Treatment of verb derivatives in Swahili dictionaries

This study investigates five Swahili dictionaries (two monolingual and three bilingual) in respect to how verb derivatives are treated: the methods applied and lexicographic problems that arise through using such methods. The study is divided into five chapters. Chapter one is the introduction which deals with the background to the study, the problem to be investigated, the objective and significance of the study, methodology, and its scope and limitations. Chapter two presents the literature review which highlights different methods and criteria considered in entering derivatives in a dictionary. Chapter three contains the presentation of verb derivatives in five Swahili dictionaries. The differences and similarities are shown through the examples and the summary of the data provided for each dictionary. Chapter flour deals with the critical discussion of the findings. Here, the methods used in entering verb derivatives, and the criteria applied are examined. This chapter compares also the sample of entries from Swahili-English Dictionary by Marian; Swahili Dictionary by Johnson, Swahili-English Dictionary by Rechenbach, Standard Swahili Dictionary by Institute of Kiswahili Research, and Swahili-English Dictionary by Feeley in order to show how better we could treat verb derivatives in Swahili dictionaries. Thus, merits and demerits for each method are observed. Finally, chapter five gives concluding observations made in our discussion of the data and recommends areas of further research.