This book focuses on a century of language change, starting early in the 20th century when Standard Afrikaans first emerged. Different areas of language use are explored, such as pronoun use, tenses, possession, and connectives. The changes in these areas are divided into three categories of types of change: paradigmatic changes, grammaticalization, and discursive and socio-cultural changes. The book also includes a short history of the standardization of Afrikaans and brief discussions of some relevant ideological issues. The second and final chapters include an in-depth discussion of the theory of language change and language evolution, as well as reflections on what language change is and how it proceeds. The role of language contact in language change, and language-external influences, are also considered.
Autorentext
Johanita Kirsten is senior lecturer in Afrikaans linguistics at North-West University in South Africa.
Klappentext
Inhalt
Acknowledgements
List of Tables
List of Figures
List of Abbreviations
Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: The Theory of Language Change
Chapter 3: Afrikaans Standardization in Context
Chapter 4: Diachronic Corpus Linguistics
Chapter 5: Paradigmatic Changes
Chapter 6: Grammaticalization
Chapter 7: Discursive and Socio-Cultural Changes
Chapter 8: Conclusion
References