Sesotho Lexical Items as Depositories of a Story Genre

DOI: 10.5176/2251-3566_L319.383

Authors: Dr Mabolaeng Thato Monyakane

Abstract: When someone does an action, approved or disapproved by the Basotho, one of the community members observing sometimes comments on this individual’s action with a well-known traditional lexical item. Sometimes the remark is followed by the responding conversation. Other members of a community that are present at the scene elaborate on the lexical expression in relation to the individual in discussion in order to explain the context of his/her behaviour. This individual becomes the topic of the moment. Other times the lexical expression is passed directly to the person in question for him or her to decode the story and examine her /his actions in relation to it. The present paper wants to find out whether established lexical expressions in Sesotho are depositories of a story genre. The study wants to examine oral lexical items such as names of places and things, popularised names of people and caricatures and idiomatic expressions. The hypothesis of this paper is that the stories embodied in the lexical items can be constructed through the textual theory and found to be in existent amongst the Basotho. Intertextuality contents that through a story one develops a name and vice versa.
Keywords

Keywords: story genre, lexical expression, intertextuality, people names, depositories.