This study unites the burgeoning academic field of exhibition histories and the critiques of race-based exhibition practices that crystallised in Britain in the 1980s and 1990s. It concerns recent practices of presenting and contextualising black creativity in British publicly funded art museums and galleries that are part of a broader attempt to increase the diversity of histories and perspectives represented in public art collections and exhibitions. The research focuses on three concurrent 2010 exhibitions that aimed to offer a non-hegemonic reading of black creativity through the use of non-art-historical conceptual and alternative curatorial models: Afro Modern (Tate Liverpool), Action (The Bluecoat), and a retrospective of works by Chris Ofili (Tate Britain). Comparative exhibitions of the past were typically premised on concepts of difference that ultimately resulted in the notional separation of black artists from mainstream discourses on contemporary art and histories of British art. Through a close and critical textual analysis of these three recent exhibitions, which is informed by J.L. Austin’s theory of speech acts (1955), the study considers whether, and to what extent the delimiting curatorial practices of the past have been successfully abandoned by public art museums and galleries, and furthermore, whether it has been possible for British art institutions to reject the entrenched, exclusive conceptions of British culture that negated black contributions to the canon and narratives of British art in the first place. The exhibition case studies are complemented and contextualised by an in-depth history of the Bluecoat’s engagement with black creativity between 1976 and 2012, which provides a particular insight into the ways that debates about representation, difference and separatism have impacted the policies and practices of one culturally significant art gallery that is frequently overlooked in histories of black British art. With reference to the notion of legitimate coercion as defined by Zygmunt Bauman (2000), the study determines that long-standing hegemonic structures continue to inform the modes through which public art museums and galleries in Britain curate and control black creativity.

This dissertation is basically a reading the book of Lamentation as a literary whole in a sense of a text-centred approach, which aims to interpret the Scripture as divine communicative action. The major philosophical resources that I employ in this study are the Speech-Act theory developed by J. Austin and J. Searle, and the concepts particularly exemplified in the work of K. Vanhoozer. I look at repetition and literary techniques in Lamentations as a clue to its structural unity. In the body of the dissertation, Instead of historical-critical approaches, I claim that the meaning exists not ‘behind the text,’ but ‘in the text itself as a whole.’ One of the most important literary approaches to understanding the book of Lamentations is to note the poetic voices, which interweave in the text. The poetic voices are my main focus of understanding the book of Lamentations. I explain the literary meaning reading the text and demonstrate that we must find the canonical level of the meaning which supervenes on the literary level. The meaning of a text at a literary level must be carefully studied and modified by the ‘fuller sense (or meaning)’ derived from the canonical context. The ‘fuller sense’ of Scripture associated with divine authorship emerges only at the level of the whole canon. Here for the canonical meaning of the text, I focus on Vanhoozer’s assertion, having proposed the suitability of speech act theory for the various tasks of biblical interpretation and theological hermeneutics. When we read the text, there is no utterance from God in Lamentations. It is the missing voice. The main theme of Lamentations is "Where is the true comfort?". The text presents no comfort. In the literary context, God keeps silent (non-speaking). Canonically, however, Christian readers as God’s people read the Bible, connecting it to Jesus Christ. Within the canonical context, we can indeed find an answer and God’s answering speech (that is, His act), because Jesus is their true comforter acting as God’s response. We can find this response in his teaching (e.g. Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount) and in his mission (e.g. presenting his body as the temple, being Immanuel, God-with-us). / Dissertation (MA(Theology))--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Old Testament Studies / unrestricted

In this thesis we deal with pragmatic aspects of language, specifically studying the classification of speech acts and conversational implicature. The theoretical part is concerned with the work of J. L. Austin, J. R. Searle and M. Grepl with an emphasis on differences in the classification of illocutionary acts. Then we deal with the maxim of politeness and pleasantries types according to P. Brown and S. C. Lewinson. In the practical part using analysis of advertising headlines and slogans we are trying to demonstrate the functionality of the classification of speech acts by individual authors. We try to also confirm the performative nature of these statements also implicitly expressed performative verbs. We are interested in the presence of the maxims of politeness in these texts and the consequent shift between different types of courtesy. The aim is to highlight the issue of classification of illocutionary acts and try to outline improvements to this shift. The assumption is that, although the classification struggling with inaccuracies, we thereunder able to distinguish different types of repetitive speeches. To complement these findings, we want to prove performative character of advertising texts, even assuming that there will be implicitly expressed performative verb and the presence of...

Politeness is viewed as an admirable trait by most people, yet what it means to be polite is arguably a controversial issue when it comes to using English, as people of different ages, education levels, and proficiency levels use English daily, and may have different views on politeness. These observations raise questions about whether there are certain universal pragmatic rules, or if pragmatic rules are primarily language- and/or culture-specific. The current study situates itself within the fields of cross-cultural pragmatics and English as a lingua franca and is intended to explicitly address how social distance impacts English users’ views of politeness and appropriateness in English today. The study addresses this issue by investigating how speakers of English perceive appropriateness in certain speech acts, specifically requests and compliment responses, and how they justify or explain their reasoning concerning this. The study employs a mixed-method approach to data collection, where data was collected through two steps: first, a questionnaire distributed online and, second, a set of follow-up interviews with questionnaire respondents. In total, 79 respondents contributed to the questionnaire and, out of these, eight participated in follow-up interviews. Through this dual method of data collection, the intention of the study was to provide some insight into societal perceptions on politeness today from two different perspectives. To that end, the analysis of data takes a two-fold approach: by using T-tests, the statistical relevance of the questionnaire findings is analyzed, and through an inductive analysis of the interview findings, a more in-depth view of the issue at hand is offered as a complement to the initial survey results. By providing insight to the societal perceptions of the pragmatics of English through two different perspectives, the findings of the study could inform and inspire further studies concerning pragmatic norms and, by extension, research focused on the teaching of English.

Der Begriff Performativität geht zurück auf die Sprechakttheorie und wurde von dem Sprachphilosophen John L. Austin 'ins Spiel' gebracht. Er verweist mit dem Terminus auf die handlungspraktische Dimension des Sprechens, d.h. dasjenige zu vollziehen oder zu produzieren, was im Sprechen benannt wird, und es nicht lediglich zu bezeichnen. Vor dem Hintergrund von Derridas Iterabilitätsbegriff hat insbesondere Judith Butler das Konzept in die Gendertheorie eingeführt. Das Sein oder So-Sein eines Geschlechtes ist demnach kein ontologischer Status, der aus einer vordiskursiven Wirklichkeit schöpft, sondern das Ergebnis (sich wiederholender) performativer Inszenierungen, die sich selbst erfolgreich als Sein darstellen.

Abstract The American president’s serving period always begin with an iconic inaugural address. It is a function wherein the president can unify the audience, ratify the ceremony, and present his political and administrative direction for his term. Promises are a vital rhetorical tool and strategy at the president’s disposal; however, they can also be a demerit if used incorrectly. Within the discipline of pragmatics, promises are included in the category of the commissive speech act: an utterance which binds the speaker to a future course of action. The focus of the present study is what proportion commissive speech acts are used in relation to other speech acts by the four American presidents inaugurated in the 21st century in their inaugural addresses, as well as how these commissive speech acts are realized in terms of various pragmatic features (e.g., vagueness, deictic use, selfpositive representation, and implicature). The methodological approach adopted in thisstudy is both qualitative as well as quantitative in character. To reflect this, the study was operationalized through speech act analysis and political discourse analysis. The findingsshowcase that the presidents affiliated with the Republican party make use of commissive speech acts to a higher degree than their Democratic counterparts. Donald J. Trump appears as a clear outlier with an exuberant amount of commissive speech acts in comparison with the other three presidents. Furthermore, the findings point out that the most common strategy in how commissive speech acts were realised was to shape them as an assertion and using the inclusive deixis “we”. However, Joseph R. Biden diverged from this pattern. Instead, he used explicit promises featuring the individual deixis “I”. In addition, he often employed rhetorical vagueness which made his promises hard to measure if upheld or not.

This study sought to investigate and to record any recurring patterns in the form and communicative impact of Shona advertisements. Motivation to carry out the study came from a realisation of a growing interest in using the Shona language for advertising and the fact that very few studies have been done on Shona advertisements. For methodology, examples of Shona advertisements were qualitatively analysed using some communications and discourse analysis approaches of the speech act theory and text linguistics. A structured interview with advertising agencies randomly selected and a questionnaire on the impact of advertisements were also used. The findings of the research included that Shona was used in advertisements in order to reach out to the majority of the Zimbabwean population. In addition, Shona was also found to have been developed enough to handle formal issues like advertisements. This finding further shows that Shona advertisements reflect an instance of diglossia leakage from Shona L(ow) to Shona H(igh). Another finding is that Shona advertisements reflect some characteristics of the Shona speech community in form. These include code-switching, slang and word- division problems. An innovation in code-switching noted in some Shona advertisements is the use of three languages, namely, English, Shona and Ndebele in one advertisement. It was also established that everything about the elements of Shona advertisements communicate. For instance, the message may be visual, tactile and olfactory. It also emerged that the Shona commercial advertisements had a presenting and a hidden agenda at the same time. To achieve this the advertisements used persuasive techniques such as advertising claims, cultural hooks and personalities as spokespersons. It was also noted that most readers of advertisements do not interpret them up to the hidden persuaders but end with the direct meaning. On the other hand the Shona advertisements that gave information such as health issues have no hidden agenda. One recommendation made is that advertisements be read and studied to raise the level of awareness about the persuasive techniques used in order to distinguish between misleading advertising and those that give useful information. Some recommendations were made for future research such as carrying out similar studies of informal Shona advertisements, advertisements by n'angas/inyangas (traditional healers), prophets and political campaigns. / African Languages / M.A. (African Languages)

Ce mémoire analyse la réception de l’auteur autrichien Thomas Bernhard (1931-1989) au regard des scandales qui ont marqué sa carrière. Tantôt identifié comme l’imprécateur de l’Autriche, tantôt comme écrivain exceptionnel, il aura remis en question le rôle de son pays dans le national-socialisme et multiplié les attaques ad hominem. Il aura tenu un rôle ambigu dans l’espace public. Tout en insistant sur le caractère fictif de ses œuvres, il se mettait en scène de façon provocatrice dans le discours public ainsi que dans sa fiction. Ce mémoire s’intéresse au fonctionnement du scandale en tant qu’événement social complexe ayant lieu dans l’espace public. Les chercheurs s’entendent pour considérer le scandale comme un trouble ou une irritation résultant d’une transgression, apparente ou avérée. Il s’agit en outre d’un phénomène intégré dans l’ordre social et géré par les médias, caractérisé par l’actualisation des valeurs morales. Dans la présente étude, il est postulé que le capital symbolique (cf. Bourdieu) joue un rôle d’a priori et de catalyseur dans les scandales. Une accumulation initiale de capital symbolique assure une visibilité médiatique automatique. Le capital d’identité de Thomas Bernhard – soit la personnalisation du capital symbolique – est hybride et complexe, de sorte qu’il est difficilement appréciable. La difficile appréciation du capital de l’auteur se traduit par l’incertitude des journalistes et du public quant à son message : réactions dispro-portionnées, critique du particulier perçue comme mise en cause de l’universel. Toute dé-claration, toute œuvre de Bernhard est assujettie à ses prestations « scandaleuses » antérieu-res. Ce mémoire insiste sur le caractère autoréférentiel du scandale et s’intéresse aux actes de langage performatifs (cf. John L. Austin). Le corpus comporte des romans de Bernhard, leurs recensions, des articles de quotidiens, des lettres de lecteurs, des documents juridiques ainsi que la correspondance entre Bernhard et Siegfried Unseld. / This master’s thesis analyzes the reception of the Austrian author Thomas Bernhard (1931-1989) and focuses on the scandals that punctuated his career. Acclaimed exceptional writer, he was, however, often referred to as Austria’s injurer. He called into question the in-volvement of his country in National Socialism and proliferated ad hominem attacks on politicians. His role in the public sphere was ambiguous: whilst insisting on the fictive character of his works, he staged himself provocatively. The purpose of this master’s thesis is to show the functioning of scandals as com-plex social events taking place in the public sphere. Scholars consider scandals as public offenses resulting from real or apparent transgressions. Scandals are integrated into the so-cial order and are handled by the media. They trigger actualization of moral values. This study postulates that symbolic capital (cf. Bourdieu) plays a role in scandals. It is both the prerequisite and the catalyst for successful scandalization. An initial accumula-tion of symbolic capital insures quasi automatically media attention. The identity capital of Thomas Bernhard – i.e. the personalization of his symbolic capital – is hybrid and intricate. This renders its interpretation difficult. The complexity of the capital configuration leads to an ambivalent appreciation of the author’s message by journalists and the public. Reactions are disproportionate and Bernhard’s particular though hyperbolic criticism is perceived as a questioning of universal values. Each and every declaration or work by Bernhard is subor-dinated and appreciated in regards to his preceding “scandalous” achievements. This mas-ter’s thesis emphasizes the autorefential nature of scandals and devotes a special interest to performative speech acts (cf. John L. Austin). The corpus includes some of Bernhard’s plays and novels, book reviews, newspaper articles, letters to the editor, court transcripts and Bernhard’s correspondence with his publisher Siegfried Unseld. / Diese Magisterarbeit untersucht die Rezeption des Autors Thomas Bernhard (1931–1989) angesichts der Skandale, die seine Karriere kennzeichneten. Bernhard galt zugleich als Österreich-Beschimpfer und als außergewöhnlicher Literat. Er stellte die Rolle Österreichs im Nationalsozialismus in Frage und griff wiederholt prominente Österreicher persönlich an. Einerseits bestand er auf den fiktionalen Charakter seiner Werke, andererseits inszenier-te er sich provokativ in der Öffentlichkeit. Das Interesse der Arbeit gilt dem Funktionieren des Skandals als komplexes sozia-les Ereignis, das in der Öffentlichkeit obwaltet. Konsens herrscht in der Forschung darüber, dass ein Skandal ein auf einem realen oder vermuteten Normbruch beruhendes Ärgernis ist. Es handelt sich um ein im Gesellschaftssystem eingeschriebenes Phänomen, das von den Medien behandelt und zum Auslöser von Kontroversen über normative Fragen wird. Diese Arbeit geht von der Annahme aus, dass das symbolische Kapital (vgl. Bourdieu) eine Vorbedingung des Skandals ist. Eine ursprüngliche Akkumulation symbolischen Kapitals sichert mediale Aufmerksamkeit. Das Identitätskapital Bernhards – die Personalisierung seines Kapitals – war hybrid und komplex, sodass es nur schwierig einzuschätzen war. Diese erschwerte Einschätzung seines symbolischen Kapitals führte zur Unsicherheit der Journalisten und des Publikums bezüglich seiner Botschaft: Immer wieder kam es zu überzogenen Reaktionen. Vor allem Bernhards hyperbolische Kritik des Beson-deren wurde pauschal als Infragestellung des Allgemeinen (des Österreichischen) wahrge-nommen. Jedwede Äußerung und jedwedes Werk Bernhards wurde vor dem Hintergrund seiner vorhergehenden »skandalösen« Leistungen gedeutet. Diese Arbeit betont den selb-streferentiellen Charakter und den pragmatischen Gehalt (vgl. John L. Austin) des Skan-dals. Der Korpus erfasst Texte von Bernhard, Rezensionen, Zeitungsartikel, Leserbriefe, Gerichtsprotokolle, Rechtsprechung und Bernhards Briefwechsel mit seinem Verleger Siegfried Unseld.

Ce mémoire analyse la réception de l’auteur autrichien Thomas Bernhard (1931-1989) au regard des scandales qui ont marqué sa carrière. Tantôt identifié comme l’imprécateur de l’Autriche, tantôt comme écrivain exceptionnel, il aura remis en question le rôle de son pays dans le national-socialisme et multiplié les attaques ad hominem. Il aura tenu un rôle ambigu dans l’espace public. Tout en insistant sur le caractère fictif de ses œuvres, il se mettait en scène de façon provocatrice dans le discours public ainsi que dans sa fiction. Ce mémoire s’intéresse au fonctionnement du scandale en tant qu’événement social complexe ayant lieu dans l’espace public. Les chercheurs s’entendent pour considérer le scandale comme un trouble ou une irritation résultant d’une transgression, apparente ou avérée. Il s’agit en outre d’un phénomène intégré dans l’ordre social et géré par les médias, caractérisé par l’actualisation des valeurs morales. Dans la présente étude, il est postulé que le capital symbolique (cf. Bourdieu) joue un rôle d’a priori et de catalyseur dans les scandales. Une accumulation initiale de capital symbolique assure une visibilité médiatique automatique. Le capital d’identité de Thomas Bernhard – soit la personnalisation du capital symbolique – est hybride et complexe, de sorte qu’il est difficilement appréciable. La difficile appréciation du capital de l’auteur se traduit par l’incertitude des journalistes et du public quant à son message : réactions dispro-portionnées, critique du particulier perçue comme mise en cause de l’universel. Toute dé-claration, toute œuvre de Bernhard est assujettie à ses prestations « scandaleuses » antérieu-res. Ce mémoire insiste sur le caractère autoréférentiel du scandale et s’intéresse aux actes de langage performatifs (cf. John L. Austin). Le corpus comporte des romans de Bernhard, leurs recensions, des articles de quotidiens, des lettres de lecteurs, des documents juridiques ainsi que la correspondance entre Bernhard et Siegfried Unseld. / This master’s thesis analyzes the reception of the Austrian author Thomas Bernhard (1931-1989) and focuses on the scandals that punctuated his career. Acclaimed exceptional writer, he was, however, often referred to as Austria’s injurer. He called into question the in-volvement of his country in National Socialism and proliferated ad hominem attacks on politicians. His role in the public sphere was ambiguous: whilst insisting on the fictive character of his works, he staged himself provocatively. The purpose of this master’s thesis is to show the functioning of scandals as com-plex social events taking place in the public sphere. Scholars consider scandals as public offenses resulting from real or apparent transgressions. Scandals are integrated into the so-cial order and are handled by the media. They trigger actualization of moral values. This study postulates that symbolic capital (cf. Bourdieu) plays a role in scandals. It is both the prerequisite and the catalyst for successful scandalization. An initial accumula-tion of symbolic capital insures quasi automatically media attention. The identity capital of Thomas Bernhard – i.e. the personalization of his symbolic capital – is hybrid and intricate. This renders its interpretation difficult. The complexity of the capital configuration leads to an ambivalent appreciation of the author’s message by journalists and the public. Reactions are disproportionate and Bernhard’s particular though hyperbolic criticism is perceived as a questioning of universal values. Each and every declaration or work by Bernhard is subor-dinated and appreciated in regards to his preceding “scandalous” achievements. This mas-ter’s thesis emphasizes the autorefential nature of scandals and devotes a special interest to performative speech acts (cf. John L. Austin). The corpus includes some of Bernhard’s plays and novels, book reviews, newspaper articles, letters to the editor, court transcripts and Bernhard’s correspondence with his publisher Siegfried Unseld. / Diese Magisterarbeit untersucht die Rezeption des Autors Thomas Bernhard (1931–1989) angesichts der Skandale, die seine Karriere kennzeichneten. Bernhard galt zugleich als Österreich-Beschimpfer und als außergewöhnlicher Literat. Er stellte die Rolle Österreichs im Nationalsozialismus in Frage und griff wiederholt prominente Österreicher persönlich an. Einerseits bestand er auf den fiktionalen Charakter seiner Werke, andererseits inszenier-te er sich provokativ in der Öffentlichkeit. Das Interesse der Arbeit gilt dem Funktionieren des Skandals als komplexes sozia-les Ereignis, das in der Öffentlichkeit obwaltet. Konsens herrscht in der Forschung darüber, dass ein Skandal ein auf einem realen oder vermuteten Normbruch beruhendes Ärgernis ist. Es handelt sich um ein im Gesellschaftssystem eingeschriebenes Phänomen, das von den Medien behandelt und zum Auslöser von Kontroversen über normative Fragen wird. Diese Arbeit geht von der Annahme aus, dass das symbolische Kapital (vgl. Bourdieu) eine Vorbedingung des Skandals ist. Eine ursprüngliche Akkumulation symbolischen Kapitals sichert mediale Aufmerksamkeit. Das Identitätskapital Bernhards – die Personalisierung seines Kapitals – war hybrid und komplex, sodass es nur schwierig einzuschätzen war. Diese erschwerte Einschätzung seines symbolischen Kapitals führte zur Unsicherheit der Journalisten und des Publikums bezüglich seiner Botschaft: Immer wieder kam es zu überzogenen Reaktionen. Vor allem Bernhards hyperbolische Kritik des Beson-deren wurde pauschal als Infragestellung des Allgemeinen (des Österreichischen) wahrge-nommen. Jedwede Äußerung und jedwedes Werk Bernhards wurde vor dem Hintergrund seiner vorhergehenden »skandalösen« Leistungen gedeutet. Diese Arbeit betont den selb-streferentiellen Charakter und den pragmatischen Gehalt (vgl. John L. Austin) des Skan-dals. Der Korpus erfasst Texte von Bernhard, Rezensionen, Zeitungsartikel, Leserbriefe, Gerichtsprotokolle, Rechtsprechung und Bernhards Briefwechsel mit seinem Verleger Siegfried Unseld.

This study sought to investigate and to record any recurring patterns in the form and communicative impact of Shona advertisements. Motivation to carry out the study came from a realisation of a growing interest in using the Shona language for advertising and the fact that very few studies have been done on Shona advertisements. For methodology, examples of Shona advertisements were qualitatively analysed using some communications and discourse analysis approaches of the speech act theory and text linguistics. A structured interview with advertising agencies randomly selected and a questionnaire on the impact of advertisements were also used. The findings of the research included that Shona was used in advertisements in order to reach out to the majority of the Zimbabwean population. In addition, Shona was also found to have been developed enough to handle formal issues like advertisements. This finding further shows that Shona advertisements reflect an instance of diglossia leakage from Shona L(ow) to Shona H(igh). Another finding is that Shona advertisements reflect some characteristics of the Shona speech community in form. These include code-switching, slang and word- division problems. An innovation in code-switching noted in some Shona advertisements is the use of three languages, namely, English, Shona and Ndebele in one advertisement. It was also established that everything about the elements of Shona advertisements communicate. For instance, the message may be visual, tactile and olfactory. It also emerged that the Shona commercial advertisements had a presenting and a hidden agenda at the same time. To achieve this the advertisements used persuasive techniques such as advertising claims, cultural hooks and personalities as spokespersons. It was also noted that most readers of advertisements do not interpret them up to the hidden persuaders but end with the direct meaning. On the other hand the Shona advertisements that gave information such as health issues have no hidden agenda. One recommendation made is that advertisements be read and studied to raise the level of awareness about the persuasive techniques used in order to distinguish between misleading advertising and those that give useful information. Some recommendations were made for future research such as carrying out similar studies of informal Shona advertisements, advertisements by n'angas/inyangas (traditional healers), prophets and political campaigns. / African Languages / M.A. (African Languages)