question du sens et de sa représentation, mais aussi celle de la détermination algorithmique de cette représentation à partir des séquences de mots qui composent les énoncés. Nous nous situons donc à l’interface de trois traditions : l’analyse discursive, la sémantique formelle et la linguistique computationnelle.La plupart de travaux formels portant sur le discours ne prêtent que peu d’attention aux verbes de dire (affirmer, dire, etc.) et d’attitude propositionnelle (penser, croire, etc.). Tous ces verbes, que nous regroupons sous l’abréviation « VAP », ont en commun d’exprimer l’attitude ou la position d’une personne sur une proposition donnée. Ils sont utilisés fréquemment et introduisent de nombreuses subtilités échappant de fait aux théories actuelles. Cette thèse a pour objectif principal de mettre à jour les principes d’une grammaire formelle compatible avec l’analyse du discours et prenant en compte les VAP. Nous commençons donc par présenter de nombreuses données linguistiques illustrant les interactions entre VAP et relations discursives.Il est souvent considéré que les connecteurs adverbiaux (ensuite, par exemple, etc.) sont anaphoriques. Cependant, nous pouvons nous demander si, en pratique, un système de linguistique computationnelle ne peut pas gérer cette catégorie particulière d’anaphore comme s’il s’agissait d’un type de dépendance structurelle, étendant d’une certaine manière la syntaxe au-delà de la phrase. C’est ce que nous nous proposons de faire à l’aide du formalisme D-STAG. Une telle approche, bien qu’ayant un certain nombre de propriétés intéressantes dans le cadre de l’analyse automatique du discours, fait peser un poids important sur la syntaxe, et nous discutons alors les difficultés qu’elle soulève.Cela nous amène à développer une approche anaphorique, c’est-à-dire dans laquelle les arguments des relations discursives ne sont plus déterminés uniquement par la structure grammaticale des énoncés. Ce sont les mêmes outils conceptuels que nous utilisons pour rendre compte de l’anaphoricité des connecteurs adverbiaux, des structures discursives non-arborées (observées avec tout type de connecteurs), mais aussi de l’usage évidentiel des VAP.Cependant, si nous employons la notion d’anaphore, nous voulons l’intégrer explicitement dans le formalisme grammatical, en spécifiant quand sont exécutées les résolutions d’anaphore et avec quelles informations en entrée. Cela est possible avec la sémantique par continuation, que nous utilisons en combinaison à la sémantique événementielle. Les événements sont souvent invoqués pour exprimer la sémantique des relations notamment causales ou temporelles, mais posent aussi un certain nombre de questions, liées aux schémas logiques d’inférence qu’autorisent les énoncés linguistiques ainsi qu’à la présence de la négation pour exprimer les arguments des relations discursives. Nous avançons plusieurs pistes pour y répondre et étudions plus en détail le cas de la négation.Nous revenons ainsi sur les difficultés que pose la négation linguistique pour une analyse sémantique événementielle, qui concernent autant l’interface syntaxe-sémantique que le niveau purement sémantique. Nous montrons que ces difficultés ont pour origine l’analyse standard de la négation, qui traite phrases positives et phrases négatives de manière fondamentalement différente. Rejetant cette vue, nous présentons une formalisation nouvelle de la notion d’événement négatif, adaptée à l’analyse de divers phénomènes linguistiques
This thesis focuses on the formalisms that make it possible to mathematically represent not only the meaning of independent sentences, but also whole texts, including the meaning relations that link sentences together. These links — the discourse relations — include temporal, causal and contrastive relations. Not only are we interested in meaning and its representation, but also on the algorithmic process of how this representation is computed using the sequence of words that constitute the text. We thus find ourselves at a point where three disciplines intersect: discourse analysis, formal semantics and computational linguistics.Most formal work on discourse pay little attention to reporting verbs (say, tell, etc.) and attitude verbs (think, believe, etc.). These verbs, henceforth ‘AVs’, all express the attitude or stance of one person on a given proposition. They are used frequently and introduce many subtleties that are not addressed in current theories. The main objective of this thesis is to shed light on the principles of a formal grammar that is compatible with discourse analysis that takes AVs into account. We therefore start by presenting a set of linguistic data illustrating the interactions between AVs and discourse relations.Adverbial connectives (then, for example, etc.) are usually considered anaphoric. One might wonder, however, whether, in practice, a computational linguistic system cannot deal with this particular category of anaphora as a kind of structural dependency, meaning that syntax is somehow extended above the sentence level. This is what we try to achieve using the D-STAG formalism. While it has properties that are relevant for automatic discourse analysis, such an approach imposes quite the burden on syntax. We therefore discuss the difficulties that this approach poses.Consequently, we develop an anaphor based approach, in which the arguments of discourse relations are not determined solely by the grammatical structures of the utterances. We use the same conceptual tools to account for the anaphoricity of adverbial connectives, the shape of non-tree discourse structures (observed for all type of connectives) but also the evidential use of AVs.If, however, we look at the notion of anaphora, our aim is to have it explicitly integrated into grammatical formalism. In particular, we set out to specify when anaphora resolution is performed and on which input. This is made possible by continuation semantics, which we use in conjunction with event semantics. Events have often been appealed to in order to describe the semantics of causal and temporal relations. Nevertheless, events raise a number of questions related to the possibility of some inference patterns that are observed, in addition to the presence of negation in the arguments of discourse relations. We suggest a number of potential answers and study the case of negation in more detail.We therefore review the issues facing event semantics when dealing with negation. Such issues concern both the syntax-semantics interface and the purely semantics level. We argue that these difficulties originate from the standard analysis of negation, which interprets positive and negative sentences is an essentially different fashion. Rejecting this view, we propose a novel formalisation of negative events that is relevant to the analysis of various linguistic phenomena

Turkish, along with many other languages, marks its direct objects in two distinct ways: overt accusative marking (Acc) versus no marking (&empty
). The research on the grammar and interpretation of Turkish inde

Det jämställdhetspolitiska målet innebär att män och kvinnor ska ha samma rättigheter, möjligheter och skyldigheter för att själva kunna forma sina liv inom alla livsområden. För att mäta jämställdhet i Sverige används statistik som grundar sig på kön som ensam social kategori. Detta trots att det går att se att arbetet med jämställdhet förbättras om kvinnor och män inte ses som statiska och homogena grupper. Inom den sociala kategorin kön finns fler underkategorier som påverkar det jämställdhetspolitiska arbetet och vid avsaknaden av ett intersektionellt perspektiv riskerar vissa grupper att missas. Studiens syfte är att undersöka vilka konsekvenser frånvaron av ett intersektionellt perspektiv får i regeringens jämställdhetspolitiska mål samt vad ett intersektionellt perspektiv skulle kunna bidra med. För att göra detta granskas texterna regeringens jämställdhetpolitiska delmål ett en jämn fördelning av makt och inflytande, Regeringens skrivelse 2016/17:10 Makt, mål och myndighet – feministisk politik för en jämställd framtid och SOU 2015:86 – Mål och myndighet. En effektiv styrning av jämställhetspolitiken genom en kritisk diskursanalys. Materialet analyseras utifrån kritisk diskursanalys och dess analytiska verktyg utifrån Machin och Mayr (2012) tillsammans med intersektionalitet som övergripande teoretisk utgångspunkt som belyser och ifrågasätter maktstrukturer både inom och mellan olika sociala kategorier. Analysen förstärks ytterligare utifrån Foucaults begrepp makt, kunskap och diskurs. I resultatet framträder fyra olika diskurser vilka är diskursen om jämn könsfördelning av makt och maktpositioner, diskursen om kvinnor som underordande män i förhållande till jämställdhet och makt, diskursen om inkludering och exkludering av sociala kategorier och diskursen om konstruerandet av kvinnligt och manligt. Diskurserna bygger främst på en primär social kategori, kön. Frånvaron av det intersektionella perspektivet riskerar alltså att det bara är en viss social kategori som inkluderas. Jämställdhet blir på så vis inte nåbar för alla grupper av människor och påverkar då också hur mänskliga rättigheter tas tillvara på.
The goal for gender equality policy means that men and women should have the same rights, opportunities and obligations to shape their lives in all areas of life. To measure gender equality in Sweden, statistics based on gender as a single social category are used. This is despite the fact that the work on gender equality can be improved if women and men are not seen as static and homogeneous groups. Within the social category gender there are more subcategories that affect gender equality policy work and in the absence of an intersectional perspective, certain groups may be missed. The aim of the study is to examine the consequences of the absence of an intersectional perspective have in the government’s gender equality policy goals and what an intersectional perspective could contribute with. In order to do this the texts of the government’s gender equality sub-goal one en jämn fördelning av makt och inflytande, Regeringens skrivelse 2016/17:10 Makt, mål och myndighet – feministisk politik för en jämställd framtid and SOU 2015:86 – Mål och myndighet. En effektiv styrning av jämställhetspolitiken are examined through a critical discourse analysis. The material is analyzed based on critical discourse analysis and its analytical tools based on Machin och Mayr (2012) along with intersectionality as an overall theoretical approach that illuminates and questions power structures both within and between different social categories. The analysis is further amplified based on Foucault’s concepts of power, knowledge and discourse. In the results, four different discourses appear which are the discourse of equal gender distribution of power and power positions, the discourse of women as subordinate men in relation to equality and power, the discourse of inclusion and exclusion of social categories and the discourse on the construction of women and men. The discourses are mainly based on a primary social category, gender. A risk with the absence of the intersectional perspective is that there is only a certain social category which is included. The gender equality is there for not reachable for all groups of people and will also affect how human rights are taken advantage of.

The aim of the study is to investigate how young men constructing identities in talk about their own use of violence. The study is based on a fieldwork at a youth detention home in Sweden. The data consists of individual interviews and video recordings of the treatment programme Aggression Replacement Training (ART). Detailed analyses have been made of conversations between the young men, between the young men and the trainers, and of the narratives generated in the individual interviews. The study has a social constructionist approach to identity, which is seen as constructed in a joint achievement in social interaction. An important analytical perspective in the study is how social categories and subcategories are constructed. The study has a particular focus on gender, primarily masculinity, but age and ethnicity are also being emphasised. The analysis draws on four empirical studies. It is shown how the young men construct a preferred self-presentation when talking about violent events. The narratives on violence are either based on experiences or talked about as a hypothetical use of violence. Violence based on personal experience is problematized and legitimized in terms of self-defence, defending friends, restraint and justified violence. Narratives of violence are shown to be interactional resources available to the young men. When talking about violence, the young men can be seen to regulate social relations, and to position themselves in relation to particular discourses of masculinity. The specific understanding of what it entails to be a man enables the use of violence with respect to social categorizations such as age, ethnicity or criminal identity. It is also argued that the treatment programme ART may, at times, facilitate maintaining a criminal identity.
Avhandlingens övergripande syfte är att undersöka hur unga män konstruerar identiteter kring berättelser om eget våldsutövande. Den bygger på en studie gjord vid ett särskilt ungdomshem i Sverige. Såväl enskilda intervjuer som videoinspelningar av behandlingsprogrammet Aggression Replacement Training (ART) har utgjort analysmaterialet. Ingående analyser har gjorts av samtalen mellan de unga männen, mellan de unga männen och behandlingspersonalen, och berättelserna i de enskilda intervjuerna. Avhandlingen bygger på en socialkonstruktionistisk ansats där identitet analyseras i social interaktion med andra. Ett viktigt analytiskt perspektiv i studien är hur sociala kategorier och underkategorier skapas. Ett särskilt fokus ligger på genus och då främst maskulinitet, men även ålder och etnicitet lyfts fram som viktiga perspektiv. Avhandlingen omfattar fyra delstudier. Studien visar hur de unga männen konstruerar en positiv självpresentation när de talar om våldshändelser. Våldsberättelserna är antingen erfarenhetsbaserade eller utgår ifrån tal om hypotetiskt våld. Det erfarenhetsbaserade våldet problematiseras och legitimeras genom att talas om som självförsvar, försvar av kompisar, återhållsamt eller rättmätigt. Studien visar att våldsberättelser är interaktionella resurser för de unga männen. Genom att tala om våld reglerar de sociala relationer och positionerar sig i relation till vissa maskulinitetsdiskurser. Den specifika förståelsen av vad det innebär att vara en man, möjliggör användandet av våld avhängigt andra sociala kategorier, så som ålder, etnicitet och kriminell identitet. Studien indikerar också att behandlingsprogrammet ART ger möjlighet att underlätta upprätthållandet av en kriminell identitet.

Due to copyright matters, have the articles, published in chapter 4, 5, 6 and 7, been removed.

The aim of the study is to investigate how young men constructing identities in talk about their own use of violence. The study is based on a fieldwork at a youth detention home in Sweden. The data consists of individual interviews and video recordings of the treatment programme Aggression Replacement Training (ART). Detailed analyses have been made of conversations between the young men, between the young men and the trainers, and of the narratives generated in the individual interviews. The study has a social constructionist approach to identity, which is seen as constructed in a joint achievement in social interaction. An important analytical perspective in the study is how social categories and subcategories are constructed. The study has a particular focus on gender, primarily masculinity, but age and ethnicity are also being emphasised. The analysis draws on four empirical studies. It is shown how the young men construct a preferred self-presentation when talking about violent events. The narratives on violence are either based on experiences or talked about as a hypothetical use of violence. Violence based on personal experience is problematized and legitimized in terms of self-defence, defending friends, restraint and justified violence. Narratives of violence are shown to be interactional resources available to the young men. When talking about violence, the young men can be seen to regulate social relations, and to position themselves in relation to particular discourses of masculinity. The specific understanding of what it entails to be a man enables the use of violence with respect to social categorizations such as age, ethnicity or criminal identity. It is also argued that the treatment programme ART may, at times, facilitate maintaining a criminal identity.
Avhandlingens övergripande syfte är att undersöka hur unga män konstruerar identiteter kring berättelser om eget våldsutövande. Den bygger på en studie gjord vid ett särskilt ungdomshem i Sverige. Såväl enskilda intervjuer som videoinspelningar av behandlingsprogrammet Aggression Replacement Training (ART) har utgjort analysmaterialet. Ingående analyser har gjorts av samtalen mellan de unga männen, mellan de unga männen och behandlingspersonalen, och berättelserna i de enskilda intervjuerna. Avhandlingen bygger på en socialkonstruktionistisk ansats där identitet analyseras i social interaktion med andra. Ett viktigt analytiskt perspektiv i studien är hur sociala kategorier och underkategorier skapas. Ett särskilt fokus ligger på genus och då främst maskulinitet, men även ålder och etnicitet lyfts fram som viktiga perspektiv. Avhandlingen omfattar fyra delstudier. Studien visar hur de unga männen konstruerar en positiv självpresentation när de talar om våldshändelser. Våldsberättelserna är antingen erfarenhetsbaserade eller utgår ifrån tal om hypotetiskt våld. Det erfarenhetsbaserade våldet problematiseras och legitimeras genom att talas om som självförsvar, försvar av kompisar, återhållsamt eller rättmätigt. Studien visar att våldsberättelser är interaktionella resurser för de unga männen. Genom att tala om våld reglerar de sociala relationer och positionerar sig i relation till vissa maskulinitetsdiskurser. Den specifika förståelsen av vad det innebär att vara en man, möjliggör användandet av våld avhängigt andra sociala kategorier, så som ålder, etnicitet och kriminell identitet. Studien indikerar också att behandlingsprogrammet ART ger möjlighet att underlätta upprätthållandet av en kriminell identitet.

Due to copyright matters, have the articles, published in chapter 4, 5, 6 and 7, been removed.

The thesis offers a comparative analysis of language policies in the EU and India. Specifically, it examines the role of power and ideology in the formulation and implementation of language policies. The need for this thesis emerged in view of the lack of comprehensive comparative analyses of language policies which leads to epistemological gaps, including one-dimensional narratives of language policies, and theories which are lacking in precision. In light of these gaps, the thesis undertakes a comprehensive investigation of policies in eight policy domains (administration, legal safeguards for minority languages, law, education, media, healthcare, business, and social welfare) in the EU and India and in two case studies each from the EU (Luxembourg, Wales), and India (Manipur, Tamil Nadu), chosen on the basis of maximum and minimum deviation from the EU's and Indian policies. The study examines policy texts (statutes on language use in these polities), and contexts which concern the historical and socio-political factors underpinning language policies. The thesis makes three important contributions. First, it marks a break from the prevalent understanding of power in macro-level policymaking. Research to date has tended to view power as a monolithic entity, while this thesis offers evidence that power and ideology are not uniform across policy domains. Second, it bridges the text-context divide of language policy research by conducting an investigation of policy-related legislation, and highlighting the importance of texts in understanding language policies, as they reflect the changes in power structures through time. Third, the thesis proposes a new analytical concept for investigating language policies, Categories of Differentiation (COD). Categories of Differentiation refer to the sets of binaries which underpin language policies in the aforementioned case studies. These binaries include the hills-valley divide (Manipur), the Dravidian-Aryan divide (Tamil Nadu), and the autochthonous-allochthonous divide (EU) among others. Language policies have often been described as 'multilayered', and COD offer a systematic approach to exploring these multiple layers. Overall, the thesis demonstrates how comparative research aids understanding of language policies, and sets out a possible theoretical framework for conducting it.

Le problème de représentation automatique de la signification logique des énoncés ambigus en langage naturel a suscité l'intérêt des chercheurs dans le domaine de la sémantique computationnelle et de la logique. L'ambiguïté dans le langage naturel peut se manifester au niveau lexical / syntaxique / sémantique de la construction de sens, ou elle peut être causée par d'autres facteurs tels que la grammaticalité et le manque de contexte dans lequel la phrase est effectivement prononcée. L'approche traditionnelle Montagovienne ainsi que ses extensions modernes ont tenté de capturer ce phénomène en fournissant quelques modèles qui permettent la génération automatique de formules logiques. Cependant, il existe un axe de recherche qui n'est pas encore profondément étudié: classer les interprétations d'énoncés ambigus en fonction des préférences réelles des utilisateurs de la langue. Ce manque suggère une nouvelle direction d'étude qui est partiellement explorée dans ce mémoire en modélisant des préférences de sens en alignement avec certaines des théories de performance préférentielles humaines bien étudiées disponibles dans la littérature linguistique et psycholinguistique.Afin d'atteindre cet objectif, nous suggérons d'utiliser / d'étendre les Grammaires catégorielles pour notre analyse syntaxique et les Réseaux catégoriels de preuve comme notre analyse syntaxique. Nous utilisons également le Lexique Génératif Montagovien pour dériver une formule logique multi-triée comme notre représentation de signification sémantique. Cela ouvrirait la voie à nos contributions à cinq volets, à savoir, (i) le classement de la portée du quantificateur multiple au moyen de l'opérateur epsilon de Hilbert sous-spécifié et des réseaux de preuve catégoriels; (ii) modéliser la gradation sémantique dans les phrases qui ont des coercitions implicites dans leurs significations. Nous utilisons un cadre appelé Montagovian Generative Lexicon. Notre tâche est d'introduire une procédure pour incorporer des types et des coercitions en utilisant des données lexicales produites par externalisation ouverte qui sont recueillies par un jeu sérieux appelé JeuxDeMots; (iii) l'introduction de nouvelles métriques sensibles au référent basées sur la localité pour mesurer la complexité linguistique au moyen de réseaux de preuve catégoriels; (iv) l'introduction d'algorithmes pour l'achèvement des phrases avec différentes mesures linguistiquement motivées pour sélectionner les meilleurs candidats; (v)l'intégration de différentes métriques de calcul pour les préférences de classement afin de faire d'elles un modèle unique
The problem of automatic logical meaning representation for ambiguous natural language utterances has been the subject of interest among the researchers in the domain of computational and logical semantics. Ambiguity in natural language may be caused in lexical/syntactical/semantical level of the meaning construction or it may be caused by other factors such as ungrammaticality and lack of the context in which the sentence is actually uttered. The traditional Montagovian framework and the family of its modern extensions have tried to capture this phenomenon by providing some models that enable the automatic generation of logical formulas as the meaning representation. However, there is a line of research which is not profoundly investigated yet: to rank the interpretations of ambiguous utterances based on the real preferences of the language users. This gap suggests a new direction for study which is partially carried out in this dissertation by modeling meaning preferences in alignment with some of the well-studied human preferential performance theories available in the linguistics and psycholinguistics literature.In order to fulfill this goal, we suggest to use/extend Categorial Grammars for our syntactical analysis and Categorial Proof Nets as our syntactic parse. We also use Montagovian Generative Lexicon for deriving multi-sorted logical formula as our semantical meaning representation. This would pave the way for our five-folded contributions, namely, (i) ranking the multiple-quantifier scoping by means of underspecified Hilbert's epsilon operator and categorial proof nets; (ii) modeling the semantic gradience in sentences that have implicit coercions in their meanings. We use a framework called Montagovian Generative Lexicon. Our task is introducing a procedure for incorporating types and coercions using crowd-sourced lexical data that is gathered by a serious game called JeuxDeMots; (iii) introducing a new locality-based referent-sensitive metrics for measuring linguistic complexity by means of Categorial Proof Nets; (iv) introducing algorithms for sentence completions with different linguistically motivated metrics to select the best candidates; (v) and finally integration of different computational metrics for ranking preferences in order to make them a unique model

This research into Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) presents the results of 60 first-person psycho-phenomenological interviews with 30 New Zealand women. The participants were recruited from the Canterbury and Wellington regions, 10 had recovered. Taking a non-dual, non-reductive embodied approach, the phenomenological data was analysed semiotically, using a graph-theoretical cluster analysis to elucidate the large number of resulting categories, and interpreted through the enactive approach to cognitive science. The initial result of the analysis is a comprehensive exploration of the experience of CFS which develops subject-specific categories of experience and explores the relation of the illness to universal categories of experience, including self, ‘energy’, action, and being-able-to-do. Transformations of the self surrounding being-able-to-do and not-being-able-to-do were shown to elucidate the illness process. It is proposed that the concept ‘energy’ in the participants’ discourse is equivalent to the Mahayana Buddhist concept of ‘contact’. This characterises CFS as a breakdown of contact. Narrative content from the recovered interviewees reflects a reestablishment of contact. The hypothesis that CFS is a disorder of action is investigated in detail. A general model for the phenomenology and functional architecture of action is proposed. This model is a recursive loop involving felt meaning, contact, action, and perception and appears to be phenomenologically supported. It is proposed that the CFS illness process is a dynamical decompensation of the subject’s action loop caused by a breakdown in the process of contact. On this basis, a new interpretation of neurological findings in relation to CFS becomes possible. A neurological phenomenon that correlates with the illness and involves a brain region that has a similar structure to the action model’s recursive loop is identified in previous research results and compared with the action model and the results of this research. This correspondence may identify the brain regions involved in the illness process, which may provide an objective diagnostic test for the condition and approaches to treatment. The implications of this model for cognitive science and CFS should be investigated through neurophenomenological research since the model stands to shed considerable light on the nature of consciousness, contact and agency. Phenomenologically based treatments are proposed, along with suggestions for future research on CFS. The research may clarify the diagnostic criteria for CFS and guide management and treatment programmes, particularly multidimensional and interdisciplinary approaches. Category theory is proposed as a foundation for a mathematisation of phenomenology.

This study investigates the theme of parts 1 and 2 of The Tale of Genji (Japanese, early 11th century). The tale is narrated through stories about male-female relationships: stories that use interior monologue to depict the inner lives of the characters. Interior monologue, a category of discourse that reveals thought and emotion from the character’s own viewpoint, provides insight into the character’s state of mind. The goal of the thesis is to pursue what lies behind these relationships. The thesis therefore explores the characteristics of the male-female relationships among the central characters, who are defined as those with a high frequency of interior monologue. Pursuit of this goal is grounded in close textual analysis. Genji has intrigued those who have read it, and it has inspired various kinds of critical writing. However, there have been few studies, especially of a comprehensive nature, of its theme. This attempt to clarify the theme can be regarded as a significant contribution to the study of the tale. The thesis treats only parts 1 and 2 of the work, because the pursuit of the goal just described requires so much space. Quite apart from detailed textual analysis, it is necessary also to establish the concept of the narrator, hence the concomitant narrative structure; to categorise discourse; and to define discourse categories. Another reason for limiting the thesis to parts 1 and 2 is that these narrate Genji’s whole life. This study establishes a new concept of the narrator, integrating distinctive features of the narrator of the tale with the concepts of eye-witness narrator and histor narrator proposed by Scholes and Kellogg (1966). The thesis adopts the term ‘the eye-witness narrator’, thus adding another viewpoint from which the narrator can see a character’s inner life. This new concept of the narrator stands in opposition to the concept of the narrator as a character (Mitani 1992, Yoshioka 1966). It reflects a different understanding of the narrative structure, since the narrative structure is indebted to the two modes of the narrator and the movement of the narrator’s viewpoint (see Figure 3). These concepts, especially that of the narrator’s shifting viewpoint, underpin the categorisation of discourse. The study categorises discourse in the tale according to three viewpoints: (1) that of the character, (2) that of the narrator and (3) that shared by both. The criterion for categorisation builds on the criteria proposed by Kai (1980) and Noguchi (1987), but focuses on the viewpoint expressed in a particular passage. Furthermore, the discourse is subcategorised into seven categories under the three viewpoints (see Figure 5). There are two distinctive characteristics of categorisation and definitions in the thesis: one is the consistency of the criterion (viewpoint) for categorisation and the other is the strict distinction between direct narration and indirect narration. The categories and definitions proposed use a new criterion, viewpoint, to build on various understandings of the terms customarily used in old commentaries, and on definitions of individual terms proposed by many scholars. Reading with attention to the new discourse categories allows one to recognise the viewpoint in a complex passage. This in turn permits precise analysis, toward the goal of defining the theme. As a result of examining the characteristics of the male-female relationships woven by the central characters, the thesis proposes first a theme each for part 1 and 2, and then an overarching theme for both parts. This overarching theme is the abyss between man and woman. It flows through all male-female relationships in both parts, like the main melody in a symphony.

As critical communication and cultural studies have taken a more sociological turn, it is increasingly recognized that the theoretical assumptions of critical perspectives create tensions within projects of empirically informed social analysis. This dissertation explores the epistemological commitments and liabilities of a set of analytic concepts that address the domain of "lived experience" and interprets how and why they displace the very phenomena that they claim to study. Drawing on Foucauldean discourse analysis, I develop a critical perspective that is grounded in the analysis of "discursive operators," the analytic concepts that work to legitimate claims to knowledge within different traditions of research. My research maps out the work of these operators across a range of positions and projects, and diagnoses the relations of power that structure these particular discursive regimes. I focus on four key discursive formations in critical communication and cultural studies and their objects of study: emotion and symbolic interactionism; the structure of feeling and literary humanism; subcultural and media ethnography; agency, identity and discursive conceptions of power. In the course of my analysis, I find a consistent regularity, a logic of deferral and displacement, in which the complexity and limit-less character of actual contexts of research are displaced in favor of powerful discursive operators such as intersubjectivity, the popular, resistance, and various conceptualizations of domination. Their influence contributes to the reproduction of theoretical orthodoxies and the marginalization of theoretical and practical innovation in these disciplinary fields. After isolating the problem, I describe a number of strategies that attempt to contend with the determinations of powerful discursive operators, especially a form of conjuncturalist analysis developed in cultural studies.

碩士
靜宜大學
企業管理研究所
90
After reading the literatures about sales promotion, we find that prior research usually focused on the impact of product categories, price promotion and brand awareness on brand evaluation and consumers’ purchase intention, but not focused on consumers’ repurchase intention. Because of this reasons, in this study, we try to investigate the impact of product categories, price discount and brand awareness on brand evaluation and consumers’ repurchase intention. A 3(product categories: impulse buying/ short interpurchase/ long interpurchase)×3(price discount: no price discount/ low price discount/ high price discount)×2(brand awareness: low brand awareness/ high brand awareness) factorial design was used to test the hypotheses. We use General Liner Model (GLM) method to analysis 5 questions. 1.the impact of price discount and brand awareness on consumers’ repurchase intention. 2.is there product categories affection between the impact of price discount and brand awareness on consumers’ repurchase intention? 3.the impact of price discount and brand awareness on consumers’ brand evaluation. 4. is there product categories affection between the impact of price discount and brand awareness on consumers’ brand evaluation? 5.what is the correlation between consumers’ repurchase intention and brand evaluation? There are six major findings of this study: 1. The consumers’ repurchase intention of high brand awareness is higher than low brand awareness. 2. There is product categories affection between the impact of price discount on consumers’ repurchase intention. As for short interpurchase product categories the impact of price discount on consumers’ repurchase intention is lower than long interpurchase product categories. 3. There is product categories affection between the impact of price discount on consumers’ brand evaluation. As for short interpurchase product categories the impact of brand awareness on consumers’ repurchase intention is higher than long interpurchase product categories. 4. The consumers’ brand awareness of high brand awareness is higher than low brand awareness. 5. There is product categories affection between the impact of brand awareness on consumers’ brand evaluation. As for short interpurchase product categories the impact of brand awareness on consumers’ brand evaluation is higher than long interpurchase product categories. 6. There is positive correlation between consumers’ brand evaluation and repurchase intention.

In this dissertation, I investigate whether the conceptualisation of computerised technological phenomena is influenced by social variables, in particular exposure to the computer. The conceptualisation and behaviour of a group of students majoring in technology-related fields were studied. Through the application of Conceptual Blending Theory, the multi-modal desktop metaphorical blend (DMMB) (as an electronic representation of an actual office desktop) was focused on. The participants were provided with tasks with the aim of determining whether they conceptualise the electronic desktop as a literal ‘thing-in-itself’ or as an e-version of their actual desks. The intent was to examine to what extent social variables, especially exposure, motivate the nature of the conceptualisation. Therefore, it is hypothesised that exposure, regarded as the primary variable in this study, influences conceptualisation of the DMMB to the extent where the it either loses its metaphoric quality in participants, who maintain regular and prolonged exposure to the computer, or retains the metaphoric quality of the DMMB in participants, who are not exposed to the computer on a regular and prolonged basis. Two groups were distinguished based on the extent of the individual participants’ exposure to computer technology, namely a high-exposure group and a low-exposure group. A mixed method approach was used to test and analyse data collected from individual participants, as well as from the high- and low-exposure groups. Methods used to test these hypotheses included questionnaires, word association (a conceptual task), controlled observation (a behavioural task), and interviews. The resulting data were analysed by means of a thematic interview analysis and non-parametric statistical tests.
Linguistics and Modern Languages
M.A. (Linguistics)