Doctoral Degrees (Afrikaans and Dutch)

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Browsing Doctoral Degrees (Afrikaans and Dutch) by browse.metadata.advisor "Gouws, Rufus H."

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    A corpus-based theory and lexicographic process for the inclusion of neologisms, archaisms and foreign loanwords in lexicons of Qeqchi Mayan
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2024-03) Frazier, Jeffrey Brent; Gouws, Rufus H.; Gouws, R. H.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Afrikaans and Dutch.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: All languages employ the processes of lexicogenesis to create new lexical items. Some of these lexical innovations successfully navigate the phases of lexical emergence and become stable words—initially gaining purchase in the mental lexicon before ultimately becoming eligible for lemmatization in print or digital lexicographic works. In the case of minority and indigenous languages there is often an acute need for the natural processes of lexicogenesis to be supplemented with coordinated programs of planned neology in order to fill lexical gaps and supply the languages with the vocabulary necessary to function in the modern world. Little research has been undertaken to systematically study these officially proposed lexical items and the degree to which they have become established in their speech communities and meet the criteria for inclusion in dictionaries of the language. In the present work I elaborate a lexicographic theory and decision-making process for the systematic inclusion, exclusion, and/or qualification of a variety of proposed lexical items with a particular focus on neologisms, archaisms, and loanwords from foreign languages. In addressing each of these topics I use Q’eqchi’, a member of the Mayan language family, as a model and living language laboratory to systematically analyze three distinct sets of officially proposed lexical items produced over the course of the past thirty years. Using the tools and methods of corpus linguistics, along with a multistage heuristic for determining lexical status and a multivariate model for assessing lexicographic value, I illustrate how the principles of cognitive linguistics and lexicographic theory can be used to produce better lexicographic data and an improved lexicographic process in pursuit of advancing indigenous language lexicography.
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    A model for a comprehensive electronic school dictionary for South African primary school learners
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2021-03) Morris, Lorna Hiles; Gouws, Rufus H.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Afrikaans and Dutch.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The vast majority of South African learners are being taught in English, which is not their first language. These learners are often not equipped to achieve in English, as they are not yet fluent enough. There is very little support in the form of language resources available in classrooms to assist these learners. There is a need for an electronic school dictionary that supports learning, text reception, and text production in learners in South African schools. Existing school dictionaries are primarily print dictionaries, and while efforts have been made to make them as supportive to second language learners as possible, they are still constrained by space restrictions and the limitations of the printed medium. The electronic medium has not yet been exploited in order to produce South African electronic school dictionaries. This dissertation presents model dictionary articles as a response to the need for a South African school dictionary that offers more support to non-mother-tongue speakers of English who are being taught in English. This study considers the current literature on pedagogical dictionaries, electronic dictionaries, and the South African education context, and combines that with interviews with Grade 5 and 6 teachers to establish what is required in an electronic school dictionary for South African learners. School dictionaries and online dictionaries are also compared and discussed in order to determine what features and components the articles contain, and whether they would be beneficial in an electronic school dictionary for South African primary school learners. A set of preliminary model articles is designed and then tested on Grade 5 and 6 learners, and presented to experts in the fields of pedagogical lexicography and electronic lexicography. The design is then modified and improved, and a final set of model articles that meet the criteria set out by the teacher interviews and current literature is presented. The result is a model for the user interface of articles in an electronic school dictionary that provides more support in the form of translation equivalents, word banks with related words, illustrations for each sense, usage notes, and word family boxes showing relationships between words. The versatility of the model means that it can be adapted for other languages and other grades. The implication for this model is that it can help to close the language gap that is found between first- and second-language English learners.