Veranderinge in adverbiale tydsverwysing in Afrikaans van 1911 tot 2010
Abstract
The Afrikaans tense system simplified somewhat in its development from Dutch, retaining only the present tense (which is unmarked), and a past tense (marked by the auxiliary verb "het" and, usually, the verbal prefix "ge-") based loosely on the Dutch present perfect tense. In order to express more specific and fine-grained temporal reference, speakers and writers of Afrikaans frequently draw on additional linguistic options, including temporal adverbs (for example "toe" (then), "gister" (yesterday), "oormôre" (the day after tomorrow)) and preposition phrases (for example "in die aand" (in the evening)). The tense system of Afrikaans shows few radical changes during the past century, after the standardisation of Afrikaans eliminated the last remnants of the extended Dutch tense system. However, the use of temporal adverbs has been much less stable. This article investigates the use of the temporal adverbs "nou" (now), "toe" (when/then) and "dan" (then) in diachronic Afrikaans corpora that covers a century of language use, including specifically the periods 1911-1920, 1941-1950, 1971-1980 and 2001-2010, with more or less 261 000 words per period, represented by text samples from a variety of written genres. The genres included are: fiction, biographical texts, news reports, informative texts, religious texts, texts from the humanities, texts from the natural sciences, and manuscripts (letters and diary entries). OPSOMMING: Die tempussisteem van Afrikaans is heelwat vereenvoudig in vergelyking met dié van Nederlands, waaruit dit ontwikkel het, en daarom maak sprekers en skrywers van Afrikaans ook staat op verskeie ander maniere om gebeurtenisse of situasies in tyd deikties te anker, soos adverbia van tyd (byvoorbeeld "toe", "gister", "oormôre") en setselgroepe (byvoorbeeld "in die aand"). Terwyl die tempusstelsel van Afrikaans min opsigtelike verandering toon sedert die standaardisering van Afrikaans, staan sake anders wat die adverbiale elemente se rol in temporele verwysing betref. Die frekwente woorde "nou", "toe" en "dan" verrig verskeie funksies, waarvan temporele verwysing 'n belangrike deel uitmaak. Hierdie artikel ondersoek eerstens die gebruike van die adverbiale gebruike van "nou", "toe" en "dan" in diachroniese korpusse van Afrikaans wat vier periodes (1911-1920, 1941-1950, 1971-1980, 2001-2010) dek, met ongeveer 261 000 woorde per periode. Die gebruike van hierdie woorde toon sterk tekens van verandering, en spesifiek "nou" en "dan" toon 'n radikale vermindering van gebruike. In die tweede plek word moontlike verklarings vir die veranderinge rondom hierdie woorde in die korpus gesoek. 'n Toename in die gebruik van 'n aantal meer spesifieke temporele adverbia (byvoorbeeld "terwyl", "wanneer") dui aan dat adverbiale temporele verwysing se funksionele lading versprei het. Dit sluit ook aan by die groter sosio-kulturele konteks van Afrikaans, wat aanleiding gegee het tot toenemende standaardisering en verformalisering van Afrikaans deur die loop van die twintigste eeu.
Collections
- Faculty of Humanities [2033]