The socio-cultural and linguistic implications of Zulu names
Names and naming practices reflect the socio-cultural background of any particular society. Names are terms that can refer to any concept or object and naming practices concern the ‘how’ of naming. This article looks into the socio-cultural and linguistic implications of isiZulu names amongst the Zulu people. Socio-cultural implications are the large scale forces within cultures and societies that affect the thoughts and behaviours of individuals in naming practices. These factors are mainly influenced by ethnic values, identity, and family and kinship structures of that particular individual. In this regard, the concept of a name will be interrogated to showcase complexity of meanings in the African context. It will explain and define the term ‘onomastics’ as the science of naming in relation to the African society and naming practices. The article also defines the concept ‘implication’, and examines the cultural and linguistic (inter alia morphological) formations in naming practices and their significance in naming. The arguments about Zulu naming practices which the article raises emanate from a study carried out on naming practices in KwaZulu-Natal in 2000. The significance of the year 2000 is that it was the beginning of the 21st century and hence a strategic time in history to investigate changes in naming practices.
Jealousy Names, Civilised Names: Anthroponomy of the Jlao Kru of Liberia
This article describes the naming practices of a west African community with a long tradition of migration, formerly overseas. Two major systems co-exist, enabling an individual's specifically ethnic and 'civilised' identities to be distinguished. Personal names classify the individual as a species, as Levi-Strauss has pointed out. Nevertheless, Kru naming does more. Names are signs, and here the sign may also carry a message-an explicit rebuke of others' misdeeds or a rejection of their criticism-by the name donor. As a part of language, naming is to be understood semiotically and symbolically. Classification is an act, so that each use of a name makes and remakes events. Names are thus indices of many processes and cannot be interpreted solely by setting up the classifications in which they are presumed to be members.
Same Same But Different - also in Europe! A New Methodological Approach in Cross-Country Analysis of Communication Structuresapplied to five EU member states
The EU still lacks a truly European public sphere. On this level, there is still a clear lack of integration between individual member states. This means that national public spheres and cultures are still of great importance for European communication and media professionals. Comparative research into the similarities and differences between different nations is therefore valuable for cross-border PR communication activities. This paper lays out the methodological foundation for such research, discussing possible approaches and difficulties associated with comparative research. The author then introduces a potential heuristic framework for comparative analysis: the International Corporate Communication Compass. This framework is applied to five case-study EU countries (Denmark, Germany, France, Poland and the UK), showing the differences and similarities in a range of different contexts that affect public communication in all its forms. The conclusion examines how the results of such studies could be used in order to compare communication identities of different countries. This can potentially help in the development of a European public identity on the long run and in a first step can led towards a better, more adapted communication structure about European citizenship. Ultimately, communication structures within the EU might become more Europeanized than they