Roné Wierenga’s research while affiliated with Virtual University and other places

Aspectual meaning is often ambiguous in Afrikaans because the verb is not compulsorily marked for aspect. The inchoative aspect is a grammatical aspectual meaning that highlights the moment directly before the onset, the onset itself, or the moment directly after the onset of an action or change of state. A variety of strategies can be used in Afrikaans to express the inchoative aspect, one of which being auxiliary verb constructions. Ten auxiliary verbs can occur in inchoative constructions in Afrikaans, namely: begin ('begin'), gaan ('go'), kom ('come'), loop ('walk), raak ('become'), sit ('sit'), slaan ('hif), spring ('jump'), steek ('stab) and val ('fall'). These auxiliary verbs function as inchoative aspectual markers in two kinds of constructions: as direct linking verbs in inchoative constructions or as indirect linking verbs (either with or without progressive periphrastic constructions). All of the auxiliary verbs that can express inchoative meaning do not occur in all of the possible constructions. For instance, slaan ('hit') exclusively occurs as an inchoative marker in auxiliary constructions with the progressive periphrastic construction aan die ('on the') together with the main verb collocate brand ('to burn'). This article, therefore, does not investigate all ten auxiliary verbs that can occur in inchoative constructions but solely focuses on the direct linking verb constructions in which gaan and loop occur as cognate inchoative auxiliaries. In this article, the Watkykjy! corpus, Taalkommissie corpus and NWU Commentary corpus are used to investigate the frequencies and usage patterns of gaan and loop as direct linking verbs in inchoative constructions. Construction Grammar (CxG) and Grammaticalisa-tion Theory are used as theoretical frameworks to describe the similarities and differences in use of loop and gaan as direct linking verbs in inchoative constructions. CxG provides a useful theoretical framework for the identification of the constructions and descriptions of the nuances between the two constructions, should any be present. Grammaticalisation Theory provides a framework in which the main verb collocates for gaan and loop in these inchoative constructions can be used to establish the degree to which these verbs have evolved to express additional meanings or perform additional functions. The results of the corpus study indicate that these gaan and loop inchoative constructions are formally and structurally similar, but that there are semantic nuances expressed by using one rather than the other. Collostruction analyses indicate both gaan and loop retain some of their lexical meaning in certain contexts where they are used to express inchoative aspectual meaning. However, gaan can be used in a larger variety of linguistic contexts and with a larger variety of main verb collocates. Gaan is, therefore, more grammaticalised and less constricted in its uses than loop. This result was expected because gaan has grammaticalised to function as a future tense marker and modal marker expressing epistemic modality in Afrikaans, which correlate with the grammaticalisation route for verbs like gaan in other languages. Whilst it was expected that loop would be less grammaticalised than gaan because loop is not commonly considered to function as a future tense marker in Afrikaans, it is, however, noteworthy that loop seems to have evolved to denote some kind of modal meaning. The loop inchoative construction is more frequently used in imperatives, occurs with a smaller variety of main verb collocates and tends to be used in contexts where the speaker is expressing a dislike for or disapproval of the situation being expressed by the main verb, or aims to evoke a negative emotional response from the receiver of the utterance towards the situation expressed by the main verb. This is indicative of loop being more specialised for imperatives, pejoratives and cases where the speaker expresses their own dislike or disapproval, or hopes to evoke these feelings in the receiver of the utterance, towards the situation expressed by the main verb. It, therefore, seems that loop has evolved to function as a kind of deontic modal marker. This supports the findings of other researchers who note that loop expresses modality in progressive constructions.

Traditionally sal, wil, moet and kan are regarded as the most common modal auxiliaries in Afrikaans. Recent literature has acknowledged that gaan, a lexical verb denoting 'movement away from a deictic centre', has acquired modal functions resembling those of sal in specific contexts. This article aims to explore the development of the grammatical functions of gaan and the interchangeability of sal and gaan as modal auxiliaries within the scope of grammaticalisation theory. A corpus study is undertaken to identify and analyse the nuances in the modal functions for which these auxiliaries compete when expressing modality in order to establish the extent to which gaan has grammaticalised. Similarly, the degree to which gaan and sal can be used as synonyms is explored in the formal register of the Taalkommissie's newspaper sub-corpus and the informal register of the News Commentary corpus.

IRSA (Interpreting Research in South Africa) is a database consisting of 279 scientific sources regarding interpreting research in South Africa or by South African interpreting researchers. The database includes publications from 1968 to 2020 and aims to be as inclusive and encompassing as possible. The database is housed by the North-West University's Ferdinand Postma library and can be reached via the following link: https://collections.nwu.ac.za/dbtw-wpd/textbases/Tolking-Navorsing/irsa.html. IRSA aims to be the central point of reference for interpreting research in South Africa. The database has the advantage of providing researchers with easy access to trustworthy publications. The publications included in IRSA are vetted. Only scientific sources, including articles from accredited and nonaccredited journals, books, honours research reports, master's dissertations and doctoral theses are included in IRSA. This article outlines the challenges faced in the establishment of such a database. These challenges include the unavailability of electronic copies of older publications, which prohibits these publications from being vetted for inclusion in IRSA, and accounting for thoroughness. The article also provides an overview of the observable publication trends. These trends include a) the overarching themes of the publications, such as educational interpreting, legal interpreting and the professionalisation of interpreting in South Africa, b) the research approaches that are prevalent (for instance investigative or descriptive approaches), and c) the types of publications that are favoured (i.e. journal articles, book chapters or graduate research publications). Lastly, an overview of the future purpose of IRSA and the research possibilities that it presents is provided.

Die progressiewe perifrastiese konstruksies in Afrikaans en Nederlands is 'n tema wat heelwat aandag in resente taalkundeliteratuur geniet het. 'n Verskeidenheid sinchroniese studies het die drie ewekniekonstruksies van Afrikaans en Nederlands, naamlik die PREP-, besig-, en CPV-konstruksies al afsonderlik en vergelykend bestudeer, waaronder die vernaamste vergelykende studie dié van Breed, Brisard en Verhoeven (2017). Vanuit die literatuur is dit duidelik dat, alhoewel hierdie drie progressiewe perifrastiese konstruksies vormlike ewekniekonstruksies is, daar bepaalde verskille in die gebruike van hierdie konstruksies tussen Afrikaans en Nederlands voorkom. Hierdie artikel poog om die leemte in die huidige literatuur te vul, deur middel van 'n diachroniese studie wat gebruik maak van die Tracing History Trust-korpus (2011) en die Historiese korpus van Standaardafrikaans (2016). Die doel is om vas te stel óf en tot watter máte die verskille wat tans tussen die progressiewe konstruksies van Afrikaans en Nederlands bestaan, sigbaar was tydens die 17de, 18de en 20ste eeu.

Within the blended learning environment, it is important to consolidate expert content and pedagogy inside and outside the classroom. Subject experts who serve as content developers play a vital role by contributing quality controlled subject content covered by the curriculum, which can be made available to students on digital platforms. However, in developing countries and in communities where resources are limited, good and complementary digital content may not be accessible to all learners. Teachers are often left to their own devices to develop teaching content. When considering Afrikaans language teaching in South Africa specifically, there is a great need within the language community for learning and teaching support. This chapter reports on the role that the Virtual Institute for Afrikaans (VivA) is playing as a content provider of quality Afrikaans linguistic material in the blended learning environment. The aim is to present VivA as a case study or prototype of an independent organisation acting as a key stakeholder in the blended learning ecosystem.