| This work constitutes the first comprehensive study of Balkan Slavic appellative forms of language. By interpreting literary and dialectal Serbo-Croatian, Macedonian, and Bulgarian forms, I seek to illustrate the interplay between the appellative and the other linguistic functions (expressive/emotive and phatic). I also bring to light the little-discussed appellative particles and periphrastic forms of command and prohibition. Since appellative language is inherently linked with the speech event, I bring in the rich dialectal data which have not been previously discussed, and portions of which are otherwise unpublished.;Chapters 2 and 4 are devoted to the Balkan Slavic simple imperative and vocative respectively. In both chapters I emphasize the Balkan Slavic innovations in the structure of desinences (truncation vs. expansion of vocalic desinences), stem truncation and expressive suffixes, and the leveling of consonantal and accentual alternations. In the third chapter I consider periphrastic expressions of command and prohibition.;The Balkan Slavic languages have amalgamated an array of native and non-native appellative features. The former include developments in morphophonemic structure and derivation; the latter include innovations in lexical borrowings (especially from Greek and Turkish) and syntactic constructions. This study of richly variegated dialectal material--from southeastern Bulgaria to the northwestern islands of the Adriatic--illuminates both the spread of "Balkan" innovations to areas far beyond the traditional "Balkan Slavic" speech territory--of Southeastern Serbia, Macedonia, and Bulgaria--and the continual reshaping of features inherited from Common Slavic. |
