Thesis (M. A.) -- University of Limpopo, 2005 / Refer to document

The aim of this research is to give a literary accountable description of the development of the short story in Sepedi. In order to achieve this, the descriptive as well as the expository and comparative method are used, while the short story is seen as a unit consisting of a content layer, a structural layer and a stylistic layer. With these three layers as focus points in the research, the researcher is not to include the socio-cultural circumstance in which the work has its origin, as final criterium in his research. Firstly, the modus operandi of English and American researchers in their descriptions of the history and development of their literatures is reviewed (or traced). The division here into development periods, is based to a large extent on pragmatic grounds, although literary merit was considered too. In the case of the literature in Sepedi, Mokgokong, Serudu and Groenewald separately gave an overview of the history of this literature and divided it into development periods (or periods of development). They, however, do not indicate the grounds (basics) on which these periods are based. The historical and socio-cultural circumstances of the Bapedi are taken into consideration, but how they lead to a literary accountable division, is not indicated. A short overview of the history of the short story in Sepedi is given as introduction to this study. Thereafter the development of the short story in Sepedi is divided into three phases, namely: (a) The moralizing or didactical phase. (b) The experimental phase. (c) The phase of growth. In the first period the works of Ramaila, who is a skilled writer, dominate. He was a teacher and a man of the church, and was moved by the fate of his people when the Western lifestyle in the process of urbanization left them without anchors in life. The stories from this period therefore have a strong moralising and didactical flavour (tendency) which detracts from the merit of the work. Works from the second period place less emphasis on the clash between the traditional and Western philosophies of life. The stories are mostly constructed untidily, the characterization is one-sided and unconvincing, while the conclusions are not motivated satisfactorily. The short stories from the third period portray a reconciliation between the traditional and Western lifestyles. This phase includes short stories which are structurally and stylistically rounded. The detective stories, for example, have highly complex structures which lead to surprising solutions to the story problems, while an ironic situation in life is described with the greatest ease and skills especially in the stories of (N.S) Nkadimeng and Mpepele. The chief merit of these works lie in the characterization and building of atmosphere. In the final or summarising chapter there is reflection on the importance of Ramaila as short story writer, while the possibilities of the short story in Sepedi in the future are touched upon. / Thesis (DLitt (African Languages))--University of Pretoria, 2000. / African Languages / unrestricted

Thesis (DLitt (African Languages))--University of Stellenbosch, 2007. / Definiteness is generally viewed as a morpho-syntactic category. It is grammatically marked by articles in languages such as English, but not all languages have a formal grammatical encoding for this category. The nominal preprefix (NPP) in languages such as Dzamba is not an equivalent to the English article system; however, it displays a close association with definiteness. Northern Sotho is non-articled, and it does not possess the NPP in its grammatical system. As a grammatical category, definiteness is the grammaticalisation of a pragmatic category of identifiability, which is present in all languages. Identifiability, as a means of referent tracing, plays a vital role in communication. The main aim of this study is to investigate how the phenomenon of definiteness manifests itself in Northern Sotho. The introductory chapter describes the purpose and aim of the study, its theoretical approach and methodology, as well as its organisation. The second chapter presents an overview of the previous major works on definiteness. It begins with the literature on the category in general, and moves on to the literature on definiteness in African Languages. These previous studies agree on the central issues of this category. The speaker utters a definite noun phrase (NP) if he presupposes that the addressee will be in a position to locate and to identify the referent of the NP uniquely or inclusively. Chapter 3 examines noun phrases that are regarded as definite in Northern Sotho; and the factors that contribute to such a reading. Pragmatic factors, i.e. existential presupposition, transparent contexts and anaphoric reference make major contributions to the interpretation of a noun phrase as definite. Nominal determiners and quantifiers whose semantic content suggests locatability, uniqueness and/or inclusiveness give a noun phrase definite reference. Such determiners and quantifiers include the demonstrative, possessive with locative gona/ntshe, the universal quantifier, etc. Proper names and pronouns have unique reference. Chapter 4 investigates indefinite noun phrases in Northern Sotho. Bare noun phrases in this language such as mang (who), lefeela (nothing) and aretse (unknown thing/place) are incompatible with definiteness. Their semantic content suggests that their referent cannot or should not be uniquely identified. Nominal modifiers such as -ngwe (another/different/ a certain), -fe (who/which) and šele (another/different/strange) are also incompatible with unique identifiabilty and they, therefore, accord a noun phrase indefinite reference. Nouns with generic interpretation and nouns in idioms do not uniquely refer to particular individuals. Chapter 5 looks into the ambiguity of bare noun phrases in Northern Sotho. It examines such a phrase in the subject position, the object position and the complement position of prepositional phrases. Nominal modifiers such as the adjective, the relative and the possessive are incorporated into noun phrases to see how they affect the reading. The question of subject inversion (SI) is also investigated. Lastly opaque contexts are discussed, and the ambiguity created by opacity-creating operators is examined. The final chapter of the study presents the main findings.

Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2001. / English Abstract: This research project examines the syntax of negative sentence constructions in Sesotho and explores implications of the empirical data on negation within the framework of the Minimalist Program. According to Minimalist Program, language consists of a lexicon and Computational System where the operations Merge and Move generate sets of structural descriptions, it is driven by the principle of economy, which entails that movement should take place only when necessary for the purpose of Case feature checking. It is also concerned with the expansion of syntactic structures in terms of X-bar theoretic properties, where functional category gives full categorical status. This project further considered the morphology of negation in Sesotho where Sesotho data is refined within the Lexeme-morpheme base morphology, where bound grammatical morphemes such as the negative morphemes in Sesotho are defined in terms of morphological spelling operations. Within these two theoretical frameworks, sentence constructions which realize negation by means of negative morphemes over a full range of tense, aspect and mood distinctions were examined, including sentence construction that realize negation in subordinate clauses as well as those that entail issues of topic and focus, and scope of negation. Constituent negation, with constituents such as subjects, objects and adjuncts is also investigated. Various ways of negating constituents in Sesotho were examined: they are cleft sentences, pseudo-cleft sentences, sentence construction with locative AgrS [ ho ] and sentence constructions with subject inversion as well as sentences where constituents are negated within the VP. All these methods were considered with regard to noncopulative and copulative verbs. The issue of focus which entails plain focus, restrictive and contrastive foci, the issue of topic, which entails stage topics, modified topics and multiple topics are investigated and interpreted within the Focus Structure theory, a theory which assigns focus structures to sentences of the language. Negative sentences are assigned two focus structure viz. main focus structure and the subordinate focus structure. Finally, this study also looks into the scope of negation in Sesotho, where negative criterion (Neg-criterion) stipulates various positions of negative morphemes or words which in turn determines the scope of negation. Scope of negation is also examined in terms of focus, with constituents such as NP's, NP Lac's and NP's in subordinate clauses. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie navorsingsprojek ondersoek die sintaksis van konstruksies met negatiewe sinne in Sesotho en gaan die implikasies na van die empiriese data oor ontkenning binne die raamwerk van die Minimalistiese Program. Volgens die Minimalistiese Program, bestaan taal uit In leksikon en In rekenaarsisteem waar die bewerkinge Saamsmelt en Skuif versamelings strukturele beskrywings genereer, dit word aangedryf deur die beginsel van ekonomie wat inhou dat Skuif slegs plaasvind wanneer dit nodig is vir die doel van die nagaan van die Kasus kenmerk: dit het ook te doen met die uitbreiding van sintaktiese strukture in terme van die teoretiese kenmerke van die X-balk, waar die funksionele kategorie volle kategoriale status verkry. Dié projek het ook verder die morfologie van ontkenning in Sesotho oorweeg waar die Sesotho data verfyn is binne die Lekseem-Morfeem Basis Morfologie, waar grammatikale morfeme soos die negatiewe morfeme in Sesotho gedefinieer word in terme van morfologiese spellingsbewerkings. Binne hierdie twee teoretiese raamwerke, is daar ondersoek ingestel na sinskonstruksies wat negatief realiseer deur middel van negatiewe morfeme binne In volledige reeks van onderskeidinge van tyd, aspek en modus, insluitende sinskonstruksies waar die negatief realiseer in die bysin, asook daardie negatiewe wat gaan oor sake soos Topiek en Fokus, en die omvang van ontkenning. Konstituent ontkenning is ondersoek waaronder konstituente soos onderwerpe, voorwerpe en adjunkte. Verskeie wyses om konstituente in Sesotho te ontken is ondersoek, naamlik: klef en pseudo-klef sinne, sinskonstruksie met die lokatiewe kongruensie [ho] en sinskonstruksies met subjeksinversie asook sinne waar konstituente ontken word binne In werkwoordfrase. AI hierdie wyses is nagegaan met nie-kopulatiewe en kopulatiewe werkwoorde. Die probleem van fokus is ondersoek wat insluit eenvoudige fokus, beperkende en kontrastiewe fokus, asook die probleem van topiek wat verskeie soorte topiek insluit. Hierdie ondersoek is gedoen en uiteindelik geïnterpreteer binne die Fokus Sruktuur teorie, In teorie wat fokusstrukture toeken aan sinne van In taal. Negatiewe sinne word twee fokusstrukture toegeken, naamlik: die hoof fokus struktuur en die onderskikkende fokus struktuur. Laastens het die studie ook gekyk na die omvang ('scope') van ontkenning in Sesotho waar die negatiewe kriterium verskeie posisies van negatiewe morfeme of woorde stipuleer wat dan weer die omvang van ontkenning bepaal. Die omvang van ontkenning is ook ondersoek in terme van fokus waar kontrastiewe fokus die uitbreiding van omvang bepaaloor konstituente soos naamwoordfrases, lokatiewe naamwoordfrases en naamwoordfrases in onderskikkende klouse.

The main problem, which this study aims to address is: what Biblical counselling can be given to Sotho Christian members who believe in Witchcraft? In addressing this problem the study will attempt to answer the following questions: What is the Scriptural message concerning witchcraft? What effect does the problem of limited cosmic good; fear and doubt about one's life-force have on Christians of the Reformed Churches in the resort of Synod Midlands? What guidelines can be developed to contribute in pastoral counselling for members who strongly believe in witchcraft? Therefore the aim of this study is to investigate and propose guidelines for counselling Sotho Christian members who believe in witchcraft. The study utilises Zerfass's model for research to form a basis theory, meta-theory and practical theoretical guidelines and methodology (Heyns & Pieterse, 1990:35-36). The study compares a Scriptural perspective about witchcraft practice with the practical situation that Sotho Christian members find in their daily lives. The following key words and phrases direct the focus of the study: limited cosmic good, fear, and doubt about someone's life-force. Scriptural perspectives and the key words are researched in detail, compared and evaluated Biblically. The conclusion provides guidelines from a Christian perspective to help Sotho Christian members who believe in witchcraft. These guidelines may only be effective when Sotho Christian members and Christian counsellors follow them. It is the duty of the Church of God to promote those Biblical guidelines and it is also the duty of the Sotho Christian members to apply them fully in their daily lives. / Thesis (M.A. (Pastoral))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.

Thesis (M. A. (African Languages)) -- University of Limpopo, 2004 / Refer to document

The main problem, which this study aims to address is: what Biblical counselling can be given to Sotho Christian members who believe in Witchcraft? In addressing this problem the study will attempt to answer the following questions: What is the Scriptural message concerning witchcraft? What effect does the problem of limited cosmic good; fear and doubt about one's life-force have on Christians of the Reformed Churches in the resort of Synod Midlands? What guidelines can be developed to contribute in pastoral counselling for members who strongly believe in witchcraft? Therefore the aim of this study is to investigate and propose guidelines for counselling Sotho Christian members who believe in witchcraft. The study utilises Zerfass's model for research to form a basis theory, meta-theory and practical theoretical guidelines and methodology (Heyns & Pieterse, 1990:35-36). The study compares a Scriptural perspective about witchcraft practice with the practical situation that Sotho Christian members find in their daily lives. The following key words and phrases direct the focus of the study: limited cosmic good, fear, and doubt about someone's life-force. Scriptural perspectives and the key words are researched in detail, compared and evaluated Biblically. The conclusion provides guidelines from a Christian perspective to help Sotho Christian members who believe in witchcraft. These guidelines may only be effective when Sotho Christian members and Christian counsellors follow them. It is the duty of the Church of God to promote those Biblical guidelines and it is also the duty of the Sotho Christian members to apply them fully in their daily lives. / Thesis (M.A. (Pastoral))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.

M.Ed. (Curriculum Studies) / It would appear that the task of the school in a multi cultural society is becoming more complex. It is not only expected of the school to educate the children of the society in totality towards the accepted particular adulthood, but the task of the school is also to provide for the current needs of society, and to anticipate possible problems of the future. In the context of human relations an African Language was introduced into White Schools on a regional basis in an attempt to bring about better understanding among the population groups. This was also done in order to provide the White child with the opportunity to communicate with the Black in his own language. After considering the current subject - curricula for Sepedi (Spoken Language) and the related teaching practice, the conclusion was made that the subject does'nt succeed in accomplishing its aims. No evidence could be found of an thorough situation - analysis in which the nature of society, the nature of the learner and the subjectcontent have been considered. Some deficiencies in the curriculum resulted from this. An evaluation of the subject curricula showed that one of the most important shortcomings seemed to be that the curriculum was'nt planned and designed to accepted curriculum principles. A further shortcoming was that no attention was given to the linguistic - phenomenon of pragmatic interference, which implies that the child, while learning Sepedi (Spoken Language) should not only learn the language, but also gain experience in the culture, rules of discourse, behaviour, norms and values underlying the target language...

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

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