Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2005. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study explores the theoretical work in articulating the motivations and conditions for account-giving in isiXhosa in relation to image restoration. This emotional and behavioural rehabilitation is done through accounts. In this context, accounts are similar to narratives and can be retained at the level of private reflections or written as diary entries or for others to read and refer to from time to time. The account-making process according to Warren (1989), is like a "life in motion" in which individual characters are portrayed as moving through their experiences, dealing with some conflict or problem in their lives and at the same time searching for a resolution. It is then this quest to understand the major stresses in each individual's mind that is at the core of this study. The why questions that are the result of the daily experiences of destitution, depression, death, disability, etc., are also addressed here. The importance of the intelligibility of accounts is established with reference to Schank and Abelson (1977) who contend that people construct accounts based on their knowledge structure approach, causal reasoning and text comprehension. Thus, for an account to be hounered, it has to be goal-oriented and coherent. In this study, the social-interactive aspects of account-giving are investigated and it is discovered that severe reproach forms involving personality attacks and derogatory aspects, elicit defensive reactions that result in negative interpersonal and emotional consequences. The mitigation-aggravation continuum is then examined with regard to the selection of the failure management strategies. Narrative accounts based on Mcintyre (1981) form the basis of moral and social events and as such, stories have two elements through which they are explored. They are explored firstly in the way in which they are told and secondly, on the way they are lived in the social context. These stories follow a historically or culturally based format and to this effect, Gergen (1994) suggested a narrative criteria that constitute a historically contingent narrative form. Narrative forms are linguistic tools that have important social functions to satisfactorily fulfil such as stability narrative, progressive narrative and regressive narrative. According to Gergen (1994), self-narratives are social processes in which individuals are realized on the personal perspective or experience, and as such their emotions are viewed as constitutive features of relationship. The self-narratives used and analysed in this study portray the contemporary culture-based elements or segments of a well-formed narrative. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie studie ondersoek die teoretiese werke en die artikulasie van die motiverings en kondisies vir verslag-making en verslagdoening in isiXhosa m.b.t. beeld-herstel ('image restoration'). Hierdie emosionele en gedragsrehabilitasie word gedoen deur verslagdoening. In hierdie konteks is verslae soortgelyk aan narratiewe en kan beskou word op die vlak van privaatrefleksies of geskryf word as dagboekinskrywings. Die verslagdoeningsproses, is, volgens Warren (1989) soos 'Iewe-in-beweging', waarin individuele karakters voorgestel word as dat hulle beweeg deur hulle ondervindings waarin hulle een of ander konflik of probleem aanspreek, en soek na 'n oplossing. Dit is hierdie soeke om die hoofspanninge in elke individu se denke te verstaan wat die kern van hierdie studie is. Die waarom-vrae wat die gevolg is van die daaglikse ondervindinge, eensaamheid, depressie en gestremdheid, word ook aangespreek in die studie oor narratiewe in isiXhosa. Die belangrikheid van die verstaanbaarheid van verslae word ook ondersoek met verwysing na Schank en Abelson (1977) se siening dat mense verslae konstrueer gebaseer op hulle kennis, struktuurbenadering, kousale beredenering en teksbegrip. Dus, vir 'n verslag om gerespekteer te word, moet dit doel-georiënteerd en koherent wees. In hierdie studie, word die sosiaal-interaktiewe aspekte van verslagdoening ondersoek, en dit word bevind dat erge verdedigingsvorme persoonlike aanvalle en verkleinerende aspekte insluit wat verdedigende reaksies uitlok wat negatiewe interpersoonlike en emosionele gevolge het. Die vermindering-vergroting kontinuum word ondersoek m.b.t. die selektering van mislukking bestuurstrategieë. Narratiewe verslae gebaseer op Mcintyre (1981) vorm die basis van morele en sosiale gebeure, en as sodanig, het stories twee elemente waardeur hulle ondersoek word, eerstens op die wyse waarop, en tweedens, op die wyse wat hulle beleef word in sosiale konteks. Stories volg In histories- en kultureelgebaseerde formaat. Gergen (1994) het narratiewe kriteria voorgestel. Narratiewe vorme is linguistiese gereedskap wat belangrike sosiale funksies het, insluitende stabiliteit narratief, progressiewe narratief en regressiewe naratief.

This essay presents a case study regarding how some preschool teachers describe the diagnosis of AD/HD, and how they express their perception of children who show the symptoms associated with that diagnosis. We also wanted to study how the preschool teachers described their work with these children, and how the teachers responded to the children’s specific needs. The study draws on a qualitative study based on interviews with six preschool teachers in two municipalities in the Southern Stockholm region. All of the teachers had experience of children with an AD/HD diagnosis. Interviews were recorded and transcribed before analysis. The theoretical framework chosen for this essay is discourse analysis. We applied different parts of Fairclough’s and Foucault's methods of discourse analysis to clarify how language was used to describe children with AD/HD. The framework also allowed us to analyse how language may contribute to construct and maintain discourses about children with that diagnosis.  We could discern from the interviews with the preschool teachers that children with AD/HD were mainly described as problematic. Another conclusion is that although the teachers showed an awareness of gender issues when speaking of children generally, their choice of words when talking about children with AD/HD implied old stereotypical gender-based expectations. Finally, the preschool teachers described both advantages and disadvantages of diagnosing children, however, most of them emphasised a need for a diagnostic categorization to facilitate their work with these children.

published_or_final_version / Linguistics / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / abstract / Linguistics / Master / Master of Arts

published_or_final_version / abstract / Linguistics / Master / Master of Arts

published_or_final_version / abstract / Linguistics / Master / Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics

published_or_final_version / Applied English Studies / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Stress and depression are popular and powerful terms within the mental health field. Although the relation between the two terms has been discussed and investigated in lay and scientific discourse, less is known about how this relation is constructed online. Individuals wanting to learn more about these topics are increasingly turning online using a search engine as an initial quick method of obtaining mental health information. The present research examines the stress and depression discourse found on self-help websites using a social constructionist epistemological framework and the methodological approach of discourse analysis. In the first manuscript, I specifically examined how stress was constructed in the causal ontology of depression in six different websites. The analysis demonstrated that many possible relations between the two terms were included. This finding suggests that, in the online context, ensuring that website users find themselves represented in the text is of maximal importance. In the second manuscript, I examined how the stress and depression terms themselves were constructed. This analysis suggests that the stress discourse often borrowed from depression discourse, constructing the two terms in similar ways. This parallel construction involved defining both terms as mental illnesses, with corresponding symptoms and clinical presentations that required treatment. The degree of overlap between the two terms suggests that engaging the website user was more important than the specific label used to label the distress in the online context. I examine the contrast between the general, fluid, and elastic constructions of the mental health terms found online with the ever-evolving need for increased precision and demarcation of mental health conditions within the fields of psychiatry and psychology.

This thesis analyzes the relationship between Joan Jonas’s 1976 videotape Good Night Good Morning and the existing historiographical discourse on video art from the 1970s. I begin with a careful analysis and historical contextualization of Rosalind Krauss’s seminal 1976 essay on video art, “Video: The Aesthetics of Narcissism.” I then compare her essay with a number of present-day interpretations of video art that are in part motivated by a departure from Krauss and identify a range of presuppositions that have persisted through the art historical discourse on video art from the mid-1970s forward. Finally, I demonstrate that the terms of this essentially medium-specific discourse are too limited to offer a satisfying analysis of Good Night Good Morning and argue that understanding Jonas’s work requires an intermedial analysis. / text

The phenomenon of laughter has intrigued many philosophers, psychologists, sociologists, and – most recently – linguists. While laughter is conventionally thought of as a component of the phenomenon of humor, this paper seeks to empirically illustrate how laughter may be used in unconventional ways, i.e. in response to nonhumorous (and in fact discordant) sequences in conversation. The term coping laughter refers to laughter that attempts to remedy, correct, reframe, or distract from something that is undesirable in a conversation. This paper proposes that there are two types of coping laughter (IN-laughter and RE-laughter) that accomplish different functions based on who initiates the laughter. Eight data samples are analyzed within the analytical frameworks of politeness and conversational framing with special treatments of the evolution of laughter and the structure of conflict. / text