Assignment 1
(COMPLETE ANSWERS)
2025
DUE April 2025
, ACTIVITIES
Question 1 Language as a semiotic system “… is thought of as a system where the individual
elements – signs – take their overall meaning from how they are combined with other elements”
(Carter & Goddard, 2016, p. 45). Bearing this quotation in mind, study TEXT A before you answer the
questions that follow. You may also refer to Table 1 (Aspects of language) which is attached but can
also be found on page 8 of Tutorial Letter 501. TEXT A What will 2021 bring? Never before have we
started a new year with so many questions, to which there are so little answers (or are there)? A friend
gave my 10-year-old grandson a little round grey object as a birthday present recently, and I just
could not figure out what it was, or why he was so excited about it than the new swimming trunk
decorated with huge and colourful toucans that I gave him. It turned out to be a mini smart speaker,
or more precisely, an Artificial intelligence voice-controlled assistant called a Google Home Speaker,
apparently designed to control the home by voice command, leaving your hands free to do other
things. After a swift little DIY procedure requiring a small screwdriver, he connected another small
device between the speaker and his bedside lamp . . . After my bewildered questions . . . , he
informed me that this little critter can communicate with Google and is activated by him saying, “Hey
Google”. He can then ask Google whatever he wants to know. Source: Celliers, A. (2021). The
Gardener. (p.96) 1.1 Construct two different sentences using the same words from the following
sentence: (4 marks) Never before have we started a new year with so many questions, to which there
are so little answers (or are there)?. The words in the new sentences must be arranged differently
from the original sentence. The sentences must be grammatically correct. 1.2 Which language aspect
has helped you to re-arrange the words in 1.1? (1 mark) 1.3. In your own words, explain the language
aspect you used in 1.2? (2 marks) 1.4 In TEXT A there are words that are conjoined into one. Example:
grandson= grand+son 1.4.1 Identify three other words that are conjoined into one. (3 marks) 1.4.2
Demonstrate how each word is joined to form one word. (3 marks) 1.5 Using Table 1, identify and
explain in your own words the language aspect that assisted you to answer 1.4.1. (2 marks) Total =15
marks Question 2 Read the following extract and answer the questions that follow. “Look at you!” my
uncle continued excitedly, “the Mother city has bathed you. You have gained complexion by
spending all that time with the ngamlas and dushis. Yeah, you look handsome, my laaitie. All the girls
ekasi will be yours.” After twenty-seven gruelling hours trapped inside the crammed third-class
carriage of the Shosholoza Meyl, I was exhausted and couldn’t say anything. All I could do was smile.
“Come on, meet my bra’s,” he pointed at his friends with his left crutch. “You know PP and Dilika
already, but meet Zero here,” he said, pointing at the third guy with widely spaced teeth. “He lives in
our back yard. He has erected a zozo there. It’s been about three months now. He’s a very nice guy.”
Source: Mhlongo Niq, After tears. Athens: Ohio Publishing Press, p5-6 2.1 Identify the non-standard