A Grammar of Afrikaans

Bruce C. Donaldson

• Publisher: De Gruyter Mouton
• Year: 2011
• ISBN:
  9783110863154
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Linguistics
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

The series builds an extensive collection of high quality descriptions of languages around the world. Each volume offers a comprehensive grammatical description of a single language together with fully analyzed sample texts and, if appropriate, a word list and other relevant information which is available on the language in question. There are no restrictions as to language family or area, and although special attention is paid to hitherto undescribed languages, new and valuable treatments of better known languages are also included. No theoretical model is imposed on the authors; the only criterion is a high standard of scientific quality.

Table of contents

• Preface
• Abbreviations
• 1 Pronunciation
• 1.1 The short vowels
• 1.2 The long vowels
• 1.3 The diphthongs
• 1.4 The consonants
• 1.5 The phonology of international loanwords
• 1.6 Pronunciation of Afrikaans names
• 1.7 Pronunciation of South African and foreign place names
• 1.8 Insertion of svarabhakti vowels to break up consonant clusters
• 1.9 Assimilation
• 1.10 Stress
• 2 Spelling
• 2.1 The alphabet
• 2.2 The Afrikaanse Woordelys en Spelreëls
• 2.3 Syllabification
• 2.4 Spelling changes in derived forms
• 2.5 The use of diacritic marks in Afrikaans orthography
• 2.6 Use of the apostrophe
• 2.7 Use of the hyphen
• 2.8 Capital letters
• 2.9 Spelling of loanwords
• 2.10 Punctuation
• 3 Articles
• 3.1 The definite article
• 3.2 The indefinite article
• 4 Nouns
• 4.1 Pluralisation of nouns
• 4.2 Diminutisation of nouns
• 4.3 Feminising endings
• 4.4 Possession
• 4.5 Proper nouns
• 4.6 Nominalisation of adjectives
• 4.7 Nominalisation of infinitives
• 4.8 Formation of nouns
• 5 Pronouns
• 5.1 Personal pronouns
• 5.2 Demonstrative pronouns
• 5.3 Relative pronouns
• 5.4 Reflexive pronouns
• 5.5 The reciprocal pronoun mekaar ‘each other’
• 5.6 Indefinite pronouns
• 5.7 Interrogative pronouns
• 6 Adjectives
• 6.1 Adjectives that take -e
• 6.2 Adjectives that don’t take -e
• 6.3 Nominalised adjectives
• 6.4 Adjectives derived from past participles
• 6.5 Adjectival inflection in -s
• 6.6 The comparative of the adjective
• 6.7 The superlative of the adjective
• 6.8 Adjectival intensifiers
• 6.9 Formation of adjectives
• 6.10 Colours
• 6.11 Adjectives followed by a fixed preposition
• 6.12 Prenominal adjectival phrases
• 6.13 Some adjectival idiosyncrasies
• 7 Adverbs
• 7.1 Adverbial use of adjectives
• 7.2 Adverbs of degree that qualify adjectives
• 7.3 Adverbs of time
• 7.4 Adverbs of manner
• 7.5 Adverbs of place
• 7.6 Adverbial use of prepositions
• 7.7 Adverbs of modality
• 7.8 Conjunctional adverbs
• 7.9 Interrogative adverbs
• 7.10 Formation of adverbs
• 8 Verbs
• 8.1 Paradigm of the present and past tenses of a typical verb
• 8.2 Alternative forms of the stem of a verb
• 8.3 Progressive or continuous constructions
• 8.4 Vestiges of the imperfect
• 8.5 The perfect tense
• 8.6 The historic present
• 8.7 The pluperfect
• 8.8 The conditional tense
• 8.9 The imperative
• 8.10 The future and future perfect tenses
• 8.11 Wees ‘to be’
• 8.12 He ‘to have’
• 8.13 Modal auxiliary verbs
• 8.14 The passive voice
• 8.15 Separable and inseparable verbs
• 8.16 The infinitive
• 8.17 The present participle
• 8.18 Irregular past participles
• 8.19 Verbs that take a prepositional object
• 8.20 Reflexive verbs
• 8.21 Order of verbs
• 8.22 Transitive versus intransitive verbs
• 9 Conjunctions
• 9.1 Co-ordinating conjunctions
• 9.2 Adverbial conjunctions
• 9.3 Correlative conjunctions
• 9.4 Subordinating conjunctions
• 9.5 Interrogatives
• 9.6 Conjunctions which introduce infinitive clauses
• 10 Interrogatives
• 10.1 Word order in interrogative clauses
• 10.2 Interrogatives in infinitive clauses
• 10.3 Whatever, whenever etc
• 11 Prepositions
• 11.1 List of prepositions
• 11.2 Prepositional stranding
• 11.3 Met > mee, tot > toe and vir > voor
• 11.4 Compound prepositions in -kant
• 11.5 Adverbial functions of prepositions
• 11.6 Assimilation of the definite article to a preceding preposition
• 11.7 Adjectives and verbs followed by a fixed preposition
• 11.8 Omission of prepositions
• 11.9 Insertion of prepositions where none is required in English
• 11.10 Postpositioned prepositions
• 11.11 Double prepositions
• 11.12 Circumpositioned prepositions in prepositional phrases
• 11.13 Prepositional phrases
• 11.14 Adverbial qualifiers of prepositions
• 11.15 Prepositional phrases consisting of with + noun + it/them
• 12 Word order
• 12.1 Order of verbs
• 12.2 Nominal and adjectival/adverbial adjuncts that can behave like separable prefixes
• 12.3 Order of objects, adjectives and adverbs qualifying verbs in the continuous constructions formed from lê, loop, sit and staan
• 12.4 Position of nominal and pronominal direct and indirect objects
• 12.5 Position of reflexive pronouns
• 12.6 Position of adverbs
• 12.7 Placing of various parts of speech at the beginning of a sentence for emphasis
• 12.8 Prepositional stranding
• 12.9 Position in an infinitive clause of a preposition dependent on a predicative adjective or verb
• 12.10 Position of adjectives that take a fixed preposition
• 12.11 Independent prepositions rendering preposition + ‘it/them’
• 12.12 Idiomatic expressions consisting of two elements with the reverse order to English
• 13 Negation
• 13.1 The negators
• 13.2 Rules for the use and position of the scope marker
• 13.3 Use of the scope marker with the negators geen/g’n ‘no, not any’, nêrens ‘nowhere’, niemand ‘no-one’, niks ‘nothing’, nooit ‘never’
• 13.4 Position of the negator
• 13.5 Geen/g’n ‘no, not a, not any’
• 13.6 Me eens/eers ‘not even,’ nooit eens/eers ‘never even’
• 13.7 Glad / hoegenaamd nie ‘not/no ... at all’
• 13.8 So nie ‘if not’, al dan nie ‘or not’, nie so seer nie ‘not so much’
• 13.9 Eers ‘not until’
• 13.10 Net nie ‘simply not’, nie net ‘not only/just’
• 13.11 Moenie/moet + nie in imperatives
• 13.12 Nie- (non- + noun)
• 13.13 Use of wel to reverse a negative
• 13.14 Use of nè, nie waar nie and is dit nie
• 13.15 Negation in rhetorical questions
• 13.16 Non-negator negatives
• 13.17 Assimilation of nie to preceding consonants
• 14 Numerals
• 14.1 Cardinal numerals
• 14.2 Ordinal numerals
• 14.3 Fractions
• 14.4 Arithmetic
• 14.5 Telling the time
• 14.6 Telephone numbers
• 14.7 Dates
• 14.8 Age
• 14.9 Currency and measurement
• 14.10 School marks
• 14.11 School class levels
• 15 Word formation
• 15.1 Vestiges of historical structures in word formation
• 15.2 Formation of nouns
• 15.3 Formation of adjectives
• 15.4 Formation of adverbs
• 15.5 Formation of verbs
• 15.6 Derivatives of numerals
• 15.7 Reduplication
• Appendix 1: Texts
• Appendix 2: Letter writing
• Appendix 3: Greetings, apologies, swearing etc
• Glossary
• Bibliography
• Index