Abstract
Affixoids are components of complex morphological constructions that correspond to existing, independent words concerning form, but have specific meanings when used in specific constructions. In most cases the meaning of affixoids in affixoid constructions does not correspond to the dictionary meanings of the independent words. Examples of affixoids in Afrikaans include hond÷ ‘dog÷’ in hond÷warm, ‘dog÷hot’, “very hot”, kak÷ ‘shit÷’ in kak÷mooi, ‘shit÷beautiful’, “stunning”, and ÷bedonnerd ‘÷angry’ in bybel÷bedonnerd ‘bible÷angry’, “obsessed with the bible”. In the first example hond÷ contributes only the meaning “very” to the meaning of the construction that has only the meaning of “very warm”, with the literal or denotative meaning of hond, “dog” as a four-legged animal not being present. In prefixoid constructions the affixoid is the first component, like hond÷ and kak÷, while in suffixoid constructions it is the second component, as is the case with ÷bedonnerd.
The aim of this article is to provide a description of Afrikaans prefixoid constructions from a cognitive, usage-based perspective. To formulate this description it was necessary to consider existing literature describing prefixoids in related languages like Dutch and German. The use of available textual data in Afrikaans was also important, seeing that a description of linguistic phenomena necessitates data representing the actual use thereof. The textual data used for the description of prefixoid constructions in Afrikaans was sourced from collections featured in the corpus portal of the Virtual Institute for Afrikaans (VivA). VivA offers both a comprehensive and an exclusive corpus collection ranging from edited to semi-edited and non-edited text. This article is a reworked version of the section in Trollip (2022) describing Afrikaans prefixoids in the broader context of morphological evaluative constructions.
The literature shows a general consensus of the structure and intensifying meaning of prefixoids across languages (Hoeksema 2012; Efthymiou 2017; Stratton 2020). Intensification being a prototypical characteristic of gradable concepts, adjectives are commonly taken as input for intensifying prefixoids. For example, one person subjectively experiencing the weather as cold means it is possible for someone else to experience and describe the same situation as very/extremely/icy cold. While non-taboo prefixoids tend to take seemingly arbitrary animal names as input (e.g. hond, “dog” in Afrikaans and sau, “sow” in German), a range of taboo words is used effectively in complex morphological constructions aimed at communicating intensified meanings. It became apparent from the literature that prefixoid constructions should be described in terms of their form, meaning and use and that a main distinction between non-taboo and taboo prefixoids could be drawn.
In the case of non-taboo Afrikaans prefixoids, the one currently used productively is hond÷. Where other animal names are used, there are still signs that a comparative relationship prevails between the components, e.g. muis+stil, ‘mouse silent’, “as silent as a mouse”. The evidence of hond÷ being used as a prefixoid is corroborated by the available data that indicates its use with a diverse range of adjectives, including mooi, “beautiful”, sleg, “bad” and skelm, “cunning”. Even though the productivity value of these types of constructions seems low – ranging from 0,06 to 0,1 in the different corpus collections – it should be considered that these constructions are possibly still restricted to more informal (unwritten) contexts in which strict rules governing spelling and grammar do not necessarily apply.
When considering taboo prefixoids in Afrikaans, the data confirms a range of popular and more peripheral options for intensification. The popular choices for Afrikaans users are kak÷, “shit” and poes÷, “pussy”, while tos÷, “masturbate” and fok÷, “fuck” are less common. The productivity values of these constructions are highly influenced by the abovementioned factor, meaning that they are meaningful when compared with one another, rather than arbitrarily with other types of constructions. An interesting observation from the data, when considering the accepted use of intensifying adjectives, is the use of kak÷ and poes÷ to intensify nouns or other word categories. Without more/diachronic data it is unfortunately not possible to say with certainty whether this is a natural path that (some) prefixoids follow.
This article offers a synchronic, usage-based description of Afrikaans prefixoids. This description could form a basis for future diachronic and/or contrastive research when considering the tendency to compare these kinds of constructions in related languages like Dutch, German and Swedish. The development, annotation and availing of historical corpora representing the use of Afrikaans across time and genres will enable more linguistic enquiry on the topic of prefixoids.
Keywords: affixoid; Afrikaans; intensification; morphology; prefixoid
- This article’s featured image was created by Laura Paraschivescu and was obtained from Unsplash.
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’n Gebruiksgebaseerde beskrywing van Afrikaanse prefiksoïede