The Balkan Slavic Appellative
Robert D. Greenberg
University of North Carolina
This work constitutes the first comprehensive study of the Balkan Slavic appellative forms of language. Forms of appeal are represented in the nominal system by the vocative, and in the verbal system by the imperative. In addition, they are rendered by a variety of emphatic particles, periphrastic expressions, and marked syntactic formulae. By interpreting standard and dialectal Serbian, Macedonian and Bulgarian forms, the author illustrates the interplay of the "Slavic" and the "Balkan" appellative elements, which have previously been largely neglected by scholars. Balkan Slavic appellative forms often vary according to the context of the speech event. This study incorporates principles of pragmatics and discourse analysis in explaining the usage of a given appellative form.
Chapter 1 introduces the appellative forms, surveys the published works, and discusses the methodology and data of this work. Chapter 2 presents an analysis of the standard forms in Serbian, Macedonian and Bulgarian, the three standard languages which frame the Balkan Slavic Sprachbund. Since the appellative forms are inherently linked with the speech act, they display a rich variety of dialectal-colloquial forms. These are discussed in chapter 3 (morphology) and 4 (syntax). Chapter 5 examines the "Balkanness" of the phenomena, and suggests that the conventional understanding of "Balkan" must be revised in light of the appellative isoglosses, which stretch far beyond the traditional "Balkan" territory into Montenegrin and Serbian dialects.
ISBN 9783895860584. LINCOM Studies in Slavic Linguistics 06. 240pp. 1996.
