A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF SESUTO-ENGLISH DICTIONARY AND SETHANTŠO SA SESOTHO WITH REFERENCE TO LEXICAL ENTRIES AND DICTIONARY DESIGN by TANKISO LUCIA MOTJOPE-MOKHALI submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Literature and Philosophy in the subject African Language at the UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AFRICA SUPERVISOR: PROFESSOR I.M. KOSCH CO-SUPERVISOR: PROFESSOR M.J. MAFELA November 2016 Student No.: 53328183 DECLARATION I, Tankiso Lucia Motjope-Mokhali, declare that A Comparative Analysis of Sesuto- English Dictionary and Sethantšo sa Sesotho with Reference to Lexical Entries and Dictionary Design is my own work and that all the sources that I have used or cited have been indicated and acknowledged by means of complete references. Signature……………………………… Date………………………….. i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I thank God for giving me the strength, power, good health and guidance to complete this race. I would not have made it if it were not for His mercy. As the African saying affirms ‘A person is a person because of other people’, which in Sesotho is translated as Motho ke motho ka batho, I believe that this thesis would not have been completed if it had not been for the assistance of other people. In particular, I extend my sincere gratitude to my Supervisors Professor I.M. Kosch and Professor M.J. Mafela for their guidance throughout the completion of this thesis. Their hard work, encouragement, constant support (both academically and personally) as well as their insightful comments offered throughout this study, gave me courage to continue. My special thanks also go to NIHSS/SAHUDA for its financial support during the carrying out of this study. I would also like to thank the people who participated in this study and my colleagues and friends who helped me in various ways during the preparation of this work. Last but not least, I wish to thank my family for the support they gave me in time of need. Thank you all. ii SUMMARY Since the publication of Dr. Johnson’s first English dictionary in 1755, there have been rapid changes in the development of dictionaries in other parts of the world. However, the advances are perceived more in other languages of the world such as the European languages while in Africa, the changes have been very slow. The majority of dictionaries utilised by most Africans are bilingual and were produced by the missionaries. These dictionaries were aimed at serving the needs of the missionaries, but more recently African scholars have been trying to create dictionaries that are intended to meet the needs of the native speakers particularly because the existing dictionaries contain many words which are archaic or going out of use. This means that the currently produced dictionaries should reflect the changes that have occurred in languages and society. The two dictionaries under scrutiny, Sesuto-English Dictionary and Sethantšo sa Sesotho, share similar content as if they were both targeting the same generation even though the former was written by missionaries in the 19th century while the latter was created by a Sesotho native speaker in the 21st century. This study aimed to establish whether the two dictionaries are the same or not, or whether Sethantšo sa Sesotho had been derived from Sesuto-English Dictionary as well as whether the two dictionaries meet the needs of the contemporary users. The study employed adaptation theory in order to discover the originality of Sethantšo sa Sesotho. User-perspective approach and communication-oriented function were utilised to judge the effectiveness of the two dictionaries in reading and writing and to analyse users’ views. The study established that Sethantšo sa Sesotho has adapted 69% lexical items from Sesuto-English Dictionary; words are arranged in a similar order in both dictionaries with slight differences here and there; most definitions and illustrative phrases/sentences are the same even though the author of Sethantšo sa Sesotho did not acknowledge using any written source of information, thus violating the principles of adaptation; use of these dictionaries during reading and writing was found to be beneficial to users; and both dictionaries lack current words which users encounter daily. Key terms: Dictionaries; lexical entries; dictionary design; comparative analysis; adaption theory; user- perspective approach; communication-oriented function; users’ needs; dictionary use; non- dictionary use; effectiveness of dictionaries; reading; writing; users’ views; Sethantšo sa Sesotho; Sesuto-English Dictionary iii Table of Contents DECLARATION ..................................................................................................................................... i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .................................................................................................................... ii SUMMARY ........................................................................................................................................... iii Table of Contents ................................................................................................................................... iv CHAPTER ONE ..................................................................................................................................... 1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Background to the study ................................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Research problem statement ............................................................................................................. 6 1.3 Aim and objectives ........................................................................................................................... 7 1.4 Rationale ........................................................................................................................................... 7 1.5 Significance of the study ................................................................................................................... 7 1.6 Definition of key terms ..................................................................................................................... 8 1.6.1 Comparative analysis ..................................................................................................................... 8 1.6.2 Dictionaries .................................................................................................................................. 10 1.6.3 Lexical entries .............................................................................................................................. 12 1.6.4 Dictionary design ......................................................................................................................... 12 1.7 Theoretical framework .................................................................................................................... 13 1.7.1 Theory of adaptation .................................................................................................................... 14 1.7.2 User-perspective .......................................................................................................................... 14 1.7.3 Communication-orientated functions ........................................................................................... 15 1.8 Research design and methodology .................................................................................................. 15 1.8.1 Triangulation ................................................................................................................................ 16 1.8.1.1 Qualitative method .................................................................................................................... 18 1.8.1.2 Quantitative method .................................................................................................................. 20 1.8.2 Procedure ..................................................................................................................................... 22 1.9 Introduction of the two dictionaries under discussion .................................................................... 22 1.9.1 Sesotho-English Dictionary ......................................................................................................... 22 1.9.2 Sethantšo sa Sesotho .................................................................................................................... 24 1.10 Ethical considerations ................................................................................................................... 24 1.11 Chapter breakdown ....................................................................................................................... 26 CHAPTER TWO .................................................................................................................................. 27 LITERATURE REVIEW ..................................................................................................................... 27 2.1 Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 27 2.2 Types of dictionaries ....................................................................................................................... 27 2.2.1 Monolingual