Errors involving pronouns

• Incorrect choice of demonstrative pronoun

1. X1: X1: Ja. And we’re, like, supplying... What’s this [that] company that makes alcohol? S... What is it?

AP: SAB? X1: Ja, it’s SAB.

2. X4: Well, this [that] is not to say that, um, kindly even now, while I’m busy doing my course work, I’m not thinking about it [...].

• Use of a demonstrative pronoun instead of an article

1. X1: [...] because this [the] pregnancy wasn’t planned, we never thought of a name and stuff, because I, like..., I got pregnant doing standard- standard-standard 9.

2. X1: And then, like, I was called into this [the] office and my principal was like: “X, I just want you to be straight with me. What’s going on?”

16 _{There are a lot of the time is a very unusual formulation that might have been caused by the accidental}

162 • Use of a relative adverb instead of a relative pronoun

1. X2: Like, we had everything, but the environment where [that] we at, you

know...?

• Incorrect choice of interrogative pronoun

1. X9: How [what] would it look like?

• Use of an adverb of manner instead of a relative pronoun

1. X9: We have very funny stories, like, from the other older women when we’re in Eastern Cape, telling about how [what] my mom used to call things, like strange names.

• Incorrect choice of indefinite pronoun

1. X9: Like, whenever especially there’s a gathering, like..., a ceremony, then everybody will, like, drink, you know, brandy or anything [something], but man things.

2. X9: Ja, he’ll probably go to City X or anywhere [somewhere].

• Incorrect choice of pronoun relative to antecedent

1. X4: If someone comes to South Africa and when they co-..., go back after studying a semester and you ask them about the culture, um, they really would not have learnt a lot if you’re [they’re] not staying with the people and you...

2. X9: Because now, if you do it in masses, it will be like in December – everybody’s not working, everybody’s free – so there’ll be people to take care of you, because you know they [you] will need medical attention and everything.

3. X9: But then again, there are still exceptions, like the man that initiated before you – you can’t really, like, do everything that they [he] do.

163 4. X9: So whenever you [us] guys are sitting, you have your things in front

of you.17

5. X10: While they were busy rehearsing, someone was busy perusing through their stuff and then they [he / she] took their cell phones and keys and cards and licenses […].

6. X1: AP: Okay. Um, did you enjoy your job?

X1: Not really. He [I] was doing it because I had to, ja.18 7. X1: Ja, that’s the thing and I think my baby will have to first know

Xhosa, before they [she] can go to any other school.

8. X7: I know when I’m back home I’m a coconut, ’cause I can speak English with an accent, and I went to school and I’m at varsity and all of that, and then…, so ,you’re always just torn. So, you always try to find something that’ll keep you rooted in terms of to express my [your] culture and to express the way I [you] feel and my [your] tradition.

9. X1: […] I never had the chance, because people were very busy at that time when I was growing up and we had, like..., we have to, like, lead your [our] life.

• Incorrect choice of gender form of pronoun

1. X1: The father doesn’t stay with the baby. She [he] doesn’t really know what the baby needs at what time.

2. X6: I’ll tell her, like: “This Professor, Stan du Plessis, he’s a-…, he’s amazing” and he’s [she’s] like: “Okay, you have a crush on him” […].

3. X9: So, you kind of laugh: “Really? This woman? So fluent in Xhosa right now?” [...] Then again, we understand, you know, because he’s [she’s] married to a Xhosa guy [...].

17 _{Here, the guys are not present in the room, so they cannot be the referent of you guys. The only person}

present in the room other than the participant is the researcher, who is female and alone and who can therefore also not be the referent. Us would have been the correct pronoun if the speaker intended to include himself as one of the guys.

18

164 4. X1: He is there, but I don’t see..., I don’t really see her [his] role better

than what my mother does, because my dad..., no, man, my dad is not really a hard worker like my mother.

• Incorrect choice of pronoun type

1. X9: The way we ask, the way how [that] I ask: “How are you?”, ja, it’s way different from a man to man and a guy to a guy.

2. X10: […] ’cause I like Eric Whittaker, um, compo-…, compositions and stuff. So he said they might do something of that [his] […].