On behalf of the Board of the African Association for Lexicography (AFRILEX), it is my honour and privilege to welcome you to the 25th Annual International AFRILEX Conference. A special word of welcome is due to all honorary members of AFRILEX in attendance, and to our keynote speakers, Dr Miloš Jakubíček from Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic, and Prof. Rufus Gouws, one of our esteemed honorary members, from Stellenbosch University. It being our silver jubilee conference, we would have much preferred to meet in person to celebrate this achievement with the appropriate festivities. Instead, we celebrate a new way of coming together to deliberate on our work – a way that will certainly not replace our traditional conferences (at least not in the foreseeable future, for as far as one can see), but one that will undoubtedly continue to add value to scholarly communication beyond our current circumstances.

 

It would not have been possible for AFRILEX to have this year’s conference without the hard work of the AFRILEX Board, on which the following members have served for the past term: Prof. Langa Khumalo (Vice-President), Prof. Elsabé Taljard (Treasurer), Prof. Dion Nkomo (Secretary), Prof. Sonja Bosch, Mr André du Plessis, Dr Phillip Louw, Dr Steve Ndinga-Koumba-Binza and Dr Michele van der Merwe (co-opted as Organiser). I would like to extend a very special word of appreciation to Mr André du Plessis, who, as our webmaster, has put in countless hours of work to set up the infrastructure for our conference. I am confident you will agree that he has acquitted himself brilliantly in this task. Thank you also to Ms Marissa Griesel, our independent technical consultant, for her professional services to make this conference a reality.

 

As usual, a look at the programme reveals a broad spectrum of interesting topics to be addressed at this conference. Thank you to every local and international paper and session presenter for putting in the time, effort and cost to share your valuable research with us, and for choosing AFRILEX as forum. I would like to take this opportunity to encourage presenters who have not yet done so to develop their papers into article manuscripts and submit these for peer review to our journal Lexikos for possible Gold Open Access publication (Go to: http://lexikos.journals.ac.za). Thanks to the hard work of the Editor, Prof. Elsabé Taljard, and the Bureau of the WAT as publisher, Lexikos is now also a publish-as-you-go journal.

 

We are grateful to the abstract reviewers credited on the title page of this booklet for their valued service in academic quality assurance.

 

For ensuring that AFRILEX remains in a financial position to hold its annual conference and sustain its other activities, we thank our Treasurer, Prof. Elsabé Taljard. Prof. Sonja Bosch and Mr André du Plessis again seamlessly managed the process of abstract reviewing and the editing of this fine booklet, as well as setting up the conference programme – thank you!

 

Finally, I would like to thank the Board and the Association for trusting me to serve on the Board and as President for the past two terms. I can only hope that they have not regretted their choice. 

 

I wish one and all a successful and stimulating 25th Annual International AFRILEX Conference!

 

Herman L. Beyer

President: AFRILEX