Sheila Mmusi’s research while affiliated with University of Limpopo and other places

Illness representations have been shown to differ across cultures. The aim of the study was to study disease terminology and lay prototypes among a Northern Sotho community in South Africa. The sample for a free listing of disease terms included 41 (55%) women and 34 (45%) men, with a mean age of 36 years (SD=5.6, range 18 to 75 years). The sample for pile sorting of disease terms included 80 Northern Sotho-speaking third-year students from the University of Limpopo; 44 women, 36 men, mean age, 23.4 years (SD=3.4). From free listing of disease terms 50 were selected for pile sorting. Using hierarchical cluster analysis the following clusters could be identified: (1) respiratory problems, (2) internal body problems and sexually transmitted diseases, (3) chronic diseases and head diseases, (4) child diseases and mental problems, (5) child diseases and cancer, (6) feet problems, (7) gastrointestinal diseases. There was homogeneity of features within cluster and difference between clusters.

Locative inversion has often been treated as an unaccusativity phenomenon in languages as typologically different as English and Chichewa (e.g. Bresnan 1990). Yet Bantu languages show some diversity in the thematic structure of verbs that can occur with locative inversion and related expletive/impersonal constructions. This paper provides a detailed examination of locative inversion and expletive constructions in Setswana, showing that this class of presentational focus constructions exhibits morphological, syntactic, agreement, and discourse characteristics that differ from those of Chichewa and other Bantu languages. It shows that these differences, the result of morphological loss during historical change, can best be understood synchronically within a theory of partial information structures (Bresnan 1982).

The urge to label others is a universal phenomenon that is attested in all of the world's languages. South African English, a transplanted language according to Kachru (1990), distinguishes itself from other varieties of English through its unique ethnic labeling terminology. Throughout South African history, the indigenous peoples received a good number of labels, most of which were derogatory in nature - always denoting the superiority of the whites who were doing the labeling. Among others, the terms include Non-White, Non-European, Native, Bantu, Hottentot, Bushmen, Coloured, Plural, and so on. It should be noted that the indigenous peoples already had a system of labeling terms that they used to self-identify as ethnic groups, namely Xhosa, Zulu, Venda, Tswana, Khoikhoi, San and more. British colonial rule as well as the system of Apartheid, which is based on racial segregation, led to the institutionalization of many of these terms, for example, Native, Non-European, Coloured, Plural, etc. However, political and social developments originating from constant protests by the oppressed, as well as reactions from the government, affected the semantic connotations of some of these terms as well as the creation of new ones. The semantic shifts involved a redefinition of some of the existing terminology - such as Black - from color connotations to political connotations. Other meaning shifts ranged from the melioration (acquiring good value judgements) to the pejoration (acquiring bad value judgements) of some of the terms. This paper focuses on the socio-political factors that are leading to the shifts in connotation in the post-Apartheid system by examining the consequences of those shifts for the English lexicon in South Africa.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1992. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 225-229). Photocopy.