Educated mother-tongue South African English: A corpus approach
- Adendorff, Ralph D, De Klerk, Vivian A, De Vos, Mark A, Hunt, Sally, Simango, Silvester R, Todd, Louise, Niesler, Thomas
- Authors: Adendorff, Ralph D , De Klerk, Vivian A , De Vos, Mark A , Hunt, Sally , Simango, Silvester R , Todd, Louise , Niesler, Thomas
- Date: 2008
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/124352 , vital:35597 , https://doi.org/10.1080/10228190608566261
- Description: South Africa is anecdotally known for its complex system of speech varieties correlating with variables such as ethnicity, first language, class and education. These intuitions (e.g. Lass 1990) require further investigation, especially in the context of a changing South Africa where language variety plays a key role in identifying social, economic and ethnic group membership. Thus, in this research, the extent to which these variables play a role in variety is explored using a corpus approach (the nature of class and race in the corpus is discussed more fully later in the article). The corpus project, focusing primarily on accent, has been undertaken by members of the Department of English Language and Linguistics at Rhodes University in South Africa, collaborating with staff from the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering from Stellenbosch University, South Africa. A corpus (the first of its kind) is being compiled, comprising the speech of educated, white, mother-tongue speakers of South African English (as distinct from Afrikaans English, Indian English, and the second language (L2) varieties of English used by speakers of indigenous African languages), and data collection is well under way. This short article aims to describe the aims of the project, and the methodological approach which underpins it, as well as to highlight some of the more problematic aspects of the research.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2008
- Authors: Adendorff, Ralph D , De Klerk, Vivian A , De Vos, Mark A , Hunt, Sally , Simango, Silvester R , Todd, Louise , Niesler, Thomas
- Date: 2008
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/124352 , vital:35597 , https://doi.org/10.1080/10228190608566261
- Description: South Africa is anecdotally known for its complex system of speech varieties correlating with variables such as ethnicity, first language, class and education. These intuitions (e.g. Lass 1990) require further investigation, especially in the context of a changing South Africa where language variety plays a key role in identifying social, economic and ethnic group membership. Thus, in this research, the extent to which these variables play a role in variety is explored using a corpus approach (the nature of class and race in the corpus is discussed more fully later in the article). The corpus project, focusing primarily on accent, has been undertaken by members of the Department of English Language and Linguistics at Rhodes University in South Africa, collaborating with staff from the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering from Stellenbosch University, South Africa. A corpus (the first of its kind) is being compiled, comprising the speech of educated, white, mother-tongue speakers of South African English (as distinct from Afrikaans English, Indian English, and the second language (L2) varieties of English used by speakers of indigenous African languages), and data collection is well under way. This short article aims to describe the aims of the project, and the methodological approach which underpins it, as well as to highlight some of the more problematic aspects of the research.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2008
Verb agreement and the syntax of ciNsenga relative clauses
- Authors: Simango, Silvester R
- Date: 2006
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/469278 , vital:77228 , https://doi.org/10.2989/16073610609486421
- Description: Relativisation of a non-subject NP in ciNsenga (Bantu) results in the inversion of the subject and the appearance on the verb of a prefix which agrees with the relativised noun. Recent studies on Bantu relative constructions (for example, Demuth and Harford, 1999; Ngonyani, 1999; 2001) have shown that subject inversion results from the verb raising from I to C, and that this occurs only when the relative pronoun is a prosodic clitic and not a phonological word. When the relative pronoun has the status of a phonological word it blocks verb raising and thus subject inversion does not occur. In ciNsenga, however, subject inversion occurs despite the fact that the relative pronoun constitutes a phonological word. Drawing on the insights of Kayne (1994) this paper argues that the relative pronoun does not occupy the C position as is generally assumed, but that it occupies the head position of the moved DP, which itself occupies the Spec position of CP (which equates to Topic Phrase in the current study). This leaves the C position available for the inflected verb to move into.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2006
- Authors: Simango, Silvester R
- Date: 2006
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/469278 , vital:77228 , https://doi.org/10.2989/16073610609486421
- Description: Relativisation of a non-subject NP in ciNsenga (Bantu) results in the inversion of the subject and the appearance on the verb of a prefix which agrees with the relativised noun. Recent studies on Bantu relative constructions (for example, Demuth and Harford, 1999; Ngonyani, 1999; 2001) have shown that subject inversion results from the verb raising from I to C, and that this occurs only when the relative pronoun is a prosodic clitic and not a phonological word. When the relative pronoun has the status of a phonological word it blocks verb raising and thus subject inversion does not occur. In ciNsenga, however, subject inversion occurs despite the fact that the relative pronoun constitutes a phonological word. Drawing on the insights of Kayne (1994) this paper argues that the relative pronoun does not occupy the C position as is generally assumed, but that it occupies the head position of the moved DP, which itself occupies the Spec position of CP (which equates to Topic Phrase in the current study). This leaves the C position available for the inflected verb to move into.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2006
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