In search of larger units of meaning: A foray into Northern Sotho data

Abstract

The availability of large-scale electronic language corpora has led to revolutionary changes in the landscape of linguistic research. Corpus linguistics has in the past few decades developed from an alternative methodology of linguistic investigation to a fully-fledged theoretical approach to linguistic study. Furthermore, having access to electronic corpora has lead scholars such as Sinclair (2004) to redefine the basic unit of meaning of language. In the light of corpus evidence, he proposes the existence of a lexical unit which represents a lexical structure higher than the word, in which meaning is vested. In this article, the notion of a functional unit of meaning in Northern Sotho is explored. Two case studies are presented, illustrating not only the methodology of corpus-driven investigation for a Bantu language, but also the theoretical and practical implications of recognising the existence of extended units of meaning.