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Inaug.-Diss.--München. / Lebenslauf. "Literatur": p. vi-viii.

Inaug.-Diss.--München. / Lebenslauf. "Literatur": p. vi-viii.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, Santa Cruz, 1995. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 85-89).

Thesis--Marburg. / Cover title. Vita. Bibliography: p. [vii]-viii.

M.A. (African Languages) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

M.A. / Idioms, sayings and poetry in the Bantu languages are examples of idiomatic usage of language. Idiomatic language or figurative language differ in certain respects from literal or non-figurative language usage. Many studies on proverbs and idioms in Zulu have been published but none have as yet made an in depth study of the linguistic characteristics of proverbs and idioms. A comparison between proverbs and Zulu poetry has also never been attempted. Thorough studies concerning the Sotho languages have been made in this regard. In this study, the linguistic characteristics of Zulu proverbs and idioms are compared to findings made in Northern Sotho and Southern Sotho in order to determine if linguistic peculiarities and other aspects found in the Sotho languages are also present in Zulu proverbs and idioms. Chapter 2 deals with the basic linguistic characteristics of Zulu proverbs. The characteristics are similar to those found in Northern and Southern Sotho. The basic linguistic characteristics include a complete and unchanging syntactical structure. A small number of Zulu proverbs have syntactical differences. In such cases a proverb has been recorded by various writers, each with a difference, mainly in the verb. The variants include changes in verb tenses, the presence or absence of verb extensions and the deletion of the copulative particle.

This dissertation on, "A theological analysis of African proverbs about Women with reference to proverbs from Gikuyu people," is set on the premise that there is a need for a new cultural hermeneutics that will move towards the deconstruction of the wrong attitudes against African women; that are experienced through some (African) proverbs; that have continued to misinform and misdirect the society. Seen from this perspective, the study boldly proposes that there is need to move towards conscientizing the society on the necessity for a change of attitude in order to redeem it from the typecasts that do harm to the society - which, ironically, includes the church of Jesus Christ in Africa. If the idea of the change of attitude is put into reality, then the society, the study urges, will have to uphold, create positive proverbs and dismantle the old ones, which are designed to distort a woman's image. This section therefore introduces the above contention. In conclusion the study recommends that African women scholars and theologians, together with the "concerned" men should publish books that will put to public domain the "newly" published and reconstituted proverbs and reach out to those who cannot read or write in seminars and in their respective communities. Otherwise, it would be defeatist to say that we are upholding some proverbs, creating new proverbs or dismantling some proverbs without engaging ourselves in publications that are geared towards re-doing the damage that is already there. In addition, the study urges that we should, make it a habit to severally quote the "new" proverbs in our speeches and in our publications - in our endeavour to bring a new community of men and women where the lion and the goat will sit together at a Kamukunji of interaction and genuine friendliness - and where none will be harmed or made to fear. In so doing, there would be no categorisation of goats versus lions - as all will be one people of God - reflecting the new humanity that will be created by the new cultural hermeneutics. / Thesis (M.Th.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2005.

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This dissertation analyzes aural literacy, or learning by hearing, in late medieval English literary works by Geoffrey Chaucer, Thomas Usk, and Margery Kempe. Aural literacy enabled late medieval people to engage with the literate tradition by adopting short, formulaic phrases such as proverbs, parables, and sermon stories. These phrases, or shared sayings, became part of a common hoard of aural resources widely available to many due to the late medieval practice of reading texts aloud. Shared sayings' conventional uses joined their speakers together into rhetorical communities, or groups of people with similar ideas as to how these sayings functioned in the world. Rhetorical communities offered a platform for contested and divergent ways of speaking that threatened these conventional uses, as late medieval speakers turned shared sayings to their own purposes, provoking angry resistance in their attempts to change their positions within their societies.