The Interpretation of “Tlhahisoleseding” v/s “Tlhahisolesedi”

Published ArticleThis study seeks to question the continuous usage of the compound locative noun ‘tlhahisoleseding’ (information) as the basic noun. The paper argues that ‘tlhahisoleseding’ (information) is a locative noun (an adverb of place) derived from the noun ‘tlhahisolesedi’ (information) and should not be used as an equivalent term for information but ‘tlhahisolesedi’ instead. The basic principles of compound or complex nouns formation were scrutinised; and the implications of suffixal morpheme –eng/-ng in changing basic nouns into locative nouns. The suffixal uses of –eng/-ng in other Sesotho word categories is presented. The Theory of Government and Binding (GB) and its sub theories were applied. The outcomes of the study show that ‘tlhahisoleseding’ is a locative noun whereas ‘tlhahisolesedi’ is a basic compound noun which has a reading of information. The morphological analysis of these ‘alternating’ nouns shows that they produce different meaning in Sesotho sentences

The Interpretation of “Botlokotsebe” V/S “Bosenyi”

Published ArticleThe present paper is based on the findings from a study conducted to examine the interchangeable use of the concepts ‘botlokotsebe’ (mischief) and ‘bosenyi’ (crime) as an English equivalent term ‘crime’. This study is thus a survey in which questionnaires were used to collect data from 165 (of which 15 are experts in the language practice) Sesotho speakers. The respondents were intentionally selected from language users in Motheo and Thabo Mofutsanyana districts in South Africa. Documents from different domains (where these terms are appearing) were also analysed to assess the everyday use and usage of these terms in distinct contexts. The results show that ‘botlokotsebe’ cannot denote criminal activity but ‘bosenyi’ is the relevant equivalent term to describe any crime. The implications of these findings are discussed. The study also provides an insight as to how Sesotho language users should be careful and cautious in implementing certain terms without following relevant sources. It also proposed that ‘bosenyi’ be regarded as superordinate term referring to criminal activities

Verbal Alternations in Sesotho: A Case of Lexical Semantics

Published ArticleThis study discusses two types of verbal alternation in Sesothothat have the same syntactic structure, but differ in their semantic representations and in their lexical syntax structures. The first scenario: ‘Ntate o motsutse lenala la ntja’(Father extracted dog’s nail) alternating with ‘Ntja e motsutse lenala la yona’ (A dog extracted its nail). The alternating sentence can be interpreted as: ‘A dog had someone extract its nail’. The second scenario is: ‘Mong o robile molala wa Thabo’ (Someone broke Thabo’s neck) alternating with ‘Thabo o robile molala wa hae’(Thabo broke his neck). We can interpret the alternating sentence as: ‘Thabo is the possessor of the neck that suffers the break. Based on a more fine-grained approach of thematic roles and based on a semantic representation of the events encoded by these verbs the results show that these two forms have different interpretations due to different lexical semantic properties

The presentation of female characters in three of BM Khaketla's texts: A literary analysis

Published ArticleLike most literature around the world, African literature initially portrayed women poorly. This is in accordance with Kalu’s (2001:14) observation that the role of women in society is constantly questioned and ‘for centuries women have struggled to find their place’ in a world that is predominantly male oriented. Inaccurate and incomplete portrayals of female characters littered early African works. This may be largely due to the fact that African literature was first written by men, whose education was put above that of women. Educated men not only came from a patriarchal society but were educated by missionaries and colonisers, who also came from a patriarchal society. The article attempts to investigate the representation of women characters in BM Khaketla’s texts. His penchant to portray androcentric narratives is at variance with the female gender that is trivialised through patriarchy, culture, a gender socialisation process, marriage and domestic enslavement. The images of African women in these texts will be reassessed and redefined. The article concludes with some contemporary issues showing that women do have control over their own lives and are therefore the designers of their own future. There is room for contemplation of individual responsibility in women’s plight apart from their cultural classification and expectations

Break and bend verbs in Sesotho

Thesis (MA)--University of Stellenbosch, 2001.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The break and bend verbs in Sesotho are investigated with a view to account for the unique properties of these verbs. The study gives a full account of the predicate argument structure of break and bend verbs. In Sesotho we have three types of predicates, namely, one-place, two-place and three-place predicates. The study also focuses on the number of arguments these verbs may assign. Some of these verbs are intransitive and therefore they assign one argument, which is an external argument. Other verbs are transitive and as such they assign more than one argument (i.e. external and internal arguments). These verbs are investigated as to whether they would select certain arguments to appear with them and it was found that when they do, they also select semantic features which these arguments must have in order to appear with such verbs. These verbs are also examined with the view to account for their difference. It was found that certain bend verbs show the same syntactic properties as the break verbs, except those bend verbs name reverse actions. Another observation was that not all break and bend verbs have zero-related nominaIs. When they do, the nominals describe the result of the action named by the verb. The study investigate these verbs as to whether they would allow cognate objects, verbal alternations and derived verbs (in the case of bend verbs), and it was found that some of them would allow such lexical items.AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die breek en buig werkwoorde in Sesotho is ondersoek met die doel om die unieke kenmerke van hierdie werkwoorde te bepaal. Die studie verskaf 'n beskrywing van die predikaat argumentstruktuur van breek en buig werkwoorde in Sesotho. Ons het drie tipes predikate, te wete eenplek, tweeplek en drieplek predikate. Die studie fokus ook op die aantal argumente wat hierdie werkwoorde kan toeken. Sommige van hierdie werkwoorde is onoorganklik, derhalwe ken hulle een argument toe wat ekstern is. Ander werkwoorde is oorganklik, sodat meer as een argument, te wete ekstern en intern, toegeken word. Daar is ook ondersoek of hierdie werkwoorde argumente kan selekteer om met hulle te verskyn, en dit is bevind dat as hulle dit doen, hulle ook die semantiese kenmerk selekteer wat hierdie argumente moet he as hulle saam met daardie werkwoorde verskyn. Hierdie werkwoorde is ondersoek met die doel om hul verskil te bepaal. Daar is bevind dat sommige buig werkwoorde dieselfde sintaktiese eienskappe het as die breek werkwoorde, behalwe dat buig werkwoorde ook reversiet is. 'n Verdere kenmerk is dat nie alle breek en buig werkwoorde voorkom met nul-verwante nominaIe. As hulle dit doen, beskryf die nominale die uitslag van die handeling in die werkwoord. Daar is ondersoek of kognitiewe voorwerpe, werkwoord alternasies en afgeleide werkwoorde toegelaat kan word, en daar is bevind dat sommiges dit toelaat

Lexical semantics and deverbal nominalisations in Sesotho

Thesis (DLitt)--Stellenbosch University, 2008.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: In this dissertation, the semantic and syntactic properties of deverbatives are analyzed in the context of Generative Lexicon theory, which is a model of lexical semantics. The aim of the analysis relates to the existence of the relationship between nominals derived directly from an event description and their inheritance of the properties of that event. The deverbal nouns in Sesotho are analyzed semantically within specific parameters taking into account the deverbal noun as a whole. This is done by viewing how word meaning interact with a set of generative mechanisms to account for the creative use of language. These mechanisms involve the levels of representations (i.e. argument, event and qualia structures) which provides information about the number and type of arguments; the event type of a lexical item and how these events are tied together within different relations. There are correlations between lexically encoded base forms and morphological derived forms. These correlations provide a need for a representational structure to distinguish between stage-level and individual-level nominals. Focusing on the role of events in the semantics of nouns, it is shown that stage-level and individual-level nouns differ in the type and the quantification of their defining event. This led to the adoption of the view that that nominals in general should be named after the events they each fulfil.AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: In hierdie proefskrif word die semantiese en sintaktiese eienskappe van deverbatiewe in Sesotho ontleed binne die raamwerk van Generatiewe Leksikonteorie, ‘n model van leksikale semantiek. Die doel van die analise hou verband met die verhouding tussen nominale direk afgelei vanaf ‘n gebeurtenis (‘event’) beskrywing en die oorerwing van die eienskappe van daardie gebeurtenis (‘event’). Die Sesotho deverbatiewe word semanties ontleed binne spesifieke parameters met inagneming van die semantiese eienskappe van die deverbatief as geheel. Dit word gedoen deur ‘n ondersoek te doen na hoe woordbetekenis in interaksie is met ‘n stel generatiewe meganismes om ‘n verklaring te bied vir die kreatiewe gebruik van taal. Hierdie meganismes betrek die vlakke van representasie (nl. argumentstruktuur, gebeurtenis (‘event’) struktuur en qualia-struktuur) wat inligting voorsien omtrent die getal en tipes argumente (dit is, uitdrukkings wat tematiese rolle het), die gebeurtenis (‘event’) tipe van ‘n leksikale item, en hoe hierdie gebeurtenisse (‘events’) saamhang binne verskillende verbande. Daar is korrelasies tussen leksikaal ge-enkodeerde basisvorme en morfologiesafgeleide vorms. Hierdie ko-relasies bied ‘n behoefte vir ‘n verteenwoordigende struktuur om te onderskei tussen fase-vlak (‘stage-level’) en individuele-vlak nominale. Daar word aangetoon, met fokus op die gebeurtenisse (‘events’) in die semantiek van naamwoorde, dat fase-vlak en individuele-vlak verskil in die tipe en die kwantifisering van hulle definieerbare gebeurtenis. Dit lei tot die aanvaarding van die siening dat nominale in die algemeen benoem moet word na die gebeurtenisse waaraan elk voldoen

The Interpretation of “Tlhahisoleseding” v/s “Tlhahisolesedi”

Published ArticleThis study seeks to question the continuous usage of the compound locative noun ‘tlhahisoleseding’ (information) as the basic noun. The paper argues that ‘tlhahisoleseding’ (information) is a locative noun (an adverb of place) derived from the noun ‘tlhahisolesedi’ (information) and should not be used as an equivalent term for information but ‘tlhahisolesedi’ instead. The basic principles of compound or complex nouns formation were scrutinised; and the implications of suffixal morpheme –eng/-ng in changing basic nouns into locative nouns. The suffixal uses of –eng/-ng in other Sesotho word categories is presented. The Theory of Government and Binding (GB) and its sub theories were applied. The outcomes of the study show that ‘tlhahisoleseding’ is a locative noun whereas ‘tlhahisolesedi’ is a basic compound noun which has a reading of information. The morphological analysis of these ‘alternating’ nouns shows that they produce different meaning in Sesotho sentences