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Terminology
quickinfo

See the following sections for some terminological and orthographical conventions used on the Afrikaans Taalportaal:

readmore
[+]Disambiguation of confusables
Table 1: Disambiguation of confusables
Term Confused with Usage
personal name person name Proper noun with a specific individual as referent, such as Gerhard or Gerhard van Huyssteen
person name personal name (Derived) noun that refers to a kind of person, such as werk·er (also called person noun), or Fidji·aan (also called inhabitant name).
proper name proper noun

Only single-word proper names are proper nouns: Peter and Africa are both proper names and proper nouns; but Peter the Great and South Africa, while they are proper names, are not proper nouns.

proper noun proper name

Only single-word proper names are proper nouns: Peter and Africa are both proper names and proper nouns; but Peter the Great and South Africa, while they are proper names, are not proper nouns.

inhabitant name Subcategory of person name
geographical name place name Proper noun referring to any kind of geographical space or object, such as Suid-Afrika, Pretoria, Rietvleidam, Apiesrivier
place name geographical name proper noun referring to a place, such as Pretoria
negation affix negative affix Preference for negation affix, e.g. on- or -loos
colour name colour term Preference for colour name, e.g. rooi is 'n mooi kleur
colour adjective colour term Preference for colour adjective, e.g. die rooi rok
similative suffix E.g. -ig -ish
linking verb copula Many English grammars call copulas also linking verb. In the Afrikaans section of Taalportaal, as linking verb (Afrikaans "skakelwerkwoord") is a lexical verb such as loop to walk, gaan to go, probeer to try, or laat to let, that is used like an auxiliary verb, and takes a main verb in the infinitive form as its complement, e.g. Ek probeer die werk doen. I try.LINK the work do.INF I try to do the work.
[+]Variant morphological forms

Choices between variant morphological forms are based on relative frequencies: the form with the most hits in a Google search is used.

Table 2
Preferred term Alternative term(s)
classic classical
neoclassical neoclassic
orthographic orthographical
historic present/past tense historical present/past tense
historical varieties historic varieties
phonetic phonetical
phonological phonologic
morphological morphologic
separable complex verb particle verb
compound verb compounded verb
confix combining form
interfix linker (incorrect: infix)
on- prefixation (Booij 2002:113) prefixed with on-
[+]Preferred spelling/styling
Table 3: Preferred spelling/styling
Preferred spelling/styling Instead of:
above-mentioned abovementioned
analyse (and other words with "s" vs. "z") analyze
category-neutral; category-determining category neutral; category determining
as follows as follow
left side left-side
oftentimes often times
part-of-speech; part-of-speech category part of speech; part of speech category
prenominal; postnominally pre-nominal; post-nominally
right-hand right hand
subcategory sub-category
viewpoint view-point
word form; word list; word formation word-form; wordlist; word-formation
word formation process word-formation process
zero derivation; zero morpheme zero-derivation; zero-morpheme
extra
Software-specific: ling.dita 2.4 in oXygen (XML)

  • Don't use "dita" to refer to another page in Taalportaal; also not "Quick info" or "Read more". Instead, use "section", "subsection", "page", "topic", etc.

[+]Change log

If you have any question or suggestions about these general guidelines, please contact Gerhard van Huyssteen.

extra
CHANGE LOG

  • 2020/03/09: Added "linking verb", plus comments on using "Quick info" and "Read more".
  • 2020/02/25: Added note on avoiding using "dita" as a term.
  • 2019/12/30: Added notes on preference for "historic past tense" vs. "historical varieties"
  • 2019/06/11: Table added with preferred spelling/styling

References
  • Booij, Geert2002The morphology of DutchOxfordOxford University Press
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