أَنَا أُكْرِمُ الضَّيْفَ أَيُّهَا الرَّجُلُ
I honor the guest—as a man, I do so.
Anā is the subject; ukrimu al-ḍayfa is a verbal predicate clause. The final ayyuhā al-rajul presents “manhood” or an associated quality as an explanatory qualification of the speaker.
If the speech were actually intended to attract an unfamiliar man’s attention, the same-looking form would have a different function. Context and the structure of the preceding first-person clause support specification here.
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Vocative Address: Calling, Rhetorical Purposes, and Declaratives Used as Directives
أَنَا أُكْرِمُ الضَّيْفَ أَيُّهَا الرَّجُلُ
I honor the guest—as a man, I do so.
Anā is the subject; ukrimu al-ḍayfa is a verbal predicate clause. The final ayyuhā al-rajul presents “manhood” or an associated quality as an explanatory qualification of the speaker.
If the speech were actually intended to attract an unfamiliar man’s attention, the same-looking form would have a different function. Context and the structure of the preceding first-person clause support specification here.