M.A. (African Languages) / In spite of the fact that Northern Sotho is reasonably established as a written language and is used as an educational medium at schools and universities, there are still aspects of its grammar that are either incorrectly or incompletely described. Where the relative construction is concerned, quite a few such insufficiencies exist. This study aims to clarify these problems. The aim of the study is threefold. First the different forms of the relative clause as published in existing works are examined. Second, the nature of constructions in spoken and written Northern Sotho is tested with existing conceptions as published and possible variants charted. Third the 'linguistic implications and the validity of existing opinions regarding the relative clause are tested. The possible influences of other Sotho languages are also taken into consideration...

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

Thesis (M.A. (African Languages)) -- University of Limpopo, 2014

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

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...

The study was aimed at establishing in a scientific way the extent to which Sepedi is able to fulfill its role as one of the official languages in South Africa. The primary research question was whether Sepedi could function as a medium of communication in all the higher domains of life. The research question was addressed by firstly making a study of the language clauses and the language stipulations of the South African Constitution. The second step was to situate the research within the theoretical paradigm of language development and language planning and to take cognizance of both international and local perspectives in this field. In order to plan the way forward it was necessary to determine the exact position of Sepedi as far as the adequacy of its lexicon was concerned. As a result of the fact that there are very few written sources in Sepedi regarding some of the high function domains it was decided to compile a corpus of South African English high function words to form the basis for determining the lexical capacity of Sepedi in higher function domains. The procedure for building a corpus was determined by studying the methodology and praxis of three well-known international corpora of English. Following the same basic strategies as the compilers of these corpora an English High Function Corpus was compiled. By making use of standard techniques in computational lexicography frequencies and spreading were determined, and keywords were studied in context. In order to establish whether Sepedi does indeed have translation equivalents for the English high function words, and has the lexical capacity to act as a fully-fledged official language, the most appropriate sources to be used as diagnostic instruments were found to be the existing bilingual English-Sepedi dictionaries. The treatment of lexical items in the English-Sepedi bilingual dictionaries led to the conclusion that only 8 of the English high function words were not entered in any of the three dictionaries studied. The investigation also provided valuable insight into the quality and comprehensiveness of these dictionaries and indicated that they are in dire need of revision. Language planners and lexicographers of Sepedi are advised to make use of the heuristic and diagnostic tools available in modem-day metalexicography, but also to make sure that all lexicographical work reflects the linguistic reality within the speech community. / Thesis (DLitt (African Languages))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / African Languages / unrestricted

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

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

Thesis (D.Litt. et Phil)--Universiteit van Suid-Afrika, 1995.