The lemmatisation of nouns in Tshivenḓa dictionaries

Abstract

Tshivenḓa is one of the official languages of South Africa, mostly spoken in Limpopo Province at Vhembe District. From 1994, when the Republic of South Africa became a democratic government, speakers of the Tshivenḓa language spread to all nine provinces of South Africa. Tshivenḓa has different word categories, like nouns, verbs, adjectives and many more. When words are looked up in dictionaries, one should know what types of categories are given, e.g. their spelling, pronunciation and meaning. If this is not clearly represented one would not be able to use such a dictionary. This paper seeks to investigate how nouns are lemmatised in Tshivenḓa dictionaries. Attention is given to word and stem lemmatisation. It also looks at the lemmatisation of singular and plural nouns, and the lemmatisation of deverbative and diminutive nouns. This will be accomplished by analysing published Tshivenḓa dictionaries in circulation.

Keywords: Lemmatisation, nouns, Tshivenḓa, deverbative nouns, diminutive nouns, singular, plural

Die lemmatisering van substantiewe in Tshivenḓa woordeboeke

Tshivenḓa is een van die amptelike tale van Suid-Afrika wat hoofsaaklik in die Vhembedistrik van die Limpopoprovinsie gepraat word. Sedert 1994, toe die Republiek van Suid-Afrika 'n demokratiese regering gekry het, het sprekers van Tshivenḓa na al nege provinsies van Suid-Afrika versprei. Tshivenḓa het verskeie woordsoorte, soos substantiewe, werkwoorde, adjektiewe en so meer. Wanneer woorde in woordeboeke nageslaan word, moet 'n mens weet watter datatipes aangebied word, bv. spelling, uitspraak en betekenis. As dit nie duidelik weergegee word nie, sal 'n mens nie in staat wees om so 'n woordeboek te gebruik nie. Hierdie artikel wil ondersoek hoe substantiewe in Tshivenḓa woordeboeke gelemmatiseer word. Daar word aandag geskenk aan woord-en stamlemmatisering. Daar word ook gekyk na die lemmatisering van enkel- en meervoudige substantiewe, asook die lemmatisering van deverbatiewe en diminutiewe substantiewe. Dit word gedoen deur bestaande Tshivenḓa woordeboeke te ondersoek.

Sleutelwoorde: Lemmatisering, substantiewe, Tshivenḓa, deverbatiewe substantiewe, diminutiewe substantiewe, enkelvoud, meervoud