Vocative!

Vocatives are classified either in purely formal terms (vocative case) as part of the ‘language system’, or as functional structures manifesting themselves in ‘language use’ only. Although languages differ in terms of usage conditions and availability of morphological marking, vocatives are amongst the most basic and also most early acquired structures of language. While the focus of research clearly lies on languages with morphologically marked vocative, syntactic (non-)integration, pragmatic factors, and the emergence and decline of vocative forms are among the less studied aspects.

The aim of the international workshop ‘Vocative!’ is to bring together researcher from various linguistic disciplines in order to come to a more detailed picture of this structure between ‘system’ and ‘performance’ on a cross-linguistic basis. We invite contributions from all theoretical approaches, both synchronic and diachronic.

Topics include, but are not limited to:

- Morphology: (asymmetrical) marking of structures

- Syntax: position, integration, internal structure

- Phonology

- Grammaticalisation and obsolescence

- Diachrony: ‘old’ and ‘new’ vocatives

- Pragmatics: conditions of usage

- Typology: distribution

- Medium and genre

- Vocative particles

- Language acquisition

Invited speakers

Prof. Dr. Christian Stetter (RWTH Aachen)

Prof. Dr. Helmut Pape (University of Bamberg)

Abstracts

Abstracts are invited for a 30 minute presentation followed by a 10-minute question period. One-page (including references and examples) anonymous abstracts in both .doc and .pdf format (times new roman, 12p) should be sent to Vocative2010(at)gmx.net .

Important dates

Submission deadline: 15 June 2010

Notification of acceptance: 15 July 2010

Registration deadline: 15 November 2010

Workshop: 10-11 December 2010

Location

University of Bamberg

Organising committee

Patrizia Noel, Barbara Sonnenhauser, Olga Dioubina-Reubold and Ludmila Klara

Contact

Conference Email: Vocative2010(at)gmx.net

Conference Web Site

www.uni-bamberg.de/germanistik/sprachwissenschaft_des_deutschen/professur_fuer_germanistische_sprachwissenschaft/workshop_vocative_10_11_december_2010/