Literator: Journal of literary criticism, comparative linguistics and literary studies 

About: Literator: Journal of literary criticism, comparative linguistics and literary studies is an academic journal published by AOSIS. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Context (language use) & Poetry. It has an ISSN identifier of 0258-2279. It is also open access. Over the lifetime, 445 publications have been published receiving 1055 citations. The journal is also known as: Journal of literary criticism, comparative linguistics and literary studies & Tydskrif vir besondere en vergelykende taal- en literatuurstudie.

From foreign to national: a review of the status of the French language in Gabon

Abstract: This article provides a review of the various statuses of the French language in Gabon, a French-speaking country in Central Africa. It reveals a process in which different generations of Gabonese people are increasingly learning, and thus conceptualising, French as a second language rather than a foreign language. Furthermore, some are also learning and conceptualising French as a mother tongue or initial language, rather than a second language. This process of reconceptualisation has somehow been encouraged by the language policy of the colonial administration and the language policy since the attainment of independence, the latter being a continuation of the former. The final stage of this process is that the language has been adopted among the local languages within the Gabonese language landscape.

Towards accountability : a point of orientation for post-modern applied linguistics in the third millennium : research article

Abstract: Towards accountability : a point of orientation for post-modern applied linguistics in the third millennium In this article three difficulties in dealing with post-modern applied linguistics are identified, and three reasons are given for taking the trouble to define this emerging tradition of doing applied linguistics. In the context of earlier analyses of the history of applied linguistics, post-modernism is identified as a sixth generation of applied linguistic work. There are overlapping and unique features in each of these traditions. The discontinuity of a post-modern approach from first generation applied linguistics is noted, as are the numerous continuities with second, fourth, fifth and especially third generation work. These continuities go a long way towards characterising post-modern applied linguistics, yet are not sufficient to define it exhaustively. The biggest difficulty with such a characterisation appears to be a divergence within a post-modern approach. What holds this latest tradition together is the seriousness with which it deals with accountability, and in that lies, at present, its defining characteristic. Wherever one locates one's work, in earlier or in current traditions within applied linguistics, the premiss must always be to do these labours with integrity. Perhaps the latest trend towards an accountable applied linguistics has contributed more than any previous tradition to make us sensitive to this responsibility. Aanspreeklikheid as orientasiepunt vir postmoderne toegepaste taalkunde in die derde millennium Al is daar 'n drietal probleme met die hantering van 'n postmoderne toegepaste taalkunde, is daar net soveel goeie redes waarom 'n mens die moeite moet doen om hierdie ontluikende tradisie in die toegepaste taalkunde te definieer. Binne die konteks van vroeere analises van die geskiedenis van die toegepaste taalkunde kan postmoderne toegepaste taalkunde ten beste beskryf word as 'n sesde tradisie. In elk van die ses tradisies wat ter sprake is, vind ons oorvleuelende en unieke kenmerke. Die artikel identifiseer die diskontinuiteit tussen 'n postmoderne aanpak en die eerste tradisie van toegepaste taalkundige werk, asook die vele ooreenkomste met die tweede, vierde, vyfde en veral derde generasie van die toegepaste taalkunde. Met hierdie kontinuiteite kom 'n mens al 'n ver pad om postmoderne toegepaste taalkunde te karakteriseer, maar dit is tog nie voldoende nie. Die grootste enkele probleem vir die ondersoeker hier is 'n tweespalt wat binne die postmoderne toegepaste taalkunde bestaan. Dit blyk dat die erns waarmee die konsep "aanspreeklikheid" gehanteer word, inderdaad die uitstaande kenmerk van hierdie tradisie is. Ongeag binne watter van die ses generasies 'n mens ook al werk, dit wil se in vroeere of in latere tradisies, is die uitgangspunt immers altyd om hierdie werk met integriteit te verrig. Miskien is hierdie jongste tendens in die toegepaste taalkunde, naamlik om aanspreeklikheid hoog aan te slaan, meer as enige vorige tradisie daarvoor verantwoordelik dat ons sensitief geraak het vir die gevolge van ons werk.

Innovation and reciprocity in applied linguistics : original research

Abstract: Toegepaste taalkunde is ’n ontwerpdissipline: dit los taalprobleme op deur ’n plan of bloudruk vir die hantering daarvan voor te stel. Hierdie ontwerpe word soms as hoogs vernuwend aangemerk. Is innoverende taalkursusse en -toetse egter in alle opsigte regtig nuut? Hierdie artikel argumenteer dat histories-betekenisvolle draaipunte in toegepaste taalkundige ontwerpe ’n beduidende mate van kontinuiteit met vorige ontwerpe toon. Dit was die geval met kommunikatiewe taalonderrig, en selfs vir vroeere innovasies soos die oudio-lingualisme. Ook in taaltoetsing bou beide interaktiewe en meer sosiaal-verantwoordbare ontwerpe op die verlede. Soos met vernuwing, is die idee van wederkerigheid in toegepaste taalkundige ontwerpe ’n grondslagkwessie. Hoeveel wederkerigheid bestaan daar op die gebiede van taaltoetsing, taalkursusontwerp en taalbeleidsformulering? Hoekom kyk ons nie spesifiek na of die ontwerp van ’n kursus net so verantwoordelik en noukeurig gedoen word as die van ’n toets nie? Wat kan ons leer by taalbeleidsformulering as ons toetse meer toeganklik en verantwoordbaar wil maak? Wat kan toetsontwerpers by kursusontwikkelaars oor spesifisiteit leer? Daar bestaan talle nuttige vrae wat ons skynbaar nooit vra nie. Hierdie artikel oorweeg hoe, deur oor verskillende vlakke van toegepaste taalkundige artefakte (taalkursusse, taaltoetse en taalbeleide) heen te kyk, ons die beginsels van verantwoordelike ontwerp kan verryk. Ons wil graag verras word deur innovering in die ontwerpe wat ons professie aanbied, maar ons moet terselfdertyd werk aan ons begrip van ’n verantwoordelike ontwerpraamwerk. So ’n vertrekpunt bied ons ’n maatstaf om die vlietende en die standhoudende in nuwe ontwerpe mee te beoordeel.

Plotting the lyric : forms of narration in poetry

Abstract: This article is based on the assumption that lyric poems generally share the fundamental constituents of story and discourse as well as the narrative act with narrative fiction in that they likewise feature a sequence of incidents (usually of a mental kind), mediate and shape it from a specific perspective and present it from a particular point of time vis-a-vis the sequence of incidents. A general outline of the narratological categories which may be applied to poetry analysis is given using William Wordsworth’s “I wandered lonely as a cloud” as an illustrative example. The aim of the article is heuristic: the intention is not to blur the distinction between fiction and poetry and treat poems indiscriminately as narrative texts, but rather identify and highlight the specifically poetic forms and functions which instances of narrating adopt in poems. The main section of the article will then focus on the first of the three aspects mentioned, the modelling of poetic sequentiality, i.e. the specification of types of plot, plotting and presentation of plot in poetry and the analysis of their functions.

On the development of a tagset for Northern Sotho with special reference to the issue of standardisation

Abstract: Working with corpora in the South African Bantu languages has up till now been limited to the utilisation of raw corpora. Such corpora, however, have limited functionality. Thus the next logical step in any NLP application is the development of software for automatic tagging of electronic texts. The development of a tagset is one of the first steps in corpus annotation. The authors of this article argue that the design of a tagset cannot be isolated from the purpose of the tagset, or from the place of the tagset and its design within the bigger picture of the architecture of corpus annotation. Usage-related aspects therefore feature prominently in the design of the tagset for Northern Sotho. It is explained why this proposed tagset is biased towards human readability, rather than machine readability; this choice of a stochastic tagger is motivated, and the relationship between tokenising, tagging, morphological analysis and parsing is discussed. In order to account at least to some extent for the morphological complexity of Northern Sotho at the tagging level, a multilevel annotation is opted for: the first level comprising obligatory information and the second optional and recommended information. Finally, aspects of standardisation are considered against the background of reuse, of sharing of resources, and of possible adaptation for use by other disjunctively written South African Bantu languages. It is not the aim of this article to evaluate the results of any tagging procedure using the proposed tagset. It only describes the design and motivates the choices made with regard to the tagset design. However, an evaluation is in process and results will be published in the near future (cf. Faas et al., s.a.).