Ronel Wasserman

Anonymous — Mon, 28 Sep 2015 07:36:45 +0000

Ronel Wasserman Anonymous Mon, 09/28/2015 - 09:36

Corpus linguistics

Grammaticalisation

Language contact

Modality

Sociohistorical linguistics

South African English varieties

Lecturer

Ronel

Wasserman

Other experts from

Faculty of Humanities

My research career started in 2009 when I began compiling the Historical Corpus of South African English, consisting of personal and business letters, news reportage, fiction and non-fiction from all over the country, and spanning from the 1820s to the present. I became more and more interested in the grammatical and semantic changes that occurred within this unique variety of English over time.

Based on evidence from the Historical Corpus, my PhD focused on the development of the modal system (modal and quasi-modal verbs) of South African English across the 19^th and 20^th centuries, both in terms of frequency changes and macro- and micro-semantic changes. The study revealed that South African English modality evolved along different lines than other native varieties of English in the world, largely owing to the influence of extensive contact with Afrikaans.

In 2012 I was presented with the first Braj Kachru Student Award at The 18^th Annual Conference of the International Association of World Englishes (IAWE), co-hosted by the City University of Hong Kong, and Sun Yat-Sen University in Guangzhou, China, for a conference paper I delivered on some preliminary findings from the study.

Currently, I am conducting comparative studies in modality between historical corpora of Afrikaans and Black South African English, to better understand the role of language contact in shaping language within the complex linguistic setting of South Africa. I am also working toward expanding the historical corpus and extending my research into other domains of variation within the verb phrase.

I have postgraduate students working on typological comparisons between the modal systems of Afrikaans, Dutch and English, as well as comparative authorship attribution within the field of corpus stylistics.

Other experts in

Language

Google Scholar

Visit

UPSET Research Focus Area (Understanding and Processing Language in Complex Settings)

Visit

School of Languages

Visit

Humanities

Telephone Number

+27(0)16 910 3401

E-mail

20390750@nwu.ac.za

Dr Ronel Wasserman

Johanita Kirsten

Anonymous — Mon, 14 Sep 2015 14:06:54 +0000

Johanita Kirsten Anonymous Mon, 09/14/2015 - 16:06

Afrikaans linguistics

Historical linguistics

Language contact

Language evolution and change

Prof

Senior Lecturer

Johanita

Kirsten

Other experts from

Faculty of Humanities

Johanita Kirsten, senior lecturer in Afrikaans Linguistics at the Vanderbijlpark Campus of the North-West University, is interested in recent and ongoing changes in Afrikaans language use. She completed her MA and PhD in Afrikaans and Dutch (Historical Linguistics) at the NWU under supervision of prof. Bertus van Rooy, and received the ABSA Bronze Medal for her MA dissertation. The research topics she has published on include changes in the verbal system of written Afrikaans during initial standardization of Afrikaans in the early 20th century, changes regarding temporal reference in Afrikaans during the course of the 20th and early 21st century, and how this links to theories of language change; another focus of her work is issues of language purity in the historical descriptions of Afrikaans and ideological issues in published linguistic research. She continues to research different recent and ongoing changes in Afrikaans usage, as well as ideological issues in Afrikaans linguistics. She has been teaching undergraduate and postgraduate Afrikaans Linguistics modules at the NWU since 2012, and supervises postgraduate studies in Afrikaans Linguistics and General Linguistics.

Other experts in

Linguistics

Google Scholar

Visit

UPSET Research Focus Area (Understanding and Processing Language in Complex Settings)

Visit

School of Languages

Visit

Humanities

Physical Address

Vanderbijlpark Campus, Building 7, 2nd floor, office 208

Telephone Number

+27(0)16 910 3474

E-mail

Johanita.Kirsten@nwu.ac.za

Johanita Kristen