Language Teaching and Semantic Interpretation in Kiswahili Classes

Interpretating language requires a constant update of the linguist's knowledge of linguistics. This is especially important for the foreign language teacher who is also an interpreter of other people's thoughts and world views reduced to linguistic texts. In my study, I demonstrate that there is a relationship between grammatical description, language teaching and semantic interpretation. I demonstrate my claim by examining some of the weaknesses of semantic and agreement assignment rules in Kiswahili. I show that there are inanimate denoting terms in Kiswahili Bantu classes 1/2 and they have prefixes and concords of the classes. In addition, animate denoting terms have or govern so-called inanmiate prefixes and concords in classes that are not classes 1/2. Consequently there is no exclusively animate denoting class in Kiswahili Bantu. I conclude that present semantic assignment rules in Bantu grammars are deficient rules that have been propped up through selective grammatical teaching and the omission of vital information. As a result, the existing rules are open to misuse and abuse of Bantu thought and world view and should be replaced by ones devoid of controversy.