A master’s student, Lawren Smith, recently published a thesis on a variety of Kaaps as part of her linguistics degree. This is according to Dr Erin Pretorius, a lecturer in the linguistics department at the University of the Western Cape (UWC).
“Some people consider Kaaps a variety of Afrikaans, but, more recently, there’s a shift in seeing Kaaps as a language on its own,” said Smith, whose master’s degree, which she completed at UWC in April, focused on Paarl-Kaaps.
‘Factors that influence extraposition’
Smith said that she collected data from Paarl speakers for her thesis and looked at things that sounded “odd” to her at the time.
“I told my supervisor and she said [this phenomenon] is called extraposition,” she said.
Extraposition is the linguistic phenomenon where constituents are moved from the middle of a sentence to the end of a sentence, according to Smith.
Lawren Smith recently published her master’s thesis on Paarl-Kaaps, which involved focusing on extraposition, she said. Extraposition is the linguistic phenomenon where constituents are moved from the middle of a sentence to the end of a sentence, said Smith. PHOTO: Rentia Weber
For her thesis, Smith focused on “the different factors that influence extraposition”, she said.
“A lot of it was linguistic factors, like the category a word belongs to,” said Smith. “But we also realised that social factors come into play. For example, older Paarl-Kaaps speakers used extraposition a lot more than the younger ones, which is not what we expected.”
‘To uncover this diversity’
Pretorius said that there are many reasons why Smith’s work is important and should be celebrated.
“On a general level, Lawren’s work is important for the conversation that is happening, both publicly but also within the scientific discipline of Afrikaans linguistics, about Afrikaans,” said Pretorius. She added that although there is “growing recognition and acknowledgement” of the fact that there is diversity in Afrikaans, “very little has been done to uncover this diversity”.
“Lawren’s study is an example of one that does this,” said Pretorius.
Lawren Smith recently published her thesis on Paarl-Kaaps as part of her master’s in linguistics at the University of the Western Cape. This is according to Dr Erin Pretorius, a lecturer in the linguistics department at the University of the Western Cape. In the distant background is the Afrikaanse Taalmonument in Paarl. PHOTO: Rentia Weber
Willem Jordaan, editor of Die Burger, was a speaker at the annual Marie Luttig commemoration held on 15 August, according to a Netwerk24 article.
During his speech, Jordaan said that, in the past, varieties of Afrikaans other than the formal version have been considered inferior and that it has caused “immense pain”. Jordaan emphasised “the importance of varieties of Afrikaans like Kaaps, Gariep- or Orangeriver Afrikaans, Muslim Afrikaans, and so forth”.
A love for academia
Smith said that she studied a bachelor of arts, an honours, and then her master’s – all in linguistics.
“Now I am busy with my PHD in linguistics,” she said.
Smith said that as stressful as it can be sometimes, she enjoys learning. “I got 85.5% for my thesis,” said Smith. “It took me three years.”
Smith said she plans to stay in academia. “I want to contribute to the knowledge of language and pass on what I have learnt to the next generation of speakers and students,” she said.
Lawren Smith explaining the different types of linguistics and why she loves it so much. VIDEO: Rentia Weber