Browsing by Author "Mutsvairo, Jack"

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    An analysis of persuasive messages in Shona family set-up
    (2018-12) Mutsvairo, Jack; Dlali, Mawande; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of African languages.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Persuasion is an interesting, integral yet complicated communication field that has received little research in Shona. Persuasion in Shona family set-ups has shown that conversation partners engage in arguments and counterarguments that result in either the success or failure of the compliance-gaining attempts. Of much interest are the message dimensions of explicitness, dominance and argument which characterise these persuasive messages. An understanding of how and why compliance-seeking and -resisting strategies are used may help persuaders like advertisers, politicians, family counsellors, teachers, and evangelists to promote cohesion in families. Findings in this study will be useful to the study of persuasion by future students. Also, the knowledge of Shona persuasion may come in handy when non-Shona speakers engage in persuasive conversations with Shona-speaking people. This qualitative research study analyses interview notes, audio recording transcripts and observation persuasive messages in Shona family set-ups. For the first two, content analysis is done. For persuasive messages, source arguments and target arguments are identified and compared, and then the clinching compliance-seeking argument or compliance-resisting argument for the influence goal is identified, followed lastly by an analysis of the message dimensions. The study found out that a range of compliance-seeking and -resisting strategies are used by different members of both nuclear and extended families when they pursue certain influence goals. It also found that the sequencing of compliance-seeking strategies differs depending on the influence goal the source will be pursuing and the relationship of the influence interactants. The study also found that proverbs, clan praise names, reference to the Bible and silent treatment are strategies used habitually by Shona persuaders. My hope is that my research findings will stimulate interest among persuaders to improve their persuasive skills since it has shed light on the use of persuasive strategies among the Shona. Students of persuasion will find it as pioneer work from which they will launch further investigation in this area.
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    STRATEGIC MANOEUVRING IN ZIMBABWEAN POLITICAL DELIBERATIONS:A PRAGMA-DIALECTICAL AND APPRAISAL THEORY APPROACH
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2025-03) Mutsvairo, Jack; Dlali, Mawande; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of African Languages.
    Political argumentation by Zimbabwean government ministers and Members of Parliament, and political party representatives during Question Time sessions and radio political interviews, respectively, is not yet fully explored. This study analyses and evaluates the strategic manoeuvring of by ministers and Members of Parliament during Question Time question-and-answer deliberations, and party representatives on Studio 7 radio political interviews. The study aims to contribute new insights to the nascent literature on pragma-dialectical and appraisal research on Zimbabwean political discourse. Using data from the Hansard and Studio 7 radio political interviews, I analyse the political argumentation of Zimbabwean politicians within the two subgenres of parliamentary and media discourses. I use the pragma-dialectical argumentation theory as the main theoretical framework when analysing Hansard extracts and radio interview transcripts, and the appraisal theory as a complementary theoretical framework to evaluate language use in radio interviews. After carrying out reconstructive transformations of raw Hansard data which result in analytic overviews, I then apply and evaluate the typologies of differences of opinions, standpoints, argument schemes, argumentation structures, prototypical argumentative patterns, and argumentative styles. I also explore the use of ad hominems by the arguers. In the case of radio transcripts, I establish analytic overviews and then appraise language use by party representatives for attitudinal positioning, stance-taking and intertextual positioning using the appraisal analytical tools of the attitude and engagement semantics. My findings indicate that ministers use either complex pragmatic argumentation or complex problem-solving argumentation in defence of their prescriptive standpoints as they are expected to explain and justify government policies. MPs use mostly simple argumentation (enthymemic arguments) and at times complex pragmatic argumentation due to the limitations imposed by institutional preconditions. Argumentation by example and symptomatic argumentation are the favoured argument scheme and argumentation structure respectively for many politicians. Prototypical argumentative patterns revealed that ministers use direct dialectical routes since they have the burden of proof. They use largely detached argumentative styles except when they deliberate on divisive issues. Generally, politicians try to manoeuvre strategically but there are times when they aim for effectiveness at the expense of being reasonable, and when they are opposition MPs, they are called out by ZANU PF MPs and the Speaker hence their strategic manoeuvring derails. Politicians use ad hominems and erotema as emotional appeals and framing devices for their putative and/or primary audiences when deliberating hotly-contested issues, such as sanctions, human rights violations and currency policies. Shona proverbs and idiomatic expressions, emotive language and intertextuality/heteroglossic formulations are some of the presentational devices exploited by politicians during deliberations.