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

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Publications (5)


Lay prototypes of illness among a Northern Sotho community in South Africa
  • Article

January 2006

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33 Reads

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1 Citation

Social Behavior and Personality An International Journal

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Sheila Mmusi

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Motlatso Phaswana

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Titus Misi

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.



Presentational Focus and Thematic Structure in Comparative Bantu

January 1997

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29 Reads

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84 Citations

Journal of African Languages and Linguistics

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).


Ethnic labels in South African English

March 1993

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16 Reads

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2 Citations

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.


Citations (3)


... Mmusi 1998und Frydman 2011.Das Deutsche ist Tab. 47.1 unter "other" mit anderen Minderheitensprachen zusammengefasst. ...

Reference:

Deutsch als Minderheitensprache in Afrika
On the Eleven-Official Languages Policy of the New South Africa
  • Citing Chapter
  • January 1998

... Cross-Bantu comparative studies show a remarkable variation in the predicates involved in locative and default agreement inversion constructions (Demuth & Mmusi 1997, Marten & van der Wal 2014, Guérois 2014, Marten & Gibson 2016 Kinyakyusa subject inversion at first sight patterns with Cuwabo and Bemba in blocking inversion in VSO and VOS order (transitive), but allowing it with the copula 'be', the two types of intransitives, and passives. We first present how each of these predicates behaves in Kinyakyusa subject inversion. ...

Presentational Focus and Thematic Structure in Comparative Bantu
  • Citing Article
  • January 1997

Journal of African Languages and Linguistics

... Tswana belongs to the Sotho-Tswana group of Southern Bantu languages (S30 in Guthrie's (1967Guthrie's ( -1971 classification), together with Southern Sotho (Sesotho), Northern Sotho (Sepedi) and Lozi (Silozi). There are several descriptions available in the linguistic literature on aspects of the tonal system of these languages (see Ziervogel,1 Lombard & Mokgokong 1969, Lombard 1976, Monareng 1992 for Northern Sotho; Khoali 1991 for Southern Sotho;Mmusi 1992, Chebanne, Creissels & Nkhwa 1997, Creissels 1999. Tone has a lexical and a grammatical function in Tswana. ...

Obligatory contour principle effects and violations : the case of Setswana verbal tone /
  • Citing Article