Stellenbosch Papers in Linguistics Plus
Not a member yet
537 research outputs found
Sort by
Interstitial small stories in Sandton, Gauteng, South Africa
Full text linkInterstices are those residual, left-over, spaces associated with movement across and between urban forms. Interstices in the business district of Sandton, Gauteng, South Africa, represent the insurgence of the lower levels in the vertical push of the high-rise offices, luxury hotels and retail spaces of the district. In interstitial spaces encounters and interactions are often fleeting and contingent. There is a discontinuity of social space. Links between people are spread out over the grid of the city, disassembled and reassembled as people leave their homes, move through different transport nodes to different destinations in the district and there, in turn, continue and discontinue their trajectory. Interstitial stories capture a reticular activity that binds people together through movement and space. In terms of narrative research, interstitial stories, a type of ‘small’ story, offer particularities that concern the intersection of the spatiality and temporality of the real and diagetic worlds, linguistic representational means and social consequentiality. The aim of this article is to explore interstitial stories, as an instantiation of small stories research and as a local storytelling practice, through three extracts that represent three different configurations of space and time: superposed spatialities, temporal and spatial identity, and movement in telling trajectory. In analysing these stories, this article hopes to shed further light on the role that narrative plays in our daily lives and interactions, bringing out local conditions and linguistic repertoires in the global South. Interstices emerge as challenging, cooperative and familiar, and, in contradistinction to what their name could imply, a strong resource for identity construction
Metacognition and the complex process of developing identities via a second language: addressing the challenges healthcare professionals are facing in a multilingual context
Full text linkThis qualitative study takes into account that healthcare professionals are increasingly required to function in a multilingual environment where they often have to communicate with patients in a second or third language (Ushioda & Dörnyei 2009, Burford 2012). In this regard the identity of the healthcare worker can be compromised, as identity is interrelated with language (Joseph 2004, Gollin-Kies et al. 2015, Skjeggestad et al. 2017). Therefore, communication training courses in the healthcare context should accommodate professional identity formation processes, as a healthy identity would support stress and change management (Monrouxe 2009, Goldie 2012, Mavor et al. 2014). Data was collected during two separate courses: firstly at Stellenbosch University, South Africa, where medical students took part in a communication training course in Afrikaans and secondly when nurses in Antwerpen, Belgium took part in a similar communication training course in English. Both courses followed a blended learning approach and for each course an online community of practice via Facebook was utilised. Data was analysed according to the principles of grounded theory. Metacognitive markers that support the identity formation process were identified during the first course and refined for the second course. The result is a framework that supports both metacognitive awareness and the manifestation of metacognition that could facilitate the professional identity formation process alongside the process of language learning for healthcare purposes
Constructions with ‘take’ in Latgalian: The limits of diachrony
Full text linkA collection of Latgalian oral folktales published in 1895 shows a great frequency of multi-verb constructions with a modifying verb ‘take’, including Serial Verb Constructions. These constructions are not found in Old Latgalian written texts, while in modern writing, only one type is attested: pseudo-coordination. Although the documentation of Latgalian spans almost three centuries, it is not possible to show grammaticalization paths of multi-verb constructions, as these are register-specific
Secondary concepts and internal dynamics of Emai Serial Verb Constructions
Full text linkWe examine verbs in series as they relate to Dixon’s (1991, 2010) notion of secondary concepts. Our verb samples and their structures derive from an Edoid language of southern Nigeria. Emai shows asymmetrical and symmetrical serial verb constructions. However, our analytic concern is the differential realization of secondary concepts according to form class. Most verbs that realize secondary concepts appear in A-SVCs as a minor component. Some verbs that code secondary concepts shun serialization and generally take complements that are clausal, truncated, or obliquely marked gerundives. Other form classes expressing secondary concepts are preverb and particle. Members reveal a verb heritage that is either lexical or phrasal. Even a few nouns convey secondary concepts. Auxiliaries, while referencing secondary concepts, do not disclose a verb heritage. Secondary concepts in A-SVCs reveal an asymmetry as occupants of positions V1 or V2 in series. V1 manifests event and participant qualifiers, whereas V2 exhibits primarily event qualifiers. Both positions also evidence serial-within-serial structures. Overall, secondary concepts only partially align with Emai verbs in series. Since a significant number of preverbs and particles actualize secondary concepts and have a verb heritage, we assume they have grammaticalized from earlier verb-in-series structures. Furthermore, we hypothesize that the pre-verbstem position in the canonical simplex clause of Emai has had a privileged role in the emergence of secondary concepts as preverbs from verbs in series and in the continual development of serialization as an expressive means for event and participant qualifiers
The rise and fall of Serial Verb Constructions: Finale
Full text linkThis article concludes the special issue of Stellenbosch Papers in Linguistics PLUS dedicated to the diachrony of Serial Verb Constructions. The authors of the ten contributions included in the volume discuss the most important results of their studies and suggest the possible lines for future research
On five-level tone contrasts: the case of Dan-Gblewo
Full text linkThe central goal of this research is to propose that no language utilizes more than four level pitches contrastively (from low to high). The central question is whether a five- or six-way contrast represents five or six level tones, or a combination of level tones, contour tones, voice quality, and syllable type. We argue that Dan-Gblewo operates a four-level-plus-creaky-voice system rather than a five-level tone system. We show that Dan must be analysed as such from the empirical, experimental, and theoretical perspectives
An exploration into Penultimate and Final Lengthening in Tswana (Southern Bantu)
Full text linkThis study investigates the segmental lengthening patterns resulting from prosodic boundaries in Tswana, a Southern Bantu language. The aim is to shed light on the interaction between Penultimate Lengthening and Final Lengthening, providing the first quantitative investigation of these phenomena in Tswana. We conducted a production experiment that applies a widely tested design to elicit production data of two different phrasal structures in coordinated noun phrases. The results suggest that Penultimate Lengthening and Final Lengthening constitute independent mechanisms, which both apply in Tswana. Penultimate Lengthening occurs before prosodic phrase boundaries as well as before word boundaries, yet at differing degrees. Before phrase boundaries, it involves a strong lengthening effect on the vowel of the penultimate syllable. Before word boundaries, the amount of lengthening is smaller. Final lengthening operates on the final syllable before a phrase boundary, involving a larger amount on the final vowel than on the preceding consonant. This pattern is in line with the pattern observed in other languages. The amount of lengthening on the final vowel is comparable to the amount on the penultimate vowel. Given that a large increase of lengthening on the penultimate syllable has not been observed in connection with Final Lengthening, we assume that Penultimate Lengthening constitutes a language-specific mechanism that applies independently. Final Lengthening, on the other hand, might be a universal phenomenon. The perceptual salience of Penultimate Lengthening, which has been widely reported in the literature for Bantu languages, might have to do with the dynamics within the lengthening domains, namely that the lengthening in penultimate position is abrupt and relatively stronger than in final position when compared to the preceding syllable
Revisiting Basaa verbal derivation
Full text linkBasaa, a Narrow Bantu language, A 43, spoken in Cameroon in Central Africa holds a serious record of descriptive works in phonology, morphology, and syntax. Verb morphology has been studied in detail by Bitja’a Kody (2000), Dimmendaal (1988), Hyman (2003) among others. The present paper focusing on verb derivation raises two main issues: the paradigm of expansions that are recurrent in the language on the one hand, and extensions for which suggest the existence of additional suffixes to what is already reported on the other hand. Further extensions are the perfective, the associative, and the tentative. This paper ends up with an attempt to reconstruct Basaa extensions, mirroring the Proto-Bantu propositions from Schadeberg (2003)
ʼn Verbeterde leksikografiese dataverspreiding- en inligtings-onttrekkingstruktuur
Full text linkThe dynamics in lexicography compel lexicographers to constantly be aware of the changes that need to be made in their dictionaries. These changes are on the level of the contents of dictionaries, lexicographic functions as well as dictionary structures. The target user group of every dictionary, their lexicographic needs and their reference skills should always be taken into account. In this article various aspects of lexicographic processes are discussed, with specific reference to adaptations in data distribution structures, the expansion of search venues and the transfer from dictionaries as push mediums to dictionaries as pull mediums. For printed dictionaries the use of a semi-integrated microstructure is proposed in order to ensure a better distinction in the presentation of example sentences and collocations. For online dictionaries the proposal is made to introduce a comprehensive search universe as well as a data-pulling structure. Such a structure offers dictionary users the opportunity to access the internet as well as the dictionary corpus from within a given dictionary. Dictionaries are transformed from destination sources to transfer sources. This offers users, including language practitioners, many more possibilities to find in the dictionary-external sources, besides the data in dictionaries, including cotextual data, also other data and especially occurrences of natural language use.AbstrakDie dinamika in die leksikografie noop leksikograwe om voortdurend daarop bedag te wees dat veranderinge in hulle woordeboeke aangebring moet word. Hierdie veranderinge lê op die vlak van die woordeboekinhoud, die leksikografiese funksies asook die woordeboekstrukture. Die teikengebruikersgroep van elke woordeboek en hulle leksikografiese behoeftes en naslaanvaardighede moet deurgaans in gedagte gehou word. In hierdie artikel word verskillende aspekte van leksikografiese prosesse bespreek, met spesifieke verwysing na die aanpassing in dataverspreidingstrukture, die uitbreiding van soekplekke en die oorgang van woordeboeke vanaf die stootmedium na die trekmedium. Vir gedrukte woordeboeke word die benutting van ʼn semi-geïntegreerde mikrostruktuur voorgehou om ʼn beter onderskeid in die aanbieding van voorbeeldsinne en kollokasies moontlik te maak. Vir aanlyn woordeboeke is die pleidooi om die daarstelling van ʼn uitgebreide soekheelal asook die inwerkingstelling van ʼn datatrekkingstruktuur. So ʼn struktuur bied aan woordeboekgebruikers vanuit die woordeboek toegang tot onder meer die internet asook die korpus van die betrokke woordeboek. Woordeboeke verander van eindpuntbronne na tussengangerbronne. Dit bied veel meer moontlikhede aan gebruikers, onder andere taalpraktisyns, om naas die data, onder meer koteksaanduiders, in woordeboeke ook ander data en veral voorbeelde van natuurlike taalgebruik in die woordeboek-eksterne bronne te vind
When factivity meets the conjoint/disjoint alternation
Full text linkThis paper examines the conjoint/disjoint alternation in matrix verbs which take clausal complements in Zulu. It shows that the typical verbs which by default take the disjoint form with a clausal complement are factive verbs, though it is also clear that other attitude verbs can also undergo the conjoint/disjoint alternation. The paper explores the connection between focus and the conjoint/disjoint alternation in Zulu under the Question Under Discussion (QUD) approach, to help understand the interpretations associated with the alternations in combination with clausal complements