Politeness as a Conversational Strategy in Three Hemingway Short Stories (open access)

Politeness as a Conversational Strategy in Three Hemingway Short Stories

Hemingway's dialogue and the texts of politeness and literature -- Brown and Levinson's politeness strategies -- The face of honesty in "The Doctor and the Doctor's Wife -- The face of bravery in "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber" -- The face of love in "Hills Like White Elephants" -- Interpretive implications of politeness theory.
Date: December 1985
Creator: Hardy, Donald E. (Donald Edward)
System: The UNT Digital Library
Gothic Elements in Selected Fictional Works by Nathaniel Hawthorne (open access)

Gothic Elements in Selected Fictional Works by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Gothicism is the primary feature of Nathaniel Hawthorne's fiction, and it is his skill in elevating Gothicism to the level of high art which makes him a great artist. Gothic elements are divided into six categories: Objects, Beings, Mental States, Practices and Actions, Architecture and Places, and Nature. Some devices from these six categories are documented in three of Hawthorne's stories ("Young Goodman Brown," "The Minister's Black Veil," and "Ethan Brown") and three of his romances (The Scarlet Letter, The House of the Seven Gables, and The Marble Faun). The identification of 142 instances of Hawthorne's use of Gothic elements in the above works demonstrates that Hawthorne is fundamentally a Gothic writer.
Date: August 1985
Creator: Francis, Kurt T.
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Development and Testing of a Three-Section Cloze Test of English Proficiency (open access)

The Development and Testing of a Three-Section Cloze Test of English Proficiency

The purpose of this research was to develop and test a three-section cloze test of English proficiency and to norm it for use as a means of level placement. The study sample consisted of ESL students at Brookhaven Community College and the Intensive English Language Institute of North Texas State University, as well as a group of native speakers. Four types of statistical analysis were used: analysis of variance, Pearson product-moment correlations, a t-Test, and a multiple comparison procedure, the Scheffé test. The cloze test was sensitive to significant differences between every level at both schools. Subsequently it was normed to a four-level system and score ranges for each level were suggested.
Date: August 1985
Creator: Lindholm, Lauralee
System: The UNT Digital Library
Metaphor and the ESL Classroom (open access)

Metaphor and the ESL Classroom

This paper concentrates on the viability of using metaphor as a teaching tool in the English as a Second Language classroom. In doing so, a semantically-based theory of metaphor, like that presented by Lakoff and Johnson (1980), is employed as a base for the examination. Such a theory of metaphor presents a dramatic shift from theories, especially Aristotle's, of the past. The theory of metaphor proposed by Lakoff and Johnson contends that language is essentially metaphorical and that much of our 'commonsense' knowledge about the world is derived from interpretations of reality and is manifested in metaphors central to a culture and its language. If this theory is true, then it stands to reason that a student attempting to learn English as a Second Language could profit greatly from metaphor instruction because such instruction would aid all areas of the language acquisition process.
Date: August 1985
Creator: Bishop, Ryan M. (Ryan Marion)
System: The UNT Digital Library
Fairy Tale Elements in Margaret Atwood's Novels: Breaking the Magic Spell (open access)

Fairy Tale Elements in Margaret Atwood's Novels: Breaking the Magic Spell

This thesis traces Margaret Atwood's uses of three major elements of fairy tales in her novels. Atwood creates a passive, fairy-tale-like heroine, but not for the purpose of showing how passivity wins the prince as in the traditional tale. Atwood also uses the binary system, which provides a moralistic structure in the fairy tale, to show the necessity of moving beyond its rigidity. In addition, Atwood's novels focus on transformation as the breaking of a spell. However, the spell to be broken arises out of the fairy tales themselves, which create unrealistic expectations. Thus, Atwood not only presents these fairy tale elements in a new setting, but she also changes their significance.
Date: August 1985
Creator: Peterson, Nancy J. (Nancy Jean)
System: The UNT Digital Library