[Lingtyp] Vocative markers expressing distance

LIU Danqing liudanq at yahoo.com
Fri Feb 14 04:31:14 UTC 2020


 Hi, Alice:
  In some of Gan dialects (spoken in Jiangxi Province) of Chinese, there is vocative case with distinction between proximal and distal addressees.
In the Anfu Gan dialect, the proximal vocative suffix is -e (after a stem ending with i) or -a(for other stems) while the distal one is ei (after a stem ending with i) or -o (for others stems).

e.g., So41 so (father's younger brother): So41 sa44 (proximal)                                          So41 so51 (distal)
    lau41 thi(younger brother): lau41 thie44 (proximal)                                lau41 thiei51 (distal) 
For details, see Hu and Lei's paper published in Chinese in Yuyan Yanjiu (Studies in Language and Linguistics), 2018,Vol.38-3.
In the Yujiang Gan dialect, you can see the similar case, in my paper in Chinese in Hanyu Xuexi (Chinese Language Learning) 2012:3.
  Liu Danqing (Danny)
  Institute of Linguistics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences     
Dear all,
 
  
 
My student (Alan Ray) is looking for examples of vocative markers (morphological or otherwise) that express a distance distinction. For example, in Wik Mungkan (Pama-Nyungan, Australia), there are three vocative suffixes distinguishing proximal (-ang), medial (-(e)ey), and distal addressees (-(o)oy):
 
  
 
kaath-ang
 
mother-VOC.PRX
 
'hey mother!'
 
  
 
nint-al-ey
 
2sg-PVS-VOC.MED
 
'hey you!'
 
  
 
niy-al-ooy
 
2pl-PVS-VOC.DST
 
'hey you!'
 
  
 
We'd be grateful for any pointers towards similar and/or relevant data from other languages. So far, the only language we are aware of with a clearly morphological/lexical (two-way) distance distinction is Kugu Nganhcara. But Alan has found differences in stress, length, pitch, volume and/or vowel lengthening or “distortion” correlating with addressee distance in languages such as Arrernte, Kaytetye, Anmatyer, Wirangu, Nyigina, Nunggubuyu and Mangarayi (all from Australia). Alan's work focuses on Aboriginal languages of Australia, but we would be very interested to see analogous examples from elsewhere.
 
  
 
I'll post a summary of responses to the list.
 
  
 
Thanks in advance!
Alice
 
  
 
-- 
 
Alice Gaby
 
Associate Professor of Linguistics and Applied Linguistics
 
School of Languages, Literatures, Cultures and Linguistics
Monash University
Victoria 3800
Australia
 
Ph: +61 (0)3 9902 4169  |  Fax: +61 (0)3 9905-5437  |  E: Alice.Gaby at monash.edu
 
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