Theses - Honours and Master's
(PhD in progress)
"Unfortunately, when you're learning on the job, things can go wrong." ― Andy Ruiz Jr.
Honours and Master's theses,
PhD Abstract
Honours Thesis
P-drop in Kaaps Expressions of Accompaniment
Abstract
The overall focus of this thesis is concerned with the grammar of Kaaps, a non-standard marginalised variety of Afrikaans spoken predominantly (but not exclusively) by coloured people on the Cape Peninsula of South Africa. More precisely, this thesis is about met-drop. Met-drop falls under a broader phenomenon, namely ‘prototypical’ P-drop – as proposed by Caponigro and Pearl (2008), among others. ‘Prototypical’ P-drop occurs in expressions where we would normally expect to have spatial Ps to or at (Caponigro and Pearl 2008, Biggs 2015)
Met-drop is by far a different and novel account of ‘prototypical’ P-drop, met-drop does not occur in spatial / location contexts, but in contexts where accompaniment is denoted, in Kaaps expressions of Accompaniment. Furthermore, this phenomenon does not surface in other languages or language varieties such as Standard Afrikaans or Liverpool English. Thus, this essay attempts to, scientifically, account for the conditions under which met can be null (dropped).
Access the thesis here: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/337835336_P-drop_in_Kaaps_Expressions_of_Accompaniment
Master's Thesis
The sociosyntax of verb-second and verb-third placement in Manenberg Kaaps
Êbstrêkt
Die primary goal van die study is omme detailed en sharply focused sociosyntaktiese description en analysis vanne êspekt van clausal woort order variation in Kaaps, 'n grammatically understudied historiese ryk en marganalised variety van Afrikaans te provide. Special attention is gegee aanni gebruik van verb-second (V2) en verb-third (V3) in relation men sociolinguistiek variables soos lokasie, language background en age. V2 en V3 refer na die posisie vannie verb inne sin en is typical properties van Gemranic taale. Die study aim om possible variations van V2 en V3 te vestaan in relation men sociolinguistiek intricacies. Syntactic properties wat gegather wôt van die research sal aannie documentation en description van Kaaps grammar, ôs understanding van woort order variation in Kaaps en Afrikaans innie algemeen contribute. Dit provide ook insight na hoe Kaaps innie Germanic taal familie inpas. Die study fokus op Kaaps wat in Manenberg, 'n gemeenskap oppie Kaapseflakte, in Suid AFrika gepraat is. 'n Overarching aim vannie study is ommie gap tussen solciolinguistic studies en syntaktiese studies te bridge. Hierrie is gewoonlik getreat soos unrelated studies.
Abstract
The primary goal of this study is to provide a detailed and sharply focused sociosyntactic description and analysis of an aspect of clausal word order variation in Kaaps. Kaaps is a grammatically understudied, historically rich and marginalised variety of Afrikaans. Special attention is given to the use of verb-second (V2) and verb-third (V3) in relation to sociolinguistic variables such as location, language background and age. V2 and V3 refer to the position of the verb in a sentence and are typical properties of West Germanic languages. The study aims to understand possible variations in V2 and V3 and to locate this variation in relation to sociolinguistic intricacies. Syntactic patterns gathered from this research will contribute to the documentation and description of Kaaps grammar, to our understanding of word order variation in Kaaps and in Afrikaans more generally, and they will also provide insight into how Kaaps fits into the West Germanic language family. This study focuses on Kaaps spoken in Manenberg, a community on the Cape Flats, Cape Town, South Africa. An overarching aim of this study is to contribute to the efforts of bridging the gap between sociolinguistic and syntactic studies, which are traditionally treated as being unrelated.
Access the thesis here: https://lingbuzz.net/lingbuzz/006875 or here: http://dx.doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.10167.39847/1
PhD Dissertation - in progress
The syntax of discourse particles in Kaaps
Abstract
This is a syntactic study which will focus on lexical items whose primary function is to mediate the interaction between a speaker and a hearer in a given context. Traditionally, syntactic research has not focused on such elements. To address this lacuna in syntactic research, Wiltschko (2021) proposes a framework, the Interactional Spine Hypothesis (ISH), which allows one to analyse the elements in question as part of syntax. This study intends to expand upon the ISH by using evidence from Kaaps data. Special attention will be given to the use of discourse particles such as ne, kamalikes, mos, etc. Another goal of this study is to understand possible variations in discourse particles in relation to socio-linguistic intricacies. Overall, this study aims to contribute to the documentation and description of Kaaps grammar, provide an analysis of discourse particles in Kaaps, and provide insight into how Kaaps fits into the West Germanic language family. The study will adopt a mixed methods approach in which both secondary (e.g. corpora of previously collected spontaneous speech from around the Cape Flats) and primary data (e.g. speakers’ acceptability judgments) are considered.