Thesis (M.A. (African Languages)) -- University of the North, 1988 / Refer to the document

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

Thesis (PhD)--Macquarie University, Faculty of Human Sciences, Department of Linguistics, 2009. / Bibliography: p. 210-223.

This dissertation analyzes the discourse of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez in his weekly television show Aló Presidente. It focuses on the discursive practices in this genre by Chávez as an essential element in the Bolivarian Revolution; an exercise of power in itself, and a means to establish a direct relationship with the Venezuelan public. The analysis shows that Aló Presidente employs unique discursive strategies to engage in a national dialogue, including: the use of repetition, lists, and fragmentation through the alternation of discursive genres, as well as deictic shift; the establishment of an ideology, the presentation of selected themes and stories; the construction of relationships with established social categories (middle-aged women, high-ranking military personnel, militant youth, etc.) through dialogue with interlocutors during the show; and a strict hierarchy in which Chávez appears as the ultimate leader, through deixis, turn-taking, and the use of targeted speech acts. This study uses the framework of Critical Discourse Analysis, drawing mainly from Fairclough (2003) and van Dijk (1998, 2010). It also draws from theories of: (a) discourse genre, as in Charaudeau (2004) and Smith (2003); (b) deixis, as in Agha (2007); (c) dialogue, defined by Weigand (2009) and Tannen (2007); (d) political discourse, discussed in Chilton (2004); and (e) media discourse, as in Bourdieu (1991). The corpus is drawn from broadcasts ending with the digit 8 randomly selected between 2005 and 2007 (shows 218, 248, 278, 288, 298). The conclusion is that the show serves as the main communication strategy of the Revolution, establishing a direct relationship with viewers, in which several conventional procedures of television discourse are flaunted. The discourse, which is anchored in the category of space, is well established as a new genre in political media discourse. It is directed to Chávez’s followers, divided into specific target groups, in a hierarchical fashion in which he occupies the power position. The strategies adopted allow for a high level of involvement with the audience. The discursive practices developed are a key element in the advancement of the Revolution and are in line with its beliefs and attitudes. / text

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published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Linguistics / Master / Master of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / abstract / Linguistics / Master / Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics

The Internet is increasingly becoming a key medium through which people establish social contacts and form interpersonal relationships. In particular, online dating websites are gaining popularity and rapidly expanding around the world. This study explores the discourse that constitutes the practices of the deai-kee-saito 'encounter-oriented sites' in Japanese, as observed in three major personal ad websites, namely 1) Ekisaito furenzu 'Excite Friends', 2) Match.com, and 3) Yahoo!Japan paasonaruzu 'Yahoo!Japan Personals'. It focuses on the ways that self-advertisers express their socio-sexual desires and describe their ideal partners and relationships, and analyzes them with respect to the reproduction of social asymmetries.More specifically, it examines the discursive construction of the kinds of personae (personality characteristics) and bodies (physical features) that advertisers aged 20-29 wish in their future partners, as well as the kinds of practices (activities and actions) they wish to engage in with their partners, what they wish to do for their partners, and/or wish the partners to do for them in their envisioned interactions. Out of the 1200 ads collected from these websites, a total of 463 ads are identified as target-gender-explicit and analyzed at lexical, morphosyntactic, phrasal, clausal, sentential and discourse levels. It pays close attention to the linguistic resources utilized in the articulation of socio-sexual desires and desirability, and the textual formation of the addresser(advertiser)-addressee(ad reader) relationships, including adjectives, nouns, verbal phrases, person references, desideratives, conditionals, and the formula yoroshiku/o-negai shimasu 'Thank you in advance'. It also analyzes para-linguistic resources, such as emoticons, symbols, and unique use of hiragana/katakana syllabaries. These discursive processes involve prioritization, or hierarchization, of personal attributes and consequently of the owners of those attributes. It argues that socio-sexual desirability is reflective of the hegemonic ideologies of gender and sexuality in today's Japanese-speaking communities.In addition, it examines explicit and implicit language related to race, class, and similar constructs. It also investigates the functions of style-shift that advertisers use in expressing desire. This study shows that individuals' 'innocuous' expression of socio-sexual desires through personal ads is a locus for the reproduction and contestation of the hegemonic order of gender, sexuality, race and class.

Progressing into the 21st century young pregnancy and parenthood in the United Kingdom is a focus of political, media and public attention. The country is described as experiencing an epidemic, with the highest rates of young pregnancy and parenthood recorded in Western Europe. Statistics demonstrate that in 2000 38,690 under 18 year-olds in England became pregnant, of which 44.8% ended in legal termination. In light of this data, and within their remit to address the issue of Social Exclusion, New Labour commissioned a report into young pregnancy resulting in the development and implementation of the Teenage Pregnancy Strategy. The Strategy has two main aims; namely reducing the rates of young conceptions and providing better support and education for young parents. This thesis argues from a conceptual framework that questions the contested assumption that young pregnancy and parenthood is a problem. A literature review demonstrates a lack of representation of the voices and experiences of young mothers. This directs the research question to ask what is the experience of young mothers in their own words and placed within context? Critical Discourse Analysis is used to examine three examples of context shaping data that includes government policy, a newspaper article and a radio talk show programme. The analysis reveals discourses that suggest there is a right time and framework for motherhood. These discourses form a dialectical relationship with voices and experiences of young mothers that are analysed using Discourse Analysis. This analysis elicits two key central discourses permeating the experiences of young mothers that are the Good- Bad mother binary that informs and exacerbates experiences of maternal ambivalence. Moreover, these discourses inform the practice of discrimination against young mothers. The thesis concludes with a call to listen to the experiences of young mothers in order that their needs might be more fully understood. It suggests that discrimination against young mothers be incorporated into Equal Opportunity and Anti- Discrimination policy.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1995. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 235-250). / Microfiche. / xx, 250 leaves, bound 29 cm