Browsing by Subject "Language"
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Item A pattern language for sacred secular places(Texas A&M University, 2006-08-16) Joseph, Melanie Rachel??Pattern Language?? is a term popularized by Christopher Alexander and his coauthors of the book A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction, Sara Ishikawa, and Murray Silverstein in the late 1970??s. Though intended to enable every citizen to design and construct their own home, pattern language never quite caught up with those in the field of architecture, mostly because of its lack of flexibility. The core idea of Alexander??s pattern language was to arm architects, designers, and the common people with a tool that would empower them to make informed decisions related to designing places that would comply with their needs and wants. What architecture needs the most today is the ability to heal and invigorate. I believe that contemporary architecture lacks such places that enable occupants to connect and communicate with what is within and what is without. A number of studies have proven that universally sacred (a majority of which are religious in function) places are charged with energies that could contribute towards this process. The energies, also referred to as ??patterns,?? are the energies unique to a place that make it special and sacred (not just in the religious context but also in the secular context). This thesis is an attempt to derive a new pattern language for the creation of sacred ??secular?? places like our homes and work places which draw from the pattern lists that have been proposed in four separate instances by authors including Christopher Alexander and Phillip Tabb. This new pattern list is aimed at providing architects and designers with a tool for creating secular places with an element of sacrality without having to taking on a religious meaning.Item Air-borne bards : Anglo-Irish writers and the BBC, 1931-1968(2012-08) Bloom, Emily Catherine; Cullingford, Elizabeth; Carter, Mia; Friedman, Alan W; Hutchison, Coleman; Savage, Robert JThis dissertation defines and explores “radiogenic aesthetics” in late modernism that emerged alongside radio broadcasting, World War II era propaganda, censorship, and paper shortages, and the transnational networks forming in the shadow of British imperial collapse. The Anglo-Irish writers in this study—W.B. Yeats, Louis MacNeice, Elizabeth Bowen, and Samuel Beckett—addressed a changing media environment that mapped on to the socio-cultural flux of the period following Irish Independence. Transcending the newly minted national boundaries between Ireland and England, the British Broadcasting Corporation became a locus for shaping transnational literary networks, this in spite of the nationalist rhetoric surrounding broadcasting. By analyzing broadcasts alongside print literature, I identify a circuit of influence coursing between modernism and broadcasting, rather than a unidirectional flow. This body of work, which includes drama (radio and stage), feature broadcasts, poetry, and fiction, offers a counter-narrative to literary historical theories that position modernist aesthetics as a reaction against popular mass media. Motifs of uncanny repetition—returns, echoes, and hauntings—are typical of these radiogenic aesthetics and reveal tensions between orality and literacy, embodiment and disembodiment, communalism and individualism, ephemerality and permanence, and tradition and “the now.” These tensions become definitive features of late modernism as the self-assurance of modernism’s first practitioners gives way to troubling questions about the future of literature in the unstable media environments surrounding World War II. Adapting traditional literary forms from the novel, poem, and play for the broadcast medium and incorporating radio’s epistemologies into their literary theories, Yeats, MacNeice, Bowen, and Beckett draw attention to fundamental questions about mediation itself. In so doing, they anticipate the hypermediacy of postmodernism without, however, relinquishing the modernist pursuit of authenticity or the quest for forms capable of transcending the widening distance between author and audience.Item Anti-logo(2013-05) Ellefson, Nathan Archer; Hale, Kenneth J., 1948-The purpose of this report is to explore the intentions and inspirations involved with my studio art practice. It explores theories of reference and language, humor, abjection, reification, and the building and breakdown of meaning within my artwork.Item Bajo El Poder?o Del Lenguaje: Capacidad Terap?utica De La Poes?a En Cuatro Poetas Depresivos Y Suicidas: Ra?l G?mez Jattin, Rodrigo Lira, ?ngel Escobar Y Julio Inverso(2014-07-25) Aguilar, Julio CMadness and art are two concepts that are quite often historically interrelated. The term ?madness? designates various mental ailments, depression being one of them (major depressive disorder or depressive episodes in their various forms and diagnostic categories). The prevalence of depressive disorders is common among poets, who find therapeutic value in writing poetry. However, a number of poets turn to suicide as a last resort in order to end a life full of emotional suffering. This dissertation focuses on the study of the lives and works of four suicidal poets who suffered depression: Ra?l G?mez Jattin, Rodrigo Lira, ?ngel Escobar, and Julio Inverso. Natives of four different countries in Latin America, these authors belong to the last two decades of the twentieth century. This study demonstrates the importance of poetic discourse to the depressive poet by contributing to current research on this disease as demonstrated by the use of introspection throughout the creative process. That is, the poet with depression finds relief from the progression of his depressive symptoms by exploring emotions and subsequently exposing his feelings. However, when the word, due to its semantic load, is employed with emphasis on its negative connotation, the effect strongly results in the worsening of the mental condition. Comorbidity of psychiatric disorders is conspicuous. Thus, depression alternates with other mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia and substance abuse. This is the case with the poets investigated in this study, as two (Lira and Escobar) suffered from schizophrenia in addition to depression, while all four suffered from addiction (alcohol and drugs). Concomitant diagnoses were the trigger for each of these poets to commit suicide. It was also found that in the case of depression, writing poetry was no doubt beneficial. However, when depression was compounded by other mental disorders, the therapeutic capacity of poetry was found to be relative.Item Carried meaning in the Mahābhārata(2015-12) Rudmann, Daniel Adam; Selby, Martha Ann; Brereton, Joel P., 1948-; Freiberger, Oliver; Talbot, Cynthia; Hiltebeitel, AlfThe Mahābhārata describes itself as both a comprehensive and exhaustive text, incorporating a range of genres while presenting diverse perspectives through a matrix of interacting narratives. Its main story and subtales are the subject of productive contemporary studies that underscore the significance of the Sanskrit epic, though this scholarship is also famously criticized for overlooking literary inquiry. The following dissertation enacts a close reading of four subtales, Nala’s Tale, Rāma’s Tale, Sāvitrī’s Tale, and The Yakṣa’s Questions, in context with the larger work to uncover the implications of a literary study of the Mahābhārata. By conducting translations of passages from the epic, this dissertation builds sites of alliance among frame and subtale, literary and translation theory, critical analysis and contemporary scholarship, as well as the Mahābhārata and other works of literature in order to consider the ways in which meaning is generated throughout the text. Language, constituent parts, and operative principles are found to reverberate in the epic, eschewing didacticism and stasis for literary vitality. Themes of loss, love, disguise, and discovery veer throughout the subtales as sideshadows that at once collaborate and contradict to continuously redefine one another. The Mahābhārata’s self-conscious and reiterative reinterpretation of its own constructs presents critical insights on translation as dialogical correspondence, occurring within utterances as well as between languages. The act of translation, utilized by the poem itself to develop and proliferate significance, reveals difference and bears legibility within the epic.Item A case study revealing how preservice art educators develop awareness of the role of language during field work in art education for pupils who are blind or visually impaired(2013-08) Keating, Jannette; Bain, ChristinaWorking collaboratively with the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired (TSBVI) and Dr. Kara Hallmark's art education students at the University of Texas at Austin (UT), this qualitative case study documented how preservice art teachers' awareness of how to implement language as a teaching tool developed during a participatory observational experience in the segregated special needs art class at TSBVI. My research reveals how the field experience at TSBVI, which included hands-on interaction with pupils who are blind or visually impaired and the role modeling of an experienced special needs art educator, enhanced awareness for preservice teachers about how language can be used effectively in teaching art. This awareness is useful for all educators who include students experiencing vision impairment in the art classroom.Item Children’s willingness to accept labels in two languages: the role of exposure(2015-12) Rojo, Dolly P.; Echols, Catharine H.; Booth, Amy E; Bannard, ColinDespite the increasing number of bilingual education programs in the US, the topic of children’s willingness to accept and learn new vocabulary from non-native speakers has been understudied. The present study focuses on the role of exposure to a non-English language, by investigating how varying amounts and sources of exposure play a role in children’s openness to accepting labels in Spanish. Ninety-eight 4- to 6-year old participants of varying language backgrounds were presented with novel object labels in Spanish and English, and were asked to endorse either or both labels. Children with large amounts of exposure to, but not fluent in, Spanish were more likely than minimally exposed monolingual children to endorse both the English and Spanish label, and importantly, did not differ from bilingual children. Monolingual children with minimal exposure to Spanish were the least likely of these three groups to endorse non-native labels. Language Awareness is also considered as a factor that may contribute to children’s willingness to endorse native and non-native labels.Item Content-area instruction and teacher professional development : addressing secondary English language learners' academic and linguistic needs(2012-05) Thompson, Kirsten June; Callahan, Rebecca M.; Horwitz, ElaineEnglish language learners (ELLs) are the fastest growing group of learners in U.S. schools. In recent years, much of this growth has occurred in parts of the U.S. with historically smaller immigrant populations. Secondary ELLs in particular are entering middle and high schools that are often underprepared and ill-equipped to meet these students’ academic and linguistic needs. In addition to learning social English, ELLs must also master the academic language and content necessary to succeed in their content-area classes. This report reviews current research on content-area instruction in math, science, and social studies for secondary ELLs. More specifically, within each content area, key findings are summarized from articles that address the following topics: the linguistic challenges of learning content for ELLs; the implementation of pedagogical approaches to teaching content to ELLs; and teachers’ challenges and needs. The report concludes with recommendations for pedagogy, practice, and professional development as well as suggestions for future research.Item Culturally and Linguistically Responsive Instruction in Primary Reading: The Power of Knowledge and Focused Pedagogy in Eliminating the Achievement Gap for African American Students(2012-04-19) Simpson-Butler, Johnna; White, Cameron; Busch, Steven; MacNeil, Angus; Amine, RayyanThe purpose of this study is to explore best practices in meeting the needs of African American students in the primary grades and to investigate teachers’ knowledge of Culturally and Linguistically Responsive Instruction (CLRI). The mixed method, sequential-explanatory design included the collection of both quantitative and qualitative data. The quantitative portions of the study incorporated cross-sectional, descriptive research to ascertain teachers’ knowledge and perspectives of CLRI, as well as a non-experimental, comparative analysis of African American and Caucasian student performance. Qualitative data collected through a semi-structured discussion group expounded upon the quantitative phases of research. A mixed data analysis integrating all three data sources provided insight into designing effective classroom instruction and addressing the achievement gap. The findings from this research imply that primary educators who endeavor to learn about and value students as individuals, understand each student’s level of progress as a reader, and act upon this collective knowledge with an instructional methodology that influences how students approach new learning will find greater success in meeting the needs of African American students.Item Developing effective communications messages to the Hispanic market : language and the bilingual market(2010-05) Kalaswad, Anita Maria; Williams, Jerome D., 1947-; Henderson, GeraldineOnce considered a minority, Hispanics today are becoming a growing majority of the U.S. population. In fact, Hispanics have become the nation's largest minority group. The growth of the Hispanic market has numerous implications for marketing and communication decisions. Hispanics residing in the U.S. consume products and services on a daily basis. They buy groceries, appliances, event tickets and interact constantly with companies and their messages. Not only is it crucial for U.S. marketers to recognize how valuable this market is to them, but Hispanics are a multifaceted market that must be well understood to ensure a good foundation is built prior to developing communications strategies. More specifically, marketers need to be aware of how Hispanics, often bilingual, process language and how this impacts the effectiveness of communications messages. This report will take you through an analysis of why the U.S. Hispanic market is valuable and how this particular segment should be approached when it comes to the language factor.Item The effect of language emotionality on recall : a preliminary study(2011-05) Czimskey, Natalie Marie; Marquardt, Thomas P.; Byrd, Courtney T.Ten male and 10 female participants were presented with six narrative paragraphs and six 10 word lists. Three of the paragraphs were emotional and three were neutral. Each of the paragraphs contained 20 information units and each word list included five neutral and five emotional words. Immediately following paragraph or word list presentation, the participants were asked to recall the stimuli. The mean percent of emotional units (i.e. units of information recalled from emotional paragraphs) recalled was significantly greater than the mean percent of neutral units recalled. Similarly, the mean percent emotional words recalled from word lists was significantly greater than the mean percent neutral words recalled from word lists. Percent recall was significantly greater for words than for paragraphs for both emotional and neutral stimuli. Results supported the hypothesis that emotional saliency increases verbal recall.Item Effects of naturalistic and peer mediated conversation skills training for young adults with ASD(2015-05) Fowler, Meaghan Meredith; Marquardt, Thomas P.; Franco, Jessica HetlingerPurpose: This pilot study sought to examine the efficacy of a naturalistic and peer-supported group language and social skills intervention program called Training for Adults in Language and Other Key Skills (TALKS). This group therapy is offered at the University of Texas at Austin Speech and Hearing Center each semester. The researcher hypothesized that individuals participating in the program would present with increased production of total utterances and decreased productions of off-topic comments and questions during conversations. Methods: Two adult English-speaking males diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder participated in weekly 10-minute Skype conversations both before and during participation in the group therapy. Each 10-minute Skype conversation was recorded and coded to determine ratio of utterances, total comment and off-topic comment production, and total question and off-topic question production. Each Skype video was double coded to ensure accuracy of the data. Results: Participants presented with overall increases in total utterance production and ratio of total utterances across treatment phases. Data indicated a decrease in both off-topic comment and question production for both participants. Both participants performed consistently in their overall question production across all treatment phases. Conclusion: The Training for Adults in Language and Other Key Skills program had a positive effect on each of the participants' social language skills. Future research should include a larger number of participants and additional consecutive treatment phases.Item Facilitating transfer and maintenance in school-aged children who stutter : a guidebook for clinicians(2014-05) Wong, Allison Mei-Li; Byrd, Courtney T.This report was developed to: a) enhance the clinician’s understanding of transfer and maintenance as it relates to stuttering, b) explore the unique challenges that face the school-aged population, c) examine research outside of the field that may be of benefit for school-aged stuttering clients, and d) provide the clinician with examples and activities that will facilitate the transfer and maintenance of stuttering treatment. The report will include a brief discussion of transfer and maintenance. The remainder of the report will focus on facilitating transfer and maintenance by increasing motivation, self-efficacy, realistic goal setting, and self-regulation.Item Gender and contestation in Bengali adda(2014-12) Chatterjee, Anindita, active 21st century; Strong, Pauline Turner, 1953-The study investigates the constructed relationship between gender, language, and power in a type of conventional, informal discussion, commonly referred to as adda in Bengal. This research focuses on everyday contestations of authority and some ways that are differently framed by men and women, and as well as some implications of these strategies as they negotiate and position themselves within the setting of adda in Austin, Texas, a place away from Bengal. The corpus consists of a segment of recorded data within mixed-group interaction, including both men and women, among native Bengalis who are currently from Texas as well as from Bengal. I use conversation analysis as a methodology to analyze the sequential production of meaning, and study how participant roles emerge and are negotiated through the lens of an adda setting. The study investigates the transformation of a discussion between men and women into a format of debate, which is common in adda, and the strategies employed by the participants to seize the floor. The strategies analyzed include: collaboration between women to disagree with the male participants’ positions and vice-versa. Questioning as a practice can be a very powerful device within the situated space, as it demands a response from the recipient. The study builds on the recent scholarship on the multifunctional use of tag questions and contributes by adding a new perspective on how the tag-questions are employed by women as an interactional strategy to become co-tellers in the discussion. From the very outset, the study focuses on the use of tag-questions and how they are implemented in an interactional framework (by either men or women). The broader aim of this report is to use tag-question as a primary data set because of their complexity. The act of questioning is a very complex activity as it involves the context and positioning of the speaker as well as the recipient and how they both act and react to the question. In the segment analyzed in the report, women use tag question to question the men’s authority claims, but the questions are interpreted by men as a re-framing to a teacher-student paradigm, and undermine the women’s position. The female participants also create interruptions to redirect and reformulate the topic, in order to become co-tellers in the discussion. In exploring these strategies, I examine both the embodied behavior and the speech styles of both men and women.Item In Ixtli In Yollotl/A (Wise) Face A (Wise) Heart: Reclaiming Embodied Rhetorical Traditions of Anahuac and Tawantinsuyu(2012-10-19) Ri?os, Gabriela RaquelTheories of writing are one of the fundamental ways by which Indigenous peoples have been labeled as "uncivilized." In these discussions, writing becomes synonymous with history, literacy, and often times Truth. As such, scholars studying Nahua codices and Andean khipu sometimes juxtapose the two because together they present a break in an evolutionary theory of writing systems that links alphabetic script with the construction of "complex civilizations." Contemporary scholars tend to offer an "inclusive" approach to the study of Latin American histories through challenging exclusive definitions of writing. These definitions are always informed and limited by language-the extent to which these "writing" systems represent language. However, recentering discussions of writing and language on what Gregory Cajete has called Native Science shifts the discussion to matters of ecology in a way that intersects with current scholarship in bicocultural diversity studies regarding the link between language, culture, and biodiversity. Because of the ways in which language configures rhetoric and writing studies, a shift in understanding how language emerges bears great impact on how we understand not only the histories tied to codices and khipu but also how they function as epistemologies. In my dissertation, I build a model of relationality using Indigenous and decolonial methodologies alongside the Nahua concept of in ixtli in yollotl (a wise face/a wise heart) and embodied rhetorics. The model I construct here offers a path for understanding "traditional" knowledges as fluid and mobile. I specifically look at the relationship between land, bodies, language, and Native Science functions on the reciprocal relationship between those three components in making meaning. I then extend this argument to show how the complex web of relations that we might call biocultural diversity produces and is produced by "things" like images from codices and khipu that in turn help to (re)produce biocultural diversity. Thing theory, in emerging material culture studies, argues for the agency of cultural artifacts in the making of various realities. These "things" always-already bear a relationship to bodies and "nature." Thing theory, then, can challenge us to see artifacts like khipu and Nahua images as language artifacts and help us connect Nahua images and khipu to language outside of a text-based model. Ultimately, I argue that Native Science asks us to see language as a practice connected to biocultural diversity.Item Issues in Mexican American education: Addressing the academic needs of Mexican American students at the secondary level(2010-12) Alvarez, Ricky A; Benavides, Alfredo H.; Midobuche, EvaIn light of the growing number of ethnic minority adolescents in the United States, it has long been recognized that the level of educational attainment of Mexican-American students is below to that of other ethnic minority communities in the United States. From towering impoverishment rates, lower parental education, dilapidated neighborhoods and communities, to a clash of culture, marginalized education, and impersonal behaviors, Mexican-American students have endured an educational challenge that has become more difficult to win than imagined. Entailed by cultural identity, exceptionalities, language, gender, economic status, health, beliefs, values, and perceptions of education, this thesis will not only make possible recommendations for the plight among Mexican-American education, but will also investigate the socioeconomic, sociocultural, and the supplementary issues and factors that influence the academic advancement of Mexican-American students at the secondary level.Item Language as a marker of CEO transition and company performance(2013-05) Kacewicz, Ewa; Pennebaker, James W.An increasing number of researchers are beginning to explore leadership effectiveness in the context of language. To gain a better understanding of what constitutes an effective leader, particularly in the context of transition (exiting or entering leadership role), the current project examined Chief Executive Officer (CEO) language use in quarterly conference calls and its' association with company performance. Three research questions were asked: 1) What language patterns are associated with an outgoing CEO versus an incoming CEO? 2) To what degree does CEO language change depending on whether company performance increases or decreases in the year prior to exiting tenure or subsequent to their entering tenure 3) To what degree does CEO language predict company performance and company performance predict language use? In order to answer these questions, language use in the question and answer portion of quarterly conference calls was examined for 215 companies in the year prior to old CEO departure and in the first year for new CEO. Computerized text analysis was used to examine language associated with self-focus, other-focus, and positive and negative affect. Results suggest that old and new CEOs use distinctive language patterns when they are entering and exiting their leadership positions. Language was found to predict company performance and company performance was found to predict language. The current project points to the power of language as a tool to explore leadership effectiveness in the context of transition. Specifically, language analysis can help identify degree of old CEO detachment and new CEO assimilation within their company. In addition, language can be used as a marker of company performance.Item Listening comprehension and language as scaffolds for reading comprehension with secondary struggling readers(2015-05) McCulley, Elisabeth Vanessa; Vaughn, Sharon, 1952-; Bryant, Diane P.; Barnes, Marcia; Beretvas, Susan N.; Toste, Jessica R.; Cable, Amory L.This experimental study examined the effects of a reading intervention using listening comprehension and oral language as scaffolds to improve reading comprehension of middle school students with reading difficulties. The study included students in 6th-8th grade randomly assigned to a reading intervention treatment or a no treatment comparison condition. Treatment students received 45-minute sessions daily for a total of 33 sessions. Reading comprehension measures included the Woodcock Johnson Passage Comprehension subtest, State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness reading, and an unstandardized curriculum-based measure of summarization. Measures of inference-making included the Test of Language Competence Listening Comprehension: Making Inferences subtest and an unstandardized curriculum-based measure of inference skills. Language abilities were assessed using the Woodcock Johnston Oral Comprehension subtest, and the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals Formulated Sentences and Recalling Sentences subtests. An unstandardized vocabulary measure assessed student recall of vocabulary words. ANCOVAs were used to estimate the treatment effects for each dependent variable using pretest scores as a covariate. The Kauffman Brief Intelligence Test II Verbal Knowledge subtest served as covariate for the unstandardized vocabulary measure. Results yielded no statistically significant effects on reading comprehension, language, or inference measures. Effects, which were calculated with Cohen’s d, ranged from .00 to .78, with eight of nine measures favoring treatment. Findings from an unstandardized vocabulary measure indicated a statistically significant difference in favor of the treatment group. Results suggest that using oral language and listening comprehension to support reading practices of middle school students with reading comprehension difficulties may be a viable treatment for improving reading comprehension and improving content-specific vocabulary knowledge.Item The long line of the Middle English alliterative revival : rhythmically coherent, metrically strict, phonologically English(2012-05) Psonak, Kevin Damien; Cable, Thomas, 1942-; Henkel, Jacqueline M.; Hinrichs, Lars; Lesser, Wayne; King, Robert D.This study contributes to the search for metrical order in the 90,000 extant long lines of the late fourteenth-century Middle English Alliterative Revival. Using the 'Gawain'-poet's 'Patience' and 'Cleanness', it refutes nineteenth- and twentieth-century scholars who mistook rhythmic liveliness for metrical disorganization and additionally corrects troubling missteps that scholars have taken over the last five years. 'Chapter One: Tame the "Gabble of Weaker Syllables"' rehearses the traditional, but mistaken view that long lines are barely patterned at all. It explains the widely-accepted methods for determining which syllables are metrically stressed and which are not: Give metrical stress to the syllables that in everyday Middle English were probably accented. 'Chapter Two: An Environment for Demotion in the B-Verse' introduces the relatively stringent metrical template of the b-verse as a foil for the different kind of meter at work in the a-verse. 'Chapter Three: Rhythmic Consistency in the Middle English Alliterative Long Line' examines the structure of the a-verse and considers the viability of verses with more than the normal two beats. An empirical investigation considers whether rhythmic consistency in the long line depends on three-beat a-verses. 'Chapter Four: Dynamic "Unmetre" and the Proscription against Three Sequential Iambs' posits an explanation for the unusual distributions of metrically unstressed syllables in the long line and finds that the 'Gawain'-poet's rhythms avoid the even alternation of beats and offbeats with uncanny precision. 'Chapter Five: Metrical Promotion, Linguistic Promotion, and False Extra-Long Dips' takes the rest of the dissertation as a foundation for explaining rhythmically puzzling a-verses. A-verses that seem to have excessively long sequences of offbeats and other a-verses that infringe on b-verse meter prove amenable to adjustment through metrical promotion. 'Conclusion: Metrical Regions in the Long Line' synthesizes the findings of the previous chapters in a survey of metrical tension in the long line. It additionally articulates the key theme of the dissertation: Contrary to traditional assumptions, Middle English alliterative long lines have variable, instead of consistent, numbers of beats and highly regulated, instead of liberally variable, arrangements of metrically unstressed syllables.Item Negotiating a contested identity : lesbian and gay parents' definitions of family(2014-08) Wagner, Sarah N.; Epps, Patience, 1973-This dissertation examines changes in the meaning of family and what this reveals about the complex, socially grounded mechanics of meaning-making more generally. Examining the discourse from interviews with 23 gay and lesbian parents, I show that they have very concrete and definable ideologies of family that reflect an American/ Western concept of kinship in which family is made up of those who are related by blood, marriage or adoption; as well as an understanding that family can also be chosen and therefore outside of traditional biogenetic structures. For these men and women, family of choice and the dominant American kinship structure are not mutually exclusive. Through an analysis of the participants' definitions of family, this dissertation finds that the parents gave both a narrow definition (that which includes only blood and legal relationships) and a broad definition (that which includes those not related by blood, marriage or adoption). Based on these definitions, both from the participants themselves and from those who have spoken out nationally against same-sex marriage and parenting, I apply Lakoff's Prototype Theory to offer a way to understand the disconnection between those who believe being gay and being a parent are incompatible, and those who see it as one of many types of family that do not conform to a dominant ideology. I identify a prototype of FAMILY made up of two radial categories to account for two central, yet opposed, ideologies, separated solely by whether parents could be the same sex. I also discuss the parents' positioning of their narratives toward local and nonlocal interactants and their use of generic and personal features in their discourse. The parents both draw upon external influences and become meaning-makers themselves through negotiations of their family identities in the context of dominant ideologies of family that often regard them as illegitimate. The outcomes of the negotiations that the parents undertake do not reflect a new, radical kind of family on the whole, but often a traditional sense of family that sometimes gets more broadly defined to include a supportive network of family and friends. The discursive micro-shifts in definition that these parents perform inform our understanding of the bridge between local negotiations and global shifts in ideology.