MA (Linguistics) / Department of Communication and Applied Language Studies / This study explores the impact of social media on the development and promotion of indigenous African languages at a rural university. The study adopts a qualitative approach in order to attain holistic results. Data collected from social media platforms, namely; Facebook and WhatsApp from the students‟ chat groups were analysed within the scope of some linguistic devices such as grammar rules and orthography. The study captures the students‟ conversations as they appear in Facebook and WhatsApp for the purpose of analysis (discourse analysis). The findings of the study could benefit the South African society, especially the university communities. Through this study, the importance of using standardised indigenous African languages on social media platforms shall be realised. The study could create awareness to the Pan South African Language Board (PanSALB) and its related structures about the importance of using standard indigenous African languages on social media. / NRF

Cette recherche analyse respectivement les politiques linguistiques de la langue chinoise et française menées sous la République populaire de Chine et la Ve République française. En adoptant une approche comparative, nous essayons de voir si les expériences vécues par la France pourront servir de modèle à la Chine qui, en matière de travaux de l’aménagement linguistique de la langue chinoise, cherche à la moderniser et diffuser à l’ère d’information tant au niveau national qu’à l’échelle internationale. La simplification des caractères chinois, la romanisation de transcription des caractères chinois et la généralisation du putonghua constituent les trois préoccupations majeures des affaires linguistiques de la Chine. À cela s’ajoute que la multiplication des échanges internationaux fait en sorte que la promotion de la langue chinoise sur la scène internationale figure dans l’ordre du jour. D’autant que l’initiative stratégique les nouvelles Routes de soie terrestre et maritime demande davantage la diffusion de la langue chinoise le long de ces régions et une construction du Vivre ensemble des langues dans cette configuration multilingue. En partant du constat que, en France existe une société multilingue riche en culture et que ce pays d’influence internationale, face à la puissance de la langue anglaise, veut renforcer la vitalité et l’influence de la langue française, la présente étude examine les travaux linguistiques menés sous la Ve République française. Que ce soit sur le statut ou le corpus de la langue, nous notons que les mesures d’interventions de la France dont les suivis de contrôles, la démarche coopérative et participative en terminologie et néologie, la promotion de la langue française appuyée sur le réseau francophone seront profitables à la Chine. Mais en Chine, un pays tellement étendu, la mise en place d’une politique linguistique sera plus scrupuleuse en tenant compte de la disparité régionale et la différence entre le corpus des deux langues exige alors un aménagement spécifique. / This study analyses respectively the Chinese and the French language policies adopted by the People’s Republic of China and France. As China intends to modernize and to promote Chinese throughout the country and abroad, we will use the comparative study to figure out if France could serve as an example in terms of language policy and language planning. The simplification of the Chinese characters, the romanization of the transcription of the Chinese characters and the promotion of the putonghua were considered as the major issues of the language affairs. With the opening and reform policy, the Chinese language is influenced by the foreign languages, especially English. Meanwhile, the authority try to promote the Chinese language over the world and reinforce its soft power, especially after the action plan the Belt and the Road Initiative was put forward. The French government does not regulate the choice of language in publications by individuals, but the use of French is required by law in commercial and work place communications. In addition to mandating the use of French in the territory of the Republic, the French government tries to promote French in the European Union and globally through institutions such as la Francophonie. We will adopt the diachronic method to demonstrate how the French government regulates its French language affairs both in language status and language corpus (language itself) and the evolution of the ideology of the language policy makers. By comparing the language affairs of the two countries in language status and corpus, the measures taken by France as the legal mechanism, the cooperation initiatives, the language promotion are of benefit to China, who shall also learn the lessons taken by France. As for the language system, the language policy and planning should take account of the specialty of the language to carry out appropriate measures favoring the use of the Chinese language.