Language and Society

This research theme encompasses a wide array of topics and disciplinary approaches that collectively explore the relationship between language and society, particularly in the multilingual context. Work in theoretical linguistics and the study of morphosyntax and lexical semantics, offers frameworks for understanding how language structures reflect and shape societal norms and values. This is complemented by research in first and second language acquisition, psycholinguistics, cognition, and learning, along with work on the role of language and education in fostering intercultural understanding and communication. Our focus on literary studies and creative writing, and the analytical approaches applied to a wide variety of texts and discourses reflect the role of language in constructing the lived experiences, ideologies, and cultural identities in both historical and contemporary contexts. These topics intersect with research on language planning, linguistic citizenship, and interpreting, which explore how language policies and practices impact social inclusion and exclusion. The diverse research topics under the umbrella of “Language and Society” in our faculty reflect a multidisciplinary approach to understanding the complex interplay between language practices, culture, aesthetics and society.

Research Clusters

Poverty, Inequality, and Development

Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist studies

Race, Culture, and Identity

Language and Society

Health, Welfare, and Human Security

Politics, Governance, and Citizenship

Ethics, Social Justice, and Human Rights

Land, Environment, and Sustainable Development

Conflict, Violence, and Reconciliation

Science, Technology, and Communication

Performance and Visual Arts

Department	Researcher	Areas of focus
African Languages	Prof Mawande Dlali	Pragmatics; sociolinguistics; political discourse; interpersonal communication; endangered languages; investigating the circumstances and processes of language endangerment and marginalisation.
	Prof Marianna Visser	Political argumentation discourse. media discourse, literacy development and language teaching, L2 teaching and learning.
	Mr Thulani Simayile	Academic literacy in teaching and learning, literature genres, culture as the aspect of living in the contemporary context, text linguistics analysis.
	Dr Zameka Sijadu	Humour, Language and gender in political and social context, Multilingualism and Translanguaging in classroom and sociopolitical context, Persuasion and Argumentation theories. .
	Mr Marcus Joubert	Lexical semantics; Cognitive Linguistics; Translation; Cognitive Narratology.
	Dr Ursula Westwood	Ancient Greek lexical semantics; ancient rhetoric; historiography.
Afrikaans & Dutch	Dr Elbie Adendorff	Language learning and teaching; task-based approach, syllabus design, blended learning.
	Dr Willem Anker	Creative Writing; literature; literary theory.
	Dr Alfred Schaffer	Literature; language; postcolonial theory; creative writing; translation; meta modernism.
	Mr Marius Swart	Translation; sociolinguistics; language planning; linguistic citizenship; interpreting; semantics; syntax; academic literacy.
	Prof Herman Beyer	Lexicography; lexicology; applied linguistics; lexical semantics; Afrikaans literature; language teaching.
	Dr Paola Gentile	History of Afrikaans language; Afrikaans and Dutch in the media; language policies.
	Dr Gerda Odendaal	Lexicography; critical theory; language in culture and politics.
	Prof Anthony Pym	Translation studies; CALD – culturally and language diverse communities; linguistics; literary translation.
	Prof Harold Lesch	Translation and interpreting studies.
	Me Kanja Susan van der Merwe	Interpreting learning; learning strategies; process-oriented interpreter training; second language acquisition and learning.
	Mev Maret Blom de Wet	Academic editing; sociology of editing – agents and networks; electronic lexicography.
Ancient Studies	Dr Annemarie De Villiers;	Latin language & literature, Roman History and culture
	Ms Kajil Kara	Latin Language and literature, autobiography and apologetic writing.
	Ms Amy Daniels	Critical discourse; historical studies on Roman North African literature in Latin.
	Dr Ursula Westwood	Jewish literature in Greek under the Roman empire.
	Prof Phlip Bosman	Ancient Greek Literature, History & Culture.
		Work and social class in (late) capitalism and its literary representations.
Computational Thinking for Artificial Intelligence	Prof Bernd Fischer	Software language engineering, particularly grammar analysis and repair.
English	Prof Sally-Ann Murray;	Autobiography, identity, autoethnography; Writing cultural margins and mainstreams; (Southern) African Identities in literary, visual and material cultures.
	Dr Mathilda Slabbert	Life writing and creative non-fiction; literary-cultural productions of the environment; South African literature (long and short prose); graphic narratives (autographics)
	Dr Eckard Smuts	Environmental Humanities, Ecocriticism, (Southern) African Literature, Postcolonial Literature, Critical Temporalities.
	Dr Dawid de Villiers	Marine metaphorics, Nineteenth-Century Literature, Modernism, Posthumanism, Literature and Philosophy, Film.
	Dr Nadia Sanger	Afro- and African Futurism and Feminist Studies, Postcolonial Studies, South African literature, Global South Studies.
	Prof Tina Steiner	Focus on (East) African Literature, Indian Ocean Studies, Migration & Diaspora Literature, Postcolonial Literature, and Theories of Relation.
	Dr Jeanne Ellis	Nineteenth-Century Literature; Neo-Victorian Studies; Historical Fictions; the Gothic; Settler Colonial Studies; Feminism and Gender Studies.
	Dr Riaan Oppelt	Decolonisation of the Humanities.
Extended Curriculum Programme	Dr Taryn Bernard	Language in higher education, language in ideology, language and identity, Systemic Functional Linguistic approaches to academic writing.
General Linguistics	Dr Kate Huddlestone	Structure of South African Sign Language, within a minimalist framework; sign language linguistics, including the acquisition of SASL and sociolinguistics of SASL; syntax and pragmatics of Afrikaans and South African English; Afrikaans-English code-switching online.
	Prof Manne Bylund	Age effects in language acquisition and language attrition; role of linguistic categories for the cognitive processing of reality; Afrikaans, German, Spanish, Swedish and isiXhosa.
	Prof Frenette Southwood	Early language development in children, language disorder, and culturally and linguistically fair child language assessment in multilingual.
	Prof Heather Brookes	Gesture, interactional linguistics, sociocultural linguistics, ethnography of communication, multimodal language development, youth language.
	Dr Marcelyn Oostendorp	(Critical) discourse analysis, applied linguistics, multimodality, language-in-education, multilingualism in society, sociolinguistics.
	Dr Robyn Berghoff	Language processing; second language acquisition; multilingualism.
	Ms Modiegi Njeyiyana	Mapping the change and development of sign language; acknowledging sign language as a legitimate focus of linguistic research.

	Prof Theresa Biberauer	Theoretical, comparative, and historical morphosyntax (generative); Germanic languages, notably Afrikaans and southern African German varieties; contact languages; language acquisition and learnability; biolinguistics; language typology.
	Prof Brigitta Busch	Biographic approaches in linguistics linguistic diversity, language and migration language and human rights language ideologies, language and power bodily and emotionally lived experience of language language regimes in media spaces
History	DR Thembani Dube	African languages and identity, Kalanga language.
History	Dr Chet Fransch	French literary movements; media representations of literary movements.
Modern Foreign Languages	Prof Catherine du Toit	The works and world of Henri-Pierre Roché; early 20th century literature; literary biography and autobiographical writings; comparative literature; literary myths; film studies; integration of literature and language teaching; translation.
	Dr Isabel Dos Santos	German literature from the 18th century to the present, Austrian literature of the interwar period (especially Joseph Roth), women in literature, fairy tales, German as a Foreign Language and Suggestopedia, CALL, translation.
	Mrs Renata du Toit	Assessment of language skills; computer-use in language learning.
	Mr Allen Luo	Teaching Chinese as a foreign language, standard Chinese proficiency test in comparison with other international examination, digital teaching resources, Chinese language learning strategies.
	Prof Ingo Müller	Work and social class in (late) capitalism and its literary representation. Representation of gender identity in contemporary German literature.
Music	Dr Carina Venter	Violence, decolonial thought, and discourses of apartheid and colonialism.
Music	Dr Stephanie Vos	Discourse of South African exile in the 1960s through the lens of Jazz.
Philosophy	Prof Minka Woermann	Saussure’s structuralist view of language; Derrida’s deconstruction.
Philosophy	Dr Andrea Palk	Conceptual foundations of psychiatry including challenges regarding defining mental disorder.
Psychology	Prof Desmond Painter	Ethnonationalism and language in ideological struggles.
RADAR	Dr Robyn Pharoah	Some terms and concepts used in the Disaster Risk Studies domain do not easily translate into other languages – e.g. hazards, risks and danger often mean much the same thing yet are quite different. Our work considers how to communicate these differences when working in the field.
Social Work	Prof Marianne Strydom;	Impact of neoliberal discourse on child and family welfare services.
Sociology & Social Anthropology	Dr Lloyd Hill	Sociology of language, sociolinguistics, language and communication, South African language politics and political economy, language in higher education, language, science & technology.
Sociology & Social Anthropology	Dr Claire Lester	Discourse and ideology.