Research articles (Dept of English)http://hdl.handle.net/10311/1022024-03-28T13:59:37Z2024-03-28T13:59:37ZAre dialects markers of ethnic identity? The case of Setswana dialects and ethnic groupsBagwasi, Mompoloki Mmangakahttp://hdl.handle.net/10311/19692019-09-27T00:01:19Z2019-01-01T00:00:00ZAre dialects markers of ethnic identity? The case of Setswana dialects and ethnic groups
Bagwasi, Mompoloki Mmangaka
Many studies on dialects present language in neat, organised groupings that highlight similar language habits and linguistic features of people who belong to the same social, linguistic or regional group. In that way, social and regional groups are identified by the dialects that they speak, and vice versa. However, given the fluid and mobile nature of languages, dialects, and people, it is time that this relationship between language and identity was reviewed, and its complexity exemplified. The fluidity and dynamism of language makes it difficult to attach any linguistic features to any group of people or location. Using examples from Botswana, this paper argues that the relationship between Setswana dialects and Botswana ethnic and regional groups is non-representational and non-exclusive. Thus, the paper makes a distinction between Setswana ethnic groups and Setswana dialects, and challenges current perceptions of Setswana dialects which are based on ethnicity. The argument of the paper is based on historical claims, and translanguaging and levelling theories.
2019-01-01T00:00:00ZA Socio-pragmatic analysis of compliment responses among students at the University of BotswanaMatiki, Alfred J.Kgolo, Naledi N.http://hdl.handle.net/10311/19602019-06-14T00:01:32Z2017-01-01T00:00:00ZA Socio-pragmatic analysis of compliment responses among students at the University of Botswana
Matiki, Alfred J.; Kgolo, Naledi N.
Using tape-recorded interviews as well as Discourse Completion Tasks on compliment responses as elicitation methods, this study set out to investigate the linguistic resources that students at the University of Botswana use in responding to compliments in English. It examined whether the Batswana respondents show any preference for certain types of compliment responses, and if such preferences are affected by such variables as level of education, sex and social status. By using Herbert’s (1986) taxonomy of compliment responses, the study has shown that subjects preferred to agree with their complimenters. It has demonstrated that the interlocutors’ level of education and sex were not significant factors in the choice of compliment response types. Recommendations for the teaching of the pragmatics of compliments in language contact situations, and especially in ESL classrooms, are made in light of these findings.
2017-01-01T00:00:00ZSetswana lexical expressions of timeKgolo, Naledi N.http://hdl.handle.net/10311/19552019-06-14T00:01:39Z2018-01-01T00:00:00ZSetswana lexical expressions of time
Kgolo, Naledi N.
This paper explores the way time is lexically expressed in Setswana. Using data from a Setswana corpus, the study isolated instances of temporal reference for linguistic analysis.
The paper demonstrates that Setswana uses varied devices such as temporal adverbs (e.g. maabane ‘yesterday’ and phakela ‘in the morning’) and spatial metaphors (e.g. pele ‘ahead, before, in front, first’ and orago ‘behind, after, at [the] back’) to express time. Even though Setswana has adapted metric ways of showing time such as calendar months and days, the discussion shows that temporal reference in traditional Setswana was event-based (e.g. based on movements of the sun and seasonal change). The study shows that Setswana lexical
expressions of time are bound up with the ways in which Setswana speakers conceptualise time.
2018-01-01T00:00:00ZChallenges to issues of balance and representativesness in African lexicographyOtlogetswe, Thapelo Josephhttp://hdl.handle.net/10311/16612017-05-17T00:02:08Z2006-01-01T00:00:00ZChallenges to issues of balance and representativesness in African lexicography
Otlogetswe, Thapelo Joseph
Modern dictionaries depend on corpora of different sizes and types for frequency listings, concordances and collocations, illustrative sentences and grammatical information. With the help of computer software, retrieving such information has increasingly become relatively easy. However, the quality of retrieved information for lexicographic purposes depends on the information input at the stage of corpus construction. If corpora are not representative of the different language usages of a speech community, they may prove to be unreliable sources of lexicographic information. There are, however, issues in African languages which make many African corpora questionable. These issues include a lack of texts of different genres, the unavailability of balanced and representative written texts, a complete absence of spoken texts as well as literacy problems in African societies. This article therefore explores the different challenges to the construction of reliable corpora in African languages. It argues that African languages face peculiar challenges and corpus research may require a different treatment compared to European and American corpus research. It finally concludes that issues of balance and representativeness appear theoretically impossible when looking at the results of sociolinguistic research on the different existing language varieties which are difficult to represent accurately in a corpus.
Other African languages used in the article.
2006-01-01T00:00:00Z