Review of Related Studies
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Subject pronouns are used as subjects of sentences. For example, ‘Amy has
a bike. She bikes to work.’ The word ‘she’ refers to Amy, and it stands as a
subject pronoun of the sentence since it is located as the subject of the sentence. Object pronouns are used as the object of verbs. For example, ‘Bella never
skipped the class. I know her very well.’ The word ‘her’ refers to Bella, and it
stands as the object pronouns of the sentence based on its function as the object of the verb in the sentence.
Possessive pronouns are not followed immediately by a noun; they stand
alone. For example, ‘That book is mine. Yours is over here.’ The words ‘mine’
and ‘yours’ represent the possession of the noun ‘book’. That kind of function does not need any following noun, that is why they stand as possessive pronouns
of the sentence. Possessive adjectives are followed immediately by a noun; they do not stand
alone. For example, ‘Your pencil is here. Her pencil is over there.’ As the
definition stated, the possessive adjectives of the sentence are the words ‘your’ and ‘her’. We call them possessive adjectives by the fact that a noun ‘pencil’
follows them, they do not stand alone.
ii. Vocatives
A vocative is a subclass of proper nouns that has another function, which is to call or indicate the person or thing that is addressed by their name. In English,
people do this by merely calling the name of the person. Compared to reference, this function is a bit different.
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“Other kind of title proper name often come in two distinct set, one for use in address as vocative in second person usage and the other for use in reference
i.e. referring to individual in third person role” Levinson, 1983: 70. This calling function is considered simpler than the reference function since it applies
only to other people or may be to animals that are treated like people and it is only appropriate when the person called is present. This shows that person deixis
is about not only the usage of personal pronoun, but also the usage of vocatives. Vocatives are noun phrases that refer to the addressee Levinson, 1983: 71.
Vocative is a noun identifying the person or animal, object, etc. addressed andor
the determiners of that noun. For example, in the sentence, ‘I dont know, Tiara.’
The word ‘Tiara’ is a vocative expression referring to who is being addressed.
This holds an opposing view to the sentence ‘I dont know Tiara,’ where Tiara is
the direct object of the verb, ‘know’. In addressing someone directly, the name being used e.g., Tiara, Lidya, my sweetheart, you boys, my daughter should be
separated from rest of the sentence by using a comma or commas.