The present Master's thesis analyses language means in printed media with a particular focus on national daily newspapers from the second trimester of 1993. That year, there was an important linguistic conference on standardised Czech and language culture. The analysis examines especially language means that deviate from the standardised norm of the language. The theoretical part discusses key concepts, such as norm and codification or national language and its varieties. The understanding of these terms is critical for the analytical part of the thesis where language means used in printed media are being analysed using quantitative content analysis. The aim of this analysis is to describe their motivation of use and function. The results are then compared with the proceedings of the 1993 conference on standardised Czech and language culture held in Olomouc. The thesis provides a clear view on how the occurrence of non-standardised language means in media influences academic discussion on standardised Czech.

This study explores the extent to which the use of indigenous languages in the publications of Kwayedza and uMthunywa has contributed to the empowerment of the indigenous people. It is informed by the idea that language is an important instrument of development which can either facilitate participation or engender exclusion, bringing about agency thereby inspiring a transformational and participative agenda. Given that the media plays a major role in informationdissemination, this study engages an important subject which has often been given cursory attention. The study is guided by the post-colonial theoretical framework. It employs the mixed methods approach which is premised on the assumption that life is characterised by complex realities which can be understood using multiple approaches. As such, elements of both quantitative and qualitative research are used. Findings revealed that the use of indigenous languages empower readers through making information accessible in a language that makes sense to them. The collected data also show that the newspapers are pivotal in resuscitating the indigenous languages that have been overshadowed by the hegemonic English. They promote the values, norms and general cultural features of indigenous people. Above all, the papers provide curriculum-specific columns for school going children. However, these newspapers are found wanting with regards to the scope of their coverage. Their coverage tends to concentrate on the socio-cultural lives of people at the expense of scientific, technological, political and economic issues. Furthermore, the papers‟ handling of the history of the nation is simplistic and lacks depth. In addition, issues of spirituality also tend to be concerned with the negative (witchcraft, bogus prophets and traditional healers) than the positive aspects. The study recommends a conversion of the papers from tabloid to a genre that accommodates politico-economic, scientific and technological news the social interest stories already being covered in these indigenous language papers; the development of orthographies of other local languages to avoid having Shona and Ndebele being the only indigenous languages that are used in these papers and that the papers present the best of all aspects of the Zimbabwean cultural heritage to restore the indigenous people‟s belief and respect in themselves. The study also suggests that the two papers and many more that are to come in indigenous languages, must showcase, develop, promote and institutionalise the positive aspect of the Zimbabwean cultural heritageand the infusion of all dimensions of indigenous knowledge systems into the current set-up. / African Languages / D. Litt. et Phil. (African Languages)

Comment la palette des marques énonciatives, qui déterminent l’inscription de la subjectivité au sein des contenus discursifs objectivés, est-elle employée dans les discours économiques radiophoniques ? Quelles sont les variations de ces marques et selon quelles variables ? Ces variations seront appréhendées à partir d’un corpus de 35 émissions économiques, en fonction des genres discursifs (brèves, analyses, chroniques, débats, interviews, portraits) et de l’identité des sujets parlants selon leurs statuts médiatiques (animateurs, chroniqueurs, invités) et sociaux (journalistes, économistes, acteurs économiques, acteurs politiques européens, artistes). Nous cherchons, ce faisant, les marques caractéristiques de la pratique des communautés discursives représentées dans notre corpus. Les analyses s’inscrivent dans un double cadre théorique : celui de l’analyse du discours, qui situe les textes dans un contexte socio-historique, un dispositif institutionnel et une communauté discursive, et celui des théories de l’énonciation qui éclairent les valeurs sémantiques et le fonctionnement énonciatif des marques prises en compte. Les déictiques de première personne instancient explicitement le sujet parlant dans le discours. Les occurrences du conditionnel marquent une disjonction énonciative du locuteur par rapport au propos tenu. A partir d’une analyse du fonctionnement énonciatif de ces marques, nous en cherchons le fonctionnement discursif et leurs effets sur l’ethos des locuteurs. Cette recherche nous amènera à interroger, notamment, la définition du discours économique, les notions de genre et d’ethos, le passage du niveau énonciatif au niveau discursif / How is the range of enunciation markers, which determine how subjectivity is inscribed within objective discursive content, used in economy radio programs? How do these markers vary and according to what variables? Such variations will be explored in a corpus of 35 episodes of various economy radio programs, focusing on program genre (headlines, chronicles, debates, interviews, portraits) and speaker identity — the speaker’s media status (radio hosts, commentators, guests) and social status (journalists, economists, economic actors, European players, artists). Thereby, we seek to identify the enunciation features of the discursive communities represented in the corpus.Analyses fall within two theoretical frameworks: French discourse analyses and enunciation theory. The first framework places discourses in sociological and historical context, in institutional systems, and in discursive communities. The second one illuminates how the enunciation markers under study operate, as well as their semantic value. First-person deictic pronouns explicitly ground the speaker in the discourse. The ‘conditionnel’ tense marks a disjunction between the speaker and the discursive content. From the analyses of how enunciation markers operate on a linguistic level, we will observe their effects on a discursive level, and specifically on the ethos of the speaker. This study will lead us to question, inter alia, the definition of economic discourse, the notions of program genre and ethos, the transition between the enunciation level and the discursive level

When two or more languages come in contact, they influence each other in various ways, for example through word borrowing, transfer of sounds, morphology and syntax taken from one language system and imported to another. In this study, the primary concern is on the indigenous communities of Uganda learning the English language, plus the influence that this interaction brings into the linguistic space. Bringing the Ugandan multilingual situation into perspective, the study looks at how the English language has interacted with the local languages and the local speech habits, customs and traditions of the indigenous people, to the extent that it has been indigenized. Some word usage results in miscommunication due to the socio-cultural uniqueness of Ugandan cultural expressions. As an example, because of the practice of polygamy in most Ugandan cultures, words like co-wife are coined to mean 'a woman who shares a husband, or a husband's other wife', a word that is absent in both the language and culture of native English speakers. Furthermore some words are formed by calquing some indigenous language expressions, e.g. 'to eat money' or 'to eat cash', an expression that is calqued from the Luganda phrase, kulya sente. Such word coinages are meant to fill the 'shortfall' where the English language fails to provide adequate equivalents. Understanding the context of this kind of English usage and the influence from the indigenous languages is helpful in handling inter-cultural discourses, as the same expression may convey different senses to different people in different contexts. So then, this study deals with some peculiarities of Ugandan English, namely; the features of Ugandan English grammar which are influenced by the indigenous languages. Evidence from the Corpus of Ugandan English is explored to establish that indigenous languages in Uganda have a significant influence on the English language variety spoken in the country, and that a large part of English bilingual speakers cannot speak English without transferring the features from their mother tongue or indeed, switching and mixing codes. A British corpus was used for the purposes of comparison with Ugandan English. The research was conducted in Uganda, drawing data from English newspapers, radio and television talk -shows that were recorded to provide a structural analysis of the contact situations. The result of the study points to the fact that, indeed, the phonological, morpho-syntactic and semantic characteristics of Ugandan English have a considerable amount of influence from indigenous local languages. This study is hinged on the assumption that when indigenous languages and the target language come together in a linguistic contact situation, the resulting variety would exhibit distinct phonological, lexical, grammatical and semantic/pragmatic features ( cf. Sankoff, 2001; Thomason, 1995; Thomason & Kaufman, 1988; Winford, 2005). However, some of these innovations have attracted criticism from 'prescriptivists' such as Quirk (1985, 1988, 1990); Gaudio (2011); and Abbot (1991) who perceive them as 'nonstandard', 'incorrect English language usage' and a 'direct translation from the language user's mother tongue into English'. Yet, indigenous languages continue to play important roles in shaping the kind of English language usage in Uganda.

No presente trabalho, buscou-se mostrar as inscrições da linguagem oral percebidas nas mensagens de campanhas publicitárias de Instituições de Ensino, em outdoors, com propaganda de seus cursos, com vistas a uma interação com seu público consumidor. Como contribuição linguística, o trabalho se apoia nos ensinamentos de Marcuschi (2008), para auxiliar a esclarecer definições dos gêneros textuais, que permitam responder algumas características de apresentação textual, e nas propostas teóricas de Koch (2002), com vistas à investigação da intertextualidade na construção expressiva do outdoor, em textos produzidos por diferentes escolas. Buscou-se, ainda, analisar a forma como essas mensagens são elaboradas para a divulgação dos serviços ofertados nos diferentes outdoors, que identificam as características do gênero, bem como a importância da compreensão e aceitação pelo público alvo. O trabalho teve como meta o fornecimento de dados para o aprofundamento sobre a elaboração de mensagens publicitárias. Com a análise, foi possível observar como as mensagens são direcionadas a um público específico, através do uso de uma linguagem adequada, considerando-se local, tempo e finalidade na divulgação. Foram identificadas, alterações nos processos de coesão textual, dos tipos remissão e sequenciação, reiteração e colocação, e, ainda, a ambiguidade como intencionalidade proposital na comunicação, direcionada a cada público específico por Faculdades e Universidades, Cursos Técnicos, Formação Escolar e Cursos de Línguas. / This work shows the entries of the oral language perceived in advertising campaigns of educational institutions, on billboards, advertising its courses, with the purpose of interacting with their consumer audience. As linguistic contribution, the work is based on the teachings of Marcuschi, in Textual Linguistics, and in Koch theoretical proposals, aiming at the investigation of Intertextuality in building expressive outdoor, on texts produced by different schools. It also sought to examine how these messages are elaborated to the dissemination of services offered in different billboards, identifying the characteristics of the genre as well as the importance of understanding and acceptance by the target audience. The work has as goal the provision of data for the study on the preparation of billboards. So, it was observed details of expressions, in addition to the lexical choices carried out to draw the attention of the reading public, the offers in different courses. In addition, it was observed how messages are targeted to a specific audience, making use of a proper language, aiming to the enthusiasm and satisfaction of the target audience, in location, time and purpose in disclosure.

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This study sought to examine linguistic and discursive strategies used to construct messages reflective of the implementation of the HIV and AIDS policy for Zimbabwe of 1999 by government and private newspapers. Such analysis was perceived to be important since media content has a bearing on Zimbabweans‘ perception and attitudes regarding HIV and AIDS prevention, treatment and control. The study was aimed at comparing messages from newspapers with views by the people of Zimbabwe regarding the implementation of the policy. Findings reveal that empowerment programmes particularly those targeting women and children are lagging behind as Zimbabweans, literature and newspaper data sources testify. In addition, information sources concur that cultural (For example, stigmatisation, polygamy, religious practices, spouse inheritance) and structural (For example, patriarchy, masculinity, bureaucracy, politics) are stumbling blocks that negatively affect the implementation of the policy. Further, even though private and government newspapers do not fully agree on the portrayal of human agents, there is a general consensus between newspaper reports and Zimbabweans that people still face socio-economic and econo-political challenges that militate against the smooth implementation of the HIV and AIDS policy. Government newspapers tend to downplay aspects which reveal inadequacies of government activities. The study notes this as betrayal of use of ideological squares both by government and private newspapers whereby certain aspects regarding the implementation of the policy are either downplayed or highlighted to influence perception. The study reveals that newspaper reports used nominalisation, quantification, positive politeness, thematisation, rhematisation, intertextuality, euphemism, proverbs, idioms, action verbs, metaphors and citation of experts as linguistic and discursive strategies both for agenda setting and building purposes regarding the implementation of the HIV and AIDS policy. Other devices used particularly in the encoding of Operation Murambatsvina are, claptraps, deictic referencing, personal pronouns, adjectives and direct speech. The study attributes problems regarding the Zimbabwean HIV and AIDS intervention model to the top – down approach inherent in the policy. Hence, the call for an adoption of an unhu/hunhu/ubuntu inspired bottom – up HIV and AIDS intervention model in Zimbabwe. This would inculcate pro-family, pro-village, pro-nation/people and ―servant leadership‖ (Mangena and Chitando, 2011) values in the fight against the pandemic through the embracing of Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS). Unfortunately, such values largely continue to elude the radar of the current top – down HIV and AIDS intervention model cuurently in use in Zimbabwe. / African Languages / D. Litt et Phil. (African Languages)

This treatise is a study of media-related articles in the South African press February 1996 to April 1999. Through a discourse analysis approach, the treatise identifies two main discourses relating to normative press models: the watchdog discourse and the nation-building discourse. It is argued that the watchdog discourse largely resembles classical libertarian press ideals, while the nation-building discourse resembles social responsibility ideals. The analysis contains numerous examples of the tensions between the government and the newspaper industry in terms of normative press models. Finally, the treatise challenges the assumed tensions that exist between nation-building and watchdog discourses, and suggests communitarianism as an ideology which upholds the crucial interests of both the press and the government. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2001.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Miami University, Dept. of English, 2004. / Title from second page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 94-98).