Speaking to a broader global preoccupation with the state of languages and language development, this book considers issues surrounding the diverse languages, linguistic communities, and cultures of Zimbabwe. Reflecting on Shona, Xitsonga, Sotho, Xhosa, Tjwao, Nambya, IsiNdebele, Nyanja, Tshivenda, English and Braille, the book uncovers both the internal and external factors that impact language structures, language use and language ideologies across the country. The book considers how colonial legacies and contemporary language domination and minoritisation have led to language endangerment. It considers the fate of communities whose languages are marginalised and, in the process, poses questions on what can and should be done to preserve Zimbabwean languages. The authors' offerings range across subjects as diverse as music, linguistic innovation, education, human rights, literature, language politics and language policy, in order to build a rich and nuanced picture of language matters in the country. Coming at a critical moment of increasing mobility, migration, cultural plurality and globalisation, this book will be an important resource for researchers across African literature, linguistics, communication, policy and politics.

This innovative collection is the first of its kind to showcase global perspectives on learning minority languages as second languages, offering unique insights into their acquisition and specific characteristics and raising greater awareness around other languages and contexts where SLA occurs. The volume examines how minority languages are acquired as second languages across a range of geographic settings where these languages are unique minorities; that is, they are spoken in one or more states where they have a minority status. International case studies explore particular features of these languages as well as the challenges of teaching and learning them, including standardization, legal recognition at all educational levels, the dissemination of printed and digital materials and more or less limited language use in the local community. Highlighted languages include Ashaninka, Basque, Frisian, Hawaiian, Irish, Isthmus Zapotec, Quechua Chanka, Tonga and Welsh. Each chapter adopts a consistent structure, with a brief introduction to the sociolinguistic landscape, followed by sections on language use in education, research studies, reflections and discussions related to the learning of minority languages as second languages and the implication of these processes for the revitalization of minority languages. Breaking new ground in second language acquisition research, this book is an indispensable resource for advanced students and researchers in SLA, multilingual education, bilingualism and sociolinguistics.

This book examines the powerful role of writing in society. The invention of writing, independently at various places and times in history, always stood at the cradle of powerful civilizations. It is impossible to imagine modern life without writing. As individuals and social groups we hold high expectations of its potential for societal and personal development. Globally, huge resources have been and are being invested in promoting literacy worldwide. So what could possibly be tyrannical about writing? The title is inspired by Ferdinand de Saussure's argument against writing as an object of linguistic research and what he called la tyrannie de la lettre. His critique denounced writing as an imperfect, distorted image of speech that obscures our view of language and its structure. The chapters of the book, written by experts in language and literacy studies, go beyond this and explore tyrannical aspects of writing in society through history and around the world: from Medieval Novgorod, the European Renaissance and 19th-century France and Germany over colonial Sudan to postcolonial Sri Lanka and Senegal and present-day Hong Kong and Central China to the Netherlands and Spain. The metaphor of 'tyranny of writing' serves as a heuristic for exploring ideologies of language and literacy in culture and society and tensions and contradictions between the written and the spoken word.

This two-volume set charts a cross-disciplinary discursive terrain that proffers rich insights about deceit in contemporary postcolonial Sub-Saharan African politics. In an attempt to produce a nuanced and multifaceted academic dialoguing platform, the two volumes have a particular focus on the aspects of treachery, fear of difference (oppositional politics), and discourses/semiotics of mis/self-representation. The major aim of the proposed volumes is to contribute toward the often problematised conversations about the unfolding (post)colonial Sub-Saharan world which is topical in decolonial and Pan-African studies.The volumes seek to place political thinking and postcolonial political systems under the scholarly gaze with the view to highlight and enhance the participation of African cross-disciplinary scholarship in the postcolonial political processes of the continent. Most significantly, it is through such probing of the limitations of our own disciplinary perspectives which can help us appreciate the complexity of the postcolonial Sub-Saharan African politics. The first volume uses Zimbabwe as a case study, while the second volume examines postcolonial politics in Sub-Saharan Africa more broadly.The first volume uses Zimbabwe as a case study, while the second volume examines postcolonial politics in Sub-Saharan Africa more broadly.The first volume uses Zimbabwe as a case study, while the second volume examines postcolonial politics in Sub-Saharan Africa more broadly.

Zimbabwe is one of the few countries in the region with no comprehensive information on its language situation. This book seeks to fill the gap. Language policy in Zimbabwe has evolved around the three official languages, English, Ndebele and Shona. The author, a lecturer in Bantu linguistics at the University of Zimbabwe highlights the status of theindigenous minority languages by identifying communities speaking minority languages, their locations, and the role minority languages have played inthe education system and in the media. Languages covered are Kalanga, Hwesa, Sotho, Shangani (Tsonga), Tonga of Mudzi District, Venda, Tonga, Chikunda, Doma, Chewa/Nyanja, Khoisan (Tshwawo), Barwe, Tswana, Fingo or Xhosa, Sena and Nambya. The author also gives recommendations of how minority languages may be incorporated into future language policy.

Many people find themselves dissatisfied with recent linguistic philosophy, and yet know that language has always mattered deeply to philosophy and must in some sense continue to do so. Ian Hacking considers here some dozen case studies in the history of philosophy to show the different ways in which language has been important, and the consequences for the development of the subject. There are chapters on, among others, Hobbes, Berkeley, Russell, Ayer, Wittgenstein, Chomsky, Feyerabend and Davidson. Dr Hacking ends by speculating about the directions in which philosophy and the study of language seem likely to go. The book will provide students with a stimulating, broad survey of problems in the theory of meaning and the development of philosophy, particularly in this century. The topics treated in the philosophy of language are among the central, current concerns of philosophers, and the historical framework makes it possible to introduce concretely and intelligibly all the main theoretical issues.

In today’s thoroughly mediated societies people spend many hours in the role of audiences, while powerful organizations, including governments, corporations and schools, reach people via the media. Consequently, how people think about, and organizations treat, audiences has considerable significance. This ground-breaking collection offers original, empirical studies of discourses about audiences by bringing together a genuinely international range of work. With essays on audiences in ancient Greece, early modern Germany, Soviet and post-Soviet Russia, Zimbabwe, contemporary Egypt, Bengali India, China, Taiwan, and immigrant diaspora in Belgium, each chapter examines the ways in which audiences are embedded in discourses of power, representation, and regulation in different yet overlapping ways according to specific socio-historical contexts. Suitable for both undergraduate and postgraduate students, this book is a valuable and original contribution to media and communication studies. It will be particularly useful to those studying audiences and international media.