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

…” If he had been talking to the co-host, for example, or any other speaker of
Kaapse Afrikaans, it is more likely that he would have chosen to use the English
phrase, ‘good luck’, instead. In addition to this, he would have opted to use the
Afrikaans pronoun, ‘jy’, as opposed to ‘u’, had he chosen to use this phrase at all.
Caller 3
The third caller during this show begins his address in Afrikaans and continues
speaking in Afrikaans throughout the show. The discourse suggests that this
caller is fluent in Afrikaans as he uses the standard variety. His use of Afrikaans
differs significantly from that of the broader Cape Flats speech community as he
continuously uses words and phrases which would be regarded by this community
as ‘suiwer’ Afrikaans.
In turn 397, where speakers of Kaapse Afrikaans would simply say “hello”, the
caller opts to greet the host in a more formal, therefore more respectful manner, as
he says “goeie middag.” In turn 401, the caller avoids using the English phrase,
‘all the best for the future’, as many Kaapse Afrikaans speakers would, but opts to
say: “… ek wil jou net graag toewens alles wat mooi is vir die toekoms…” In
general, the caller uses more formal, ‘flowery’, language than would be expected
of the average speaker of Kaapse Afrikaans. In a sense, this language use also
suggests that he may be older than the rest of the callers and perhaps more
educated, so to speak, in standard Afrikaans.
The caller also demonstrates clear avoidance of codeswitching, showing
preference for the use of a single language. Throughout the duration of the
conversation (i.e. turns 397-427), the caller only engages in codeswitching in two
instances, where only single words are switched.
The first switch is the use of the English noun, ‘tour’, in an otherwise entirely
Afrikaans sentence. The word, however, can be regarded as a homophonous
diamorph as it is somewhat phonetically similar to its Afrikaans equivalent, ‘toer’,
pronounced, [tU:r].
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