This study analyzed the meanings given to the Brazilian National Men's Health Policy (PNAISH) by those involved in its implementation to find out how a policy formulated at national level is reflected in local contexts. In five cities, from each macro region of the country, a set of 6 narratives and 21 semi-structured interviews were held with health managers and professionals; the information ...

Unlike homophonous meanings, which are semantically unrelated (e.g., the use of bat to refer to a baseball bat and a flying rodent), polysemous meanings are systematically related to one another (e.g., the use of book, CD, and video to refer to physical objects, as in 'the leather book', or to the intellectual content they contain, as in 'the profound book'). But do perceived relations among po...

The current study qualitatively examined blurbs in the discipline of physics which is perceived to be less infused with evaluative resources and more objective and impersonal in its textual argumentation. The study followed the appraisal framework proposed by Martin and White (2005) to see how interpersonal meaning is textually constructed in blurbs. Findings indicated that writers of the blurb...

BACKGROUND The clinical importance and efficacy of facemasks in infection prevention have been documented in the international literature. Past studies have shown that the perceived susceptibility, the perceived severity of being afflicted with life-threatening diseases, and the perceived benefits of using a facemask are predictors of a person's use of a facemask. However, I argue that people w...

Eckert (2008) asserts, based on empirical findings, that cues exist within indexical fields: Each cue is indexed with multiple potential meanings, one of which is activated by the perspective of the listener as well as the context and content of the utterance. What is less established is how multiple cues, indexed with inter-related potential meanings, are effectuated. For example, when three d...

Recent literature in science education suggests that, to transform girls’ participation, learning, and identities within school science, we must think about ways to engage girls in different kinds of educational activities that promote broader meanings of science and scientist. This study was designed to examine more deeply this call for a changed science curriculum and its implications for gir...