Phonological studies of Bantu languages have continued to be an area of investigation for many scholars over the years. These studies have discussed the language's sound patterns syllable structures, phonological processes and suprasegmental features and have based their analyses on various theories of phonology.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 159-168). / Due to certain fundamental flaws, orthodox linguistics has not succeeded in producing a coherent account of 'schizophrenic language' - the host of symptoms that are alternatively characterised as evidence of formal thought disorder or labelled as disorganised speech, a disorder in itself. The most important of these flaws are its treatment of languages as fixed codes, which doubles as an explanation of how linguistic communication works, and its postulation of the mental structures that would be necessary if languages were indeed fixed codes, and communication a matter of encoding and decoding messages. In particular, orthodox linguistics has bolstered the now-dominant neo-Kraepelinian, biomedical account of schizophrenia, which treats utterances as symptoms that give clues to brain (dis)organisation and (dys) function. Integrational linguistics, which criticises the culturally based assumptions - collectively referred to as 'the language myth' - that are at the heart of the orthodox account of languages and language, provides an alternative. It sympathises with the growing trend in cognitive science and philosophy towards 'embodiment' and 'distributed cognition', which recognises that encultured entities like languages, minds, brains, bodies, and world are intrinsically defined by their co-evolution in the species, and co-emergence during an individual's development. Integrationists argue that by focusing in the first instance on second-order cultural constructs called 'languages', orthodox linguistics fails to give an account of the first-order experience of language users. This thesis approaches the topic of 'schizophrenic language' from a broadly integrationist perspective in order to demonstrate that because orthodox linguistics is so widely taken for granted in psychiatry, its biases inform current mainstream accounts of schizophrenic language, motivate the outright dismissal of interpersonal accounts, past and present, and provide a skewed picture of the phenomenon it purports to be describing, by ultimately constructing an individual-focused, deficit-based account of what is not, as opposed to what is. That is, by holding up orthodox linguistics' idealised version of communication and speakers (which has little applicability even to 'normal' language users), it uses deviation from the ideal as description and explanation, rather than recognising the strategies actually employed by schizophrenics in their attempts to make sense, even if these attempts fail. The alternative argued for here is to apply the tenets of integrationist linguistics to schizophrenic language behaviour, to give a fuller account of communication situations involving schizophrenics and normal interlocutors. As a result, this thesis calls for a reformulation of the idea that incomprehensibility stems from deviant speech, itself the product of an irrational brain. 'Sense', 'deviance' and 'irrationality' are a moment-to-moment metalinguistic appraisals made by language users, second-order cultural constructions that shape the speech community's response to certain individuals. Describing the speech of schizophrenics as 'deviant', 'irrational', or 'nonsensical' constrains their jointly-constructed capability of making sense using the resources (which may include other individual's minds) at their disposal. Integration linguistics thus brings into focus a moral and political dimension to such descriptions which is obscured by an orthodox linguistics-biased biomedical approach.

Silozi, the language of the Malozi people in Zambia and Namibia is a mixed language that has been the subject of a classification debate between scholars. Doke (1943) classifies Silozi in the same zone as Sesotho languages due to linguistic similarities. Guthrie (1948) in contrast, classify it independently because of its geographic location. Therefore, this study analyses and describes the mixed character of Silozi with focus on two areas. Firstly, the noun class system of Silozi is compared to those of Sesotho and the neighbouring languages to identify the origins of Silozi's noun classes. Secondly, present-day Silozi kinship terms are compared to Sesotho terms to determine which kinship terms are borrowed from Sesotho and which are not. The Silozi terms collected by early scholars are also compared with the presentday terms to identify differences. First hand language data was collected in the Kavuyu village (Zambia) and the Mahohoma settlement (Namibia) by employing a mixed methods approach. This involved the use of tailormade questionnaires which included open-ended questions and a wordlist. Furthermore, participant observations and open interviews were conducted. Twelve participants between the ages of 15 and 56 completed the questionnaire. Additionally, one family from each of the research sites was observed and for natural language data. The data used for comparative analysis was drawn primarily from Stirke and Thomas (1916) and Jalla (1936). Sesotho and Setswana native speakers were consulted for translations into the respective languages. The data analysis led to the following conclusions. Sesotho, Siluyana and some of the neighbouring languages contributed to Silozi significantly. The noun classes 1-10, 14 and 15 of Silozi are shared with Sesotho but the use has been modified due to contact with Siluyana. The diminutive classes 12-13 and locative classes 16-18 which have been lost in Sesotho were reinvented in Silozi through borrowing from Setswana and Siluyana. Most of Silozi's kinship terms from Sesotho have retained their semantic meanings but some have undergone semantic expansion. The kinship terms of non-Sesotho origin were borrowed from Siluyana and Simbunda. Though Silozi has more noun classes than its parent languages, it contains fewer kinship terms. The aim of this study is to illustrate the mixed character of Silozi in the noun class system and the kinship term, thus aiding the better understanding of Silozi.

Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 114-122). / This dissertation presents a variationist analysis of syntactic variation and change in modern spoken Afrikaans. The Afrikaans language community is heterogeneous, and can be divided into different communication communities according to patterns of segregated residential settlement and limited social interaction (linked to South Africa's history of apartheid). The selection of a sample for the study is informed by these realities and the sample is kept deliberately homogenous (following Barbiers, Cornips and Van der Kleij, 2000): participants (N=34) are White middle-class speakers of Afrikaans who are under 36 years of age and have been residing in Cape Town for at least the past seven to ten years. In addition, all participants are bilingual in English (as established through an electronically administered language use survey).In order to combine formal theory (generative linguistics) withΓÇó empirical analysis (sociolinguistics), the methodology follows a bi-modal approach. Both performance and competence are considered, and arguments are based on two types of data: speech data (interviews, narrative picture descriptions) and grammaticality judgements (elicited by means of an oral questionnaire). Grosjean's (2001) language mode model assists in refining the methodology of the study, because it recognises the fact that a bilingual speaker is a unique speaker-hearer (Chomsky, 1965). The empirical data are elicited in near-monolingual Afrikaans language modes. The results are quantified according to token frequencies and analyzed in comparison to other studies; significance tests are carried out using Chi-square and Fisher's exact tests. From the literature, the consensus seems to be that the word order in Afrikaans (XV structure) is changing to resemble an English frame (VX structure) because of language contact (cf, inter alia, Conradie, 2004; Donaldson, 1991). Two syntactic variables are studied to investigate variation in word order and verb placement: firstly, changes from XV to VX in subordinate clauses are explored by looking at the use of specific types of subordinate clauses, and the impact of matrix clause bridge verbs on complementizer omission and dependent/independent word order in the speech corpora. Secondly, the study examines the use of direct linking verbs and the role that complex verb initials play in proliferating VX structures. The findings are as follows: with embedded clause word order, the corpus data provides evidence of the frequent use of complementizer-less VX subordinate clauses that were not formally elicited in the questionnaire. These clauses have an important impact on variation in Afrikaans word order, leading to the proliferation of VX embedded clauses. Contributing factors are the weakening of the complementizer's semantic strength, and the role of the bridge verb as quotative marker in the matrix clause. Furthermore, the corpus data shows high frequencies of non-standard complementizer-led VX clauses, especially when compared to their low meta-linguistic acceptance in the questionnaires. The data thus shows significant variation in embedded clause word order and suggests that we are witnessing a change in progress for this variable. With respect to complex verb initials, the study finds a high acceptance rate in the questionnaires, as well as regular use in the spoken language corpus. By comparing the use of complex verb initials to a previous study (Ponelis, 1993) the study establishes a change in real time where an increase in the use of complex verb initials promotes the suspension of the main verb in clause-final position (V-final). The study recommends that that the bi-modal approach of considering both performance and competence data should be applied to similar studies of other groups in the Afrikaans language community.

For many years now, the status of Town Bemba (TB) has been fuzzy in its descriptions, as no specific framework has been used in characterising the language variety. TB has been regarded as an urban variety spoken in the townships of the Copperbelt province, Zambia. It had also been perceived as a 'secret language' or 'mixed jargon' used by male migrant workers on the mine, but today, it is used by males and females across the board, and also tends to be used as first language (L1) for offspring raised there. This research attempts to investigate the status of TB. It will also make observations of any significant differences between TB and Standard Bemba (SB) through linguistic markers and style of speech by the informants. The comparative analysis will help in assessing the extent to which TB has deviated from SB. The data for morphosyntax, socio-phonetic and lexical analyses was collected through one-on-one interviews and two TB music lyrics. Twenty speakers of TB and SB were interviewed in this research. For data analysis three theoretical frameworks were used namely; Myers-Scotton's Matrix Language Frame Model (MLF) for the morphosyntax data; socio-phonetics using Praat and Normalisation of vowels for phonetic data; and a linguistic characterisation of language varieties were used to characterise TB and establish its status. The results show that TB is quite similar to the base language SB and exemplifies general characteristics that are more similar to Tsotsitaal. The difference is that the former (TB) uses one base language (SB) with heavy borrowing and assimilations from English mainly and a bit from local languages like Nyanja, and Afrikaans; the variety is used by people of different ethnic backgrounds, its commonly used in everyday life among educated and non-educated male and female speakers. TB also has been able to preserve many forms associated with more traditional Bemba and at the same time shows changes in some of its lexical and grammatical forms, mainly simplification. Tsotsitaal in comparison is associated with many base languages but behaves similarly to TB in other ways. In this regard, I suggest that TB be referred to as another type of an urban variety that is moving towards being a new language because it is more than a 'style' (Hurst 2008) like Tsotsitaal.

Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references.

Includes bibliographical references (82-86). / In this study, I examine language contact phenomena exhibited by two groups of young middle-class Syrian citizens. Members of one group were born and have been living with their families in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. They however, have maintained strong relations with their extended families in Syria and visit them regularly. Because of this they are considered mobile and more exposed to other cultures and environments in which communication in English is prevalent. Contrastively members of the second group were born and have been living in their homeland Syria, so they did not have the exposure to other cultures that members of the first group had. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is a developing country that has opened doors and jobs opportunities for millions of foreigners whose main medium of communication is English. This means that members of the first group who are resident in Riyadh have experienced more cross-cultural influences than their less mobile peers in Damascus. I set out to examine the impact of the mixed culture on the sociolinguistic repertoire and behaviour of the Riyadh-based Syrians as compared to their less mobile Damascus-based peers. In particular, the study aims to demonstrate the influence of language contact as reflected in code-switching and lexical borrowing. I conducted 20 interviews in the summer of 2008 in Syria. Both groups included an equal number of male and female participants. All interviews were conducted in friendly congenial settings which allowed participants to converse naturally. All instances of lexical borrowing and code-switching were catalogued. After analysing data from the two sets of speakers, it was found that whilst borrowing was prevalent in both groups, code-switching tended to be minimal. This shows that the degree of contact was not very intense. The difference in mobility, between the two groups, however, was reflected in their respective repertoires. In fact, mobility and exposure to other cultures was a major distinguishing factor between the participants. Members of the mobile group used more English lexical items than the less mobile group. The analysis was also done taking into account the participants' work experience. It was found that equal work experience resulted in similar findings across the gender line. The exposure to the world of work demanded higher levels of proficiency in English, since it was the language mostly used in the industrial-commercial environment. The use of English was also necessitated by computer programs and access to other technical and scientific information which was in English. The study also, showed that speaker's attitudes played a significant part in forming their linguistic behaviour albeit consciously or unconsciously. Speakers with a more accommodating attitude towards English tended to have more loanwords in their speech, across the two groups. Such code-switching as does occur in both groups shows no clear pattern that is linked to the type of schooling, mobility, or attitude, between the switcher participants, it was found that other personal experiences play a role. Personal experience that varies from individual to another according to their unique exposure to English media and other pleasure facilities, can be salient in strengthen one's English competence. Thereby, it gives the individual the ability to use the language more often and on a larger scale. Finally the study demonstrated that sociolinguistic repertoire was, to a large extent, a product of mobility and cultural exposure.

This essay investigates compounding in Namagowab and English, which belong to two widely divergent groups of languages, the Khoesan and Indo-European, respectively. The first motive is to investigate how and why new words are created from existing ones. The reading and data interpretation seeks an understanding of word formation and an overview of semantic compositionality, structure and productivity, within the broad context of cognitive, lexicalist and distributed morphology paradigms. This coupled with history reading about the languages and its people, is used to speculate about why compounds feature in lexical creation. Compounding is prevalent in both languages and their distance in terms of phylogenetic relationships should allow limited generalizing about these processes of formation. Word lists taken from dictionaries in both languages were analyzed by entering the words in Excel spreadsheets so that various attributes of these words, such as word type, compound class (Noun, Verb, Preposition, Adjective and Adverb) and constituent class could be counted, and described with formulae, and compound and constituent meaning analyzed. The conclusion was that socio historical factors such as language contact, and aspects of cognition such as memory and transparency, account for compounding in a language in addition to typology.

This mini-dissertation is written towards an MA in Linguistics. As such, it falls within the domain of Humanities. However, its author is a doctor and the subject matter is medical, which falls within the domain of Science. The mini-dissertation thus bridges these different domains, and the references and background reading as well as the application of the research reflect this hybrid nature. A glossary of medical terms and acronyms is thus given. In addition to being a doctor, the author is also a mother of two children. Thus the subject matter of pregnancy and its unknowns is close to her professional and personal realms of experience. For this reason, although the author has tried to be objective, she cannot pretend that true objectivity is always achieved.

Since Mesthrie's (1992) pioneering work on South African Indian English (SAIE), very little work has been done on SAIE exclusively. Therefore enough time has passed to test his findings and postulations with current data, new variables, and new techniques. In particular the paper draws on progress in acoustic sociophonetics in the description of the vowels of the GOOSE, NURSE and THOUGHT sets, and basic statistics.