The discursive construction of the language policy debate at Stellenbosch University : an investigation of the Cape Times and Die Burger

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis reports on the ways in which the Stellenbosch University language policy debate is reported on in English and Afrikaans language communities by investigating the discursive construction thereof in hard news reports published in the South African daily publications, Die Burger and the Cape Times. The data collected for the study spans from 1999 to 2016. The study employs the discourse-historical approach (Reisigl and Wodak, 2009) as the main analytical tool, in conjunction with language ideology theory (Woolard, 1998). Supplementary discursive strategies are employed within the structure of the discourse historical approach, such as Fairclough's (2003) relational approach to texts; and Scollon's (1998) voiced agents and agents of speaking; Irvine and Gal's 'iconisation'; and White's (1997) 'intensification'. The findings suggest that the debate has taken place primarily in Afrikaans, allowing little opportunity for counter-ideologies to be explored in the Afrikaans speaking community. This results in the construction and perpetuation of radicalised discourse, reminiscent of right-wing populist discourse (Wodak, 2015) in Die Burger. Furthermore, the findings indicate that both Die Burger and the Cape Times employ metaphors of war in their reporting. Die Burger's overt use of the war metaphor is symptomatic of a loss of hegemony experienced in post-Apartheid South Africa, expressed as a loss of language (Blommaert, 2011). In the Cape Times, however, a variation of this war metaphor is subtly employed in recent years as a liberation discourse (Blommaert and Verschueren, 1998), by indexing race and transformation with language. The most salient finding suggests that while hard news reports seem to be neutral in tone, the iconisation of social actors, as well as the intensification of lexis are means for perspectivisation for both newspapers. In this thesis, it is argued that language is emblematic for larger socio-political insecurities experienced by a young democratic nation. Therefore, the ultimate aim of this study is to highlight the socio-linguistic complexity of South Africa to the international field of Linguistics. This thesis hopes to attract innovative and sustainable language policy and planning solutions for the linguistic and intellectual development of the multilingual South African population; while sustaining and further developing the Afrikaans language as an inclusive, creative, and academic language.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University