Augustyn, Prisca

The objective of this study is to compare Emerson's and Thoreau's concepts of
nature as they are informed by Immanuel Kant. In particular, this study examines
Emerson's Nature, The Transcendentalist, The Divinity School Address, The
Conservative; and Thoreau's A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, Walden;
or, Life in the Woods and The Maine Woods to analyze how their ideas of nature are
anchored in Kant's three Critiques.
Emerson and Thoreau develop Kant's ideas and both arrive at an unlimited
nature which is not bound to objects of form. While Emerson focuses on human nature
in the organism, Thoreau is concerned with organic nature in particular.

Pilgrimages have produced volumes of textual reflections by pilgrims and
outside observers. These writers represent a wide variety of disciplines from travel
theorists to travel bloggers, medieval historians to modern anthropologists and
sociologists. The findings of this study reveal two major complex metaphor systems:
one based on a series of interlaced existential metaphors orbiting the nuclear LIFE IS A
JOURNEY and the other stemming from a network of economic metaphors of MORAL
ACCOUNTING. The symbolic exchange embedded in these metaphorical systems
reflects the human desire for a meaningful and worthy life. These mutually
supporting complex systems of metaphor reveal an existential connection between the
medieval pilgrim and the contemporary tourist.

Based on Noam Chomsky’s argument that the faculty of language is primarily a
tool of thought whose purpose is to interpret the world, this dissertation argues that
reading literature provides a cognitive experience like John Gardner’s “Fictive Dream”
that mimics our interpretive experience of the world. Literary experience exploits
language as an epistemological faculty that makes aspects of the external world
intelligible. Yet the faculty of language is also capable of evoking entirely mental worlds
that do not reflect the mindexternal
world. Because the literary experience is entirely
mindinternal,
even the cultural knowledge we bring into play for its understanding still
relies on innate features of language. Thus, during the act of reading, we hold this
cultural knowledge in abeyance, allowing the text to structure how we bring it to bear on
the experience as a whole.
A scientific approach to literature can help uncover principles to further elucidate
the literaryepistemological
experience. Whereas much literary criticism assumes that a critic’s purpose is to mine a text for its deeper meaning, this dissertation argues for a
Cognitive Formalist approach in which criticism serves not simply to explain the
experience evoked by any particular text according to linguisticepistemological
principles, but also to evaluate the moral implications of that specific textual experience.
As a means of demonstrating potential implications of a scientific cognitive
approach to literary criticism based on linguisticepistemological
understanding, the
current study offers sample passages from J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings.
These passages allow us to offer first approximations of some explanatory principles of
the literaryepistemological
experience, such as the importance of fictive time and
fictional event sequences, which in turn gives us greater insight into how, for example,
verb tense and aspect contribute to the evocation of the action of fiction in the reader’s
mind. Ultimately, the fictive vantage point constructed by the text allows the reader
access to a complex moral framework in which fictive characters are understood to make
choices that will in turn set the stage for the reader’s own ethical reception of the text and
the experience it offers.

This thesis investigates the discourse patterns of Donald Trump, Marco Rubio, and Jeb Bush during the Republican primary campaign from August 2015 through January 2016. The goal of this study is to identify differences among the candidates’ discourse patterns, particularly those distinct to the discourse style of Donald Trump, on the basis of a newly compiled corpus from their respective debates and speeches.
This corpus analysis reveals differences in terms of readability and lexical choice that distinguish the speech style of Donald Trump from Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio and identifies metaphors utilized by Donald Trump. Drawing heavily from the research of Charles Fillmore and George Lakoff, this study also illustrates the importance of metaphors and frames within political discourse, and the corpus analysis of Republican candidates during the 2016 election provides clear evidence that candidates use frames and metaphors to create a unique profile.

This study aims to analyze three popular U.S. children’s TV shows – Dora the
Explorer (Nickelodeon), Maya & Miguel (PBS) and Handy Manny (Disney Channel) – in
terms of their incorporation of Spanish. Qualitative and quantitative measures were used
to assess the frequency and types of code switching both in the context of bilingualism
and language pedagogy. The study revealed different strategies of language choice and
socio-cultural objectives for each show. A close analysis of language choice in the three
children’s TV programs revealed distinct approaches to TV writing in the name of raising awareness of ethnic diversity, developing cultural literacy, and brand marketing.

This study investigated parents' attitudes and expectations regarding Portuguese-English bilingual education, biliteracy, and language use at home in the Brazilian community in South Florida, specifically in the tri-county area of Dade, Broward and Palm Beach. Sixty-seven Brazilian parents participated in an online/print questionnaire study. The results show that parents strongly support bilingual education and the development of bilingualism. An overwhelming majority of parents strongly encourage the use of Portuguese in the Brazilian homes. However, a discrepancy was found between parents' expectations and actual practices for their children's biliterate development. The majority of parents encourage the development of their children's speaking skills in Portuguese, but only few parents have strategies to develop their children's literacy in Portuguese. The lack of print-media in the heritage language in the home shows that parents look to formal education to fulfill their expectations in their children's biliteracy.