w22d Plural (count) nuns in vocative phrases must have a special vocative marker

w22d: Plural (count) nouns in vocative phrases must have a special vocative marker

This property is set to "yes" if an unmodified morphologically plural noun in a vocative phrase must occur with a special vocative marker.

Elicitation Contexts

_________ ladies! Please, come here!
I am sorry, _________ men, I cannot answer your question.

Additional instructions

1. The plural (count) noun must be unmodified (no quantifiers, no adjectives, no possessors, no relative clauses, no adpositional complements ...)
2. The following classes of nouns should NOT be considered when checking this property:
   1. Proper names of people (Americans! Listen to me!)

Examples

1.

Arabic is “yes” for this property. Plural (count) nouns in vocatives phrases must have a vocative particle. The most frequently used is yā.

2.

English is “no” for this property. Plural (count) nouns in vocative phrases can occur without any special vocative marker.

(i)     boys, pass me the ball!

3.

Italian is “no” for this property. Plural (count) nouns in vocative phrases can occur without any special vocative marker.

4.

Romanian is “no” for this property. Plural (count) nouns in vocative phrases can occur without any special vocative marker.

5.

Basque is “no” for this property. Plural (count) nouns in vocative phrases occur without any special vocative marker (Artiagoitia 2012: 36).