Thèse présentée et défendue en vue de l’obtention de grade de DOCTEUR en Lettres et Civilisation Anglaises
Par
Noël KITAMBILA MUTEN
DEA en Linguistique appliquée
Orientation : LINGUISTIQUE ANGLAISE
Promoteur : ATHANASE MALEKANI KAPELE
Professeur Ordinaire
Membres du Jury
Prof. BUSAKI ONKEN Cyprien : Président et Membre Effectif (PO, UNIKIN/LCAngl.)
Prof. MUNDEKE OTOM’Sl Léon-Pierre : Secrétaire et Membre Effectif (PO, UNIKIN/LCAfr.) Prof. MALEKANI KAPELE Athanase: Promoteur et Membre Effectif (PO, UNIKIN/LCAngl.) Prof. PAYANZO NTSOMO Pascal: Membre Effectif (PE, UNIKIN/SSPA.)
Prof. DUMA KHONDE César : Membre Effectif (P, ISP/GOMBE.)
Prof. MAJAMBO KALONDA Albain: Membre Suppléant (PE, UNIKIN/LCAngl.) Prof. NSIMAMBOTE ZOLA Remy: Membre Suppléant (P, UNIKIN/LCAngl.)
MARS 2023
ABSTRACT
Progress is bom of inquiry and doubt is often better than over-confidence, for it leads to inquiry, and inquiry leads to invention or at least to innovation. That is, the increased amounts of research make progress possible.
This dissertation is entitled A Sociocultural and Sociolinguistic Investigation of Old and New Place Names along the National Highway from Matadi to Kasangulu in Kongo central province (DRC). It is aimed at taking a scientific look at public place names in the area concemed. The main concem has been the investigation into place names from the colonial to postcolonial periods from Matadi to Kasangulu that revealed that an easier common way to find directions is to refer to place names as names would provide a more useful geographical reference when moving around.
It was also useful to study the sociocultural and sociolinguistic aspects of the dialects concemed, namely Kimboma, Kindibu and Kintandu spoken in the area of our investigation and other people involved in the interview. As a matter of fact, the names given to places are the products of human and community conventions for giving not only personal names but also names of certain categories like homes, bridges, rivers, towns, roads, public places, and the like, that reflect the history, cultures, geography topology, beliefs, ideologies, and values of the community, for names given to people and places are an integral part of the community in which they are utilized.
The study has clearly indicated that toponymy is part of onomastics, which is the science of place names, a privileged domain of geography. Several studies in this discipline have shown how toponymy is at the heart of the relationship between society and the territory it occupies (Austin, 1963).
Beyond its rental function ( designation, location, and orientation), a toponym carries heritage and cultural significance and constitutes an indisputable identity reference. Other studies, more inscribed in a historical perspective, have attempted to retrace the toponymie evolution of place according to the territorial (re) conquests and the altemation of political regimes which are remodeled in their 1mage.
The study is an exploratory one as the topic was barely investigated before, but mainly exploited the qualitative and quantitative methods, through the instruments of questionnaire, interview, and observation data. This triangulation mixed methodology was chosen to exploit the strengths of both methods, while minimizing their limitations.
Various aspects of sociocultural and linguistic features of the places names are involved in the study, especially the dialectal and regional variation of the three dialects, some morpho-phonological aspects of place names, the sociocultural and sociolinguistic characteristics of Kimboma, Kindibu and Kintandu, the anglicization of some place names, the morpho-semantic explanation of some borrowed place names, and the indigenization of foreign words.
Sorne of the findings revealed that there is not a national board for standardizing toponyms in DRC. Twenty six percent, the higher score of the respondents were against the renaming of some old place names.
We recommended the govemment through this study to keep the old names for cultural and historical reasons. Unlike countries like the USA and South Africa that have scientific bodies that aim at place name creation and standardization, this country does not have one. Such a body in charge of standardization of toponyms could refer to the expertise of the above-mentioned countries (USA and South Africa) to meet the recommendation of the United Nations on Standardizing. Geographical Names (UNSGN) of 1991 International Conference on the Standardization of Place names all over the world.