Journal of Languages and Linguistics (JLL)

‘Women should not wear pants?’ Reflections from Kenyan English speakers in a strait between American and British English

Vicky Khasandi-Telewa — 2023-04-13

This paper aimed at examining the lived experiences of Kenyans caught between the two main varieties of English and the communication challenges they often face. The paper aims to provide evidence for the challenges that Kenyan speakers of English have experienced as a result of the confluence between British English (BrE) and American English (AmE). The study is explorative; thus, a descriptive research design was used. The purposive sample consisted of sixty-five subjects, all of whom were well-travelled. Using interviews, they were asked about their experiences with the different varieties of English, and their responses were recorded. Autoethnography, a qualitative research method that involves introspection and cultural analysis, was also used. Thematic content analysis was used to extract the themes and group them for data analysis. The theoretical framework used is World Englishes. The results indicate that there is indeed some communication breakdown due to linguistic varieties, but the differences are largely understood by speakers of the different varieties. Attitude plays a major role in communication challenges between different English, especially among teachers. The study urges acceptance of different varieties of English so long as communication takes place. This has implications for teaching English to Kenyan and speakers of other languages to whom English is taught as a Second Language or Foreign language.

Conceptualising nationalism, revolution and opposition in political discourse by use of metaphors: The case of Raila Odinga in Kenya

Margaret Nasambu Barasa — 2023-05-03

This paper utilises a critical discourse analysis approach to analyse the different metaphors manifest in Raila Odinga's utterances during political rallies at varied periods in Kenya's history that portray nationalism, revolution and opposition. Raila Odinga is one of Kenya's leading political players and Africa's contemporary revolutionist. He has played a major role in shaping, informing, influencing and maintaining a public attitude towards political leadership and governance in Kenya and Africa. Political discourse needs to be very persuasive in order to win votes and move people, hence we discuss how Raila uses metaphors to persuade and move crowds in an effort to further the themes of revolution, nationalism and patriotism. It is therefore important to study Raila's language use to establish how he epitomises nationalism, revolution and opposition in the country and region. Studying the political discourse of those in power is important because language is a powerful tool that shapes and informs society's behaviour and attitudes. Moreover, language is capable of making war or peace. Language also has power to make presidents. Political discourse thus has implications for the socio-economic development of society. It shifts quite often to guarantee some policy or policy-makers’ survival. The findings of this study indicate that the metaphors served to arouse people’s emotions in regard to the revolutionary and opposition activities while keeping the horrors and negatives of the clamour for political change concealed.

Deixis in KamaNu and Karimi’s Kimeru song and dance lyrics

Kinya M’Rithara — 2023-07-18

This study sought to examine the semantic roles of the deictic expressions in KamaNu and Karimi’s Kimeru song and dance lyrics by finding out the types of deixis in these song and dance lyrics and, secondly, establishing the semantic roles of these deictic expressions. The study, which adopted a descriptive qualitative research design, was carried out in Meru and Nairobi Counties in Kenya. The target population consisted of two native Meru artists. Data from twelve songs, six from each artist, were generated through six video recordings, observation, and note-taking of the actual live performances at social functions: three for each. Through Cruse’s theory of deixis, the study established that Kimeru song and dance lyrics by KamaNu and Karimi utilized person, spatial, temporal, and social deixis in their songs, with person deixis predominating. Deixis, in these songs, serve to engage the listeners and structure the discourse. The study recommends listeners to pay more attention to these expressions for an appropriate discernment of the intended meaning as these expressions carry implicit messages rather than explicit and can thus be interpreted uniquely in different contexts. It is hoped that the study will advance the body of knowledge by bringing academic focus to fostering a deeper comprehension of deixis in songs and dances.

Analysing discourse of death rationalisation/legitimation, closure and continuity among the Meru

Lucy Gakii Inoti — 2023-08-18

This study sought to analyse the discourse of death rationalisation/legitimation, closure and continuity among the Meru. The study adopted mainly an auto-ethnographic descriptive research design guided by Silverman’s language of grief model underpinned by four modes of expression and four strands of language and Lakoff and Johnson’s Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT). Data were generated from a purposive sample of 48 Informants and 24 burial occasions drawn from Meru's Tigania, Imenti and Tharaka regions. The main instruments of data collection were face-to-face interviews, participant observations, and diary notes. This study found that Meru rationalises death in various ways. These ways do not follow any specific pattern but are common and include disbelief, acceptance, cleansing ceremony, burning/casting away items of the deceased, renaming/remarrying and seeking/accepting support. The findings of the study are expected to benefit scholars in Applied Linguistics with respect to bereavement and grief discourse, policymakers with respect to the language of dealing with public burial rites and the general public with respect to appreciating how the Meru deal with death, bereavement and grief. The study recommends that professionals advise the males also to express the feeling of loss freely so that they do not experience negative psychological effects for restraining themselves due to cultural norms.

Morpho-syntactic decomposition of place names in proximate sister languages: Gichuka, Gikuyu, Kiimenti and Kiembu

Nelly Karimi Mbaka — 2023-10-04

This study sought to make a morpho-syntactic decomposition of place names in the proximate sister languages, Gikuyu, Kiembu, Gichuka and Kiimenti, with a view to analysing their structural constituents. The study utilised a descriptive research design underpinned by Filmore's Frame Semantics. Primary data was collected from a sample of twenty informants, five from a cognate set of words drawn from each category of Gichuka, Gikuyu, Kiembu and Kiimenti speakers using a judgmental sampling technique. A list of sixty-four names, sixteen in each of the languages, four from each category of place names that were selected purposively, were analysed. Results indicate that toponyms can be categorised into morpho-syntactic complexes with a rich myriad of meaning applications in several contexts structurally classified as simple, affixed, compound and complex, with a reflection of historically, culturally and environmentally inspired morphological and semantic content. Place names and linguistics are inseparable, considering the fact that their coinage is consciously done, constituting linguistic processes in the interactive components of grammar: morphology, phonology, syntax and semantics. The derived complexes reveal a rich myriad of applications in several contexts. In view of this observation, place names in this paper have been analysed as one category of nominals within morphology. The results of the study are expected to benefit scholars in applied Linguistics and the general public.