Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
  1. Home
  2. Browse subjects
  3. Language and Linguistics
  4. English language and linguistics: general interest
  5. Content listing

Refine search

Refine search

Access:
Content type:
Publication date:
Apply   From and To filters
Subject: Show more
Journals Show more
Publishers: Show more
Societies Show more
Series: Show more
Collections: Show more

Actions for selected content:

Select all | Deselect all
  • View selected items
  • Export citations
  • Download PDF (zip)
  • Save to Kindle
  • Save to Dropbox
  • Save to Google Drive

Save Search

You can save your searches here and later view and run them again in "My saved searches".

Please provide a title, maximum of 40 characters.
Cancel
×

21506 results in English language and linguistics: general interest

Page 259 of 1076

  • 17 - Music, literature and multilingualism in the East Cape Opera Company

  • from Part Five - Language, culture and intercultural communication
    • By Hleze Kunju, lectured in the School of Languages and Literatures (African Language Studies) at Rhodes University., Russell H Kaschula, professor of African Language Studies and holds the NRF SARChI Chair in the Intellectualisation of African Languages, Multilingualism and Education in the School of Languages and Literatures (African Language Studies), Rhodes University.
  • Edited by Russell Kaschula, Pamela Maseko, H. Ekkehard Wolff
  • Christine Anthonissen, Bassey E. Antia, Ken Barris, Rebecca Domingo, Jeanne Toit, Regine Fourie, Nompumelelo Frans, Wanga Gambushe, Eunice Ivala, Michael Joseph, Gregory Kamwendo, Hleze Kunju, Noleen Leach, Linda Manashe, Koliswa Moropa, Andre M. Mostert, Ndimande-Hlongwa, Dion Nkomo, Anneke Potgieter, Monwabisi Ralarala, Esther Ramani, Justus C. Roux, Feziwe Shoba, Zakhile Somlata, Undine S. Weber, Nogwaja S. Zulu
  • Book:
    Multilingualism and Intercultural Communication
    Published by:
    Wits University Press
    Published online:
    23 March 2018
    Print publication:
    31 December 2017, pp 313-322

  • Summary

    The East Cape Opera Company was founded by Gwyneth Lloyd in 1995 and has performed in various Eastern Cape venues and festivals as well as conducting a tour of the Netherlands. The Company has performed well-known operas and operettas such as Mozart's The Magic Flute and Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado, as well as their own original isiXhosa operas such as Temba and Seliba, The Moon Prince – Inkosana Yenyanga and The Clay Flute.

    This chapter is situated within the context of the apartheid and post-apartheid eras, and an emerging post-1994 South African operatic culture that embraces multiculturalism. The chapter explores intercultural communication in relation to isiXhosa opera and examines the linguistic and dramatic characteristics of the construction of these operas, as well as how African cultural practices (dramatic and musical) are integrated within an essentially Western art form in the multilingual ‘rainbow nation’.

    The chapter makes use of intercultural and literary theory as a point of departure to analyse not only the literary qualities of the isiXhosa operas performed by the East Cape Opera Company, but it also shows how these operas reflect an emerging intercultural reality within the South African context. The chapter explores how the mixing of genres, including African genres such as the folktale and oral poetry as part of opera, and the mixing of languages allows for the successful development of African opera.

    Analysing intercultural aspects in The Clay Flute

    This section analyses mainly the amaXhosa culture, and explores the relationship between African and Western cultures by looking into the heart of the story – the theme – in The Clay Flute: the relationship of the amaXhosa people with their ancestors.

    The composer's musical biography is briefly explored, including his connection to South Africa. This information is important as it helps to identify and trace any influences from his personal experiences on his composition. In the remainder of this section, thematic issues at the core of The Clay Flute are analysed.

  • 8 - University multilingualism: modelling rationales for language policies

  • from Part Three - Language in education
    • By Bassey E Antia, professor of Linguistics at the University of the Western Cape.
  • Edited by Russell Kaschula, Pamela Maseko, H. Ekkehard Wolff
  • Christine Anthonissen, Bassey E. Antia, Ken Barris, Rebecca Domingo, Jeanne Toit, Regine Fourie, Nompumelelo Frans, Wanga Gambushe, Eunice Ivala, Michael Joseph, Gregory Kamwendo, Hleze Kunju, Noleen Leach, Linda Manashe, Koliswa Moropa, Andre M. Mostert, Ndimande-Hlongwa, Dion Nkomo, Anneke Potgieter, Monwabisi Ralarala, Esther Ramani, Justus C. Roux, Feziwe Shoba, Zakhile Somlata, Undine S. Weber, Nogwaja S. Zulu
  • Book:
    Multilingualism and Intercultural Communication
    Published by:
    Wits University Press
    Published online:
    23 March 2018
    Print publication:
    31 December 2017, pp 157-181

  • Summary

    In South Africa and increasingly in Europe, universities are becoming a site for discussions of language policy and multilingualism. This is evident in:

  • • book-length publications (in South Africa, for example, Van der Walt 2013; in Spain, for example, Fortanet-Gómez 2013);

  • • special issues of journals (for example, in South Africa, volume 24, issue 4, 2013, of Linguistics in Education and volume 38, issue 3, 2010, of The Language Learning Journal; in Europe, volume 35, issue 4, 2014, of Journal of Multilingualism and Multiculturalism);

  • • reports of special advocacy groups (for example, in South Africa, the 2010 position statement of the Special Interest Group on Multilingualism in higher education [SIGoM 2010]; in Europe, the European Language Council [2013] report on higher education language policy, or Tudor [2004] on benchmarks for a higher education language policy);

  • • work by study panels (for example, in South Africa, the Department of Higher Education and Training [2015] report which documents the recommendations of the Ministerial Advisory Panel on African Languages in Higher Education; in Europe, Chambers’ [2003] pilot survey on language policy in European higher education); and

  • • policy frameworks (for example, in South Africa, the Ministry of Education's language policy for higher education [MoE 2002]; in Germany, the German Rectors’ Conference [HRK] document on language policy at German universities [HRK 2011]).

    • The motivations for this interest are diverse. In South Africa, an important thrust of recent research on the subject has to do with the effectiveness or otherwise of university language policies in supporting the overall national agenda of transformation post-1994 (Du Plessis 2006; Ndimande-Hlongwa et al. 2010; Webb 2012; Madiba 2013; Makalela and McCabe 2013; Stroud and Kerfoot 2013). In Europe, contemporary engagement with language policy formulation has been motivated not so much by the need to deregulate and deracialise access to higher education as by concerns such as the need to manage internationalisation (Veronesi and Nickenig 2009; Cabau 2011; HRK 2011); by geography, as in universities recently founded in linguistic borderlands (Nickenig 2009) and by the need to build a European higher education area and brand, both of which are seen as necessarily multilingual (Tudor 2004).

  • Prologue: The essentialist paradox in intellectual discourse on African languages

    • By H Ekkehard Wolff, world-renowned sociolinguist based at the University of Leipzig and specialising in African sociolinguistics.
  • Edited by Russell Kaschula, Pamela Maseko, H. Ekkehard Wolff
  • Christine Anthonissen, Bassey E. Antia, Ken Barris, Rebecca Domingo, Jeanne Toit, Regine Fourie, Nompumelelo Frans, Wanga Gambushe, Eunice Ivala, Michael Joseph, Gregory Kamwendo, Hleze Kunju, Noleen Leach, Linda Manashe, Koliswa Moropa, Andre M. Mostert, Ndimande-Hlongwa, Dion Nkomo, Anneke Potgieter, Monwabisi Ralarala, Esther Ramani, Justus C. Roux, Feziwe Shoba, Zakhile Somlata, Undine S. Weber, Nogwaja S. Zulu
  • Book:
    Multilingualism and Intercultural Communication
    Published by:
    Wits University Press
    Published online:
    23 March 2018
    Print publication:
    31 December 2017, pp 4-16

  • Summary

    Background

    The end of colonialism and the political independence of the former European colonies in Africa stimulated a constant debate, in both Africa and expatriate ‘development expert’ circles, on the ‘language question’ in the African postcolonies. Two issues dominated this debate: first, national language policy regarding which language or languages were to be given ‘official language’ status, particularly in constitutional documents, and second, whether or how indigenous African languages were to play any role in the national system of formal education in cases where the ‘official’ language of the country was not an indigenous African language. The basic choices lay between

  • • monolingual or multilingual options, that is, allowing one or possibly more than one language to become ‘official’ language(s) and to be used in formal education; and

  • • exoglossic or endoglossic strategies, that is, opting for imported foreign (usually ex-colonial) or indigenous African languages, with combined exo- and endoglossic solutions as a third option.

    • More than half a century after independence for most African countries, this debate is still haunting intellectual and political discourse, mostly in the often highly ideologised semantic contexts of ‘development’ and ‘globalisation’.

    A case in point is a recent review article by Aceme Nyika, entitled ‘Mother Tongue as the Medium of Instruction at Developing Country Universities in a Global Context’ and published in the South African Journal of Science. The salient points raised in that article were lucidly topicalised in the journal's ‘Highlights of the latest issues’, as follows:

    Vernacular languages as the medium of instruction at universities: Are we shooting ourselves in the foot?

    Use of various vernacular languages as the medium of instruction at universities in South Africa could inadvertently limit the ability of graduates to participate in mainstream national and global economies.

    This limitation could affect even the best graduates, according to a recent review by Nyika. Universities in developing countries should foster development of knowledge-driven economies through production of graduates who are competitive, not only in certain provincial or national localities, but across the globe. Although international use of English and French can be attributed to colonisation, spending scarce resources in efforts to replace colonial languages with vernacular languages, whilst politically plausible, may be at the expense of socio-economic development.

  • 5 - Multilingual terminology and cognition in assessment

  • from Part Two - Language planning, terminology development and dictionaries
    • By Bassey E Antia, professor of Linguistics at the University of the Western Cape.
  • Edited by Russell Kaschula, Pamela Maseko, H. Ekkehard Wolff
  • Christine Anthonissen, Bassey E. Antia, Ken Barris, Rebecca Domingo, Jeanne Toit, Regine Fourie, Nompumelelo Frans, Wanga Gambushe, Eunice Ivala, Michael Joseph, Gregory Kamwendo, Hleze Kunju, Noleen Leach, Linda Manashe, Koliswa Moropa, Andre M. Mostert, Ndimande-Hlongwa, Dion Nkomo, Anneke Potgieter, Monwabisi Ralarala, Esther Ramani, Justus C. Roux, Feziwe Shoba, Zakhile Somlata, Undine S. Weber, Nogwaja S. Zulu
  • Book:
    Multilingualism and Intercultural Communication
    Published by:
    Wits University Press
    Published online:
    23 March 2018
    Print publication:
    31 December 2017, pp 92-111

  • Summary

    Background

    In assessment contexts, the relationship between language and performance has been studied from a range of perspectives. For instance, work linking the performance of students to the language of testing has questioned whether it is subject knowledge or language proficiency that is assessed when increasingly challenging forms of English are used in subject-content tests that are administered to non-home users of English (Menken 2008, 2010). Research has also analysed whether or not the wording of test questions is appropriate, given benchmarked cognitive competences (Ayvaci and Türkdoğan 2010; Garekwe 2010; Hoadley, Mather and Wood 2012). Work in test accommodation has outlined a range of language-based strategies (such as reading out/explaining questions, permitting the use of glossaries, simplifying language and translating) for ensuring that language is not a barrier to learners’ ability to demonstrate their knowledge (Thompson, Blount and Thurlow 2002; Abedi, Hofstetter and Lord 2004; Salend 2008). There has also been work examining the impact of a range of syntactic and rhetorical features of multiple-choice questions on first- and second-language users of English (Sanderson 2010). Quality assurance agencies have also been keen to evaluate examination papers for overall readability (Umalusi 2009).

    South Africa's matriculation, or end-of-high-school, examination has for decades been administered in two languages (English and Afrikaans). In some provinces, because of the language profile of their learners and schools, the examination is administered bilingually: items in both Afrikaans and English are in the same question booklet. In such cases, the layout of the examination is such that one language section is followed by another language section.

    Matric, as the examination is popularly called, is therefore an interesting site for investigating a relatively neglected topic: the cognitive affordances of bi- or multilingual terminology in assessment contexts. In the research on test accommodation, although glossaries are usually considered (Abedi, Hofstetter and Lord 2001; Salend 2008), in-depth analyses of the cognitive affordances of terminology (mono-, bi- or multilingual) are seldom offered and the contents of glossaries are frequently not terms but difficult general language words, presumably because terms are often critical to items being tested. In addition, while much of the research views test accommodation in multilingual contexts in terms of plural monolingualisms, the matric exam invites a unique co-languaging research lens as it is one of the few known national public examinations in bilingual format.

  • 15 - Language policy in South Africa through the Sapir-Whorf ‘looking glasses’

  • from Part Five - Language, culture and intercultural communication
    • By Russell H Kaschula, professor of African Language Studies and holds the NRF SARChI Chair in the Intellectualisation of African Languages, Multilingualism and Education in the School of Languages and Literatures (African Language Studies), Rhodes University., Andre M Mostert, academic practitioner in the Centre for Innovation Management and Enterprise within the School of Business and Law at the University of East London in the UK.
  • Edited by Russell Kaschula, Pamela Maseko, H. Ekkehard Wolff
  • Christine Anthonissen, Bassey E. Antia, Ken Barris, Rebecca Domingo, Jeanne Toit, Regine Fourie, Nompumelelo Frans, Wanga Gambushe, Eunice Ivala, Michael Joseph, Gregory Kamwendo, Hleze Kunju, Noleen Leach, Linda Manashe, Koliswa Moropa, Andre M. Mostert, Ndimande-Hlongwa, Dion Nkomo, Anneke Potgieter, Monwabisi Ralarala, Esther Ramani, Justus C. Roux, Feziwe Shoba, Zakhile Somlata, Undine S. Weber, Nogwaja S. Zulu
  • Book:
    Multilingualism and Intercultural Communication
    Published by:
    Wits University Press
    Published online:
    23 March 2018
    Print publication:
    31 December 2017, pp 283-300

  • Summary

    Language is the dress of thought

    Dr Samuel Johnson, The Lives of the English Poets

    Words are much more than mere lifeless symbols and signals. They are the very structure of thought.

    Karl Albrecht, Social Intelligence

    This chapter offers a brief overview of the language and culture debate and the Whorfian hypothesis in general, followed by a consideration of Sapir-Whorfian aspects in selected domains within the South African language planning and policy framework. The chapter concludes with recommendations as to how an acknowledgement of selected Whorfian perspectives could enhance language policy implementation in South Africa.

    Developing a coherent understanding of the relationship between language and culture is highly complex, but it is inevitable when developing language policies, immaterial of context, that a slew of assumptions regarding language and culture are accepted, a priori. Taken together with the political and socioeconomic complications in South Africa any assumptions can echo and reverberate far beyond the stated goals and objectives, when policy, whatever it may deal with, continues to be a form of sociocultural engineering.1 The frame of reference for any policy developments requires that policy-makers embrace assumptions that will enhance and ensure implementation and efficacy. Exploring all aspects of the underpinning policy assumptions would require a dedicated text in its own right.

    In this chapter the assumptions that feed out of the acceptance or rejection of the Whorfian hypothesis are explored and applied to selected domains within the South African language and cultural landscape. ‘The cultural landscape of South Africa tells a story of underdevelopment, disregard of certain cultures and also a story of preferential treatment of particular cultural communities and cultural practices’ (SANGONeT 2009). Against this backdrop, South African language policy-makers in the mid-1990s were faced with the same possible routes for addressing the legacy and how to take the country forward through viable and effective language policy creation. The response was the Constitution and a wide legislative framework aimed at correcting the impact of historical legislation and creating a fecund base for language and cultural development.

  • 14 - The development of language technologies in the South African context

  • from Part Four - Language in the professions: law, media, science and language technology
    • By Justus C Roux, project leader of the first major language technology project in South Africa.
  • Edited by Russell Kaschula, Pamela Maseko, H. Ekkehard Wolff
  • Christine Anthonissen, Bassey E. Antia, Ken Barris, Rebecca Domingo, Jeanne Toit, Regine Fourie, Nompumelelo Frans, Wanga Gambushe, Eunice Ivala, Michael Joseph, Gregory Kamwendo, Hleze Kunju, Noleen Leach, Linda Manashe, Koliswa Moropa, Andre M. Mostert, Ndimande-Hlongwa, Dion Nkomo, Anneke Potgieter, Monwabisi Ralarala, Esther Ramani, Justus C. Roux, Feziwe Shoba, Zakhile Somlata, Undine S. Weber, Nogwaja S. Zulu
  • Book:
    Multilingualism and Intercultural Communication
    Published by:
    Wits University Press
    Published online:
    23 March 2018
    Print publication:
    31 December 2017, pp 262-280

  • Summary

    Maseko et al. (2010) make a strong case for the promotion of the African languages on the Web. They specifically also refer to the role of information and communication technology (ICT) and, without naming it as such, they make a link to a specific type of language technology:

    The combination of African languages and ICT can help to increase epistemological access to information stored on the Web (Ngcobo 2009). For example, in combination with text-to-speech technology, Web resources in African languages could contribute to addressing the problem of illiteracy. (Maseko et al. 2010: 316)

    They continue to present an overview of the (limited) presence of African languages on the internet and, inter alia, address issues regarding stakeholders that have a role to play in promoting access to the internet in African languages: government, non-governmental organisations, universities and users (Maseko et al. 2010). The presence of African languages on the internet has increased to some extent over the last five years, while simultaneously significant and positive strides have been made in research and development in language technologies (LTs) in the South African context.

    The aims of this chapter are to provide a perspective on the role of stakeholders in developing technologies and promoting access to African languages on the Web; to discuss some prerequisites for developing and implementing LTs to the benefit of the users of the nine official African languages of South Africa; and, finally, to focus on new challenges arising from the presence of big data.

    Language technologies

    Language technologies are enabling technologies that facilitate interaction between humans and computer systems, or between humans and humans through the use of natural language by computer systems. We are constantly implementing LTs in one way or the other, whether we are aware of it or not. Consider the frequent use of spelling or grammar checkers, or searching for information on a topic on any web-based search engine. The mere use of text queries in a web-based search engine implies a form of LT.

  • Innovation in functional categories: slash, a new coordinator in English

  • BRENT WOO
  • Journal:
    English Language & Linguistics / Volume 23 / Issue 3 / September 2019
    Published online by Cambridge University Press:
    28 December 2017, pp. 621-644

  • This article presents an analysis of the distribution and syntactic behavior of the English expression slash, as in John is a linguist slash musician. The interpretation of this ‘effable slash’ is largely equivalent to intersective and, but it differs from other connective devices like Latin cum, N–N compounding and the orthographic slash </>. A corpus study of American English finds that slash is productive in this use. Its syntactic properties confirm its status as coordinator, but it is distinguished from standard coordinators and and or, in that it imposes category restrictions on the conjuncts: it cannot coordinate full clauses or noun phrases with determiners. I propose that words like slash, period and quote form a class of ‘effable punctuation’ that entered the spoken language from writing. In sum, by incorporating slash into the grammar of English, I argue that slash is a rare example of innovation in a ‘very closed’ functional category.

Direct Objects and Language Acquisition
  • Ana Teresa Pérez-Leroux, Mihaela Pirvulescu, Yves Roberge
  • Published online:
    21 December 2017
    Print publication:
    08 February 2018
  • Direct object omission is a general occurrence, observed in varying degrees across the world's languages. The expression of verbal transitivity in small children begins with the regular use of verbs without their object, even where object omissions are illicit in the ambient language. Grounded in generative grammar and learnability theory, this book presents a comprehensive view of experimental approaches to object acquisition, and is the first to examine how children rely on the lexical, structural and pragmatic components to unravel the system. The results presented lead to the hypothesis that missing objects in child language should not be seen as a deficit but as a continuous process of knowledge integration. The book argues for a new model of how this aspect of grammar is innately represented from birth. Ideal reading for advanced students and researchers in language acquisition and syntactic theory, the book's opening and closing chapters are also suitable for non-specialist readers.

  • The use of heaps as quantifier and intensifier in New Zealand English

  • ANDREEA CALUDE
  • Journal:
    English Language & Linguistics / Volume 23 / Issue 3 / September 2019
    Published online by Cambridge University Press:
    11 December 2017, pp. 531-556

  • This article documents novel uses of the noun heaps in New Zealand English, namely as quantifier and intensifier, by means of quantitative and qualitative analyses of corpus data. Closely following in the footsteps of lots, heaps is the second most frequent size noun in New Zealand English. On the basis of exhaustive coding of four corpora of New Zealand English (spoken and written), the article describes and exemplifies the various uses of heaps in this English variety. Results show heaps is preferred in speech compared to writing, and that its most common use is as a quantifier, followed by an extension to an intensifying use, which has received comparatively less attention in the literature (and never specifically in the context of New Zealand English). An examination of early New Zealand English in the ONZE Corpus testifies to this incoming change, with heaps grammaticalizing into an adverb and bearing the semantic role of intensifier. Multivariate statistical tests show that innovative uses of heaps are largely driven by younger speakers.

Page 259 of 1076