This paper looks at Guy Butler's theories about English South Africans and the English language. I have outlined his reputation as a critical thinker, poet and scholar, with a view to understanding the role he has played as an individual in South African cultural politics. I have also tried to trace some of the social roots and implications of the ideas he puts forward and the social purposes these serve. These have been investigated from a 'political' and sociological perspective. I have concentrated on his socio-political discourses as they have appeared in conference papers, journal articles and newspaper articles and the media response to the ideas has also been analysed. Butler's poetry and more properly literary work is not a direct concern of this paper and is not given extensive attention. I have concluded that Butler's work is an interpretation of South African reality which serves the purpose of promoting a set of mythical goals and purposes for English South Africans based on the founding myth of the 1820 settlers in the Eastern Cape.

Bibliography: pages 181-189. / I have attempted to give a broad description of the variety of English used by first-language (White) Afrikaans-speakers in the Western Cape. The first chapter outlines the aims of the thesis with respect to the study of English as a world phenomenon. Important work on other varieties of English, notably that of William Labov and that of Lesley Milroy, is discussed, with emphasis on variationist studies. The chapter also includes a description of the methods used for the collection of data. I did not use questionnaires but rather conducted 'participation interviews'. A brief outline of the areas that the informants were selected from is given. Chapters 2 and 3 give the historical and sociolinguistic background of the Afrikaners. This is important, as without an understanding of their history and social circumstances one cannot appreciate their present attitudes to language. The formative history of the Afrikaners includes a description of the policies of the British government at the Cape at the beginning of the nineteenth century and the subsequent emergence of national identity among the formerly Dutch community. The establishment of such organisations as the Afrikaner Bond, the Broederbond and the Ossewabrandwag all contributed to the identity of the Afrikaners today. The final section of chapter 3 deals with speech communities as well as the concept of social class, as applied to the White South African community. There is a brief outline of the differences between the White and Coloured Afrikaans-speaking communities of the Cape. The third section of this thesis (chapter 4) concerns language: acquisition, in particular theories of second language acquisition. I have outlined the development of (White) education in South Africa, with particular reference to medium of education, and have included a brief description of second language teaching in South Africa today. Bilingualism and ,communication strategies are discussed and I have grouped the informants according to their individual level of proficiency in English. The use of code-switching and code-mixing techniques is also discussed in this chapter, with a brief look at the structural differences between English and Afrikaans. The last, and major, part of the thesis, chapters 5 and 6, is a detailed description of the phonology, syntax, morphology and lexis of Afrikaans-English. The features of this variety are compared to those of standard South African English. The presence or absence of features in the speech of the informants is discussed and indicated in the tables given; the core features, i.e. those that are found even in the speech of the most fluent speakers, are noted. It is also shown that although all the features are possible, no single speaker will have the full set of variables in his/her speech. The presence of the features discussed in this section in Afrikaans- English, Coloured English and other, non-South African, varieties of English is shown; the presence of a feature in non-South African varieties of English appears to reinforce the use of that particular feature in Afrikaans-English. It is shown that Afrikaans-English overlaps phonologically with the continuum of first language South African English at either end of the spectrum on the one hand the accent of Afrikaans- English has features in common with Extreme South African English and at the other, LI-fluency end, it is almost indistinguishable from Respectable South African English. Mention is also made of syntactic, morphological and lexical features that spill over into LI varieties of South African English. Finally, I have appended a brief outline of each of the four competence groups and have given annotated extracts from the data for each. I have also included a collection of the comments regarding language made by the informants.

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Humanities University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters In Applied Language and Literacy Education November 2016 / The research topic for this study is, An investigation into summary writing and stimulated-recall of College ESL students using a socio-cultural approach in a South African context. The main research questions that were formulated to guide and frame this study were as follows; 1) What meta-cognitive reflections, students learning English as a second language with an African background engage in to deduce main ideas from a source text? 2) How is comprehension of a source text reflected in written summaries of these students? Two other sub-questions were framed for this study and these were; 1) What do students’ responses show about the strategies they use in summary writing? 2) How do African rhetoric systems affect the formation of sentences in summary writing? Theoretical frameworks that informed this study were; translanguaging which is a socio-cultural approach to language teaching in a multilingual setting and the theory of Literacy as a social practice. These two formed the core elements of this study to help address questions raised for the study. In order to address these questions, four participants were purposively sampled. These participants were all registered for a three-year diploma course at a university in Gauteng which could not be named for ethical reasons. The participants were also registered for a compulsory course; Applied Communication skills, which was meant to inculcate in them workplace related communication skills. As part of the course, they were tasked with writing summaries for reports. This task revealed below standards writing skills, which justifies the need to teach summary writing owing to the students’ writing skills which were below expected standards. The participants were selected according to their indigenous South African languages which were grouped under Nguni, Sotho, Venda and Tsonga. The methods that were used to collect data in this study were drawn from Ethnographic studies but this does not mean that this study was ethnographic. First, semi-structured interviews were conducted individually, ten minutes after writing the summaries. Secondly, document analysis was undertaken where participants wrote two summaries translingually. The first summary was written in English whilst the other was written in their first languages. The reason for the summaries being written translingually was to check for understanding of the source text. The interviews were audio recorded after all ethical considerations were addressed, including seeking permission to record the participants. Anonymity could not be guaranteed because the interviews were done face-to-face. However, confidentiality was promised and the participants were assured that personally identifiable information would not be disclosed to unauthorised people and that raw data would be destroyed after a period of five years. In addition, pseudonyms were used on the summaries that the students wrote. Ultimately, the interviews were transcribed and coded using thematic and conceptual analysis methods. (Babbie & Mouton, 2001; Ibrahim, 2012). Emerging themes were taken note of and discussed under the study’s findings section. A discussion of the findings was done, situating them within the relevant body of literature to confirm or refute claims of previous research on the study. Conclusions of the study were drawn and recommendations made. Limitations of the study were acknowledged and implications for potential further research were suggested for this under researched area. / MT2017

M.A. (Applied Linguistics)) / The aim of this study was to investigate the validity and reliability of two techniques of assessing writing proficiency. Both measuring techniques, Le. objective (multiple-choice question) and subjective (essay-type question) have their advantages as well as limitations and little agreement regarding their validity and reliability has been reached to date. Today great pressure is put on educational bodies to ensure that tests are fair to all those who attempt them and the cry for common standards is steadily increasing. The importance, therefore, of investigating the suitability of a multiple-choice test as a valid and reliable technique of assessing writing proficiency, is self-evident. Literature relevant to the following fields was reviewed: * Applied linguistics in relation to its application to pedagogy, especially to the teaching and testing of English as a second language * Perspectives concerning the methodology of teaching English as a second language, for example the traditional and functional/notional methods as well as the shift in emphasis from grammar oriented syllabuses to the new communicative approach * The writing process and the language skills and abilities involved * The validity and reliability of the essay-type test as opposed to multiple-choice testing as a measure of writing proficiency * The measurement of writing proficiency * Various scoring techniques...

Two tests were developed and administered to 122 South African students of Indian descent and 70 South African students of European descent. One test elicited use of certain syntactic constructions through requesting subjects to make specified grammatical changes to verbally presented sentences. The other test elicited attitudes regarding acceptability and beliefs about own and others' use of nonstandard syntactic forms. In both cases, test items were based on non-standard syntactic forms reported to occur in the speech of Indian South Africans. Results were analysed statistically and on the basis of significant group differences, fourteen syntactic features of South African Indian English were identified. These results, as well as those concerning language attitudes and beliefs, are discussed in terms of the literature and implications for clinical application and further research. Sex differences in use and attitudes were also investigated but were found to be of little significance. / Thesis (M.Speech Pathology)-University of Durban-Westville, 1987.

Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2013. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The goal of this study was to determine and compare the functions of the pragmatic markers (PMs) okay, anyway and shame as they occur in two spoken components of the International Corpus of English (ICE), namely ICE-SA (South African English) and ICE-EA (East African English). Using the commercially available Concordance program WordSmith Tools 4.0, all instances of okay, anyway and shame were identified in each corpus and all non-PM instances were then excluded. The remaining instances of okay, anyway and shame were subsequently hand coded to determine the primary functions that these elements exhibit. The classification of the various functions was done according to Fraser’s (1996, 1999, 2006) framework for identification of PMs. Despite the different size and state of completion of the two corpora, it was found that the functions of the two PMs okay and anyway were similar in South African English and East African English. The findings of the corpus investigation included identifying the functions of okay as both a conversational management marker and a basic marker, as well as its role in turn taking. Anyway was found to function as an interjection, a mitigation marker, a conversational management marker and a discourse marker. Shame was found to be a uniquely South African English PM, and to function both as an interjection and as a solidarity marker. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die doel van hierdie studie was om vas te stel watter funksies verrig word deur die pragmatiese merkers (PM's) okay, anyway en shame, soos wat hulle gebruik word in twee gesproke komponente van die Internasionale Korpus van Engels (IKE), naamlik IKE-SA (Suid-Afrikaanse Engels) en IKE-OA (Oos-Afrika Engels). Met behulp van die kommersieel-beskikbare Concordance-program Wordsmith Tools 4.0, is alle gevalle van okay, anyway en shame binne die onderskeie korpusse geïdentifiseer, waarna alle nie-PM gevalle uitgesluit is. Die oorblywende gevalle van okay, anyway en shame is daarna met die hand gekodeer ten einde die primêre funksies van hierdie elemente vas te stel. Die funksies is geklassifiseer volgens Fraser (1996, 1999, 2006) se raamwerk vir die identifikasie van PM's. Ten spyte van verskille in die grootte en vlak van voltooidheid van die twee korpora, is vasgestel dat die PM's okay en anyway soortgelyke funksies verrig in beide Suid-Afrikaanse Engels en Oos-Afrika Engels. Uit die korpus-analise het dit verder geblyk dat okay nie net 'n rol speel in beurtneming nie, maar ook funksioneer as 'n gespreksbestuur-merker en basiese merker. Anyway blyk op sy beurt te funksioneeer as 'n tussenwerpsel, versagting-merker, gespreksbestuurmerker en diskoersmerker. Laastens is gevind dat shame as PM uniek is aan Suid- Afrikaanse Engels en dat dit funksioneer as beide 'n tussenwerpsel en solidariteitsmerker.

Inaugural lecture delivered at Rhodes University / Rhodes University Libraries (Digitisation)

This study set out to analyse the concept of the ʾcoloured communityʾ and to describe the linguistic phenomena associated with it. It was found that the community was characterized by division and an overt rejection of 'coloured' identity. A satisfactory definition of the community could only be arrived at by exploring social psychological and anthropological concepts, particularly that of the social network, and a covert identification was postulated. This in turn was used to explain the linguistic phenomena which were found to be associated with the community. The latter included a vernacular dialect consisting of non-standard Afrikaans blended with English, as well as a stratification of particular items in the English spoken by community members . This stratification was analysed in terms of the social distribution of the items, enabling comparisons to be made with the English spoken by ʾwhitesʾ. A fieldwork study was embarked on with the intention of discovering the nature of the perceptions of, and attitudes towards, the idiolects of certain speakers. These idiolects were considered to be typical and representative of the forms of English normally encountered in the Cape Peninsula, and were described in terms of the co-occurrences of linguistic items which they contained. Tape recordings of the speech of this group of speakers were presented in a series of controlled experiments to subjects from various class and community backgrounds who were required to respond by completing questionnaires. It was found that those lects which contained items and co-occurrences of items peculiar to 'coloured' speakers were associated with lower status than those containing items and co-occurrences of items peculiar to 'white' speakers. Attitudes towards speakers were found to be more complex and depended upon the styles and paralanguage behaviours of the speakers, as well as accent, and also the psychological dispositions of the subjects who participated

This dissertation consists in essence of an experiment and a commentary upon it. The text which constitutes Part II is a lexicographical experiment incorporating some features and treatments not usual in lexicography, and Part I consists of a discussion of the problems encountered, principles applied and procedures followed. Neither the matter nor the manner of the experiment, however, lends itself in the present state of our knowledge to the fully impersonal objectivity that is often claimed for the experiments in the physical sciences. At the same time every effort has been made to establish an unbiased record of the data and to maintain a certain methodological consistency. The main experimental feature of Part II is that it is an attempt to combine an orthodox, alphabetical dictionary with an experiential categorisation of the vocabulary, without repeating the entire data for each type of treatment. This has been done by means of a series of numbered, classified word-lists with a limited subject index as a guide to their use. The entries themselves, instead of being repeated in the order of their classification, are numbered according to the category or categories to which the word defined belongs. It can then, by means of its number(s), be found in its own lexical or experiential set (or sets) in the categorised section. This part of the work might be better described as lexicology rather than lexicography but does, I think, prove itself to be a useful adjunct to the A - Z lexicon proper. Apart from the detailed categorisation system the text contains three features not normally included in dictionaries of small compass: illustrative quotations, etymologies and a number of tentative parallels between South African and other varieties of English by means of cross-references to items of similar or related meaning or form in the English of Australia, Canada, the U.S.A., Hong Kong, Anglo-India and other 'overseas' English speech communities. Introduction, p. 1.

Speaker accent influences the accuracy of automatic speech recognition (ASR) systems. Knowledge of accent based acoustic variations can therefore be used in the develop¬ment of more robust systems. This project investigates the differences between first language (L1) and second language (L2) English in South Africa with respect to vowels and diphthongs. The study is specifically aimed at L2 English speakers with a native African mother tongue, for instance speakers of isi-Zulu, isi-Xhosa, Tswana or South Sotho. The vowel systems of English and African languages, as described in the linguistic literature, are compared to predict the expected deviations of L2 South African English from L1. A number of vowels and diphthongs from L1 and L2 speakers are acoustically compared and the results are correlated with the linguistic predictions. The comparison is firstly made in formant space using the first three formants found using the Split Levinson algorithm. The L1 vowel centroids and diphthong trajectories in this three-dimensional space are then compared to their L2 counterparts using analysis of variance. The second analysis method is based on simple hidden Markov models (HMMs) using Mel-scaled cepstral features. Each HMM models a vowel or diphthong from one of the two speaker groups and analysis of variance is again used to compare the L1 and L2 HMMs. Significant differences are found in the vowel and diphthong qualities of the two language groups which supports the linguistically predicted effects such as vowel substitution, peripheralisation and changes in diphthong strength. The long-term goal of this project is to enable the adaptation of existing L1 English recognition systems to perform equally well on South African L2 English. / Dissertation (MEng (Computer Engineering))--University of Pretoria, 2005. / Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering / unrestricted