Gaan haal die sjampanje! 'n Korpusondersoek na skakelwerkwoordsamesmelting in Afrikaans

In Afrikaans main clauses the lexical verb usually appears on the second sentence bracket when it is selected by an auxiliary on the first sentence bracket. However, an alternative construction with the main verb collocated with the auxiliary on the first sentence bracket is also possible. Those constructions are called ‘simplex initials’ and ‘complex initials’ respectively. We conduct a corpus study to investigate which factors determine the alternation between both constructions. The corpus data reveal that only a few combinations of the auxiliary and lexical verb appear in both constructions. We present the results of a distinctive collexeme analysis in which we investigate which verb combinations are significantly attracted to one of the constructions.

Publication year:2021

Accessibility:Open