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Daniel Gutzmann / You linguist! On vocatives and expressivity

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Daniel Gutzmann / You linguist! On vocatives and expressivity

Linguistics Friday, November 12, 2021 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm , Online

Friday November 12 at 3:00, the Linguistics Colloquium has Daniel Gutzmann, lecturer at the University of Cologne, joining us to discuss his work on the syntax, semantics and pragmatics of "expressive vocatives" like "you fools."

Abstract

In this talk, I will develop a syntactic and semantic analysis of German expressive vocatives (eVocs), which consists of a second person pronoun and an expressive nominal part. I will document the special properties of eVocs and identify three structural subtypes (autonomous, parenthetical, integrated) and will shown that none of the previous semantic analysis of vocatives can deal with eVocs. I will suggest a new semantic approach according to which integrated eVocs are the most basic ones, consisting of a pronoun and expressive modification. Parenthetical and autonomous eVocs are then extensions of the integrated version, just adding an activational vocative function and an exclamational component respectively. Furthermore, it is argued that syntactically, eVocs consist of a D-element—the pronoun—which has to select for an expressive complement.

Add to Calendar 11/12/21 15:00:00 11/12/21 16:30:00 America/New_York Daniel Gutzmann / You linguist! On vocatives and expressivity

Friday November 12 at 3:00, the Linguistics Colloquium has Daniel Gutzmann, lecturer at the University of Cologne, joining us to discuss his work on the syntax, semantics and pragmatics of "expressive vocatives" like "you fools."

Abstract

In this talk, I will develop a syntactic and semantic analysis of German expressive vocatives (eVocs), which consists of a second person pronoun and an expressive nominal part. I will document the special properties of eVocs and identify three structural subtypes (autonomous, parenthetical, integrated) and will shown that none of the previous semantic analysis of vocatives can deal with eVocs. I will suggest a new semantic approach according to which integrated eVocs are the most basic ones, consisting of a pronoun and expressive modification. Parenthetical and autonomous eVocs are then extensions of the integrated version, just adding an activational vocative function and an exclamational component respectively. Furthermore, it is argued that syntactically, eVocs consist of a D-element—the pronoun—which has to select for an expressive complement.

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