Afrika südlich der Sahara
18 search hits
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From a phone call to the high court : wayeyi visibility and the Kamanakao association’s campaign for linguistic and cultural rights in Botswana
(2002)
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Lydia Nyati-Ramahobo
- This paper by the Coordinator of the Kamanakao Association reflects upon the Association’s campaign against tribally discriminatory laws, against the social stigma of past serfdom, and for human rights and democracy in Botswana. The campaign made Wayeyi from the North West District highly visible on the national scene. Through litigation up to the High Court, the Kamanakao Association broke new ground for judicial review in the broad public interest. The advance was for the cultural rights of ‘minorities’ in general, and not only in the interest of the Wayeyi. The most favourable High Court ruling recognised Yei cultural distinctness, allowed them to secede from the tribe of their past overlords, the Tawana, and concluded a landmark case in the wider fight against state-backed tribal discrimination and denial of language rights. As an insider’s account mainly about recent events, but seen in a perspective extending to precolonial times, the paper focuses on strategies for and against change. These are the strategies effecting the power relations, in turn, between the Yeyi and the Tawana, former serfs and overlords, the Yeyi and the Government, and the Government and the Tswana speaking tribes unfairly privileged by the tribally discriminatory laws.
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Synopsis articles in the planning of a trilingual dictionary ; Yilumbu–French–English
(2002)
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P.A. Mavoungou
- A distinction is often drawn between single articles and synopsis articles. A single article is the so-called default article. It does not deviate from the traditional microstructural approach of the dictionary because it presents the minimum data for each lemma sign treated, while a synopsis article gives additional data for each treated lemma. The classical conception of the synopsis article originates with Bergenholtz, Tarp and Wiegand (1999). In their view, synopsis articles which were devised for language for special purposes (LSP) dictionaries have to make provision for the treatment of lemma signs functioning as superordinate terms (general lemmata or topics) as well as their hyponyms. The aim of this article is to present a new lexicographic approach to the study of synopsis articles against the background of a planned trilingual dictionary. It will be shown that synopsis articles have a more general use than its restricted application in LSP dictionaries. In fact, the focus will not be on the treatment of technical or scientific vocabulary but rather on cultural terms. This article also raises among other things, questions about the purpose of the planned dictionary, its target users, different types of microstructures as well as different data categories to be included in synopsis articles.
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The reproduction of cultural aspects in dictionaries in French and the Gabonese languages
(2003)
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P.A. Mavoungou
Thierry Afane Otsaga
Guy-Roger Mihindou
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Macro- and microstructural issuesin Mazuna lexicography
(2004)
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P.A. Mavoungou
- All the works in Mazuna lexicography have a common denominator: they are translation dictionaries biased towards French and were compiled by Catholic and Protestant missionaries or colonial administrators. These dictionaries have both strong and weak points. The macrostructure although it does not display features of sophistication, i.e. the use of niching and nesting procedures, tends to survey the full lexicon of the language which make these dictionaries real reservoirs of knowledge. The microstructure contains a lot of useful entries. However, no metalexicographic discussion is provided in the user's guide to make it accessible to the target reader. There are also some shortcomings especially in the areas of suprasegmental phonology (absence of tonal indications) and orthography.
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Lexicography in Gabon : a survey
(2009)
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B. Nyangone Assam
P.A. Mavoungou
- This paper traces the historical development of lexicography in Gabon. Gabon, like most African countries, is multilingual. The recent inventories of languages spoken in Gabon are those established by Jacquot (1978) and Kwenzi-Mikala (1998). According to Kwenzi-Mikala (1997), there are 62 speech forms divided into 10 language groups or language-units in Gabon. These speech forms co-exist with French, the official language. In fact, in article 2 of paragraph 8 of the revised Constitution of 1994 the following can be read: "The Gabonese Republic adopts French as the official language. Furthermore, she endeavours to protect and promote the national languages." This constitutional arrangement naturally makes French the language used in education, administration and the media. The survey of lexicography in Gabon that is presented here includes the linguistic situation in and the language policy of Gabon, the lexicographic survey itself, as well as the lexicographic needs of the different speech forms (including languages and dialects). Initially, the pioneers of Gabonese lexicography were missionaries or colonial administrators. Very little was done in this field by the Gabonese themselves. Although credit is to be given to these early works, there are a number of shortcomings regarding the linguistic as well as the metalexicographic contents of dictionaries and lexicons produced during this period. In fact, the main weak point of those studies was the lack of tones in the written transcription of oral productions and orthographic problems. Furthermore, in those contributions, the theory of lexicography is largely unknown and lexico-graphic works are hardly ever based on authentic data corpora of the languages being described.
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On issues of labelling in the dictionnaire Français–Mpongwé ; a case-study
(2005)
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P.A. Mavoungou
- Dictionaries contain lexicographic data whose occurrence is restricted to certain geo-graphical areas, subject fields, professions, etc. It is part of the duties of the lexicographer to give an account of such deviations to ensure a successful retrieval of the information on the part of the user. This contribution presents a discussion on labelling issues in the Dictionnaire Français–Mpongwé. Although the main focus is on the presentation of different types of labelling as well as problems in labelling, textual condensation procedures and mediostructural representations (to-gether with some aspects of the user perspective) are also critically evaluated. It is shown that these procedures reveal some inconsistencies which are not accounted for in the outer texts (front matter and back matter texts) of the dictionary. Finally suggestions are made for the improvement of the access structure of this dictionary.
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A trilingual dictionary Yilumbu–French–English ; an ongoing project
(2006)
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P.A. Mavoungou
- In this article, an account is given of the planning of a trilingual dictionary Yilumbu– French–English. The focus is on the target user, the purpose, nature and typology of the planned dictionary. Attention is also paid to some macro- and microstructural issues. For example, all types of lexical items, including multiword lexical items, are given lemma status. Moreover all items are included according to the word tradition and on account of their usage frequency in the corpus. Apart from these aspects, types of dialectal forms as well as the type of special-field lexical items are also discussed. From a microstructural point of view, this article investigates different kinds of data types to be considered for inclusion in complex articles in particular. User-friendliness parameters and innovative access structure procedures also come into play.
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A provisional comparison of the English-based Atlantic Creoles
(1969)
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Ian F. Hancock
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The Mbuti as hunters : a study of ecological anthropology of the Mbuti Pygmies (1)
(1976)
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Reizo Harako
- The Mbuti people. "the Pygmies of the Ituri Forest", have long been considered the nucleus of pygmy groups in Equatorial Africa, and have been studied by Sche besta, Gusinde, Putnam, and Turnbull. to name a few. Most of these studies were mainly somatometrical or concerned with the society, culture and religion, for the most part overlooking the ecological aspect. Until this time, few studies made by researchers directly involved in observing and participating in the hunting-gathering style of life have gone into an in-depth, ecology-focused approach to that life. C. M. Turnbull, in his book, "The Mbuti Pygmies: An Ethnographic Survey" (1965a), divides the Mbuti people into net hunters and archers. and summarizes ethnographic data gathered by Schebesta and Putnam, which he then uses to compare the two groups. He makes the point that the hunting-gathering economy exerts a great influence upon Mbuti society and ideology, tending to regulate their way of life. However. his data and analysis of actual hunting activities do not seem sufficient enough to prove this point. The same is the case with previous research of band societies around the world: It has often been stated that a hunting-gathering economy brings forth nomadism, division of labor according to sex, co-operation of labor, egalitarianism, distribution of food among the group, etc. Subsequently, studies have been undertaken to discover how these factors work to regulate the social life, social structure and ideology of a given hunting-gathering group. However, each time substantial investigation of the various hunting and food gathering activities themselves. which support the hunting-gathering economy, seems to have been left out. Cultural anthropologists who take the standpoint of cultural ecology discuss the relationships between the culture of a given group and its natural environment, but they make only a general description of both the natural environment involved, and of the actual association of the culture to that environment. This paper. as the first report on the ecological-anthropological studies of the Mbuti people. deals mainly with hunting, one of their subsistence activities. illustrating its various features and attempting to discuss the data I have obtained. Since the focus of this paper is on hunting activities, I will not cover the general life of the Mbuti people; the more general economic activities, social life, ideology, and so on. I will deal with these problems in another report. Here, I want to make it the ultimate object to gain clearer comprehension of Mbuti life, society, and mentality by concentrating on Mbuti hunting, which is closely connected with nature. This account obtained by first-hand observation of hunting activities, will illustrate the general hunting methods of the Mbuti people, and discuss the mode of existence of the Mbuti band. T. Tanno is to make a more detailed analysis of net hunting.
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Rumour under conditions of charismatic leadership and racial political tension
(1968)
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David G. Bettison
