An analysis of gendered metaphors in selected Zimbabwean Shona songs

This qualitative study analyses gendered metaphors in selected Zimbabwean Shona songs. The study explores how musicians deploy gendered metaphors to propagate, reinforce or challenge gender views and positions held in the Zimbabwean contemporary society. The corpus of data comprised Shona popular songs released between 1988 and 2018 and down loaded from You-tube. The songs were transcribed, translated into English and metaphors identified and interpreted using a combination of the Pragglejaz Group (2007), Steen (2007) and Charteris-Black (2004) metaphor identification methods. Charteris-Black’s (2004) Critical Metaphor Analysis was adopted as the key theory and method of analysis. The analysis drew support from Lazar's (2007) Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis, Foucault (1980) and Butler's (1990) ideas on discourse and gender. The findings reveal that Zimbabwean musicians singing in Shona discursively use gendered metaphors to construct, reinforce or challenge views and positions on gender. While the metaphors describe and evaluate men and women positively and negatively for ideological purposes, the metaphors largely marginalise women more than men. The metaphors therefore, have the effect of legitimising and naturalising male dominance in the Zimbabwean society. However, the same musicians occasionally utilise metaphor discoursal power to resist, challenge and control the dominance. Metaphors become a conduit through which topical contemporary gender issues, norms and values, gender views and positions are highlighted and debated. Two contesting ideologies were noted: one ideology emphasised that women are inferior to men and men should tolerate them for their weaknesses and the second projected women as men’s equals and that men and women roles complement each other. It is the conclusion of this study that gendered metaphors in Shona song lyrics allow musicians to discursively and for ideological purposes reinforce, contest and negotiate various gender perspectives making metaphors a powerful tool for shaping views on gender. Therefore the research, recommends that stakeholders recognise and promote the critical role played by language on inculcating gender perceptions in such domains as music, to come up with language programmes that promote gender parity and equality in society.Linguistics and Modern LanguagesPh. D. (Languages, Linguistics and Literature

A Linguistic Analysis of Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangiraias Image Repair Discourse: Letter to the Zimbabwean Public (30 November 2011)

The reputations of politicians as well as other popular figures depend on public perceptions and once reputations are threatened images repair becomes vital This paper focuses on the image repair strategies used in the public letter of apology 30 November 2011 by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai released shortly after divorcing his wife Lorcadia Karimatsenga The major concern is to determine the effectiveness of the communication devices used in redeeming the PM s image in the public eye Benoit s Image Repair Theory 1995 is used as theoretical guide and methodological impetus of the study Benoit theory provides a mechanism for analyzing the communication strategies used Five major impression management strategies are adopted denial evasion of responsibility reducing the offensiveness of the event corrective action and mortification It is concluded in this study that despite the mistake of omitting some important details that could have assisted in clearing his name the image repair strategies used by Tsvangirai were to a large extent effectiv

Artisanal mining in the Dem region, Burkina Faso: the mining processing and production of iron ore

A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand Johannesburg in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science. Johannesburg, 2013.Artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) has been a crucial industry in Africa for centuries. In Burkina Faso approximately 95 kms northeast of the capital city Ouagadougou near the village of Dem and on a ferricrete capped ridge to the west of the village, it is possible to find a number of opencast workings and underground mines that show evidence of extensive artisanal mining for iron. Iron mining worked quartz-vein hosted and lateritic ore. Nearby, waste piles, processing sites and at least eleven (11) Bloomery furnaces are exposed on the alluvial plain. Petrographically the ore bearing rocks consist of goethite-hematite as the dominant oxides with silica. Geological and ethnographic studies conducted in 2011 focussed on detailing and mapping the mine site and host rocks (including ore rocks), and establishing the age of mining, processing and forging of ore. Selected charcoal samples were collected from furnaces sites. Limited AMS radiocarbon dating of six (6) samples was performed at Beta Analytic laboratory in Miami, Florida, USA and suggested that iron forging may have begun in the 15th century, which could also be the age of mining and processing of ore. The site has characteristics such as impure slag, eleven (11) large furnaces, hundreds of tuyeres, and crucibles, and clay fragments. Remnant slag samples were collected for petrographic and mineralogical study to deduce the mineral composition of the slag. The slag samples contained high concentration of fayalite, quartz, magnetite and hematite and low concentration of iron metal and ulvospinel suggesting an iron silicate slag of low melt temperature was formed in the furnaces

Virtual Advice Services

The chapter looks at the issues involved with implementing and running a chat enquiry service, from choosing an appropriate product to staff training and publicity. The experiences of a number of UK Higher Education Institutions currently offering chat enquiry services are discussed at various stages. Aspects of more advanced use, such as web ‘co-browsing’ and virtual advice by appointment are also included. The chapter closes by considering what the future holds for virtual advice services and the potential impact of the growth in mobile technologies

Managing the Moral Implications of Advice in Informal Interaction

What does advice giving look like among family members? Most conversation analytic research on advice has been in institutional settings, which constrain what speakers can do. Here we analyze advice in the apparently freer environment of telephone calls between mothers and their young adult daughters. We concentrate on how the advice is received. Our analysis shows that the position of “advice recipient” is a potentially unwelcome identity to occupy because it implies one knows less than the advice giver and indeed that one may be somehow at fault. Advice can be resisted, but choosing to do so seems to depend on what the interactional costs would be. We discuss the implications for studying advice and promoting advice acceptance as well as the way relationality more generally can be constituted in talk