Edited by Ans M.C. van Kemenade and Nynke de Haas
[Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 320] 2012
► pp. 129–154
The prefix ge- has become morphologically much less integrated with the past participle (p.p.) in Afrikaans than in Dutch as a result of across the board regularization of the p.p. in Afrikaans. Other changes relating to ge- include the loss of complementary distribution with prefixes such as be-, ver- and ont- and its usage as participial marker on verb clusters. Changes such as these tended to enhance the morphological independence of ge-, implying a change in status from inflectional morpheme to that of clitic. In Standard Afrikaans, however, ge- often remains unrealized because of its optionality owing to a phonological condition specifying that a p.p. consist of an unstressed – stressed sequence of syllables. This tends to turn ge- into a dummy element, which suggests a movement away from word status and therefore a less likely candidate for grammaticalization. Afrikaans ge- is, however, also characterized by closer association with the function of past tense formation, which suggests resemanticization. In Griqua Afrikaans, ge-/ga- seems to meet criteria for degrammaticalization to a greater extent, to the point of becoming a free morpheme. The latter development has to be discounted as a further step towards degrammaticalization in view of possible substrate influence from free particles in Khoekhoe. Key words: Past participle; affixation, cliticization; degrammaticalization; Dutch; Afrikaans; Griqua Afrikaans