Stories

  1. Keeping the past useful in modern dictionariesThe lexicographer’s treatment of archaic words in modern dictionaries is less a matter of adding old material than deciding what evidence readers need to…
  2. A Corpus-Based Study of Setswana Synonyms for BeautifulAt first glance, translating “beautiful” into Setswana looks straightforward: choose a familiar adjective and move on. Corpus evidence complicates that choice.…
  3. Setswana Terms for Traditional Marriage: Bogadi and RitualsSetswana-speaking communities use a rich vocabulary to describe marriage, kinship, negotiation and the responsibilities shared by families. Among the…
  4. Bo- and abstract nouns in SetswanaIn Setswana, the prefix bo- can form a noun that names an abstract quality, condition, activity, or status. Familiar examples include botho “goodness”, boswa…
  5. Translating Setswana folklore for young Australian readersAs T.J. Otlogetswe, a lexicographer, corpus linguist and translator, I treat Setswana folklore as a record of language as much as a collection of stories. To…
  6. Setswana Place Names as Records of Movement and MemoryToponyms are archives of settlement, authority and environmental memory. Across Botswana, South Africa and Namibia, Setswana place names attach communities to…
  7. Defining abstract nouns in Setswana lexicographyAbstract nouns name feelings, states and ideas rather than objects that can be pointed to, photographed or placed in a labelled case. They nevertheless need…
  8. Building a Frequency Dictionary of Setswana from Radio TranscriptsA frequency dictionary shows which words occur most often in a language sample and how speakers use them in context. For Setswana, radio transcripts offer a…
  9. Setswana money words: from madi to tshelete and their originsMoney words carry more than economic meaning. They record trade, colonial encounters, changing systems of value, and the ordinary experiences of earning,…
  10. Why go bolela can also mean to tell a lieIn Setswana, go bolela is usually encountered as “to speak” or “to talk.” That simple gloss, however, does not exhaust the verb’s use. In certain contexts it…