Abstrakt
This paper deals with such sentences as. in English, Mum, H·i/1 you have some coffee', or in Polish, Mamo, napijesz się kawy". The sentences contain appellatives (usually called 'vocatives in the literature)- the words Mum and Mamo - followed by verb forms - will you have and napijesz się. The author claims that appellatives and verb forms are two different things, deserving separate description. The usual division of sentences into those that use a familiar T-pronoun (Latin and French 111) and those that use a polite V-pronoun (Latin vos and French vous) is inadequate for two reasons: a. There are numerous languages in which there are several (and not just two) pronouns on the scale between familiar informality and polite formality. b. English, French, German etc. are non-pro-drop languages. There are, however, numerous pro-drop languages (Polish or Latin, for example), in which the form of the verb makes the use of a personal pronoun superfluous. What is more, a V-form of the verb in a sentence directed at the interlocutor does not necessarily require a formal appellative; example from French: Jean, vous a/fez prendre du cafe? - as against M Dupont, vous a/fez prendre du ca]e? Aside from that, the appellative (for example, in Polish) may be in the vocative or the nominative case, so that different permutations are possible. It is suggested that it is the verb form in the sentence addressed to the interlocutor that we should consider primary. The appellative may or may not be there: there is no obligation to name the addressee. In every language, both appellarives and verb forms in sentences accompanying appellatives are laid out on a scale, stretching from non-formal to formal. The 'non-fonnal' encl includes 'familiar' and even "intimate", while the 'formal' end comprises ·honorific'.
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