This thesis makes an ethnographic contribution to the anthropological debates about the contested nature of ‘culture’ as a central term in the discipline. It examines discourses as tools that create, recreate, modify and transmit culture. The research was done in the town of Rundu in Kavango region, northeastern Namibia. In attempting to understand the local notions of culture this study focused on two main events: the Independence Day celebration on 21 March 2006 and a funeral that was held earlier in the month of January. During the study two particular media through which cultural ideas are negotiated, language and clothing were observed.

Magister Educationis - MEd / This study examines the impact of two different models of teaching English to Chinese children, to see whether it meets learners’ needs. These two different approaches appear to lead to different result for children. The results of the analysis appear to show that this teaching programme is failing the children at Z’SL. Therefore, the course needs to be reviewed and improved. Four research tools were used in this study: interviews, questionnaires, classroom observation, and document analysis. Interviews and questionnaires were distributed to coordinators and teachers at both schools. Questionnaires were also distributed to the parents of students. Classroom observation was done during normal class time by the researcher. The document analysis dealt with the analysis of the textbooks. The results of the study appear to show that the teaching programme in English at Z’SL has failed to meet the children’s needs. The materials are not designed for young learner’s needs. They just emphasize the four skills of English in an English environment, but neglect the relatively unstable language situation of the children. The teaching methodology emphasized the direct method, but neglected children’s needs. Children should be taught to know how to use a language in the society they live in and to learn a second language effectively for actual use. This study concludes that two-way bilingual education and the cognitive developmental approach are most effective to develop dual language proficiency for Chinese children in their native language and English in order to bring up the children as members of Chinese society. Additive bilingualism education is also appropriate for Chinese children when the home language is a majority language and the school is adding a second minority or majority language. Another consideration is that collaboration between parents and teachers is more effective to provide opportunities for children to maintain their own language and culture while children acquire a second language / South Africa

Magister Artium - MA / The study investigated the practice of codeswitching within the Cape Flats speech community of Cape Town. Members of this speech community have always been exposed to both English and Afrikaans in formal as well as informal contexts. Due to constant exposure to both languages, as well as historical and political experiences, members of the speech community have come to utilize both languages within a single conversation and even within a single utterance. Codeswitching is an integral part of the community's speech behaviour. The main purpose of this research was to uncover and analyze the motivations behind codeswitching in the bilingual communities of Cape Town, while also providing a strong argument that codeswitching patterns evident in their speech do not always correspond completely with linguistic constraints that are regarded as 'universal'. / South Africa

Magister Artium - MA / This study explored Cameroonian migrants language use and the various language forms they use to manifest their identity. It also dealt with multicultural/multilingual people in an equally multicultural/multilingual society - Cape Town. The study was carried out in the wider and interdisciplinary field of applied linguistics with focus on the specific domain of sociolinguistics. / South Africa

One of the most important questions in Australian comparative linguistics over the last 40 years is the validity of a Pama-Nyungan node in the Australian family tree. Much of the comparative research done on Australian languages has supported the notion of a Pama-Nyungan family, and its validity is now well-established. However. much work remains to be done, both in establishing the relationships among the Pama-Nyungan languages and in reconstructing proto-Pama-Nyungan and determining the details of its development in the various branches of the family tree. This dissertation is a contribution towards the latter effort. The primary purpose of the present study is to determine the development of the three initial velars, *k. *ng and *w. in 25 Pama-Nyungan languages through 1561 cognate sets. The cognate sets are also an important resource for the study of other aspects of phonological change in Pama-Nyungan languages. The data provide evidence for the weakening of medial consonants, the assimilation of initial velar glides and nasals to the following vowel, prenasalization of medial stops, the development of triconsonantal clusters, and the presence of both a laminal lateral and a retroflex series of consonants in proto-Pama-Nyungan. In addition, statistical evidence is presented which supports the hypothesis that assimilation of the second to the first vowel is an important process in the history of many Pama-Nyungan languages. This dissertation also discusses important issues regarding the Neogrammarian hypothesis and the comparative method. In particular, the data presented here support the idea that not all sound changes apply in a lexically abrupt, regular manner. Many of the sound changes seen in the data appear to affect only a portion of the eligible forms, and thus provide evidence for the theory of lexical diffusion. Furthermore, most of the changes are found not just in individual languages, but in a number of the languages under study. The data therefore support the notion of pandemic irregularity. / Graduate

The conventional understanding of the liaison interpreter views the professional as a language broker between two or more individuals not speaking the same language. The manner in which this language gap is bridged, according to the conventional understanding, is through copying verbatim what is said in one language (the source language) and pasting it (into the target language). The conventional understanding of the profession and its professionals neglects the multi-faceted nature of the profession along with the many challenges with which its professionals are faced. A liaison interpreter is a professional who forms a bridge between languages, people and culture. When viewed through this lens, new meaning and understanding are gained regarding the work of the liaison interpreter whilst, similarly, unveiling the complexity of the profession. As such, new questions may be raised pertaining to the role of the liaison interpreter in dialogue settings. This mini-dissertation seeks to shed new light on an age old profession whilst unveiling these hidden factors to highlight the benefits of factoring cultural training into interpreter training to better train student interpreters, and equip them with a unique set of skills to assist them in overcoming the unique set of challenges with which liaison interpreters often grapple. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2015. / Modern European Languages / Unrestricted

No description available.

<p>  </p> <p>The present study describes the pragmatic functions and the social meaning of the discourse marker (DM) <em>órale</em>. <em>Órale </em>is a recognized and salient DM in Mexican Spanish (Mejía-Gómez, 2008; Mendoza-Denton, 2011; Navarro, 2005), but research on its pragmatic meanings and use in interaction and society is minimal. Considering previous literature on discourse markers and descriptions of <em>órale</em>, two research questions were addressed to examine the pragmatic and sociolinguistic uses of <em>órale</em>: (1) What are the pragmatic functions of <em>órale</em>? and (2) Do gender, age, and educational level affect the use of <em>órale</em>? By answering these research questions, the current investigation represents the largest and most systematic analysis of <em>órale</em> to date, and it offers both pragmatic and sociolinguistic understandings. </p> <p>The analysis considered all 189 <em>órale </em>tokens in the Corpus Sociolingüístico de la Ciudad de México (CSCM) (Butragueño & Lastra, 2011–2015)<a href="https://hammer.purdue.edu/account/home#_ftn1" target="_blank">[1]</a>. The pragmatic analysis relied on an iterative approach, using open coding and axial coding (Corbin & Strauss, 1990). In addition, it relied on the triangulation of prior descriptions of <em>órale</em>, turn position, and the speakers’ positioning in the social narrative. For the sociolinguistic analysis, descriptive statistics and statistical models were used to understand the effect of gender, age, and education on <em>órale</em> in general and its different functions.</p> <p>Results indicated three discourse functions of <em>órale</em> (i.e., exhortation, affirmation, reorientation), each with two subfunctions. Exhortation functions appeared in first pair part positions (i.e., initiating) and aided speakers in positioning as authoritative. Affirmation functions were in second pair part positions (i.e., responsive) and reflected a more agreeable positioning, and reoriention functions were turn­ medial. Quantitative analysis of the distribution of <em>órale</em> indicated that affirmation was the most frequent function, followed by reorientation and then exhortation. Regarding the sociolinguistic variables, a quasi-Poisson regression model and multinomial logistical models revealed that gender had a statistically significant effect on <em>órale</em> use, in that men used the DM more than women. In addition, in the analysis of the effect of the social categories on function of <em>órale</em>, education had a significant effect. The middle educational level relied more on <em>órale </em>for affirmation compared to other functions than the other groups. The interaction between social categories and functions was discussed with respect to the findings related to gender and level of education.</p> <p>A main contribution of this investigation was the typology of the pragmatic functions of <em>órale</em>. The analysis was sufficient to explain all data and more economical than some prior descriptions. Furthermore, the proposed typology relies on a triangulation of pragmatic function, turn position, and the positioning made by the speaker, which taken together provide validity to the analysis. Other contributions were the distribution of the functions of<em> órale </em>in discourse and among social categories. In addition, a theoretical contribution was made by the proposal of the core meaning, leading to more precise understanding of <em>órale</em>. </p> <p>  <br>    </p> <p><a href="https://hammer.purdue.edu/account/home#_ftnref1" target="_blank">[1]</a> The CSCM is a balanced corpus of 108 interviews with men and women across three social classes and three age groups. Interviews addressed thematic modules, including life threatening situations.</p>

The purpose of this thesis is to lay the foundation for a better understanding between the East and the West by (l) a broad overview of the traditional value systems and thought patterns (sometimes referred to as cultural orientations) of the Indians, Chinese, and Euro-Americans, (2) comparing and contrasting these value systems and thought patterns, and (3) showing the effects of the contrasts of the Asian and Western cultural orientations on intercultural communication. The differences in the traditional heritages that affect the way that the three major cultures look at the world are discovered by drawing together descriptions from classical literature that have stood the test of time. The effects of the meaning of these contrasting cultural orientations on intercultural communication are discussed. The terms "culture," "communication," "intercultural communication," "cultural orientations," "thought patterns," "East" and "West" are defined. A general review of the literature shows that the problem of intercultural communication is very complex, sophisticated, and has been present through history. Though philosophers, sociologists, psychologists, and communicators have attempted to show and be aware of the cultural differences, not much has been researched in terms of how these differences affect intercultural communication. Their only overwhelming· concern is how people think at the moment of communication. They have usually ignored the nature of intercultural communication behaviors as the subsequent, natural response and expressions of cultural oriented thought patterns of the individuals. An overview of the three major cultures is presented, followed by a comparison and contrast of the categories of will, activity, desire, progress, reason, attitude toward rhetoric, caste, distinctiveness, belief, change, and heroes; illustrations are then given of how these differences caused misunderstanding in the past. It is open to argument whether the "categorized" thought patterns are typical and applicable to contemporary events; however, examples are given to show some of these traditional attitudes and behaviors have influenced intercultural communication.

Self-reported behaviorally-based intercultural communication competence inventories are one way to understand the relationship between a pre-departure training program and its participants' intercultural communication competence (ICC). One such inventory, called the Cross- Cultural Adaptability Inventory (CCAI), was chosen to explore this relationship. This research sought to confirm or reject the following three hypotheses: 1) experimental subjects will demonstrate higher levels of ICC than control subjects, 2) experimental subjects will demonstrate higher levels of ICC after they take the pre-departure class at Walla Walla College, and 3) there will be relationships among all subjects' ICC and the demographic variables involved in this research. Fifty seven subjects from Walla Walla College participated in the research, 23 as experimental subjects, and 34 as control subjects. Experimental subjects took the cross-cultural ministry class at Walla Walla College and were given the inventory twice, once before and once after the course. Control subjects had never been SMs, had not taken any previous pre-departure training, and were administered the inventory once.