Vol. 11 No. 2 (2002): Nordic Journal of African Studies
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Towards an 11 x 11 Array for the Degree of Conjunctivism/Disjunctivism of the South African Languages

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  • D. J. Prinsloo,
  • Gilles-Maurice de Schryver
D. J. Prinsloo
University of Pretoria, South Africa
Gilles-Maurice de Schryver
Ghent University, Belgium & University of Pretoria, South Africa
Nordic Journal of African Studies
DOI: https://doi.org/10.53228/njas.v11i2.359

Published 2002-06-30

Keywords

  • conjunctivism,
  • disjunctivism,
  • measurement instrument,
  • parallel corpora,
  • 11 x 11 array,
  • isiZulu,
  • isiXhosa,
  • siSwati,
  • isiNdebele,
  • Sepedi,
  • Sesotho,
  • Setswana,
  • Tshivenda,
  • Xitsonga,
  • Afrikaans,
  • English
    • ...More
    Less

How to Cite

Prinsloo, D. J., & de Schryver, G.-M. (2002). Towards an 11 x 11 Array for the Degree of Conjunctivism/Disjunctivism of the South African Languages. Nordic Journal of African Studies, 11(2), 17. https://doi.org/10.53228/njas.v11i2.359

Abstract

In this article a measurement instrument for the degree of conjunctivism / disjunctivism of the South African languages is presented. Following a discussion on conjunctivism versus disjunctivism, both absolute and relative approaches towards this measurement instrument are experimented with. Three potential absolute instruments are derived: one based on word length, one on sentence length, and one on the standardised type/token ratio. All of them pose problems. The search for a relative instrument is more successful. Although large sets of parallel texts would provide the ideal data, two-by-two parallel corpora offer a good substitute. The final 11 x 11 array is also compiled in this way. Applications of the 11 x 11 array in several fundamental and applied linguistic fields are reviewed. The fields include translation, academic writing, corpus linguistics, and theoretical reflections about spellcheckers and multi-dimension dictionary Rulers. A complete Bantu Array could be the ultimate goal.

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