published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

Abstract not available. / Thesis (M.Ed.) - University of Natal, Durban, 2000.

Techn. Universiẗat, Diplomarbeit--Ilmenau, 2007. / Parallel als Online-Ausg. erschienen unter der Adresse http://www.db-thueringen.de/servlets/DocumentServlet?id=10122.

This research analyses the influence of the power of a name, particularly on Zulu speaking people in South Africa. It further analyses the effect of names in other Nguni speaking communities in this country. On a wider scale it also looks at the power and the influence of names given to people of other countries on the African continent. The research primarily investigates the effects of the power of a name on the life of a black person. A name could actually lure a person to enact its meaning. For instance, the name uBagangile could influence the bearer of the name to be generally naughty or if not so, relatives around her might act naughty in different ways. It is pointed out that the act of name-giving with concomitant power vested in a name originates from God. The bearer was expected to act out the meaning of his/her name. God's power hidden in the name would constrain an individual to behave in a certain way within his/her community. The research points out that a name is not only a label that helps in the identification of an individual or an entity. A name is something that is multi-functional. First it becomes a label, a descriptive tool that may refer to a person's body structure. It is possible that a name may divulge a situation in which the person was born. Most importantly, it has the power to make the bearer become what the name means. Usually names carry one of the above accounts. If the name was chosen by an insightful name giver it may carry more than one of the above qualities. During the years of oppression before the advent of democracy in South Africa in 1994, community members made extensive use of names from the languages of the white oppressors. White names had an impact on the lives of bearers, because of the meanings and contexts associated with them. / African Languages / D.Litt. et Phil. (African Languages)

MA (Xitsonga) / Ehansi kaSenthara ya M. E. R. Mathivha ya Tindzimi ta Afrika, Vutshila na Ndhavuko / Xikongomelokulu xa ndzavisiso lowu i ku kambisisa mathyelo ya mavito ya swikolo leswi kumekaka emigangeni ya hosi Muhlava, eka Masipala wa Tzaneen, eka xifundzatsongo xa Mopani, exifundzenikulu xa Limpopo. Xikongomelokulu lexi xi aviwa hi swiphemu swimbirhi leswikulu. Xosungula ku nga ku xopaxopa xivumbeko na nhlamuselo ya mavito ya swikolo swa ka Muhlava leswi thyiweke mavito ya vanhu, hi ku kongomisa eka mavito ya mani na mani na mavito ya vachaviseki. Xavumbirhi i ku lavisisa xivumbeko na nhlamuselo ya mavito ya swikolo swa ka Muhlava leswi thyiweke mavito ya swilo leswi nga riki vanhu swo tanihi milambu, tintshava, magova, tindhawu ni swin’wana ni swin’wana. Ndzavisiso lowu wu tirhisa thiyori yo hlamusela (Descriptivist Theory) leyi tumbuluxeke hi Kripke (1980). Hi ku landza Thiyori leyi vito rin’wana na rin’wana leri nga kona laha emisaveni ri na nhlamuselo yo karhi naswona ri na swivangelo leswi nga endla leswaku ri thyiwa. Ndzavisiso lowu wu endliwa hi ku landzelela xivumbeko xa nkoka. Mahungu lama nga xopaxopiwa eka ndzavisiso lowu ma hlengeletiwile hi ku tirhisa maendlo ya phurayimari, ku nga maendlelo lama kongomisaka eka ku kuma mahungu eka swihlovo swo sungula. Xitirho lexi tirhisiweke ehansi ka endlelo leri hi lexi vuriwaka inthavhiyu kumbe nhlokohliso wa swivutiso lexi endliwaka hi ndlela yo vulavurisana exikarhi ka vanhu vambirhi kumbe exikarhi ka munhu un’we na vanhu vo tala laha ku vutisiwaka swivutiso na ku nyika tinhlamulo hi ku vulavula. Swihlovo swa mina swa ndzavisiso i vavasati na vavanuna va ku huma eka miganga yo hambana ya le ka Hosi Muhlava, eka Masipala wa Tzaneen, ku nga eka Muhlava, eMariveni, eKhujwana na le Petanenge. Ku hlawuriwile vanhu lava nga vutisiwa swivutiso ku suka eka mitlawa ya vanhu leyi landzelaka: vaaki va miganga va nhungu, vaxinuna va mune na vavasati va mune, vadyondzisi va nhungu; vaxinuna va mune na vaxisati va mune, vafundhisi va nhungu; vaxinuna va mune na vaxisati va mune, na tindhuna ta nhungu. Mahungu man’wana lama nga tirhisiwa eka ndzavisiso lowu ma kumeka kusuka eka switsariwa swo tanihi tibuku, tijenali, maphephahungu na swin’wana. Eka ndzavisiso lowu ku tirhisiwile tindlela timbirhi ta ku xopaxopa mahungu, ku nga nxopaxopo wa vundzeni bya tsalwa na nxopaxopo wa nkoka hi ku landza vi mikongomelo. Endlelo ro sungula ri tirhisiwa ku longoloxa timhaka ta ndzavisiso lowu hi ku landza mikongomelo yo karhi. Endlelo ra vumbirhi ri vuriwa nxopaxopo wa vundzeni. Eka ndzavisiso lowu, endlelo leri ri tirhisiwile hi ndlela yo va ku xopaxopiwa mathyelo ya vito rin’wana na rin’wana ra lama nga hlengeletiwa hi xikongomelo xo kuma tinhlamuselo ta wona na ndlela leyi ma vumbiweke ha yona. Mbuyelo wa ndzavisiso lowu wu kumile leswaku mavito ya swikolo swa ka hosi Muhlava ma thyiwile hi xikongomelo xa ku xixima vachaviseki na ku tsundzuka mitirho leyinene leyi nga endliwa hi vanhu vo hambanahambana hi xikongomelo xa leswaku rixaka leri ra ha taka ri ta kuma matimu lama. / NRF

This study analyses the different social variables that conditioned the naming of schools during the colonial period in Zimbabwe (1890-1979). The study collects and analyses the names given to schools in Salisbury (including Chitungwiza), Umtali and Fort Victoria the colonial period in Zimbabwe. The study adopts Geosemiotics, a theory propounded by Scollon and Scollon (2003), together with insights from Semantics, Semiotics and Pragmatics in the analysis of school names. Critical Discourse Analysis is used a method of data analysis. One of the main findings of the study is that place names are discourses of power which are used to express and legitimise power because they are part of the symbolic emblems of power. It was possible to ‘read’ the politics during the colonial period in Zimbabwe through the place names used in the colonial society. Both Europeans and Africans made conscious efforts to imbue public places with meanings. Overally, people who have access to power have ultimate control over place naming in any society. In this case, they manipulate place naming system in order to inscribe their own meanings and versions of history in the toponomastic landscape. The second finding is that place names are critical place-making devices that can be used to create imagined boundaries between people living in the same environment. Place names are useful discourses that index sameness and differences of people in a nation-state. Place names exist in interaction and kinship with other discourses in making places and imposing an identity on the landscape. Semiotics, Semantics and Pragmatics are instrumental in the appreciation of the meaning conveyed by school names. This study makes an important contribution to onomastic research in the sense that its findings can be generalised to other place naming categories during the colonial period in Zimbabwe. This study provides background information on how place naming was done during thecolonial period in Zimbabwe. This makes it significant because it provides insights on place naming in other states that went through the colonial experience, in Africa or elsewhere in the world. / African Languages

Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 1986. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: no abstract available / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: geen opsomming

published_or_final_version / abstract / Chinese / Master / Master of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Philosophy / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Semanticists, philosophers and logicians have standardly analyzed a range of natural language expressions on the model of the variables of formal languages. This dissertation explores variable- based semantic theories of pronounsand proper names. The first two chapters argue that a variable-based, presuppositional semantics for pronouns proposed by Cooper (1979, 1983) resolves an apparent trilemma arising from the conjunction of three plausible commitments concerning the semantics of pronouns: that some anaphoric pronouns with quantifier antecedents are bound variables, that referential pronouns have context-independent meanings, and that the relation between bound and referential pronouns is not ambiguity or homonymy. The first chapter argues that Cooper’s semantics is descriptively and empirically superior to alternative theories, including Kaplan’s account, which does not resolve the trilemma. The second addresses an important objection to the view that bound and referential pronouns make the same semantic contribution, involving cases where bound pronouns do not appear to trigger semantic presuppositions. I argue that this appearance is misleading: bound pronouns do trigger semantic presuppositions and have the same (Cooper-style) denotations as referential pronouns. The third chapter addresses the phenomenon of non c-command or ‘donkey’ anaphora. These anaphors appear to require a departure from Cooper’s semantics and, more generally, from the view that anaphoric pronouns correspond to (classical) bound variables. I consider D-type accounts of donkey anaphora and argue that these accounts must be revised in ways that bring the denotations of donkey anaphors closer to those of ordinary bound and referential pronouns. The last chapter asks whether proper names require a variable-based semantics. I consider a pair of recent anaphoric theories of proper names, according to which proper names have anaphoric uses and are thus better modeled as variables. I argue that there are important reasons to reject a variable-based model for proper names, in contrast with pronouns.