[lit-ideas] Vocative Particles -- Who Needs Them?
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 1 Feb 2005 11:16:39 EST
Or rather, where are they when one needs them?
In a message dated 1/31/2005 3:47:11 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,
nantongo@xxxxxxxxx writes:
It will come as no surprise to our readers to learn [...segue into
interesting pour ne pas dire maddening precision and profusion of Arabic
vocative particles]..."
-----
Perhaps profussive as they are, they are not _necessarily_ needed (if you
allow me the redundancy) in Arabic either.
It's obvious that, in English, the vocative function is _emphatic_:
O John, you are incredible.
-- more or less equivalent to:
John, you are incredible.
and sometimes mispelt as:
Oh, John, you are incredible.
--- But perhaps in Arabic the 'vocative particles' become something
_syntactically_ necessary? Or can one always drop them from the utterance, and
still
be _adressing_ someone grammatically?
Cheers,
JL
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