Issue 2 (JULACE Vol. 3)

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http://hdl.handle.net/11070/2669

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An analysis of linguistic features in the selected speeches of Bishop Kleopas Dumeni in the pre-independence era in Namibia
(University of Namibia, 2018) Mbenzi, Petrus A.
Linguistic features were used by Bishop Kleopas Dumeni of Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia (ELCIN) in the pre-independence era to persuade the audience to support the struggle for independence. Bishop Kleopas Dumeni used linguistic devices in an attempt to convince his target audience that the Namibians suffered a great deal at the hands of the colonial authorities. Thus international community support was desired to break the shackles of colonialism. Although Bishop Kleopas Dumeni employed various linguistic features in his speeches as a tool to whip up support for struggle for independence of Namibia, his language choices were never subjected to a critical examination to unravel their contribution to the effectiveness of the speeches. This paper thus examines how Bishop Dumeni used linguistic devices in his speeches to appeal to his audience as well as the effects these features had on the audience to support the struggle for Namibian independence. The paper is pegged on Aristotelian theory to reveal how language choice affects the three appeals of Aristotle namely, ethos, logos and pathos. Content analysis was used to deconstruct the selected speeches of Bishop Dumeni thereby identifying and evaluating the linguistic features in the speeches. The conclusion from this investigation is that Bishop Kleopas Dumeni effectively used the linguistic devices to woo his audience to his side to support in his efforts to end the wickedness of colonialism in Namibia.
Sexism in Haya language personal names selection
(University of Namibia, 2018) Buberwa, Adventina
This paper examines sexism in naming focussing on the meaning of Haya personal names used in Haya community of North Western Tanzania. It is based on the assumption that some conscious personal names are selected in favour of men. This disparity is well examined by using the Critical Discourse Analysis approach. The paper presents field data from Bukoba Rural district in Kagera Region. The results reveal that meanings of male names were associated with high worthwhile the meanings of female names were associated with low worth. This was justified by the point that Haya male names referred to male as a saviour and helper of the family and society, a strong person, a fighter, a winner, rich and famous person while female names were connected with love, attraction, comfort, soothes and parents disappointment for having a baby girl. The study found that names of female children indicate an important argument that parents consider female child as a burden and liability. Generally, it was observed that selection of some Haya personal names was done in discriminatory manner that need an urgent emphasis on the value of names of girls in families and society in general.
Evaluation of article structure components in English-Kwanyama Dictionary (EKD) with reference to the target users
(University of Namibia, 2018) Shikesho, Edward
This paper evaluates the article structure components in English-Kwanyama Dictionary (EKD) with reference to the target users. For any bilingual dictionary to satisfy the needs of the target users, it should be user-friendly. Important aspects that have to be considered when one compiles a bilingual dictionary are, among others, orthography, pronunciation, inflections, parts of speech, and translation equivalents. All these aspects are all parts of the microstructure (Gouws, 2002; Gouws & Prinsloo, 2005; Svensén, 2009). A target user should also be defined in any bilingual dictionary, and should be indicated in the dictionary’s front matter texts (Gouws & Prinsloo, 2005). EKD was compiled in 1954, about four and half decades ago, and there is no comprehensive research done to analyse its quality. The study’s theoretical frameworks are the Function Theory and the Text theory. Sven Tarp and Henning Bergenholtz are the leading proponents of the Function theory which was established in the late 1980s, and deals with dictionary functions and the user needs. The Text theory, proposed by Herbert Ernst Wiegand in the 1990s, deals with dictionaries’ textual structures. It is a qualitative study in a form of text analysis. Systematic dictionary research, which consists of two types, functional text segmentation as well as philological methods, is adopted. The findings reveal that EKD has become old and much needs to be improved in terms of aspects such as orthography. EKD’s target users are not defined in the dictionary’s front matter text, therefore, this paper recommends that lexicographers should define their target users in their future dictionaries’ front matter texts. They should also take into consideration the correct presentation of article structure aspects, based on the comment on form and the comment on semantics, such as spelling, parts of speech indication, lemma inflection, morphology and translation equivalents.
Iho popitha aantu? – Don’t you greet people?: A contextual analysis of Oshiwambo greetings
(University of Namibia, 2018) Mbenzi, Petrus A.; Mulema, Justina; Amakali, Latenda
This paper is intended to investigate the socio-pragmatic context of Oshiwambo greetings. There is a dearth of literature on the intricacies of Oshiwambo forms of greeting and the metamorphosis that it has undergone to date. Thus there is a need to investigate the present state of Oshiwambo greetings. The paper is pegged on Austin’s Speech Act theory that emphasizes that utterances are the production of words and sentences on particular occasions by particular speakers for particular purposes. In view of that, Oshiwambo greetings are expressed to convey a specific message to the addressee by the addressor. Two approaches were employed to collect information for this paper namely, ethnographic approach to gauge the impact of Euro-western culture on Oshiwambo greetings and, documentation to dissect the socio-pragmatic context of Oshiwambo forms of greetings. The paper focuses on the functions, situations and types of greeting that exist in Oshiwambo. It further focuses on the paralinguistic and extra-linguistic features which complement the forms of greetings. The analysis has shown that greetings are an integral part of interactional discourse and serve as a prelude to the establishments of social relationships and that they can vary according to the age of the interactants and the circumstances under which the greetings take place. The paper further reveals that there are circumstances in which no exchange of greeting is expected. In the final analysis the paper reveals that western culture has an effect on the extra-linguistic features which accompany greetings thus both verbal and non-verbal modes of greetings are partly westernized.
Dhima za kipragmatiki za kialami pragmatiki ‘ah’ katika mazungumzo ya Kiswahili
(University of Namibia, 2018) Kibiki, Magreth J.; Malangwa, Pendo S.
This study examines the pragmatic functions of the pragmatic markers ah in spoken Kiswahili. The data has been obtained from informal conversations made by Swahili speakers in informal social settings. These include ‘vijiwe vya kahawa’ (setting of informal conversations created around people drinking coffee) and ‘vijiwe vya mamantilie’ (setting of informal conversations around women preparing and selling food on the streets). Using Conversation Analysis (Sacks, 1962) and Contextualization Theory (Gumpers, 1982), the results show that the pragmatic marker ah conveys different meanings depending on context of use and hence has various pragmatic functions. Among the pragmatic functions identified in this article are; to be used as gap filler (the interlocutor is thinking about what to say), is used to start the conversation, is used to disagree with what the other interlocutor has said, to show that the speaker has changed from the state of not knowing to the state of knowing (Now I get you) and to show exclamation. Interestingly, also, the study shows that intonation and other paralinguistic features (like gestures) play a role in determining the pragmatic functions of this marker. Generally, this article concludes that pragmatic markers in spoken Kiswahili are rich in meanings. Therefore, they are wealthy to be investigated.
Yikambadara yina reta ruhodi momukunda
(University of Namibia, 2018) Hamunyera, Erenstine
Laba
(University of Namibia, 2018) Nakanyete, Ndapewa Fenny
Flea market voices on literacy in Botswana
(University of Namibia, 2018) Arua, Arua E.
This paper presents the views of some flea market vendors and clients, especially those whose voices are never heard, on the literacy and education issues that affect Botswana. Although small, the sample of respondents used for this study is representative of the kinds of people that populate flea markets. However, a large percentage of the respondents are male, thus indicating that male voices are dominant even in this setting. The findings of the study, which are similar to those in the literacy literature on Botswana, include the following: children lack interest in reading; parents have not been involved in their children’s reading development; and there are inadequate library and other resources to support a reading culture in Botswana. Some respondents advocate direct teaching of reading to their children, procuring reading materials for them and sending them to good private schools as ways of improving their children’s reading. Overall, the study shows that there is need to complement the top-down approach with the bottom-up approach, as there are valuable lessons policy makers can glean from canvassing the views of those in non-traditional government structures such as the flea markets.
Ujinsi wa nomino za mkopo katika lugha ya Kiswahili
(University of Namibia, 2018) Msigwa, Arnold B.
Masculine, the world languages are generally categorized into two categories; masculine language, feminine language and neuter language. Many Bantu Languages, Swahili inclusive is generally categorized as neuter language; meaning that objects have on its vocabulary like noun has no grammatical gender. However, if you underscore a close observation especially on the borrowed noun, you find something different. The aim of the current article therefore is to investigate how the borrowed noun that enters into Swahili from gendered language behaves. The questions raised by this article are: first, do really borrowed noun that come from gendered language into Swahili become neuter like other noun? Secondly, by looking those borrowed now from gendered language and the way they behaves in Swahili, is it correct to generalize that Swahili language is neuter. These questions and other of this trend are the ones addressed in this article. Data collected from through interview and observation is used to support the argument.
Germanising Oshiwambo language: Phonological integration of German loan words into Oshiwambo
(University of Namibia, 2018) Uushona, Johannes; Mbenzi, Petrus A.
Oshiwambo, a Bantu language spoken in Northern Namibia and Southern Angola, like other languages in contact, has adopted foreign words from other languages to meet the needs of its daily life vocabularies and activities. This paper identified and described the phonological changes which the loanwords from German go through to fit into Oshiwambo speech system and established the phonological rules that account for these changes. The paper is based on the hypothesis that words borrowed from other languages, especially European languages, into Oshiwambo, are phonologically modified to fit the Oshiwambo speech system because little information is available on the phonological wambonisation of German words. The data were collected from school textbooks, daily conversations and personal vocabularies of the researcher. The loanwords were transcribed for phonological analysis. The paper investigated how Oshiwambo borrowed words from German yet the two languages differ widely in terms of phonemic inventories and phonotactics. It has become evident that there are several vowel and consonant changes in the process of borrowing. The paper contributes to the linguistic study in the area of Oshiwambo in particular and Bantu languages in general. The knowledge acquired could be utilized by the institutions of higher learning too.
Skills needed to interpret transcendental languages: The case of Bhasukuma spirit medium language mediation
(University of Namibia, 2018) Mpemba, Titus
The present paper examines linguistic and non-linguistic skills and competencies that are inherent and necessary in interpreting transcendental languages, in view of giving indigenous interpreting forms and sub-forms more visibility in the interpreting research landscape and discourse. As its theoretical underpinning, the paper is guided by ideas from postcoloniality and scriptocentrism. The data were obtained through observation of 24 spirit medium language mediation events and semi-structured interviews to 24 Bhasukuma spirit mediums and 24 mediators in Mwanza, Geita, Shinyanga and Simiyu administrative regions of the United Republic of Tanzania. Findings suggest that there are prior-to-mediation-process skills and during-mediation-process skills, which provide more support to the previous studies which found that mediation of transcendental languages is an aspect of interpreting. It is recommended that African scholars should take it as their prerogative to expose more African realities to the world to better peoples’ understanding.

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