UWCScholar :: Browsing by Author "Williams, Quentin"

Browsing by Author "Williams, Quentin"

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Bark, smoke and pray: multilingual Rastafarian-herb sellers in a busy subway
(Taylor & Francis, 2017) Williams, Quentin
This paper is an analysis of how multilingual Rastafarian-herbalists organize multilingual and multimodal interactions in a subway. The rationale has been to understand the practice of multilingual repertoires by multilingual speakers in Cape Town marketplaces. It contributes to literature on language use in marketplaces by highlighting how linguistic and non-linguistic resources are drawn on and co-produced in interaction among Rastafarians who identify as informal herb traders. It also attempts to expand the theoretical apparatus of the sociolinguistics of globalization by introducing the notions of embodied rhythm and extreme locality. By applying these notions to how Rastafarian-herbalists organize multilingual and multimodal interaction in a subway, the analysis illustrates not only the importance of body positioning and bodily behaviour in multimodal communication, but also the emphasis on local languages and speech varieties that feature as important linguistic resources, and the multilingual performance of an extreme locality.
Battling the race: Stylizing language and coproducing whiteness and colouredness in a freestyle rap performance
(American Antrhopological Association, 2015) Williams, Quentin; Stroud, Christopher
In the last 19 years of post-apartheid South African democracy, race remains an enduring and familiar trope, a point of certainty amid the messy ambiguities of transformation. In the present article, we explore the malleable, permeable, and unstable racializations of contemporary South Arica, specifically the way in which coloured and white racializations are negotiated and interactionally accomplished in the context of Capetonian hip-hop. The analysis reveals the complex ways in which racialized bodies are figured semiotically through reference to historical time and contemporary (translocal) social space. But also the way iconic features of blackness are reindexicalized to stand for a transnational whiteness.
Beyond difference: A textual and interactional analysis of Afrikaner�s language use and identity in Cape Town
(University of the Western Cape, 2022) Roets, Carla Trudie; Williams, Quentin
In a post-national South Africa, spaces are transforming to accommodate multilingualism and address structures of sociolinguistic isolationism and exclusion. In such a transformative society embracing multilingualism is an integral component of challenging the hierarchization of languages and redressing the vulnerabilities of historically marginalized speakers to contribute to social transformation. However, there has been an increase in social enclaves in certain South African communities, concomitantly less open to embracing linguistic diversity over the years. This thesis investigated one instance of linguistic isolation, namely an Afrikaner enclave that has organized itself around the affirmation of linguistic human rights.
The identity construction and negotiation of 1.5 generation Congolese migrant youth in Cape Town, South Africa
(University of the Western Cape,, 2018) Mayoma, Jaclisse Lorene; Williams, Quentin
Globalization has evidently led to an increase in the flow of immigrants across the world, a fact that has and continues to play a significant role in the development of studies on immigration, immigration patterns and the psycho-social struggles that immigrants face; of which identity negotiation in the new context is included. A number of works have been done on the identity negotiation and identity-forming process of immigrant youth. This study attempts to highlight, rather specifically, the unique challenges that 1.5 generation immigrant youth have in forming their identities. Rumbaut coined the term �one-and-a-half generation� to describe �children of Cuban exiles who were born in Cuba but have come of age in the United States� (1976:8). Thus the 1.5 generation immigrant youth constitutes children who were born in their country of origin but was raised and received the education and important experiences in the host country. Hence, the issue of identity becomes important for adolescents such as the 1.5 generation growing up in Diasporic settings. How they come to define who they are, their place in the world and others� perception of them have significant implications for their successful integration into their new societies (Ogbuagu, 2013). This study takes a socio-cultural approach to investigating the identity negotiation and construction of 1.5 generation Congolese immigrant youth. Sociocultural linguistics refers to an interdisciplinary field which considers language as a sociocultural phenomenon? hence positioning identity as a phenomenon that is socially constructed through language and hence, performed within interaction and conversations.
Multilingualism in transformative spaces: contact and conviviality
(Springer Verlag, 2013) Williams, Quentin; Stroud, Christopher
South Africa is a highly mobile country characterized by historical displacements and contemporary mobilities, both social and demographic. Getting to grips with diversity, dislocation, relocation and anomie, as well as pursuing aspirations of mobility, is part of people�s daily experience that often takes place on the margins of conventional politics. A politics of conviviality is one such form of politics of the popular that emerges in contexts of rapid change, diversity, mobility, and the negotiation and mediation of complex affiliations and attachments. The questions in focus for this paper thus pertain to how forms of talk, born out of displacement, anomie and contact in the superdiverse contexts of South Africa, allow for the articulation of life-styles and aspirations that break with the historical faultlines of social and racial oppression. We first expand upon the idea of (marginal) linguistic practices as powerful mediations of political voice and agency, an idea that can be captured in the notion of linguistic citizenship, the rhetorical foundation of a politics of conviviality. We then move on to analyze the workings of linguistic citizenship in the multilingual practices of two distinct manifestations of popular culture, namely hip hop and a performance by a stand-up comedian in Mzoli�s meat market in Gugulethu, Cape Town. The paper concludes with a general discussion on the implications for politics of multilingualism and language policy.
Multilingualism remixed: Sampling, braggadocio and the stylisation of local voice
(Department of General Linguistics, Stellenbosch University., 2013) Williams, Quentin; Stroud, Christopher
Among the many challenges posed by contexts of social transformation and extensive mobility is the question of how multilingual voice may carry across media, modalities and context. In this paper, we suggest that one approach to this complex problem may be to look at multilingual voice from a sociolinguistic perspective of performance. Our focus here is thus on how marginalised voices on the periphery of Cape Town become mainstreamed within the city�s hip-hop community. Specifically, we ask how emcees sample local varieties of language, texts and registers to stage their particular stylisation of voice. By way of conclusion, we make brief recommendations with respect to the study of multilingualism in South Africa and how the stylisation of local voices in Cape Town hip-hop could inform studies on multilingual policy and planning.
Rastafarian-herbalists' enregisterment of multilingual voices in an informal marketplace
(Department of General Linguistics, Stellenbosch University., 2016) Williams, Quentin
What do we mean when we talk about "multilingual voice" in the post-apartheid sociolinguistic context of South Africa? In this paper, I explore this question by reporting on an ethnographic fieldwork project that involved the participant-observation of Rastafarian-herbalists trading goods in an informal marketplace. I focus in the paper on Rastafarian-herbalists' language practices and participation in ideological debates surrounding the ethics of Rastafarian religious practices as they navigate the complex yet regimented linguistic landscape of the informal marketplace in which they trade their goods. Furthermore, I explore in the paper how the marginalized trading lives of the Rastafarian-herbalists are characterized by the daily negotiation of power and diversity discourses as they try to define their voices. Their engagement with diverse multilingual populations, I argue, not only provides them with excellent opportunities to expand their multilingual repertoires, but also teaches them to manage strategically "multilingual voices" in interaction in order to sell their products. I argue further that although we cannot take stock of all types of marginalization, we should develop sociolinguistic approaches that are not only sympathetic to the marginalization of people and languages in the everyday, but also attune our methodologies to accurately capture experiences in small places such as the ones where Rastafarian-herbalists trade.
Schooling superdiversity: Linguistic features as linguistic resources in two Manenberg classrooms in the Western Cape
(University of the Western Cape, 2017) Madell, Madelynne; Williams, Quentin; Stroud, Christopher
This thesis takes on a non-essentialist view of language by studying the borrowing of linguistic features across languages as natural, everyday language practices. More specifically, this research identifies the need for the accommodation of linguistic diversity and multi-layered repertoires amongst pupils in two monoglossic grade R classes in the area of Manenberg, Western Cape. As a means of accommodating the linguistic diversity and mixed linguistic repertoires of pupils in these two classrooms, it is investigated how the borrowing of linguistic features can be utilized as a linguistic resource in these diverse classrooms. Furthermore, this research also studies how the language ideologies of the teachers of the two grade R classes could possibly influence the absence or the presence of the borrowing of linguistic features in these spaces. This study made use of research methods which closely resemble methods ethnographic in nature, by mainly making use of observations to study the natural spoken discourse of two grade R teachers and their pupils in the domain of the classroom. Moreover, these two grade R classes and the area in which the schools are located, were studied as possible superdiverse spaces as these classes are made up of diverse groups of pupils which reside in the community of Manenberg, where diversity is increasing. The discussion on whether the community of Manenberg and the two classrooms studied can be regarded as superdiverse spaces, takes on an interrogative perspective in the concluding chapter of this thesis.
A social semiotic approach to multimodality in the Vagina Varsity YouTube campaign series
(University of the Western Cape, 2019) Roux, Shanleigh Dannica; Peck, Amiena; Banda, Felix; Williams, Quentin
This study investigated the semiotic resources used by Vagina Varsity, a campaign by sanitary towel brand Libresse on the social media platform YouTube to construct meanings around the female body. Vagina Varsity is a South African online advertising campaign on YouTube which marketed their sanitary products, whilst educating, as well as breaking the social stigma, around the black female body. In this study, YouTube was utilized as a space in which to analyze online identities and communication. The study was located within the field of linguistic landscape (LL) studies, including the sub-field virtual linguistic landscapes (VLL), later reformulated as virtual semioscapes. The conceptual framework was undergirded by multimodality/multisemioticity and feminist theory. The study used a mixed methods approach to data collection, and used a virtual linguistic ethnography (VLE) framework to collect the data sources, which included YouTube videos, YouTube comments, and emails. A focus group interview was also conducted, where the Vagina Varsity videos were shown to a group of diverse youth at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa. The embodied discourses which emerged, as well as the discourse strategies of the commentators, were multimodally analysed. The study found that the Vagina Varsity course makes use of multiple modes, including embodied semiotics such as gestures and stylizations of voice, visual modes such as cartoon figures, as well as the strategic use of sound. In addition, the study found that educational content and marketing strategies are both embedded in this campaign, with the educational content overshadowing the advertising aspect. It is for this reason that the YouTube comments and focus group interview were centered on the program itself and not the advertisement. Furthermore, when looking at the medium this campaign used, one sees that the virtual space allows for the teaching of taboo topics, which would not be allowed in traditional educational domains. The virtual space is not only bridging the knowledge gap in the topic of sex education, it also bridges the gap between different communities, as the YouTube comment section allows for people to interact across regional, national and even cultural boundaries. This study also found that Vagina Varsity not only recontextualized the educational genre, but they have also recontextualized the production and consumption of a topic which would otherwise be considered taboo. In terms of the implications for the study, one finds that the stigma that is attached to this subject is removed from this content. Although one cannot say for certain that this type of education will take over the African traditional initiation ceremonies for girls, for example, it can be used to complement some of the content that traditional counselors and social workers use to teach young African women. The fact that the program is formalized in a curriculum that can be found online opens up possibilities for open dialogue across cultures and nations in terms of feminine hygiene. This study contributes to the field of Linguistic Landscapes studies, with specific focus on virtual linguistic landscapes. The study also illustrates that the affordances of the online space allows for a hybrid edutainment space where people can learn about topics which are considered taboo in the domain of formal education. This study also extends the concept of multimodality, by including notions such as semiotic remediation and resemiotization, as well as immediacy and hypermediacy, as tools of multimodal analysis. This study also contributes to studies on gender and sexuality.
Space/place matters
(CMDR 2017, 2017) Milani, Tommaso M.; Williams, Quentin; Stroud, Christopher
This special issue of Multilingual Margins on the theme of �Space/ place matters� has its origin in a doctoral summer school organised in December 2016 by the Department of Linguistics and the Centre for Multilingualism and Diversities Research at the University of the Western Cape as part of a collaboration with the University of Oslo and three other South African universities � Stellenbosch University, University of Cape Town and University of the Witwatersrand � and financed by Research Council of Norway�s programme International Partnerships for Excellent Education, Research and Innovation (INTPART). Doctoral students based in Norway and South Africa attended the summer school, presented their research projects, and were encouraged to submit an article to Multilingual Margins. This was with a view to training budding scholars to deal with the peer-review process of academic publishing. This special issue is the material outcome of this process and includes three articles that have a common interest in unpicking the complex relationship between language and space/place
Talk and play as interactions among bilingual children in Beacon Valley, Mitchell�s Plain
(University of the Western Cape, 2022) Baatjes, Mullisa; Williams, Quentin
This study investigates talk and play as interactions in a �small context� among so-called coloured bilingual children and their interactions amongst themselves in the community of Beacon Valley (Mitchell�s Plain). One of the few communities to emerge from apartheid�s ruins, Beacon Valley, as a community, has given shape to bilingual children�s identities, i.e the way they talk and play as a result of bilingual (English, Afrikaans) contact through individual interactions.This study builds on the pioneering interactional study of Marjorie Goodwin�s �He-Said-She- Said: Talk as Social Organization Among Black Children �(1990), which focussed on a selected group of bilingual children and particularly on peer-to-peer interaction.
Talking parts, talking back: Fleshing out linguistic citizenship
(UNICAMP, 2020) Stroud, Christopher; Williams, Quentin; Bontiya, Ndimphiwe
These are the bodies of children and men and women who have inherited the brutalities of colonialism, plantation servitude and slavery and now re-live these miseries in the belly of a rampant global neoliberal and patriarchal capitalism. They are the racialized, sexualized, genderized and godless bodies that first took form in coloniality-modernity in conjunction with the emergence of MAN, the White, rational, disembodied male as HUMAN. They retain their shape today through technologies of vulnerability, with which the manufactured lack of voice works in dynamic synergy. This is particularly the case for South Africa, with its tender histories and distraught presents, raw emotion and sore vulnerabilities of racialized and neoliberal patriarchy. In this paper, we suggest that vulnerability, beyond its potentially devastating effect on souls and livelihoods, may also be a productive site for the articulation of alternative, and habitually silenced voices. In this regard, we explore how a focus on acts of Linguistic Citizenship may orientate thinking on voice and agency to different sites of the body, as well as allow insight into the complex technologies and practices of vulnerability.
The visual representation of female masculinity in Marvel and DC comic books
(University of the Western Cape, 2020) McCullum, Yannick; Williams, Quentin
This thesis seeks to understand the visual representation of female masculinity in Marvel and DC comic books, and further contribute to the fields of linguistics and gender studies. The subject matter discussed issues around gender identity, masculinity, and visual representation. Currently, there is a lack of literature available on the subject matter of female masculinity in comic books, therefore creating a gap in knowledge about how women are being represented in comic books. The goal of this thesis was to contribute to this knowledge, and in doing so, further adding more knowledge about the subject matter for future researchers in the field. The theoretical framework included a diverse approach of social theories and perspectives, namely: Multimodal Discourse Analysis, Intertextuality, Dialogicality, and Queer Theory. The goals of this thesis were to understand the various modes used in the representation of female masculinity that have evolved over time, and how these modes contribute to developing characters who challenge the traditional gender norms and rules. The data that was used for this thesis was collected from comic books in which female characters are in leading roles, namely Captain Marvel (Carol Danvers) and Wonder Woman.
Youth multilingualism and discourses of disability: An intersectional approach
(University of the Western Cape, 2018) Richardson, Jason; Williams, Quentin
Disability, as a topic of investigation, is considerably overlooked in the discipline of sociolinguistics. This thesis aims to bridge the gap between disability and sociolinguistics studies, as I critically explore the role language and multilingualism plays in the way we understand and construct the discourses of disability. Based on a year-long ethnographic study at what is defined as a �special needs school�, I offer a first-hand description of being a researcher with a disability through personal anecdotes. In these anecdotes, I account for my own positionality to highlight the importance of reflectivity and positionality when doing ethnographic fieldwork. Aside from these personal anecdotes, I also capture everyday interactions among young disabled people. In order to analyse these disabled youth multilingual interactions, I applied the notions of stylization, enregisterment and embodied intersectionality. In these examinations, we are able to see how multilingualism is used to negotiate a position of being seen as disabled. By looking at these personal anecdotes and everyday interactions as whole, the study provides a more comprehensive view of the way we talk and represent disability. I conclude this thesis by offering a new direction for disability and youth multilingualism studies, a direction that emphasises the importance of positionality when doing research on the agency of disabled people.
Youth multilingualism and popular culture interactions at His People Pentecostal Church
(University of the Western Cape, 2017) Cornelissen, Tara-Leigh; Williams, Quentin
Youth multilingualism is an overarching notion that accounts for the dynamic macroand micro-linguistic practices and interactions in contexts and spaces redefined by cultural practices. It makes contributions to interactional sociolinguistic research, by centring around young multilingual speaker's practices, with a focus on creativity, identity and community of practice. This study demonstrates how youth multilingualism emerges in interactions in a religious youth group. For the purpose of this study, I collected interactional data from two youth groups belonging to His People Pentecostal Church that reflects the use of language by young people while taking into account their gender and race. The data was collected by means of audio recordings that focused specifically on the young multilingual speakers' naturally occurring talk. I made use of conversational analysis and stylization as an interlinked framework to analyse the collected data. Furthermore, this study also made use of interviews to further investigate language, gender and race at the church through the eyes of both the youth leaders and the youth members. Finally, in this project, I argue that in terms of language use, there is a large discrepancy between the two youth groups and how they stylize their multilingualism.
Youth multilingualism in South Africa's hip-hop culture: a metapragmatic analysis
(Equinox publishing, 2016) Williams, Quentin
This paper describes the practice of youth multilingualism in South Africa's hip-hop culture, in an online social media space and an advertising space. Based on a multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork study of youth multilingual practices, comprising of the following data sets - multilingual interviews, observations, multilingual interactions and performances, documents and online social networking interactions - the paper reports on how young multilingual speakers active in the hip-hop culture of the country talk and write about the intermixing of racial and ethnic speech forms, as well as use registers in the practice of gendered identities. The argument I put forth in the paper is that the examples of youth multilingualism suggest a complex picture of youth multilingual contact in postcolonial South Africa, and one that require a sociocultural linguistic response that accounts for the cultural influence of youth multilingualisms in local hip-hop culture. To such an end, I suggest that multilingual policy planning in the country should be readjusted to the complex sociocultural changes we see emerge with youth multilingual practices.

Browsing by Author "Williams, Quentin"

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