Browsing by Author "Swarts, Johannes Jacobus"

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    A grammatical framework for the computational parsing of written Afrikaans sentences
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2019-12) Swarts, Johannes Jacobus; Gouws, R. H.; Van Rooyen, G-J.; Oosthuizen, J.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Afrikaans and Dutch.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This dissertation investigates which grammatical framework is best suited to computationally represent and parse written Afrikaans sentences. This knowledge is necessary to build a large scale Afrikaans treebank – a resource which does not yet exist, but is a critical prerequisite for advanced endeavours in Afrikaans natural language processing. To gain this knowledge, we formally describe the building blocks of written Afrikaans from the perspectives of two major grammatical frameworks: constituency grammar and dependency grammar. Using these formal descriptions, we construct the first linguistically motivated treebank for Afrikaans, annotated with both constituency and dependency graphs. We perform k-fold cross-validation on multiple variations of this treebank with four state of the art sentence parsers, and fine-comb the results. Combining insights from the formal descriptions of written Afrikaans with the data obtained during parser evaluation, we conclude that dependency grammar outperforms constituency grammar at computationally representing the syntactic structure of written Afrikaans sentences under the conditions tested.
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    Identiteitsvorming in die Afrikaanse blogosfeer
    (Stellenbosch : University of Stellenbosch, 2010-03) Swarts, Johannes Jacobus; Viljoen, L.; University of Stellenbosch. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Afrikaans and Dutch.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The aim of this study is to investigate Afrikaner identity in the Afrikaans blogosphere on the basis of the Afrikaner nasionalist identity that was forged during the twentieth century. The environment within which blogs function and its characteristics are discussed, after which the circumstances that led to the development of Afrikaner identity as well as the current sociopolitical position of Afrikaners are traced. Through quantitative analysis, the Afrikaans blogosphere is compared to this identity to discover too what extent the identity is still remnant in Afrikaans bloggers. It is concluded that Afrikaner nationalism is virtually extinct in the Afrikaans blogosphere and that the plurality of identities hosted by it are fragmented and paradoxical.