Doctoral Degrees (Greek, Latin and Classical Studies)
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Item Open Access Dimensions of oracle-speech in the Near Eastern, Mediterranean, and African contexts: a contribution towards African orality(University of the Free State, 2001-07) Masoga, Mogomme Alpheus; Nel, P. J.; Moleleki, M. A.English: Divination is receiving ever more attention in the media. Communities, groups of people and individuals are asking questions, voice opinions, and make judgements on the function of this important branch of African life and philosophy. The thesis attempts to address this issue. Relating African divination to the rich and universal tradition of divination and oracle, it argues that this important part of African life be brought to the forefront for purposes of research and scholarship. This generally marginalised part of African life and culture, should be accorded its rightful place in academia. To this end, the researcher gives an account of his own life history as it was informed by divination and divination oracles. He further provides data on African divination oracles drawn from sample interviews with diviners. In this context, 'the data is comparatively interpreted in terms of existing oral theories and scholarship on Ancient Near Eastern and Mediterranean divination and oracle. The thrust of the thesis is that it aims to both provide some insight into divination as practiced by African people and to bring this previously marginalized discourse and its practices into the centre of debate and scholarship.Item Open Access Re-animating orality: the design for a new translation of the Bible into Sesotho(University of the Free State, 2012-09) Makutoane, Tshokolo Johannes; Naude, J. A.; Keta, D. T.English: The Sesotho community has proved an avid religious (Christian) audience for more than a century. Two Sesotho translations of the Bible, the Old Translation of 1909 and the New Translation of 1989, are used by Sesotho-speaking people. The former seems to be complex and difficult to its users (both those who can and those who cannot read the written text) due to the following reasons: (i) its adherence to a word-for-word philosophy of translation (reflecting the Biblical Hebrew structure in Sesotho in terms of lexical items for the Lord, such as Jehova (1909) which is Hebrew instead of Morena (1989), and (ii) features of colonial interference during the translation of the Bible (e.g. the use of the Afrikaans loanword teronkong instead of the indigenous Sesotho word tjhankaneng for 'prison'). The primary concern of the later version is meaning and readability, but it was not well accepted by much of its prospective readership. Others would say the translation was much easier to read, and therefore had lost its authenticity. Both translations lean heavily on the reader's ability to understand a written text. They constitute a very serious problem in a religious community made up of members not able to read the written text. This was proven by a preliminary study of illiteracy which was undertaken by the researcher in Bloemfontein's Sesotho-speaking congregations in 2007. The study indicated that 11% of the church members cannot read or write; this figure would presumably be higher in the rural communities. One must also take notice of the fact that in the remaining 89% of religious communities there are Bible readers who still find it difficult to master the content of the Bible due to the complexity of the vocabulary and language structure of the text when read aloud. This means a Bible translation adapted to the needs of the specific target audience is needed. The problem that was investigated for this thesis was: How can the Bible be translated to fulfill the demands of the Sesotho audience who are unable to read the written text? Since Africans implicitly understand the principles underpinning the oral literature so clearly, and also because orality is the core element of African traditional religion, it is therefore also important to have it incorporated in the Scripture through translation of the Bible and in preaching. As a result, a translation project based on the principles of orality (showing the participatory mode of communication) was designed (cf. Chapter 5) to fulfill the needs of the Sesotho community within the oral culture. The type of translation was a culture-specific adaptation of Ong's (1982:37-56) features of orality (cf. Chapter 4). These features are additive rather than subordinative, aggregative rather than analytic, redundant or copious, conservative or traditionalist, close to the human life-world, agonistically toned, and homeostatic or situational rather than abstract. The framework within which the proposed oral translation was based is Nord's functionalist approach to translation (cf. Chapter 3). The notion that is highly accentuated in the model, is that it is not the source text that is given first preference, but the target text for the prospective audience. Concomitant to the translation, are the main vehicles namely, translation strategies at both the macro level (i.e. the overall translation strategy - for the sake of the study, adaptation was the overall translation strategy) and micro level (word, phrase, and sentences). The preliminary portions that were translated were also compared with both the 1909 and 1989, and it was found that it has a place in the hearts of the Sesotho readers. The aim of the oral translation to be produced is not to replace the already existing translations of both 1909 and 1989, but it is to complement them.(617 words).Item Open Access A cognitive linguistic study of a biblical Hebrew lexical set for 'to teach'(University of the Free State, 2011-11) Widder, Wendy Lynn; Miller-Naudé, Cynthia L.; Bergh, LunaThis study employs Cognitive Linguistics to determine the foundational elements of the ancient Israelites’ concept of teaching as reflected in the text of the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) and Ben Sira, a significant post-biblical Hebrew book interested in teaching and wisdom. It analyses four prominent lexemes that comprise a lexical set referring to the act of teaching: ירה -H (yrh in the Hiphil stem), למד -D (lmd in the Piel stem), ידע -H (yd` in the Hiphil stem), and יסר -D (ysr in the Piel stem). The thesis concludes that, in its most basic form, the concept of teaching in ancient Israel was that a teacher creates the conditions in which learning can occur. The methodology employed in this project is built on a premise of cognitive studies, namely, that because teaching is a universal human activity, there is a universal concept of teaching: one person A recognises that another person B lacks knowledge, belief, skills, and the like (or has incomplete or distorted knowledge, etc.), and person A attempts to bring about a changed state of knowledge, belief, or skill in person B. This universal concept provides the starting place for understanding the concept of teaching that Biblical Hebrew reflects, and it also forms the conceptual base against which the individual lexemes are profiled. The study incorporates a micro-level analysis and a macro-level analysis. At the micro-level, each lexeme is examined with respect to its linguistic forms (the linguistic analysis) and the contexts in which the lexeme occurs (the conceptual analysis). The linguistic analysis considers the clausal constructions of each instantiation and determines what transitivity, ditransitivity, or intransitivity contributes to the meaning. Collocations of the lexeme, including prepositional phrases, adverbial adjuncts, and parallel verbs, are evaluated for their contribution to meaning. The conceptual analysis of each lexeme identifies the meaning potential of each word, as well as what aspect of the meaning potential each instantiation activates. The study then determines the lexeme’s prototypical meaning, which is profiled on the base of the universal concept of teaching. This step of profiling represents an important adaptation of the Cognitive Linguistics tool of profiling to meet the special requirements of working with ancient texts in that it profiles prototype meanings, not instantiations. In the macro-analysis, the data of all four lexemes in the lexical set are synthesised. The relationships among the lexemes are assessed in order to identify the basic level lexeme and consider whether the lexemes form a folk taxonomy. Finally, the profiles of the four prototype meanings are collated and compared in order to describe the ancient Israelite concept of teaching. The study finds that the basic level item of the lexical set is למד -D (lmd-D) based on frequency of use and distribution. In its prototypical definition, למד -D (lmd-D) means to intentionally put another person in a state in which s/he can acquire a skill or expertise through experience and practice. In contrast to this sustained kind of teaching, the prototypical meaning of ירה -H (yrd-H) is situational in nature: a person of authority or expertise gives specific, situational instruction to someone who lacks knowledge about what to do. The lexemes יסר -D (ysr-D) and ידע -H (yd`-H) represent the most restricted and the most expansive lexemes, respectively: the prototypical meaning of יסר -D (ysr-D) is to attempt to bring about changed behavior in another person through verbal or physical means, often to the point of causing pain; the prototypical meaning of ידע -H (yd`-H) is that a person of authority causes another person to be in a state of knowing something from the divine realm or related to experiences with the divine realm. The study determines that while the four lexemes of the Biblical Hebrew lexical set “to teach” have significant semantic overlap, they cannot be construed in a folk taxonomy because the words are not related in a hierarchical way.Item Open Access A rhetorical analysis of the letter to the Galatians(University of the Free State, 2004-04) Tolmie, Donald Francois; Cronjé, J. van W.English: The aim of this study is to present a text-centred descriptive analysis of the way in which Paul uses the Letter to the Galatians in order to persuade the Galatians to accept his view of the gospel. In Part 1 an overview of existing rhetorical analyses of the Letter to the Galatians is presented. It is shown that the normal approach in the rhetorical analysis of this letter is to choose a specific rhetorical model whereby the letter is then analysed rhetorically. It is also shown that, although there are some exceptions, scholars mostly prefer to use ancient rhetorical models to perform a rhetorical analysis of this letter. The approach followed in this study is then outlined: It differs from the normal approach in that a specific rhetorical model is not chosen in order to analyse the letter rhetorically, but, instead, Paul's rhetorical strategy is reconstructed from the text itself. In Part 2 Paul's rhetorical strategy is then reconstructed from the letter itself. The letter is divided into eighteen sections and Paul's dominant rhetorical strategy is identified in each section and described, in conjunction with all the supportive strategies and rhetorical techniques used. In Part 3 some characteristics of Paul's rhetorical strategy in the Letter to Galatians are discussed. Two issues are highlighted: First, the overall organisation of his argument in the letter is discussed and summarised in terms of the following six objectives: First objective: Convince the audience of his divine authorisation (1:1-2:10). Second objective: Convince the audience that his gospel is the true gospel (2:11-3:14). Third objective: Convince the audience of the inferiority of the law (3:15-25). Fourth objective: Convince the audience that the "gospel" of the opponents represents spiritual slavery and, instead, urge them to remain spiritually free by adhering to his gospel (3:26-5:1). Fifth objective: Convince the audience to act as he wishes them to: not to succumb to the pressure to be circumcised; to avoid the opponents; and to live according to the Spirit (5:2-6:10). Sixth objective: Final refutation of the opponents (6:11-18). Secondly, the wide variety of arguments Paul uses in the letter is discussed. It is shown that the most important arguments he uses, are those based on the notion of divine authorisation. Scriptural arguments, an appeal to shared Christian tradition, the experience of the audience, vilification of the opponents, analogy, emotional arguments, and shared knowledge.