grammatical constraints and motivations for - University of the ...

Therefore, it appears as though the host has taken his audience into account and
avoided using a term that would be thought of as formal.
In turn 78, the host begins his past tense construction with the prefix {ge}, but
then switches to the English verb, ‘decide’. The Afrikaans equivalent of this verb
would be, ‘besluit’. However, ‘besluit’ does not rely on the prefix {ge} to
indicate past tense as the auxiliary verb ‘het’ suffices in this case. In turns 119
and 410, the host also avoids using the correct Afrikaans term in another instance
where the auxiliary verb suffices. He chooses to replace ‘beboet’ with ‘ge-fine’.
Therefore, in two instances, the speaker avoids using verbs which maintain their
original form, regardless of tense, and opts to construct a past tense verb with the
prefix {ge}, and an English verb, instead.
In two other instances (turns 182 and 390), the host uses English verbs as a means
of conveying meaning where Afrikaans would not be able to. Thus, he fills a
pragmatic gap. ‘Dump’ and ‘fine’ are colloquial terms which cannot be directly
translated without any meaning being lost. For example, in turn 390, the correct
English verb would be ‘dismissed’, which translates as ‘afgedank’ in Afrikaans.
‘Afgedank’ would be a word that is unknown to many speakers and considered
‘suiwer’ Afrikaans. Thus, the host yet again, has to take the audience into
account, ensuring that he is understood while also maintaining in-group identity
by using the language of the audience, and not that of an educated Afrikaner.
In reference to turn 343, Afrikaans does not have an equivalent for the term
‘blowdry’. If the host were to communicate this concept in Afrikaans, he would
have to say something like, “Hulle wou hulle hare droog gemaak het.” This
would be long, and, so as members of the audience are familiar with the English
term, the host opts to use it instead. Therefore, the term ‘blowdry’ is used as a
nonce loan in order to explain a concept in a single word as opposed to an entire
phrase.
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