D.Litt. et Phil. (English) / Although children's theatre has been recognised internationally as an important twentieth-century movement, in South Africa it has tended to be an activity with little prestige, few dedicated artists, and a limited core of dramatic texts that has largely been overlooked by literary scholars. The neglect in this country of children's theatre, a formal category of legitimate theatre, and the lack of investigation of its literature, provide the motivation for this thesis. The documentation of a chronology of productions that have been presented in English in South Africa from the earliest recorded performances to the present time, established in Appendix A, suggests the shape of this study and reveals the existence of a nucleus of children's playscripts. Commentary on, and analysis of, a selected number of these illuminates the genre and its development in South Africa. The Introduction to the work describes a methodology of empirical research. It works towards a broad definition of the concept children's theatre - by examining factors that gave rise to its establishment as a world-wide phenomenon; by establishing the relationship between children's theatre and the development of the child; by placing it in the wider context of theatre generally, and drama for children specifically; and by analysing accounts of three representative productions - one from the United States, the second from Britain and the third an indigenous South African play. Parameters are drawn and set to indicate the extent of the study and the layout of the chapters. Chapter One establishes a pattern from brief outlines of the development of children's theatre in Britain and the United States. In the scheme of the work as a whole, this chapter serves as a point of reference against which the development of South African children's theatre and <its literature can be measured and evaluated. Chapter Two isolates theatrical channels of entertainment and information for children in Victorian times, prior to the term 'children's theatre' first being used. These were not necessarily actual theatre presentations, but can be termed 'amusements' with special attraction for the youth of the community particularly. The marvels exhibited range from flea circuses to elaborate mechanical extravaganzas. Within the framework of analysing specific key texts and determining the markers of a history of children's theatre in South Africa, the purpose of Chapter Three is to document the contributions made by individuals and organisations to the development of children's theatre and its literature in South Africa; to trace the rise and growth of certain identified categories of plays at particular points in the history of children's theatre; and to follow the development in procedures and approaches to productions in an attempt to periodize them into a literary-historical overview.

This study is concerned with a particular kind of short story in South African English literature - a kind of story variously called the fireside tale, tall tale, yarn, skaz narrative, frame narrative, or (the term used in this study), the 'oral-sty Ie story.' This kind of story is characterised by the use of an internal narrator (a fictional narrator or storyteller figure), the cadences of his or her speaking voice, and a 'reporting' frame narrator. Stories by A. W. Drayson, Frederick Boyle, J. Forsyth Ingram, W. C. Scully, Percy FitzPatrick, Ernest Glanville, Perceval Gibbon, Francis Carey Slater, Pauline Smith, Aegidius Jean Blignaut and Herman Charles Bosman form the principal body of primary sources examined in this study. The Bakhtinian notion of "simple" and "parodistic" skaz narratives is deployed to analyse the increasing complexity to be discerned in the works by these writers, which roughly span the 100 years from the middle of the nineteenth century to the middle of the present century. A "simple" use of the skaz narrative is evident in the early or 'ur-South African' oral-style story, represented here by Drayson, Boyle and Ingram. With Scully and FitzPatrick the form is still used 'artlessly,' although the beginnings of a greater self-consciousness can be discerned. The' Abe Pike' tales by Glanville introduce a more complex use of the fictional narrator, a process taken a step further by Gibbon in his 'Vrouw Grobelaar' tales. With the latter, in particular, the complex or "parodistic" skaz narrative makes its advent in South African literature. The oral-style stories of Slater and Smith are largely a regression to the ear lier form, although there are aspects of their stories which anticipate Bosman. With Blignaut and Bosman, however, the South African oral-style story comes into its own. In their Hottentot Ruiter and Oom Schalk Lourens characters is invested all the complexity and 'double-voicedness' that was latent, and largely dormant, in the earlier oral-style narratives. Through Blignaut, and Bosman in particular, the South African oral-style story achieves its most economical, sophisticated and successful form of expression. The study concludes by looking briefly at the use of an oral style in short stories by black South African writers and argues that their stories are not, formally speaking, to be categorised alongside those by the other~ writers examined. The oral-style story, the study concludes, achieved its apogee in Bosman's Oom Schalk Lourens sequence and went into sharp decline after Bosman's death in 1951.

Current research into language change and evolution focuses on native varieties of English, Schneider’s (2007) settler strand, but we have little knowledge concerning diachronic changes in non-native varieties of English, Schneider’s (2007) indigenous strand. Such a theory must take into account language contact as well as theories pertaining to Second Language Acquisition. This dissertation describes the diachronic changes which occur in one feature of Black South African English (BSAE), namely the progressive aspect. Current synchronic research on BSAE suggests that the progressive aspect is overextended to include stative verbs. This dissertation aims to evaluate the value of this hypothesis, and determine whether there is evidence of this overextension in diachronic data. In order to observe instances of language change, a diachronic corpus of BSAE was complied. This corpus consisted of data from letters, fiction, and newspapers ranging from the 1870s until the 2000s. Using this corpus, analyses were performed in order to determine the frequency of progressive use, the distribution of aktionsart categories, and which temporal meanings were denoted by stative verbs and activity verbs used in the progressive aspect. These analyses were then repeated for data taken from the historical corpus of White South African English (WSAE), in order to ascertain whether changes in BSAE developed parallel to WSAE, or if it follows its own trajectory of change. One further analysis was conducted on BSAE: the aspectual categories of 71 state verbs were analysed in order to determine whether speakers of BSAE indeed do overextend the –ing progressive form onto stative verbs describing states and qualities. The results indicate that the frequency of verbs used with the progressive aspect increases for BSAE, but decreases for WSAE. The comparison of aktionsart distribution indicates that BSAE has a higher overall frequency of communication verbs and accomplishments, while WSAE has a higher frequency of activity verbs, verbs denoting the future, and stative verbs. Achievements are used as expected by both varieties. The analysis of the temporal meanings of stative verbs indicates that speakers of WSAE denote the prototypical short duration associated with the progressive aspect for 74.83% of the verbs, while BSAE uses an extended temporal meaning for 46.86% of the verbs, indicating that speakers of BSAE more likely to overextend the temporal duration of stative verbs than WSAE speakers. The temporal meanings for activities were the same for both varieties; the prototypical short duration is denoted by 77.83% of the total activities in BSAE, and 77.11% of the activities in WSAE. The extended duration in both varieties may be due to language change in general, while the additional temporal meanings for statives in BSAE are a result of substrate transfer. / MA (English)--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2015

Current research into language change and evolution focuses on native varieties of English, Schneider’s (2007) settler strand, but we have little knowledge concerning diachronic changes in non-native varieties of English, Schneider’s (2007) indigenous strand. Such a theory must take into account language contact as well as theories pertaining to Second Language Acquisition. This dissertation describes the diachronic changes which occur in one feature of Black South African English (BSAE), namely the progressive aspect. Current synchronic research on BSAE suggests that the progressive aspect is overextended to include stative verbs. This dissertation aims to evaluate the value of this hypothesis, and determine whether there is evidence of this overextension in diachronic data. In order to observe instances of language change, a diachronic corpus of BSAE was complied. This corpus consisted of data from letters, fiction, and newspapers ranging from the 1870s until the 2000s. Using this corpus, analyses were performed in order to determine the frequency of progressive use, the distribution of aktionsart categories, and which temporal meanings were denoted by stative verbs and activity verbs used in the progressive aspect. These analyses were then repeated for data taken from the historical corpus of White South African English (WSAE), in order to ascertain whether changes in BSAE developed parallel to WSAE, or if it follows its own trajectory of change. One further analysis was conducted on BSAE: the aspectual categories of 71 state verbs were analysed in order to determine whether speakers of BSAE indeed do overextend the –ing progressive form onto stative verbs describing states and qualities. The results indicate that the frequency of verbs used with the progressive aspect increases for BSAE, but decreases for WSAE. The comparison of aktionsart distribution indicates that BSAE has a higher overall frequency of communication verbs and accomplishments, while WSAE has a higher frequency of activity verbs, verbs denoting the future, and stative verbs. Achievements are used as expected by both varieties. The analysis of the temporal meanings of stative verbs indicates that speakers of WSAE denote the prototypical short duration associated with the progressive aspect for 74.83% of the verbs, while BSAE uses an extended temporal meaning for 46.86% of the verbs, indicating that speakers of BSAE more likely to overextend the temporal duration of stative verbs than WSAE speakers. The temporal meanings for activities were the same for both varieties; the prototypical short duration is denoted by 77.83% of the total activities in BSAE, and 77.11% of the activities in WSAE. The extended duration in both varieties may be due to language change in general, while the additional temporal meanings for statives in BSAE are a result of substrate transfer. / MA (English)--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2015

This bibliography aims to record socio-political short stories and novellas, written in English by authors born in South Africa or accepted as South African, published in South Africa or overseas in new monograph editions from January 1960 through June 1987, and available from within the country. It is contended that these stories provide a significant fictional account of the experience of socio-political life under apartheid in South Africa during this period. Some various reasons. The material was not available, for bibliography therefore cannot claim to be comprehensive. Short summaries of the major events of each year precede the entries which are arranged chronologically and then alphabetically by collection author or anthology title. Bibliographical description of entries is guided by Anglo-American cataloguing rules (2nd edition, 1978), second level, and includes plot synopses and thematic subject headings. The bibliography includes author, title and subject indexes. / Thesis (M.Bibl.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1989.

The pronunciation dictionary is a key resource required during the development of an automatic speech recognition (ASR) system. In this thesis, we adapt a British English pronunciation dictionary to Standard South African English (SSAE), as a case study in dialect adaptation. Our investigation leads us in three different directions: dictionary verification, phoneme redundancy evaluation and phoneme adaptation. A pronunciation dictionary should be verified for correctness before its implementation in experiments or applications. However, employing a human to verify a full pronunciation dictionary is an indulgent process which cannot always be accommodated. In our dictionary verification research we attempt to reduce the human effort required in the verification of a pronunciation dictionary by implementing automatic and semi-automatic techniques that find and isolate possible erroneous entries in the dictionary. We identify a number of new techniques that are very efficient in identifying errors, and apply them to a public domain British English pronunciation dictionary. Investigating phoneme redundancy involves looking into the possibility that not all phoneme distinctions are required in SSAE, and investigating different methods of analysing these distinctions. The methods that are investigated include both data driven and knowledge based pronunciation suggestions for a pronunciation dictionary used in an automatic speech recognition (ASR) system. This investigation facilitates a deeper linguistic insight into the pronunciation of phonemes in SSAE. Finally, we investigate phoneme adaptation by adapting the KIT phoneme between two dialects of English through the implementation of a set of adaptation rules. Adaptation rules are extracted from literature but also formulated through an investigation of the linguistic phenomena in the data. We achieve a 93% predictive accuracy, which is significantly higher than the 71 % achievable through the implementation of previously identified rules. The adaptation of a British pronunciation dictionary to SSAE represents the final step of developing a SSAE pronunciation dictionary, which is the aim of this thesis. In addition, an ASR system utilising the dictionary is developed, achieving an unconstrained phoneme accuracy of 79.7%. / Thesis (M.Ing. (Computer Engineering))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2009.

The pronunciation dictionary is a key resource required during the development of an automatic speech recognition (ASR) system. In this thesis, we adapt a British English pronunciation dictionary to Standard South African English (SSAE), as a case study in dialect adaptation. Our investigation leads us in three different directions: dictionary verification, phoneme redundancy evaluation and phoneme adaptation. A pronunciation dictionary should be verified for correctness before its implementation in experiments or applications. However, employing a human to verify a full pronunciation dictionary is an indulgent process which cannot always be accommodated. In our dictionary verification research we attempt to reduce the human effort required in the verification of a pronunciation dictionary by implementing automatic and semi-automatic techniques that find and isolate possible erroneous entries in the dictionary. We identify a number of new techniques that are very efficient in identifying errors, and apply them to a public domain British English pronunciation dictionary. Investigating phoneme redundancy involves looking into the possibility that not all phoneme distinctions are required in SSAE, and investigating different methods of analysing these distinctions. The methods that are investigated include both data driven and knowledge based pronunciation suggestions for a pronunciation dictionary used in an automatic speech recognition (ASR) system. This investigation facilitates a deeper linguistic insight into the pronunciation of phonemes in SSAE. Finally, we investigate phoneme adaptation by adapting the KIT phoneme between two dialects of English through the implementation of a set of adaptation rules. Adaptation rules are extracted from literature but also formulated through an investigation of the linguistic phenomena in the data. We achieve a 93% predictive accuracy, which is significantly higher than the 71 % achievable through the implementation of previously identified rules. The adaptation of a British pronunciation dictionary to SSAE represents the final step of developing a SSAE pronunciation dictionary, which is the aim of this thesis. In addition, an ASR system utilising the dictionary is developed, achieving an unconstrained phoneme accuracy of 79.7%. / Thesis (M.Ing. (Computer Engineering))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2009.

Thesis (MScEng)--Stellenbosch University, 2012. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Several accents of English are spoken in South Africa. Automatic speech recognition (ASR) systems should therefore be able to process the di erent accents of South African English (SAE). In South Africa, however, system development is hampered by the limited availability of speech resources. In this thesis we consider di erent acoustic modelling approaches and system con gurations in order to determine which strategies take best advantage of a limited corpus of the ve accents of SAE for the purpose of ASR. Three acoustic modelling approaches are considered: (i) accent-speci c modelling, in which accents are modelled separately; (ii) accent-independent modelling, in which acoustic training data is pooled across accents; and (iii) multi-accent modelling, which allows selective data sharing between accents. For the latter approach, selective sharing is enabled by extending the decision-tree state clustering process normally used to construct tied-state hidden Markov models (HMMs) by allowing accent-based questions. In a rst set of experiments, we investigate phone and word recognition performance achieved by the three modelling approaches in a con guration where the accent of each test utterance is assumed to be known. Each utterance is therefore presented only to the matching model set. We show that, in terms of best recognition performance, the decision of whether to separate or to pool training data depends on the particular accents in question. Multi-accent acoustic modelling, however, allows this decision to be made automatically in a data-driven manner. When modelling the ve accents of SAE, multi-accent models yield a statistically signi cant improvement of 1.25% absolute in word recognition accuracy over accent-speci c and accentindependent models. In a second set of experiments, we consider the practical scenario where the accent of each test utterance is assumed to be unknown. Each utterance is presented simultaneously to a bank of recognisers, one for each accent, running in parallel. In this setup, accent identi cation is performed implicitly during the speech recognition process. A system employing multi-accent acoustic models in this parallel con guration is shown to achieve slightly improved performance relative to the con guration in which the accents are known. This demonstrates that accent identi cation errors made during the parallel recognition process do not a ect recognition performance. Furthermore, the parallel approach is also shown to outperform an accent-independent system obtained by pooling acoustic and language model training data. In a nal set of experiments, we consider the unsupervised reclassi cation of training set accent labels. Accent labels are assigned by human annotators based on a speaker's mother-tongue or ethnicity. These might not be optimal for modelling purposes. By classifying the accent of each utterance in the training set by using rst-pass acoustic models and then retraining the models, reclassi ed acoustic models are obtained. We show that the proposed relabelling procedure does not lead to any improvements and that training on the originally labelled data remains the best approach. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Verskeie aksente van Engels word in Suid Afrika gepraat. Outomatiese spraakherkenningstelsels moet dus in staat wees om verskillende aksente van Suid Afrikaanse Engels (SAE) te kan hanteer. In Suid Afrika word die ontwikkeling van spraakherkenningstegnologie egter deur die beperkte beskikbaarheid van geannoteerde spraakdata belemmer. In hierdie tesis ondersoek ons verskillende akoestiese modelleringstegnieke en stelselkon gurasies ten einde te bepaal watter strategie e die beste gebruik maak van 'n databasis van die vyf aksente van SAE. Drie akoestiese modelleringstegnieke word ondersoek: (i) aksent-spesi eke modellering, waarin elke aksent apart gemodelleer word; (ii) aksent-onafhanklike modellering, waarin die akoestiese afrigdata van verskillende aksente saamgegooi word; en (iii) multi-aksent modellering, waarin data selektief tussen aksente gedeel word. Vir laasgenoemde word selektiewe deling moontlik gemaak deur die besluitnemingsboom-toestandbondeling-algoritme, wat gebruik word in die afrig van gebinde-toestand verskuilde Markov-modelle, uit te brei deur aksent-gebaseerde vrae toe te laat. In 'n eerste stel eksperimente word die foon- en woordherkenningsakkuraathede van die drie modelleringstegnieke vergelyk in 'n kon gurasie waarin daar aanvaar word dat die aksent van elke toetsspraakdeel bekend is. In hierdie kon gurasie word elke spraakdeel slegs gebied aan die modelstel wat ooreenstem met die aksent van die spraakdeel. In terme van herkenningsakkuraathede, wys ons dat die keuse tussen aksent-spesi eke en aksent-onafhanklike modellering afhanklik is van die spesi eke aksente wat ondersoek word. Multi-aksent akoestiese modellering stel ons egter in staat om hierdie besluit outomaties op 'n data-gedrewe wyse te neem. Vir die modellering van die vyf aksente van SAE lewer multi-aksent modelle 'n statisties beduidende verbetering van 1.25% absoluut in woordherkenningsakkuraatheid op in vergelyking met aksent-spesi eke en aksent-onafhanklike modelle. In 'n tweede stel eksperimente word die praktiese scenario ondersoek waar daar aanvaar word dat die aksent van elke toetsspraakdeel onbekend is. Elke spraakdeel word gelyktydig gebied aan 'n stel herkenners, een vir elke aksent, wat in parallel hardloop. In hierdie opstelling word aksentidenti kasie implisiet uitgevoer. Ons vind dat 'n stelsel wat multi-aksent akoestiese modelle in parallel inspan, e ense verbeterde werkverrigting toon in vergelyking met die opstelling waar die aksent bekend is. Dit dui daarop dat aksentidenti seringsfoute wat gemaak word gedurende herkenning, nie werkverrigting be nvloed nie. Verder wys ons dat die parallelle benadering ook beter werkverrigting toon as 'n aksent-onafhanklike stelsel wat verkry word deur akoestiese en taalmodelleringsafrigdata saam te gooi. In 'n nale stel eksperimente ondersoek ons die ongekontroleerde herklassi kasie van aksenttoekennings van die spraakdele in ons afrigstel. Aksente word gemerk deur menslike transkribeerders op grond van 'n spreker se moedertaal en ras. Hierdie toekennings is nie noodwendig optimaal vir modelleringsdoeleindes nie. Deur die aksent van elke spraakdeel in die afrigstel te klassi seer deur van aanvanklike akoestiese modelle gebruik te maak en dan weer modelle af te rig, word hergeklassi seerde akoestiese modelle verkry. Ons wys dat die voorgestelde herklassi seringsalgoritme nie tot enige verbeterings lei nie en dat dit die beste is om modelle op die oorspronklike data af te rig.

Dissertation (DLitt)--University of Stellenbosch, 2008. / Bibliography. Also available via the Internet.

This study investigates short stories published in South Africa and in Zimbabwe before the turn of the twenty-first century. The short story as a genre provides a more accessible and shorter means of viewing literary trends after the official end of the hostilities of apartheid and colonialism. Because of their brevity and specific focus, these short stories from many voices allow a glimpse of different arenas affecting contemporary reality. Post-independence stories reveal that in the process of navigating or directing hope after independence, people are sometimes left bereft as disenchantment with politics sets in, leaving people to search for hope in areas of their everyday lives such as marriage, birth and friendship. But because their lives are also fraught with conflict, hate and betrayal, hope may remain uncertain and prospects frightening. Chapter One embarks on a brief historical and political background of South Africa and Zimbabwe. This chapter also conceptualizes the issues of hope and disillusionment in the South African and Zimbabwean socio-historical contexts. Chapters Two and Three analyze selected stories from South Africa and Zimbabwe, respectively, focusing on issues with which the writers are preoccupied, especially how they explore hope and disillusionment. The analyses of the stories in these two chapters are structured chronologically depicting events in the stories. Thus the study creates its own narrative of South African and Zimbabwean life towards the new millennium. These two chapters discuss how meanings, significances and ramifications of the post-colonial community are negotiated and re-negotiated in selected stories, highlighting the challenges and engagements with hope and disillusionment dramatized in short prose fiction. Chapter Four will undertake to conclude with comparisons of the selected stories, discussing the implications of the study for South African and Zimbabwean contemporary societies at the turn of the twenty-first century. Granted, it is always difficult to generalize about a society from such highly individual, personal stories. But my study suggests that at the turn of the twenty-first century in South Africa, disillusionment is beginning to displace the heady expectation many felt at the 1994 election. And perhaps even more unlikely, given the current crisis, Zimbabwean stories from recent years show people hopefully waiting for the new millennium, a dawning of new, unpredictable possibilities.