Demonstratives in Afrikaans and Cape Dutch Pidgin
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Hans den Besten✝
Abstract
Afrikaans seems to have lost the Dutch independent demonstrative dat ‘that’ as well as the pronoun het ‘it’ and the attributive element deze ‘this, these’, while independent dit ‘this’ seems to have taken over the functions of dat and het and while attributive die ‘that, those’ has acquired a proximate reading (Afr. dié week ‘this week’). In the present paper it is argued, however, that the weak pronoun het was bound to disappear anyway, that dat only underwent phonological change (so that dat and dit couldn’t be distinguished any longer) and that the changes in the system of attributive demonstratives are due to developments in Cape Dutch Pidgin.
Abstract
Afrikaans seems to have lost the Dutch independent demonstrative dat ‘that’ as well as the pronoun het ‘it’ and the attributive element deze ‘this, these’, while independent dit ‘this’ seems to have taken over the functions of dat and het and while attributive die ‘that, those’ has acquired a proximate reading (Afr. dié week ‘this week’). In the present paper it is argued, however, that the weak pronoun het was bound to disappear anyway, that dat only underwent phonological change (so that dat and dit couldn’t be distinguished any longer) and that the changes in the system of attributive demonstratives are due to developments in Cape Dutch Pidgin.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgments vii
- Simplicity, simplification, complexity and complexification 1
-
Part I. Morpho-phonology
- Initial vowel agglutination in the Gulf of Guinea creoles 29
- Simplification of a complex part of grammar or not? 51
- Reducing phonological complexity and grammatical opaqueness 75
-
Part II. Verbal morphology
- Verb allomorphy and the syntax of phases 99
- The invisible hand in creole genesis 115
- Complexification or regularization of paradigms 159
-
Part III. Nominals
- The Mauritian Creole determiner system 173
- Demonstratives in Afrikaans and Cape Dutch Pidgin 201
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Part IV. The selection of features in complex morphology
- Contact, complexification and change in Mindanao Chabacano structure 223
- Morphosyntactic finiteness as increased complexity in a mixed negation system 243
- Contact language formation in evolutionary terms 265
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Part V. Evaluating simplification and complexification
- Economy, innovation and degrees of complexity in creole formation 293
- Competition and selection 317
- Complexity and the age of languages 345
-
Part VI. Postscript
- Restructuring, hybridization, and complexity in language evolution 367
- Language index 401
- Subject index 405
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgments vii
- Simplicity, simplification, complexity and complexification 1
-
Part I. Morpho-phonology
- Initial vowel agglutination in the Gulf of Guinea creoles 29
- Simplification of a complex part of grammar or not? 51
- Reducing phonological complexity and grammatical opaqueness 75
-
Part II. Verbal morphology
- Verb allomorphy and the syntax of phases 99
- The invisible hand in creole genesis 115
- Complexification or regularization of paradigms 159
-
Part III. Nominals
- The Mauritian Creole determiner system 173
- Demonstratives in Afrikaans and Cape Dutch Pidgin 201
-
Part IV. The selection of features in complex morphology
- Contact, complexification and change in Mindanao Chabacano structure 223
- Morphosyntactic finiteness as increased complexity in a mixed negation system 243
- Contact language formation in evolutionary terms 265
-
Part V. Evaluating simplification and complexification
- Economy, innovation and degrees of complexity in creole formation 293
- Competition and selection 317
- Complexity and the age of languages 345
-
Part VI. Postscript
- Restructuring, hybridization, and complexity in language evolution 367
- Language index 401
- Subject index 405
