vocative

«vocative» in Mova's school dictionary: the word or name used to speak directly to someone, as in… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 2 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (the vocative, vocatives); adjective (vocative)

meaning for a pupil

1) In grammar, the vocative is the word or name used to speak directly to someone, as in «Tom, come here!». tree →

2) In some languages (Latin, Ukrainian, Polish), the vocative is a special case: the name changes its ending when you call someone (Ukrainian «Ivan» becomes «Ivane»). tree →

sense in the lessons

In English grammar lessons, a vocative is set off with a comma («Thank you, Mum.»); in Latin and Ukrainian lessons, the vocative case has its own ending; the famous joke: «Let's eat, Grandma!» vs «Let's eat Grandma!» shows why the comma matters.

examples

• In «Hurry up, Sam», «Sam» is a vocative. tree →
• Use a comma before the vocative: «Thanks, Dad.» tree →
• «Let's eat, Grandma!» — the comma saves Grandma. tree →
• In Ukrainian, «mama» becomes «mamo» in the vocative. tree →
• «O Lord» is an old vocative used in prayers. tree →

note

English has no special vocative ending, only commas: always separate the name you are calling from the rest of the sentence with a comma. Do not confuse with «vocabulary».

In the corpora

• Ukrainian has seven cases; the vocative is the case for calling someone, so you call your mum "Мамо!".
• BAbusyu! is the calling form of BAbusya: what you shout to call Granny; this special form is called the vocative.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «vocative» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.