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Forrett, Steven Lawrie. "Movie poster advertisements: A relevance theory persepctive." CSUSB ScholarWorks, 2007. https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/etd-project/3236.
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The purpose of this thesis is to examine ten movie posters while hypothesizing whether or not their tagline texts could interest a reader. A linguistic framework Relevance Theory, is used in the analysis of this project.
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Chandler, Constance S. "Exploring the relevance of relationship management theory to investor relations." Thesis, University of Oregon, 2014. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=1555748.
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This study examines the relevance of an established public relations theory, relationship management, to investor relations. Having emerged during the 1950s, investor relations is a relatively new field that integrates the disciplines of communication, marketing, finance, and securities laws compliance. Through qualitative interviews focused on six publicly traded companies on the West Coast, the study provides insight into the relationship management function of investor relations from the perspectives of those whom investors ultimately hold accountable for a public company’s performance—CEOs. The dominant theme emerging from the study is the constant challenge CEOs of public companies face as they engage in relationships with investors, primarily due to the constraining effects of regulatory requirements. While the study confirmed that the interviewees value L. C. Hon and J. E. Grunig’s qualities of trust, satisfaction, control mutuality and commitment in relationships with investors, CEOs’ most frequently discussed relationship quality that they work to achieve is trust.
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Austin, J. P. M. "The dark side of politeness: a pragmatic analysis of non-cooperative communication." Thesis, University of Canterbury. English, 1987. http://hdl.handle.net/10092/1041.
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I examine the Brown and Levinson (1978) model of politeness. On the assumption that a model of face attention must involve impolite as well as polite interactive behaviour, I construct an analogous model to deal with what I term Face Attack Acts. I show that an extension of a politeness model in this way reveals serious flaws in some hypotheses central to Brown and Levinson's work. I apply the principles of Relevance Theory (Sperber and Wilson 1986)to the extended model, and show how the theory can offer an explanatory account of face attention, on a continuum from polite to impolite. Relevance Theory makes predictions about the interpretation of utterances in context, which explain how the face-oriented aspect of interaction is recovered by hearers. I show that Relevance Theory provides a motivated way of linking utterances with facts about power asymmetries and group-membership which are seen to be recoverable by the interpretive process. I apply the resulting face-attention model of utterance interpretation to examples of the use of language to encode power and communicate assumptions about social behaviour and status. In terms of previous accounts of utterance interpretation, particularly Grice's Cooperative Principle and maxims, the account of face attention which incorporates Relevance Theory has greater explanatory power. In practical terms, this application of Relevance Theory is shown to be illuminating in raising the assumptions underlying non-cooperative communication to a conscious level, at which their validity can be sustained.
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Leddin, E. Patrick. "CONTENT RELEVANCE CENTRIC THEORY: AN INVESTIGATION OF CONTENT RELEVANCE'S ABILITY TO PREDICT LEARNING OUTCOMES IN A TRAINING ENVIRONMENT." Lexington, Ky. : [University of Kentucky Libraries], 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10225/1178.
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Kentucky, 2009.Title from document title page (viewed on June 2, 2010). Document formatted into pages; contains: viii, 103 p. : ill. Includes abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 95-101).
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Chandler, Constance. "Exploring the Relevance of Relationship Management Theory to Investor Relations." Thesis, University of Oregon, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/1794/17932.
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This study examines the relevance of an established public relations theory, relationship management, to investor relations. Having emerged during the 1950s, investor relations is a relatively new field that integrates the disciplines of communication, marketing, finance, and securities laws compliance. Through qualitative interviews focused on six publicly traded companies on the West Coast, the study provides insight into the relationship management function of investor relations from the perspectives of those whom investors ultimately hold accountable for a public company's performance - CEOs. The dominant theme emerging from the study is the constant challenge CEOs of public companies face as they engage in relationships with investors, primarily due to the constraining effects of regulatory requirements. While the study confirmed that the interviewees value L. C. Hon and J. E. Grunig's qualities of trust, satisfaction, control mutuality and commitment in relationships with investors, CEOs' most frequently discussed relationship quality that they work to achieve is trust.
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Christie, Christine. "Relevance theory and the analysis of audience response : a pragmatic approach to media studies." Thesis, University of Strathclyde, 1993. http://oleg.lib.strath.ac.uk:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=21226.
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This thesis focusses on variability in audience interpretation of a television programme, and aims to problematise and investigate the reception of broadcast communication by applying the pragmatic theory of relevance (Sperber and Wilson 1966) to an empirical study of audience response. This aim is achieved using the following method: In Chapter Two I consider the scope of pragmatic theories of inferencing and conclude that relevance theory offers the only account which can both accommodate and provide the basis for an explanation of variation in interpretation. I also assert that for relevance theory to be able to show why an audience interprets a text in a specific way the cultural background of that audience has to be considered. In Chapter Three I show how existing studies of audience response which adopt a critical cultural studies approach require a more sophisticated model of communication than they currently assume if they are to realise their aim of relating audience respo nse to socio-political structures. My contention is that the inferential model proposed by Sperber and Wilson can provide such an account. Chapters Four and Five describe, and report the results of, an empirical study I carry out based on a methodology premised on relevance theory. The study consists of two separate interviews with audiences who have distinct cultural backgrounds in each of which I show a video recording of a television programme and then question the interviewees on their understanding of the text of the programme. In Chapters Six and Seven I discuss the results of the study in relation to relevance theory and media studies. The results of my study indicate that a methodology based on relevance theory can make explicit, and show the significance of, processes involved in audience interpretation of a media text which have not previously been open to analysis. Building on Sperber and Wilson's claim (1986: 15) that the context of an utterance is a psychological construct, and is a sub-set of the set of assumptions available to the hearer of a given utterance, the results make explicit (a) relevant aspects of the encyclopaedic knowledge of two distinct audiences; (b) the contexts these audiences produce in response to a television text; (c) how these contexts are related to the audience's encyclopaedic knowledge; (d) how these contexts affect the disambiguation and enrichment of information linguistically encoded in the text (e) 'The contextual implications, or interpretations, -the audience draw from a synthesis of the information encoded in text and the contexts the audiences apply. My findings are particularly pertinent for the critical cultural approach to audience studies as they indicate how it is possible to make explicit the relationship between response and cultural background by showing how the existing knowledge of an audience affects interpretation and indicating moreover how this knowledge can be related to social determinants. The results of my study also contribute to pragmatic theory in that they show how relevance theory can be used to explain why interpretation may vary.
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El-Sadek, Kilany Enas. "Communicative misunderstanding and relevance theory : an empirical cognitive-pragmatic approach." Thesis, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/10443/3113.
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Pilkington, Adrian. "Poetic thoughts and poetic effects : a relevance theory account of the literary use of rhetorical tropes and schemes." Thesis, University College London (University of London), 1994. http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1317955/.
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This thesis proposes an account of the effects achieved by the poetic use of rhetorical tropes and schemes in the light of recent developments in pragmatic theory. More specifically it discusses and attempts to develop the relevance theory account of poetic effects. Much recent debate in literary studies has centred on the question as to whether literary communication is best explained in terms of text-internal linguistic properties or socio-cultural phenomena. This thesis considers such views in the light of the theories of language and communication they assume. It then proposes an alternative theoretical account of literary communication grounded in cognitive pragmatic theory. It argues that the relevance theory account of poetic effects may make a significant contribution to such an account. A brief outline of relevance theory is followed by a more detailed analysis of metaphor and a brief consideration of epizeuxis and various verse effects, insofar as they contribute to poetic style. it is natural for pragmatic theory to concentrate on the communication of assumptions, propositional forms with a logical structure over which inferences can be performed. Although the account of poetic effects and poetic thoughts developed here will be partially characterised in such terms, an attempt will also be made to account for the communication of affective and other non-propositional effects. Any theory of stylistic effects in general, and poetic style in particular, must, it will be argued, include such an account. This will necessitate a broader philosophical discussion of issues having a bearing on the question of what it is that is communicated non-propositionally. More particularly it will require some discussion of emotion, phenomenal experience and aesthetic experience. This discussion will lead to a characterisation of poetic thought or poetic representation. The thesis aims, then, to make a contribution to literary studies by characterising a new theoretical notion of literariness in terms of mental representations and mental processes. It also aims to make a contribution to pragmatic theory, specifically to the pragmatics of poetic style and rhetoric within a relevance theory framework.
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Yu, Qiufen. "Relevance theory, culture and communication : intepretations of broadcast talk by native speakers of Mandarin Chinese and British English." Thesis, Loughborough University, 2011. https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/2134/8565.
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In studies of culture and communication, it is widely believed that (a) cultures can be distinguished according to the use of direct and indirect style (e.g. Adair and Brett 2004; Brew and Cairns 2004; Cohen 2004; Ting-Toomey 1999); (b) culture is closely related to communication style (e.g. Fujishin 2007; Neuliep 2006; Pekerti and Thomas 2003); and (c) there are differences in interpretation between people from different cultures (e.g. Cohen 2004; Gao and Ting-Toomey 1998; Scollon and Scollon 1995; Ting-Toomey 1999). Drawing on Relevance Theory, I argued that communication styles in cultures that have been categorised as using direct and indirect style are both indirect, and that there is no direct connection between culture and communication style. Specifically, I proposed that the claim that there are differences in interpretation between people with diverse cultural backgrounds can be more effectively addressed by focusing on contextual assumptions people draw on in response to an utterance. To investigate how cultural differences are realised by focusing on native speakers of Mandarin Chinese and British English, this study adopted a qualitative technique to analyse data in order not only to reveal how or whether cultural differences are realised through the use of communication style, but also to provide an in-depth understanding of contextual assumptions that hearers draw on and their relationship with cultural difference. This study involved two sets of radio talk shows broadcast in China and Britain. It also involved a series of interviews with hearers from China and Britain. The main findings from the study are: (1) styles of speakers of Mandarin Chinese and British English are both indirect; (2) there is no direct correlation between culture and communication style, and (3) cultural differences are realised if hearers from different cultures draw on different contextual assumptions in response to an utterance. This research has important implications for researchers in the area of culture and communication in understanding cultural differences in communication, and for research into contextual assumptions in intercultural encounters.
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Chevallier, Coralie. "La communication dans le syndrome d’Asperger." Thesis, Lyon 2, 2009. http://www.theses.fr/2009LYO20004.
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Communiquer efficacement nécessite de produire une multitude d’inférences pragmatiques. Celles-ci reposent sur la capacité à prendre en compte un grand nombre d’indices, tels que le contexte ou l’état mental et physique du locuteur. Dans le cas du langage oral, l’interlocuteur s’appuie également sur les indices prosodiques. Ainsi, une prosodie enthousiaste associée à l’énoncé « Excellent. » aidera un interlocuteur à inférer que le locuteur est content tandis qu’une intonation plate le conduira au contraire à penser qu’il était ironique. Ces situations peuvent être particulièrement délicates pour les patients atteints d’un Trouble du Spectre Autistique (TSA) qui éprouvent des difficultés pour reconnaître et interpréter les états mentaux d’autrui. Nous prédisons donc que l’interprétation des indices prosodiques est délicate dans les TSA. Cependant, tous les aspects de l’interprétation prosodique ne requièrent pas d’attribuer des états mentaux. Par exemple, la distinction entre « PREsent » et « preSENT » (en anglais) est basée sur une simple connaissance du lexique, indépendante des pensées du locuteur. Dans ce travail, j’explore différents aspects de la prosodie afin de déterminer si les personnes avec un TSA sont spécifiquement atteintes dans leur capacité à comprendre les signaux prosodiques reposant sur la compréhension des intentions du locuteur. Je présente une série de travaux traitant de la prosodie grammaticale (Article 1), de la transmission accidentelle d’informations (Article 2), de l’accent contrastif (Articles 3 et 4), et de l’identification des états mentaux du locuteur (Article 5). Les résultats présentés dans ces travaux me conduisent ensuite à discuter des questions plus générales concernant la Théorie de l’Esprit (Article 6) et à proposer une explication alternative des déficits sociaux observés dans les TSA (Article 7)Efficient communication requires a great deal of pragmatic inferencing. This is rooted in the ability to take into account a variety of cues, such as the context and the speaker’s mental or emotional states. Crucially, in spoken language, hearers can also rely on prosodic cues. For instance, if someone utters “That was brilliant”, using an enthusiastic prosody, this will help the hearer to decipher that the speaker is happy. In contrast, if the speaker’s comment is uttered in a deadpan tone of voice, she will be thought to be ironical. These situations can be especially challenging for people with an Autism Spectrum Disorder. Indeed, these individuals have well-known difficulties in recognising and interpreting others’ mental states. This leads to the prediction that interpreting prosodic cues should be problematic in ASDs. However, not all aspects of prosodic interpretation involve mental states attribution. For instance, differentiating “PREsent” from “preSENT” merely requires one to be aware of the fact that these words stand for different things, without needing to attribute any particular thoughts to the speaker. In this work, I explore the various components of prosody and assess whether people with an ASD are specifically impaired in interpreting prosodic cues that rely on the understanding of the speaker’s intentions. I present a series of papers focusing on grammatical prosody (Paper 1), accidental information transmission (Paper 2), contrastive stress (Papers 3 and 4), and identification of the speaker’s attitude and emotional state (Paper 5). The results presented in these papers then lead me to address more general questions concerning Theory of Mind (Paper 6) and to discuss the possible origins of the social impairments found in ASDs (Paper 7)
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O'Donoghue, Josephine Sheila. "Communicating metaphors in Shakespeare, Dickinson and Heaney." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2017. https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/269792.
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‘Relevance theory’ is a linguistic theory offering an alternative to the conventional ‘code model’ of communication, by suggesting that inference, rather than coding and decoding, is the primary driving force motivating interpretation. In this thesis, I consider the implications for literary criticism of the relevance theory account of communication, particularly in relation to metaphor, as an enduring concern of both linguistics and literary studies. The thesis focuses on three temporally disparate authors – Shakespeare, Dickinson and Heaney – whose work, analyzed by linguists as well as literary critics, is abundant in metaphor, but might prompt us to think about literary communication in different ways. The Introduction considers the coincidence of the central terms of relevance theory (context, interpretation, inference, intention) with many of the fundamental concerns of literary criticism. Chapter One examines various accounts of metaphor, historical and recent, by literary critics, philosophers and linguists, before offering a brief introduction to relevance theory’s ‘deflationary’ account of metaphor and its implications for literary critical analysis. Chapter Two looks at plays by Shakespeare that are as much concerned with communication as they are representations of it, and considers how relevance theory’s account of the cognitive process of developing new interpretations on the spot, in context, based on expectations of relevance, challenges any straightforward sense of what textual metaphors ‘mean’. Chapter Three explores the striking prominence of the term ‘inference’, fundamental to the relevance theory account of communication, in Dickinson’s poetry. Whilst Dickinson’s ‘definitional’, ‘X is Y’ metaphors appear to facilitate a bridging of the gap between abstractions and the concrete world linguistically, her dependence on inference exposes the bleak uncertainty of that which can only be inferred, whilst nonetheless forging a communicative bond between the poet writing and her multiple audiences. Chapter Four analyzes different figurative forms in Heaney’s poetry, and looks particularly at the relationship between metaphor and simile in light of the relevance theory account. Critical analyses of Heaney’s work often attribute political significance to what are assumed to be metaphors within his poetry, without considering the role played by (perhaps unconscious) interpretative expectations of the kind relevance theory would predict; taking local linguistic context more thoroughly into account might offer a very different perspective on what Heaney is ‘saying’. In conclusion, I review Lakoff and Johnson’s profoundly influential ‘conceptual metaphor theory’ (CMT), and propose that relevance theory’s linguistically-driven account of metaphor in communication needs elements of ‘conceptual’ accounts such as CMT which describe metaphor as a matter of thought as well as language. Metaphor is a tremendously powerful communicative tool, but one to which literary critical analysis cannot do justice without a functioning theory of communication such as that offered by relevance theory.
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Ulubay, Murat. "Resilient Features Of Re-emerging Dyadic Communication Systems In An Interactive Virtual Environment." Phd thesis, METU, 2013. http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12615502/index.pdf.
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This study mainly focuses on the emergence and utilization of communication systems in the context of joint action where collective cognitive activity is required. Dyads are given an instant messaging medium of communication where only a limited number of characters and symbols can be used for information exchange in order to collaborate on common tasks of finding objects, in a network-based interactive virtual environment (ActiveWorlds), a 3D, multi-agent, virtual reality platform. The restrictions on communication and the requirement of collaboration facilitated the creation of a lexical inventory and a minimalistic communication system, a compressed version of dyads&rsquoshared Natural Languages (NLs). Across eight experimental sessions, two manipulations are made in order to study their effects on parameters on 4 levels of analysis: (1) Quantitative, (2) Syntactic Complexity, (3) Lexical Category and (4) Speech Act Category. The two interventions are (1) increasing the number of targets from one to two after the first three experiments, and (2) administering a two months break between the 6th and 7th-8th experiments. Increased number of target objects influenced the quantitative parameters that are related to the amount of communication as well as the use scores of lexical, syntactic, and speech act categories
however, the use ratios of several parameters were resilient under this manipulation and rather showed different trends of change characterizing the development of the system towards a more mature state in accordance with the demands of the task structure. The opposing trends of increasing use ratio of Assertive and decreasing use ratio of Directive Speech Acts and decreasing use ratios of the Type/Token Number of Lexical Items in a session, the Number of New Lexical Items in a session and increasing ratio of Turn Success are also characteristics of this maturation. The break administered between the 6th and 7th experimental session did not cause any decay in the acquired skills of using the emerged communication system. The previously negotiated strategies and acquired skills of communication as well as the trends of the use ratios of parameters were resilient. The qualitative analysis of the developing communication system revealed several strategies, including compression of NL words into new lexical items, exploiting the redundancy of characters of written words, and iconicity and indexicality of given symbols. The main drivers of the development of the new communication system appeared to be the processes of integration of communicative with behavioral action. The cognitive capacities enabling this integration and the comprehension of the utterances in the new system is explained by the Cognitive and Communicative Principles of Relevance that are attributed to a comprehension sub-module of a mind-reading module of the human cognitive system.
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Weidenstedt, Linda. "A Sociology of Empowerment : The Relevance of Communicative Contexts for Workplace Change." Doctoral thesis, Stockholms universitet, Sociologiska institutionen, 2017. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-146521.
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Empowerment has been a popular concept in management and leadership practice and research for more than forty years. The intentions behind empowerment at the workplace are positive: empowered employees should experience a greater degree of influence, decision-making latitude, and meaningfulness. This is achieved through transfers of power, such as increases in autonomy and responsibility. Although empowerment efforts have often been shown to successfully result in empowered and highly involved employees, there has also been research that shows the opposite: the so-called paradox of empowerment is a well-known problem that refers to failed empowerment efforts through which beneficiaries feel disempowered rather than empowered. This thesis comprises three papers intended to contribute to empowerment research and practice within a sociological framework that offers a better understanding of implicit assumptions between employer and employee and the unintended consequences these can have on the outcome of empowerment change efforts. The analyses utilize a communicative approach in line with sociological and social-psychological theories of communication and interaction. The first two papers are theoretical analyses, one examining the general concept of empowerment (Paper I), the other focusing more specifically on empowerment in workplace contexts (Paper II). Paper III is an empirical analysis that investigates some of the theoretical assumptions made in Papers I and II. The first paper analyzes empowerment from a sociological point of view and identifies possible mechanisms behind the paradox of empowerment. It is argued that such paradoxes may evolve from discrepancies between approaching empowerment from a purely economic and structural perspective versus a communicative and relational one. It concludes with the observation that, although their agency may be increased on a structural level, empowerees may experience a parallel decrease of agential options on a communicative level. The second paper deals with empowerment at the workplace as a management or leadership technique. Focusing on relational aspects, a “basic communicative structure” is identified. This is analyzed as comprising a contractual and a communicative context that should be taken into consideration by empowerers in order to avoid misunderstandings in the recipients’ sensemaking processes. Paper II concludes by arguing that the way recipients make sense of their roles and situations as defined by employment and/or psychological contracts might not necessarily be in line with the communicative meanings they ascribe to the change agents’ actions, and vice versa. The third paper analyzes employees’ orientations and attitudes toward empowerment and the relevance of their attitudes for the success of empowerment efforts. These issues are explored by means of survey data from 268 employees in the Swedish retail sector. Results indicate that age and work intensity (part-time vs. full-time), as well as cohabitation status may have significant impacts on how empowerment efforts are approached and received by employees. The thesis as a whole provides insights into sociological issues of empowerment, both generally and particularly in management and leadership contexts and concludes that the communicative context of empowerment interactions plays a significant role in employees’ empowerment orientations.At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 2: Manuscript. Paper 3: Manuscript.
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Salomonsson, Johanna. "Verbale Interaktion mit missverstehen : Eine empirische Untersuchung zu deutschsprachigen Diskussionsforen." Doctoral thesis, Stockholms universitet, Institutionen för baltiska språk, finska och tyska, 2011. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-55684.
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This study examines the functions of phrases with the word missverstehen in any inflected form in German discussion groups. The corpus consists of about 600 different messages with a phrase containing the verb missverstehen from all kinds of discussion groups speaking the German language. The hypothesis is that those phrases do not always refer to a factual misunderstanding in the communication. There is no such thing as total understanding in communication, since people cannot fully know how other people are thinking. Instead understanding is a social construct. Misunderstanding occurs when a group member cannot interpret a message so that it correlates with what the sender has meant. This understanding contains both the discussed theme as well as the relation between the group members. Relevance occurs when interpretable information is communicated through contextualization cues. Some cues carry information about the discussed theme, others communicate face work. A misunderstanding is caused by missing contextualization cues, i. e. the message is irrelevant. The study shows how the communicators can construct a disagreement as a misunderstanding, which it in turn has an impact on face work. The phrase is then being used together with added contextualization cues in order to construct a common understanding. Thereby the communicators can influence the interaction. This is done in a sequence in the discussion group. Hence the script theory (Schank/Abelson 1977) aims to describe the phenomenon of how a phrase with the word missverstehen can be used for different purposes. One script is defined for each purpose. The difference between the scripts is being maintained by the contextualization cue that carries the information about how the relations between group members are interacted.
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Song, Mei. "Modeling situated health information seeking and use in context the use of two approaches to grounded theorizing as applied to 81 sense-making methodology derived narrative interviews of health situation facing /." Columbus, Ohio : Ohio State University, 2007. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc%5Fnum=osu1189183438.
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Berkowitz, Megan. "Understanding the Relevance of Cognitive Psychology to Composition: Taking a Closer Look at How Cognitive Psychology has Influenced Ideas about Reading, Writing, and the Teaching Process." Oxford, Ohio : Miami University, 2008. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc%5Fnum=miami1208900950.
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Furlong, Anne. "Relevance theory and literary interpretation." Thesis, University College London (University of London), 1995. http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1349785/.
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The thesis aims to contribute to literary studies by characterising literary interpretation not as a unique activity but as a subset of general communication, driven by a global cognitive strategy: the search for relevance. It will use relevance theory to account for the production and evaluation of literary interpretations. It also attempts to shed light on the notion of literariness. The thesis briefly treats the major schools of thought on literature and literary interpretation, and criticises the communication model which underlies virtually all of them. A sketch of relevance theory is given, setting out the basic arguments of the theory with emphasis on those aspects most pertinent to literature: the writer's intention, and the question of responsibility in interpretation. This discussion raises issues of vagueness and indeterminacy, and the effects peculiar to the literary work. These, it is argued, play a crucial role in conveying the writer's intention, and in creating literary or "poetic" effects. Detailed discussion of specific literary works, both prose and verse, illustrates how the interpretive process might work in relevance-theoretic terms. The notion of "foregrounding" is discussed, and a relevance-theoretic approach to the phenomenon is illustrated in a discussion of repetition and irony in prose and verse. Finally, the thesis returns to what constitutes a literary interpretation, and distinguishes on principled grounds between interpretations produced in the search for optimal relevance (exegetical) from those produced in the search for actual or maximal relevance (eisegetical). A discussion of what distinguishes the literary interpretation and the literary work develops the implications of this application. The thesis concludes with a consideration of the question of what properties characterise a classic work, and to considerations related to the formation of a canon, especially in literature.
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McCleary, Jeffrey Dennis. "Establishing relevance in preaching." Theological Research Exchange Network (TREN), 2001. http://www.tren.com.
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Stöver, Hanna. "Metaphor and relevance theory : a new hybrid model." Thesis, University of Bedfordshire, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/10547/145619.
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This thesis proposes a comprehensive cognitive account of metaphor understanding that combines aspects of Relevance Theory (e.g. Sperber & Wilson 1986/95; Carston 2002) and Cognitive Linguistics, in particular ideas from Conceptual Metaphor Theory (e.g. Lakoff & Johnson 1980; Lakoff 1987; Johnson 1991) and Situated Conceptualization (e.g. Barsalou 1999; 2005). While Relevance Theory accounts for propositional aspects of metaphor understanding, the model proposed here additionally accounts for nonpropositional effects which intuitively make metaphor feel ‗special‘ compared to literal expressions. This is achieved by (a) assuming a further, more basic processing level of imagistic-experiential representations involving mental simulation patterns (Barsalou 1999; 2005) alongside relevance-theoretic inferential processing and (b) assuming processing of the literal meaning of a metaphorical expression at a metarepresentational level, as proposed by Carston (2010). The approach takes Tendahl‘s ‗Hybrid Theory of Metaphor‘ (2006), which also combines cognitive-linguistic with relevance-theoretic ideas, as a starting point. Like Tendahl, it incorporates the notion of conceptual metaphors (Lakoff & Johnson 1980), albeit in a modified form, thus accounting for metaphor in thought. Wilson (2009) suggests that some metaphors originate in language (as previously assumed by Relevance Theory) and others originate in thought (as previously assumed within Cognitive Linguistics). The model proposed here can account for both. Unlike Tendahl, it assumes a modular mental architecture (Sperber 1994), which ensures that the different levels of processing are kept apart. This is because each module handles only its own domain-specific input, here consisting of either propositional or imagistic-experiential representations. The propositional level, which remains the dominant processing route in utterance 3 understanding, as in Relevance Theory, receives some input from the imagistic-experiential level. This is mediated at a metarepresentational level, which turns the imagistic-experiential representations into propositional material to be processed at the inferential level in the understanding of literal expressions. In metaphor understanding, however, the literal meaning is not processed as meaning-constitutive content. As a result, the imagistic-experiential aspects of the literal meaning in question are not processed as propositional input. Rather, they are held at the metarepresentational level and experienced as strong impressions of the kind that only metaphors can communicate.
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Bullock, Mercedes. "Translating “Lunokhod”: Textual Order, Chaos and Relevance Theory." Thesis, Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa, 2020. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/40981.
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This thesis examines the concepts of textual order and chaos, and how Relevance Theory can be used to translate texts that do not adhere to conventional textual practices. Relevance Theory operates on the basis of presumed order in communication. Applying it to disordered communicative acts provides an opportunity and vocabulary to describe how communication can break down, and the consequences this can have for translation. This breakdown of order, which I am terming a ‘chaos principle’, will be examined through the lens of a Russian-language short story called “Lunokhod”, a story in which textual order, as described by Relevance Theory, breaks down.
In this thesis, I first lay out several translation challenges presented by my corpus, discuss each with reference to Relevance Theory, and examine the implications for translation through sample translation segments. This deconstruction section argues that conventional translation methods fail to properly address the challenges of my corpus. Next comes a reconstruction section, in which I develop a theoretical framework for my translation that has roots in Relevance Theory but that frees the translation from the constraints imposed by an ordered view of communication. Finally, I present the translation itself.
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Bekesza, Lech. "The two dogmas of biblical relevance in preaching." Online full text .pdf document, available to Fuller patrons only, 2003. http://www.tren.com.
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Rose, Jonathan. "The relevance of Ulster politics : an application of relevance theory to political language in Northern Ireland." Thesis, University of Ulster, 1994. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.241022.
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Smith, Kevin Gary. "Bible translation and relevance theory : the translation of Titus." Thesis, Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2000. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/51636.
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Thesis (D.Litt.)--Stellenbosch University, 2000.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Relevance theory has seriously challenged the theoretical soundness of formal and functional equivalence as Bible translation methods. In Translation and relevance: Cognition and context, Gutt (1991) argued that relevance theory provides translators with the best available framework for understanding and practicing translation. In his effort to provide a comprehensive account of translation, he proposed two new approaches to translation: direct translation and indirect translation. He did not, however, develop direct and indirect translation into well-defined approaches to translation. This study explores the viability of direct and indirect translation as approaches to Bible translation. First, by applying insights drawn from relevance theory, it spells out the theoretical and practical implications of these approaches in an attempt to develop them into well-defined translation methods. The explication of the two new approaches shows how and why relevance theoretic approaches to translation differ from formal and functional equivalence. In addition to describing the general approach of direct and indirect translation, it also demonstrates how each approach handles specific translation issues such as figurative language, implicit information, ambiguity, and gender-biased language. Then, by using them to translate the epistle to Titus, the study tests the practical effectiveness of each new approach. This lengthy application yields many examples of how relevance theory provides translators with valuable guidance for making difficult translation decisions. It emphasises the need for translators to take measures to bridge the contextual gap between the source context and the receptor context, illustrating how this can be done by providing footnotes in a direct translation or by explicating implicit information in an indirect translation. The study closes with a brief assessment of the two new approaches and some suggestions for further research. The conclusions show both the value and the limitations of the results of this study.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Relevansieteorie bevraagteken ernstig die teoretiese basis van formele en funksionele ekwivalensie as metodes van Bybelvertaling. Gutt (1991) het in Translation and relevance: Cognition and context geargumenteer dat relevansieteorie vertalers voorsien van die beste beskikbare raamwerk vir die verstaan en beoefening van vertaling. In sy poging om 'n omvattende beskrywing van vertaling daar te stel, het hy twee nuwe benaderings voorgestel: direkte vertaling en indirekte vertaling. Hy het egter nie direkte en indirekte vertaling ontwikkel tot goed gedefinieerde benaderings tot vertaling nie. Hierdie studie ondersoek die lewensvatbaarheid van direkte en indirekte vertaling as benaderings tot Bybelvertaling. Eerstens word aan die hand van insigte ontleen aan relevansieteorie die teoretiese en praktiese implikasies van hierdie benaderings verken met die doel om dit te ontwikkel tot goed gedefineerde metodes van vertaling. Die uiteensetting van hierdie twee nuwe benaderings toon hoe en waarom relevansieteoretiese benaderings tot vertaling verskil van formele en funksionele ekwivalensie. Benewens 'n beskrywing van die algemene benadering van direkte en indirekte vertaling, demonstreer die uiteensetting hoe elke benadering spesifieke aangeleenthede soos beeldspraak, implisiete inligting, dubbelsinnigheid en gender-bevooroordeelde taal, in vertaalpraktyk hanteer. Vervolgens stel die ondersoek die praktiese effektiwiteit van elke nuwe benadering op die proef deur dit te gebruik om die brief aan Titus te vertaal. Hierdie omvangryke toepassing lewer verskeie voorbeelde waar relevansieteorie vertalers van waardevolle riglyne voorsien om moeilike besluite oor vertaling te maak. Dit benadruk die noodsaaklikheid vir vertalers om spesiale maatreels te tref om die kontekstuele gaping te oorbrug tussen die bronkonteks en die reseptorkonteks, en word geillustreer deur in 'n direkte vertaling voetnotas te gebruik en deur in 'n indirekte vertaling implisiete inligting eksplisiet te maak. Die ondersoek word afgesluit met 'n kort evaluering van die twee benaderings en met enkele voorstelle vir verdere navorsing. Die gevolgtrekking toon beide die waarde en die beperkings van die resultate van hierdie ondersoek.
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Clark, William. "Relevance theory and the semantics of non-declarative sentences." Thesis, University College London (University of London), 1991. http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1317886/.
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Wilson and Sperber (1988a; Sperber and Wilson 1986) have proposed semantic analyses of declaratives, imperatives and interrogatives which are based on the notion of 'a direct semantic link between linguistic form and representations of propositional attitude'. They claim, however, that the various syntactic structures encode 'procedural' rather than 'conceptual' information. Rather than encoding concepts which appear in representations of propositional attitude (or what Sperber and Wilson call 'higher-level explicatures') they convey information about how to proceed in recovering such representations. This thesis is an attempt to extend this analysis to some constructions which have not been explicitly discussed by Wilson and Sperber, to consider the differences between this approach and some alternatives, and to question the status of the notion of a 'sentence type', which has often been assumed in analysing the various syntactic structures. Some evidence is provided that certain lexical items also encode procedural information about propositional attitudes, and the role of intonation in utterance-interpretation is also discussed. This analysis is based on relevance-theoretic assumptions about semantics and pragmatics. Chapter one presents the general approach to semantics assumed by relevance theory and shows how Wilson and Sperber's proposal fits into this framework. Chapter two is concerned with the proposed semantic analysis of imperatives. This analysis is extended to some 'pseudo-imperatives': forms consisting of the conjunction or disjunction of an imperative and a declarative clause, which have often been treated as conditionals. An analysis of imperative-like constructions containing 'let' or 'let's' is also proposed. This analysis can be extended to related forms containing 'may'. Chapter three is concerned with the semantic analyses of interrogatives and exciamatives proposed by Wilson and Sperber. This approach is extended to some constructions which seem to resemble interrogatives in some ways and exciamatives in others. The relationship between grammar and intonation is also discussed. Tonal structure can also be seen as encoding procedural information. Chapter four contrasts this approach with alternatives which treat illocutionary force or mood as semantic categories. Wilson and Sperber's approach is more successful than the alternatives and suggests reasons for their inadequacy. A straightforward account of the relationship between form and force, and the interpretation of utterances which have been said to perform 'indirect speech acts', follows from Wilson and Sperber's proposal.
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Jones, James Roland Christopher. "The relevance of social theory to Middle Palaeolithic archaeology." Thesis, University of Sheffield, 2003. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.414763.
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Hartmann, Stefan. "The relevance of internal communication in contexts of organisational integration." Thesis, Sheffield Hallam University, 2007. http://shura.shu.ac.uk/19764/.
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This study has examined the relevance of internal communication in contexts of organisational integration ('merger communication'). Today, mergers and acquisitions represent a key means of growth. The fundamental impacts of mergers on the people within the affected organisations are, however, frequently underestimated. Many difficulties experienced in mergers appear to be the result of misguided communication founded on a lack of understanding of the underlying communication processes. Previous research and practice on merger communication may have relied too heavily on transmission-oriented approaches which insufficiently address the complexities of merger scenarios. The present study adopts the philosophical commitments associated with 'critical theory' and 'critical realism'. In methodological terms, a qualitative, interpretive approach was used for the research. The data analysis was split into two parts: the first part involved data collection and analysis using grounded theory. As a result a new theory of merger communication was induced. Primary data was obtained by interviewing 32 subjects who were involved or affected by merger integration. Subjects questioned had differing backgrounds, occupied various positions and gained experience in different organisations. The second part of the research involved a broadly-based literature review which, detached from grounded theory principles, served to corroborate the findings from the primary data analysis. The study found that merger communication involves reciprocal interaction processes. During these processes, fields of joint and socially constructed views are produced. Overall, the study advances communication theory which has been empirically tested in merger settings, i.e. there was an examination of the interplay between communication and organisational integration. As a result the field of cultural communication, a route within communication theory, has been furnished with an explanatory approach which extends current understanding of shared meaning relationships. The mergers and acquisitions theory on the other hand is confronted with the finding that an instrumental approach to communication is of limited use only. While a few academics in the area of mergers and acquisitions have regarded merger communication as involving the sharing of meanings none have developed this idea any further with an overarching model.
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吳慧儀 and Wai-yee Ng. "The relevance of labelling theory to shoplifting: a critical assessment." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 1988. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B31975574.
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Pinderhughes, Charles. "21st Century Chains: The Continuing Relevance of Internal Colonialism Theory." Thesis, Boston College, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/2345/3409.
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Thesis advisor: William GamsonThesis advisor: Zine Magubane
This dissertation examines Internal Colonialism Theory's importance to a comprehensive understanding of the oppression of African Americans still living in USA ghettos. It briefly explores the180 year history of Black activist depictions of a "nation within a nation," the impact of the depression-era Marxist notion of a Negro nation, Latin American influences on Robert Blauner, and the pervasive effect of international anti-colonialism and the Black Power Movement upon the development of American academic Internal Colonialism Theory. This appraisal evaluates Blauner's seminal presentation, Internal Colonialism and Ghetto Revolt, and the major contributions of Robert L. Allen and Mario Barrera in analyzing African American and Chicano internal colonial experiences respectively. It re-assesses colonialism and moves beyond Eurocentric characterizations to elaborate a Continuum of Colonialism, including direct, indirect, external, internal, and "end of" colonialisms. This analysis addresses the contradiction that the American Revolution supposedly decolonized America without improving colonized conditions for African Americans or Native Americans, and defines internal colonialism as geographically based, disagreeing with the prevailing interpretation which contemplates the existence of diasporic African America as one collective colony. While summarizing the USA's course from settler colony system to today's inner cities of the colonized, this investigation explores African American class formation utilizing a variation of Marable's conception of Racial Domains as historical context through to the present. With the majority of African Americans in ghettos [internal colonies] scattered around the USA, this document outlines the positive and negative means of ending internal colonial situations within the contemporary USA. While elaborating how Internal Colonialism Theory quite practically fits harmoniously within several differing conceptualizations of American and global racial relations, this perspective offers a framework for more rigorous future discussions and debates about Internal Colonialism Theory, and previews three major international populations to which this assessment of Internal Colonialism Theory can be extended
Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2009
Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Discipline: Sociology
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Benshalom, Yotam. "Performing translation : theatrical theory and its relevance to textual transfer." Thesis, University of Warwick, 2012. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/54366/.
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The fundamental similarity between translation and acting can be summarized by the words of translator Ralph Manheim: ‘translators are like actors: we speak lines by someone else’ (cited in Stavans 1998: 176). This common metaphor is a useful tool for translation practitioners and researchers. Although it cannot be fully exhausted, it can be further clarified, analysed and developed by looking into modern and pre-modern theories of theatrical performance, examining their compatibility and incompatibility with the world of translation practice and theory. The first chapter of this thesis deals with mimetic representation in translation and in performance. The issue of disguising oneself as someone else while performing or translating raises practical problems. They are discussed here in relation to the opposite approaches to acting suggested by Denis Diderot and Constantin Stanislavski. The following chapter deals with radical goals of theatrical and textual representations, and discusses ethical and political strategies in relation to Bertolt Brecht and Lawrence Venuti. The next chapter deals with spiritual and metaphysical goals of theatrical and textual representations, and discusses them in relation to Jerzi Grotowski and Walter Benjamin. The final chapter explores the common ground between theatrical space and norms of translation, and shows that in many ways, the use of theatrical space, confining performers yet channelling their communication with their spectators, functions in similar fashion to translation norms.
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Corum, John. "THE RELEVANCE OF GABRIEL GARCÍA MÁRQUEZ TO CONTEMPORARY ECOCRITICAL THEORY." OpenSIUC, 2016. https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/theses/2042.
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Monoculture represents a hindrance to literary ecocriticism. While the ecocritical project aims to think globally, doing so within the linguistic confines of a single language restricts access to very helpful (but non-Anglo) textual material. I argue that of this material, Gabriel García Márquez’s novels are particularly useful because of his unique execution of magical realism towards environmental ends. This project uses ecocritical scholarship to revisit Márquez’s works and to examine the ways in which his deployments of environmental magical realism synthesize and build upon ecocritical elements from earlier trends in Latin American literature while suggesting new venues of evolution for the hermeneutics of ecocritical trends. Through a close theoretical reading of One Hundred Years of Solitude, Love in the Time of Cholera, and the Autumn of the Patriarch, novels which represent useful case studies for his polemical use of magical realism, I conclude that Márquez explores and suggests ways the field of ecocriticism can parse representations of an adversarial relationship between humans and nature.
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Mansfield, Jodi L. "Disordered eating : assessing the relevance of the hopelessness theory of depression /." Adelaide, 1997. http://web4.library.adelaide.edu.au/theses/09ARPS/09arpsm287.pdf.
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Alexander, Kirsty. "Autonomy in feminist theory : the contemporary relevance of an old concept." Thesis, University of Strathclyde, 2010. http://oleg.lib.strath.ac.uk:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=14328.
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Santos, Calhandra Pinter de Souza. "Raising pragmatic awareness of similar structures in english through relevance theory." Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/10923/4180.
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Previous issue date: 2011Pragmatic features of the English language are likely to be ignored in the ELT classroom. The development of pragmatic awareness of English language is important due to the fact that it may decide whether communicative interaction is successful or not. In order to obtain a success in language teaching, teachers should not only address linguistic forms and syntactic rules, but also recognize language as socioculturally driven. The ambiguities of English language structures that appear during the second language acquisition process may possibly be solved by inference and the recognition of the implicitness of utterances – both pragmatic aspects that may be overlooked during teaching. For the second language acquisition to take place in learners, it might be necessary to incorporate pragmatic features into the teaching of English. Since the Relevance Theory by Sperber and Wilson (1986; 1995) deals with human communication, it is the theory chosen to integrate natural aspects of human cognition to the inferential process of utterances, in favor of promoting pragmatic awareness of English language through the teaching of inferential activities.
É provável que características pragmáticas da língua inglesa sejam ignoradas no ambiente escolar de ensino de língua inglesa. O desenvolvimento da consciência pragmática em língua inglesa é importante devido ao fato de que isso pode decidir se uma interação comunicativa é bem‐sucedida ou não. Com o objetivo de obter uma interação bem-sucedida no aprendizado de língua, os professores deveriam não só destacar formas linguisticas e regras sintáticas, mas também reconhecer a língua como socioculturalmente enraizada. As ambiguidades das estruturas em língua inglesa, que podem aparecer durante o processo de aquisição da língua, são possíveis de serem resolvidas por inferência e reconhecimento da implicitude de enunciados – ambos aspectos pragmáticos que podem ser negligenciados durante o ato de ensinar. Para a aquisição da língua inglesa acontecer, é necessário incorporar características pragmáticas no ensino. Devido ao fato da Teoria da Relevância de Sperber e Wilson (1986; 1995) lidar com comunicação humana, ela é a teoria escolhida para integrar aspectos naturais da cognição humana com o processo inferencial de enunciados, no intuito de promover consciência pragmática da língua inglesa através do ensino de atividades inferenciais.
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Mullarkey, William Joseph. "A practical theory of communication." Thesis, Liverpool John Moores University, 1993. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.261395.
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Näslund, Fredrik, and Sumaiya Hafsa. "The Value-Relevance of CSR in Stock Recommendations : A Study of the Nordic Markets." Thesis, Umeå universitet, Företagsekonomi, 2016. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-123548.
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Financial markets have many different key actors, but one of the most important ones are the financial analysts. They are considered as experts in gathering and disseminating the information that firms produce, to those that seek it, such as stock recommendations and reports on firms. Related to this is a growing interest in society toward disclosures in regards of CSR as well as ESG. There has been considerable discussion in academia of whether or not CSR can be considered to be value relevant. This is a question which relate to both institutional and legitimacy perspectives in terms of theory, but also discussions in regards to agency and stakeholder theory as well: Has value relevance of CSR disclosures increased in stock recommendations for the Nordic markets? Thereby, the main purpose of this thesis is to find out whether or not there has been a shifting view of CSR over time, which would be evidenced in an increasing legitimization of CSR in terms of an increasing value-relevance to financial analysts. This would also be related to a shifting institutional logic, whereby it would be possible to relate to a shift in the view of the firm and its role in society. This is both looked at purely from the starting point of the dataset to the end point, but also for two different periods of time, so as to test if there is a different view of the issue after the financial crisis. In addition to this main purpose, this thesis furthermore sets out to answer whether CSR is value-relevant or not in different subsegments, such as nations, industries and the different types of recommendations that exist. To answer the research question, an objectivist and positivist stance is taken, which subsequently leads the authors to utilize quantitative methods and statistical analysis to the data. Here, different panel models are fitted to the data to account effects that exist within it. To explain the findings, a theoretical framework is built upon three different levels: societal, firm and individual level. Here, on the societal level theories such as institutional theory as well as legitimacy theory are dealt with. On the firm level, agency theory and stakeholder theory as well as theoretical views of CSR forms the basis, and the individual level deals with theory related to the financial analyst. In looking at the results and the analysis, one cannot draw the conclusion that there has been a shifting view of the value-relevance of CSR. Financial analysts appear to not find it value-relevant in issuing their stock recommendations, except for two cases: namely in terms of the industrial sector Basic Materials and the Buy recommendations. In terms of Basic Materials, it appears to be value-relevant in a positive manner. In regards to the Buy recommendation, it appears to have a negative effect on the value-relevance. All in all, this thesis cannot find evidence for a value-relevance of CSR to financial analysts in the Nordic markets. Essentially, the view of it appears to be pessimistic.
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Salman, J. D. "Dualism in the Iraqi economy : its relevance to economic planning." Thesis, Cardiff University, 1985. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.355352.
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Couper, John. "Articulations of relevance in local television news /." free to MU campus, to others for purchase, 2002. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/mo/fullcit?p3052166.
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Ferrar, Madeleine. "The logic of the ludicrous : a pragmatic study of humour." Thesis, University College London (University of London), 1993. http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1317896/.
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This thesis represents an attempt to show how recent research in pragmatic theory can contribute to our understanding of humour. Two inferential theories have been selected: speech act theory and relevance theory. In addition, I have looked at the modification of the speech act model proposed by Leech. An exposition of each theory is followed by an account of how these theories can be applied to humour. Some research into humour has already been carried out using the speech act model. This is described and evaluated. For Leech's extension of that model, and for the relevance-theoretic model, there is virtually no existing research on which to draw. Consequently, both the application of these theories to humour, and their evaluation thereof, are my own. Speech act accounts of humour are based on the notion that humorous utterances are unconventional and unpredictable. One way of exploiting our expectations, and thereby creating a condo effect, it is argued, is to violate the norms of conversation (that is to say, Grice's maxims and Searle's conditions). This analysis is found to be insufficient, on its own, to distinguish between the humorous and the non-humorous utterance. I will show how the unpredictable, unconventional remark can be used to create a number of different effects, some humorous, some nonhumorous. Maxim violation is thus seen to be inadequate, both as a descriptive and as an explanatory tool. Relevance theory constitutes a radical departure from the whole maxim-based framework. Adopting this approach to the analysis of verbal humour, I will try to find out exactly what is going on in our minds when we interpret humorously intended utterances. I will identify the various processes which I believe are employed in the appreciation of verbal jokes, and will conclude that these processes are not unique to humour. In spite of this, I will claim that there is a sense in which verbal humour can be said to be unique.
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Ahumada, Pablo Emiliano. "The Theoretical Relevance Of An Updated Marxian Theory Of Commodity In Economics." Master's thesis, Lincoln University. Commerce Division, 2007. http://theses.lincoln.ac.nz/public/adt-NZLIU20080319.150942/.
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How does material production become socially recognised in capitalism? This is a
fundamental question to be addressed in capitalist production, since material production takes
place privately and independently in a global and atomistic system. This thesis shows that the
question is tackled by Marx in the first three chapters of Capital. The process of social
recognition of material production is that of the realisation of work carried out privately and
independently as part of the social labour. For Marx this occurs through the private and
independent work becoming objective social labour as the substance of the value of
commodities, and through the latter finding its necessary developed mercantile expression in
the price form of commodities. Therefore, private and independent work becomes social
labour through the recognition of its product as equivalent to a certain amount of money.
The thesis argues that Marxs answer is powerfully insightful but flawed because it did not
succeed in fully characterising the historical specificity of commodity. Commodity is not
merely the differentiated unity of use value and value but of use value and mercantile use
value, and of labour value and mercantile value. The former dialectic is immediate and
distinguishes between the utility of commodity as a direct means of consumption or
production and that as a means of exchange, fully determining the behaviour of the private
and independent commodity producer. The latter dialectic is objective and distinguishes
between commodity as the embodiment of the social labour necessary to reproduce it and as the embodiment of command over social labour, enabling the adjustment of the productive
structure. Both dialectics are mediated by the mercantile form of value, which allows the
indirect expression of labour value as the gravitational force of the system. The theory of
commodity offered in this thesis, unlike that of Marx, consistently hinges on the atomistic
private and independent commodity producer.
The thesis shows that commodity production is the organisation of societys labour for its
material reproduction, just as in any previous mode of production. The discovery of the
generic aspect of commodity production breaks the false immediate link between production
and supply, and that between the labour theory of value and both the supply-side-determined
theory of price and the single-factor theory of production. The thesis also shows that the
mercantile form of value is what allows societys labour to become an objective and
autonomous materially abstract substance regulating the adjustment of the productive system
under the form of material signals. This is the specific aspect of a global mode of production
comprised of free and independent individuals. The mercantile form of value is thus Adam
Smiths invisible hand.
Finally, the thesis analyses some implications of the framework with regard to the analysis of
monetary phenomena, capital accumulation and sustainable development, and reviews the
most popular Marxian topic in Economics: the transformation of values into prices of
production.
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Ahumada, P. E. "The theoretical relevance of an updated Marxian theory of commodity in economics." Lincoln University, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/10182/365.
Full textAbstract:
How does material production become socially recognised in capitalism? This is a fundamental question to be addressed in capitalist production, since material production takes place privately and independently in a global and atomistic system. This thesis shows that the question is tackled by Marx in the first three chapters of Capital. The process of social recognition of material production is that of the realisation of work carried out privately and independently as part of the social labour. For Marx this occurs through the private and independent work becoming objective social labour as the substance of the value of commodities, and through the latter finding its necessary developed mercantile expression in the price form of commodities. Therefore, private and independent work becomes social labour through the recognition of its product as equivalent to a certain amount of money. The thesis argues that Marx's answer is powerfully insightful but flawed because it did not succeed in fully characterising the historical specificity of commodity. Commodity is not merely the differentiated unity of use value and value but of use value and mercantile use value, and of labour value and mercantile value. The former dialectic is immediate and distinguishes between the utility of commodity as a direct means of consumption or production and that as a means of exchange, fully determining the behaviour of the private and independent commodity producer. The latter dialectic is objective and distinguishes between commodity as the embodiment of the social labour necessary to reproduce it and as the embodiment of command over social labour, enabling the adjustment of the productive structure. Both dialectics are mediated by the mercantile form of value, which allows the indirect expression of labour value as the gravitational force of the system. The theory of commodity offered in this thesis, unlike that of Marx, consistently hinges on the atomistic private and independent commodity producer. The thesis shows that commodity production is the organisation of society's labour for its material reproduction, just as in any previous mode of production. The discovery of the generic aspect of commodity production breaks the false immediate link between production and supply, and that between the labour theory of value and both the supply-side-determined theory of price and the single-factor theory of production. The thesis also shows that the mercantile form of value is what allows society's labour to become an objective and autonomous materially abstract substance regulating the adjustment of the productive system under the form of material signals. This is the specific aspect of a global mode of production comprised of free and independent individuals. The mercantile form of value is thus Adam Smith's invisible hand. Finally, the thesis analyses some implications of the framework with regard to the analysis of monetary phenomena, capital accumulation and sustainable development, and reviews the most popular Marxian topic in Economics: the transformation of values into prices of production.
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Miyake, Norimune. "Laboratory studies of stratospheric dust : relevance to the theory of cometary panspermia." Thesis, Cardiff University, 2008. http://orca.cf.ac.uk/54790/.
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This thesis presents results of laboratory investigations of stratospheric dust that have a direct bearing on the theory of cometary panspermia. Chapter 1 deals with the historical backdrop to panspermia theories, with a summary of recent relevant work on comets, meteorites and IDP's (Interplanetary Dust Particles). In Chapter 2 I describe the techniques that have been used over several decades to collect stratospheric dust with a view to identifying a cometary and possible biological components. The Cryosampler technique deployed by ISRO in 2001 provides the best hope for preserving small fragile particles of cometary origin, even those of possible biological provenance. The source material for my laboratory investigations was collected using the Cryosampler technique in a balloon flight on 21 January 2001. The description of techniques for stratospheric air collection, extraction of aerosols, analysis by SEM, EDX and the results of my investigations using these techniques form the main bulk of Chapter 3. Over 30 individual IDP's were imaged, analysed, catalogued and classified. Many biologically relevant particles including putative bacterial spores and nanobacteria were discovered. In Chapter 4 DNA extracts from the stratospheric samples were analysed using PCR amplification of 16S rRNA gene sequences. Evidence of actinobacteria (96% homology) and chloroplast sequences (99% homology) point to an extraterrestrial origin of these genes. Arguments for contamination are discussed, and ruled out. In Chapter 5 present a preliminary analysis of the 2001 Kerala Red Rain samples. SEM, TEM images were obtained, and staining tests for DNA carried out. The origin of the red rain cells remains inconclusive.
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Toomer, Christine Ann. "Weakley nonlinear baroclinic wave theory and its relevance to laboratory annulus flows." Thesis, Imperial College London, 1990. http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/46583.
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Nema, Waleed S. "Consensus Theory and relevance judgment Model : a test case of English Wikipedia." Thesis, University of Reading, 2018. http://centaur.reading.ac.uk/80635/.
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The amount of online data in 2016 was estimated at 16 Zetta Bytes (102 1) and is predicted to be 44 ZB by 2020 and 163 ZB by 2025 (The IDe Data Age 2025 report, 2017). The advent of Internet of Things (loT), social data, and usage tracking will continue to contribute to exponential growth in data. In addition to data growth, the number of people connected to the internet by 2020 is expected to reach 4 billion people; half of today' s world population (Search Engine Watch, Sep 2107). Data quality is another major challenge at the content, metadata, standards, and semantic levels making it hard to determine authorship, currency, and content semantics and quality. Aside from this still, content is reduced from ideas to text and reconstructed by humans with different expressiveness and interpretation due to great variance in people (backgrounds, culture, value system, education, personas, etc.) and the context of their situation including stress, urgency, task complexity, etc. What exacerbates finding information online is that people are increasingly relying on search but continue to provide queries that are too short, i.e. less than 3 words, yielding millions of search results that are, with the exception for the first page or two, ignored. Absence of a librarian-like or ask-a-friend human dimension had reduced Information Seeking to Information Retrieval which was proven ineffective in recent decades. Therefore, this work takes a user-centred approach with emphasis on the human role to contribute to page scoring dynamically so that results would reflect happenings of the time and general historic trends of users. In other words, the focus is on what works regardless of the reasons in order to skip human variance complexities. Thus, the target solution is for the general average user not for personalisation. This is done via usage stats and explicit user feedback which are not standardised in today' s web world. Therefore, this work is applicable where these two factors are possible such as at the work place. The findings, though, are general in nature. This research follows the complete cycle of theory, modelling, algorithm translation, and experiment testing. Even if research contributed to knowledge through negative outcomes, back-tracking the challenge to a previous stage is still useful research (e.g. unsuccessful experiment or results > algorithm > model > theory). On the other hand, affirmative results do not necessarily mean acceptance of theory but rather opening another avenue of investigation by testing some other aspect of the theory/model. Either way, theory-driven research provides better context and richer potential for refutation/confirmation, and contribution. The proposed Consensus Theory and relevance judgment Model (CT&M) hypothesise how people might be influenced when making relevance judgment decisions. The proposed ConsensusRank (CR) algorithm is derived to test the model in a real-life web experiment that is open to anyone at any time. Whether CR can predict a new user' s explicit ranking better than CR's base, Google PageRank, is the real test. PageRank inspired CT&M due to the quantity and quality of inlinks. The quality dimension of the model was also influenced by Rieh' s (2002) model of relevance judgment. CT &M adds a quantitative consensus dimension and relates it inversely to Rieh's cognitive dimension. The Ranking Game web experiment provides an open web platform for testing the proposed CT &M theory/model and corresponding CR algorithm. It is based on the August-2016 English Wikipedia corpus (12.7 million pages) with Page View Statistics (PVS) for May, June, and July 2016. The game uses TREC's pooling method to merge top 20 results from major search engines and presents an alphabetic list for users' explicit ranking via drag and drop. The algorithms are: Google PageRank, Google real-time, Yahoo real-time, PVS, StatsRank (SR), ConsensusRank, Real-time meta search, and user ranking consensus. The same platform can be used for controlled experiments and captures implicit data for future research. This research modified Google' s PageRank with two human artefacts: Page View Statistics and explicit user ranking. Both are dynamic factors that reflect the nature of human behaviour and surrounding events of the time. This dynamism solves the known Power Law monopoly of top search results and addresses PageRank' s equal navigation probability assumption which we prove is not a good assumption. These adjustments bring the IS human dimension into IR, a repeatedly sought-after research objective. Furthermore, this is done in a theoretical context that is congruent with established field theories expanded using modern Computational Social Science statistical quantified approaches. Findings show great variability in outlink Page View Stats which disproves PageRank' s uniform navigation assumption. PVS consistent behaviour from month to month provides a good alternative to influence the likelihood of link navigation and further justifies StatsRank as a PageRank variant. Confirmed by the statistical Sign Test, results of typical web search engine tests, NDCG and MAP, affirmatively confirm the hypothesis that ConsensusRank improves over its base PageRank when compared against real-time meta-search from which it is completely independent. The strongest finding is that a new random user ranking is found to consistently correlate best to user ranking consensus, then to ConsensusRank, then to PageRank. The biggest contribution is probably the theoretical one: Consensus Theory and Relevance Judgment Model. This is because theories invite challenges and refutations which lead to field development. Contributions also include the proposed algorithms StatsRank (SR) and ConsensusRank (CR). Although not generally applicable due to the nature of explicit feedback and stats data capture, CR & SR are usable in the business world and do highlight the need to open up this type of data capture. Finally, The Ranking Game open web experiment research platform is one that goes well with theory and research experimentation.
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Barnes, Janet E. "A mathematical theory of synchronous communication." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1993. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.317839.
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Nguyen, Quyen, and Quyen Nguyen. "Strategic Communication Games: Theory and Experiments." Diss., The University of Arizona, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/621306.
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This dissertation focuses on the topic of information design and information exchange between economic agents theoretically and experimentally. In the first section of my dissertation, I revisit the classic problem of product information revelation using a new theoretical framework developed by Kamenica and Gentzkow (2011). In the second section of my dissertation, I design an experimental test of the predictions of Kamenica and Gentzkow (2011), an influential paper that has provided the theoretical foundations for many models in the information design literature. In the last section, I look at the problem of disclosing bias when communicating to a heterogeneous audience. A firm's incentive to provide product information is a topic of central importance in industrial organization theory. In the first section of my dissertation titled "Controlling Information to Influence Consumer Beliefs," I take a fresh look at the question of how much information firms are willing to provide consumers using the information design framework developed in Kamenica and Gentzkow (2011). In my model, I show that even without the ability to price discriminate, a firm can influence a rational consumer to change her beliefs and extract full expected consumer surplus. In contrast to the results of earlier papers such as Lewis and Sappington (1996) and Johnson and Myatt (2006), the firm chooses to provide partial information in equilibrium. In addition, I show that competition is beneficial in the sense that it forces firms to reveal information in order to differentiate themselves from one another and avoid fierce competition. Persuasion commands a huge share of economic resources and is a topic of great importance to economists. In the model of persuasion by Kamenica and Gentzkow (2011), the sender can influence the receiver's belief and therefore the receiver's action given the power to manipulate the information environment. The question of whether in reality people can learn to influence other people's prior beliefs optimally by changing the information environment as predicted by Kamenica and Gentzkow's model remains unanswered. The second section of my dissertation, titled "Bayesian Persuasion: Evidence from the Laboratory" attempts to answer this question using data generated from a series of laboratory experiments. I find that whether subjects can learn to implement the optimal persuasion strategy depends on the number of feasible strategies available to them as well as feedback about the effectiveness of each strategy. In this section, I provide data to test the theory as well as a novel experimental design that can be implemented in testing other information design theories. The final chapter of my thesis looks at the problem of communicating to a heterogeneous audience. I find that when a sender communicates with a heterogeneous audience consisting of proponents and opponents, it is beneficial for him to not disclose his bias. For example, if a conservative politician wishes to win the support of both conservatives and liberals, it is best for the politician to keep information about his political alignments to himself. Not disclosing bias improves public communication between the sender and the audience.
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Buehlmann, Andrés. "Information processing in the cortex: the relevance of coherent oscillations for neuronal communication." Doctoral thesis, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/10803/7566.
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Les oscil·lacions d'activitat neuronal són un fenomen omnipresent a l'escorça cerebral. La funció d'aquestes oscil·lacions, però, no està clara. ¿Són només un epifenomen de les elevades taxes de descàrrega de potencials d'acció, o representen un procés fonamental? Per tal d'aclarir aquesta qüestió, en aquest treball hem aplicat models computacionals basats en xarxes neurobiològicament plausibles per tal d'investigar alguns dels resultats experimentals recents més rellevants. Primerament, estudiem la rellevància de les oscil·lacions en processos d'atenció i després en un context més general de teoria d'informació. Els resultats donen suport a la idea que les oscil·lacions representen un mecanisme independent. Demostrem que l'atenció modula les oscil·lacions gamma de manera independent de la taxa de descàrrega de potencials d'acció. També es mostra que la transmissió d'informació entre àrees corticals depèn tant de la fase com de la potència espectral de les oscil·lacions. A més, la velocitat amb què es produeix aquesta transmissió d'informació augmenta en funció de la potència espectral en bandes de freqüències específiques. Aquests resultats suggereixen que les oscil·lacions representen un mecanisme biològicament plausible per mitjançar les interaccions entre àrees cerebrals i, per tant, per establir un vincle entre activitat neuronal i comportament.Oscillatory neuronal activity is an omnipresent phenomenon in the cerebral cortex. However, the actual function of these oscillations remains unclear. Are they just an epiphenomenon of elevated firing rates or do they represent a fundamental process on their own? Based on experimental work, we apply computational modeling to address this question. We first study the role of oscillations in attentional processes and then in a more general, information theoretical context. Our results support the idea that oscillations represent an independent mechanism. In particular, we show that attention modulates gamma oscillations independently of rates and that the flow of information between brain areas depends both on the phase and on the spectral power of oscillations. Moreover, we show that the speed of information exchange increases as a function of spectral power in specific frequency bands. Taken together, these results suggest that oscillations are a mechanism employed by the brain to control actual interactions between brain areas and thus likely have a link to behavior.
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Bennett, Vicki E. "The relationships of trait learning relevance with teacher communication behaviors and learning outcomes." Morgantown, W. Va. : [West Virginia University Libraries], 2005. https://eidr.wvu.edu/etd/documentdata.eTD?documentid=4062.
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Hejdström, Aron. "Improving Swedish nature reserve visitor maps with focus on relevance and visual communication." Thesis, Malmö högskola, Fakulteten för kultur och samhälle (KS), 2013. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-23709.
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At first glance, the image of a map looks familiar to a graphic designer. It comprisescolours, shapes and typography. But beyond the graphical surface it hides a complex system of techniques and rules, like the clockwork behind a dial. This thesis tries toapproach and improve map production from a starting point in graphic design. Byaddressing visitor maps for nature reserves it aims to make nature more accessibleand appealing to a larger group of people.The main purpose of the thesis is to examine how Swedish nature reserve visitormaps can be improved with focus on relevance for their aims and use and how thisis communicated through the visual presentation. A secondary purpose is to examinehow to produce such maps in a rational way, using digital geographic informationsystems (GIS) and adopted working processes.The research was conducted using a combination of traditional methods and techniques combined with research through design activity. Methods and techniques were gathered from ethnography, action-research and usability-research and include literature studies, interviews, questionnaire surveys, participatory observation, action-research protocols, beta-testing and collection of samples.The design activity resulted in both free-standing sketches and map-sketches forthe Gotlandic nature reserves Langhammars and Stora Karlsö. Two processes and one descriptive structure were developed and described: a process to adopt visual representations of map-information to its contextual relevance, a process to produce nature reserve visitor maps, and a structure to present practical design work in a scientificcontext. Results also comprised collected answers, discussions and samples from questionnaire surveys, participatory observation, interviews and general research.The thesis concludes that it is fruitful to consider the visitor map as “a product made for use” and apply a usability-approach as it is rather an example of visual information than visual communication. Close research of both sender and users is also important to be ableto select, adapt and fine-tune the information in the map in relation to its aims and use.The digital possibilities that enables GIS to provide easy accessible and accurate data can produce efficient workflows in map design if combined with the graphic designers experience to develop and streamline design processes. The combination of modern technology, practical design work and research is profitable in both an analogue and digital context and makes visitor maps a contemporary and interesting area for both researchers and practitioners.
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Murphy, Kayla Christine. "Ethical crisis communication on social media| Combining situational crisis communication theory, stakeholder theory, & Kant's categorical imperatives." Thesis, Gonzaga University, 2015. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=1600336.
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This guide was created to serve as a tool for crisis communications to assist in crafting ethical responses to crises using social media as the primary communications channel. The guide combines Stakeholder Theory (Freeman, 1984)—a management theory that focuses on the importance of different groups of people, not just shareholders—with Situational Crisis Communication (Coombs, 2007). The guide also adheres to two of Kant’s Categorical Imperatives as the ethical basis and marker. To create the guide, the author relied on archival, or documentary, research to provide the background information and theory to inform the creation of the guide. The guide is broken up into four parts—an overview of crisis communication, pre-crisis planning, active crisis communication, and post-crisis communication/reputation rebuilding. The guide is meant to be used as a tool, and is not an exhaustive how-to for handling a crisis.
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Bevin, Phillip. "The United States of Superman : an analysis of Superman and relevance." Thesis, Kingston University, 2015. http://eprints.kingston.ac.uk/34538/.
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This thesis traces the seventy-five year development of the cultural icon Superman across media, from his initial appearance in Action Comics in 1938 through to the 2013 film Man of Steel. It unpicks received critical understandings of Superman by comparing secondary interpretations of his history and evolution to primary evidence provided by Superman stories themselves. In so doing, it identifies how Superman's meaning has evolved across the seven decades of his existence and reveals the role played by popular perceptions and critical interpretations in shaping his significance. In particular, I critique the concept of social and political Relevance which has, in the past four decades, established itself as a prominent model according to which popular narratives, including those featuring Superman, are evaluated. Comparing the claims made by scholars and historians to my own readings, I argue that the Relevance discourse has led critics and commentators to erroneously claim that Superman and the stories featuring him either serve as expressions of America's cultural development or are irrelevant fantasies that and bear little relation to Real Life concerns. I evaluate these perceptions in detail through my four main chapters. Chapter One analyses the assertion that Superman began as an exponent of Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal, and suggests that this reading has little basis in evidence from the early comics themselves. Consequently, I argue that the New Deal interpretation is likely a retrospective account that only partially engages with Superman's contemporaneous significances. Chapter Two interrogates the perception that, between his initial appearance and the end of the 1950s, Superman developed into a socially and politically conservative figure, and analyses this interpretation in relation to the concept of ideology. I propose that, while there is some evidence of conservative ideological intent in the character's stories, this accounts for only a small aspect of his broader meaning and appeal. Chapter Three investigates the commonly presumed contrast between comic book stories from Superman's supposedly fanciful"Silver Age" period of the 1950s and 1960s, and the more relevant narratives of the 1970s and 1980s. Here, I argue that texts from these supposedly distinct periods have more in common than historians and commentators acknowledge, leading me to propose that academic understandings of Relevance should be reworked to accommodate a range of different narrative types. In Chapter Four, I propose that current perceptions of Superman's significance commonly centre upon his status as an idealistic figure who transcends the contingencies, compromises, and imperfections that characterise Real life. I suggest that this perception stems from Richard Donner's attempt to mythologise the character in his 1978 film Superman: The Movie, and the re-emphasis that Donner's interpretation has received in subsequent iterations of the character. Finally, in my Conclusion, I discuss Man of Steel, a film that seeks to change audience perceptions of Superman and which has provoked controversy by challenging the idealistic representation of the character popularised by Superman: The Movie. Through this analysis, I consider the implications of this controversy for Superman's future, in particular for perceptions of his Relevance, as well as what the debate surrounding the film and Superman more generally reveals to us about the concept of Relevance itself.