Elements of Direct Address in English and Ukrainian

Direct address in the contrasted languages belongs to isomorphic syntactic phenomena. It may have the structure of a word, word-group or a sentence. Direct address is used in both contrasted languages, with the aim of drawing attention of the reader or listener to some information, object or person. For example, in English.

Men of England, heirs of glory. Люди Англії, спадкоємці слави. Heroes of unwritten story... (Shelley) Герої ще не написаної історії. As can be noticed the English word-group of direct address expressing the vocative case relation do not have it expressed synthetically as it is in Ukrainian: Люди Англії, спадкоємці слави... The vocative case in Ukrainian is mostly an explicit form of expressing one's address to any notional part of speech. Cf. Думи мої, думи мої, Лихо мені з вами! (Т. Шевченко) or Донеччино моя, моя ти Батьківщино... (Сосюра) Україно, ти для мене диво! Україно! Ти моя молитва! Ти моя розлуко вікова! (Симоненко) Чого ти, сину, став такий смутний! (Н. Левиць-

кий) Present-day English has no vocative case inflexion to express direct address which is to be conveyed in Ukrainian:

" Good night, Mary dear. Good night, " На добраніч, дорога Мері. На до- Bob" (F. King) браніч, Бобе."

The expression of direct address in Ukrainian may sometimes be only partial. It happens, when the addressee noun is indeclinable in Ukrainian. For example:

" Are you married, Mr Poirot? " (Christie) " Ви одружений, пане Пуаро? "

Words of address in both languages can sometimes form synonymic strings which have equivalents in either of them. For example: Світе милий, краю милий, моя Україно! (Т. Шевченко) or: Сини мої, Орли мої! Летіть в Україну! (Ibid.) Their English semantic equivalents will have, of course, no vocative case explicit distinctions, though their semantic structure will remain unchanged: О my still world, my homeland dear, My sons, my brave eagles! Fly to my beloved Ukraine!

The addressee syntagmemes/elements are also endowed with predication, the minimal degree of which is pertained to proper names. Cf.:

" Dear Sally, what I like about you is " Дорога Саллі, що мені найбільше

your beautiful honesty." (Jessing) подобається в тобі, то це твоя пре-

красна чесність."

Direct addresses are often used in both languages to convey modality and emotions: disgust, dissatisfaction, joy, sorrow, fright, prohibition and others. Cf. " Thanks, Mike, thanks! " " Дякую Майку, дякую! " (Ibid.) " Oh, Guy, don't blame me. It really is not my fault." (Maugham) " Ой, Гаю, не вини мене. Тут я і справді не винна."