Do Vocatives Constitute a Separate Part of Speech? A Comparison of Russian and North Saami Data

Laura  A.  Janda  and    Lene  Antonsen  

Overview  

PART  ONE:    What  is  a  voca;ve?    Is  it  a  form  of  a  noun  or  of  a  verb  or  something  else?  

   

PART  TWO:  Russian  “new”  voca;ve    mam!  ‘mama!’,  Saš!  ‘Sasha!’    

   

PART  THREE:  North  Saami  “new”  voca;ve?      Gula,          mánážan.      listen.IMPER.2S    child.DIM.NOM.SG.PX.1S    ‘Listen,  my  liSle  child.’    

THEORY  

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PART ONE: What is a vocative? A call for attention that hasn’t gotten much attention

THEORY  

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Vocatives have been largely ignored

“even though they are amongst the most basic and earliest acquired structures of language, vocatives have hardly ever been discussed in all their facets from a linguistic point of view” Sonnenhauser & Hanna 2013: 3 Among the few studies: Fink 1972, Zwicky 1974, Levinson 1983, Greenberg 1996 However, this situation seems to be changing:

Sonnenhauser & Hanna 2013, Hill 2014, Julien 2014

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Is a vocative a case form of a noun?  YES,  the  voca;ve:  

–  Can  have  dis;nct  morphological  form  (Kiparsky  1967)  –  Can  o^en  be  replaced  by  nomina;ve,  which  is  a  case  –  Can  show  agreement  within  the  NP  (Hill  2014,  Julien  2014)  –  Can  be  syntac;cally  integrated  via  a  Voca;ve  Phrase  (Hill  2014)  

 

NO,  the  voca;ve:  –  Is  not  syntac;cally  integrated  into  a  clause  (Isačenko  1962)    –  Has  peculiar  restric;ons  that  do  not  apply  to  other  cases  (func;onal,  lexical,  morphological,  phonological,  cf.  Russian)  

–  Diachronically  behaves  differently  (cf.  Bulgarian  &  Macedonian  lost  all  cases  but  kept  voca;ve)    

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Is a vocative a form of a verb?  YES,  the  voca;ve:  

–   Marks  2nd  person  (Fink  1972)  –  Shares  features  with  impera;ves  (Jakobson  1971,  

Greenberg  1996)  –  Possessive  predica;onal  voca;ves  (Din  idiot!  ‘You  

idiot!  [lit.  Your  idiot]’  ≈  Du  er  en  idiot  ‘You  are  an  idiot’,  cf.  Julien  2014)  

 NO,  the  voca;ve  would  be  a  mighty  defec;ve  verb…  

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Is a vocative a form of a verb?  YES,  the  voca;ve:  

–   Marks  2nd  person  (Fink  1972)  –  Shares  features  with  impera;ves  (Jakobson  1971,  

Greenberg  1996)  –  Possessive  predica;onal  voca;ves  (Din  idiot!  ‘You  

idiot!  [lit.  Your  idiot]’  ≈  Du  er  en  idiot  ‘You  are  an  idiot’,  cf.  Julien  2014)  

 NO,  the  voca;ve  would  be  a  mighty  defec;ve  verb…  

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NOTE:  associa;on  with  possessive  

Is a vocative another part of speech?  

Andersen  (2012)  argues  that  the  voca;ve  is  a  separate  part  of  speech,  based  on  evidence  from  the  Russian  “new”  voca;ve  and  typological  comparisons    

Segue  to  Russian  

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PART  TWO:  Russian  “new”  voca;ve  Old  Church  Slavonic  (≈  Proto-­‐Slavic)  had  a  voca;ve  case  (singular  only)  that  has  been  lost  in  modern  Russian,  surviving  in  only  a  few  interjec;ons:  Bože  (moj)!  ‘(my)  God!’  [cf.  Bog  ‘God.NOM.SG’],  Gospodi!  ‘Lord!’  [cf.  Gospod’  ‘Lord.NOM.SG’]    Russian  “new”  voca;ve  has  appeared  since  the  mid-­‐1800s:  

 mam!  ‘mama!’,  Saš!  ‘Sasha!’    

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PART  TWO:  Russian  “new”  voca;ve  Old  Church  Slavonic  (≈  Proto-­‐Slavic)  had  a  voca;ve  case  (singular  only)  that  has  been  lost  in  modern  Russian,  surviving  in  only  a  few  interjec;ons:  Bože  (moj)!  ‘(my)  God!’  [cf.  Bog  ‘God.NOM.SG’],  Gospodi!  ‘Lord!’  [cf.  Gospod’  ‘Lord.NOM.SG’]    Russian  “new”  voca;ve  has  appeared  since  the  mid-­‐1800s:  

 mam!  ‘mama!’,  Saš!  ‘Sasha!’    

NOTE:  associa;on  with  possessive  

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Features  of  Russian  “new”  voca;ve  •  Pragma;c  func;ons:  Cona;ve  (invi;ng,  summoning,  calling)  

and  Pha;c  (conveying  speaker’s  intent);  not  used  in  commands  

•  Lexical  restric;ons:  Only  used  with  words  that  can  serve  as  forms  of  address  

•  Morphophonological  restric;ons:  Limited  to  words  ending  in  –a  with  penul;mate  or  prepenul;mate  stress  

•  Phonological  peculiari;es:  Formed  by  trunca;on,  resul;ng  in  word-­‐final  consonant  clusters  (lacking  vowel  inser;on)  and  voiced  final  consonants  not  otherwise  tolerated  in  Russian  

•  Strong  associa;on  with  diminu;ves  (themselves  peculiar)  

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Russian “new” vocative: Some examples from Andersen 2012  

(1) Dissyllabic hypocoristics. (Kóstja! ⇒) Kóst !, (Nádja! ⇒) Nád !; (2) Dissyllabic diminutives. (Ván ka! ⇒) Ván k!, (Máška! ⇒) Mášk!; (3) Hypocoristics of three or more syllables. (Natáša! ⇒) Natás!, (Serëžka! ⇒) Serëžk!, ...; (4) Kinship terms. (djádja! ⇒) djád !, (máma! ⇒) mám!,...; (5) Patronymics. (Andréevna! ⇒) Andrévn!, (Nikoláevna! ⇒) Nikolávn!,...; (6) Name + patronymic. (Ánna Ivánovna! ⇒ Ànn Vánna! ⇒) Ànn Vánn!, (Már ja Aleksándrovna! ⇒ Màr Sánna! ⇒) Màr Sánn!, ...; (7) Common nouns. (dévuška! ‘Miss’ ⇒) dévušk!, (chozjájka! ‘hostess, landlady’ ⇒) chozjájk!, (rebjáta! ‘boys, guys’ ⇒) rebját!, (devčáta! ‘girls’ ⇒) devčát!, ....  BOLDFACE  marks  items  that  conflict  with  Russian  phonotac;cs  

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Andersen’s argument  

•  Voca;ves  do  not  perform  any  of  the  senten;al  syntac;c  func;ons  associated  with  the  case  forms  of  nouns  

•  Nomina;ves  can  be  used  as  voca;ves:  this  is  homonymy  since  conversion  does  not  require  an  overt  marker  

•  The  distribu;on  and  behavior  of  voca;ve  forms  is  very  different  from  that  of  case  forms:  mostly  restricted  to  names,  kinship  terms,  can  defy  phonotac;cs  

∴  The  voca;ve  is  a  separate  part  of  speech  

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PART  THREE:  North  Saami  “new”  voca;ve?  

Noun + Possessive Suffix Lásse stoahká ustibiinnis [Lásse.NOM plays friend.COM.SG.PX.3S]

‘Lásse is playing with his friend’

 

Reflexive Pronoun in Genitive Case Lásse stoahká iežas ustibiin [Lásse.NOM plays REFL.GEN.PX.3S friend.COM.SG]

‘Lásse is playing with his friend’

The  possessive  suffix  (NPx)  is  being  replaced  by    an  analy;c  construc;on  (ReflN)  in  anaphoric  contexts:  

The  one  use  where  the  NPx  is  strongest  is  arguably  a  voca;ve:    Gula,          mánážan.      listen.IMPER.2S    child.DIM.NOM.SG.PX.1S    ‘Listen,  my  liSle  child.’    

 

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Development of a vocative from a possessive is not unprecedented  

Michael (2013: 157) documents the use of the First Person Singular possessive construction with close kinship terms, as in ina “my mother” in Nanti (spoken in Peruvian Amazonia) as vocatives.  

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The  replacement  of  North  Saami  NPx  by  ReflN  

1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

Year of Birth

Pro

porti

on o

f Ref

lN

A Larsen

J Turi

KN Turi

HA Guttorm

M BongoAO Eira

JA Vest

K Paltto

EM Vars

JM Mienna

MA Sara

Data:  2272  examples  from  literary  texts  (0.53M  words)    

NPx  with  NOM  used  as  a  

voca;ve  survives  well  even  among  younger  authors  

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Refl  +  N,  which  is  replacing  NPx    (but  NOT  used  as  voca;ve)  

Refl   guoibmi  “partner”    1S   iežan     NOM.SG   guoibmi  2S   iežat   GEN.SG=ACC.SG   guoimmi    3S   iežas   ILL.SG   guoibmái    1D     iežame     LOC.SG   guoimmis    2D     iežade     COM.SG=LOC.PL   guimmiin    3D     iežaska     NOM.PL   guoimmit    1P     iežamet     GEN.PL=ACC.PL   guimmiid    2P     iežadet     ILL.PL   guimmiide    3P     iežaset   COM.PL   guimmiiguin    

ESS   guoibmin  

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NPx  expands  noun  paradigm  from  13  slots  to  130,  adding  these  81  unique  forms  for  guoibmi  “partner”    

NOM.SG:  1S    guoibmán  2S    guoibmát  3S    guoibmis  1D      guoibmáme  2D      guoibmáde  3D      guoibmiska  1P    guoibmámet  2P    guoibmádet  3P    guoibmiset  

GEN.SG=ACC.SG:  1S    guoibmán  2S    guoimmát  3S    guoimmis  1D      guoibmáme  2D      guoimmáde  3D      guoimmiska  1P    guoibmámet  2P    guoimmádet  3P    guoimmiset  

ILL.SG:  1S    guoibmásan  2S    guoibmásat  3s    guoibmásis  1D      guoibmáseame  2D      guoibmáseaSe  3D      guoibmáseaskka  1P    guoibmáseamet  2P    guoibmáseaSet  3P    guoibmáseaset  

LOC.SG:  1S    guoimmistan  2S    guoimmistat  3S    guoimmis;s  1D      guoimmisteame  2D      guoimmisteaSe  3D      guoimmisteaskka  1P    guoimmisteamet  2P    guoimmisteaSet  3P    guoimmisteaset  

COM.SG=LOC.PL:  1S    guimmiinan  2S    guimmiinat  3S    guimmiinis  1D      guimmiineame  2D      guimmiineaSe  3D      guimmiineaskka  1P    guimmiineamet  2P    guimmiineaSet  3P    guimmiineaset  

GEN.PL=ACC.PL(=NOM.PL  1S/D/P):  1S    guimmiidan  2S    guimmiidat  3S    guimmiidis  1D      guimmiideame  2D      guimmiideaSe  3D      guimmiideaskka  1P    guimmiideamet  2P    guimmiideaSet  3P    guimmiideaset  

ILL.PL:  1S    guimmiidasan  2S    guimmiidasat  3S    guimmiidasas  1D      guimmiidasame  2D      guimmiidasade  3D      guimmiidasaska  1P    guimmiidasamet  2P    guimmiidasadet  3P    guimmiidasaset  

COM.PL:  1S    guimmiidanguin  2S    guimmiidatguin  3S    guimmiidisguin  1D      guimmiideameguin  2D      guimmiideaSeguin  3D      guimmiideaskkaguin  1P    guimmiideametguin  2P    guimmiideaSetguin  2P    guimmiideasetguin  

ESS:  1S    guoibminan  2S    guoibminat  3S    guoibminis  1D      guoibmineame  2D      guoibmineaSe  3D      guoibmineaskka  1P    guoibmineamet  2P    guoibmineaSet  3P    guoibmineaset  18

Boldfaced  forms  are  NOM.PX  first  person,    can  be  used  as  voca;ve    

NOM.SG:  1S    guoibmán  2S    guoibmát  3S    guoibmis  1D      guoibmáme  2D      guoibmáde  3D      guoibmiska  1P    guoibmámet  2P    guoibmádet  3P    guoibmiset  

GEN.SG=ACC.SG:  1S    guoibmán  2S    guoimmát  3S    guoimmis  1D      guoibmáme  2D      guoimmáde  3D      guoimmiska  1P    guoibmámet  2P    guoimmádet  3P    guoimmiset  

ILL.SG:  1S    guoibmásan  2S    guoibmásat  3s    guoibmásis  1D      guoibmáseame  2D      guoibmáseaSe  3D      guoibmáseaskka  1P    guoibmáseamet  2P    guoibmáseaSet  3P    guoibmáseaset  

LOC.SG:  1S    guoimmistan  2S    guoimmistat  3S    guoimmis;s  1D      guoimmisteame  2D      guoimmisteaSe  3D      guoimmisteaskka  1P    guoimmisteamet  2P    guoimmisteaSet  3P    guoimmisteaset  

COM.SG=LOC.PL:  1S    guimmiinan  2S    guimmiinat  3S    guimmiinis  1D      guimmiineame  2D      guimmiineaSe  3D      guimmiineaskka  1P    guimmiineamet  2P    guimmiineaSet  3P    guimmiineaset  

GEN.PL=ACC.PL(=NOM.PL  1S/D/P):  1S    guimmiidan  2S    guimmiidat  3S    guimmiidis  1D      guimmiideame  2D      guimmiideaSe  3D      guimmiideaskka  1P    guimmiideamet  2P    guimmiideaSet  3P    guimmiideaset  

ILL.PL:  1S    guimmiidasan  2S    guimmiidasat  3S    guimmiidasas  1D      guimmiidasame  2D      guimmiidasade  3D      guimmiidasaska  1P    guimmiidasamet  2P    guimmiidasadet  3P    guimmiidasaset  

COM.PL:  1S    guimmiidanguin  2S    guimmiidatguin  3S    guimmiidisguin  1D      guimmiideameguin  2D      guimmiideaSeguin  3D      guimmiideaskkaguin  1P    guimmiideametguin  2P    guimmiideaSetguin  2P    guimmiideasetguin  

ESS:  1S    guoibminan  2S    guoibminat  3S    guoibminis  1D      guoibmineame  2D      guoibmineaSe  3D      guoibmineaskka  1P    guoibmineamet  2P    guoibmineaSet  3P    guoibmineaset  

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Data:  Literary  texts  (.53M  words)    +  New  Testament  (.13M  words)  

CASE.NUMBER  form  of  possessum  

PERSON.NUMBER  of  possessor  

#  examples  of  voca;ve  use  

#  examples  of  other  exophoric  use  

NOM.SG     1S   102   21  

NOM.SG     1P   6   38  

NOM.PL     1S   27   0  

NOM.PL     1P   1   0  

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Data:  Literary  texts  (.53M  words)    +  New  Testament  (.13M  words)  

CASE.NUMBER  form  of  possessum  

PERSON.NUMBER  of  possessor  

#  examples  of  voca;ve  use  

#  examples  of  other  exophoric  use  

NOM.SG     1S   102   21  

NOM.SG     1P   6   38  

NOM.PL     1S   27   0  

NOM.PL     1P   1   0  

NOM.PL  uses  are  all  voca;ve,  very  stylized,  found  primarily  in  Biblical  texts  

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NOM.PL.PX  examples  Vocative First Person Singular with Nominative Plural possessum Mánážiiddán, leat go dis guolit? [NT]

Mánážiiddán child.DIM.NOM.PL.PX.1S “My dear/little children, do you have fish?”

Vocative First Person Plural with Nominative Plural possessum

Ráhkkásiiddán, jos Ipmil lea ráhkistan min nu, de mii ge leat geatnegasat ráhkistit guhtet guimmiideamet. [NT]

Ráhkkásiiddán dear.NOM.PL.PX.1P “Dearly beloved [our dear people], as much as God has loved us, so we

are obliged to love each other.”  

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Data:  Literary  texts  (.53M  words)    +  New  Testament  (.13M  words)  

CASE.NUMBER  form  of  possessum  

PERSON.NUMBER  of  possessor  

#  examples  of  voca;ve  use  

#  examples  of  other  exophoric  use  

NOM.SG     1S   102   21  

NOM.SG     1P   6   38  

NOM.PL     1S   27   0  

NOM.PL     1P   1   0  

NOM.SG  with  1P  can  also  be  voca;ve,  again  o^en  found  in  Biblical  texts:  Áhččámet  father.NOM.SG.PX.1P    

‘Our  Father’  23

Data:  Literary  texts  (.53M  words)    +  New  Testament  (.13M  words)  

CASE.NUMBER  form  of  possessum  

PERSON.NUMBER  of  possessor  

#  examples  of  voca;ve  use  

#  examples  of  other  exophoric  use  

NOM.SG     1S   102   21  

NOM.SG     1P   6   38  

NOM.PL     1S   27   0  

NOM.PL     1P   1   0  

NOM.SG  with  1P  can  also  be  voca;ve,  again  o^en  found  in  Biblical  texts:  Áhččámet  father.NOM.SG.PX.1P    

‘Our  Father’  24

Data:  Literary  texts  (.53M  words)    +  New  Testament  (.13M  words)  

CASE.NUMBER  form  of  possessum  

PERSON.NUMBER  of  possessor  

#  examples  of  voca;ve  use  

#  examples  of  other  exophoric  use  

NOM.SG     1S   102   21  

NOM.SG     1P   6   38  

NOM.PL     1S   27   0  

NOM.PL     1P   1   0  

NOM.SG  with  1S  is  83%  voca;ve,  and  this  is  a  stronghold  of  NPx  

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NOM.SG.PX  examples  from  a  novel  for  young  adults  

Viimmat  lea  guhkes  ,  guhkes  dálvi  nohkan,  Linážan!  ‘The  long,  long  winter  is  finally  over,  my  li`le  Lina  [DIM.NOM.SG.PX.1S]!’    Ean  eaisege,  nieiddažan,  gos  bat  don  leat  dakkár  jurdagiid  roggan?  ‘No,  we're  not,  my  li1le  daughter  [DIM.NOM.SG.PX.1S],  where  did  you  dig  up  such  ideas?’    Girdil  dál  lo1ážan!  ‘Now  fly  away,  my  li`le  bird  [DIM.NOM.SG.PX.1S]!’    Maid  don  dál  leat,  láikkes  bussážan?  ‘How  are  you  now,  my  lazy  li`le  ki`y  [DIM.NOM.SG.PX.1S]?’  

Name  

Kinship  

Metaphorical  Name  for  a  Person  

Anthropomorphized  Animal  

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NOM.SG.PX.1S  examples  from  a  novel  for  young  adults  

Viimmat  lea  guhkes  ,  guhkes  dálvi  nohkan,  Linážan!  ‘The  long,  long  winter  is  finally  over,  my  li`le  Lina  [DIM.NOM.SG.PX.1S]!’    Ean  eaisege,  nieiddažan,  gos  bat  don  leat  dakkár  jurdagiid  roggan?  ‘No,  we're  not,  my  li1le  daughter  [DIM.NOM.SG.PX.1S],  where  did  you  dig  up  such  ideas?’    Girdil  dál  lo1ážan!  ‘Now  fly  away,  my  li`le  bird  [DIM.NOM.SG.PX.1S]!’    Maid  don  dál  leat,  láikkes  bussážan?  ‘How  are  you  now,  my  lazy  li`le  ki`y  [DIM.NOM.SG.PX.1S]?’  

All  these  examples  contain  DIM  suffix  –š    (-­‐ž  intervocalically),    

all  end  in  -­‐žan  

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Use  of  DIM.NOM.SG.PX.1S  –žan    in  literary  texts      

•  88%  (53  out  of  60  examples)  of  First  Person  Singular  voca;ve  uses  in  literary  texts  involve  the  diminu;ve  suffix,  and  this  includes  all  uses  of  first  names    

•  We  have  >10  examples  of  voca;ve  use  from  two  authors:  –  Larsen  (b.  1870)  uses  the  diminu;ve  with  thirteen  of  fi^een  voca;ve  examples  (87%),  cons;tu;ng  9%  of  his  overall  use  of  NPx    

–  Vars  (b.  1957)  uses  the  diminu;ve  with  all  thirty-­‐three  (100%)  voca;ve  examples,  cons;tu;ng  18%  of  her  total  use  of  NPx    

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Hypothesis  &  Conclusion  

•  –žan  [DIM.NOM.SG.PX.1S]  is  undergoing  morphological  reinterpreta;on  as  a  voca;ve  deriva;onal  morpheme  

•  –žan  creates  independent  voca;ve  lexemes  that  are  detached  from  the  noun  paradigm  

•  This  makes  it  possible  for  the  voca;ve  use  of  NPx  to  survive  while  other  uses  are  being  replaced  by  ReflN  

•  There  is  a  tendency  for  inflec;onal  forms  to  get  “recycled”  into  new  roles  when  paradigms  are  under  pressure  (Lass  1990,  Janda  1996)  

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References  Andersen, Henning. 2012. The new Russian vocative: Synchrony, diachrony, typology. Scando-Slavica 51. 122-167. Fink, Robert. O. 1972. Person in nouns: is the vocative a case? The American Journal of Philology 93: 61-68. Greenberg, Robert D. 1996. The Balkan Slavic Appellative. Munich: Lincom. Hill, Virginia. 2014. Vocatives. How Syntax Meets with Pragmatics (= Empirical Approaches to Linguistics Theory 5). Leiden: Brill. Isačenko, Alexander. 1962. Die russische Sprache der Gegenwart. Formenlehre. Munich: Hueber. Jakobson, Roman O. 1971. Zur Struktur des russischen Verbums. Roman Jakobson, Selected Writings. Vol. II, 3-15. The Hague: Mouton. Janda, Laura A. 1996. Back from the brink: a study of how relic forms in languages serve as source material for analogical extension. Munich: Lincom Julien, Marit. 2014. Vokativar i norsk. Norsk Lingvistisk Tidsskrift 32: 130-165. Kiparsky, Valentin. 1967. Russische historische Grammatik. Vol. 2. Die Entwicklung des Formensystems. Heidelberg: Winter. Lass, Roger. 1990. How to do things with junk: Exaptation in language evolution. Linguistics 26. 79-102. Levinson, Stephen. 1983. Pragmatics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Michael, Lev. 2013. Possession in Nanti. In Aikhenvald, Alexandra Y. and R. M. W. Dixon (eds.), Possession and Ownership, 149-166. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Sonnenhauser, Barbara and Patrizia Noel Aziz Hanna. 2013. Introduction: Vocative! In: Sonnenhauser & Hanna eds. Vocative! Addressing between system and performance (= Trends in Linguistics. Studies and Monographs 261), Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton, 1-23. Zwicky, Arnold. 1974. Hey, Whatsyourname. In Papers from the Tenth Regional Meeting, Chicago Linguistic Society. April 19-21, 1974, Michael La Galy, Robert A. Fox, and Anthony Bruck (eds.), 787-801. Chicago: Chicago Linguistic Society.

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