Language in African Social Interaction

Language in African Social Interaction PDF Author: Samuel Gyasi Obeng
Publisher: Nova Biomedical Books
ISBN:
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 200

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Book Description
In African societies, much as plain or direct language is cherished and highly appreciated because of the pragmatic clarity it offers, implicitness, indirectness, vagueness, prolixity, ambiguity and even avoidance are even more cherished and preferred especially when the subject matter of what is being communicated is difficult or face-threatening. Verbal indirection, the communicational strategy in which interactants abstain from directness in order to avoid crises or in order to communicate 'difficulty', and thus make their utterances consistent with face and politeness, is pervasive in African (Akan) social interaction. This groundbreaking book explores various linguistic and discursive devices speakers employ when engaged in indirectness. Among the linguistic and discursive strategies discussed are the use of: pronoun mismatching, nouns (especially proverbial names and other names with indirect meanings), evasions, hedges and various forms of pre sequences (which help to eliminate perceived obstacles to making such speech acts as announcements, requests, or invitations), acknowledgement of imposition, proverbs, metaphors, innuendoes, euphemisms, circumlocution, riddles, tales, hyperbolas, and communication through intermediaries or proxies.

Language in African Social Interaction

Language in African Social Interaction PDF Author: Samuel Gyasi Obeng
Publisher: Nova Biomedical Books
ISBN:
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 200

Get Book Here

Book Description
In African societies, much as plain or direct language is cherished and highly appreciated because of the pragmatic clarity it offers, implicitness, indirectness, vagueness, prolixity, ambiguity and even avoidance are even more cherished and preferred especially when the subject matter of what is being communicated is difficult or face-threatening. Verbal indirection, the communicational strategy in which interactants abstain from directness in order to avoid crises or in order to communicate 'difficulty', and thus make their utterances consistent with face and politeness, is pervasive in African (Akan) social interaction. This groundbreaking book explores various linguistic and discursive devices speakers employ when engaged in indirectness. Among the linguistic and discursive strategies discussed are the use of: pronoun mismatching, nouns (especially proverbial names and other names with indirect meanings), evasions, hedges and various forms of pre sequences (which help to eliminate perceived obstacles to making such speech acts as announcements, requests, or invitations), acknowledgement of imposition, proverbs, metaphors, innuendoes, euphemisms, circumlocution, riddles, tales, hyperbolas, and communication through intermediaries or proxies.

Languages, Identities and Intercultural Communication in South Africa and Beyond

Languages, Identities and Intercultural Communication in South Africa and Beyond PDF Author: Russell H Kaschula
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000421465
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 264

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Book Description
African countries and South Africa in particular, being multilingual and multicultural societies, make for exciting sociolinguistic and applied language analysis in order to tease out the complex relationship between language and identity. This book applies sociolinguistic theory, as well as critical language awareness and translanguaging with its many facets, to various communicative scenarios, both on the continent and in South Africa, in an accessible and practical way. Africa lends itself to such sociolinguistic analysis concerning language, identity and intercultural communication. This book reflects consciously on the North–South debate and the need for us to create our own ways of interpretation emanating from the South and speaking back to the North, and on issues that pertain to the South, including southern Africa. Aspects such as language and power, language planning, policy and implementation, culture, prejudice, social interaction, translanguaging, intercultural communication, education, gender and autoethnography are covered. This is a valuable resource for students studying African sociolinguistics, language and identity, and applied language studies. Anyone interested in the relationship between language and society on the African continent would also find the book easily accessible.

Handbook of Research on Discourse Behavior and Digital Communication: Language Structures and Social Interaction

Handbook of Research on Discourse Behavior and Digital Communication: Language Structures and Social Interaction PDF Author: Taiwo, Rotimi
Publisher: IGI Global
ISBN: 1615207740
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 1055

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Book Description
A compendium of over 50 scholarly works on discourse behavior in digital communication.

English in Multilingual South Africa

English in Multilingual South Africa PDF Author: Raymond Hickey
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108425348
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 443

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Book Description
An innovative and insightful exploration of varieties of English in contemporary South Africa.

Sociolinguistics in African Contexts

Sociolinguistics in African Contexts PDF Author: Augustin Emmanuel Ebongue
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319496115
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 349

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Book Description
This volume offers a new perspective on sociolinguistics in Africa. Eschewing the traditional approach which looks at the interaction between European and African languages in the wake of colonialism, this book turns its focus to the social dynamics of African languages and African societies. Divided into two sections, the book offers insight into the crucial topics such as: language vitality and endangerment, the birth of ‘new languages’, a sociolinguistics of the city, language contact and language politics. It spans the continent from Algeria to South Africa, Guinea-Bissau to Kenya and addresses the following broad themes: Language variation, contact and changeThe dynamics of urban, rural and youth languagesPolicy and practice This book provides an alternative to the Eurocentric view of sociolinguistic dynamics in Africa, and will make an ideal read or supplemental textbook for scholars and students in the field/disciplines of African languages and linguistics, and those interested in southern theory or ‘sociolinguistics in the margins’.

Language and Social History

Language and Social History PDF Author: Rajend Mesthrie
Publisher: New Africa Books
ISBN: 9780864862808
Category : Sociolinguistics
Languages : en
Pages : 376

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Book Description


The International Encyclopedia of Language and Social Interaction, 3 Volume Set

The International Encyclopedia of Language and Social Interaction, 3 Volume Set PDF Author: Cornelia Ilie
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1118611101
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 1676

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Book Description
The International Encyclopedia of Language and Social Interaction is an invaluable reference work featuring contributions from leading global scholars, available both online and as a three-volume print set. The definitive international reference work on a topic of major and increasing importance, in a new series of sub-disciplinary international encyclopedias Provides state-of-the-art research for scholars in a highly interactive and accessible format, available both online and as a three-volume print set Covers key research topics in the field with contributions from a team of experienced, global editors Successfully brings into a single source, explication of all of the fascinating and ground-breaking Language and Social Interaction work developing globally and across subjects Part of The Wiley Blackwell-ICA International Encyclopedias of Communication series, published in conjunction with the International Communication Association. Online version available at www.wileyicaencyclopedia.com

Focus Strategies in African Languages

Focus Strategies in African Languages PDF Author: Enoch Oladé Aboh
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
ISBN: 9783110195934
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 338

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Book Description
Contains a collection of articles on focus in the Niger-Congo and Afro-Asiatic language groups. This book investigates focus-related phenomena from different theoretical and methodological perspectives: the interaction of focus and prosody, the effect of focus on word order, the inventory of focus-marking devices, and others.

Language, Discourse and Power in African American Culture

Language, Discourse and Power in African American Culture PDF Author: Marcyliena Morgan
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521001496
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 200

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Book Description
African American language is central to the teaching of linguistics and language in the United States, and this book, in the series Studies in the Social and Cultural Foundations of Language, is aimed specifically at upper level undergraduates and graduates. It covers the entire field - grammar, speech, and verbal genres, and it also discusses the various historical strands that need to be identified in order to understand the development of African American English. The first section deals with the social and cultural history of the American South, the second with urban and northern black popular culture, and the third with policy issues. Morgan examines the language within the context of the changing and complex African American and general American speech communities, and their culture, politics, art and institutions. She also covers the current heated political and educational debates about the status of the African American dialect.

A History of African Linguistics

A History of African Linguistics PDF Author: H. Ekkehard Wolff
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108417973
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 377

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Book Description
The first global history of African linguistics as an emerging autonomous academic discipline, covering Africa, the Americas, Asia, Australia, and Europe.