African Journals Online
Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies

VOLUME 18 (2000)

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Near Eastern Studies, University of the Free State, PO Box 339, Bloemfontein 9300 South Africa e-mail: [email protected]

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to outline a constrained theory of language change and diffusion. Earlier views on syntactic change will be presented and evaluated. It will be shown that the shortcomings in conceptualisation and method which have given rise to misconceptions of syntactic change lie in the failure to utilise a coherent conception of the nature of language and the lack of clarity surrounding the notion of change. If the crucial distinction between change and diffusion events is allowed to be blurred, no meaningful generalisations are likely to be forthcoming. In keeping with the recent developments in syntactic theory, syntactic changes are in fact not changes in the syntactic component of the grammar itself, but rather revisions and differences in features of lexical entries. Examples from Qumran Hebrew will be used to justify the proposed theoretical considerations.

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Departement Afrikaans, Universiteit Vista, Mamelodikampus, Privaatsak X1311, Silverton 0127, Suid-Afrika. e-mail: [email protected]

Abstract: The motivation theory and idioms with hand. According to the motivation theory of Lakoff the meaning of idioms is not necessarily totally opaque. Metaphor, metonymy, conventional images and encyclopaedic knowledge form motivational links between the literal and figurative meanings of a string of words. The notion of radially structured categories is of particular help in explaining the way in which a single word (in this case hand) which occurs in a whole range of idioms (there are up to 200 idioms in Afrikaans which contain the word hand), can contribute to the figurative meaning of the idiom. In an Idealized Cognitive Model a central subcategory (‘body part’) is linked to other subcategories by means of metonymy and metaphor (HAND AS POSSESSION, HAND AS POWER). The present article demonstrates how this process works in the selected idioms.

Abstrak: Volgens die motiveringsteorie van Lakoff is die betekenis van idiome nie noodwendig ondeursigtig nie. Metafoor, metonimie, konvensionele beelde en ensiklopediese kennis vorm motiverende skakels tussen die letterlike en figuurlike betekenisse van ’n string woorde. Die idee van radiaal gestruktureerde kategorieë is veral nuttig om die verband tussen ’n enkele woord (in hierdie geval hand) wat in ’n hele aantal idiome voorkom (daar is ongeveer 200 idiome in Afrikaaans waarin die woord hand voorkom) en die figuurlike betekenis van die idiome te verklaar. In ’n Geïdealiseerde Kognitiewe Model word ’n sentrale subkategorie (‘liggaamsdeel’) aan ander subkategorieë verbind deur middel van metafore en metonimie (HAND AS BESIT, HAND AS MAG). Die onderhawige artikel illustreer hierdie proses.

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First Level School, Faculty of Human Sciences, University of Natal, Durban 4041 South Africa

e-mail: [email protected]

Abstract: The paper utilises the World Englishes paradigm to explore the issue of language proficiency: what type of English language proficiency will be most appropriate to South Africa at the start of the millennium? Three broad aspects of proficiency are proposed for further investigation, and in each case one particular area of language use is then discussed. First, intelligibility: a person who is proficient in English will be comprehensible — and will be able to comprehend others. Second, s/he will be able to use appropriate language — and will interpret appropriately the language used by others. Third, s/he will be able to use English (in addition to other languages) as a cognitive tool of learning and production. It is concluded that, rather than focussing solely on the current standard, learners should become acquainted with the wide variety of Englishes spoken in and beyond South Africa. At the same time language teaching must focus on developing ‘cognitive academic language proficiency’ (Cummins, 1992) in any languages spoken or learnt, including English.

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Departement Afrikaans, Universiteit van Zululand (Durban-UmLazi Kampus), Privaatsak X10, Isipingo 4110 Suid-Afrika. e-mail: [email protected]

Abstract: A cognitive approach to time differentiation in discourse. This article shows that, contrary to the traditional view that language and meaning can be analysed as entities which exist in objective reality, language is seen as the instrument which carries meaning — this places the conceptualiser of the real world in the centre with language as his subjective experience of the real world. Time differentiation in discourse can therefore not be described as a manifestation that stands apart from other manifestations in language — our perception of time has a subjective basis which depends on the conceptualiser’s subjective experience of a given situation, and is reflected as such in language. This central aspect of cognitive linguistics is analysed and the mental spaces approach offered as a mechanism which allows us to reconstrue time metaphorically as space, and thus as a container in which past, present and future are locked up in still smaller containers as cognitive event frames. It is possible to move forward or backward between these event frames; a movement in time that is manifested in language through sintactical patterns and morphological markers.

Abstrak: In hierdie artikel word aangetoon dat, teenstrydig met die tradisionele beskouing dat taal en betekenis ontleed kan word as entiteite wat in die objektiewe werklikheid bestaan, taal gesien word as die instrument waardeur betekenis gedra word — hiervolgens staan die konseptualiseerder van die werklikheid in die sentrum en is taal die refleksie van sy subjektiewe ervaring van die werklikheid. Tydsdifferensiasie in diskoers kan derhalwe nie beskryf word as ‘n verskynsel wat in die taal los van ander verskynsels staan nie — ons waarneming van tyd het ‘n subjektiewe basis wat afhanklik is van die konseptualiseerder se subjektiewe ervaring van ‘n gegewe situasie, en word as sodanig in die taal gereflekteer. Hierdie basiese uitgangspunt van die kognitiewe grammatika oor die mens se ervaring van tyd word verken en die dinkruimtebenadering word aangebied as ‘n meganisme waarvolgens tyd as ruimte herbedink word, en derhalwe as ‘n houer waarin verlede, hede en toekoms in die vorm van kognitiewe gebeurerame binne kleiner houers opgesluit lê. ‘n Mens kan denkmatig daarheen terugkeer of daarin vooruit beweeg; ‘n beweging in tyd wat deur middel van sintaktiese patrone en morfologiese merkers in taal manifesteer.

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Departement Afrikaans en Nederlands, Universiteit van Stellenbosch, Privaatsak X1, Matieland 7602, Suid-Afrika. e-mail: [email protected]

Abstract: The functions and applications of rhetorical questions. Rhetorical questions are used in spoken and written language in formal and informal contexts and are applied in various functions in many areas of modern society, for example in political speeches, didactic situations, in everyday speech in the media and in literature. They are for instance used in expressive function to accentuate, to persuade and to express emotions. They could also make a valuable contribution in the structural building up of a text and to obtain special stylistic effects. Their most prominent features perhaps are that they are used in an indirect way to promote the forming of opinion, to stimulate argumentation and to bring about variation in style. In spite of their indirect character, they are generating a more personal interaction between speaker and listener than communication in straightforward statements.

Abstrak: Retoriese vrae het verskillende, uiteenlopende funksies op verskillende toepassingsgebiede in die samelewing. Dit kan byvoorbeeld in ekspressiewe funksie aangewend word ter be- klemtoning, ter oorreding en ter uiting van emosies. Hierdie soort vrae kom voor in mondelinge kommunikasie (bv. toesprake, didaktiese redevoering en gemoedelike gesprekvoering) en geskrewe taal (bv. in die media en die letterkunde). Die retoriese vraag is veral van besondere belang as organi-seringsmeganisme en stylmiddel in tekste en die vorm daarvan kan gemanipuleer word vir verskillende stilistiese doeleindes. Die waarde van die retoriese vraag lê veral daarin dat dit, ten spyte van sy indirekte aard, selfstandige meningsvorming en argumentasie stimuleer, bevorderlik is vir interaksie tussen vraagsteller en ontvanger en dat dit treffende afwisseling bied op stelsinne.

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e-mail: [email protected]

Abstract: This is the second article aimed at reviewing the state of codeswitching research at the dawn of the new millennium. The first article (Kamwangamalu, 1999) focused on the state of codeswitching research in the global context. In the present article I focus on the state of codeswitching research in Africa. More specifically, I highlight the contribution of codeswitching research in Africa to codeswitching research in the global context; discuss some of the theoretical frameworks which have informed this research over the years; and conclude by pointing to some of the many untapped areas for codeswitching research in the new millennium.

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South Africa. e-mail: [email protected], [email protected]

Abstract: This paper focuses on the effect of the gender of participants on the discourse patterns of university seminars, and compares the interaction patterns in two undergraduate seminars with those in two post-graduate seminars at Rhodes University. In the undergraduate seminars, two different groups of students at first year level in different disciplines were videotaped. The major difference was in terms of composition: in one seminar, there were equal numbers of male and female students, while in the other, female students dominated numerically (75%). In addition, five of the six formed a close-knit group of friends, which proved to be an important factor in the analysis. At the postgraduate level, the student participants were identical and met in the same venue and at the same time on two successive days to discuss the same topic (affirmative action in the workplace). The important difference between the two classes was the fact that the first seminar was led by a female tutor and the second seminar by a male tutor, both under 40 years of age and white, both members of staff in the department, and both known to the students. The discourse patterns in these two sets of seminars were analysed in order to investigate the ways in which the gender of tutors and students influenced the floor-winning and floor-holding conventions of participants.

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e-mail: [email protected]

Abstract: Compiling and querying electronic corpora has become a sine qua non as an empirical basis for contemporary linguistic research. As a result, around the world, corpus applications now abound in all fields of linguistics. In this article it is argued that, if African linguistics is to take its rightful place in the new millennium, the active compilation, querying and application of corpora should become an absolute priority. The article first presents a comprehensive theoretical conspectus of electronic corpora. This theoretical section is followed by a practical exploration for the African languages. To that end, two very different African-language corpus projects are described in detail. The survey of these two projects, combined to inter-African-language comparisons, are deemed to be sufficient proof of the feasibility of establishing a discipline of corpus linguistics for the African languages at present.