Dissertation Research: Language and Social Change in Post-Apartheid South Africa

论文研究：后种族隔离南非的语言和社会变革

• 批准号: 9602198
• 负责人: J. Joseph Errington
• 金额: $ 0.32万
• 依托单位: Yale University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 1996
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1996-09-01 至 1997-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9602198&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Dissertation; Research; Language; Social; Change

The end of South Africa's apartheid system has led to the blurring or altering of previously clearly demarcated ethnic, political, and linguistic divisions within the country. As rhetorics and policies of separateness have been superseded by discourses of multicultural unity and equality, so too ethnically-inflected and gendered social distinctions between town, township, and village have been eroded by a national culture now developing in, and emanating from, the urban centers. The aim of this research is to locate emergent forms of urban speech which mediate shifting linguistic and social identities, ethnic and national, in Bophuthatswana, a former "ethnic homeland." The urban speech variety in question derives from two kinds of language, and mediates two kinds of identity for black South Africans. In areas of North-West Province which were formerly part of Bophuthatswana, ethnic identity cleaves to Setswana, a standardized (and now nationally-recognized) language which is nonetheless socially moribund in urban communities. South African identity, on the other hand, cleaves to Tsotsitaal, formerly a criminal argot with roots in the urban townships. Tsotsitaal's evolution into an urban variety of Setswana, which is increasingly a medium of urban national culture, is the focus of this study. It will be investigated in terms of the gendered nature of shifting social boundaries in South Africa's urban communities. Research on Tswana peoples' speech behavior and language ideologies will consist of participant observation, recording of unelicited "natural" conversation, informal interviews, and archival study. By developing (1) linguistic descriptions of speech variation and the structural relationship of Urban Setswana to Standard Setswana, and (2) a historical/ ethnographic account of forces shaping the communities in which this variation is found, it becomes possible to (3) reach broader conclusions about language's role in mediating social identities an d political change.

南非种族隔离制度的结束使得以前在这个国家内划分明确的种族、政治和语言界限变得模糊或改变。随着分离的修辞和政策被多元文化统一和平等的话语所取代，城镇、乡镇和村庄之间受种族影响和性别影响的社会差异也被一种正在城市中心发展并散发出来的民族文化所侵蚀。本研究的目的是确定在博普塔茨瓦纳这个前“民族家园”中，调解语言和社会身份、种族和国家变化的城市语言的新形式。所讨论的城市语言的多样性源于两种语言，并调解了南非黑人的两种身份。在西北省以前是博普塔茨瓦纳一部分的地区，民族认同依附于茨瓦纳语，这是一种标准化的（现在已得到全国承认的）语言，但在城市社区中却处于社会死亡状态。另一方面，南非人的身份认同与Tsotsitaal有关，它以前是一个源于城镇的犯罪行话。茨瓦纳语演变为茨瓦纳语的城市变体，并日益成为城市民族文化的媒介，是本研究的重点。它将根据南非城市社区不断变化的社会界限的性别性质进行调查。对茨瓦纳人的言语行为和语言意识形态的研究将包括参与式观察、自发的“自然”对话记录、非正式访谈和档案研究。通过发展(1)语言变化的语言描述和城市茨瓦纳语与标准茨瓦纳语的结构关系，以及(2)对形成这种变化的社区的力量进行历史/民族志描述，就有可能(3)就语言在调解社会认同和政治变革方面的作用得出更广泛的结论。