Digital Commons Network^™

Assessing The Balance: Burkean Frames And Lil' Bush, Elizabeth Anne Sills

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In light of former president George W. Bush’s remarkably low approval ratings during the later years of his administration, the Comedy Central program Lil’ Bush seemed to be a satiric outlet for societal angst. A closer examination of the show, however, reveals that its content is funny, but does more to entertain than it does to criticize. Using the dichotomy of Burke’s comedic and humorous frames as a standard for analysis, this thesis probes the program to determine the nature of its humor. Although the show does include some critiques of George W. Bush and the federal executive branch as …

Feasting On Fido: Cultural Implications Of Eating Dogs At Bridge River, Hannah Schremser Cail

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Dogs represent a unique facet of the faunal assemblage at the Bridge River site (EeRl4), a prehistoric aggregated winter housepit village in southern British Columbia’s Middle Fraser Canyon. As part of the Bridge River site investigation of emergent material wealth based status inequality of the hunter-gatherer-fisher economy, the 2008 and 2009 excavation of the village recovered the skeletal remains of domestic dogs within two distinct cache pit features in Housepit 24’s Activity Area 3. The two dogs unearthed from these separate cache pits features show dichotomous roles for man’s best friend; one, possibly as a prized companion, and the other …

A Study Of The Perceptions Of English Faculty And Students Of Exit English Examinations At Taiwan's Technological And Vocational Higher Education Institutions, Yirng-Hurng Emma Liauh

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The mix-method research aimed to investigate the attitudes toward the implementation of Exit English Examination (EEE) from the perspectives of English faculties and their students at Taiwan's technological and vocational higher education institutions. The survey participants were 66 English faculty and 1009 students in ten first-tier Universities of Technology and Institutes of Technology in Northern Taiwan based on the admission scores of the Technological and Vocational College Entrance Examination in the school year of 2009-2010. Descriptive statistics, Chi-Square tests, Mann-Whitney U tests, Kruskal-Wallis tests, and Spearman Correlation tests of the SPSS were conducted to determine the characteristics and statistically significant …

Why The Xwisten Crossed The River: Lithic Transport Strategies On The Canadian Plateau, Michael Todd Wanzenried

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

As has been the case for thousands of years a single kind of stone material, referred to by different researchers as arrowstone, basalt, vitreous trachydacite, and/or dacite, provided the majority (often more than 75%) of many lithic assemblages in the Mid- Fraser region of south-western British Columbia. Most explanations for this have largely been insufficient for explaining the differential transport of lithic materials; no one has addressed why, in a lithic rich environment where a variety of jaspers, chalcedonies, and pisolites can be found in relative close proximity to many winter villages, Mid-Fraser foragers would target resources located much further …

Subsistence Change And Emergent Social Inequality In An Early Complex Hunter-Gatherer Winter Village: A Zooarchaeological Assessment Of The Bridge River Site (Eerl4), Middle Fraser B.C., Eric S. Carlson

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

ABSTRACT Carlson, Eric S., M.A., Spring 2010 Anthropology Subsistence Change and Emergent Social Inequality in an Early Complex Hunter-Gatherer Winter Village: A Zooarchaeological Assessment of the Bridge River Site (EeRl4), Middle Fraser B.C. Chairperson: Dr. Anna Marie Prentiss Analyses of faunal material from the 2008 excavations at the Bridge River Site (EeRl4) show that reliance on stored anadromous salmon (Oncorhynchus sp.) remains the primary food staple from early occupations of the village (1550bp) until its abandonment (1100bp), and indeed intensifies through time. Second, taxonomic diversity in food resources declines through time, signifying a diachronic process of resource specialization. The presence …

A New Life In Montana: The Laotian Hmong -- Their History, Culture And American Journey, David A. Keightley

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Keightley, David, M.A., May 2010 History A New Life in Montana: The Laotian Hmong – Their History, Culture and American Journey Chairperson: Michael Mayer Following the end of the Vietnam War, hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese, Laotian and Cambodian refugees fled their homelands for America, where they started their lives over again. This paper examines the immigration of Hmong hill-tribesmen from Laos to the United States and their adjustment to a new life in America, particularly in the small community of Missoula Montana. How did they acculturate to such a very different environment from what they had known in Laos, …

The Syntax Of Temporal Interpretation In Embedded Clauses, Gustavo Ariel Guajardo

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In this thesis I argue that verbs in embedded clauses are temporally interpreted by being bound to the temporal arguments of AspP and VP in the matrix clause. I build up this claim by proposing that (i) Reichenbach’s relation of association can be expressed in terms of Binding Theory in the syntax, (ii) Tense is subject to different binding principles depending on its syntactic realization so that T in main clauses must be free (i.e., subject to Principle B) but in embedded clauses T must be bound (i.e., subject to Principle A), (iii) the Spanish present subjunctive is a tenseless …

Allomorphic Variation Of Definite Articles In Jersey: A Sonority Based Account, Miranda Kelly Mccarvel

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Allomorphic variation is a common linguistic phenomenon in Jersey (Jersey Norman French). Definite articles in Jersey each have at least two allomorphs. The occurrence of each allomorph has been attributed to the composition of word initial syllable following the article (Liddicoat 1994). Instead of using a ruled-based approach, this thesis examines the variation found among Jersey definite articles and uses sonority-based principles to analyze the allomorphic variation. Using Jersey phonotactics, this thesis first puts forth a Jersey specific sonority hierarchy and then utilizes that hierarchy and principles of syllabification to syllabify phrases containing definite articles. Then using sonority based principles, …

Discovering Orientation Between Theory And Narrative, Maxwell Haus Clark

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Through the concept of orientation, this essay attempts to establish a philosophical account of the structure of our daily lives. By examining Kant’s notion of orientation and Heidegger’s response to Kant, I highlight the importance of the fact that orientation comes from the world, not simply from our ability to determine our position in the world by means of a coordinate system. Consequently, I argue, the concrete instantiation of a life given in a narrative can supplement the structure that the theoretical framework of justice, which establishes the principles guiding the institutions of our society, claims to leave undetermined. This …

The Meaning Of Pain In Cormac Mccarthy's Border Trilogy, Glenn Alton Jackson (Iii)

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

While the majority of McCarthy’s work graphically depicts brutal violence, it often avoids portrayals of subjective pain. Although his first four novels incorporate descriptions of subjective pain at crucial points in the narrative, in the Border Trilogy, McCarthy overtly elucidates the myriad ways we make meaning from pain. An analysis of the depictions of subjective pain in the Border Trilogy, this paper suggests, can aid in a more complete understanding of McCarthy’s entire oeuvre. This study approaches the problem of pain in McCarthy’s work from a perspective that joins medical science and the humanities to show how this nearly universal …

The Skinny On Weight Watchers: A Critical Analysis Of Weight Watcher's Use Of Metaphors, Ashlynn Laura Reynolds-Dyk

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Founded in 1961, with 1.5 million people from around the world attending meetings every week today, Weight Watchers has become a socially and economically significant weight loss organization with the potential to affect the lives of many people. With that in mind, this study describes and analyzes the rhetorical strategies of Weight Watchers. More specifically, this study depicts the metaphors used by Weight Watchers to describe its 2009 program, the Momentum Program. Which metaphors are used, how those metaphors function to create a reality for dieters, how those metaphors produce and filter meaning, and the actions those metaphors encourage and …

Chinese Classifier Acquisition: Comparison Of L1 Child And L2 Adult Development, Jiang Song Gong

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The context of this thesis is the long-debated issue of whether or not adult second language (L2) development is basically similar to child first language (L1) development. The thesis approaches the issue through research dealing with L1 acquisition of Chinese classifiers and a pilot study of L2 adult classifier acquisition. First, evidence that children acquire specific classifiers earlier than measure classifiers is discussed and explained in light of existing language learning theories. With the aim of providing comparable data regarding L2 adult classifier acquisition a pilot study was conducted in which nine adult English-speaking learners of Chinese were tested on …

The Discipline Of Happiness, Courtney Leigh Christopher

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

A deeply personal Journey, “The Discipline of Happiness” blends fundamental philosophy with the power of visual art. In a 42‐year quest for purpose certain theories have been tried, championed, discredited, and discarded. The distillation of these ideas into my current theory provides, more saliently than the theory itself, a venue for discussion of the creative process. My creativity often manifests itself in visual terms. Through the medium of an extended artist statement I reflect on the virtues of thinking in both a linguistic and spatial manner. Orchestrating the dual modes of inquiry, semantic and visual, into a single narrative highlights …

Exploring Perspectives On Landscape And Language Among Kaike Speakers In Dolpa, Nepal, Corrie Maya Daurio

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The majority of the world’s languages are in danger of extinction within this century. Of the more than 6000 languages in the world, 4000-5000 are spoken by Indigenous peoples. Accompanying the loss of languages is the loss of the capacity for these peoples to transmit those aspects of their environmental knowledge systems which are embedded and expressed in their languages. The Kaike speakers of Tichurong in Dolpa, Nepal represent one of these endangered language communities, with approximately 800 speakers remaining. The purpose of this research was to engage Kaike speakers in an exploration of the relationships among their language, environment, …

Worlds Apart: Social Mechanisms Of Contrasting Fertility In European American And Native American Populations On The Northern Plains, Janet Mary Bush

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between fertility and household economy on Montana's Northern Plains. Low fertility and outmigration in European American communities have led to dramatic depopulation of the region. At the same time, isolated Indian reservations in the area have grown in population due to high fertility and return migration.

A mixed methods research approach was used to explore the relationship between fertility and social acceptance of communal household economic strategies. Census data and birth records described differences in fertility and household economy between European American and Native American populations in six Plains Indian …

Recreation Allocations On National Forests: The Claims And Frames Of Recreationists, John C. Adams

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

While demand for outdoor recreation experiences on national forests is increasing, many existing recreation allocations on national forests are outdated or jeopardize the environment. Accordingly, the U.S. Forest Service is revisiting recreation allocations on many national forests. The Forest Service is not guided by any clear policy regarding the appropriate method or rationale for making allocations between incompatible experience opportunities, or what criteria should be considered in allocating particular trails and areas. Instead individual decisionmakers must make judgments between competing claims advanced by different types of recreationists.

This project was designed to facilitate understanding of the claims that recreationists make …

Materiality As The Basis For The Aesthetic Experience In Contemporary Art, Christina Murdoch Mills

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

A number of historical philosophical theories relate to materiality in contemporary art and the role of art objects as an extension of ontology, or the study of the nature of being. The Kantian idea of the “aesthetic experience” is the point of departure, tracing philosophical discourse of how art functions via its materiality through the writings of Ludwig Wittgenstein, Martin Heidegger, Jean-Paul Sartre and Jacques Maritain to the post-modern considerations of David Hickey and Arthur Danto. The research for this thesis focuses on how contemporary art, in all its various forms, functions via art’s material qualities or materiality. The objective …

The Distribution Of /S/ In Blackfoot: An Optimality Theory Account, Ryan Denzer-King

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In this thesis I propose that the distribution of /s/ in Blackfoot can be explained by positing that /s/ is inherently moraic in Blackfoot, and explore this hypothesis via two proposals about moraic /s/. The first is that /s/ in complex onsets, e.g., stsiki, ‘another’, is extrasyllabic, and that a moraic /s/ reduces the markedness of these extrasyllabic segments. The second is that because /s/ is moraic, it can act as a syllable nucleus, which explains why the distribution of geminate /ss/ is more similar to long vowels than to geminate consonants. In Blackfoot, clusters of more than two consonants …

Heritage Learners Of Mexican Descent In Higher Education: A Qualitative Study Of Past And Present Experiences, Alicia Gignoux

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This is a qualitative interpretive study that explores the past and present experiences of heritage learners (HLs) of Mexican descent who were studying or had recently studied advanced Spanish in institutions of higher education. All of the participants had been exposed to Spanish in the home and began their studies in elementary or middle school in the United States. The population of HLs continues to grow and a need to understand this population exists. The statistics have shown that not all HLs of Mexican descent complete their studies in institutions of higher education and the reasons for this are not …

“No Hay Guerra Y No Hay Dinero” There Is No War, And There Is No Money: A Case Study Of The Organic Coffee And Ecotourism Programs Of Uca Miraflor, Nicaragua, Jeffrey Alan Gutierrez

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In the face of persisting unequal relations between the global North and South, what strategies can rural Southern peasants use to ensure the protection of their livelihoods and resources? The Union of Agribusiness Cooperatives (UCA) in Miraflor, Nicaragua has developed and implemented organic coffee and ecotourism programs designed to sustain local peoples’ land and the health of the population as well as providing long-term economic diversification. This paper evaluates the effectiveness of these programs in providing actual long-term economic, ecological, and social benefits, as well as regular income, to members involved in the organic coffee and ecotourism programs. Through in-depth …

Palestinian-Levantine Dialect Diaspora:Exploring Its Role In Maintaining Palestinian Cultural Heritage & Identity, Samir Ibrahim Bitar

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Cultural Geographers have written extensively on Diaspora, heritage, identity and their contributions greatly discuss how these theories integrate. The majority of what is available does not address the Palestinians specifically, hence my study fills a void in that it empirically addresses the Palestinian people and the role of their dialect and how it ties to Palestinian Diaspora, heritage and identity. Most of the literature has not viewed Diaspora, heritage, and identity thru the lens of language or language as a major player, an important one or perhaps vital. To produce these findings will contribute to the knowledge base on the …

The Development And Testing Of A Relational Model Of Competence In The Context Of Nature-Based Tourism, Christine Marie Oschell

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Communication competence is a framework that has been used in many disciplines to understand communication events and their success or failure in achieving objectives. The model most often used to describe competence is the relational model proposed by Spitzberg & Cupach (1984) which includes three elements: knowledge, knowing what behavior is best suited for a given situation; skill, having the ability to apply that behavior in the given context; and motivation having the desire to communicate in a competent manner. This study used the model of relational competence to understand the communication process between guide and client in a nature-based …

Reinvention In The Line Of Death: A Reconsideration Of Geoffrey Hill's Commemorative Verse, Michael Christopher Bartch

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This paper considers the embodied ethics of Geoffrey Hill’s poetic practice. Hill stages his engagement with poetry through the idioms, images, tropes, and diction of the literary tradition. Through this pragmatic rehearsal of the language of the dead, Hill’s poetry projects the tradition into the present. Hill resists the ethical entrapments of appropriative poetry through his insistence upon the brute physicality of atrocity and through a rigorous (for both poet and reader) formal difficulty. Hill’s practice refuses to console after the models of Peter Sacks, Jahan Ramazani, or John Vickery. Instead, concerned with modernity’s disconnectedness, Hill’s poetry returns us to …

"The Last Of The True:" The Kid's Place In Cormac Mccarthy's Blood Meridian, William Dean Clement

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In this study I examine the relationship of “the kid” and “the judge” in Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian Or The Evening Redness in the West (1985), specifically, how and why the kid resists Judge Holden’s overbearing existential philosophy. In my introduction I set the stage for Judge Holden’s imperial philosophy and practice through a brief explanation of his character, both historical and fictional, and the novel’s success because of his tyrannical grandeur. I then juxtapose the recalcitrant character of the kid against this megalomaniac to set up the rest of the examination of their relationship. In my chapter on Judge …

“The Sort . . . Of People To Which I Belong”: Elizabeth Gaskell And The Middle Class, Allison Masters

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In this thesis, I examine Elizabeth Gaskell’s development as a middle-class author, which is a position that most scholars take for granted. Moving away from traditional Marxist readings and drawing on revisionist class studies, I reconsider Gaskell as the typical bourgeois woman of her era by looking at her relationship with the middle class and its ideals over the course of her career. Overall, her large body of work reveals an increasing awareness of, and willingness to engage with the divisions within the middle class. In turn, as Gaskell explores such tensions and negotiates middle-class boundaries and values in her …

Root Infinitives In Child L2 Spanish, Sandra Patricia Cano Garcia

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This thesis aims to develop an understanding of the Root Infinitive (RI) phenomenon in child L2 Spanish. Previous research has investigated this phenomenon in Spanish first language acquisition and in adult L2 Spanish, but much less attention has been given to this phenomenon in children learning Spanish as a second language. This thesis focuses on whether children learning Spanish as a second language go through a RI stage. It also examines which morphological forms and types of predicates appear in the RI stage of these children. The data for this study were collected via natural production in oral and written …

The Elusive "Poem Of The World": The Task Of The Reader And The Problem Of Knowledge In Heinrich Von Kleist's Novellas "Die Marquise Von O..." And "Das Erdbeben In Chili", Lindsey Brandt

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The literary works of Heinrich von Kleist (1777–1811) have long been an important influence on thinkers and writers interested and engaged in the German cultural tradition, particularly due to the enigmatic and highly problematic nature of his narrative approach. In recent years, however, there has been a notable surge of interest in Kleist’s works, which has led to the production of several articles, papers, and even entire conference panels dedicated to the investigation of his oeuvre from various angles. Why does Kleist still fascinate his readers so much, and what is it about his texts that allow for such a …

Water Quality And Waterborne Disease Along The Niger River, Mali: A Study Of Local Knowledge And Response, Ashley Lauren Williams

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This paper presents the findings of a study to assess patterns in local knowledge of and response to water quality and waterborne diseases in relation to seasonal changes in the Niger River Inland Delta. The study draws on field data collected in four villages along the Niger River in the Mopti district of Mali during September 2008. The major findings suggest: (1) water use behaviors and diarrheal disease management are influenced by the tremendous seasonal fluctuations in the riverine environment; (2) local awareness of the relationship between poor water quality, oral-fecal disease transmission, and waterborne disease is low; (3) interventions …

Landscape And The Feminine Voice: Reclaiming Identity In The Works Of Maryse Conde, Simone Schwarz-Bart And Andre Schwarz Bart, Kathleen Marie Ruth

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This thesis examines Caribbean literature and its value in establishing identity for Caribbean peoples. The discourse of Caribbean literature as a tool for re-establishing or reclaiming identity is examined, as well as the domination of the male voice throughout Caribbean literature and theory. Through examination of the intimate connection between the feminine and the landscape of the Caribbean, the presence and significance of the female voice is established in the works of Andre Schwarz-Bart, Simone Schwarz-Bart, and Maryse Conde. The recognition of particularity of women’s struggles and the consequent contribution of female authors to Caribbean literature replenish a historiography which …

Educational Travel And Adolescent Development, Ann Saitow

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Educational travel forms the basis for novel learning experiences that enhance adolescent development by enabling students to make choices about their own survival in an unfamiliar setting. This biological adaptation is driven by stimulation of the midbrain which produces high levels of dopamine, the chemical associated with learning. The elements of educational travel that promote sustained adolescent learning are: clear communication, commitment and action, communal trust and respect, maturity developed through assigned responsibilities and exposure to varied life circumstances, flexibility, and transition back to traditional school environments.