The discourse marker mos in rural varieties of Afrikaans in the Western Cape: A descriptive study of syntactic patterns and pragmatic function

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis considers the linguistic item mos as it occurs in the speech of non-standard Cape Afrikaans speakers from the rural areas of the Western Cape, namely Montague, Worcester, Robertson, Touwsrivier, De Doorns, and Beaufort West. The syntactic and pragmatic properties of mos are described, as well as its prevalence in discourse in relation to particular social factors. Properties and functions of adverbs and discourse markers, as discussed by Ponelis (1985), Schiffrin (1987, 2001), and Fraser (1993, 1999, 2001), are applied to mos in terms of its syntactic characterisation as an adverb and as a discourse marker. The pragmatic analysis of mos is based on the analysis of discourse markers, such as you know in English, by Schiffrin (1987, 2001). With regard to the grammatical properties of mos, it was found that mos behaves much like an adverb in terms of syntactic distribution, yet it does not fulfil all the grammatical functions of an adverb, which is why it is being analysed as a discourse marker. The functions of mos as an adverb are restricted; mos does not perform the adverbial function of modifying verbs, adjectives, other adverbs, and prepositional phrases; rather, the entire proposition expressed by the utterance is modified or qualified by the use of mos. Its discourse marker functions follow from this property; discourse markers tend to retain the distributional properties of the syntactic category from which they are derived – in this case, the discourse marker mos is derived from the syntactic category of adverb. The position of mos within the sentence, both medial and final, is grammatically determined and has a grammatical relationship with other constituents in the sentence. This is similar for its function as adverb and as discourse marker. Mos is bound to the sentence structure, yet it may still be removed from the sentence without affecting grammaticality; however, in such an event the intended interpretation may not be as explicit. In analysing the discourse functions of mos, a number of pragmatic functions were identified: (i) mos indicates information as general knowledge and knowledge that should be known; (ii) it presents information as necessary in order for a narrative to be understood; (iii) it functions in the development of meta-knowledge in order to discover knowledge which the hearer has about a particular topic; (iv) it presents information which is to be interpreted as a causal or reason for a particular event or situation; (v) it presents a position or opinion in an argument which is to be regarded as fact; and (vi) it reveals logical relationships between two utterances.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University