Representativeness as a Forgotten Lesson for Multilingual and Code-switched Data Collection and Preparation

Multilingualism is widespread around the world and code-switching (CSW) is a common practice among different language pairs/tuples across locations and regions. However, there is still not much progress in building successful CSW systems, despite the recent advances in Massive Multilingual Language Models (MMLMs). We investigate the reasons behind this setback through a critical study about the existing CSW data sets (68) across language pairs in terms of the collection and preparation (e.g. transcription and annotation) stages. This in-depth analysis reveals that \textbf{a)} most CSW data involves English ignoring other language pairs/tuples \textbf{b)} there are flaws in terms of representativeness in data collection and preparation stages due to ignoring the location based, socio-demographic and register variation in CSW. In addition, lack of clarity on the data selection and filtering stages shadow the representativeness of CSW data sets. We conclude by providing a short check-list to improve the representativeness for forthcoming studies involving CSW data collection and preparation.Comment: Accepted for EMNLP'23 Findings (to appear on EMNLP'23 Proceedings

When myth becomes meaning: examining the representation of female character construction in Uzalo: Blood is Forever.

Masters Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban.Soap operas have been constructed as a feminine genre displaying the everyday reality of female characters. It has been postulated by seminal scholars (Modleski, 1979/1982; Hobson, 1982; Kuhn, 1984; Brown, 1987) that the genre provides a feminine discourse, which subverts classic ‘male-centred’ genres that portray women as objects to be desired by the male gaze. However, soap opera scholarship has received criticism from scholars who contend that femininity is restricted to a western, white, middle-class context, thereby dismissing femininities that exist outside this framework (Geraghty, 1991; Hooks, 2003; Acosta-Alzuru, 2003). Furthermore, scholars (Metz, 1974; Butler, 1986; Seiter, 1987/1992) have stressed the need to extend the focus of feminist scholarship from narrative structure to include the stylistic and diegetic conventions used to purvey meaning. Language therefore plays a significant role in soap opera scholarship as it is through language that messages about femininity are encoded. The popular South African soap opera Uzalo presented a unique opportunity to examine soap opera as a feminine discourse, while accounting for the stylistic conventions in which meaning is inscribed. This study employed a structuralist semiotics approach to analyse the representation of the matriarchs in Uzalo. The theoretical framework was guided by the work of Roland Barthes (1972) and Claude Lévi- Strauss (1978) who focussed on the work of myth. The purpose of incorporating myth was to uncover the ritualistic depiction of the everyday, which is often constructed as common sense. Key findings suggest that although Uzalo attempted to establish a feminine discourse by positioning the matriarchs as central characters, patriarchal values permeated the text as absent signifiers. The study also revealed that a successful feminine discourse requires a more nuanced approach that accounts for the intersectionality of gender, race, class and sexuality

A language in decline ? :a constrastive study of the use of, and motivation and de-motivation for, learning Afrikaans among two groups of learners at an English medium high school in Cape Town, South Africa

Magister Artium - MAAfrikaans in practice replaced Dutch and became one of South Africa's official languages (along with English) from 1925. It reached the apex of its development and influence during the years of Nationalist party rule and the apartheid regime as a language of officialdom, of the judiciary and education. However, in 1994 nine African languages were afforded official status along with English and Afrikaans in South Africa. Presently, Afrikaans is still taught in the majority of schools in the Western Cape as either a first or second language. This thesis compares and contrasts the language attitudes and motivation towards Afrikaans in two groups of secondary school learners - grade eight and grade eleven learners - at the same school, viz. the Settlers' High School in Parow, a northern suburb of Cape Town, South Africa. At this English medium school, Afrikaans as a second language is a compulsory subject. The thesis also examines the dominant ideologies held towards Afrikaans by the learners and by the school in question which contributes towards shaping their attitudes and motivations for learning the language as well as their actual use of the language. The study finds a correlation between the learners' attitudes towards Afrikaans and their actual patterns of use of the language, which indicates that the use of Afrikaans may be in decline among especially the younger, grade eight, learners.South Afric

An African language in the public sphere – the use of isiZulu on Yilungelo Lakho online platforms

The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) is mandated as the public broadcaster to provide news content in all South Africa’s official languages. While this has been a challenge on traditional broadcast platforms, online resources, such as social media pages, present an opportunity for the SABC to support the creation and sharing of content in African languages. With relatively little national news and current affairs content available online in indigenous languages, this study investigates the way that SABC News online offerings in the isiZulu language have the potential to contribute to public debates in terms of Habermas’ concept of a public sphere and its adaptation to the online domain, taking into consideration scholarly critiques of its suitability in the African context. The SABC News Current Affairs programme Yilungelo Lakho serves as a case study to examine the potential for the SABC to share African-language news content online. The programme is broadcast primarily in the Nguni languages, and the online audience on Facebook often choose to respond in isiZulu or other African languages. Semi-structured indepth interviews were conducted with three members of the production team and three contributors to the Facebook page. A textual analysis of Facebook posts across 13 episodes, with a total of 497 comments from 306 online contributors highlights the manner in which online interaction promotes or hampers the inclusion of isiZulu speakers in SABC News and Current Affairs discussions, rational deliberation on the SABC Current Affairs programme, and fragmentation and overlap across different online platforms. While multilingual interactions on the Yilungelo Lakho Facebook page make for complex curation, the findings suggest the need for African language content to support public discussions and point to an opportunity for the public broadcaster to fulfil its mandate.Thesis (MA) -- Faculty of Humanities, School of Journalism and Media Studies, 202

Subject positioning in the South African symbolic economy: student narratives of their languages and lives in a changing place

A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of the University of the Witwatersrand December 2015Language use is irreducibly social and historical, bearing the complexities of difference, location, and power. These dynamics are particularly visible in “post”-apartheid South Africa, where historical and contemporary asymmetries of race and class are refracted through language politics, practices and experiences. “Youth embody the sharpening contradictions of the contemporary world in especially acute form” (Comaroff & Comaroff, 2005, p. 21) because they are often at the coalface of societal change. At this particular historical moment the paradoxes and challenges of South African students are acutely visible when examining the role of language in reproducing a bifurcated education system, and indeed society. Methodologically, I examined 15 student narratives about their experiences of language in everyday life. The narratives were generated using a multi-modal approach to language biographies, where participants’ linguistic repertoires are visually represented in different colours on a pre-given body outline (Busch et al., 2006). The inclusion of the visual component provided participants with a nuanced vocabulary for constructing their narrative accounts. This narrative data was then thematically analysed with a focus on participants’ subject positioning. Firstly, it was found that the notion of an authentic identity functioned as an ideological claim. The participants referred to a desire for authentic cultural roots, through reference to what they considered “pure” African languages. They articulated a sense that an authentic cultural identity might be lost by virtue the ubiquitous nature of English in their lives. Participants positioned themselves and others as either belonging or not belonging, depending how “authentic” a member of an identity category one was assessed to be. The narratives demonstrated that the nuances of language and voice become the site for the nano-politics of identity and authenticity (Blommaert & Varis, 2015), especially when cultural and racial identity categories appear to be in crisis. Secondly, English was constructed as a variable symbolic asset across different fields. Representations of English and African languages were positioned in line with existing colonial and racial tropes where English was represented as the language of the mind and rationality, while African languages, even when positively described, were construed as languages of the body or emotion. For black participants, while it was appropriate and desirable to speak English at university, in other fields, such as the home, English could be negatively sanctioned. It is the relation of power between fields in the symbolic economy that influences the reception of a linguistic asset. I argue that English was negatively sanctioned (while still being desirable) as a way of containing the power of English qua whiteness. The link between desirability and derision that English represents makes claims to authenticity, as well as accusations of betrayal, pivotal in the subject positioning of participants in relation to their experiences of language across different fields. These student narratives about experiences of language capture a particular historical moment and demonstrate how the youth straddle the contradictions of the past and the future. However, while these narratives are historically specific they also point to the universal process of becoming a subject through language