query: oblique 2nd person extraposed

Peter Bakker linpb at HUM.AU.DK
Wed Nov 21 15:45:47 UTC 2012


Dear typologists,

Ditte Zachariassen is doing research on the variety of Danish spoken in a multi-ethnic area in Aarhus, Denmark.
She is not a subscriber to LINGTYP. If you can help her, please respond to her directly, her email is below.

Extraposed oblique -'you'

In data from young people in a multi-ethnic area in Aarhus Vest I found the personal pronoun "you"
 in oblique case placed in syntactic extra-position, and used in a way that is (as far as I have ever heard) 
not used in Standard Danish. E.g.

du               har   en stor hoved dig
you[NOM] have a  big head you[OBL]
"you have a big head, you"

More examples below. Standard Danish has a directing nominative-'you' addressing the recipient of the utterance, 
e.g. "jeg skriver til ham, du" (I will write to him, you[NOM]). I don't think this is the same phenomenon. 
I am not quite sure what the pragmatic function of the oblique  'you' in Aarhus Vest is, but the main function is not directing. 
It may be fatic and/or marking an insult, I am working on this. 

I am curious if the oblic-'you' is present in any of the major mothertongues of the young people. I am interesseted in (dialects of) 
Arabic, Turkish, Kurdish, and Somali in particular, and other languages from the Middle East and/or North Africa as well.

I am greatful to any help you can offer!
Best regards, 

Ditte Zachariassen, Linguistics, Aarhus University
ditte.z at hum.au.dk

Extra examples:

hvad   vil   du               dig
what want you[NOM] you[OBL]
"what do you want, you"

dig             hvad   laver du
you[OBL] what  do   you[NOM]
"you, what are you doing"

han er norsker         ogs dig
he   is Norwegian also you[OBL]
"he is Norwegian, you too"

hvad  København      dig
what Copenhagen you[OBL]
"what Copenhagen, you"
>

In addition, this has alos been recorded:
>

sidst     jeg nikkede en skalle 	personen 	de 	fandt ham aldrig
recently 1SUBJ gave a blow.with.head person.the they found him never

adverb			OBJ			SUBJ		VERB
"last time I hit  the person they never found him"

Ditte Zachariassen.

sent by:

Peter Bakker                                                                     email:  linpb at hum.au.dk
Linguistics                                                                        tel. (45) 87162146
Inst. for Aesthetics and Communication     
Aarhus University                                                             tel. institute: (0045)87162156
Bygning 1485- 619
DK 8000 Aarhus C
      




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