Definition and Examples of Direct Address in English

Definition and Examples of Direct Address in English In English grammar  and rhetoric, direct address is a construction in which a speaker or writer communicates a message directly to another individual or group of individuals. The person who is addressed may be identified by name,  nickname, the pronoun you, or an expression  thats  either friendly or unfriendly.   Conventionally, the name of the individual whos addressed is set off by a comma or a pair of commas. Direct Address Examples and Observations Hey SpongeBob,  can I borrow the cheese bucket?(Patrick in SpongeBob SquarePants)Youve been given a gift, Peter. With great power, comes great responsibility.(Cliff Robertson as Ben Parker in Spider-Man 2, 2004)Smokey, my friend, you are entering a world of pain.(John Goodman as Walter Sobchak in The Big Lebowski, 1998Frankly, my dear, I dont give a damn!(Rhett Butlers final words to Scarlett OHara in Margaret Mitchells novel, Gone With the Wind, 1936Richard Vernon: My office is right across that hall. Any monkey business is ill-advised. Any questions?John Bender: Yeah, I have a question. Does Barry Manilow know that you raid his wardrobe?Richard Vernon: Youll get the answer to that question, Mr. Bender, next Saturday.(Paul Gleason and Judd Nelson in The Breakfast Club, 1985)Ilsa: Play it, Sam. Play As Time Goes By.Sam: Oh, I cant remember it, Miss Elsa. Im a little rusty on it.(Ingrid Bergman and Dooley Wilson in Casablanca, 1942Ilsa, Im no good at being noble, but it doesnt take much to see that the problems of three little people dont amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world. Someday youll understand that. Now, now . . .. Heres looking at you, kid.(Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca, 1942 And you, my father, there on the sad height,Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.Do not go gentle into that good night.Rage, rage against the dying of the light.(Dylan Thomas, Do not go gentle into that good night)You idiot, what  are you doing working in this poorhouse crammed with rotten guavas full of maggots, and you rotting just like them?(Reinaldo Arenas, The Palace of the White Skunks, trans. by  Andrew Hurley, 1991)Hey, you old bastard, Chick said. How you doin?  Chick came down the final two steps, pushed Tommy aside, grabbed Franciss hand, threw an arm around his shoulder, slapped his back. You old bastard,  Chick said. â€Å"Where you been?(William Kennedy, Very Old Bones,  1992) Direct Address and the Pronoun You It is clear that a  term of address is always  closely linked with the pronoun you,  which in itself has vocative qualities. One could say, in fact, that whenever pronominal you  is used in direct address, vocative you is implicitly present.  The two kinds of you  are inextricably bound together, though  in an utterance like You! What do you think youre doing! the first you is clearly vocative, where the others are pronominal.Pronominal and vocative you differ in their attitudinal marking. The former is neutral, the latter unfriendly.  Pronominal you also conforms to normal rules of syntax; vocative you does not need to do so. Vocative you,  finally, allows substitution. In You! What do you think youre doing! vocative you could be replaced by darling, John, you stupid fool, and innumerable other terms of address, all of which could be described as vocative-you variants. That point is significant because the  corollary of my statement that vocative you is always im plicitly present when pronominal you is used in  direct address, is  that pronominal you is always implicitly present when vocative you is used.(Leslie Dunkling, A Dictionary of Epithets and Terms of Address, 1990) The RhetoricalUse of My Friends in Direct Address -  My friends, [Senator] John McCain recently informed a crowd, we spent $3 million of your money to study the DNA of bears in Montana. . . .McCain . . . referred to my friends another 11 times. . . .Is this a doctrine of pre-emptive friendship immediately declaring crowds won over with an oratorical mission accomplished? Perhaps, but McCains friending is a strategy that hearkens back to classical rhetoric. Horaces call to amici performed a similar function in ancient Rome, and Tennysons 1833 poem Ulysses drew upon that tradition for the immortal lines: Come, my friends/ Tis not too late to seek a newer world. . . .But as a crowd bludgeon in modern political speechmaking, my friends can be laid at the feet of one man: William Jennings Bryan. His famed 1896 Cross of Gold speech at the Democratic National Convention invoked the phrase a mind-crushing 10 times.(Paul Collins, MFer. Salon.com, September 1, 2008)- Now, my friends, let me come to the great paramount issue.(William Jennin gs Bryan, Cross of Gold speech, July 9, 1896)- Words matter,  my friends.(Hillary Clinton, speaking in  Des Moines, Iowa, on August 10, 2016)- [W]e come to the  friendship of association, which is certainly the most common meaning of the word friend.  Some years ago the comedian Red Skelton impersonated a politician giving a campaign  speech. My friends he wheezed, and you are my friends, he quickly sputtered, and dont tell me youre not my friends, because nobodys going to tell me who my friends are. Obviously, the friends he was talking about were friends of association, acquaintances where there is little or no affection, or where people interact on some friendly basis.(John M. Reisman, Anatomy of Friendship, 1979) Visual Forms of Direct Address Gunther Kress and Theo van Leeuwen [in Reading Images, 1996]  note that  images in which the gaze  is directed at the viewer of the image create a visual form of direct address. It acknowledges the viewers explicitly, addressing them with a visual you.  Kress and  van Leeuwen call these images demand images because they demand that the viewer enters into some kind of imaginary relation with him or her. A classic example of the demand image is  the Uncle Sam recruiting poster, I Want YOU.  (Cara A. Finnegan, Studying Visual Modes of Public Address. The Handbook of Rhetoric and Public Address, ed. by  Shawn J. Parry-Giles and  J. Michael Hogan, 2010) Direct Address in the Media [In many] contexts,  for example,  television comedy or commercials, news and current affairs programmes, ​direct address is the accepted convention, although not everyone has the right to address the viewer directly. Anchorpersons and on-camera reporters  may look at the camera but interviewers may not. In chat shows, hosts may use direct address but guests may not. In other words, direct address is a privilege which the media profession has by and large reserved for itself.(Theo  van Leeuwen, Moving English: The Visual Language of Film. Redesigning English: New Texts, New Identities, ed. by  Sharon Goodman and David Graddol, 1996)   Ellen Gilchrists Address to Her WritingStudents Dear Students,If you are not writing well and happily, or if you feel your writing is forced, stop for a while and read or go out into the world and watch building projects or street-repair crews or get a job in a mall for Christmas or get into the car and drive to a city and look at art. Learn, learn, learn, be curious, and, if possible, uncritical. Everywhere men and women are doing wonderful things, marvelous things, interesting things. Write paragraphs about what you see and dont try to turn them into anything but praise and understanding. . . .Learn, learn, learn, read, read, read. I will be thinking about you and wishing you well every day.Ellen(Ellen Gilchrist, The Writing Life. University Press of Mississippi, 2005 The Lighter Side of Direct Address Cassio: Dost thou hear, mine honest friend?Clown: No, I hear not your honest friend. I hear you.(William Shakespeare, Othello, Act Three, scene 1)Son, you got a panty on your head.(Truck driver addressing H.I. McDunnough in Raising Arizona, 1987)