Vocative is the case used for the invocation or identification of a subject.
Vocative is a notion that is used in the field of grammar to refer to the case used for the invocation or identification of an individual.
Before continuing, it is important to determine the etymological origin of the term. In this case we have to say that it comes from the Latin vocativus , which can be translated as "related to calling."
It should be remembered that grammatical cases assign a morphosyntactic mark to a certain element of discourse, according to its function in the verbal predicate. The vocative case allows you to name the person directly or draw their attention.
Examples of vocative
Let's take the case of the expression "Clean your room, Andrés." In this sentence , "Andrés" is the vocative that specifies who the sender of the message is addressing. In other words, with this vocative it is made clear that "Andrés" is the recipient of the pronounced order.
The vocative can also be an interjection that allows you to emphasize the message or initiate communication . That is what happens with "che" , a term that is usually used in South American countries. For example: "Che, Ricardo, you have to hand in the report before four." In this case, "che" and "Ricardo" function as vocatives. As you can see, it would even be possible to do without "Ricardo" , although the specification of the recipient would be eliminated: "Hey, you have to deliver the report before four o'clock."
The vocative is used in different ways according to the language.
Some curiosities
In addition to the above, it is worth knowing other curiosities about the vocative, among which we can highlight the following:
- In Romani, which is the language used by gypsies, there is a word that indicates the vocative. We are referring to chabuk , which means "boy" .
- In Valencian, on the other hand, this function of indicating the vocative is developed through the word che .
- In Arabic, this same task, that of making the vocative clear, is carried out through the term already .
- In ancient Spanish, for example, specifically during the Middle Ages, the word hya was used in this sense.
- In ancient times, certain interjections that acted as vocatives allowed us to start a talk or open the possibility of a dialogue. If a person entered a house without knowing if anyone was inside the property, they could exclaim, "Oh from the house!" .
The vocative case
It is important to keep in mind that vocatives appear in other languages beyond Spanish, although with particular characteristics in each case.
It is important to emphasize that in Latin the vocative takes on special importance because that is what one of its cases of declensions is called. Specifically, in this language there are several declension models:
- Vocative case , marks the being to which one addresses.
- Nominative case , which is responsible for marking the subject.
- Accusative case , which comes to determine the object.
- Dative case , which indicates the indirect object of a noun .
- Locative case , which expresses the place.
- Genitive case , which determines the complement of the name of a noun.
- Ablative case , which indicates circumstantial complements.