| dc.description.abstract | The most common method of communication is language; prejudices that people harbor within them are reflected through language. This study is an investigation on how gender is expressed in Tsotso, a language that is genderless in structure. The study focuses on whether the language is prejudiced against men and women. An attempt was made to find out semantic characteristic acquired by words and the attitudes resulting from the same.
The study draws from a model by Graddol and Swann (1989) to explore how describing people differently gives them different treatment and how speakers communicate ideas through language. Data was derived from eight speakers of the language, four female and four male in different phases of their lives. The collected data was then analysed on the Graddol and Swann Model (1989). It is revealed that social realities are not encoded in the language but are activated during acts of production and comprehension. What one does or the way one behaves helps reproduce social structures and gender inequalities.
The thesis is divided into five chapters. Chapter one gives a summary of the general framework of the study, statement of the problem, the set objectives, hypothesis, theoretical and methodological framework that motivated the study and literature related to the topic of study. In chapter two, the effect of culture on language is examined while the relationship between culture and gender is examined in chapter three. Chapter four looks at other forms of language use, especially Oral Literature, and how gender is expressed. Finally, a summary of findings and conclusions are presented in chapter five. | en_US |
