Philosophiae Doctor - PhD (Linguistics, Language and Communication)

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Kaapse Afrikaans
(University of the Western Cape, 1983) Klopper, Rembrandt. Marius; Eksteen, L.C.
This study entails an analysis of the inherent grammatical and phonological variation which are characteristic of Cape Afrikaans. On the basis of the inherent variation which is documented in the preliminary part of this study, the relationship between inherent phonological variation and language change is analyzed by means of a deductive validation procedure in the central part of it. In the first ..chapter the epistemological basis of this study is set out, and a review is given of various empirical validation procedures, and criticism of linguistic analysis by means of deductive validation is evaluated. The research methodology, i.e. the field work and quantification techniques for the deductive analysis of Afrikaans� cassette recordings of 139 Cape Afrikaans respondents is documented in chapter two. In the third chapter it is argued that the proposed analysis of inherent linguistic variation and langu�ge change can best be conducted within the framework of the sociocultural context of pragmatic language use rather than within a theory of linguistic competence The fourth chapter commences with a brief review of the various domains of language change and is followed by evidence from a wide variety of languages which suggests that sociocultural factors play a major role during language change. The chapter is concluded with the proposal that language change can best be studied within the framework of linguistic -variation which William Labov pioneered. The fifth chapter consists of a review of phonological, lexical and syntactic variation inherent in cape Afrikaans. The findings of this study are reported in the sixth and final chapter. The study concludes that inherent linguistic variation forms the basis for the sociocultural stratification of Cape Afrikaans and that tt also serves as the mechanism for linguistic change in this variety of Afrikaans.
History of southern sotho literature as system, 1930-1960
(University of the Western Cape, 1991) Maphike, P.R.S; Swanepoel, C.F; Lenake, J.M
Distinct from the traditional text analysis whereby little or no attention is paid to factors controlling the emergence and being of a text and their possible input, and studying certain recognised authors and recognised works, the systemic approach conceived by Youri Tynjanov, devised by ltamar Even-Zohar and simplified by Jose Lambert, seeks to recognise the main structures of literary systems and structures in their evolution by taking into cognizance literary phenomena and their general relationships with other literary and artistic systems. This hypothesis replaces the usual collection and analysis of data on the basis of their material substance with a functional approach that is based on the analysis of relations. Literary texts are viewed against the total background of the author and the total circumstances which lead to and controlled their production
Language, identity and nationhood: language use and attitudes among Xhosa students at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa
(University of the Western Cape, 2000) Dyers, Charlyn; Charlyn, Dyers; Ridge, S.G.M.; Banda, Felix; Dept. of Linguistics, Language and Communication; Faculty of Arts
This thesis is a study of patterns of language attitudes and use among Xhosa home language speakers at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa. Speakers of Xhosa, according to Statistics South Africa 2000, form the second largest speech community in South Africa (17.9% of the total population), second only to speakers of Zulu (22.9% of the total population). The University of the Western Cape, which is situated just outside Cape Town, was originally intended to serve only the Coloured (mixed-race) population of South Africa. Coloureds form the majority group in the population of the Western Cape, one of the nine provinces of South Africa. In 1982, the university took the bold step of defying the apartheid regime, by opening its doors to students of all races. Students from all over South Africa now attend the university, but Xhosa students, drawn mainly from the provinces of the Eastern and Western Cape, form the largest language group or speech community on the campus. The thesis presents a study of the patterns of language attitudes and use with which Xhosa students enter the university, as well as patterns of change in language attitudes and use revealed by a longitudinal study of a smaller group of Xhosa students.
The sublime, imperialism and the African landscape
(University of the Western Cape, 2004) Wittenberg, Hermann; Parr, A.N
In this dissertation the author argued for a postcolonial reading of the sublime that takes into account the racial and gendered underpinnings of Immanuel Kant's and Edmund Burke's classic theories. The thesis used the understanding of the sublime as a lens for an analysis of the cultural politics of landscape in a range of late imperial and early modern texts about Africa. A re-reading of Henry Morton Stanley's central African exploration narratives, John Buchan's African fiction and political writing, and later texts such as Alan Paton's fiction, autobiographies and travel writing, together with an analysis of colonial mountaineering discourse, suggest that non-metropolitan discourses of the sublime, far from being an outmoded rhetoric, could manage and contain the contradictions inherent in the aesthetic appreciation and appropriation of contested colonial landscapes.
Exploring the link between literacy practices, the rural-urban dimension and academic performance of primary school learners in Uganda district, Uganda
(University of the Western Cape, 2005) Kirunda, Rebecca Florence; Banda, Felix; NULL; Faculty of Arts
This study aimed at establishing and analysing the literacy practices in the rural and urban communities and their effect on the academic achievements of learners. It also aimed to establish the impact of other factors, such as the exposure to the language of examination, the level of parents formal education and the quality of parental mediation in the their children's academic work, which could be responsible for the imbalance between the rural and urban learners academic achievements. This study endeavours to established that the literacy practices in urban areas prepare learners for schooled and global literacies while the literacies in rural areas are to localised and thus impoverish the learners initial literacy development. This study also seek to determine the extent to which the current language policy in education in Uganda favours the urban learners at the expense of the rural learners as far as the acculturation into and acquisition of the schooled and global literacies are concerned.
Academic writing as social practice: a critical discourse analysis of student writing in higher education in Tanzania
(University of the Western Cape, 2006) Mohamed, Hashim Issa; Banda, Felix; Dept. of Linguistics, Language and Communication; Faculty of Arts
This thesis was a critical analysis of students academic second language writing at Sokoine University of Agriculture. Student writing in English as a second language in higher education has excited much interest in the English as a Second Language writing research and discussion in Tanzania. The interest was motivated by frequent criticisms from examiners regarding students literacy performance in the English as a Second Language writing in the post primary and higher education where the language of instruction is English as is configured in the Tanzanian language policy.
Language use and mode of communication in community development projects in Nyanza province, Kenya
(University of the Western Cape, 2006) Oketch, Omondi; Banda, Felix; Dept. of Linguistics, Language and Communication; Faculty of Arts
The concept of community development is founded on the premise that changes in the living conditions of people are best effected by the people themselves. The term community evokes the idea of a homogeneous social group who can recognise their common interests and work together harmoniously for their common good. The concerns of the leading development agents and donors in the past two decades have been on empowering communities to participate in their own development by taking control of decisions and initiatives that seek to improve their living conditions. The zeal to address these concerns has in the past decade been pushed with such resounding statements that people’s participation in development projects has not only been seen as a basic human right, but also as an imperative condition for human survival. It has been strongly argued in the UNDP reports that the overall development strategy is to enable people to gain access to a much broader range of opportunities.From this perspective, development as a social activity seeks to ensconce economic liberalisation, freedom of association, good governance and access to free market economy as the guiding tenets of an improved life in all communities in the world. The realization of this dream posed a major challenge to many governments in the Third World and the 1980s saw the emergence of ‘associational revolution’ – the proliferation of small-scale non governmental organizations (NGOs) with relative autonomy from the state. The mainstream development agencies perceived the NGOs as the best instruments to instigate changes in the living conditions of the poor and the disadvantaged people. For this reason, NGOs became increasingly instrumental in implementing development objectives in the rural and disadvantaged communities. Development in this sense consists of processes in which various groups are stimulated to improve aspects of their lives particularly by people from outside their community. This has drawn attention to how these outsider- development agents communicate development information particularly due to the sociolinguistic situation in many rural African communities. The real concern is with is that the target majority of the people in the rural areas are not speakers of the dominant languages of the development discourse, in most cases this is the official foreign languages taught in schools.Communication is a fundamental part in community development programmes and language emerges as a key factor in effective communication and implementation of these programmes. While it is evident that social interactions are sustained by agreeable communicative principles, the role of language and the different mode of communication applied to development interventions have received very little attention from the parties concerned. This has yielded detrimental repercussions in the quality of interaction at the grassroots level. More often than not, it is assumed that once there is a common language, effective communication will take place and for this reason language use and mode of communication are never given much thought in the field of development interaction.
An investigation into English second language academic writing strategies for black students at the Eastern Cape technikon
(University of the Western Cape, 2006) Tshotsho, Baba Primrose; Banda, Felix; Dept. of Linguistics, Language and Communication; Faculty of Arts
This study has been prompted by the negative remarks that lecturers make concerning the academic performance of students and the number of years they spend at the Eastern Cape Technikon before completing their diplomas. The aim of this study was to identify the kinds of strategies that English Second Language (ESL) students use to cope with English language writing tasks. Academic writing requires a conscious effort and much practice in composing, developing, and analyzing ideas. Black students at tertiary institutions in South Africa face additional difficulty, especially when they have to deal with writing in English which is an unfamiliar language to them. This presents them with social and cognitive challenges related to second language acquisition. Since the black students do not often consider the social contexts in which L2 academic writing takes place, models of L1 writing instruction and research on composing processes are often found wanting in their L2 writing pedagogy. In this study, I argue that language proficiency and competence is the cornerstone of the ability to write in the L2 in a fundamental way. L2 writing instructors should take into account both strategy development and language skill development when working with black students. This is critical in South Africa considering the apartheid legacy and the deprived social conditions under which black students often live and acquire their education. Therefore, using critical discourse analysis and aspects of systemic functional linguistics, this study explores errors in written cohesion and coherence in relation to L2 writing strategies used by black students at the Eastern Cape Technikon. The study focuses on errors in the form of cohesive devices of referring expressions using topic development used by students. The aim was to explore the strategies used by black students to write coherent academic texts. Further, the study intends to scrutinize the grammatical devices of reference, through analyzing the forms of cohesive devices and theme development. A focus on the writing process as a pedagogical tool enables me to explore the relationship between the quality of students‟ academic writing and coping strategies used, and come up with a model of L2 writing (coping) strategies for academic writing at the Eastern Cape Technikon. I investigate the L2 writing process adopted by competent and non-competent black students in the process of producing coherent academic texts by comparing strategies that the two groups of students adopt.
A discourse analysis of selected truth and reconciliation commission testimonies: appraisal and genre
(University of Western Cape, 2007) Bock, Zannie; Banda, Felix
This thesis is a discourse analysis of five testimonies from South Africa�s Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The aim of the analysis is to explore the ways in which the testifiers perform their identities, construe their experiences of life under apartheid, and position themselves and their audiences in relation to these experiences. The shaping role of context � both local and historical � is also considered.
A Linguistic and textual analysis of classroom english interaction at Al-thadi University in Libya
(University of the Western Cape, 2007) Eldokali, Elsanosi Mohamed; Banda, Felix; Dept. of Linguistics, Language and Communication; Faculty of Arts
This study uses an interdisciplinary approach in the analytical framework combining Systemic Functional Linguuistic theoty (SFL) (Martin 1992; Halliday 19994) and critical discourse analysis (CDA) (Wodak 7 meyer 2001; Fairclough 1989, 1993, 1995, 2001). Further, the study draws on christie's (1997, 2001, 2002, 2005) work on classroom discourse analysis, which in turn builds on Bernstein's (1990, 1996, 2000) model on pedagogic practice and interaction, to examine dominanceand power relationsin the classroom. The interdisciplinary approach enabled this study to evaluate Al-Thadi university students' English language competence, linguistically and textually.
Transcending disadvantage: life-histories of learners at a township school in South Africa
(University of the Western Cape, 2008) Ntete, Susan; Dyers, Charlyn; Dept. of English; Faculty of Arts
This is a study of the discourses of empowerment and disempowerment that emerge from the critical discourse analysis (CDA) of life-histories written by two classes of Grade 11 high school learners in a township school in Cape Town, South Africa. The line of argument presented by this thesis is that there are political, socio-economic, familial and institutional factors and the discourses that construct them which affect learners’ resilience.
Investigating Kiswahili academic literacy: the case of two primary and two secondary schools in Morogoro region, Tanzania
(University of the Western Cape, 2009) Shumbusho, George N.; Stroud, Christopher; Dept. of Linguistics, Language and Communication; Faculty of Arts
The purpose of the current study was to examine whether pupils/students master academic literacy and if various genres are taught appropriately. In other words whether pupils/students master academic literacy in a way that would allow them to benefit from a transition into Kiswahili as a language of instruction at secondary school level and probably beyond. The study was carried out in two primary and two secondary schools in Morogoro and Mvomero Districts of Morogoro region in Tanzania. The study is essentially qualitative, and employed ethnographic design. In this regard, three methods of data collection were used namely: interviews, classroom observations and texts analysis. The study is located within the New Literacy Studies (NLS) perspective as a general interpretative theoretical framework. The analysis of data was done using Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), Genre analysis and Christie's Curriculum genres and macrogenres.
Exploring the micro-social dynamics of intergenerational language transmission: a critical analysis of parents's attitudes and language use patterns among Ndamba speakers in Tanzania
(University of the Western Cape, 2010) Lipembe, Pembe Peter Agustini; Stroud, Christopher; Dept. of Linguistics, Language and Communication; Faculty of Arts
The study has several implications; for general theoretical traditions it highlights the point that ambivalent attitudes and incomplete language use are responsible for gradual language decline. Previous studies while acknowledging the role of community based, intuitive conditions on language maintenance and shift, did not show how the process occurred. For policy the study aims toward sensitizing policy makers and raise their awareness about the dire situation in which minority languages currently are in. This would ensure that politicians, bureaucrats, and other state authorities could implement policy decisions that guarantee protection of minority languages and enhance their vitality. One policy strategy that could ensure revitalization of minority languages would be to include them in the school curriculum as supplementary approach to the effort of the home and the community, as McCarty (2002, quoted in Recento, 2006) observes that schools; [�] �can be constructed as a place where children can be free to be indigenous in the indigenous language - in all of its multiple and everchanging meanings and forms� (p. 51).
A contextual analysis of compound nouns in Shona lexicography
(University of the Western Cape, 2011) Mheta, Gift; Banda, Felix; Dept. of Linguistics, Language and Communication; Faculty of Arts
This research is in the area of lexicography and investigates the relationship between Shona terminology development and the culture of the language community for which the terminology is intended. It is a contextual analysis of compound nouns found in Shona terminological dictionaries. The study specifically explores how lexicographers together with health, music, language and literature specialists make use of their knowledge about Shona cultural contexts in the creation of compound nouns. Thus, this research foregrounds Shona socio-cultural contexts and meaning generation in terminology development. This study employs a quadruple conceptual framework. The four components of the framework that are utilised are the Traditional Descriptive Approach (TDA), Cognitive Approach (CG), Systemic Functional Approach (SFL), and Semiotic Remediation (SRM). TDA is used in the linguistic categorisation of Shona compound nouns. In addition, it provides the metalanguage with which to describe the constituent parts of Shona compound nouns. As TDA is mainly confined to the linguistic dimension, this research employs CG, SFL, and SRM to explore the cultural and socio-cognitive dimensions of terminology development.
A taxonomy of problems in arabic-english Translation: a systemic functional Linguistics approach Tawffeek abdou
(University of the Western Cape, 2011) Mohammed, Tawffeek Abdou Saeed; Banda, Felix
Working with Arab students pursuing a degree in English Language and Translation at the Taiz University, Republic of Yemen, has brought to the researcher?s attention a number of errors or problems encountered in Arabic to English translation. This study aims to investigate the problems encountered by student translators (STs), novice translators (NTs) as well as more experienced translators (Ts) while translating from Arabic into English. The study starts with the assumption that Arabic and English belong to different families of languages and thus there is rarely a word-for-word equivalence in both languages. The present study is cross-sectional in nature. It is based on empirical data collected from several categories of translators. In other words, the data was collected from fourth-year students in the department of English and Translation in the Faculty of Arts, Taiz University, as well as five NTs who have previously graduated from this department and are currently working in a number of accredited translation offices in Taiz. The study also investigates the challenges faced by Ts. For this purpose, a novel, a tourist brochure, an editorial, and three academic abstracts all translated by established publishing houses and translation centres in and outside Yemen are examined. These texts are analyzed to determine to what extent the problems faced by STs and NTs reoccur in published translations produced by Ts. For its conceptual framework, the study adopts an eclectic approach that does not stick rigidly to a particular paradigm but rather draws upon multiple linguistic and translation theories. However, it is mainly based on Halliday?s Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG) and the problems have been classified along his taxonomy of meaning metafunctions into ideational, interpersonal and textual. Extra-textual problems are also analyzed. Several SFG-based translation models such as Hatim and Mason?s (1990) sociometic model, House?s (1977, 1997) translation quality assessment model, Hervey et al. (1992) register analysis model and Baker?s (1990) equivalence model are also employed in the study to help the researcher examine the problems encountered in Arabic-English translation within those four categories. In addition, Nord?s functional model to translation which is based on Skopos theory is also taken into consideration although to a minimum extent. In addition to the analysis of translations produced by various categories of translators, the study uses several triangulation research tools such as questionnaire, Thinking Aloud Protocols (TAPs), retrospective interviews, and classroom observation. These tools are employed to assist the researcher to identify the possible causes for the problems the STs, NTs, and Ts experience from the perspective of the participants themselves. The current translation programme at Taiz University is also analyzed to determine to what extent it contributes to the poor performance of the student translators and would-be translators. The study concludes that STs, NTs and even Ts encounter several problems at the ideational, interpersonal and textual levels. They also encounter problems at the extra-textual stratum. The study attributes these problems to structural and cultural differences between the two languages, the reliance on the dictionary rather than the meaning in use of lexical items, the differences in the cohesion and coherence systems of Arabic and English, the negligence of the role of context in translation as well as unfamiliarity with text-typologies and genre conventions. In other words, participants follow a bottom-up approach in translation and come close to the source text translating it literally. This approach is very damaging because it ignores the fact that the three metafunctions might be realized differently in the two languages. Furthermore, the study concludes that the manner in which translation is taught at Taiz University as well as the syllabus contribute mainly to the lack of translation competence of the student translators and would-be translators. The programme is inadequate and it needs urgent review and improvements. The present syllabus does not keep abreast with the latest theoretical and practical developments in the discipline of translation as well as neighbouring disciplines such as contrastive linguistics, text-analysis, discourse analysis, corpus linguistics and the like. As for methodology, the study concludes that it is the transmissionist (teacher-centred) teaching approach rather than the transformational (learner-centred) which is commonly used in teaching translation. As a result, the read-and-translate approach dominates the scene and no tasks, activities, or projects are given to the STs. The study provides some recommendations, which if implemented, can be useful in enabling Yemeni and Arab universities to improve the competence among student translators in order to improve translation teaching at academic level. A major contribution of this study is the description and classification of translation problems in Arabic-English translation on the basis of meaning systems. Unlike traditional descriptive error analysis, which is widely used to analyze the translation product, SFG-based text analysis provides a systematic description of translation problems which allows a precise articulation of the nature of problems that would otherwise be explained simply as translations which �sound unnatural or awkward� (Kim 2008; Yallop 1999). As far as the researcher knows, no study in the Arab world has yet tackled translation problems from this perspective. Other studies have tackled deviated forms produced by students or translators using an error analysis technique rather than a holistic approach based on solid theoretical knowledge. In other words, while most other studies focused on specific �errors? and error analysis and ended at that, the present study does not only looks at �errors? as �difference? (from contrastive analysis) but rather from several perspectives. It is also more comprehensive by triangulating several sources of data and pooling them together for a more informed understanding.
Textuality in near-synonyms translations of the Holy Qur??n into english
(2011) Sowaidi, Belqes Saif Abdulelah A.L.; Banda, Felix
The Holy Qur??n, like the Bible, is an acknowledged literary masterpiece. Its linguistic and aesthetic vivacity with an amalgam of religious beliefs, moral values, religious social orthodoxy and historical backgrounds pose a great challenge to any translator and make the task overwhelmingly arduous, if not unattainable. The study aims at examining the problems the Qur??n translators encounter while translating near-synonyms from Arabic into English. It is based on the translations of two professional translators namely, Yusuf Ali and T.B. Irving. The translations provide an empirical basis for the discussion of the problems while translating Qur??nic texts into English. The corpus for the present study includes the translations of four near-synonymous pairs namely, ghayth and ma?ar,al-?ilf and al-qasm, bakh?l and sha??? and ??qir and ?aq?m in their Qur??nic context. The two translated texts are compared to determine to which extent the translations reflect the referential and the connotative meaning of the original Qur??nic text as well as to which extent they maintain the textuality standards such as cohesion,coherence, informativity, situationality and acceptability, intentionality and intertextuality. In short, the study sets out to identify the problematic areas in the translated Qur??nic texts at the lexical and textual levels with a view to determining what makes one translation better than the other, or what brings one translation closer to the original text than the other.The study is an intersection between Qur??nic exegeses (tafs?r) and applied linguistics. The researcher consults different books on translation theories as well as of Qur??nic exegeses(tafs?r) to facilitate the process of analyzing the near-synonyms in their Qur??nic context. The researcher opts for eclecticism, instead of confining to a particular rigid model or approach,which is a combination of text-analysis translation-oriented approaches of De Beaugrande & Dressler (1981); Neubert & Shreve (1992); Halliday (1994) and Hatim & Mason (1990). In addition, the study draws upon the multiple and theoretical implications of Nida�s dynamic equivalence, Beekman & Callow�s (1974) historical and dynamic fidelity and Gutt�s (1991) relevance theory and the emphasis on communication as mainly context-dependent. These models are closely related and reliable in the process of analyzing and evaluating the problems encountered in Arabic-English translation of the Qur??nic near-synonyms. Furthermore, the researcher suggests an outline approach for the process of analyzing the Qur??nic near-synonyms translations in a systemic and organized way thereby ensuring maximum and effective communication of the Qur??nic message.The study concludes that the Qur??n translator, compared to other literary genres, faces many difficulties in translating the Qur??nic ST message. The selected translations of the Holy Qur??n have failed to measure up to the depth of the Qur??nic message, its originality and the connotative shades of meanings of the original expression. The study attributes these problems to contextual, socio-cultural, theological and historical factors which create differences that lead to gaps or absence of lexicalization in the TT. Furthermore, the reliance on dictionary meaning rather than the meaning of the lexical item in context, the negligence of context culture as well as the context of situation (the reason for the revelation of the verses) affect the �periodicity� of the text as indicated by Martin & Rose (2007, p.187), that is, the information flow of the whole text.Accordingly, this affects maintaining the standards of textuality and the fidelity which a religious text should meet. The complexity of the Qur??n as a genre is a great challenge to the translator at both the lexical and textual levels, which dilutes the authenticity of the holy text and misrepresents its true message. The conclusion of the study which contains recommendations based on experience may prove helpful to the future novice and professional translators to improve the quality of translation in general and religious translation in particular.The study is a contribution towards a greater understanding of the subtle differences between the near-synonymous pairs in their Qur??nic context through Arabic-English translation. It is a novel addition to the world of religious translation, Qur??n translation, ?ad?th and fiqh in English. It also contributes to some extent to modern exegeses of the Qur??n. It is hoped that the work will encourage further studies in the field of translation to employ a context-based linguistic approach to translating different genres and sacred texts in particular, integrating insights from applicable translation and linguistic approaches.
Negotiation of identities and language practices among Cameroonian immigrants in Cape Town
(University of the Western Cape, 2011) Mai, Magdaline Mbong; Banda, Felix; Dept. of Linguistics, Language and Communication
This thesis is an exploration of the historical, socio-cultural, economic, and political settings in which identities are negotiated and performed among Cameroonian immigrants in Cape Town. Focusing on language as localized practices and different interaction regimes, the thesis investigates how Cameroonian immigrants maintain and reconfigure the Anglophone/Francophone identity options in novel and hybrid ways. In addition, the study examines how ideologies favouring different languages are reproduced and challenged in translocal and transnational discourses. Guided by the poststructuralist theories the thesis explores the stance that reality is socially constructed, based on symbolic and material structural limitations that are challenged and maintained in interaction. That is, whatever we do or believe in, is supported by some historical or cultural frames of meanings in our lived world, which often gives room to some manoeuvre to do things in a new way. The study adopts a multiplex interpretive approach to data collection. This entails a qualitative sociolinguistic approach where interviews, discussion and observations at different socio-economic places namely; meetings, workplaces, homes, restaurants, drinking spots and many sites from all over Cape Town, were explored. The study suggests that Cameroonians have a multiplicity of identity options, which are manifested and negotiated performatively through language, dress code, song, food, business, and other practices that comprise their lifestyles. These identities are translocal and transnational in nature, and tend to blend South African, Cameroonian, and even American traits. It is also suggests that the different identity options which they manifest are highly mobile, enabling Cameroonians to fit into South African social structures as well as the Cameroonian ways of doing things. Additionally, the multiplicity of identities that Cameroonians manifest, blur the fault-line between Anglophone/Francophone identities. It is evident from the study that hybridity and the reconstruction practices are not only confined to languages. Hybridity also extends to discourse orders especially in terms of how meetings are conducted. The Cameroonian meetings captured through the activities of Mifi Association and CANOWACAT are characterised by �disorder of discourse� in which both formal and informal versions of English and French are used separately or as amalgams alongside CPE and their national languages, not only in side talks, but also when contributing to the meeting proceedings. Ultimately, the study concludes that Cameroonians are social actors making up an indispensable part of the social interaction in the Cape Town Diaspora. Just as they influence the languages, the entrepreneurial practices, and spaces in which they interact, the Cameroonian immigrants are also transformed. The major contribution of the study is that it adds to the recent debates about the nature of multilingualism and identities in late modern society. It emphasises that languages and identities are fluid, complex, and unstable. The distinction or boundaries between the various languages in multilingual practices are also not as clear-cut. This leads to a reframing of voice and actor hood as meaning is constructed across translocal and transnational contexts and domains in a networked world transformed by the mobility of endless flows of information, goods, ideas, and people. Thus, the study contributes to those arguing for a paradigm shift in sociolinguistic theory in which language is not a property of groups, nor is it an autonomous and bounded system fixed in time and space. Thus, identities, languages and the spaces of interaction are not fixed systems; identities, languages, and spaces are dynamic and in a state of flux. This in turn questions the notions of multilingualism and language itself, as well as the veracity of concepts such as code-switching, speech community, language variation, as the search for a sociolinguistic framework that can deal with phenomena predicated by motion, instability, and uncertainty, continues.
Textuality in near-synonyms translations of the Holy Qur??n into English
(University of the Western Cape, 2011) Al-Sowaidi, Belqes Saif Abdulelah; Banda, Felix; Dept. of Linguistics, Language and Communication; Faculty of Arts
The Holy Qur??n, like the Bible, is an acknowledged literary masterpiece. Its linguistic and aesthetic vivacity with an amalgam of religious beliefs, moral values, religious social orthodoxy and historical backgrounds pose a great challenge to any translator and make the task overwhelmingly arduous, if not unattainable. The study aims at examining the problems the Qur??n translators encounter while translating near-synonyms from Arabic into English. It is based on the translations of two professional translators namely, Yusuf Ali and T.B. Irving. The translations provide an empirical basis for the discussion of the problems while translating Qur??nnic texts into English. The corpus for the present study includes the translations of four near-synonymous pairs namely, ghayth and ma?ar, al-?ilf and al-qasm, bakh?l and sha??? and ??qir and ?aq?m in their Qur??nic context. The two translated texts are compared to determine to which extent the translations reflect the referential and the connotative meaning of the original Qur??nic text as well as to which extent they maintain the textuality standards such as cohesion, coherence, informativity, situationality and acceptability, intentionality and intertextuality. In short, the study sets out to identify the roblematic areas in the translated Qur??nic texts at the lexical and textual levels with a view to determining what makes one translation better than the other, or what brings one translation closer to the original text than the other.The study is an intersection between Qur??nic exegeses (tafs?r) and applied linguistics. The researcher consults different books on translation theories as well as of Qur??nic exegeses (tafs?r) to facilitate the process of analyzing the near-synonyms in their Qur??nic context. The researcher opts for eclecticism, instead of confining to a particular rigid model or approach, which is a combination of text-analysis translation-oriented approaches of De Beaugrande & Dressler(1981); Neubert & Shreve(1992); Halliday (1994) and Hatim & Mason (1990). In addition, the study draws upon the multiple and theoretical implications of Nida's dynamic equivalence, Beekman & Callow's (1974) historical and dynamic fidelity and Gutt's (1991) relevance theory and the emphasis on communication as mainly context-dependent. These models are closely related and reliable in the process of analyzing and evaluating the problems encountered in Arabic-English translation of the Qur??nic near-synonyms. Furthermore, the researcher suggests an outline approach for the process of analyzing the Qur??nic near-synonyms translations in a systemic and organized way thereby ensuring maximum and effective communication of the Qur??nic message. The study concludes that the Qur??n translator, compared to other literary genres, faces many difficulties in translating the Qur??nic ST message. The selected translations of the Holy Qur??n have failed to measure up to the depth of the Qur??nic message, its originality and the connotative shades of meanings of the original expression. The study attributes these problems to contextual, socio-cultural, theological and historical factors which create differences that lead to gaps or absence of lexicalization in the TT. Furthermore, the reliance on dictionary meaning rather than the meaning of the lexical item in context, the negligence of context culture as well as the context of situation (the reason for the revelation of the verses) affect the �periodicity� of the text as indicated by Martin & Rose (2007, p.187), that is, the information flow of the whole text. Accordingly, this affects maintaining the standards of textuality and the fidelity which a religious text should meet. The complexity of the Qur??n as genre is a great challenge to the translator at both the lexical and Qur??n textual levels, which dilutes the authenticity of the holy text and misrepresents its true message. The conclusion of the study which contains recommendations based on experience may prove helpful to the future novice and professional translators to improve the quality of translation in general and religious translation in particular. The study is a contribution towards a greater understanding of the subtle differences between the near-synonymous pairs in their Qur??nic context through Arabic-English translation. It is a novel addition to the world of religious translation, Qur??n translation, ?ad?th and in English. It also contributes to some extent to modern exegeses of the Qur??n. It is hoped that the work will encourage further studies in the field of translation to employ a context-based linguistic approach to translating different genres and sacred texts in particular, integrating insights from applicable translation and linguistic approaches.
Reimagining diversity in post-apartheid Observatory, Cape Town: a discourse analysis
(University of the Western Cape, 2012) Peck, Amiena; Banda, Felix
The focus of the thesis is conceptually-based and problematizes the notion of a transformed society while addressing and evaluating its meaning in the multicultural post-apartheid neighbourhood of Observatory, Cape Town. Confluent concepts such as �multilingualism�, �hybridity� and �community� are discussed within the historical and contemporary context of a newly established democratic South Africa. Through a poststructuralist discourse analysis, the study endeavours to explore discourses of language and identity in the previously predominantly English-speaking community of Observatory. It is hoped that this research will build upon knowledge of inter alia social interaction, translocations and community membership, identity, language and integration in Observatory. Focus therefore rest on issues such as hybridity, identity options, translocal and transnational cultural flows, localization and globalization. All these issues fall under the broader theme of discourse of transformation and integration in multilingual spaces. The study strictly works within the framework of a qualitative approach with the focus resting on a discourse analysis of generated narratives supplied by informants during interviews and temporal and spatial descriptions of research sites. Arising from this study it is hoped that a deeper understanding of migration, transnational and transcultural flows, hybridity and identity will be reached. Critically, this study delves into two �new� areas which subsume sociolinguistics, specifically semiotic landscape and place branding. Exploration into the appropriation of space by �newcomers� and the subsequent reimaginings of space into place are of keen interest here. In this respect, this study aims at shedding light on recurrent, contesting and and new imaginings of diversity in post-apartheid living.
The Zimbabwean threat: media representations of immigrants in the South African media
(University of the Western Cape, 2012) Mawadza, Aquilina; Banda, Felix
This thesis is a multimodal discourse analysis of the media representations of Zimbabwean immigrants in the South African media. The aim of the investigation is to illustrate how Zimbabwean immigration and Zimbabwean immigrants are portrayed in the print media in South Africa. For the theoretical and analytical framework, the study mainly combines critical discourse analysis (CDA) (Fairclough, 1992, 1995, Van Dijk, 1988, 1991, 1993, Wodak, 1999) and multimodal analysis approaches (Kress and Van Leeuwen, 2006). These approaches are augmented by insights from the cognitive theory of metaphor (Lakoff and Johnson, 1980) and from sociologists such as Stanley Cohen (1972) who have researched on moral panic. The study analyses the coverage of Zimbabwean immigrant stories in the South African print media from the year 2000 to date. A total of five hundred and seventy five articles were randomly selected from the SA Media Database. The SA Media Database is a comprehensive collection of all newspapers published in South Africa. These data are supplemented by articles from newspaper cuttings collected during the course of the study. The focus of the analysis is on how the arrival of Zimbabwean immigrants is �problematized� and transformed into a discursive crisis through the construction of anti-immigrant metaphors and generation of a moral panic. The data are grouped into emerging themes, and data analysis is guided by a multimodal critical discourse analysis approach in which the verbal and visuals are read as text. Although the findings of this study generally support earlier studies which argue that the media representation of Zimbabwean immigrants is negative, the multimodal analysis suggests a more balanced and positive image. Thus, although this study supports studies that show that media discourses represent Zimbabwean immigrants as �others,� and often as criminals, the multimodal analysis of the images of Zimbabwean immigrants suggests that media discourse is much more complex. In the media, the Zimbabwean immigrants are presented as either victims or abusers of the system in South Africa. This reflects a broader discourse on migration which constructs Zimbabweans as �aggressors and victims.� Through discourses of moral panic, the analysis of metaphors, the representation of female immigrants, and the multimodal analysis of language and visual data, this thesis shows an extensive deployment of discursive strategies used for the representation of us and them, characteristic of media discourse on migration. On the other hand, the South African media, through visual images, portrays a sympathetic view toward Zimbabwean immigrants and their difficulties. Thus, while the study supports Woods and King (2001), who note that media discourses represent immigrants as �others� and often as criminals, the multimodal analysis of the images of Zimbabwean immigrants tend to be multivocal, in that they tend to also depict migrants as victims of circumstances beyond their control. Therefore, one conclusion that can be made is that the verbal and visual texts in the South African media do not always tell the same story. In some cases, two or more stories are being told at the same time. The study also concludes that multimodality offers the tools through which the different voices, some of which are contradictory, can be read and heard. Images evoke readers� schemas and frames of experiences, for instance, of pain and human suffering. In fact, visual images are presented as authentic and objective pieces of evidence, not as representations of reality, but, in a sense, as reality itself (Dauber, 2001).Thirdly, the images of Zimbabwean immigrants convey additional information, beyond the journalist�s intention. With images, readers can quickly elicit a strong emotional response. This is different from a textual description. Therefore, images are not only excellent communicators, but also quickly affect us mentally and emotionally. In this study, for instance, images of Zimbabwean immigrants in long queues at the immigration department enduring cold weather, or bloodied victims of attack, or an image of a helpless Zimbabwean child eating from an empty platter seemingly abandoned and alone, by design or default, draw sympathy from the readers. Because multimodal images tend to tell more than one story, such images can also elicit anger and resentment from the readers.Lastly, this study contributes to our understanding of Zimbabwean immigration to South Africa by focusing on how the media multimodally constructs representations of Zimbabwean immigrants in the South African media. Thus, this study also fills a gap that exists in the study of the interplay between verbal texts and immigration images in the media in African contexts; and specifically contributes to the understudied representations of immigrants in South Africa. Another significant contribution is that this is the only study that has combined cognitive theory of metaphor, the sociological notion of moral panic, critical discourse analysis and current theorization on multimodality to comprehensively account for media representations of immigrants. This study points to the need for a multi-semiotic approach to the analysis of the verbal texts and images of immigration in the South African media for a comprehensive appreciation of the relationship between the verbal and visual texts.

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