12987
I'd thought you cannot end a sentence with a noun. Rather:  
noun + だ。  
noun + です。  
noun + である。  
noun + であります。  
noun + でございます。

But in a movie dialogue, I heard: "大切なのは、心よ。"

Ending a sentence with a noun sounds weird. In every situation, I add "です" (or
でございます). But, what is "よ"? a 助詞？Does it effect whether to voice the "です"?
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2013-10-01T02:47:10.330
12986
2016-04-13T01:18:45.100
2016-04-13T01:18:45.100
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question
grammar gender role-language particle-わ particle-よ
how could a sentence end with (noun + "よ"?)
I think it's the usual 終助詞「よ」 ( _sentence-final particle_ よ). What I've read
is that it attaches directly to nouns in so-called 女性語 ( _feminine speech_ ).
I think it's often used in stereotyped dialogue in fiction, so it's also an
example of 役割語 ( _role words_ )--though I don't mean to imply that it's only
used in fiction, or only by women for that matter!

[Wikipedia's article for
女性語](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%A5%B3%E6%80%A7%E8%AA%9E) says:

> よ 【終助詞】 「わ」と並んで多用される女性語。 **「ね」と同様、「そうよ」「きれいよ」など体言に直接続く形式は女性的とされる。**
> ただし、「よ」を下降調で伸ばしながら発音すると、「あっしは神田の生まれよォ」のような男性的な表現になる。

I've bolded the relevant part for emphasis, which I'll translate loosely here:

> In the same way that ね attaches directly to uninflected words, so can よ, as
> in the examples 「そうよ」 and 「きれいよ」. This use of よ is considered feminine.

The dictionary [大辞泉](http://kotobank.jp/word/%E3%82%88) also talks about this
use of よ:

> 現代語では、終止形に付く場合、男性語としてはその終止形に直に下接するが、
> **女性語では「のよ」「わよ」「ことよ」「てよ」などの形で、また、名詞、形容動詞の語幹に付いて、用いられることが多い。**

Again, I've bolded the relevant part for emphasis, and I'll do my best to
translate it:

> In women's language, it is often used in forms such as 「のよ」「わよ」「ことよ」「てよ」, as
> well as attaching directly to nouns, including adjectival nouns.

Note: I changed the translation slightly at the end to say "adjectival noun"
in place of 形容動詞の語幹, because the root of a 形容動詞 is simply called a _na-
adjective_ in the grammar that is usually taught to non-native speakers. The
dictionary says it this way because, in traditional Japanese grammar, the
combination of a _na-adjective_ plus an inflectional ending such as だ or な is
considered a single word.

* * *

At the end of your question, you ask if です is omitted before よ. I think you
can analyze it that way, sure. Except I'd usually assume it's だ that's
omitted, not です.
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2013-10-01T03:24:20.663
12987
2013-10-01T10:04:50.727
2013-10-01T10:04:50.727
12986
answer