Meanings, index-signs and performativity on a christmas ritual

Abstract

This paper presents a preliminary analysis of the use of the vocative in Basque. The vocative is an unexplored linguistic phenomenon that can be highly idiosyncratic and complex. Therefore, in the first part of this paper we present, on the one hand, a theoretical introduction to the prosodic competence where we frame the use of vocative and, on the other hand, we discuss its nature. Vocatives have been described as being syntactically and prosodically independent. It is commonly assumed that their prosodic independence comes from their syntactic independence. The results given at the end of the paper are based on phonological and phonetic analysis of data obtained from 12 speakers.