Forum for Linguistic Studies

Cartographies of Identity: The Ideological and Cultural Functions of Place Names in Latin American Literature

Irina Martynenko — Fri, 20 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0800

This study examines literary toponymy as a strategic resource for constructing, contesting, and reimagining national and regional identities in Latin American narrative discourse. Given the continent’s fundamental history, marked by the synthesis and violent clash of indigenous, European, and African cultures, toponyms in literature appear not as neutral geographical labels but as rich ideological signifiers. The article systematically identifies four main toponymic layers: pre-Columbian (Mexico, Guatemala, Bogotá, Ayacucho, Chacabuco, Arequipa), colonial (Buenos Aires, New Granada, La Plata, Fray Bentos, Bánfield), contemporary urban (slums, shopping malls, transportation hubs), and fictional (Macondo, Comala, Santa Teresa). Drawing on a broad corpus of works by Carlos Fuentes, Octavio Paz, Gabriel García Márquez, Juan Rulfo, Roberto Bolaño, Julio Cortázar, Pablo Neruda, and others, the analysis demonstrates how writers deploy toponyms to perform four key functions: first, to anchor contemporary narratives in deep indigenous memory; second, to construct magical-realist chronotopes that undermine Eurocentric rationalism; third, to engage in sharp political and social critiques targeting femicide, neoliberalism, dictatorship, and alienation; and fourth, to forge continental solidarity through poetic geography. The conclusion is that in Latin American literary discourse, toponyms become polyphonic palimpsests, mythopoetic instruments, tools of social criticism, and symbols of a common regional destiny, concentrating in a single linguistic device the pain, magic, violence, and hope of a complex continent.

The Invariability of Tshivenḓa Proverbs: Linguistic Stability and Cultural Continuity in Indigenous Knowledge Systems

Avhatakali Jonathan Makhado — Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0800

This study investigates the structural and semantic stability of Tshivenḓa proverbs through a Construction Grammar-informed morphosyntactic analysis and an examination of variation across oral and digital communication. While African proverbs have long been recognised as repositories of indigenous knowledge and moral instruction, limited attention has been paid to the linguistic mechanisms underlying their resistance to structural change. The study examines how morphosyntactic constraints contribute to the invariability of Tshivenḓa proverbs within Indigenous Knowledge Systems. A qualitative approach was adopted using a corpus of twenty Tshivenḓa proverbs collected from elders, language educators, and cultural practitioners in the Vhembe District of Limpopo Province, South Africa. Data were obtained through semi-structured interviews, cultural discussions, and documentary analysis, and analysed using morphosyntactic segmentation, interlinear glossing, thematic analysis, and Construction Grammar. The findings show that Tshivenḓa proverbs are highly entrenched constructional schemas characterised by clausal economy, noun class agreement, invariant copular constructions, and constrained associative and instrumental morphology. These grammatical features preserve conventionalised form–meaning pairings and limit structural variation across generations. Although contemporary youth discourse and digital communication exhibit truncation, ellipsis, and code-switching, such variation occurs at the level of discourse and pragmatic adaptation rather than within the grammatical structure of the proverbs. The study concludes that the invariability of Tshivenḓa proverbs results from the interaction of morphosyntactic constraints, constructional entrenchment, and cultural transmission, ensuring linguistic stability while accommodating limited pragmatic flexibility.

Language-in-Higher-Education Policy and the Intellectual Marginalisation of Setswana in South African Universities

Koketso Botlholo, itumeleng — Thu, 12 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0800

South Africa’s higher education language policy framework formally recognises indigenous African languages, including Setswana, and mandates their development as languages of teaching, research, and institutional governance. Despite these commitments, Setswana remains marginal in high-status academic domains, with English continuing to dominate disciplinary instruction, postgraduate scholarship, research publication, and institutional administration. This article examines the structural, ideological, and institutional factors constraining the intellectualisation of Setswana within South African universities. Drawing on Critical Language Policy theory and intellectualisation scholarship, the study adopts a qualitative document analysis approach to interrogate national policy frameworks, institutional practices, and existing literature on African language development in higher education. The analysis reveals a persistent policy–practice gap shaped by English-dominant promotion systems, global publication pressures, limited integration of Setswana into disciplinary curricula, and entrenched institutional language ideologies. The article argues that Setswana’s limited intellectual expansion is not a consequence of linguistic inadequacy but of structural design within higher education systems. It concludes by proposing a systemic model of Setswana intellectualisation that integrates policy alignment, disciplinary expansion, postgraduate capacity building, research incentives, and ideological transformation. Meaningful intellectualisation requires coordinated institutional reform that positions Setswana as a legitimate language of advanced scholarship and epistemic authority.