SETSWANA LEXICAL EXPRESSIONS OF TIME

SETSWANA LEXICAL EXPRESSIONS OF TIME Naledi N. Kgolo1 Abstract This paper explores the way time is lexically expressed in Setswana. Using data from a Setswana corpus, the study isolated instances of temporal reference for linguistic analysis. The paper demonstrates that Setswana uses varied devices such as temporal adverbs (e.g. maabane ‘yesterday’ and phakela ‘in the morning’) and spatial metaphors (e.g. pele ‘ahead, before, in front, irst’ and morago ‘behind, after, at [the] back’) to express time. Even though Setswana has adapted metric ways of showing time such as calendar months and days, the discussion shows that temporal reference in traditional Setswana was event-based (e.g. based on movements of the sun and seasonal change). The study shows that Setswana lexical expressions of time are bound up with the ways in which Setswana speakers conceptualise time. Keywords: Setswana, Bantu, temporal reference, time in language, temporal deixis 1. Introduction Temporal reference, the linguistic expression of time, constitutes a large part of human discourse: we make plans for the future, talk about the past and discuss the present. In fact, one of the key characteristics that distinguishes human language from animal communication is displacement, that is, the ability to discuss events that are in the past or future, and are not in our immediate environment in terms of time and space (Hockett, 1960). Temporal reference is connected to the question of how humans conceptualise time (Jaszczolt, 2017). To indicate the importance of time to human discourse, languages employ a number of ways to express time, i.e., lexis and grammar. Many studies of time in linguistics have focused on grammar such as tense and aspect (e.g. Dahl, 1985; Matiki, 1999; Ranamane, ‎2009), and to a lesser degree on lexical expressions of time. Ample research exists on Tense, Aspect and Modality (TAM) in the Bantu literature (see e.g. Batibo, 2005 on southern Bantu languages; Lusekelo, 2010 on Kinyakyusa, M31). These studies on grammar abound because time is directly encoded in verb inlections. There are comparatively fewer studies on the expression of temporal reference outside the verbal domain. Much research on the interconnections between language and time in Africa have been studied from mainly an anthropological/cultural and/or philosophical/ theological view (e.g., Mbiti, 1969; Adjaye, 1994). However, as noted by Kokole (1994), it is important to investigate linguistic evidence to ascertain how Africans conceptualise and handle time. Studies on Setswana are speciically lacking. In recent times, Matjila (2017) has approached Setswana time concepts from a literary 1. Department of English, University of Botswana. kgolon@ub.ac.bw 1816-7659/09/18/17-33 Marang: Journal of Language and Literature © Naledi N. Kgolo Vol. 30, 2018 Naledi N. Kgolo 18 analytic stance by analysing the use of time images in Setswana novels. Due to this gap in the literature on the topic of how Setswana lexically expresses time, this paper investigates how Setswana expresses temporality outside of verbal inlection, and analyses such temporal expressions using various theories proposed in the literature. In particular, the paper investigates the lexical devices that Setswana uses to express time, with focus on lexical temporal reference (not grammatical markers of time/tense). In addition, the paper explores how observed temporal references relect temporal attitudes of Setswana speakers, and how Batswana thereby conceptualise time. Setswana belongs to the Sotho-Tswana group of Southern Bantu languages (S30; Guthrie, 1967-1971), together with Southern Sotho (Sesotho), Northern Sotho (Sepedi) and Lozi (Silozi). 2. Theoretical framework The study of time in language has been carried out from a number of viewpoints. Investigations by cognitive linguists have provided empirical results on how humans represent time in the mind and use metaphors in expressing time (e.g., Lai & Boroditsky, 2013). Cross-linguistically, language typology studies have analysed, for instance, grammatical means of temporal reference such as tense and aspect and compared results across languages (e.g., Casasanto, 2008). These different types of studies have led to formulations of models of how individuals represent time, how tensed and tenseless languages express time, among other issues (e.g., Lakoff & Johnson, 1999). However, despite these varied studies, more studies on time in language are still needed, especially on languages in which this topic has not been investigated. Several theories of temporal reference have been advanced and discussed in the literature, some from a psychology perspective, others from a philosophical, computer science and linguistics perspective. From an artiicial intelligence background, for instance, Allen’s (1983) Temporal Interval Relations framework concerns itself with the directionality of time. Allen’s approach holds that temporal relations depict and relate actions and plans. Time can refer either to points or intervals. The time point is referred to as any event at a particular point in time. In this approach, relations between time intervals were identiied. For instance, before, during and after depict different time intervals. Mbiti (1969) analysed the African concept of time from a theological and philosophical point of view. He argued that traditional African time is a composition of events which have occurred, those which are taking place now and those which are immediately to occur. Time is a two-dimensional phenomenon with a long past, a dynamic present and virtually no future. Mbiti’s assertions are based on the fact that in his East African language, Akamba, there are no concrete words or lexical 19 Marang Vol. 30, 2018 expressions that convey the idea of a distant future. He took this as evidence that African time and temporal reference is two-dimensional: with only a past and a present. From a linguistic standpoint, in his discussion of tensed languages, Reichenbach (1947) stated that temporal reference involves three points: Speech Time, Event Time, and Reference Time. Reichenbach’s approach has been adopted for temporal reference in general and not just tense. Speech Time is the moment of speech, and Event Time is the time at which an event or state occurs or holds and is understood in relation to Speech Time. Past situations precede speech time while future situations follow it. Reference time, according to Klein (1992, p. 535), is “the time for which, on some occasion, a claim is made”. It is the temporal perspective from which a situation is presented. Reference time clariies the temporal relations between the situations expressed in language. For example, adverb phrases provide information that locate events relative to one another. For instance, the adverbial now may be used to anchor Event Time to Speech Time, but may also be used for the past or future depending on the context. Reference Time is crucial for such a situation. In the discussion of indings, we make reference to Reichenbach’s (1947) Speech Time, Event Time, and Reference Time points of temporal reference. In addition, we evaluate whether Mbiti’s (1969) conceptualisation of African time holds for Setswana. 3. Previous studies on temporal reference In the linguistic literature, many studies focus on phenomena related to the predicate, the interactions of tense, aspect, and modality (e.g., Chiyao, a Bantu language, Matiki, 1999; for English, e.g., Reichenbach, 1947; Comrie, 1985). Such studies generally focus on the sequencing of predicates and the placement of different events along a timeline. Other studies focus on speciic temporal expressions, such as adverbs (e.g., then, next year) mainly from a language speciic perspective (e.g., English, Klein, 2010; Kinyakyusa (Bantu), Lusekelo, 2010). In his study of how language and time are related, Allwood (2002) outlined eight linguistic means of temporal expression: afixes (e.g., talk-talked), vowel change (sit-sat), reduplication (e.g. She cried and cried and cried indicating that the process is extended over time), simple and compound words (e.g., adverbs: now, then; nouns: month, afternoon; adjectives: short-lived), body movements (e.g., quick movements to show that something happened quickly), implied correspondence between events (i.e., that which is mentioned irst happened irst), and lastly, discourse cues (inferring from a speech situation). Klein (2010) identiied six main types of devices that are used across languages to encode time in language: tense, aspect, aktionsart (lexical aspect), temporal Naledi N. Kgolo 20 adverbials, temporal particles and discourse principles. Klein’s devices are similar to those identiied by Allwood, save for a difference in terminology. As noted earlier in the discussion, tense, aspect and aktionsart receive much attention in the literature on temporal reference. Jaszczolt (2017) stated that the lexicon and grammar alone are not reliable means of expressing the human concept of time, as shown by the varied devices outlined by Klein (2010) and Allwood (2002) which include body movements and discourse principles. Instead, language users rely on the interactions and trade-offs between various means including grammar, the lexicon, and also pragmatic inference, and social and cultural assumptions. Cohen & Schwer (2011) cross-linguistically analysed the use of temporal markers that include what they call ‘time-reckoning terms’, that is, adverbs, designating conventionalised segmentations of clock-and-calendar systems such as day, month, weekend, winter. Their analysis is divided into three: fundamental calendar units (e.g., day, year), day segments (e.g., evening, noon) and named days of the week (e.g., Monday, Wednesday). Their results indicate that temporality is not standard across languages. Factors such as the type of temporal cycle and segmentation used, the transparency or opacity of the information signalled, and distance from the deictic centre affect the properties of temporal reference. Evans (2003) investigated the nature of time in language by questioning the non-temporal language that is used to refer to time (e.g. spatial language). He stated that by examining the way in which language lexicalises time, insights into the nature and organisation of time may be made. Evans (2003) explored why temporal reference is lexicalised in terms of space and motion. This arises from previous studies that indicate that references to time cannot be made without talking about space and motion. For instance, from early research, Plato called time an ‘eternal moving image’ (Archer-Hind, 1888). Conversely, Aristotle called time ‘the number of motion according to prior and posterior’ (Aristotle, 1941, p. 219). These references to what time is both involve motion in space. We shall come back to this notion of time as motion in the discussion of indings. 4. Methodology 4.1 Data The data for this research comprises Setswana sentences that contain temporal references. The data were sourced from a corpus of approximately 7 million Setswana words/tokens (www.sketchengine.com). The corpus comprises a variety of text types from both spoken and written language. Some of the written data were collected from published public consumption materials such as newspapers and parliamentary documents. The spoken data mostly came from radio call-in programmes, which were later transcribed. 21 4.2 Marang Vol. 30, 2018 Software Wordsmith Tools 5.0 (Scott, 2011) was used to perform the task of data extraction. The WordSmith Concordancer was used to reveal patterns of usage of identiied temporal expressions. The Concordancer calls up a concordance for a particular word that has been entered. That is, WordSmith Concordancer gives results of sentences where sample temporal expressions were used. The researcher would then randomly select sentences to include in the analysis from the result sentences given. 5. Findings and discussion The data discussed in this section reveals that there are different patterns of temporal reference in Setswana, namely: (1) temporal adverbials, (2) co-lexiication, (3) spatial metaphors, and (4) temporal locatives. Each of these is discussed in turn below. The functions of these temporal expressions are also discussed, as well as how these lexical items express time, and whether time is stationary or seen as moving in Setswana. 5.1 Temporal adverbs Temporal adverbials play an important role in the temporal interpretation of a sentence. Setswana has a few true/core adverbs (Cole, 1955). Some of these true/ core adverbs are used to express time. These words are naturally marked for temporal deixis, i.e., they denote the orientation or position of actions and events in time. Examples include: jaanong ‘right now’, gompieno ‘now, today’, maabane ‘yesterday’, kgantele ‘earlier, later’ and maloba ‘a few days ago’. Some of these are exempliied in the following sentences: 1. Matsadi a maabane a bep-ile go 6.aches 6.SM yesterday 6.SM lessened-PST have ‘Yesterday’s aches have lessened a bit’ 2. Re tla kopana le ene We will meet with ‘We will meet him/her tomorrow’ se a kae. bit kamoso. him tomorrow Some temporal adverbs are simple words as shown above in example (1) and (2). The position of the temporal adverb in the sentence has no bearing on meaning. In example (2), the actual time of the action must take place after the Speech Time (in the future) while in example (1) the action took place before the speech event. It is possible to have syntactically complex temporal adverbials such as ngwaga o o fetileng ‘last year’, maloba a maabane ‘two days ago’ and kamoso phakela ‘tomorrow morning’. Temporal adverbs may be subdivided according to their approximation of the distance to Speech Time (Lusekelo, 2010). Some temporal adverbs indicate the Naledi N. Kgolo 22 past: recent past and remote past. For example, phakela ‘in the morning’, kgantele ‘earlier, later’ and gompieno ‘now/just now, today’ indicate the recent past. The sense ‘now’ of gompieno is leeting; by the time someone says now, the moment has already passed. This word therefore constitutes the recent past. Maloba ‘day before yesterday’, bogologolo ‘a long time ago’ and ngogola ‘last year’ express the remote past. Some temporal adverbs can be used to refer to past, present and future events concurrently. Kgantele ‘earlier or later’ may be used to refer to before or after the Speech Time, rendering this adverb a lexical marker for both past and future. Gompieno ‘today, now or just now’ can be used to refer to the current Speech Time or the recent past. Reference Time for these temporal expressions helps in anchoring their perspective. Klein (2010) states that temporal adverbials are by far the richest class of temporal expressions but are understudied. He points out that there is far less work done on temporal adverbials in the linguistic study of temporal expressions. However, he states that temporal adverbials are not only found in all languages but they also allow a much more differentiated expression of time than other devices such as tense and aspect. This lack of research on temporal adverbials was observed for African languages in general on adverbs (Saah, 2004) and in Bantu languages in particular (see Nurse and Phillipson, 2003). In Setswana, for instance, it is not clear how some of the words for day sequences refer. Table 1 below shows some examples. Table 1: Day Sequences in Setswana Maloba Not speciic; 3 days before present day to about several months Maloba a maabane 2 days before present day Maabane Yesterday Tsatsi jeno Today Kamoso Tomorrow Kamoso yo mongwe Day after tomorrow The reference for maloba, for instance, is quite broad. It is not speciied whether the range of reference is for only three days before the present day up to how many days backwards away from the present day. This range includes several months leading up to a year. Since there is a lexical item referring to last year ngogola, the maloba range excludes length amounting to a year. It therefore makes sense to postulate that the range for the temporal reference for maloba is three days backwards to under a year. 23 5.2 Marang Vol. 30, 2018 Co-lexiication The term co-lexiication (coined by François, 2008) refers to a situation when two or more of the meanings in our lexical sources are covered in a language by the same lexical item (e.g. moso ‘sunrise’, ‘morning’, ‘tomorrow’, and ‘unspeciied future’). Setswana, like other Bantu languages, is limited in the category of adverbs (see Lusekelo, 2010 and references therein; Cole, 1955). This results in the majority of adverbs in Setswana being derivative as they are formed from nouns and pronouns (Batibo, 1999), or co-lexiied. However, some nouns and pronouns are used as temporal adverbs without undergoing any structural/formal change. For example: 3. i. Bosigo ‘night’ (noun) -> bosigo ‘at night’ (adverb) ii. Motshegare ‘midday’ (noun) -> motshegare ‘during the day/at midday’ (adverb) iii. Gone ‘it’ (pronoun) -> gone ‘just now/now’ (adverb) iv. Moso ‘morning’ (noun) -> kamoso ‘tomorrow’ (adverb) v. Laboraro ‘Wednesday’ (noun) -> Laboraro ‘Wednesday’ (adverb) Examples (3i) to (3v) above show instances where the same lexical form is used to verbalise two or more concepts. The following sentences illustrate such transformations in usage. 4. O ne a mo atla motshegare He PST 1.SM 1.OM hug 3.daylight ‘He hugged her during the day in broad day light.’ letsatsi le penne. 5.sun 5.OM broad 5. Bosigo fa dipone di tima, go nna 14.night when 10.lights 10.SM off it becomes dark ‘At night when the lights are switched off, it becomes dark.’ leii. The lexical item of particular interest here is moso (‘sunrise’, ‘morning’ ‘tomorrow’ ‘unspeciied future’). The noun moso is derived from the verb -sa ‘rise’ (‘clearing of the darkness of the night, to disperse darkness’; Cole & Moncho-Warren, 2012, p. 505). 6. Ga a ise a utlwe mafoko a NEG 1.SM have.NEG 1.SM hear.PRF moso ono. 3.morning this ‘He has not heard news from this morning.’ 6.news 6.SM Naledi N. Kgolo 24 7. Ja go le go nnye gore o beele kamoso. Eat OM CONJ a small so that keep tomorrow ‘Eat a small piece so that you keep some for tomorrow.’ 8. Ba tla goroga ka They will arrive ‘They will arrive in the morning.’ moso. PREP 9. O a tshameka, kamoso o She/he is play.PROG tomorrow 1.SM ‘She/he is playing, she will cry in the future.’ tomorrow tlaabo a will 1.SM lela. cry The senses for moso are varied, albeit related. Moso thereby exempliies synchronic lexical association or co-lexiication. Since morning signiies a new beginning, the next day which begins after the present day has been assigned a related sense to a new morning – a new beginning, i.e. tomorrow. The sense for morning has a synonym phakela, and this sense proves popular in usage (44.7 uses per million words based on corpus frequency data). Differences can be observed in usage where older speakers use moso and younger speakers use phakela. Setswana has adverb phrases that incorporate the use of the preposition kaused to introduce temporal adjuncts (e.g., ka selemo ‘in summer’; ka Mosupologo ‘on Monday’; see e.g. Mogapi, 1984). Note that kamoso as a single lexical item carries the meaning for ‘tomorrow’ or ‘unspeciied future’, while when paired with ka- in a phrase, it speciically refers to ‘morning’, as shown in examples 6 - 9. 5.3 Spatial metaphors Spatial metaphors are used to express relationships on a spatial or a temporal dimension (Tenbrink, 2007). Representations of space play a role in constructing representations of time in Setswana. Consider Table 2 below which shows the usage of some words which are usually used to refer to physical space used to reference time instead. 25 Marang Vol. 30, 2018 Table 2: Expressions used for spatial reference vs temporal reference Spatial Reference Temporal Reference Sipho a itshwarelela ka setlhatshana se Nako e gaui le go chaya. se neng se 1e gaui le letshitshi la noka. ‘Sipho held on to a small plant near the ‘The time is about to elapse (near to comriver bank.’ pletion).’ E bapile le logong lo lo khutshwane. Di ICT di na le botshelo jo bo khutshwane. ‘It is next to the short irewood.’ Baya lefeelo fa morago ga setswalo. ‘Put the broom behind the door.’ Sepatela se fa pele ga sekolo. The hospital is in front of the school. ‘Information Communication Technologies have a short lifespan.’ Madi sentle ba a abelwa morago ga metshameko ya lekalana. ‘They are given money after departmental games.’ Go siame go rarabolola mararaane a, pele ga ba kopa thuso. ‘It’s better to solve these problems before they ask for help.’ As Table 2 illustrates, temporal reference in Setswana is metaphorically structured through mappings to spatial concepts. Here the transference is a metaphorical shift from the more concrete domain of physical space to the more abstract domain of time. Words that are usually used to reference physical space are used to refer to time. It has been observed across languages, that people use spatial metaphors to talk about time (e.g. Persian; Vaysi & Salehnejad, 2016; see also Fulga, 2012). Lakoff & Johnson (1999) express the same sentiment stating that “very little of our understanding of time is purely temporal. Most of our understanding of time is a metaphorical version of our understanding of motion in space” (1999, p. 139). This is because the concept of time is more abstract than spatial referents as we can perceive space. Therefore, space concepts are used metaphorically to encode time and thereby shape speakers’ general understanding of temporality (Ornstein, 1969). These observations about Setswana corroborate indings of earlier research. For example, in his effort to explain spatial metaphors and their ability to reference time, Clark (1973) proposed two opposing but compatible views: the ‘moving time’ and the ‘moving ego’ metaphor. In the ‘moving time’ metaphor, time is viewed as moving (e.g. Selemo se etla ‘summer is approaching’). This describes the perspective of the temporal event ‘summer’ as moving toward us. In the ‘moving ego’ metaphor, the speaker (or another experiencer) ‘moves’ toward an event. For example, O atlametse botsetsi ‘She is nearing birth’, here the experiencer is moving toward a temporal event of child birth and coninement. The temporal event is still and the experiencer is moving. Naledi N. Kgolo 26 Furthermore, the future is referred to as if it lies ahead whereas the past is placed behind the speech time. This further indicates that Setswana utilises a horizontal front/back and left/right temporal axis. Further, these spatial referents are often paired with gestures when people talk about time. For instance, Setswana speakers gesture towards the space in front when talking about a future-related subject and backward for the past, or leftwards for the past and rightwards for the future. 5.4 Temporal locatives Locatives express the location of someone or something in space, in time, or in an abstract domain. Temporal locatives, in particular, are locative forms that indicate time. In Setswana, they are formed from nouns by adding the sufix -ng and preixing the resulting formation with mo- (Cole, 1955, p. 361). Impersonal nouns, other than class 9 nouns, take the sufix -ng. For example: Letsatsi ‘sun, day’ -> letsatsing ‘on the day’ 10. Go ne go fed-ile It PST SM inish-PST ‘It was inished on that day.’ mo on letsats-ing 6.day.REL leo. that Nako ‘time’ - > nakong ‘on/in time’ 11. Re tshel-el-a mo We live-APP-FV in ‘We live in times of change.’ dinak-ong tsa 10.times.REL of Ngwaga ‘year’ -> ngwageng ‘this/that year’ 12. Lekgotla le ne la tsogelwa 5.council 5.SM PST 5.SM surround.PST mo ngwag-eng ono. this 9.year.REL this ‘The council was surrounded by scandal this year.’ diphetogo. 10.change ke by dikgang 10.news Note that where the noun ends in -a, coalescence occurs (e.g. ngwaga-ngwageng; Mogapi, 1984, p. 146). As pointed out by Kimmerle (1996), there is a connection between time and place in Bantu languages: time is related to place as evidenced by Setswana temporal locatives. 5.5 Functions of temporal expressions A closer look at Setswana temporal expressions discussed above indicates that there are different functions according to which these temporal expressions refer. These functions are discussed below. i. Some Setswana temporal expressions specify the relative position of a time span on the time axis in relation to other time spans which are supposed to be given in context (Klein, 1994). For example, gompieno ‘now’, kgabagare ‘later’, kamoso 27 Marang Vol. 30, 2018 ‘tomorrow’. Deictic adverbials such as gompieno ‘now’ may be used to anchor a situation to the moment of speech, i.e. Speech Time. ii. Some Setswana temporal expressions specify the duration of a time span. These expressions specify the length of temporal entities, like time spans and situations obtaining at these time spans. Setswana expresses duration in terms of linear distance or physical length (e.g. nako e telele ‘a long time’, sebakanyana ‘a short period of time’) and in terms of amount or volume (e.g. nako e ntsi ‘a lot of time’). Other examples include boripana ‘brevity’, mo letsatsing ‘in a day’. iii. Some Setswana temporal expressions indicate frequency, where the temporal expression shows the frequency of temporal entities, like time spans or possibly situations which obtain at these time spans. Examples include: ga ntsi ‘many times’, ka metlha ‘always’ and malatsi otlhe ‘everyday’. 5.6 Time intervals In Setswana, as has been observed for other languages such as Portuguese and English (Sinha, Sinha, Sampaio & Zinken, 2011), some words name time intervals that are event-based. Event-based time intervals are those whose boundaries are constituted by the event itself. These events may be personal, social or natural. Many historical narratives such as personal birthdays are marked by prominent events which marked history (e.g. O tshotswe ka ngwaga wa mabele a mantsho ‘He/she was born in the year of black sorghum yield’) or social events such as a tribal victory at war (e.g. ka puso ya ga Ntlatsang ‘at the time of Ntlatsang’s rule’). These events determine the structure of time. Their reference is event-based, qualitative and not metric. Natural events also greatly inluence time: the movement and position of the sun, moon or the stars which indicate the period of a day, a month or year, the changing of seasons which are in turn related to certain practises (e.g. agricultural practises such as ploughing, harvesting, etc.). In fact, the names for day and month are letsatsi ‘sun’ and kgwedi ‘moon’, respectively. Much of lexical temporal reference in Setswana is event-based on such natural phenomena. For instance, letsatsi ‘sun’ is important for temporal expressions in Setswana, see Table 3 below. Naledi N. Kgolo 28 Table 3: Examples of movements of the sun and how they inluence temporal reference Temporal Referent makuku moso setlhoboloko motshegare tshokologo maitseboa letlatlana phirimane bosigo Movement of the Sun before the sun rises sunrise when the sun is directly overhead; halfway between sunrise and sunset the middle of the morning and afternoon when the sun moves westwards afternoon to before sunset dusk when the sun sets when the sun has set Time of Day very early in the morning morning speciically noon daytime early afternoon late afternoon early evening evening night-time As illustrated above, many temporal expressions are based on the movement of the sun: before sun rise, when the sun rises, and when the sun sets. The movement of the sun indicates speciic times that are tied to speciic events and practises. The day in Setswana can therefore be divided into four principal time periods: moso/ phakela ‘morning’, motshegare ‘daytime’, maitseboa ‘late afternoon’, and bosigo ‘night-time’. Each time period can further be sub-divided into smaller time divisions depending on the movement of the sun. The morning for instance has different time demarcations, e.g. makuku ‘before sunrise, very early in the morning’, mahube a naka tsa kgomo ‘reddish skies of cattle horns, dawning of the day’ and mahube a basadi ‘reddish skies of women, when there’s enough light for women to start domestic chores’. Other Setswana temporal expressions, however, name time intervals that are time-based, e.g. beke ‘week, 7 consecutive days’ and letsatsi ‘twenty-four-hourperiod, day’. Time-based time intervals are metric, i.e., they are based on measured abstract time units e.g. calendar time. These time intervals show time as a measurable activity, what Sinha et al. (2011) call Time as Such. Their measurement is arrived at by counting in a number system. Setswana has, for instance, calendar months such as Mopitlo ‘April’ and Lwetse ‘September’. Clock time is also utilised, e.g., nako ya bosupa ‘7 o’ clock’ and motsotso pele ga bongwe ‘a minute before 1’. These metric conceptions of time are largely borrowed from western concepts of time. For instance, a month in traditional Setswana is measured according to the movement of the moon. A woman’s menstrual cycle, which occurs monthly, for instance, can be gauged based on the movement of the moon. Conversely, a year is traditionally measured according to seasons – beginning in summer and ending in 29 Marang Vol. 30, 2018 spring. For example, Batswana traditionally tell age in the number of summer seasons a person has lived through. These patterns show that traditional Setswana temporal expressions are non-metric but are instead event-based on natural phenomena. As stated by Babalola & Alokan (2013), African time is tied to events, as illustrated by Setswana examples discussed above. 5.7 Time travel The analysis of Setswana temporal expressions shows that time is moving and not stationary. This is consistent with results from earlier research on languages such as English. Recall Lakoff & Johnson’s (1999) observation that time is perceived similar to motion events. Time is conceptualized as motion. It moves in a way an object would move, as illustrated below. 13. Nako ya thibelo e gorog-ile. 9.time of 9.prevention has arrived-PST ‘The time for prevention has arrived.’ 14. Mariga a ts-ile. 6.winter has ‘Winter has arrived.’ arrived-PST Notice how time is seen as moving to an arrival point in example (13) above. In (14), the temporal event ‘winter’ moves to an arrival point. These temporal references concur with earlier studies such as Clark (1973), who conceptualized the ‘moving time’ metaphor. The time for prevention is lexicalized as having arrived, which presupposes that time is capable of motion. However, motion is a custom of the physical, and time being abstract, is not physically able to move. The movement of time in Setswana may be represented thus: Figure 1: Setswana Temporal Movement *-------------------------------------*-------------------------------------* PAST NOW FUTURE maabane ‘yesterday’ tsatsi jeno ‘today’ kamoso ‘tomorrow’ ngogola ‘last year’ jaanong ‘right now’ maitseboa ‘in the evening’ This shows that there is the present moment, which will pass and turn into the past, and there is the future, which is yet to materialise. This conceptualisation of time in Setswana differs from Mbiti’s (1969) conceptualisation of African time as having no future reference – but only a long past and the present moment. Setswana temporal reference exhibits more than Mbiti’s (1969) two dimensions as time is represented as moving and changing as it takes place in nature or the outside world: events for instance are not only in the past but are also in the future. Words such as kgantele ‘earlier, later’ even speak of a past and a future. Seasonal change, for instance, is Naledi N. Kgolo 30 cyclical implying a forward movement. Since events such as seasons inluence time reference, there is an expectation of a future. Unlike in Mbiti’s Akamba language, Setswana lexically refers to the future: isago ‘future’, kamoso ‘an unspeciied future’ and bokamoso ‘future’. Mbiti’s argument was based on the observation that East African languages do not have a single referent for distant future or metric time references to the future. Setswana time is understood in more than the two dimensions of long past and the present. In addition to this movement ability, time in Setswana is cyclical. Seasons for instance are understood to be in a cyclical motion of one season after another. A new day, month, season, year, brings a new cycle. Each day the sun rises and sets, the seasons follow one another, etc. Time is conceived of as continuous in a cyclical continuum. This conception contrasts with the precision and accuracy of the linear western time which is measured by a mechanical device. As noted by Nnajiofor (2016), this conception of time as ever lowing is the cause of the lax attitude to time by Africans, resulting in what is known as ‘African Time’, as time is perceived and conceived of as ever lowing and plenty. This view echoes sentiments of linguistic relativity where languages are believed to inluence their speakers to think about the world differently. 6. Conclusions The foregoing discussion has shown the relationship between time and the Setswana language, i.e. how Setswana lexically references time. Temporal reference is central to human discourse, therefore, Setswana employs a number of ways to refer to time: temporal adverbs, co-lexiication, temporal locatives and spatial metaphors. Research on other languages such as English, Mandarin and Portuguese has shown that these devices are used cross-linguistically to refer to time (see e.g. Boroditsky, 2000; Boroditsky, Fuhrman, & McCormick, 2011). The traditional character of time in Setswana was shown to be event-based on natural events (e.g. the movement of the sun, seasonal change) and societal moments (e.g. crowning a chief). Even though Setswana has adopted metric references of time such as months and days, Setswana still relies on event-based time reference. Many of the lexical forms used to reference time can be traced back to e.g. natural events, as shown in the discussion. These event-based and metric temporal references are sometimes used concurrently. It was also shown in the discussion that Setswana temporal expressions provide information about time, duration and frequency of actions and/or events. Further, it has been shown that time in Setswana is not absolute but is seen as moving. In sum, Setswana lexical expressions of time indicate that Batswana perceive and conceptualise time as: 31 • • • • • • • • Marang Vol. 30, 2018 Multi-dimensional: past, present, future, related to space Divisible: e.g. different times of the day, month, year Organic: inluenced by nature e.g. sunrise, seasons, etc. In motion: circular passage of time, forms a continuum, cyclical Event-based: e.g. ka maneelo ‘in the morning’ Metric: e.g. motsotso ‘minute’ Abstract: time has no beginning and no end Concrete: temporal reference is based on and made up of events Works Cited Adjaye, J. K. (1994). Introduction. In Adjaye, J. K. (Ed.) Time in the Black Experience (pp. 1-17). Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing Group. Allen, J. F. (1983). 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