published_or_final_version / English Studies / Master / Master of Arts

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This thesis examines sources of interactional asynchrony and synchrony in intercultural medical consultations between South African English speaking doctors and Zulu-English speaking patients in an urban setting in South Africa. It employs, principally, the theory and methods of Interactional Sociolinguistics to identify and describe sources of asynchrony and synchrony in medical encounters. The thesis provides a review of the South African and international literature relevant to the analysis of doctor-patient interaction. Having noted the significant absence of research that utilizes a model of language use such as Interactional Sociolinguistics, the author reviews South African and international interactional sociolinguistic research literature with a view to identifying an appropriate research framework for the analysis of selected medical consultations. The thesis reports the findings of the fine-grained analyses of three consultations. The societal consequences of the asynchrony evident in two of the consultations are explored drawing, in particular, on insights provided by Critical Language Study. The relative synchrony of the third consultation is traced to the participants' use of positive politeness strategies to generate the "co-membership" of maleness. The significance of this discovery is explored in some depth. Finally, attention is given to further research possibilities arising from the present study. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Durban, 1995.

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / English Studies / Master / Master of Arts

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

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

The title of this research project is Reading Texts, Reading One'self: Exploring Young South African's Sense of Identity. The project entailed working with a group of young people in a reading group, using a text by Zakes Mda, Melville 67 in order to provoke discussion. In the process of reading the text, participants were encouraged to read or interpret their own lives in new ways. This study provides an in-depth understanding of a small group of Black African township youth. The study focuses on these young people's sense of self and identity in a post-democratic South Africa particularly with respect to language. It focuses specifically on English; a language globally recognised as powerful and central to academic and economic success and isiZulu; an African indigenous language which carries enormous cultural significance. In this study, the youth reveal their positions with respect to these languages, highlighting the complex language dynamics that are central to colonial and African languages. The analysis reveals a degree of ambivalence with respect to English and isiZulu where there is a sense of shifting boundaries and identities which assert the values of both languages. On the one hand, these young people celebrate their African pride and 'Zuluness' through the appreciation of isiZulu and resist the dominant position of English over isiZulu. On the other hand, they acknowledge English as a tool for economic and academic success and its potential for enriching cultural life through communication across racial and ethnic boundaries. / Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2007.

Mode of access: World Wide Web. / Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 176-185). / Electronic reproduction. / "Over the last three decades, the study of codeswitching has attracted many data-oriented and theory-oriented sociolinguists and syntacticians. It provides an avenue to understanding the relationship between social processes and linguistic forms. In this vein, the present study examines Thai/English codeswitching practiced by a group of Thai people in Hawai'i from two perspectives: sociolinguistic as well as syntactic. In this study, different theoretical models are tested against each aspect of codeswitching. ..."--Abstract. / Also available by subscription via World Wide Web / xv, 185 leaves, bound ill. 29 cm

This study examines the characteristics of a range of narrative and performance texts featuring Wenglish, the dialect of the South Wales Valleys, in terms of their linguistic and thematic content and their relation to the community. Part One comprises an introduction to Wenglish and an overview of research on English in South Wales and approaches to language in use. In Part Two the results of textual and discourse analysis of twenty-five texts (nine literary and seven formal performance excerpts and nine personal narratives) are presented. In Part Three insights arising from analysis are applied in three pieces of new creative work in dialect. A reference list of texts containing Wenglish is appended. Cultural outputs mirror and express the community which produces them and thus the formal and informal literary output of the South Wales Valleys both reflects and expresses some of the shared characteristics, values, beliefs and preoccupations of those communities. Analysis revealed recurrent thematic clusters (e.g. community, personal identity, world of work, sport) across the range of texts, suggesting the centrality of these themes and a close link between the texts and the community. From analysis of linguistic content, a ‘Wenglish index’ was calculated for each text. The literary texts generally had lower indices than the formal performance texts. The personal narratives, though informal, all had lower indices than the formal performance material, suggesting that in this latter category, dialect features are consciously exaggerated. Discourse analytical methods generated rich interpretive material at the level of individual texts. Insights from analysis proved useful at the initial and editing phases of new creative work. The possible practical application of Wenglish material in community and interpretive projects is also discussed.