Linguists share knowledge at Corpus Week
A wide variety of linguists are gathering at Rhodes University’s Department of English Language and Linguistics from 25 to 28 March 2013 for South Africa’s first Corpus Week. A corpus is a digitized collection of texts that can be used for many different types of research, from dictionary writing to picking out ideologies and analysing them critically. The aim of the week is to allow experienced corpus linguists and intrigued newcomers to share their knowledge with each other and encourage new research partnerships, according to Sally Hunt, the week’s convenor. ...read more
Bisset wins de Klerk prize
Congratulations to Susan Bisset for being awarded the Vivian de Klerk prize for 2013! ...read more
New phonology lecturer fascinated by Xhosa and Zulu
William Bennett, the newest addition to the Department of English Language and Linguistics staff, arrived from New Jersey last week. For him, coming to Rhodes is the latest stage in a growing love affair with South Africa and its languages. ...read more
R1,5 million project to study literacy
Rhodes linguists Dr Mark de Vos and Kristin van der Merwe have been awarded a grant of R1,5 million over three years to study foundation phase literacy in African languages. The grant, which comes from the Rhodes University Council's Sandisa Imbewu fund, will be used to fund a post-doctoral research fellow and postgraduate students interested in solving one of South Africa's most pressing educational problems. ...read more
Prestigious travel bursary for postgrad student
Amy Richardson a hardworking Master’s student has been awarded Abe Bailey Travel Bursary, a three-week tour of the United Kingdom, all expenses paid. The bursary selects a single candidate from 16 South African Universities for the sole purpose of giving them a unique cultural and international experience. ...read more
The evolution of natural language syntax by natural selection
Rhodes linguist Mark de Vos delivered a talk at North-West University on Friday 24 August entitled "The evolution of natural language syntax by natural selection: optimization of the mental
lexicon yields syntax for free". His talk presented an account of the evolution of human language by natural selection that focuses on the evolution of the lexicon. Here is a brief summary of what he said:
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Doing business in many languages
At a Departmental Research Seminar on Tuesday 15 May, Rhodes Linguistics Master’s student Sanne Lauriks talked about her plans to compare the ways in which languages are used in two small businesses: one in Grahamstown and one in Amsterdam. ...read more
Being multilingual in Ghana
Dr Mercy Akrofi Ansah, a visiting scholar from the University of Ghana, took the Rhodes Linguistics department on a virtual tour of a small town in her country as she spoke about language choice in a multilingual community in a Departmental Research Seminar on Tuesday 8 May 2012. ...read more
Linguistics graduates shine
The Department of English Language and Linguistics recently celebrated the graduation of its class of 2011. This year's crop of graduands, although relatively small, included some sparkling achievers. ...read more
Putting words together in ciNsenga
Rhodes linguist Ron Simango presented a brief look at the grammar of ciNsenga at a Departmental Research Seminar on Tuesday 22 February. He showed how this language, from the border of Malawi and Zambia, handles subject marking, coordination and noun classes. ...read more
Endangered languages can be saved and strengthened
Associate Professor Ron Simango from Rhodes Linguistics spoke on SAFM on Sunday 19 February about the threat of language endangerment: the possibility that languages may die out and be replaced by more 'powerful' languages. Fortunately, he said, our languages can be preserved and strengthened if people use them in more domains of society. ...read more
Ian Siebörger submits his MA thesis... and speaks on SAFM again
Rhodes Linguistics lecturer Ian Siebörger handed in his Master's thesis on language in Parliament on Monday 16 January, and has been asked to give another interview for SAFM's Word of Mouth programme on Sunday 22 January. ...read more
Mark de Vos speaks on Talk Radio 702 and 567 CapeTalk
Dr Mark de Vos was interviewed on Talk Radio 702 and 567 CapeTalk on Tuesday 23 November, on the topic of the meanings of words, especially taboo words.
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Ian Siebörger to speak on SAFM again
Rhodes linguist Ian Siebörger has been asked to give an interview on SAFM again on Sunday 27 November from 1:30 to 2:00pm. ...read more
Plagiarism and self-plagiarism
Dr Mark de Vos from Rhodes Linguistics gave a paper at an EDUCATION DIALOGUES panel discussion on plagiarism held at the Rhodes University Environmental Education Learning Resource Centre on Wednesday 19 October. A full copy of his paper is available below:
I broached the issue of plagiarism with a philosophically inclined friend of mine a few weeks ago. His response was quite blunt: it’s a legal issue; let the lawyers sort it out. I’d like to argue against this view, that leaving it to others (especially lawyers) is an abdication of the defence of academic freedom and that we (and Rhodes as an institution) should be taking the high ground before others do.
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Ian Siebörger to speak on SAFM
Rhodes Linguistics junior lecturer Ian Siebörger will be interviewed on SAFM's "Word of Mouth" feature on language on Sunday 6 November from 1:30 to 2:00pm. ...read more
How Standard English got that way
Most people treat the rules of Standard English as though they dropped down out of the sky. In a special departmental research seminar on Tuesday 1 November, Prof. Raymond Hickey, an accomplished visiting linguist from the University of Duisburg and Essen in Germany, showed how these standards were constructed by a few rival lexicographers and grammarians in the 18th century. ...read more
On pop music lyrics and real estate adverts
At the last Rhodes Linguistics Honours Research seminar for 2011, two students presented intriguing analyses of two very different types of text. Lynn Nowers compared pop music lyrics from 1960 with some from 2010 to find out how much they had changed in the way they portrayed gender relations. Then Tracy Beangstrom delved into the evaluative language used in real estate agency adverts, comparing two competing real estate agencies in Grahamstown. Both their studies revealed some fascinating (but not always reassuring) insights into trends in discourse today. ...read more
Politics and positioning at Honours Seminar
Euphemisms in parliament and insults at an anti-rape protest were the topic of discussion at the second in a series of Rhodes Linguistics Honours Research Seminars, on Tuesday 4 October. With such a strong focus on evaluative language and its links with broader society, the seminar was an intriguing window into what is happening in South African political discourse today. ...read more
Sally Hunt gives workshops at University of the Western Cape
The combination of Corpus Linguistics and Critical Discourse Analysis is a
relatively new, and very exciting, development in linguistics. Rhodes Linguistics lecturer Sally Hunt went to the University of the Western Cape during the September vac to give a workshop to their post graduate students and staff on using corpora in ideological analysis.
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Honours students scintillate at seminar
Four Rhodes Linguistics students dazzled the department with their research at the first of two Honours research seminars, held on Tuesday 27 October. The presentations centred on two topics, the language of evaluation and agreement in syntax, and gave students a chance to get feedback on their work before they hand in their year-long research reports in a few weeks’ time. Each presentation was given with great vigour and spiced with a good dose of humour, making the two-hour seminar a delight to attend. ...read more
Clashing mindsets in Parliament
Civil servants from government departments and state-owned entities are often asked to make presentations in parliament. This is one of the ways in which parliament does its job of overseeing government. Ian Sieborger from the Rhodes Linguistics department has found that these presentations can be filled with misunderstandings and tension. ...read more
Signing their way to a better future
The Rhodes Linguistics 2 class had an exciting encounter with South African Sign Language (SASL) during a 12-day visit by Kirsty Maclons and Atiyah Asmal, two Sign Language teachers from Johannesburg and Cape Town. Their visit began with a special guest lecture by Atiyah Asmal and Hilda Mbetha, the Eastern Cape chairperson of DeafSA. ...read more
Sally Hunt explores Corpus Ling in the UK
Sally Hunt, a Rhodes linguistics lecturer, has just returned from a busy visit to the UK where she attended a conference and a week-long summer school, both on Corpus Linguistics. ...read more
Heads and Specifiers in English
Mark de Vos from Rhodes Linguistics explored asymmetries in Specifier-Head word order in English at a Departmental Research Seminar held on Tuesday 16 August. He demonstrated that there is only mixed empirical evidence in English to back up the prediction of the Linear Correspondence Axiom (LCA) that specifiers universally precede their heads. ...read more
Heads and Specifiers in English
Mark de Vos from Rhodes Linguistics explored asymmetries in Specifier-Head word order in English at a Departmental Research Seminar held on Tuesday 16 August. He demonstrated that there is only mixed empirical evidence in English to back up the prediction of the Linear Correspondence Axiom (LCA) that specifiers universally precede their heads. ...read more
Exploring Fanagalo -- SA's mystery language
Fanagalo: proof that not only Boers, but Africans in general, can always make a plan. This language is famous for being used extensively in South African gold and diamond mines - poitjie pots of culture and communication - but what is the real deal behind this creative concoction of language? ...read more
Sally Hunt gives workshops at University of the Western Cape
The combination of Corpus Linguistics and Critical Discourse Analysis is a relatively new, and very exciting, development in linguistics. Rhodes Linguistics lecturer Sally Hunt went to the University of the Western Cape during the September vac to give a workshop to their post graduate students and staff on using corpora in ideological analysis. ...read more
Mzansi jumps into the dictionary
The department's first Departmental Research Seminar (DRS) for the term on Tuesday 2 August, featured Richard Bowker, associate editor from the Dictionary Unit for South African English (DSAE). ...read more
The meanings of monolingualism
Interactions and Interfaces second call for papers
Listening to asylum-seekers' stories
When 'yesterday' and 'tomorrow' are the same word
Language Variation -- European Perspectives
Amy Sutherland receives Vivian de Klerk Prize
Does Turkish have a two-way voicing contrast?
Why can't MBA students write?
Maxine Diemer receives Van Schaik Prize
Ron Simango at B4ntu
Syntactic innovation in Europe
Linguists from Europe are creating a common Internet search engine that will give users access to numerous databases helping them to compare the structures of languages in Europe. This is one of the goals of the European Dialect Syntax project (Edisyn), which Marika Lekakou from the Netherlands introduced to South African linguists at a special talk on Monday 27 June at Interactions and Interfaces, the linguistics conference being hosted at Rhodes. Lekakou is a post-doctoral researcher at the Meertens Institute in the Netherlands. ...read more
How to represent in Parliament
A visitor from York
Nuwe uitgawe van Afrikaanse taalbron bekend gestel
The rain in the Northern Cape puzzles Mark de Vos
Things you can('t) tell from a criminal's voice
On TV series like 24 and Law and Order, it's not unusual to see detectives whip a recording of a suspected criminal's voice over to the sound lab, and half an hour later get the message “we have a match”, confirming that the suspect is guilty. In a keynote address on the final day of Interactions and Interfaces, a conference about language held at Rhodes University, forensic linguist Paul Foulkes stressed the fact that it is not always so easy to analyse voice recordings, but evidence from linguistic experts can still be extremely useful in criminal investigations.
Foulkes is from the University of York in the United Kingdom and also wo
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Plain language on the rise
Comprehending figurative language
Dr Sally Hunt receives Thomas Alty Award
Out of Africa
Reading revolution
One man's war on clichés
Programming in Pure English
Interactions and Interfaces in the Makana Moon
Rhodes Ling graduate wins scholarship to Edinburgh
The real social network
“The real social network is not Facebook; it’s face-to-face,” is what the University of Alberta’s Tracey Derwing had to say in her keynote address on Monday 27 June at Interactions and Interfaces, a conference about language held at Rhodes. Her paper talked about how accents amongst other things affect a foreign speaker’s ability to learn a second language, and how face-to-face interaction can help.
Derwing firstly discussed judgements made about people because of
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Poetry for Everyday Life
Afrikaanse taalkunde in die kollig
Analysing Clem Sunter's leadership discourse
On Generative Linguistics, Imperialism and Pizza
The interface of language and ethnicity
Mobility Language Literacy and Rhodes linguistics
Learning through Interaction
Celebrating Ling graduates
Ling graduate to manage Fugard Theatre
Telling language learners' stories
Rhodes Ling graduate off to Lancaster
How time works in Mandarin and isiXhosa
Using phonetics to catch criminals
Diversity on everyone's lips
“Language and Linguistics, with their sensitivities to language, culture and context and issues of social inclusion and exclusion, are well-positioned to help our societies and also our universities to advance social justice and more inclusive social and academic cultures,” Dr Saleem Badat, the Vice Chancellor of Rhodes University said in opening Interactions and Interfaces, a conference about language being hosted by the university;s Department of English Language and Linguist ...read more
Meet our new phonologist!
Speaking in Tongues
Narrative interactions
Masako is a Japanese woman who found community – and a new husband – in the process of learning English after she immigrated to New Zealand. Gert, an Afrikaans financial advisor who also moved to New Zealand, found that his life changed far less in his new setting. These stories were told in a talk about language learners' stories by Dr Gary Barkhuizen, at Interactions and Interfaces, a conference about language hosted at Rhodes University.
Barkhuizen, the th
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