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Article published In:
Languages in Contrast
Vol. 19:1 (2019) ► pp.79–105

A corpus-based study of the human impersonal pronoun ('n) mens in Afrikaans

Compared to men and een mens in Dutch

ORCID logo | Lancaster University (United Kingdom)
| North-West University Potchefstroom (South Africa)
| University of Antwerp (Belgium)

This article compares the grammaticalizing human impersonal pronoun ('n) mens in Afrikaans to fully grammaticalized men and non-grammaticalized een mens in Dutch. It is shown that 'n mens and een mens can still be used lexically, unlike mens and men, and that ('n) mens and een mens are restricted to non-referential indefinite, universal-internal uses while men exhibits the whole range of (non-) referential indefinite ones. Despite the latter’s presence in the earliest Afrikaans data, it is argued not to have influenced the development of ('n) mens. This pronoun and Dutch een mens are also found to have syntactic functions other than subjecthood, unlike men. The contrast is attributed to their different degrees of grammaticalization. Lastly, the Afrikaans ‘man’-pronoun is shown to differ from its Dutch counterparts in relying on the second person singular for suppletion, though forms of ('n) mens are found to occasionally occur instead.

Keywords: grammaticalization, impersonal, pronoun, Afrikaans/Dutch
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Methodology
    • 2.1Corpora
    • 2.2Data retrieval
    • 2.3Statistics
  • 3.Functional analysis
    • 3.1Analytic framework
    • 3.2Results for Afrikaans
    • 3.3Discussion in light of Dutch
    • 3.4First interim conclusion
  • 4.Formal analysis
    • 4.1 'n Mens versus mens
    • 4.2Suppletion
    • 4.3Syntactic functions
    • 4.4Second interim conclusion
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 5 June 2018
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/lic.17004.van
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Van Olmen, Daniël & Adri Breed
2018. Human impersonal pronouns in Afrikaans: a double questionnaire-based study. Language Sciences 69 ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo

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