False friends in (not so closely) related languages

Abstract

South Africa’s various multilingual communities – a mix of eleven official languages and many other, smaller languages – offer unique opportunities to study constructions in contact. The influence of two of the West Germanic languages on each other, English and Afrikaans, has been the subject of study for many years – see for example Bekker (2019), and Donaldson (1991). However, insights from diasystematic construction grammar (DCxG) on this language pair are notably sparse (see Van Rooy (2021); note Colleman (2018) as well).

So-called false friends have not been studied extensively from a DCxG perspective (as far as we could determine). We define false friends as syntactic, morphological, or lexical constructions from two different languages, which have (near) identical phonological and/or orthographical forms, but different meanings. Such divergence in meaning could be ascribed to, among others, direct transfer of phonological and/or orthographical forms between (closely) related languages.

Full text

iNorth-West University, Vanderbijlpark/Potchefstroom, South Africa
iiUniversity of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa
False friends in
(not so closely) related languages
Lande Bothai, Adri Breedi, Anneke Butleri, Maristi Partridgei, Suléne Pilonii,
Monique Rabéi, Gerhard B van Huyssteeni

“Probably no single aspect of
Afrikaans linguistics warrants more
attention today than the effect the
English language has had, and is
continuing to have, on Afrikaans.”
(Donaldson, 1991:1)

1) Deel met dit! (KPE)
share with it
ʻDeal with it!’
2) Hoe gouer ons oor ons+self kan kom … (KPE)
how sooner we over our+self can come
ʻThe sooner we can get over ourselves …’
3) Nadat jy dit uit+ge·figure het ... (KPE)
after you it out+PST·figure have.AUX
ʻAfter you (have) figured it out …’

The study of Afrikaans and English diasystems can make a
significant and interesting contribution due to the:
•strong bilingual ability of Afrikaans speakers;
•fluency and literacy in both English and Afrikaans; and
•influence of linguistic, ideological, and economic factors.
"The main findings of the study are that: (a) Afrikaans-English bilingualism (and
bi-literacy) is prominent among the Afrikaans participants in the study; (b) the
position of English as an important language in the bilingual repertoires of the
participants is confirmed; and (c) Afrikaans seems firmly set as the language that
contributes most to the identity of these participants. A pattern of stable
bilingualism and [biliteracy] emerges." (Coetzee-Van Rooy, 2013)

•Closely related to Dutch: mutual intelligibility but limited
language influence
•Closely related to English: not mutually intelligible but
substantial language influence
•Language contact in the multilingual South African linguistic
landscape
Interesting contribution of the Afrikaans-English diasystem

MY STORIES BEGIN AS LETTERS
My pen is my wonderland.
Word water in my hand.
In my pen is wonder ink.
Stories sing. Stories sink.
My stories loop.
My stories stop.
My pen is my wonder mop.
Drink letters.
Drink my ink.
My pen is blind.
My stories blink.
by Joe Public, South African-based ad agency

MY STORIES BEGIN AS LETTERS
My pen is my wonderland.
Word water in my hand.
In my pen is wonder ink.
Stories sing. Stories sink.
My stories loop.
My stories stop.
My pen is my wonder mop.
Drink letters.
Drink my ink.
My pen is blind.
My stories blink.
by Joe Public, South African-based ad agency
If read in Afrikaans and translated to English:
My pen is my wonderland.
Becomes water in my hand.
In my pen is wonder ink.
Stories sing. Stories sink.
My stories walk.
My stories stop.
My pen is my wonder mop.
Drink letters.
Drink my ink.
My pen is blind.
My stories shine.

MY STORIES BEGIN AS LETTERS
My pen is my wonderland.
Word water in my hand.
In my pen is wonder ink.
Stories sing. Stories sink.
My stories loop.
My stories stop.
My pen is my wonder mop.
Drink letters.
Drink my ink.
My pen is blind.
My stories blink.
by Joe Public, South African-based ad agency
If read in English and translated to Afrikaans:
My pen is my wonderland.
Woordwater in my hand.
In my pen is wonder ink.
Stories sing. Stories sink.
My stories kring.
My stories stop.
My pen is my wonder mop.
Drink letters.
Drink my ink.
My pen is blind.
My stories knipoog.

Language contact phenomena
•Taxonomy based on literature review
•Donaldson (1991): The influence of English on Afrikaans
•Sankoff (2001): Linguistic outcomes of language contact
•Gouws et al. (2004): Friends will be friends – true or false. Lexicographic
approaches to the treatment of false friends
•Heid & Prinsloo (2008): Collocational False Friends: Description and
treatment in bilingual dictionaries
•Gotlieb (2018): Introducing Global Anglicism Database Network
•Onysko (2019): Reconceptualizing language contact phenomena as
cognitive processes
•Global Anglicism Database (2023)
•Wikipedia (2023)

Onysko (2019)
(simplified)
Language activation in the mental network
Unconscious activation Conscious activa tion
Monolingual Multilingual Oscil latin g
Borrowing Transfer Codeswitching Replication
Disposition of
act iv ation
Lan guage mode s
Contact
phenotypes
Socio-pragmatic
conditions
Inheritance
+ executive control ++ executive control
- executive control
Un mix ed
Morphologica l
loan
Lexical loan
Non-identical
cognates
Identical cognat es Lexical extension
Phonolog ical
extension
Morphologica l
extension
Syntactic
extension
Sem antic
extension
Cro ss-lingual
synonymy Nonce loan Transliteration
Translation
Folk etymology

Onysko (2019)
(extended)
Language activation in the mental network
Unconscious activation Consci ous act iva tion
Monolingual Multilingual Oscillatin g
Borrowing Transfer Codeswitching Replication
Disposition of
act iv atio n
Lan guage modes
Contact
phenotypes
Socio-pragmatic
conditions
Inheritance
+ executive control ++ executive control
- executive co ntrol
Un mix ed
Morphologica l
loan
Lexical loan
Non-identical
cognates
Identical cognat es Lexical extension
Phon olog ical
extension
Morphologica l
extension
Syntactic
extension
Sem antic
extension
Cro ss-lingual
synonymy Nonce loan Transliteration
Translation
Folk etymology

Lexical extension: partial false friends involving polysemy
•Contact phenotype: Transfer
•Lexical extension: offer, deel (English 'deal')
•Partial: pronunciation slightly different
•False friends: used as if they convey the same meaning, but the
meanings are different
•Polysemy: etymologically related

English offer
4) The foundation also offers financial assistance grants …
(COCA)
5) Got an offer I couldn't refuse.
(COCA)
6) A tuft of flax to a Grecian bride Was ancient Hymen's offer.
(OED) [1840, obsolete]

Afrikaans offer
7) Toe hy vir Isak moes offer, … (KPE)
when he for Isaac must.AUX.MOD.PRT sacrifice
‘When he had to sacrifice Isaac …
8) %Ek wil graag ʼnoffer maak…
Iwant.to.AUX.MOD gladly an offer make
9) Ek wil graag ʼnaanbod maak … (KPE)
I want.to.AUX.MOD gladly an offer make
‘I would like to make an offer …’
10) %[iemand] wat niks offer nie …
[someone] that.REL nothing offer PTCL.NEG
11) [iemand] wat niks aanbied nie … (KPE)
[someone] that.REL nothing offer PTCL.NEG
‘[someone] that offers nothing …’

Afrikaans deel met
12) Dankie dat jy dit met ons ge·deel het. (KPE)
thanks that you it with us PST.share have.AUX
‘Thanks for sharing that with us.’
13) %Mag God deel met die moordenaars. (KPE)
may God deal with the murderers
‘May God deal with the murderers.’
14) %Laat die familie eers daar+mee deel. (KPE)
let the family first PN+with deal
‘Let the family deal with it first.’
15) %Laat die gemeenskap met hom deel (KPE)
let the community with him deal
‘Let the community deal with him.’

So …
What does this mean for
DiaCxG?