vokativ

Vokativ (vocative) is the grammatical category used for direct address in certain languages. It marks the form of a noun, pronoun, or name when someone is being spoken to directly, as in calling or inviting them. The vocative helps signal who is being spoken to and can carry nuances of formality, affection, authority, or familiarity.

Morphology and usage vary widely by language. In languages with a dedicated vocative case, the form of the noun changes in the vocative from its nominative or other cases. In many Slavic languages such as Polish, Czech, or Croatian, vocative endings differ from nominative forms, and proper names can shift visibly. In other languages, including English, there is no distinct vocative form; the direct-address noun typically remains unchanged and is identified by its syntactic position and punctuation. Some languages employ particles or stress placement rather than full inflection to mark direct address.

Punctuation and discourse practices frequently accompany vocatives. In writing, direct-address vocatives are commonly set off by commas, and spoken language often relies on prosody, intonation, or exclamatory intonation to convey the direct-address function.

Historically, the term vocative comes from Latin vocativus, from vocare to call, and it appears in many languages with varying degrees of historical development. The concept remains a key feature of how languages encode the act of speaking to someone directly, distinguishing the act of address from other syntactic functions.

See also: direct address, case systems, punctuation.