A comparative analysis of Sesuto-English dictionary and Sethantso sa SeSotho with reference to lexical entries and dictionary design

Abstract

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.