Theses and Dissertations from UMD

Permanent URI for this communityhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2

New submissions to the thesis/dissertation collections are added automatically as they are received from the Graduate School. Currently, the Graduate School deposits all theses and dissertations from a given semester after the official graduation date. This means that there may be up to a 4 month delay in the appearance of a give thesis/dissertation in DRUM

More information is available at Theses and Dissertations at University of Maryland Libraries.

Browse

Subject: search.filters.subject.discourse

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    VOICING THE UNHEARD: GENDERED PRACTICES, DISCOURSES, AND STRUGGLES OF GUGAK MUSICIANS IN SOUTH KOREA
    (2018) Yeo, Hyunjin; Witzleben, John L.; Music; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    This dissertation investigates how individual musicians’ experiences and gender identity are shaped by interacting with cultural ideals of gender roles in different levels of South Korean society and the ways in which they interact with gendered performances of music. In the last few years, gender has been a popular topic not only in academia but also in everyday conversations in South Korea. Traditional gender norms have been challenged, and various types of masculinities and femininities have emerged. As different ideas of gender roles coexist in society, gugak (literally “national music”) musicians, too, face challenges in the middle of social transition. This study aims to deliver the often unheard voices of two groups of musicians: male gayageum (Korean zither) players playing a “women’s instrument” and female fusion gugak musicians playing “cheap” music. Based on in-depth interviews and my eighteen years’ involvement in the gugak field, I examine how both groups of musicians negotiate conflicts as they face contrasting gender norms and values between the gugak community and South Korean society at large. In this process, their performance becomes the prime site where their ideas of masculinity and femininity are put on display. By playing particular instruments and styles of music, defying negative discourses on them, and demonstrating their competence, I argue that performances and narratives of the musicians ultimately complicate the hegemonic views of masculinity and femininity. By revealing untold stories of the often unheard groups of musicians, this dissertation sheds light on studies concerning what has been excluded from scholarly discussions, which will provide a more comprehensive picture of individual actors and communities in society. This work also contributes to studies on the complex interplay between individual actors, diverse ideas of gender, and performance.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    The Neural Mechanisms Supporting Structure and Inter-Brain Connectivity In Natural Conversation
    (2014) AbdulSabur, Nuria; Idsardi, William; Neuroscience and Cognitive Science; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Conversation is the height of human communication and social interaction, yet little is known about the neural mechanisms supporting it. To date, there have been no ecologically valid neuroimaging studies of conversation, and for good reason. Until recently, imaging techniques were hindered by artifact related to speech production. Now that we can circumvent this problem, I attempt to uncover the neural correlates of multiple aspects of conversation, including coordinating speaker change, the effect of conversation type (e.g. cooperative or argumentative) on inter-brain coupling, and the relationship between this coupling and social coherence. Pairs of individuals underwent simultaneous fMRI brain scans while they engaged in a series of unscripted conversations, for a total of 40 pairs (80 individuals). The first two studies in this dissertation lay a foundation by outlining brain regions supporting comprehension and production in both narrative and conversation - two aspects of discourse level communication. The subsequent studies focus on two unique features of conversation: alternating turns-at-talk and establishing inter-brain coherence through speech. The results show that at the moment of speaker change, both people are engaging attentional and mentalizing systems - which likely support orienting toward implicit cues signaling speaker change as well as anticipating the other person's intention to either begin or end his turn. Four networks were identified that are significantly predicted by a novel measure of social coherence; they include the posterior parietal cortex, medial prefrontal cortex, and right angular gyrus. Taken together, the findings reveal that natural conversation relies on multiple cognitive networks besides language to coordinate or enhance social interaction.  
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Rhetorical Analysis of Arguments Made in the Climate Change Debate: Argument Families and Social Network LInks as Potential Bases for Agreement
    (2004-11-11) Malone, Elizabeth L.; Kestnbaum, Meyer; Sociology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    The issue of climate change brings together some of the most important sociological issues of the age, including global governance, the role of industrialization and capitalism in degrading the environment, the relationship between humans and non-human nature, and the inequality of nations. However, it is an open question whether societies and countries of the world can come to agreement about the meaning of climate change and actions (or no action) that should be taken to address it. To avoid privileging one or another of the issue's aspects, this study used a discursive and rhetorical approach to include all the arguments made in the debate on an equal footing. First, 100 documents that make arguments about climate change were analyzed to characterize the arguments made and to distinguish four rhetorical elements: the personal and organizational sources of authority for the rhetor, the type(s) of evidence used for the claims made, the worldview(s) expressed, and the actions proposed. This analysis provided the basis for categorizing the documents into "families," coherent arguments made about the climate change issue; and performing a social network analysis to discern linkages formed by the argument families and rhetorical elements that might be the basis for coming to agreement about climate change issues. The study found coherence within families as well as multiple links across families, indicating that rhetors in the climate change debate form a dense network of ties that could be used to build agreement.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    A PILOT STUDY TO DEVELOP DISCOURSE CODES SPECIFIC TO PREFRONTAL DYSFUNCTION
    (2004-08-12) Eshel, Inbal; Ratner, Nan B.; Hearing and Speech Sciences; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    This pilot study developed a set of codes designed to capture the "nonaphasic" but characteristic discourse deficits that may be present following prefrontal cortex damage (PFCD). The codes were utilized based on narrative sample elicitation to investigate between-group differences in two study populations: patients with left, right, or bi-frontal PFCD and age and education-matched healthy comparison group participants. Narrative samples were coded on indices of content units, thematic units, story grammar features, and discourse errors, and analyzed using CLAN. Results of this study support the original deficit hypotheses. The coding schema demonstrated fair to good inter-rater reliability, stronger performances by the healthy comparison group across all four levels of analysis, and poorer performance overall on the retell phase than the tell phase. Qualitative analysis revealed relatively few discourse errors associated with the healthy comparison group, while various classic discourse errors were associated with the PFCD group.