The paper describes some stable syntactic features of Swazi English. It is thus an extension and elaboration of the discussion in Kamwangamalu and Chisanga's characterization of Swazi English. They point out that the wh-word is placed last in question formation, time expressions such as`I met him last of last week' occur and idiomatic expressions such as`To see once is to see twice' are used. This paper discusses, among others, the use of the modal auxiliary must, the use of as to, the conflation of the emphatic do with the simple past tense and dangling modifiers as other stable syntactic features of Swazi English. It then elaborates on the use of idiomatic expressions, since in Kamwangamalu and Chisanga's discussion only a few were mentioned. Finally, as there are few descriptions of Swazi English, the paper advocates more studies on the subject.
Botswana's reading culture has captured the attention of reading experts in the country for more than two decades. The survey reported in this article involved 121 junior students (aged 12 to 15 years) from two private and two government‐aided secondary schools. The results indicate that a majority of the students read during school holidays; that they engaged in both academic and leisure reading; that they read at home rather than at the library; and that their parents modeled reading behavior and bought them reading materials. Students' responses further indicate that they understood the importance of reading and read not only for leisure or academic purposes, but also to please their parents and thus promote family harmony.
The paper discusses some of the syntactic and lexical features of Botswana English. The syntactic features are the tag question isn't it? and the conversational tag is it?, the exclamation Sharp!, the indefinite pronoun phrase the other one, the dangling modifier, the inversion of auxiliary verb and subject in reported questions, the redundant use of personal / reflexive pronouns, the use of the negative auxiliary don't, the conflation of the English adjective sorry and the Setswana adverbial hoo!, the use of the subordinating conjunction which and the modal auxiliary can be able. The lexical items discussed include Setswana words that have been borrowed and/or translated into English and words such as condomise, diarise, shame and brigade which have been formed through the processes of derivation and semantic extension. The lexical and syntactic features are those which the researcher has observed, over a six-year period, to be in frequent and widespread use in Botswana.
The paper reports a positive shift in the attitudes of some Batswana towards the local variety of English here described as Botswana English. The new attitude is the result of familiarity with the variety in the last decade or so. It is also the result of the belief that the variety is inherently good and that its users, especially children, use it in a communicatively competent manner. In addition, the respondents believe that not only is the variety not inferior to others -native or non-native -but that it can be understood by speech communities that speak English anywhere in the world. Finally, the respondents are satisfied that the variety is of a quality that can be used for educational purposes in Botswana, although the implications of its use are yet to be addressed.
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