Research Articles (Linguistics)
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Item Abstraction as a limit to semiosis(De Gruyter, 2013) Wood, TahirIn highly evolved culture, discourse is made up of complexes of implicit and explicit inter-textual relations, which form the meanings for new signifiers. Meanings for common abstract nouns are derived from the modeling of typical situations in everyday narratives. However at a further level of abstraction, models of discourses, which themselves contain abstract concepts, provide meanings for what are called �hyper-abstract� nominals. Here a certain limit is reached, and it is argued that this diachronic, onomasiological process provides a constraint on the notion of �unlimited semiosis.� This constraint has both natural and ethical aspects.Item Accentuating institutional brands: A multimodal analysis of the homepages of selected South African universities(Taylor & Francis, 2014) Mafofo, Lynn; Banda, FelixIn seeking to disentangle themselves from the constraints of apartheid, South African universities have immersed themselves in an identity modification process in which they not only seek to redress the past, but also to reposition their identities as equal opportunity and non-racial institutions. In this paper, we investigate how the University of the Western Cape, the University of Cape Town and Stellenbosch University have used visual and verbal semiotics to re-design their identities on their homepages to appeal to diverse national and international clients. Using Multimodal Discourse Analysis (MDA), we show how the multi-semiotic choices work together on the homepages to give the universities differentiated, competitive, powerful and attractive brands. We conclude that the homepages blended cultural semiotic artefacts, historical, global and transformational discourses, and architectural landscapes to construct different brand identities that, in turn, rebrand the universities from edifices of apartheid education to equal opportunity institutions.Item After thought: Why not a prism?(University of the Western Cape, 2019) Flockemann, MikiThis special issue of Multilingual Margins is an excellent example of how the guiding concepts of a project are put into practice. The framing of the Re-imagining Multilingualisms project is presented here in what can be termed an appropriately rhizomic, rather than linear structure; this is achieved through the strategic interleaving of theoretical, creative, collaborative and critically reflective perspectives. The title image of interconnected lines of coloured thread pointing to multilingual versions of the same concept, �beauty�, reflects this, while the title of the issue, The Cat�s Cradle, recalls the childhood activity where an everyday object � like a piece of string � can be transformed through skilful fingerwork and reimagined as, of all things, the cat�s cradle!Item Alternative perspectives on orality, literacy and education: a view from South Africa.(Routledge, 2001) Bock, Zannie; Gough, David H.The question of the 'great divide' between orality and literacy has been critically addressed by various scholars of literacy, including social literacy theorists. This paper uses the notions of primary and secondary discourse across both oral and literate contexts to examine this 'divide'. Using evidence from the oral tradition of the Xhosa, it is shown that 'traditional' societies have well-established primary and secondary discourse types. Against this understanding, the issue of 'access' to Western academic literacy is examined. It is argued that within the changing context of South African society and as a direct result of former apartheid policies, individuals may have failed to acquire the cultural capital of both oral secondary and literate secondary discourse types. The literate secondary discourse practices of Xhosa-speaking students at univer�sity are explored through an analysis of student writing. This paper then reports on several projects which attempt to address some of the concerns of academic staff with respect to student writing. In particular, this section argues for a broadening of the notion of 'academic literacy' and suggests some ways in which texts derived from the oral tradition may be used to develop awareness of secondary discourse types.Item An investigation into current attitudes towards English at the University of the Western Cape(Stellenbosch University, 1997) Dyers, CharlynThis work-in-progess paper describes the writer's current research into the language attitudes, preferences and usage of the student speech community at the University of the Western Cape. It specifically looks at responses to questions on English which formed part of a larger survey questionnaire on South African languages, and attempts an analysis of these results.Item An analysis of what has been "lost" in the interpretation and transcription process of selected TRC testimonies(Department of General Linguistics, Stellenbosch University, 2006) Bock, Zannie; Mazwi, Ngwanya; Metula, Sifundo; Mpolweni-Zantsi, NosisiThe main aim of this research is to evaluate �what has been lost� in the simultaneous interpretation and transcription processes of selected Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) testimonies. The testimonies under consideration are those of two of the widows of the Cradock Four who were murdered by the South African Security Branch in 1985 for their work in mobilising resistance to apartheid. The widows testified in Xhosa at the East London Human Rights Violation hearings in 1996 and their testimonies were simultaneously interpreted into English on the day of the hearing. Using audiovisual copies of the testimonies on which one can hear the original soundtrack, as well as the English voice-over, we transcribed the testimonies in the source language (e.g. Xhosa). We then translated these into English and compared our translation with the official English versions which are published on the TRC website. Our analysis revealed that a significant number of meanings were lost under the pressures of simultaneous interpretation. These meanings related predominantly to the �emotional� content: for example, to aspects of narrative style expressed through gesture, intonation, repetition and the use of direct speech, particularly the verbatim quotes of the police in Afrikaans. We also noted that an understanding of the culture of the testifier was essential to understanding the testimony and that researchers who did not have access to the testimony in the source language and the cultural codes of the testifier would be significantly compromised when trying to understand the testimonies. In addition, we noted the loss of a number of factual meanings as a result of inaccuracies and omissions both during the interpretation and transcription process. We argued that these losses and omissions detracted primarily from what the TRC referred to as the �narrative truth� or subjective meanings of the testimonies, and, in some cases, the �factual truth�. We undertook this research because we are concerned that many researchers only have access to the official TRC record. This record, in our view, is in some cases compromised as the processes of simultaneous interpretation and transcription inevitably led to some loss of meaning due to the pressures and constraints under which the interpreters were working.Item Applying linguistics: Developing cognitive skills through multimedia(Applied Linguistics Association of New Zealand, 2003) Gough, David H.; Bock, ZannieThis paper examines the effectiveness of linguistic analysis in developing scientific thinking skills and scientific attitudes. It reports on a project established at a South Africa university in South Africa which engaged students in the analysis of code-mixed data. Students who participated in the project showed gains in being able to analyze linguistic data using problem solving skills. While transfer of such skills to mainstream science teaching was not investigated, the study confirms the effectiveness of linguistic analysis in engaging students in the activities associated with the development of skills for science.Item Approaches to interpreting emojis as evidence in South African courts: a forensic linguistic perspective(Routledge, 2024) Docrat, Zakeera; Kaschula, Russell HThis article highlights the importance of emojis as evidence in courts of law. The article outlines the history of emojis from a global perspective, and how they have come to be used as a form of implicit and explicit communication. The global inconsistency of the interpretation of emojis is explored against the backdrop of multilingualism and multiculturalism. This creates complications when emojis are presented as evidence in both criminal and civil cases. All of the above is explored in relation to South African courts, and emojis are examined as part of the discipline of forensic linguistics. The Electronic Communications and Transactions Act, 25 of 2002 (ECT Act) provides guidelines on the rules of admissibility pertaining to data messages and other electronic communications, and is used for the interpretation of emojis as evidence in courts. Recommendations are made regarding the use of emojis as evidence in courts of law.Item Bark, smoke and pray: multilingual Rastafarian-herb sellers in a busy subway(Taylor & Francis, 2017) Williams, QuentinThis 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.Item Battling the race: Stylizing language and coproducing whiteness and colouredness in a freestyle rap performance(American Antrhopological Association, 2015) Williams, Quentin; Stroud, ChristopherIn 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.Item Birds and bees, the �r� word and zuma�s p*nis: censorship avoidance strategies in a south african online newspaper�s comments section(Springerlink, 2019) Mokwena, LoratoAlthough linguistic practices in online platforms continue to receive fair scholarly attention, limited research has been conducted on online censorship avoidance strategies in South Africa about online newspapers. We use notions of semiotic remediation on comments on two articles on a nude painting of former South African President Jacob Zuma in a popular South African online publication, SowetanLive, to show how the commentators creatively avoid censorship and to operationalise their right of freedom of expression. Particularly, we show the various ways commentators transform and recontexatualise existing semiotic affordances of punctuation marks, letters, digits, South African English, indigenous South African languages and cultural knowledge to achieve new and extended meanings while simultaneously avoiding censorshipItem Campus repertoires: interrogating semiotic assemblages, economy, and creativity(De Gruyter Mouton, 2024) Simungala, Gabriel; Ndalama-Mtawali, DeborahFramed within the broader theoretical context of social semiotics, we attempt to show how university students communicate using a variety of unique means, in particular social contexts. We privilege Pennycook and Otsuji’s semiotic assemblages, Jimaima and Simungala’s semiotic creativity, and the notion of semiotic economy as critical ingredients that conspire to give rise to the unique and complex coinages and innovations constituting students’ repertoires. We argue that, born out of creativity, the students’ repertoires are semiotically and economically charged discourses that generate extended narratives such that more is realized with less. We show that this reality undoubtedly constitutes a multi-semiotic meaning-making endeavor that enacts and sustains students’ imagined and lived experiences in real sociocultural, historical, and political spaces in the multilingual landscapes of university campuses.Item The Centre for Multilingualism and Diversities Research at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa(University of the Western Cape, 2014) Stroud, ChristopherThere is an urgency in theorising how diversity is negotiated, communicated, and disputed as a matter of everyday ordinariness that is compounded by the clear linkages between diversity, transformation, voice, agency, poverty and health. The way in which difference is categorised, semiotised and reconfigured in multiple languages across quotidian encounters and in public and media forums is a central dynamic in how poverty and disadvantage are distributed and reproduced across social and racial categorisations. In the South African context, finding ways of productively harnessing diversity in the building of a better society must be a priority.Item The centre for multilingualism and diversities research at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa(University of the Western Cape, 2014) Stroud, ChristopherThere is an urgency in theorising how diversity is negotiated, communicated, and disputed as a matter of everyday ordinariness that is compounded by the clear linkages between diversity, transformation, voice, agency, poverty and health. The way in which difference is categorised, semiotised and reconfigured in multiple languages across quotidian encounters and in public and media forums is a central dynamic in how poverty and disadvantage are distributed and reproduced across social and racial categorisations. In the South African context, finding ways of productively harnessing diversity in the building of a better society must be a priority. The South African context with its history of apartheid and on-going contemporary post-apartheid transformation is a veritable laboratory for the study of forms of conflict and conviviality in diversity. South Africa is a society characterised by historical displacements and contemporary mobilities, both social and demographic, where a large part of people�s daily life involves negotiating diversity, dislocation, relocation and anomie, while at the same time attempting to pursue aspirations of mobility in a context of continuing inequity.Item Co-constructing identities and ideological positions in conversational storytelling among friends(Taylor & Francis, 2024) Awungjia, Ajohche NkemnguResearch has shown that identities and ideologies result from a complex interplay between various social, cultural and psychological factors, such as socialisation, shared experiences, cultural backgrounds and institutional practices in media, education and family. However, due to this tendency to focus on macro identity categories and macro-level ideological processes, more research is needed on how these categories and ideologies are co-constructed and operationalised within micro contexts, such as between friends. In doing so, we can explore the malleability of ideologies and identities as individuals (re)negotiate their beliefs and affiliations over time, often within micro, everyday activities. Using ethnographic methods and a practice approach to narrative, this paper shows how the analysis of conversational practices, specifically storytelling, can provide a window into the granular semiotic and discursive processes through which group identities and ideologies are (re)negotiated in mundane everyday discourse. The analyses of naturally occurring conversations between friends in Cape Town, South Africa, show that, through the use of constructed dialogue and other evaluative devices, interlocutors jointly negotiate complex alignments and positions in relation to a variety of social issues and ordinary occurrences, simultaneously and implicitly (re)establishing or (re)defining their group positionalities and ideologies.Item Code-switching: An appraisal resource in TRC testimonies(John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2011) Bock, ZannieThis article analyses the function that code-switching plays in selected testimonies given at South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission which followed the country's transition to democracy in 1994. In a number of testimonies, victims of human rights abuse under Apartheid code-switched into Afrikaans when recalling particularly offensive uses of language by the police. Within the code-switching literature, it is well recognised that a speaker's choice of code, particularly for quoted speech, is a strategy for performing different kinds of local identities which index a range of social meanings and relationships (Alvarez-Caccamo 1996, Koven 2001). Thus code-switching may serve a complex evaluative function although the meanings it generates are very context- dependent. In order to explore this role in the testimonies in this paper, I use the appraisal theory of Systemic Functional Linguistics (Martin & White 2005). I argue that on a number of occasions, code-switching into a particular variety of Afrikaans is used by testifiers as a strategy to invoke negative judgement: it has the effect of associating the police with a particular racist ideology and positioning them for our sanction. Further, it works together with other engagement resources to insert a recognisable historical voice into the text, thereby expanding the heteroglossic nature of the discourse while simultaneously allowing the speakers to signal their rejection of that voice and the ideologies it represents. In the current SFL literature, however, code-switching has not been noted as an appraisal resource. In the light of the examples from the TRC testimonies, I argue that, in multilingual contexts, code-switching has the potential to invoke complex evaluative meanings and should be included in the appraisal framework as an evaluative resource.Item Commodification of transformation discourses and post-apartheid institutional identities at three South African universities(Taylor & Francis, 2016) Banda, Felix; Mafofo, LynnUsing mission statements from the UCT, UWC and Stellenbosch University (South Africa), we explore how the three universities have rematerialised prior discourses to rebrand their identities as dictated by contemporary national and global aspirations. We reveal how the universities have recontextualised the experiences and discourses of liberation struggle and the new government�s post-apartheid social transformation discourses to construct distinctive identities that are locally relevant and globally aspiring. This has led to the semiotic refiguring of universities from spatial edifices of racially based unequal education, to equal opportunity institutions of higher learning, and to the blurring of historical boundaries between these universities. We conclude that the universities have reconstructed distinct and recognisable identities which speak to a segregated past, but with a post-apartheid voice of equity and redress.Item The conceptual evolution in Linguistics implications for the study of Kaaps(University of the Westen Cape, 2020) Dyers, CharlynzaAbstractAs an academic discipline, Linguistics - the scientific study of language - is associated with a range of concepts. Students of Linguistics are traditionally introduced to these concepts in their first year of study, and everything that follows builds on knowledge of these concepts. But language, as Blommaert (2011) notes, is the most visible sign of social change. Currently, much critical thinking is said to be philosophical outflows of a late or post-modern era, characterized by an intensification of three characteristics that have been part of human history for some time: globalization, migration and the dominant position of English, accompanied by the growth of new hybrid languages in urban spaces.Item Construals of agency in the testimony of Colin de Souza(Academia Press, 2009) Bock, ZannieIn this paper, I analyse the testimony of Colin de Souza given before South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in the mid-1990s.1 My aim is to explore how De Souza projects an identity of himself as 'agentive', as an innovative and flexible individual who is capable of outwitting and outmaneuvering his opponents despite the fact that within the TRC context, he is positioned as a 'victim' of human rights abuse. To substantiate this argument, I use a number of Systemic Functional Linguistic (SFL) tools to analyse the way in which this agency is encoded in the language of the testimony.Item Corpus-based interpreting studies: Early work and future prospects(Frontiers Media S.A., 2022) Bendazzoli, Claudio; Sandrelli, AnnalisaThis manuscript investigates to what extent the use of corpora could help translation trainees while translating from Arabic into English and vice versa. Forty Yemeni trainees, who were enrolled in an advanced course in Arabic-English translation during the academic year 2020, participated in the study. They participated in translation projects from which the data for this study was collected, using thinking aloud protocols and computational observation. The translation process was investigated using the translation process software Transalog, an eye-tracking software and the screen recording software Screen-O-Matic. This kind of computational observation enabled a researcher to discover the extent to which the participants were able to employ corpora in their translation projects. At the end of the study, the participants were given a questionnaire with the aim of finding out their perceptions toward the use of corpora in their translation projects, and toward the project-based training approach adopted in the study. The findings of the translation process indicated that the trainees employed various kinds of corpora in their translation projects. Results from the questionnaire showed that the trainees have very positive attitudes toward the progress in their instrumental translation sub-competence, the utilization of corpora tools, and the project-based training approach adopted in this study.