Uchanganuzi Wa Kileksikografia Wa Hiponimia Za Leksimu Nomino Na Vitenzi Vya Kiswahili Na Tafsiri Zake Katika Kiluo

ABSTRACT

Despite the existence of hyponymy in various word categories, Kiswahili studies have tended to consider nominal hyponymy disregarding other categories such as verbs, adverbs and adjectives. These studies have also been conducted without clear linguistic approaches of classification and appropriate theoretical basis. In addition, no structural and stylistic studies on hyponymy have been conducted between Kiswahili and other African languages. Therefore, the study analysed lexicographically numerous Kiswahili nominal and verbal lexical hyponymies and translated them into Dholuo in order to boost their structural and stylistic comparative studies. The study relied on the following objectives: to analyse lexicographically and classify the Kiswahili nominal and verbal hyponymies, translate linguistically Kiswahili nominal and verbal hyponymies into Dholuo, and compare and contrast Kiswahili and Dholuo nominal and verbal hyponymies both structurally and in style. The study was based on two theories: the componential analysis theory by Katz and Fodor that was used in analysing Kiswahili hyponymy whereby lexical meanings are analysed by relying on specific distinctive features, and also translation theory by Catford that was used for translating Kiswahili hyponyms into Dholuo. Kiswahili nominal and verbal hyponymies were collected from Kiswahili dictionaries especially KK21 and KKS, and their Dholuo equivalents from EDD and DED. A descriptive design comprising both the description and the matrix table analysis was adopted. The research was conducted in the library and the Kisumu East Sub-County. Purposive sampling technique was applied in sampling 35 interviewees, and also 28 nominal and 24 verbal hypernyms that were analysed until saturation level was attained. Observation and semi-structured interview were used as data collection techniques while the lexicon syntactic relation model and an interview schedule were used as tools. Data was validated by triangulation convergence technique, analysed thematically and in matrix tables, and presented lexicographically. The study identified six thematic classifications in the lexicographical analysis of Kiswahili lexical hyponymy: perceptual, conceptual or functional, geographical, activity, state and action. Symmetrical and zero equivalents exist in the translation of Kiswahili lexical hyponymy into Dholuo. The structural composition and style of hyponymy tend to be both symmetrical and asymmetrical in the conceptual thematic classification caused by different geographical and cultural variations of the two languages. The study outcome is a contribution to lexical semantics and translation studies, teachings of Kiswahili and Dholuo vocabularies, serves as an additional text of Kiswahili and Dholuo bilingual lexicography, and also as a simple text of the translated thesaurus of both languages.