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    Nouns (used as pronouns) of address
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    Some nouns may be used as pronouns of address. An example is given below:

    1
    Dokter, dokter, wol dokter efkes meikomme?
    doctor doctor wants doctor DcP along.come
    Doctor, doctor, could you come along, please?

    Here the first two instances of the noun are vocatives. The third instance shows that the noun is used as a third person pronoun of address.

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    Noun to pronoun conversion characteristically occurs with nouns denoting a unique profession which has social status. More nouns of this kind are master teacher, dûmny parson, notaris notary, kastlein inn keeper. Such professions are relatively unique; a village tends to have one teacher, one doctor, and so on. More specifically, if you are in a class, there is only one teacher. If you are in a church, there is only one parson, and so on. Nouns denoting family relations, referred to as kinship terms, may also be used in this way, as is shown by the example below:

    2
    Moarn mem. Hat mem al iten?
    good.morning mother have mother yet eat
    Good morning, mother. Have you already had breakfast?

    More nouns allowing this are heit father, pake granddad, beppe grandmother, omke uncle, muoike or tante aunt. Professional nouns and family nouns can also be used in the vocative. The nouns, when used as pronouns of address, seem to have lost their character as R-expressions:

    3
    a. Pake, hat pake juster pake syn fyts noch makke?
    granddad did granddad yesterday granddad his bike DcP make
    Grandfather, did you repair your bicycle yesterday?
    b. Wit pake ek wat se krekt tsjin pake sein ha?
    knows granddad DcP what they precisely against granddad said have
    Granddad, do you remember what they told you exactly?

    However, they cannot function as lexical anaphors, whereas ordinary pronouns can:

    4
    a. Wol pake him ek waskje?
    wants granddad him DcP wash
    Granddad, do you want to wash yourself?
    b. *Wol pake pake ek waskje?
    wants granddad him DcP wash
    Granddad, do you want to wash yourself?

    Furthermore, it seems that they cannot be bound by pronouns (whereas ordinarily pronouns can be bound by pronouns), for the subject pronoun cannot be construed as referring to the same person as pake grandfather:

    5
    a. *Pake, hat hy juster pake syn fyts noch makke?
    granddad did he yesterday granddad his bike DcP make
    Grandfather, did you repair your bicycle yesterday?
    b. *Wit hy ek wat se krekt tsjin pake sein ha?
    knows he DcP what they precisely against granddad said have
    Granddad, do you remember what they told you exactly?

    In this respect, they are similar to epithets like dy gek that fool. However, epithets cannot be bound, whereas nouns of address can (as we saw):

    6
    a. Pake, hat pake juster pake syn fyts noch makke?
    granddad has granddad yesterday granddad his bike DcP make
    Grandfather, did you repair your bicycle yesterday?
    b. *Hat dy gek juster dy gek syn fyts noch makke?
    has that fool yesterday that fool his bike DcP make
    Did that fool repair his bicycle yesterday?

    So, the two instances of pake granddad can refer to the same person, whereas the two instances of dy gek that fool cannot.

    References
      About this article
      Author(s): Eric Hoekstra
      Category: Frisian Syntax
      Keywords: pronouns of addressnoun to pronoun conversion
      Version: 1.0, December 2015
      Version history:
      version editor(s) date remarks
      1.0 Eric Hoekstra December 2015
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