• Multiple authors are arranged according to authorship primacy.
  extra

  Software-specific: ling.dita 2.4 in oXygen (XML)

  • Format: AuthorName AuthorInitial AuthorSurname, e.g. Adri Breed or Gerhard B van Huyssteen
  • Multiple authors are separated by comma, e.g. Adri Breed, Gerhard B van Huyssteen
  • Moderators are only added as second authors in cases where their contributions consisted of co-writing or re-writing substantial parts of a topic.
  • Dutch and Frisian authors are not listed as co-authors, even if large parts of a topic were taken over verbatim. In such cases, acknowledge Dutch or Frisian topics in an <Extra> block by stating: "This topic is based on the Dutch topic here" (and provide a cross-reference to the topic).

• Keywords are always written without any capital letters, except for proper names and terms that are conventionally written with capital letters (e.g. Right-hand Headed Rule). A keyword is always a lemma (i.e. without inflection).
• In titles and headers, always use sentence case (e.g. "Style guidelines" instead of "Style Guidelines"). This also applies to "noun phrase" (with the acronym NP), "verb phrase" (VP), and so forth.
• Language names are written in capital letters (also when using colour adjectives), e.g. Black South African English.
• When referring to racial groups, don’t use capital letters for colour adjectives. E.g.:
  • Not: We see this among *White, *Black, *Coloured and Indian speakers …
  • Rather: We see this among white, black, coloured and Indian speakers …
  • NEVER use “brown” to refer to racial groups; it is always “coloured”.
• Choices between variant morphological forms (e.g. classic vs. classical) are based on relative frequencies: the form with the most hits in a Google search is used. See this table for a list of common words.
• Avoid using “I” and “we” when writing.
• Use "as follows" instead of "as follow".
• Usage of tenses depends, of course, on the argumentation, but the simple past tense is used as a "general", rule-of-thumb tense when discussing literature., e.g.:
  • Wissing (1989) argued that ... (instead of "Wissing (1989) argues that ...", or "Wissing (1989) has argued that ...")
• The Afrikaans indefinite article is represented by the letter n, preceded by a straight single quote ('n), and neither by a smart quote (*’n), nor by the Unicode character (*ʼn).
• Avoid examples in sentence initial position. E.g.:
  • Avoid: Swembad is a noun.
  • Rather: The word swembad is a noun.
• Use hyphens sparingly. E.g.:
  • */r/-deletion
  • Rather: /r/ deletion
  • *Afrikaans-speakers
  • Rather: Afrikaans speakers
  • Correct: Afrikaans-speaking people and Afrikaans-related words
  • *word-form
  • Rather: word form and word formation and word formation process
• Avoid ending paragraphs with colons (typically before an <ilexample>). Rather make reference to the example number, or just assume that the reader will know that the paragraph relates to the example that follows.
  • If a paragraph ends with an abbreviation like e.g., i.e., or viz., it is always followed by a colon.
• Forward slash
  There are either no spaces surrounding forward slashes (typically when separating single words, e.g. he/she/it), or spaces on both sides of a forward slash (typically when separating word groups, e.g. he is / we are).
• Spelling variation
  Preference is given to spelling forms in AWS-11. In cases where AWS-11 gives preference to a certain form (e.g. no capital letters for words derived with -isme, as in darwinisme), use the AWS’s spelling form of preference as it appears in the word list section.

The following special formatting and mark-up are used in the Afrikaans section of Taalportaal:

• Bibliographic references, e.g. (Wissing 1989)
  • See the detailed information in the section below.
• Linguistic terms, e.g. compound
  • As a general principle, a specific linguistic term is only marked the first time it occurs on a particular page.
• Abbreviations, e.g. RSG
  • As a general principle, a specific abbreviation is only marked the first time it occurs on a particular page.
  • Highly conventionalised abbreviations, like those for parts-of speech (e.g. N, ADJ), phrase structures (e.g. NP, VP) and glosses (e.g. PL, DIM), are never marked as abbreviations.
  • As a reference, see the comprehensive list of abbreviations used in the Afrikaans section of Taalportaal.

• The Harvard method is used for in-line references, while the bibliographic information is provided in a pop-up.
• When quoting examples from corpora, only the abbreviation of the corpus is given. See this list of abbreviations.
• When quoting an example from a specific novel, magazine, newspaper, etc., the following general format is used: (InitialAuthor. SurnameAuthor: Title, yyyy/mm/dd, PageNumber). See the following examples:
  • (A.J. Jordaan: Huisg., 1965/03/05, 52)
  • (H. Mulder: Gister, 1970, 13)
  • (Die Kerkbode, 2005/08, E)
  • (Die Bybel, 1983, 2 Konings 13:2)

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