| dc.description.abstract | This dissertation is in line with our general research questions which include the companson of planned and unplanned discourse in KSL. Specifically. the study's objectives include an abstraction of the different discourse features that characterize the language used in each in planned and unplanned discourse, focusing mainly on both cohesive and coherence devices that each discourse type uses. Such features mark the different ways in which content is structured i.e. through overt features that mark the line between episodes (cohesion) or where non- overt features do not mark the line between episodes (coherence). Content in discourse can also be "structured through the content of its proposition" (Roy 1989) i.e. through each discourse types organizational structure which in this study tended towards plannedness or unplannedness or formality or informality.
Another specific objective of the study was to provide a description of the motivational factors behind the variation in these discourse texts in terms of register and also investigates any occurrence of phonological. morphological, lexical and syntactic variations in the language used by each discourse types. Finally. the investigation examines the occurrence of any intra textual register \ variation between the two planned discourse types - that is the lecture and the sermon.
Methodologically. the study systematically analyzed video recorded data both in formal and informal situations. The data for planned or formal situations was recorded from a
lecture given by a deaf person Mr. Washington Akaranga a senior researcher with
KSLRP on 31 S{ May 200 I. The choice of Mr. Akaranga was deliberate and based on his long experience on KSL issues and his native speaker status. The lecture was to a group of fourth year Psycholinguistics students at the College of Education and External Studies (CEES) of the University of Nairobi. kikuyu Campus. The lecture took I hour and fifteen minutes. The topic was "KSL and the lives of Deaf Kenyans."
Data for the sermon was video recorded at all Saints Cathedral Nairobi in an all deaf church service. The Video recording was done by Mr. Washington Akaranga while the Simon was conducted by Mr. Simon Ngugi a deaf preacher. The sermon was confined to one script text - the times of Jesus Christ - his birth, crucification and resurrection. The social setting for the sermon was the church hall.
The corpus for the unplanned discourse was video recorded surreptitiously at the KSLRP offers at the University of Nairobi. It involved four deaf native speakers engaged in a natural occurring conversation. The four deaf KSL native speakers were Mr. Ogernbo. Mr. Garry, Ms. Susan and Ms. Catherine.
In this study. in the analysis of data. KSL text is written in capital letters to distinguish it from text or words in English or any other language for that matter. Thus in the example given. KSL text is written in capital letters and below it we give an English gloss of the KSL sentences used.
The. study tested the hypotheses that KSL has a structure which exhibit different features in planned and unplanned communicative settings. That there are identifiable factors that
motivate/ trigger the use of different forms of KSL (planned or unplanned), that there are phonological. morphological, lexical syntactic and organizational differences inherent in planned and unplanned discourse in KSL and that intra textual variations exist in KSL. These hypotheses were tested against the data collected and the following the key findings:
Organizational structure in KSL is one of the ways that content is structured i.e. content
is "structured the content of its proposition" (Roy 1989). The organizational structure is generally used to structure content. The organization structure of the lecture and sermon indicates plannedness while that of the natural occurring conversation indicates unplannedness.
Content in KSL discourse can also he structured through overt textual features that reflect transition boundaries between episodes and link episodes together. Similarly. content can be structured through the continuity of meaning where overt features do not linguistically mark the line between episodes. These two ways of structuring content are known as cohesion and coherence.
Cohesion in the lecture was achieved using the following cohesive devices: New topic transition markers. referring expressions. signalers that introduce new items in a time series. chronological signalers. signalers that express relations between facts. signalers that introduce items in the same series. quantity signalers. signalers that introduce examples. and signalers that indicate a restatement of what has just been said.
Relations in a coherent text can be established "locally" or "globally" thus giving us local and global coherence. Local coherence in KSL is achieved through: anaphoric reference, conjunctions, substitution and ellipsis. NP anaphors, explanation, causality and argument. Globally, coherence is established through: Topic structure. use of world knowledge. use of connectors. rhetorical structure. intentional structure, narrative structure, expository structure, inferring connections and implicature.
In the sermon, cohesive devises used include: reference, ellipsis. substitution. conjunctions etc for purposes of grammatical cohesion. Lexical cohesion is established through such devises as reiteration. collocation etc. Coherence on the other hand is established either locally or globally. Local coherence in the sermon is established through anaphoric reference. conjunctions. substitution. ellipsis and enumeration. NP anaphors. causality and through argumentation.
Global coherence in the sermon is established through: Topic structure. rhetoric structure. intentional structure, narrative structure, inference and through implicature.
In the casual talk. the cohesive devices used include: referring expressions, signalers of quantity. signalers of that introduce items in the same series. chronological signalers. signalers that introduce new items in a time series. signalers of reinstatement of what has just been said.
Local coherence in the casual talk is established in the conversation through the use of - anaphoric reference. conjunctions. Substitution and ellipsis and through world knowledge. through causality. argument and explanation. Global coherence on the other
hand is established in the conversation through topic structure, rhetorical structure. intentional structure, narrative structure, inference. expository structure and implicate.
There are several situational factors that act as motivation motivational factor to register variation in planned and unplanned discourse in KSL. They include structural resources. interpersonal relations. purpose. setting and the channel used. The lecture and the sermon exhibit plannedness in the way they are structured into different episodes. The sermon however is slightly different structurally from the lecture in that it is more illustrative through the use of a play and role play within the sermon. Thus the two discourse texts rely heavily on structure to convey meaning. A comparison between the two planned discourse texts shows that they exhibit intra textual register variations. For instance. though both are planned. the lecture is more formal than the sermon which is more interactive. The lecture also shows some dialogic features but not as much as the sermon. The casual talk on the other hand is informal and therefore unplanned. Due to its unplannedness, there is tendency to rely on context in expression of thought and less on structure to express meaning.
There are also differences that manifest themselves in KSL situational use of language in terms of phonology. morphology. lexis and syntax depending on the planedness or unplannedness of the discourse text.
From the analysis of data collected. the study concludes therefore that lanzuaze variation
according to use or register variation indeed exists in KSL and that the formality or informality of language situation dictates how language is used in KSL. | en |
