An analysis of account on marriage in isiXhosa

[摘要] This study deals with the analysis of accounts of marriages in isiXhosa. Gergen(1994) proposes the following aspects that such narratives should cover: structure ofnarrative account; narrative form; self-narrative: process; pragmatics of self-narrative,interknitting of narratives, and emotion. Each of the listed aspects has its ownvariants. The variants will be dealt with in Chapter four, where Gergen's theory isbeing summarised. The proposals Gergen (1994) made are central and significant inthis research, since the narratives that have been given by five Xhosa-speakingmarried persons will be analysed according to his theory on self-narratives.This research seeks to verify the validity of Gergen's (1994) theory of narratives inthe Xhosa context. The research has been conducted by involving five Xhosaspeakingmarried persons. Each person had to give his or her account of marriage inline with the topic of this research, namely, the analysis of accounts of marriage inXhosa. After narratives had been collected, an analysis of each narrative has beendone in Chapter five of this research. The analysis reveals how each narrativereflects the following: the structure of the narrative account, narrative form, selfnarrative:process, pragmatics of self-narrative, practices of self-narratives, andemotions, as suggested by Gergen (1994). Analyses vary from one narrative toanother because an account of married life varies from one person to another.Bakhtin (1981) suggest that the words that narrators use are inter-individual. Theunderstanding of social morals, values, norms, justice, and the history of thecommunity by the narrators enables them to be intelligible in their narratives. It istherefore crucial that this study be pursued in the Xhosa language becausenarratives are socially embedded. The narratives in this study could assist people tothink correctly about the marriages in the Xhosa context. The issue of marriageaffects all people, despite language diversity, and it is therefore proper that this studybe conducted in all languages. If this is not done, others may think that the findingsfrom this research is applicable to the Xhosa-speaking community only.The analytic part of this research would help communication practitioners andlanguage practitioners to analyse narratives in their languages in the same manner as they have been analysed from Xhosa narratives. This research analysis wouldassist developing communicators to grow into competent communicators.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University