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Name-calling

The Russian ‘new Vocative’ and its status
  • Laura A. Janda
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Perspectives on Language Structure and Language Change
This chapter is in the book Perspectives on Language Structure and Language Change

Abstract

Henning Andersen (2012) points out that the Russian “new Vocative” (e.g., мам! ‘mama!’, Саш! ‘Sasha!’) presents a series of unusual behaviors that set it apart from ordinary case marking. Andersen argues that the Vocative should not be considered a declensional word form of nouns. The Russian Vocative is certainly an uncommon linguistic category, but does this entail setting up a new transcategorial derivation? Similar restrictions are found in other markers that are generally recognized as case desinences. The pragmatic use of virile vs. deprecatory nominative plural markers in Polish and lexical and morphophonological restrictions on the “second Locative” in Russian. The restrictions found in the Vocative are certainly unusual, but no single one of them can be said to exclude a marker from being identified with a case, and one must ask what we gain by inaugurating new derivational types.

Abstract

Henning Andersen (2012) points out that the Russian “new Vocative” (e.g., мам! ‘mama!’, Саш! ‘Sasha!’) presents a series of unusual behaviors that set it apart from ordinary case marking. Andersen argues that the Vocative should not be considered a declensional word form of nouns. The Russian Vocative is certainly an uncommon linguistic category, but does this entail setting up a new transcategorial derivation? Similar restrictions are found in other markers that are generally recognized as case desinences. The pragmatic use of virile vs. deprecatory nominative plural markers in Polish and lexical and morphophonological restrictions on the “second Locative” in Russian. The restrictions found in the Vocative are certainly unusual, but no single one of them can be said to exclude a marker from being identified with a case, and one must ask what we gain by inaugurating new derivational types.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Preface ix
  4. Perspectives on language structure and language change 1
  5. Part I. On the theory of language change
  6. Andersen (1973) and dichotomies of change 13
  7. Induction and tradition 35
  8. Approaching the typology and diachrony of morphological reversals 81
  9. Deconstructing markedness in sound change typology 107
  10. Part II. Indexicality
  11. Diachronic morphology, indexical function and a critique of the morphome analysis 125
  12. Word order as grammaticalised semiotic systems 151
  13. Part III. Problems of reanalysis
  14. Anticausative and passive in Vedic 181
  15. Grammaticalization and degrammati(calizati)on in the development of the Iranian verb system 193
  16. Aspects of grammaticalization and reanalysis in the voice domain in the transition from Latin to early Italo-Romance 205
  17. From preverbal to postverbal in the early history of Japanese 233
  18. Reanalysis in the Russian past tense 253
  19. From a single lexical unit to multiple grammatical paradigms 271
  20. Morphosyntactic reanalysis in Australian languages 295
  21. Definiteness in Germanic and Balto-Slavic 311
  22. Part IV. Actualization
  23. Diatopy and frequency as indicators of spread 327
  24. Suppletion or illusion? 345
  25. Part V. Language change and diachronic typology in Balto-Slavic
  26. A complicated relationship 359
  27. Name-calling 381
  28. Changes of tense and modality in Late Mediaeval Slovene 395
  29. Index 411
https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.345.18jan

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Preface ix
  4. Perspectives on language structure and language change 1
  5. Part I. On the theory of language change
  6. Andersen (1973) and dichotomies of change 13
  7. Induction and tradition 35
  8. Approaching the typology and diachrony of morphological reversals 81
  9. Deconstructing markedness in sound change typology 107
  10. Part II. Indexicality
  11. Diachronic morphology, indexical function and a critique of the morphome analysis 125
  12. Word order as grammaticalised semiotic systems 151
  13. Part III. Problems of reanalysis
  14. Anticausative and passive in Vedic 181
  15. Grammaticalization and degrammati(calizati)on in the development of the Iranian verb system 193
  16. Aspects of grammaticalization and reanalysis in the voice domain in the transition from Latin to early Italo-Romance 205
  17. From preverbal to postverbal in the early history of Japanese 233
  18. Reanalysis in the Russian past tense 253
  19. From a single lexical unit to multiple grammatical paradigms 271
  20. Morphosyntactic reanalysis in Australian languages 295
  21. Definiteness in Germanic and Balto-Slavic 311
  22. Part IV. Actualization
  23. Diatopy and frequency as indicators of spread 327
  24. Suppletion or illusion? 345
  25. Part V. Language change and diachronic typology in Balto-Slavic
  26. A complicated relationship 359
  27. Name-calling 381
  28. Changes of tense and modality in Late Mediaeval Slovene 395
  29. Index 411
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