Language and Linguistics
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Item IMPACT OF KARATINA SEWER STABILIZATION PONDS ON BIOLOGICAL AND PHYSICO-CHEMICAL PROPERTIES OF WATER ALONG RIVER RAGATI IN NYERI COUNTY, KENYA(Chuka University, 2022-04) Marangu, CarlosRiver Ragati is an important habitat for diverse species of organisms, plants and micro-organisms. The larger Ragati ecosystem is surrounded by a rural and urban setting that has a population of more than 158, 960 people. The ecosystem is located in an area with intensive agricultural activities and with the largest open-air market in East Africa which produces heterogeneous wastes that may contaminate Ragati River. Though there is a sewerage treatment plant at Karatina Town in Nyeri County, there is scanty information on the efficiency of stabilization ponds and the impact of the sewer discharge on River Ragati. The study was undertaken to evaluate the impact of Karatina sewer treatment plant and its impact on physico-chemical and biological parameters along River Ragati during dry and wet seasons using quasi-experimental design. Data was analyzed using Scientific Analysis System (SAS) version 9.4. Wastewater parameters such as heavy metals. Nutrients and fecal and total coliform improved as they moved from one sedimentation to the next towards discharge. The pH during the wet season ranged from 6.54 to 7.96 and from 6.41 to 7.53 during the dry season. Temperature range of 20.17◦C to 25◦C and 23.9 to 25.7 ◦C was observed during wet season and dry seasons respectively. Concentrations of nitrates, phosphates, Zinc across sedimentation ponds differed significantly (p < 0.05). Nitrate concentrations range of 2.06 mg/l to 20.17 mg/l and 8.27 mg/l was observed during wet and dry season respectively. Phosphate concentrations ranged from 2.06 to 52.2 mg/l and 10.7 to 41.7 mg/l in wet and dry season respectively. Lead was below detection limit in this study in both seasons. The concentration of iron ranged from 0.56 to 30.42 mg/l and 0.06 to 22.1 mg/l during wet and dry season respectively. Total coliform and faecal coliform bacteria were significantly (p < 0.05) affected by seasons of the year. The levels of total coliform in the sewerage treatment plant ranged from 7.61 to 774.16 cfu/100ml and 10.453 to 1500 cfu/100ml during dry and wet season respectively. On the other hand, levels of faecal coliform bacteria ranged from 3.91 cfu/100ml to 74.19 cfu/100ml and 7.23 to 105.87 cfu/100ml in dry and wet season respectively. The pH, temperature, phosphate, iron and copper of water from River Ragati differed significantly (p < 0.05) between upstream, effluent discharge point and downstream. The pH in River ranged from 7.1 to 7.5 and 8.03 to 8.37 during the dry and wet season respectively. The temperature ranged from 23.16 to 23.61◦C and 21.18 to 22.55◦C during wet and dry season respectively. Nitrate concentrations ranged from 11.47 to 14.06 mg/l and from 14.83 to 18.05 mg/l during dry and wet season respectively. The concentrations of iron ranged from 0.41 to 0.63 mg/l while that of copper ranged from 0.85 to 0.11 mg/l. Nitrates were higher 16.82 mg/l in the river during the wet season. Phosphates were higher in the river during the wet season at 11.45 gm/L. Iron was higher in the river during the wet season at 0.69 gm/L. Levels of total coliform and faecal coliform bacteria was not significantly (p > 0.05) different in different sampling points of River Ragati during dry and wet seasons. However, the level of total coliform bacteria significantly (p < 0.05) differed with seasons. Based on the findings, Karatina sewerage treatment plant effectively improved quality of wastewater in terms of physico-chemical and coliform aspects sampled in the study and could further be improved using duckweeds and sand filtration methods in future studies. Further, Karatina sewerage treatment plant had no effect on River Ragati in terms of Physico-chemical and coliform constituents. Seasons of the year significantly affects the levels of chemical and physical parameters. Levels of total coliform and feacal coliform bacteria did not differ significantly (p > 0.05) by seasons in different sampling points of River Ragati. Levels of faecal coliform bacteria in different sampling points did not vary significantly (p > 0.05) in River Ragati. This study bridges the knowledge gap on the performance of Karatina sewerage treatment plant and its impact on River Ragati.Item NAMNA NYIMBO ZA TOHARA ZA JAMII YA WAIGEMBE ZILIVYODENGULIWA NA NYIMBO ZA DINI YA KIKRISTO(Chuka University, 2022-09) Eliud, JosphatIgembe community is found in areas around North East of Mount Kenya. Igembe community has traditions which are associated with songs. This is that focuses to Igembe community is a descriptive study which investigates how circumcision songs have been deconstructed by religious songs in Igembe community that is found in Meru county. This study was guided by three objectives which were: to investigate themes from songs which have been deconstructed by religious songs, secondly, to explain styles used during deconstructions of religious songs as well as to investigate functionalism of deconstructed songs in Igembe community. This study was guided by Deconstruction theory as advanced by Jacques Derrida (1967) and Stylistic theory as advanced by Coombes (1953) and Leech (1969). Data for this study was collected from the field. Four male adults were targeted to help in understanding the message in circumcision songs as well as four artist who are well versed with Christian songs which have been deconstructed. Eighteen songs were used to analyse data for this study. The contexts which were used in data collection was male gatherings during circumcision mostly in months of April, July, October and on religious gatherings mostly in churches. The tools that were used for collection of data were tape recording of circumcision songs in circumcision ceremonies, dialogue and video. Each local song was written and the message was translated in Kiswahili and analysed in details through explanations. The songs that are sang before circumcision were analysed into three that is the traditional songs being three and the deconstructed songs three. The research analysed the deconstructed songs in thematic content, styles and its functionalism. Boys passed eight stages in their age set which includes: Kiramunya, Ithalii, Michubu, Ratanya, Lubetaa, Miriti, Buantai and Gichunge. In every age set, there was sub age groups which were three that is Ndinguri, Kobia and Kaberia. This study found that singers of religious songs used themes such as power of holy spirit as well as encouragement. Additionally, it as found that singers uses styles such as rhetorical questions, metaphor and repetitions amongs others. This study has given proposals on the area where other study can be carried in Igembe and on oral literature as whole. The study will be of benefit to future elites and researchers who will be interested in the field of oral literature mostly in songs. Data for this study will be used in preserving the oral literature of Igembe Community and that of Africa as whole. Data for this study was analysed through explanation and presented through writing.Item EFFECTS OF SELECTED INORGANIC AND ORGANIC NPK FERTILIZER SOURCES ON GROWTH, YIELD AND QUALITY OF CELERY IN CHUKA SUB-COUNTY, THARAKA NITHI COUNTY(Chuka University, 2022-09) Kathuruh, JacklineCelery (Apium graveolens) is a highly prized herb that is grown all over the world for salads. It has become more well-liked in Kenya, where it is mostly farmed for export. The influence of soil nutrient sources on the development and quality of celery is not well understood. The quantity, quality, safety, and shelf life of celery are all impacted by high nitrogen levels, necessitating more fertilizer use. In addition, the type of fertilizer used has a significant impact on the antioxidant buildup in celery. This study examined how fertilizer applications of NPK and mazao bora affected celery growth, production, and quality. NPK, an inorganic source of nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium, was used as part of the treatments, and Mazao. The Chuka University Horticultural Research Farm served as the site of the investigation. Between January and August 2020, there were two trials that were done. Three replications of the experiment were set up using a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD). Seven treatments were used, including 0, 100, 200, 300 kg/ha of NPK fertilizer (15:9:20) and 0, 423.28, 634.92, and 846.56 kg/ha of organic fertilizer (2.5:4.7:2.4) from Mazao. Throughout the growth period, measurements of the plant's height, the number of petioles, and the number of branches were taken every 14 days. While yield, quality, and postharvest data were collected after harvest in Chuka University Laboratory. The collected information was put via Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) utilizing Statistical Analysis Software (SAS) version 9.3. Significant means were separated using the Least Significance Difference at α = 0.05. The results showed that organic and inorganic fertilizers significantly (p< 0.05) affected the plant height with NPK 300 kg/ha having the highest height in both trials at 52 days after transplanting (DAT). They recorded mean of 6.4 and 5.9 respectively. There was no significant effect between organic and inorganic fertilizer on internode length in both cultivations except at 80 days after transplanting in trial 1 and 52 days after transplanting in trial 2. The lowest was 0.35 in control and 3.7 organic 846.56 kg/ha. The number of stalks, number of branches and total soluble solids were significantly (p< 0.05) affected by the quantity of fertilizers applied. The 300 kg/ha of synthetic fertilizer recorded the highest number of stalks at 52 DAT 5.42 in both trials while 846.56 kg/ha of organic fertilizer recorded the highest in all days in both trials. The 300 kg/ha of inorganic fertilizer and 846.56 kg/ha of organic fertilizer showed the highest number of branches in both cultivations though at 80 DAT in both trials it was inconsistent. 300 kg/ha of organic fertilizer recorded the highest levels of total soluble solutes 9.51. When compared to the control, fertilizer rates had a substantial impact on yields, shoot and root dry weights, and plant biomass, all of which dramatically increased. According to the study, organic fertilizer produced the best growth, yields, and high levels of vitamin C, whereas inorganic fertilizer performed best in terms of quality criteria (total soluble solutes, total nitrogen, and crude protein) and the majority of postharvest metrics. Based on this study, organic fertilizer (Mazao bora) should be adopted gives high yields at 846.56 kg/ha and high levels of vitamin C (423.28 kg/ha), longest shelf life at 634.92 kg/ha. Also, norganic fertilizer (NPK) should be used for the production of celery as it gives high total soluble solutes at 300 kg/ha, crude protein and total nitrogen at 100 kg/ha. These properties are essenital to human health since they reduce chances of disease infection.Item READING THE ROMANCE MOTIF IN NARRATIVE CONSTRUCTION OF SELECTED GĨKŨYŨ POPULAR SONGS(Chuka University, 2020-12) KANGANGI, WANJA EUNICEREADING THE ROMANCE MOTIF IN NARRATIVE CONSTRUCTION OF SELECTED GĨKŨYŨ POPULAR SONGSItem Social Media Discourse of Chuka University Students on Whatsapp Platforms(2019-09) Miriti, GervasioSocial media influences the way people communicate with one another and it is gaining popularity owing to the technological milestones made in the world of communication. As people communicate via social media interaction platforms, language naturally and inevitably experiences some changes. Therefore, there was a need to undertake a linguistic study to account for such changes and developments in language use. The main concern of this study was to analyse the university students’ social media discourse. The discourse analysed sprang from WhatsApp interaction platform. The WhatsApp groups utilized were those formed by Chuka University students in Tharaka Nithi County, Kenya. Particularly, the following objectives guided the study: analysing the politeness strategies used in social media discourse, describing the unique features of language inherent in the university students’ social media discourse and explaining how identities are marked in the social media discourse. The study employed an eclectic approach whereby three theories; Genre Theory by Macken et al, Social Identity Theory by Tasfel and Politeness Theory by Brown and Levinson were used in analysing data. Genre theory was used to examine the distinctive features of language, Social Identity Theory analysed the data on how linguistic identities are marked through language in social media while Politeness Theory shed light on politeness strategies used in the social media discourse Some of the features that the study sought to analyse included phonological and morphological conditioned word formations, the nature of sentences, code switching and mixing, how paralinguistic and suprasegmental features are represented in social media discourse. A descriptive research design and the qualitative technique was employed to analyse data. Both Snowball and purposive sampling procedures were used. Snowballing was used to establish the WhatsApp groups that were used by the students, while purposive sampling procedure was used to selectively collect texts from WhatsApp groups. The texts that were purposively selected were those that showed politeness strategies, indicated how the university students created identities and those with linguistic features that characterized university students’ social media discourse. The researcher collected a total of 116 texts and this sample was adequate for this study. The rationale for choosing WhatsApp was the fact that there was a paucity of linguistic studies based on this interaction platform despite its popularity. This document contains seven chapters; chapter one, two and three which comprise the introduction, the review of related literature and research methodology respectively. Chapter four presents the features of language at the phonological, morphological, syntactic and semantic levels. The study findings revealed that social media discourse is a hybrid between written and spoken discourse that uses language in a distinctive manner and it is characterized by such features as phonographic, semasiographic, logographic, prosodic, paralinguistic, word formation processes, code switching and mixing and these features are depicted in a peculiar manner. Chapter Five entails the creation of identities by the university students. The study findings in chapter revealed that identities are created by using a special register/ jargon, multimodality, and through indexicality. Chapter Six deals with politeness in social media and the findings indicated that four categories of politeness strategies as postulated in the politeness theory were manifested in social media discourse of the university students. Chapter seven provides the summary of the findings, conclusions and recommendations. This study sheds light on the language usage and its dynamics. It will hopefully enrich knowledge on the various tenets of the three theories used: Genre Theory, Politeness Theory and the Social Identity Theory.Item Non-Equivalence in The Kĩkamba Bible Translation Eunice Nthenya Mũsyoka(Chuka University, 2019-09) Mũsyoka, Eunice NthenyaTranslation is encoding the meaning and forms in the target language by means of the decoded meaning and form of the source language. It involves the rendering of a source language text into the target text so as to ensure that the surface meaning of the two will be approximately similar and the structures of the source language will be preserved as closely as possible in the target text. Translators are faced with challenges of non-equivalence since languages present ideas and information differently. Translation strategies are used to overcome the challenges of non-equivalence and other inherent problems of translation. Non-equivalence occurs when a lexical item or an expression in the source language lacks an equivalent item to translate it in the target text. The objectives of this study were; to investigate the types of non-equivalences in the Kĩkamba Bible translation, to analyse the translation strategies used to handle non-equivalence in the Kĩkamba Bible translation and to suggest alternative strategies to handle non-equivalence in the Kĩkamba Bible translation. In investigating these objectives, the Equivalence Theory proposed by Nida and the Relevance Theory by Sperber and Wilson were used. The Equivalence theory discusses equivalences at different levels of the text by comparing it with the source text, for example, at word level and above the word level. Relevance Theory was also used to explore the translation strategies. The Relevance theory can be divided into two sets of assumptions, assumptions relating to cognition and assumptions about communication. Both sets were relevant to the study in analyzing the strategies used to handle non-equivalence in the Kĩkamba Bible translation. A descriptive research design was used to obtain information from a sampled population. The Bible is divided into two sections that is the Old and the New Testament, it is further categorized into seven categories which include; Pentateuch books, historical books, poetical books, prophetic books, the gospels, the early church (Acts) and the epistles. Purposive sampling was used to select one book from each category except the early church category which has only one book forming a total of seven books which included Genesis, Judges, Song of Solomon, Isaiah, Mathew, Acts of the Apostle and Hebrews. One chapter was purposively selected from each book to form a total of seven chapters. Data was collected through careful study of the English Bible, the Revised Standard Version to identify non-equivalence and the Kĩkamba Bible to analyse the strategies that were used to handle non-equivalence. The study established two types of non-equivalences; non-equivalence at lexical/word level and non-equivalence above the word level. The study reveals that non-equivalence is difficult to handle at lexical /word level mostly due to culture-specific words. Above the word level, translation is hampered by the use of figurative language in the source text and in this study, metaphors were the most difficult to translate. The non-equivalence at the grammatical categories was adequately handled. Fifteen translation strategies that the translator used to handle non-equivalence were identified and discussed. They include; amplification, explicitation, literal translation, hyponymy, naturalization, descriptive equivalent, synonymy, reduction, compensation, borrowing, unit change, use of paraphrase, addition and omission. The study suggests that the translator needs a good background on the culture of the two languages and the metaphorical language use in the Bible. It is hoped that the research will be a contribution to applied linguistics in the area of translation, specifically on non-equivalence and translation strategies.Item Ad-Theatre Techniques: Motifs of Orality and Popular Culture in Kenya’s Radio(Chuka University, 2019-09) Njogu, Jackson GikundaThis is a study of theatre by its persuasive function in commercial contexts. Specifically the study is a critique of the influences of orality and popular culture on audiences in commercial set ups as evident in dramas of radio advertising. It begins from the awareness that the drama genre has been at the heart of Africa’s rich literary heritage, and that it still finds use in contemporary spaces through mass media. Since the advent of radio in Africa drama has been a preferred technique of radio advertising in Kenya, yet scholarly research on drama as a persuasive genre through the radio medium remains scant. This is in spite of the fact that advertising communities are already aware of its marketing potential. The purpose of this study is thus to examine some of the techniques that drama uses in radio advertising, based on the assumption that because advertisements are made to woo buyers, the genre possesses strong rhetorical elements that can render for scholarly analyses. The study demonstrates the awareness that drama has been a cultural production in Kenya, and that orality has always punctuated dramatic practice at every phase of its development both in form and motif. Secondly, it demonstrates the eternal presence of oral leitmotifs in contemporary use especially in advertising discourses. The study uses a qualitative design. Data is in the form of audio records of advertisements that use the technique of drama in radio which have been transcribed, translated and analyzed to arrive at conclusions about the persuasive strategy of orality and popular culture in the radio medium. Since radio is a purely audio-acoustic media just like primary orality, Walter Ong’s theorizing about transiting from primary orality to typographical forms has been employed to enable us understand the psychodynamics of audio-acoustic messages, and what makes them click so easily with audiences. His views about ‘imagined audiences’ have also been used. In the first chapter we have established a background to the study. The second chapter deals with the literature review and theoretical framework. In chapter three we discuss the study methods while in chapter four we analyze selected data in terms of the oral motifs used using Walter Ong’s structural-functional theorizing in Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word. In chapter five the thesis analyzes the use of popular culture as a marketing strategy, while chapter six deals with thesis summary, conclusions and recommendations for further study. The study finds that aspects of indigenous theatrical forms based in primary orality feature prominently in drama-mediated advertisements, and that these features illuminate on the psychology and philosophy of radio listeners, and that advertisers prefer modeling their content on trendy topics adorned in literary stylistics. These findings are important because they affirm the enduring nature of orality in modern times. They also point to practical applicability of orality in modern discourses on one hand, and on the other, awareness that adverts strongly suggest the ways in which Kenyan consumers understand their world.