30 NQF credits at NQF level 8

Convener: Dr. Z Msomi

Course entry requirements: Acceptance for an honours programme.

Course outline: An appropriate research paper, chosen in consultation with the supervisor, of approximately 15,000 words in length must be submitted by no later than 27 October.

DP requirements: Attendance at seminars is compulsory, failing which students’ papers may not be marked.

Assessment: Research/Essay Project.

24 NQF credits at NQF level 8

Convener: Dr. Z Msomi

Course entry requirements: Acceptance for an honours or postgraduate diploma programme.

Course outline: This course focuses on the writings of a range of Africa's liberation intellectuals, from nationalist leaders and social scientists to cultural activists, theorists and writers. The main objective of the course is, first: to highlight the main issues that have preoccupied these intellectuals and to examine their ideas in relation to the contexts in which they were produced; and second, to conduct a close reading of their key texts in the light of contemporary theoretical approaches to questions of colonialism, post colonialism, cultural identity and modernity. The course will cover topics such as Pan-Africanism, negritude and race, the politics and truth value of autobiographies, nationalism and national consciousness. Key authors such as Leopold Sedar Senghor, Chinua Achebe, Ngugi Wa Thiongo, Steve Biko, Walter Rodney, Samir Amin will be studied alongside Frantz Fanon, Amical Cabral, Julius Nyerere, Kwame Nkrumah, Nelson Mandela, Mamphela Ramphele and Zubeida Jaffer.

DP requirements: Attendance at seminars is compulsory, failing which students’ papers may not be marked  

Assessment: (25% each): 50%; research project: 50%.

24 NQF credits at NQF level 8

Convener: Dr. M Moyo

Course entry requirements: Acceptance for an honours programme.

Course outline:This course looks at the various development approaches and theories adopted by African states at different times. The course examines some of the most influential theories of development which emerged in the context of the post-Second World War situation focusing on how these theories have been used in Africa. In examining the different development theories, the course also investigates how Africans have responded to these theories. The course examines the question of whether African countries need to rethink these approaches and theories. Emerging views about Africa's development trajectory are also discussed. Critical questions about whether Africa can achieve sustainable economic growth and development by deploying conventional development and economic growth theory are discussed.

DP requirements: Attendance at seminars is compulsory, failing which students’ papers may not be marked.

Assessment: Class participation & presentation (10%); 3000-word research paper (35%); 5000-word essay (55%).

24 NQF credits at NQF level 8

Convener: Dr. F Mazwi

Course entry requirements: Acceptance for an honours programme.

Course outline: The prevalence of large-scale land acquisition in the context of rising food prices since the 2008/09 financial and economic crisis has brought the issues of land and land use in Africa in the spotlight. As a result, land and agrarian matters in Africa are increasingly having a direct bearing on broader issues including food security, environmental sustainability, economic growth, social and political stability, social justice and rural livelihoods. By introducing the land and agrarian questions in Africa this course critically examines the different dimensions of land, including patterns of land ownership, types of land tenure, land reform types, issues of tenure security, means of accessing land, land administration structures and institutions forms of land use, and the challenges (and opportunities?) posed by the current large-scale land acquisitions in different African communities. The course will draw examples from selected countries on the African continent. This course examines these dimensions of the land and agrarian questions in Africa in both their historical and contemporary contexts.

Assessment: Participation: 15%; Short Essay: 35%; Main paper: 50%.

24 NQF credits at NQF level 8

Convener: Dr. Z Msomi

Course entry requirements: Acceptance for an honours programme.

Course outline:The course examines the political and economic theory and rationale for Pan-Africanism and regional integration, with particular focus on how this has played out on the African continent over time. Emphasis in the course is on understanding the origins of Pan-Africanism, the current initiatives and arrangements towards regional integration, and the link between the two. The course provides an overview of past and contemporary strategies, initiatives and programmes aimed at unifying the continent. Students are introduced to the key challenges and opportunities of integration and development in Africa. While the philosophy of Pan-Africanism is still cited in some quarters as the basis for regional integration today, economic, and to a lesser extent political rationale, has dominated the motive behind regional integration. There is more emphasis now on the economic gains that can come from integrating the African continent than on any other motives. Given this context the course examines whether Pan-Africanism plays any role in the current drive towards regional integration. In the course, students are encouraged to critically reflect on whether the current motives for regional integration are strong enough to overcome the tendency towards national sovereignty and individualism in the continent.

Assessment: Participation: 15%; Short Essay: 35%; Main Essay: 50%.

24 NQF credits at NQF level 8

Convener: Dr. D Jethro

Course entry requirements: Acceptance for an honours programme.

Course outline: The course looks at the relationship between power and knowledge, within the context of the history of Africa since colonialism and the development of the disciplines that study this continent. It is a relationship that helps to explain the links between colonialism and the formation of disciplines, between imperialism and language studies, in ways that not only cut across disciplines, but were in fact, responsible for formulating those disciplinary boundaries in the first place. The writings of intellectuals who have contributed to the formulation of our understanding of how and why knowledge of the continent has developed and whose interests this knowledge has served, will be examined. The disciplines that will be interrogated are: history, gender studies, social anthropology and literary studies.

Assessment: Two essays (25% each): 50%; research project: 50%.

30 NQF credits at NQF level 8

Convener: Professor A Deumert

Course entry requirements: Acceptance for an honours programme.

Course outline: An appropriate research paper, chosen in consultation with the Graduate convener, of approximately 15,000 words in length.

DP requirements: Attendance at the research methodology seminars in the Linguistics Section.

Assessment: Research/essay project 100%.

24 NQF credits at NQF level 8

Convener: Dr. S Mpendukana

Course entry requirements: Acceptance for an honours programme.

Course outline:The course explores the relationship between language and race by introducing students to the theoretical and ideological developments of racial hierarchies and their implications for society. In multilingual and multicultural contexts, such as South Africa, Africa and the Americas, this often carries implication for speakers and their well-being. We will explore the conceptions of race and their linguistic and semiotic manifestation through using the decolonial lenses to look into the social, economic and political relevance of race and language. Broadly, the course aims to emphasize how race and language are physically experienced daily by language speakers. This brings into discussion the ideas of race, language and affectivity as a way of reading social politics and their implications. DP requirements: 75% attendance at seminars, and submission of all assigned work.

Assessment: A minor essay of 1500 words = 20%; major essay 4500 words = 70% ; A presentation = 10%

24 NQF credits at NQF level 8

Convener: Dr. M Thompson

Course entry requirements: Acceptance for an honours programme. Co-requisites: ASL4321FS Research Methodology in Linguistics

Course outline:This course will introduce students to analytical frameworks in Linguistics. This will include discourse analysis, conversation analysis, thematic analysis, and content analysis. The course will prepare students for the research component of their degree

DP requirements: Submission of all written work.

Assessment: 100% coursework. Might include weekly tasks and exercises.

24 NQF credits at NQF level 8

Convener: Professor A Deumert

Course entry requirements: Acceptance for an honours programme.

Course outline: This course will introduce students to research methods in Linguistics. This will include quantitative methods, qualitative methods, ethnography, fieldwork and ethics. The course will prepare students for the research component of their degree.

DP requirements: Submission of all written work and at least 75% attendance at seminars.

Assessment: 100% coursework. Might include weekly tasks, compilation of a literature review of a given topic; development of research proposal.

96 NQF credits at NQF level 9

Convener: Dr. Z Msomi

Course entry requirements: Acceptance for a master’s programme.

Course outline:A dissertation completed under supervision which shows thorough practical and/or academic knowledge of the approved subject and methods of research, and evidence of independent critical power in the handling and interpretation of material already known or newly discovered, may embody such original work of others as may be pertinent, may include the candidate's own published material on the same subject, if the prior permission of the Senate has been obtained. The dissertation must be the candidate’s own work and any contributions to and quotations in the dissertation must be cited and referenced.

DP requirements: Attendance at seminars is compulsory, failing which students’ papers may not be marked.

Assessment: A dissertation of no more than 25,000 words in length.

24 NQF credits at NQF level 9

Convener: Dr D Jethro

Course entry requirements: Acceptance for a master’s programme.

Course outline: The course looks at the relationship between power and knowledge, within the context of the history of Africa since colonialism and the development of the disciplines that study this continent. It is a relationship that helps to explain the links between colonialism and the formation of disciplines, between imperialism and language studies, in ways that not only cut across disciplines but were in fact, responsible for formulating those disciplinary boundaries in the first place. The writings of intellectuals who have contributed to the formulation of our understanding of how and why knowledge of the continent has developed and whose interests this knowledge has served will be examined. The disciplines that will be interrogated are history, gender studies, social anthropology, and literary studies.

DP requirements: Attendance at seminars is compulsory, failing which students’ papers may not be marked.

Assessment: Two essays (20% each) 40%; research proposal 10%; major project 50%.

24 NQF credits at NQF level 9

Convener: Dr. F Mazwi

Course entry requirements: Acceptance for a master’s programme.

Course outline:The prevalence of large-scale land acquisition in the context of rising food prices since the 2008/09 financial and economic crisis has brought the issues of land and land use in Africa in the spotlight. As a result, land and agrarian matters in Africa are increasingly having a direct bearing on broader issues including food security, environmental sustainability, economic growth, social and political stability, social justice and rural livelihoods. By introducing the land and agrarian questions in Africa this course critically examines the different dimensions of land, including patterns of land ownership, types of land tenure, land reform types, issues of tenure security, means of accessing land, land administration structures and institutions forms of land use, and the challenges (and opportunities?) posed by the current large-scale land acquisitions in different African communities. The course will draw examples from selected countries on the African continent. This course examines these dimensions of the land and agrarian questions in Africa in both their historical and contemporary contexts.

DP requirements: Submission of all prescribed assignments by due dates and satisfactory attendance and participation in coursework seminars.

Assessment: Class participation & presentation (10%); 3000-word research paper (35%); 5000-word essay (55%).

24 NQF credits at NQF level 9

Convener: Dr. Z Msomi

Course entry requirements: Acceptance for a master’s programme.

Course outline:The course examines the political and economic theory and rationale for Pan-Africanism and regional integration, with particular focus on how this has played out on the African continent over time. Emphasis in the course is on understanding the origins of Pan-Africanism, the current initiatives and arrangements towards regional integration, and the link between the two. The course provides an overview of past and contemporary strategies, initiatives and programmes aimed at unifying the continent. Students are introduced to the key challenges and opportunities of integration and development in Africa. While the philosophy of Pan-Africanism is still cited in some quarters as the basis for regional integration today, economic, and to a lesser extent political rationale, has dominated the motive behind regional integration. There is more emphasis now on the economic gains that can come from integrating the African continent than on any other motives. Given this context the course examines whether Pan-Africanism plays any role in the current drive towards regional integration. In the course, students are encouraged to critically reflect on whether the current motives for regional integration are strong enough to overcome the tendency toward national sovereignty and individualism in the continent.

DP requirements: Submission of all written work and attendance at all seminars.

Assessment: Seminar presentations & participation 15%, short essay 35% (3000 words), long essay (5000 words) 50%.

24 NQF credits at NQF level 9

Convener: TBA

Course entry requirements: Acceptance for a master’s programme.

Course outline: In this course we take a look at some of the key collections in the Manuscripts and Archives division of the University of Cape Town Library, and at some of the bodies of scholarly work to which they have given rise. As one of the oldest university archives in Southern African the collections speak – in image and text – of the formation of a range of discipline-based knowledges dealing with Africa. On the one hand, this takes the form of the emergence, formatisation and institutionalisation of a range of collecting and recording practices, fieldwork methodologies and the like. On the other hand, it takes the form of the emergence of various disciplinary discourses and their associated “objects” and “fields”. The key source of insight in the course lies in exploring how these different objects and fields are not natural or given but have been formed and constructed in relation to specific social contexts and intellectual histories. Significant collections examined in this course include the Bleek/Lloyd collection, the Goodwin Collection and the Hahn Collection. Particular emphasis is placed on the many hundreds of photographic images that form part of these collections as a point of entry into larger disciplinary debates and concerns.

Assessment: Major project: 50%, Research proposal: 10%, Additional material: 40%.

96 NQF credits at NQF level 9

Convener: Professor A Deumert

Course entry requirements: Acceptance for a master’s programme.

Course outline: A dissertation completed under supervision which shows thorough practical and/or academic knowledge of the approved subject and methods of research, and evidence of independent critical power in the handling and interpretation of material already known or newly discovered, may embody such original work of others as may be pertinent, may include the candidate's own published material on the same subject, if the prior permission of the Senate has been obtained. The dissertation must be the candidate’s own work and any contributions to and quotations in the dissertation must be cited and referenced.

DP requirements: Consultation with Supervisor.

Assessment: A dissertation of no more than 25,000 words in length.

24 NQF credits at NQF level 9

Convener: Dr. S Mpendukana

Course entry requirements: Acceptance for a master’s programme.

Course outline:The course explores the relationship between language and race by introducing students to the theoretical and ideological developments of racial hierarchies and their implications for society. In multilingual and multicultural contexts, such as South Africa, Africa and the Americas, this often carries implication for speakers and their well-being. We will explore the conceptions of race and their linguistic and semiotic manifestation through using the decolonial lenses to look into the social, economic and political relevance of race and language. Broadly, the course aims to emphasise how race and language are physically experienced daily by language speakers. This brings into discussion the ideas of race, language and affectivity as a way of reading social politics and their implications.

DP requirements: At least 75% attendance at all lectures and seminars, and completion of all assigned work.

Assessment: A minor essay of 2000 words = 20%; major essay 6000 words = 70%; A presentation = 10%.

24 NQF credits at NQF level 9

Convener: Dr. M Thompson

Course entry requirements: Acceptance for a master’s programme. Co-requisites: Research Methodology in Linguistics ASL4321F

Course outline: This course will introduce students to analytical frameworks in Linguistics. This will include discourse analysis, conversation analysis, thematic analysis, and content analysis. The course will prepare students for the research component of their degree.

DP requirements: Submission of all written work.

Assessment: 100% coursework. Might include weekly tasks and exercises.

(May not be offered in 2023)

24 NQF credits at NQF level 8

Convener: TBA

Course entry requirements: Acceptance for an honours programme.

Course outline: This course explores issues in public culture affecting Africa in a global context. Detailed examples illustrate how public culture is shaped, and how public expressions of identity and difference manifest in spaces and buildings, heritage, music and literature. An interdisciplinary course, it introduces various theoretical perspectives on culture and uses evidence from archaeology, history, architecture, literature and cultural studies. Its empirical focus ranges from the archaeology of pre-colonial Africa to the public culture of the Internet.

DP requirements: Attendance at seminars is compulsory, failing which students’ papers may not be marked.

Assessment: Two essays (25% each) 50%; major project 50%.

(May not be offered in 2023)

24 NQF credits at NQF level 8

Convener: TBA

Course entry requirements: Acceptance for an honours programme.

Course outline: In this course we take a look at some of the key collections in the Manuscripts and Archives division of the University of Cape Town Library, and at some of the bodies of scholarly work to which they have given rise. As one of the oldest university archives in Southern African the collections speak – in image and text – of the formation of a range of discipline-based knowledges dealing with Africa. On the one hand, this takes the form of the emergence, formatisation and institutionalisation of a range of collecting and recording practices, fieldwork methodologies and the like. On the other hand, it takes the form of the emergence of various disciplinary discourses and their associated “objects” and “fields”. The key source of insight in the course lies in exploring how these different objects and fields are not natural or given but have been formed and constructed in relation to specific social contexts and intellectual histories. Significant collections examined in this course include the Bleek/Lloyd collection, the Goodwin Collection and the Hahn Collection. Particular emphasis is placed on the many hundreds of photographic images that form part of these collections as a point of entry into larger disciplinary debates and concerns.

DP requirements: Attendance at seminars is compulsory, failing which students’ papers may not be marked.

Assessment: Two essays (25% each) 50%; major project 50%.

(Not offered in 2023)

24 NQF credits at NQF level 8

Convener: TBA

Course entry requirements: Acceptance for an honours programme.

Course outline: This course explores the diverse consequences of language contact and multilingualism, focusing on themes such as societal and individual multilingualism, language and identity, borrowing, mixing, language maintenance and shift, language policy and language ideologies, heteroglossia and hybridity. Readings and discussions will focus on African multilingualism (including the Diaspora) within a global context.

DP requirements: Submission of all written work and at least 75% attendance at seminars.

Assessment: A research proposal counting 25% and an essay of approximately 6,000 words, counting 75%.

(May not be offered in 2023) 24 NQF credits at NQF level 8

Convener: Professor A Deumert

Course entry requirements: Acceptance for an honours programme. This course may only be taken with special permission.

Course outline:This is a course involving independent study of a special topic within linguistics that is not offered as a regular course. Students will do independent readings based on a list of readings on a set topic that is related to their research interests, e.g. Biological Foundations of Language, Advanced topics in Code-Switching, etc.

DP requirements: Submission of all written work and at least 75% attendance at seminars.

Assessment: Two essays of 5,000 words, each, counting 50%.

(Not offered in 2023)

24 NQF credits at NQF level 8

Convener: TBA

Course entry requirements: Acceptance for an honours programme.

Course outline:The course aims to examine the way in which language use varies within society, in relation to key sociological variables like age, gender, class and ethnicity and to contextual variables like style and relations between speakers. Key texts will include the writings of Labov, Milroy and Myers-Scotton. Emphasis will fall on sociophonetics and language contact.

DP requirements: Submission of all written work and at least 75% attendance at seminars.

Assessment: Two minor assignments (approx. 1200 words each) counting 20% each, one major essay (approx. 3500 words) counting 60%.

(Not offered in 2023)

24 NQF credits at NQF level 8

Convener: TBA

Course entry requirements: Acceptance for an honours programme.

Course outline:This course aims at familiarising students with a wide range of subfields of Linguistics with a focus on African languages:

• Introduction to Linguistics with reference to African languages: phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, pragmatics and discourse.
• History and classification of African languages; language contact.
• Sociology of language and language planning in Africa.

DP requirements: Submission of all written work and at least 75% attendance at seminars.

Assessment: One set of short exercises (approx. 2,000 words), counting 30% and a major essay of 4,000 words, counting 70% of the total mark.

(Not offered in 2023)

24 NQF credits at NQF level 8

Convener: TBA

Course entry requirements: Acceptance for an honours programme.

Course outline:This course aims to introduce the fundamentals of language planning and policy in education with a special focus on African languages. It discusses the various aspects of language planning such as status planning, corpus planning and language acquisition planning. The role of African languages is critically examined in all these three components of language planning. The focus of the course is on both schooling and higher education.

DP requirements: 75% attendance and participation at seminars; completion of set readings before each seminar; completion of assigned work within set deadlines.

Assessment: Two short essays of 3,000 words and a translation exercise, or three short essays of 2,000 words, each counting 33% of the final mark.

(Not offered in 2023)

24 NQF credits at NQF level 8

Convener: TBA

Course entry requirements: Acceptance for an honours programme

Course outline: This course explores methods and recent developments in generative syntax, especially Chomsky's minimalist programme. We focus on the development of minimalism from transformational grammar, and the theoretical divide between the cartographic enterprise and bare phrase structure, as well as theoretical differences and conflicts between generativism and functionalist models of grammar.

DP requirements: Submission of all written work and at least 75% attendance at seminars.

Assessment: The course will be assessed on the basis of two short assignments, each counting 30% towards the overall mark, and one long essay (about 3500 words), counting 40% towards the overall mark.

(Not offered in 2023)

24 NQF credits at NQF level 8

Convener: TBA

Course entry requirements: Acceptance to an honours programme

Course outline: Sociophonetics is concerned with the interface between Phonetics and Sociolinguistics in relation to empirical studies of language variation, whereas the broader field of Language Variation and Change covers the conceptual relations between social variables (e.g. class, ethnicity and gender) and linguistic variables (lexical, syntactic or phonetic), Sociophonetics pays closer attention to the phonetic dimension. This course accordingly focuses in detail on the research methods that will prepare students for their own future work. The main emphasis will fall on (a) practical acoustics, especially the measurement of vowels and certain consonants using the computer programme PRAAT; (b) techniques of normalisation, including BARK and Watts-Fabricius; (c) basic statistical analysis; and (d) presentation and analysis of South African data in relation to language variation and change.

DP requirements: Submission of all written work and at least 75% attendance at seminars

Assessment: 1. Acoustic measurements and plotting of vowels (25%) 2. Assignment on analysis of dialect variation (25%) 3. Group project on analysis of a sociophonetic variable in South African English (50%)

(Not offered in 2023)

24 NQF credits at NQF level 8

Convener: Professor A Deumert

Course entry requirements: Acceptance for an honours programme.

Course outline:This course provides a comprehensive introduction to linguistic anthropology, a discipline located at the intersection of cultural anthropology and linguistics. Linguistic anthropologists seek to understand language as an integral part of culture. This perspective makes it possible for linguistic anthropologists to use linguistic evidence and methods of linguistics to investigate the culture of a specific speech community and to bring cultural evidence and anthropological methods to bear on the study of language.

DP requirements: Submission of all written work and at least 75% attendance at seminars.

Assessment: Three separate assignments: a literature review (2,000 words – 33%), an online project (2,000 words – 33%) and a research project (3,000 words – 34%).

(Not offered in 2023)

24 NQF credits at NQF level 8

Convener: Dr. S Mpendukana

Course entry requirements: Acceptance for an honours programme.

Course outline:Linguistics and Decolonisation is a course that aims to provide a critical reading of linguistics through the Global South lens by grappling with the modernist and colonial foundations of the discipline. This is a necessary step to disentangle the contemporary debates and multiple intersections that confront linguists.

DP requirements: Submission of all written work and regular attendance of seminars.

Assessment: 100% coursework. This might include essays, presentations and projects in accordance with the course content.

(May not be offered in 2022) 24 NQF credits at NQF level 9

Convener: Dr. D Jethro

Course entry requirements: Acceptance for a master’s programme.

Course outline:In this course we examine a set of critical issues in the field of heritage studies, as they are currently unfolding. We take a case study approach to look at currently breaking issues in heritage theory, policy and practice. In particular, we are interested in those points at which heritage forms a cutting edge in broader contestations around culture, identity and history. In addition, as a way of making sense of heritage management discourses, we examine some of the intellectual histories and genealogies of formulations of heritage in South Africa.

DP requirements: Attendance at seminars is compulsory, failing which students’ papers may not be marked.

Assessment: One major project 100%.

(May not be offered in 2023) 24 NQF credits at NQF level 9

Convener: TBA

Course entry requirements: Acceptance for a master's programme.

Course outline: This course explores issues in public culture affecting Africa in a global context. Detailed examples illustrate how public culture is shaped, and how public expressions of identity and difference manifest in spaces and buildings, heritage, music and literature. An interdisciplinary course, it introduces various theoretical perspectives on culture and uses evidence from archaeology, history, architecture, literature and cultural studies. Its empirical focus ranges from the archaeology of pre-colonial Africa to the public culture of the Internet. The course interweaves and links engagement with theory with the development of skills that are useful in the worlds of film and media practice, heritage practice, business, advertising etc. The theory component considers key texts demonstrating "tools to think with", and allowing shifts between general propositions and real-world examples, thereby probing the socio-cultural world’s underlying structures. The skills development component focuses on the conceptual planning and development of projects in the phase preceding final production. In particular, the course develops historically- and theoretically-informed, reflexive understandings of culture and identity, in contexts of diverse heritage and media practices. It offers a unique convergence of theory and practice, around a number of key sites of identity and contestation: "race", "public culture", "African-ness", and the like.

Assessment: Two essays: 25% each: Project: 50%.

(Not offered in 2023)

24 NQF credits at NQF level 9

Convener: Mr. J Brown

Course entry requirements: Acceptance for a master’s programme.

Course outline:This course provides a comprehensive introduction to linguistic anthropology, a discipline located at the intersection of cultural anthropology and linguistics. Linguistic anthropologists seek to understand language as an integral part of culture. This perspective makes it possible for linguistic anthropologists to use linguistic evidence and methods of linguistics to investigate the culture of a specific speech community and to bring cultural evidence and anthropological methods to bear on the study of language.

DP requirements: Submission of all written work and at least 75% attendance at seminars.

Assessment: Three separate assignments: A literature review (3,000 words – 30%); an online project (3,000 words – 30%); a research project (4,000 words – 40%).

(Not offered in 2023)

24 NQF credits at NQF level 9

Convener: Mr. J Brown

Course entry requirements: Acceptance for a master's programme.

Course outline:

This course explores the diverse consequences of language contact and multilingualism, focusing on themes such as societal and individual multilingualism, language and identity, borrowing, mixing, language maintenance and shift, language policy and language ideologies, heteroglossia and hybridity. Readings and discussions will focus on African multilingualism (including the Diaspora) within a global context.

DP requirements: Submission of all written work and at least 75% attendance at seminars.

Assessment: Assessment: a research proposal (counting 25%) and an essay of approximately 10,000 words (counting 75%)

(Not offered in 2023)

24 NQF credits at NQF level 9

Convener: TBA

Course entry requirements: Acceptance for a master's programme.

Course outline:This course aims to introduce the fundamentals of language planning and policy in education with a special focus on African languages. It discusses the various aspects of language planning such as status planning, corpus planning and language acquisition planning. The role of African languages is critically examined in all these three components of language planning. The focus of the course is on both schooling and higher education.

DP requirements: 75% attendance and participation at seminars. Completion of set readings before each seminar. Completion of assigned work within set deadlines.

Assessment: Two short essays words and a translation exercise of 3,000 words, or three short essays of 3,000 words, each counting 33% of the final mark.

(Not offered in 2023)

24 NQF credits at NQF level 9

Convener: Dr M Thompson

Course entry requirements: Acceptance for a master’s programme.

Course outline:The first half of the course focuses on language contact and contact zones within the framework of migration and intercultural communication. It also involves the study of English as a lingua franca in various contexts. The second half of the course examines the colonial and post-colonial history of the spread of English, focusing on social and acquisitional contexts, typologies of "New Englishes" and "World Englishes", and the linguistic structure. Both phenomena will be located within the broader field of language contact studies and globalisation.

DP requirements: Submission of all written work and at least 75% attendance at seminars.

Assessment: One long essay of 5000 words, counting 60%, and two portfolios of exercises counting 40%.

(Not offered in 2023)

24 NQF credits at NQF level 9

Convener: TBA

Course entry requirements: Acceptance for a master’s programme

Course outline: Sociophonetics is concerned with the interface between Phonetics and Sociolinguistics in relation to empirical studies of language variation. Whereas the broader field of Language Variation and Change covers the conceptual relations between social variables (e.g. class, ethnicity and gender) and linguistic variables (lexical, syntactic or phonetic), Sociophonetics pays closer attention to the phonetic dimension. This course accordingly focuses in detail on the research methods that will prepare students for their own future work. The main emphasis will fall on (a) practical acoustics, especially the measurement of vowels and certain consonants using the computer programme PRAAT; (b) techniques of normalisation, including BARK and Watts-Fabricius; (c) basic statistical analysis; and (d) presentation and analysis of South African data in relation to language variation and change.

DP requirements: Submission of all written work and at least 75% attendance at seminars.

Assessment: 1. Acoustic measurements and plotting of vowels (25%) 2. Assignment on analysis of dialect variation (25%) 3. Group project on analysis of a sociophonetic variable in South African English (50%)

(Not offered in 2023)

24 NQF credits at NQF level 9

Convener: TBA

Course entry requirements: Acceptance for a master’s programme.

Course outline:This course explores methods and recent developments in generative syntax, especially Chomsky's Minimalist Programme. We focus on the development of Minimalism from Transformational Grammar, and the theoretical divide between the Cartographic Enterprise and Bare Phrase Structure, as well as theoretical differences and conflicts between Generativism and Functionalist models of grammar.

DP requirements: Submission of all written work and at least 75% attendance at seminars.

Assessment: The course will be assessed on the basis of two short assignments, each counting 20% towards the overall mark, and one long essay (approximately 7000 words), counting 60% towards the overall mark.

(Not offered in 2023)

24 NQF credits at NQF level 9

Convener: TBA

Course entry requirements: Acceptance for a master’s programme.

Course outline: This course aims at familiarising students with a wide range of subfields of Linguistics with a focus on African languages:

• Introduction to Linguistics with reference to African languages: phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, pragmatics and discourse.

Topics may also include: History and classification of African languages; language contact; Sociology of language and language planning in Africa.

DP requirements: Submission of all written work and at least 75% attendance at seminars.

Assessment: Two sets of exercises counting 25% each and an essay of approximately 6,000 words counting 50%.

(Not offered in 2023)

24 NQF credits at NQF level 9

Convener: TBA

Course entry requirements: Acceptance for a master's programme.

Course outline: This course provides an examination of systematic linguistic variation. Languages are classified and related to each other not only by their historical development, but also the ways in which their language systems are different from, or similar to, each other. We look for definite patterns in variation, in relation to characteristics common to all languages, and examine the feasibility of such classifications in the light of Linguistic theory.

DP requirements: Submission of all written work and at least 75% attendance at seminars.

Assessment: Data Assignment 15%; Minor essay 3000 words 25%; Major essay (independent research) 60%

(Not offered in 2023)

24 NQF credits at NQF level 9

Convener: Professor A Deumert

Course entry requirements: Acceptance for a master’s programme.

Course outline: Language ecology (sometimes also called eco-linguistics) is the study of how languages interact with one another and the larger environment in which they are spoken/written/signed. It is a paradigm that is especially well-suited to understanding the challenges of the contemporary world and that allows linguists to contribute to the social sciences more broadly.

DP requirements: Submission of all written work and regular seminar attendance.

Assessment: 100% coursework. This might include weekly tasks, compilation of a literature review of a given topic; research project.

100% coursework. This might include essays, presentations, and projects in accordance with the course content.