Minga, Katunga Joseph (0301525P) mingajose@yahoo.com MA translation 2005 School of Literature and language studies Dr Inggs, J jinggs@languages.wits.ac.za / The research presented here analyses translations of Ngugi wa Tshiong’o’s children’s books from the point of view of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), as outlined by Norman Fairclough (1989, 1992). The research investigates whether an approach taking into consideration ideological issues in translation is most appropriate in translating Ngugi’s children books for a francophone child reader by giving them access to Gĩkữyữ culture. To achieve this objective, the French translations of selected ideologically embedded extracts of Ngugi’s children books (Njamba Nene and the Flying Bus and Jamba Nene’s Pistol) are compared. The translations were carried out in different socio-cultural contexts by translators of different origins (France and Cameroon). The results of this research show that the translated texts read differently from one translator to another. This suggests that certain ideological and other social factors influence translators, resulting in differing translation products. In this way, translation cannot be considered as a one-to-one transfer between languages. Nor can translation theory draw on one linguistic theory alone, however complex it may be. What is needed is “a theory of culture to explain the specificity of communicative situations and the relationship between verbalised and non-verbalised situational elements” (Nord, 1997:11).

ABSTRACT This study compared selected commercial bank advertisements published in 1994 with those published in 2004.Its purpose was to establish whether advertising discourses found in these texts reflect the socio-political changes that occurred in South Africa between 1994 and 2004.It further sought to identify the features of the advertisements that appeared during these periods in order to determine if there have been any shifts in discourses during this time. This qualitative research relied heavily on Fairclough’s theory and method of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) for both its theoretical framework and data analysis. In the data analysis section, a need arose to employ some of the tools of semiotic analysis as provided by Kress and Van Leeuwen’s (1996) ‘grammar of visual analysis’ as well as a limited form of Thematic Content Analysis. Data analysis began with a thematic content analysis of all 36 advertisements collected for this study in order to gain a broader perspective of the range of themes covered by these advertisements. This was followed by a comparative detailed Critical Discourse Analysis of two representative pairs of advertisements from 1994 and 2004 to illustrate the behaviour of advertising discourses at these two distinctly different historical junctures. While the research has found some reproductions of discourses from the 1994 period in the 2004 advertisements, it has also revealed that there have been shifts in the discourses between 1994 and 2004.There is also evidence to suggest that in some instances the shifts have more to do with the ways in which the discourses are communicated rather than clear changes in the discourses as such. In the main, the study found that advertising discourses, because of their hybridism and social embeddedness, tend to mirror the sociopolitical context in which they are produced and distributed. As a result, they can be said to reflect the changes and challenges faced by society at the time of their production.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Humanities, School of Education, 2011 / This study is a located in a foundational undergraduate mathematics course designed to facilitate the transition from school mathematics to advanced mathematics. The focus of the study is on two innovations in the course; the use of practical problems that make links to non-mathematical practices and a learner-centred pedagogy. While these innovations are part of the discourse of the mathematics education community in terms of access to school mathematics, this study investigates the relationship between these innovations and access to advanced mathematics. The texts of three practical problems from the course and texts representing the verbal and non-verbal action of 17 students as they worked collaboratively in small groups on these problems were analyzed. The analysis of these texts is used to describe and explain, firstly, how the practical problems in the foundational course represent the practice of foundational undergraduate mathematics and its relationship to other practices in the educational space (for example, school mathematics, calculus reform, advanced mathematics, and non-mathematical practices). Secondly, the students‟ enabling and constraining mathematical action on the practical problems is described and explained. Answering the empirical questions in this study has required theoretical work to develop a socio-political perspective of mathematical practice. This theoretical perspective is based on Fairclough‟s social practice perspective from critical linguistics, but has been supplemented with recontextualized theoretical constructs used by Morgan, Moschkovich and Sfard in mathematics education. These constructs are used to conceptualize the notion of mathematical discourse and action on mathematical objects in this discourse. The methodological work of this study has involved supplementing Fairclough‟s method of critical discourse analysis with Sfard‟s method of focal analysis to analyze mathematical, discursive, social and political action in a socio-political mathematical practice. The central finding of this thesis is that foundational mathematical practice represents both continuities and disruptions in its relationship to other practices in the space. As a result, participation in the foundational practice is complex, requiring control over the how and when of boundary crossings across practices, social events and texts. On the basis of this complexity, innovative foundational practice is positioned paradoxically in the higher education space. On the one hand, it represents an alternative to the dominant representation of mathematical practice and positioning of the foundational student in higher education. On the other hand, the complexity of foundational practice makes access to advanced mathematics problematic and foundational practice thus reproduces the dominant ordering.

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I denna kvalitativa studie undersöks värdegrundsdokument från fem svenska statliga myndigheter. Studien syftar till att bidra med kunskap om maktrelationen och förväntan gentemot den statligt anställde genom textanalys ur ett kritiskt perspektiv. Det empiriska materialet analyserades utifrån critical discourse analysis (CDA) och kompletterades med Hellspong och Ledins (1997) mall av den ideationella strukturen. Den kritiska diskursanalysen är till för att ge svar på vilka värderingar som myndigheterna uttrycker. I den ideationella analysen undersöks värdegrundsdokumentens teman, propositioner och perspektiv. I analysen klargörs olika värdeord och rubriceringar som fanns i värdegrundsdokumenten samt dess innebörd och betydelse för den anställde. Resultatet visade att de önskade värderingarna är att myndigheterna och dess anställda ska vara kompetenta, handlingskraftiga, effektiva, flexibla med mera. Resultatet visade även att förväntningar som läggs hos den statligt anställde samt maktrelationen mellan myndigheterna och den anställde oftast uttrycks som påståenden med uttryckta krav, löften och förväntningar i värdegrundsdokumenten. / In this qualitative study, basic documents from five Swedish state agencies are examined. This study aims to contribute knowledge about the power relationship and expectation towards the state employee through a textual analysis from a critical perspective. The empirical material was analyzed on the basis of critical discourse analysis (CDA) and supplemented with Hellspong and Ledin's (1997) template of the ideational structure. The critical discourse analysis is intended to provide answers to which values the authorities express. In the ideational analysis, the themes, propositions and perspectives of the values documents are examined. The analysis clarifies different value words and headings that existed in the values documents, as well as the respective meanings and significance for employees. Results indicate that the desired values of state agencies and their employees include: compentency, actionable, effectiveness, flexibility among others. Results also demonstrated that expectations of the state employee as well as the power relationship between state agencies and the employee, are usually expressed as claims with expressed requirements, promises and expectations in the values documents.

In the globalized world of today, more and more countries are constructing themselves as authentic and unique in order to attract potential tourists. Nation branding is being used as a tool to commodify the country. This thesis is a critical discourse analysis that takes interest in examining how the Netherlands is discursively constructed as a nation brand on the website Holland.com. The thesis draws on theories of national identity, nation branding, commodification and authenticity, all from a critical point of view. Using critical discourse analysis as a method, this thesis is able to reveal the underlying ideologies and interests that are being promoted through the website. This is done by using specific tools, to discover what information is being made salient on the website and what information is being suppressed. The analysis of the website reveals three main findings: the Netherlands is constructed as authentic, with the purpose of commodifying the country to become as attractive as possible for potential visitors. Another finding shows how nation branding is used to reshape and reconstruct national history, as well as geography. Lastly, the analysis uncovers forms of nationalism found in the texts on the website.

Lately, the trailer for the game “Battlefield V” received a massive backlash from the players of the Battlefield franchise due to the fact that the game inspired by World War II featured a woman as the main character. This research set out to investigate how female elements are interpreted in a traditional male-dominated digital space, and aims to highlight the elements to consider when introducing a female lead character in a video game. The method employed was the critical discourse analysis method (CDA) which interprets discourse by drawing out the implicit meanings in texts. The analysis sought to discern the elements depicting the woman soldier in the online discourse around the game that originated from the controversy. The interpretation of the results is based on the reception theory, as well as the concept of identification and develop around the theory of gender and media and game theory (ludology). The results revealed that the perception of women as a role, from a presence and aesthetic perspective in a virtual space, is influenced by gender roles and the reception of History. Another conclusion is that when giving a female character the main role, with all the attributes of a male character, it seems to confuse the players, resulting in that they cannot identify themselves with the avatar. In addition, the physical appearance contributes to the identification with a character and confirms the precedent studies about male players identifying with male players. The findings support the autonomy of historical understanding and its connection to visual culture in order to explain the phenomenon. As a consequence, the rejection of the main character has led to the creation of a community built around the online discourse and the imbalance of gender values, favorising masculinity over femininity.

O objetivo desta pesquisa é analisar o léxico que enaltece a cidade do Rio de Janeiro, conhecida como cidade maravilhosa, em vinte e duas canções compostas entre as décadas de 1930 e 1960. Parte-se do pressuposto de que os sentidos que cada palavra possui só são revelados quando estudados dentro de um determinado contexto, seja histórico, político, social e geográfico. O léxico, quando atualizado no discurso, reflete o pensamento de um indivíduo ou de um grupo, que nada mais é do que a materialização da ideologia determinada pelos enunciadores ao fazerem suas escolhas lexicais. Ao optarem por essa ou aquela palavra, eles indicam suas crenças, valores e experiências acumuladas ao longo da vida. Utilizam-se como bases teóricas para os estudos do léxico POTTIER (1972), VILELA (1979), BIDERMAN (2001) e VAN DIJK (1997; 2003; 2004; 2012; 2013) de modo a analisar as relações entre discurso, cognição, sociedade e contexto. A partir disso é feita a organização das unidades lexicais lexias em campos semânticos para que se identifiquem subtemas relacionados à composição do tema cidade maravilhosa. Foram encontradas, nas letras das canções, temáticas relacionadas à figura feminina, à música, aos espaços urbanos e à cidade do Rio de Janeiro idealizada como a própria mulher. Os campos semânticos mostram que esses temas influenciaram a composição ideológica cidade maravilhosa e que, por meio da interface cognitiva, criaram a contextualização deste espaço brasileiro. / The objective of this research is to analyze the lexicon that emblazons Rio de Janeiro, known as the wonderful city, through twenty-two songs written during the so-called Golden age of radio. To accomplish such task, one begins with the assumption that the sense each word has, reveals itself when studied within a given context, being it historical, political, social or geographical. Lexicon, when applied in discourse, reflects individual or collective thought, which is nothing more than the materialization of the ideology that is determined by enunciators, once their lexical choices have been made. By selecting a word over another, beliefs, principles and lifetime experiences are conveyed. This research has, as its theoretical basis, Pottier (1972) and Van Dijk (1997; 2003; 2004, 2012) for the analysis of the relationship between discourse, cognition, society and context. From this point forward, the lexical units are divided lexias into semantic fields to identify subthemes related to the larger theme wonderful city. Lastly, themes linked to women, music, urban spaces, and the notion of Rio de Janeiro being idealized as the woman itself are found in the lyrics of the songs in question. The semantic fields indicate that such themes have deeply influenced the ideological constitution of the term wonderful city and thus, through a cognitive interface, have shaped the contextualization of this Brazilian space.

No decorrer da história da humanidade, acompanha-se o nascimento de novos (e velhos) discursos sobre a loucura. Porém, foi na era moderna que o campo da saúde testemunhou o desenvolvimento de um discurso que se tornaria hegemônico, o qual via a loucura como doença mental. Para isso, desenvolveu-se instituições e instrumentos especializados de tratamento. Com o surgimento do movimento de reforma psiquiátrica, nos últimos 20 anos, procurou-se reorientar o saber e o fazer com relação à loucura, buscando romper com a visão altamente hospitalocêntrica do cuidado e direcionando a assistência para o contexto da comunidade. Por ser um movimento que porta, no seu interior, contradições inerentes ao seu caráter dialético, a mesma reforma que cria possibilidades de transformação do saber e da prática em saúde mental, corre o risco de cair na inércia, que mantém relações estreitas com modelos tradicionais antagônicos a ela. Nesse sentido, este estudo pretende analisar os discursos sobre a prática de trabalhadores de saúde mental no contexto social da reforma psiquiátrica. Trata-se de uma pesquisa de abordagem qualitativa, na qual foram aplicadas entrevistas semi-estruturadas a 17 de 25 trabalhadores de saúde mental de um serviço substitutivo da cidade de Joinville/SC. O referencial teórico-filosófico deste estudo foi a análise crítica de discurso. A análise do corpus foi realizada com o desenvolvimento de um dispositivo chamado de diagrama axiológico-discursivo. Optou-se por analisar o corpus a partir de quatro eixos temáticos, a saber: representações sobre os usuários, as famílias, a prática dos trabalhadores e o serviço. Para cada uma delas, chegou-se aos seguintes discursos prototípicos, com suas respectivas combinações axiológicas: benevolência (não-negativo), distanciamento (negativo), incerteza (não-positivo) e inovação (positivo). A análise foi realizada através da interpretação das principais estruturas linguísticas que representassem cada discurso prototípico e cada dimensão axiológica identificada, orientada a partir das premissas do referencial teórico-filosófico escolhido. Espera-se que este estudo possa contribuir para o avanço das pesquisas de abordagem qualitativa na área da saúde e para refletir sobre o processo de consolidação da reforma psiquiátrica no contexto brasileiro. / In the history of humankind, several new (and old) discourses about madness have arisen. However, it was in modern age that the field of health witnessed the development of a discourse that would become hegemonic, which realized madness as a mental disorder. With this purpose, several specialized treatment institutions and tools were developed. With the emergence of the psychiatric reform movement, over the last 20 years, an effort has been made to give a new direction to knowledge and actions relating to madness, with the aim to break with the highly hospital-centered view of health care and targeting care services toward the context of community. Since it is a movement that holds contradictions inherent to its dialectic character, the reform that offers possibilities of changing mental health knowledge and practice is also at the risk of falling within the inertia that maintains close relations with antagonist traditional models. In this sense, the aim of this study is to analyze the discourses about mental health workers within the social context of the psychiatric reform. This is a qualitative study, which used semi-structured interviews with 17 of a total 25 mental health workers from a substitutive service in the city of Joinville, in the state of Santa Catarina. The theoretical-philosophical framework of this study was critical-discourse analysis. The corpus analysis was performed by developing a device called axiological-discourse diagram. The corpus was analyzed based on four theoretical axes, which were: representations about the users, the families, the workers practice and the service. For each of them, the following prototypic discourses were achieved, with their respective axiological combinations: benevolence (non-negative), withdrawal (negative) uncertainty (non-positive), and innovation (positive). The analysis was performed through the interpretation of the main linguistic structures that represented each prototypic discourse and each identified axiological dimension, guided based on the premises of the chosen theoretical-philosophical framework. It is expected that this study will contribute with the advancement of qualitative approach studies in the health area and with reflections about the process to consolidate the psychiatric reform in the Brazilian context.

Thesis advisor: Curt Dudley-Marling / This project was my attempt to rewrite the discourse of schooling within the context of my own classroom to transform it into a dialogic, multilingual, multi-literacy and critical literacy site that offered students opportunities for rigorous and relevant intellectual work. The purpose of this study was to deepen my understanding of the teaching and learning of language and literacies in diverse urban schools so that I might enhance my practice and contribute to the knowledge-base in the field. To that end, I asked: what happens when I broaden what counts as academic discourse and academic texts? Engaging in practitioner inquiry, I studied the discursive space of my ninth grade literacy class in the urban public school where I teach. Throughout the 2008-09 academic year, I collected data in the form of audio-recordings of class discussions and student interviews, student work and a teacher journal. Using critical discourse analysis, I analyzed the discursive space and situated those findings across local, institutional and societal domains. My analysis of the data suggests that urban schools need not rely on scripted and low-expectations curricula that limit ways with words in academic contexts. Instead, I argue that a student-centered and dialogic pedagogy, which centers students not only in classroom discourse, but also in the curriculum by including texts and instructional practices relevant to their lives beyond the school walls, creates a context for student engagement in rigorous intellectual work. To that end, teachers need not devalue particular literacies or ways with words as inappropriate for classroom discourse, but should instead draw on students' funds of knowledge as legitimate resources for learning. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2011. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Curriculum and Instruction.