LEXICAL AND GRAMMATICAL SPECIFICITY OF EPISTOLARY ADDRESS (ON THE MATERIAL OF “LETTERS TO OLES GONCHAR” COMPILED BY M. STEPANENKO)

The article is devoted to the study of lexical and grammatical features of epistolary addresses (on the material of “Letters to Oles Honchar” compiled by M. Stepanenko). The address is interpreted as one of the manifestations of human communication needs which serves to establish and maintain speech contact, as well as to express the emotional and evaluative characteristics of the interlocutor. An epistolary address is a word or phrase by which the author of a letter nominates his addressee in the text of a written message to establish contact with him. We processed 895 letters to Oles Honchar, in which 1185 addresses in Ukrainian and about 200 units in other languages had been recorded. Lexical features of addresses represent their belonging to the following semantic groups: addresses-anthroponyms (name, patronymic and surname); traditional etiquette forms (пан, товариш); general addresses (names of persons by generic or gender feature; names of persons by kinship in the indirect sense; names of persons by friendly relations); special addresses (names by profession, type of activity, position, academic titles); occasional addresses. Most often, senders address Oles Honchar by patronymic or by name, using it in full or in short form, and sometimes by surname. The lexical and semantic content of addresses depends on the intention of the speaker, his politeness, knowledge of language etiquette and the peculiarities of the relationship with the writer. In order to strengthen the address, attributive distributors expressed by honorific and emotional-evaluative adjectives аre used. Honorific adjectives (шановний, високошановний, найшанованіший, глибокошановний, вельмишановний, високоповажний, etc.) convey a polite attitude and perform etiquette function. Emotional-evaluative adjectives (дорогий, славний, щирий, незабутній, рідний, любий, коханий, etc.) denote sincerity, friendliness, friendly affection and perform an evaluative function. We reveal a significant proportion of constructions in which adjectives of both groups are used. This causes a change in the tonality of the communicative situation and reduces interpersonal distance. Possessive pronouns мій, наш, which have partially lost the meaning of possessiveness, strengthen the intimacy, cordiality and sincerity of the relationship. Addresses in Russian, Belarusian, Polish and English are described. It is found that the grammatical differentiation of addresses directly depends on lexical and grammatical features (proper or common names and substantivized parts of speech) and morphological means of their expression. It is confirmed that the typical morphological form of addresses is the vocative case of the noun, as well as the homonymous nominative case in letters written during the Soviet period. Violations of morphological norms (different case forms of lexical phrase components, a non-normative form Олесе) and orthographic mistakes in spelling of the writer’s patronymic are revealed. The non-normative form of the nominative case as a means of expressing the address in letters dated 1990–1995 is substantiated. The results of the research show that the most frequent lexeme is Олесю Терентійовичу. Forms Олесь Терентійович and Олесю are less used. Quantitative indicators of addressing forms are summarized in the table. We see the prospect of further scientific research in deepening other vectors of analysis of addresses, in particular in the study of their functional and stylistic potential.

Formy znakhidnoho vidminka mnozhyny imennykiv – nazv istot v ukrayinsʹkiy narodniy i literaturniy movi

The article investigates the regularities of the use of two forms of the accusative case of the plural of the nouns – the names of creatures in the Ukrainian folk and literary language. Special attention is paid to the form that coincides with the nominative case and is a typical feature of the folk language. The history of the entry of the form of the accusative case of the plural, common with the nominative case, into the system of inflexion of nouns of the Ukrainian literary language is traced. The area of distribution of each of the forms of the accusative case of the plural is determined. The list of nouns – the names of unpersons, which in the accusative case of the plural have the form of the nominative case, is offered. The causes and consequences of the expulsing of the forms of the nominative case of the plural by the forms of the genitive case in nouns – the names of creatures in the modern Ukrainian literary language – are clarified. It is stated that valid morphological literary norm does not correspond to the grammatical traditions of the Ukrainian folk language, because the forms, common to the nominative case, predominate in the folk language, whereas the forms, identical to the genitive case, prevail in the literary standard.

Case alignment in Kabyle Amazigh

This paper examines the state alternation in Kabyle, arguing that state is the morphological realization of Case. The free state is accusative case, and the construct state is nominative case. Taking morphological patterns and syntactic distribution into account, Kabyle is found to be a Type 2 marked nominative language. Both states, or cases, are morphologically marked. The free state is the default case. This analysis accounts for the bulk of the distribution of free state and construct state nouns, and situates Kabyle as belonging to a typologically rare alignment system that is concentrated in Afroasiatic and African languages.

Vocative and nominative as an appellation: the language norm formation in the Soviet period

Background. The authors of Ukrainian grammar books published before 1933 were consentient that appellation expressed by a noun requires the use of the vocative case only. In 1933, new People’s Commissar of Education of the USSR V. Zatonskyi formed the commission ‘for auditing the work on the language front’. On the 26th of April, the Commission adopted several resolutions, among which there was the provision to review scholar and didactic books to reveal ‘nationalistic deformation’. After they had been made public, in the Soviet handbooks for higher and secondary education, one can find a statement that the ‘vocative form’ is used to express appellation. However, the “nominative case” can also occasionally perform this function.Purpose. The purpose of this paper is to compare the morphological variability of appellation expressing codified in the Soviet handbooks and the accurate appellation expressing in dramas of the 1920s – 30s of the XX century. To find out the presence or absence of the pragmatic differences between vocative and nominative in this function is in the focus of our analysis as well.Methods. The methodological base of research is the discourse-analytical approach, within we compound discourse analysis method (to descry the designing new syntactic norm in the linguistic-didactic discourse of the end of the 1930s – the beginning of the 50s) and content-analysis method (to find out the real means of expressing appellation in social realists’ dramas of the 1920s – 30s of the XX century).Results. Theory about vocative as non-case and legitimization of the term ‘called form (vocative form)’ to denote it became dominant in all Soviet Ukrainian language handbooks for secondary and higher education. There are no remarks about another qualification in this grammatical category in the analyzed handbooks, and it evidences the monologue style of the Soviet linguistic-didactic discourse. The authors of these handbooks codify a double language norm to express an appellation – the vocative form and the nominative case. The thesis about nominative as a means to denote an appellation is usually formulated in the way of a superficial remark that may be apprehended by a recipient as upon the table fact. The study of the morphological manifestation of appellations in the drama of late 1920–30s created by the authors transmitting the official party ideology proves that vocative case predominates. Nominative to denote appellation has mainly a pragmatic effect or is one of the means of creating characters. Moreover, only in O. Korniychuk’s plays the use of morphological forms of appellations does not follow any regularities.Discussion. Spreading the nominative case to denote appellation in modern colloquial speech is conditioned by the complex of factors. On the one hand, it is a loosening of language norm in Soviet handbooks and on the other hand, it is the fact that morphological forms of vocative and nominative in plural nouns and singular nouns of neutral gender are homonymous. However, this thesis is needed verification on more comprehensive language material that represents different functional styles of the Ukrainian language.

Strange nominative case in topicalized object pronominal relative clauses

In an online production experiment, we investigated the effect of sentence position on the preference for either a nominative or object form of an object pronoun restricted by a relative clause in Dutch. Results show a significant preference for the nominative form of the restricted object pronoun in sentence-initial position as it was chosen in 95% of the cases. In the original object position this percentage is only 20%. The preference for a nominative pronominal object is considered a grammatical norm violation. We account for this in terms of a combination of two factors. First, the presence of the relative clause makes the object ‘long’. Second, the sentence-initial position is a syntactic position that is relatively far removed from the original object position. We argue that when a long object is topicalized, there are too many intervening elements between the pronoun and the verb of which it is the complement. If the distance between the pronominal object and the verb has become too long, the object case fades from the working memory. This then results in the appearance of nominative case as the default case for topicalized object pronominal relative clauses in Dutch.

Language evolution from a cognitive-grammar perspective

This paper considers language evolution from a cognitive-grammar (CG) perspective taking Classical Arabic Case Marking (CACM) as a case in point and a departure point. It is argued that the accusative case is diachronically the baseline case mark, designating the Objective Scene (OS) and demarcating an object of perception in the initial stage of maximal subjectivity in which the ground (G) is totally implicit. Such maximum is then attenuated through a process of objectification such that g entities are gradually put onstage to fulfill the functions of identification and predication. The nominative case, then, figures to mark such emerging entities in their baseline, immediate status. This conception of G with its functions is later extended to mark entities external to G, which gives rise to the full, nominative-marked, baseline existential core (C∃) comprising the existential predicate (P∃) and the existential subject (S∃). The truncation (T) of a verb’s nominative case is argued to fulfill the semantic function of situating a process out of existential reality yielding the existential predicate minus (P-∃), which represents a basic elaboration on baseline C∃. Processes being extensions from perception, the accusative case attenuates to mark entities (D) that demarcate processes, implementing the semantic function of processual modification. Finally, a genitive-marked entity (RP) is proposed to implement the semantic function of referential modification, anchoring and referencing the conceptions of all those facets of reality.

Characteristics of Old Georgian Literary Language in Akaki Tsereteli’s Works

Literary Works byAkaki Tsereteli are considered as versatile and diverse. In his works he touches upon almost everything by his poetry, prose, journalism or public work. It is obvious that he established "a type of versatile writer who is equally engaged in prose, poetry, journalism, dramaturgy, translations, children's literature and fables”. He was an extremely optimistic person who deeply believed in the future. The following words from one of his works seem amazingly and expressive: “Even if you kill a swallow, Spring will definitely come”. Connection between the old and the new forms, that is clearly shown within this emotionally colored expression, has become the goal of the research. We tried to find an answer to the question- what is the role of using old Georgian forms in Akaki's work?! Given paper analyses the samples such as: 1. Using proper name by its stem form in nominative case; 2. Ending words by - მან [-man] in the ergative form; 3. Full stems of demonstrative pronouns - ‘ამ’ [am] , ‘ეგ’ [eg] (=this, that); 4. Using postposition – ‘ზე’ [ze] (=on), along with the forms - ზედ [-zed] and -ზედა [-zeda] (=on, over); 5. instrumental case forms formed by a suffix - ით [-it] (=with) (without postpositions); 6. Postposition and full agreement of attribute and antecedent 7. Characteristics of using inflection as a reflection of Old Georgian (გწყალობდესთ [gtskalobdet]...; გამოვჰკითხავ [gamovhkitkhav]...; ჰსვამ [hvsvam]...; ჰნიშნავს [hnishnavs]...; წარმოსთქვა [tsarmostkva]...; გასტეხე [gastekhe]...); 8. Using conjunction - ვით [vit] (=as/like) for comparison and so on. If we ask questions concerning the function of old Georgian forms in Akaki Tsereteli’s works, it becomes clear that they can be used for: 1. rhythm, emotiveness and expressiveness; 2. Preserving traditional forms, to maintain the connection between old and new Georgian. It should be mentioned that similar forms are equally reflected in Akaki’s prose and poetry which further reinforces the idea in favor of showing the connection between the old and the new and the desire to maintain this connection and always remember where we come from and who we are ... .This fact does not completely contradict the idea that Akaki is a representative of the generation that courageously rejected the old linguistic norms and contributed to the democratization (rapprochement process with the spoken language) of the literary language.

Syntactic conditions on accusative to ergative alignment change in Austronesian languages

This paper develops the proposal put forth by Aldridge (2015, 2016) for the emergence of ergative alignment in a first-order subgroup of the Austronesian family. I first provide new evidence for reconstructing Proto-Austronesian (PAn) as accusative rather than ergative. I then propose a significantly revised approach to Aldridge’s proposed reanalysis. On the basis of evidence from Tsou, I propose that the reanalysis took place in biclausal constructions embedded under motion or locative verbs. Since such biclausal constructions are contexts for restructuring, no accusative case is available for an object. This forced objects which needed structural licensing to value nominative case with T. I additionally show that subjects were assigned inherent non-nominative case in PAn when objects needed to enter into Agree with T, as when valuing nominative case. These conditions yielded a new ergative clause type in a daughter of PAn, which Aldridge (2015, 2016) calls “Proto-Ergative Austronesian”. No change took place in clauses lacking an object needing structural licensing. Consequently, subjects in intransitive clauses and transitive clauses with indefinite objects continued to surface with nominative case, yielding the type of ergative alignment prevalent in Formosan and Philippine languages today.