The Influence of English on Afrikaans

7.11 Changes in the transitivity and intransitivity of verbs

Ostyn (1972: 75) stated as a general principle in his dissertation on American Flemish that ‘Restricting features of lexical items tend to be deleted so as to give the words a greater distribution.’ The influence of English on the transitive or intransitive use of certain verbs in Afrikaans can be regarded as an example of the sort of phenomena Ostyn is referring to. Steyn (1976: 37-8) lists a large number of intransitive verbs that he has observed being used transitively in Afrikaans. He makes no mention of English influence but all his examples correspond with English usage.

Reflexive verbs used non-reflexively could have been dealt with here too, as Steyn did (p. 49), but I have discussed the omission of the reflexive pronoun under pronouns (cf. 7.27.5).

The following verbs have acquired functions in addition to their traditional functions as found in Dutch and Afrikaans prescriptive works such as HAT, for example: proe (cf. 7.11.2.1) occurs only as a transitive verb according to HAT but in practice it is used just as frequently intransitively.

7.11.1 Intransitive > transitive

7.11.1.1

flikker	-	jou ligte flikker (in a car, = to flicker)
groei	-	hy groei mielies (cf. Mansvelt 1884: 54) (= to grow)
(op)lui	-	ek het hom opgelui (= to ring up)
pas	-	jy pas net een bed daarin, wat kan jy in hom pas? (= to fit)
sink	-	'n boorgat/put sink, 'n boot sink (= to sink)
smaak	-	ek smaak jou, smaak dit (= to taste)
verslap	-	die wetgewing word verslap (= to relax)

[p. 217]

vloek	-	hy vloek die ou (= to curse)
vries	-	kos vries, 'n pos vries (= to freeze)

7.11.1.2 Intransitive (i.e. verbs governing a prepositional object) > transitive

antwoord	-	'n vraag antwoord, nie een keer is ek in Engels geantwoord nie (= to answer)
skei	-	iemand skei (= to divorce)
slaag	-	'n eksamen slaag (= to pass)
trou	-	iemand trou (= to marry)^22
twyfel	-	twyfel jy my? (= to doubt)
voorsien	-	jy moet 'n handtekening voorsien (= to provide)

22 Dutch trouwen without met also occurs so the English structure has probably only acted as a contributing factor (cf. Hiemstra 1980: 104).

7.11.2 Transitive > intransitive

7.11.2.1

bekommer	-	moenie bekommer nie (= bekommerd wees, a puristic avoidance of ‘worry’)
inprop	-	dis iets wat by 'n muur inprop (= to plug in)
kruis	-	die katte kruis nie met mekaar nie (= to cross, interbreed)
meng	-	'n skaaphond meng nie met ander honde nie (= to mix, associate with)
ontmoet	-	Checkers, waar lae prys en gehalte ontmoet (= to meet)
optel	-	die ekonomie begin nou optel (= to pick up, improve)
proe	-	dit proe lekker (= to taste)
toepas	-	nou word egter gevind dat werkwoordskuif toepas ook wanneer... (to apply)
verwag	-	sy verwag (a child) = (to be expecting) (cf. p. 188)
wys	-	die film wys nou in die stad (= to show)

In the following passive construction the verb is used intransitively, in imitation of English, because in the active construction ‘weapons’ is the direct object and ‘police’ the indirect object: Die polisie is met wapens uitgereik - the police were issued with weapons.

[p. 218]

7.11.2.2

verbind	-	hierdie suffiks kan nie verbind met sekere werkwoorde nie
vergelyk	-	hierdie dinge vergelyk goed

This intransitive use of otherwise transitive verbs, as in English, brings them into line with intransitive verbs such as loop and sit which cannot be used intransitively in this way in English, for example: hier die skoene loop lekker, die stoel sit lekker (possible in Dutch); but compare hierdie trui was goed - this sweater washes well (not possible in Dutch).

7.11.2.3

These verbs require an undefined object het in Dutch, but in Afrikaans the dit has become optional:

bedoel	-	ek bedoel goed
bekostig	-	ek kan nie bekostig om te
haat	-	hulle haat om grens toe gestuur te word
help	-	kan 'n mens nou help om te
koud kry	-	kry jy nie koud nie?

Together with these dit-less constructions, Steyn (1976: 40-41) discusses those where daar+ preposition is commonly omitted, suggesting that they may all be the result of English influence and adds: ‘Tog pas hulle goed in by die aard van die werkwoord’ (p. 41), for example:

ek sou (daarin) belangstel om te
drie mense is (daaraan) skuldig bevind dat hulle
Also: hy word beskuldig van sy slawe te mishandel het (= accused of having maltreated)

7.11.3

Blaas exists in both Dutch and Afrikaans as a transitive (glas blaas) and (very rarely) an intransitive verb (die wind blaas). Under English influence it has acquired a new intransitive meaning: die gloeilamp/gasket het geblaas (not in HAT and not mentioned under the lemma blaas in Van der Merwe and Ponelis (1982: 32). Note also the loan translations jou geld/jou eie beuel blaas.

7.11.4

Use of the prefix be-, commonly employed in Dutch/Afrikaans to signify the transitivity of verbs, occurs at times in Afrikaans where English influence would seem to be playing a role:

[p. 219]

beplan	-	occurs where Dutch uses the loanword plannen (pron. [æ]) or van plan zijn; in the former case it is used as a purism and in the latter case to avoid the periphrasis, i.e. a need is felt to equate one Afrikaans word with one English word.
benodig	-	in Dutch this word only occurs as an adjective. As with beplan it would seem the Afrikaner feels a need to equate ‘to need’ with one word, seeking to avoid the periphrastic nodig hê. Van der Merwe and Ponelis (1982: 26) make no mention of it being an anglicism and merely see it as written language. De Villiers (1985) and HAT see it as an anglicism to be avoided. It is very common, however.
bedien	-	theoretically Dutch/Afrikaans dienen/dien take the prefix be- when a person is served; in Afrikaans nowadays one can bedien food, drink and meals. Also die dam bedien Durban. (cf. Van der Merwe and Ponelis 1982: 22)
bewerk	-	according to WAT one should bewerk 'n kleim but werk occurs too - (waarsk. Angl.)
beteël	-	HAT gives both beteël and teël as synonyms; Van Dale gives both but only the former seems to be used, whereas the latter occurs more frequently in Afrikaans.
bemark	-	a neologism to cover the semantic field of ‘to market’. Dutch has no such word. (cf. bemarking p. 207)