From school, we clearly know that in Russianlanguage, there are 6 cases. But it turns out that this is not quite true; there are much more cases in grammar. Many of them have been preserved in a residual state, having come to the Russian language from Old Slavonic and Old Russian. One of such phenomena is the vocative case in Russian.
Vocative: familiarity
In order to denote a reference to a person, object or object, the vocative case in Russian is used. Examples are quite diverse:
- Mash, go look at the cat!
- Vit, bring firewood!
- Wan, rather, call dad!
- Lord, help me in this difficult situation!
- Oh God, give me strength!
The examples showed that the object in the vocative case expressed by the noun is a short form.
From the history of the case
In the Indo-European language - our ancestormodern - this case was equal with other cases. However, when Indo-European was divided into many language families, So. n. in most cases began to coincide with the nominative and ceased to be an independent case. However, in the grammars of 1918, this case was still mentioned.
Now for the appeal to the person is used by Him. n., but the vocative case is partially preserved in Russian. Examples are as follows:
- Marin, please bring a book from the library.
Compare: use them. n. instead of So. P. will not in any way affect the meaning of the sentence: Marina, please bring a book from the library.
- Look around, older, everything is destroyed and set on fire.
Here, the vocative form "starche" is used toimparting sublime sound, this is the so-called high syllable. If you replace the form with Im. p., the meaning will not change, but the phrase will sound no longer the case.
- God help me go this way.
Such a word form is used in religious texts and prayers, at the hearing of native speakers, and is not perceived as something unusual.
Features of the case form
We single out several key features inherent in this case form:
- Matches form with Him. P.
- Used for the sole purpose of treatment.
- Its functions resemble interjection.
- Perceived by a native speaker, not as a noun, but as an exclamation.
The vocative case could be formed in various ways, the main ones are presented in the table.
| Way | Example |
| Add end "e" | Husband, friend, man |
| The addition of the ending "o" | Wife, sister, girl |
| With the help of inflection "and" | Lord |
| By truncating the end | Mom, Er, Dad, Grandma, Cat |
In the formation of a newstrate, the endings in such words may be shortened:
- Names, including diminutive version (Wan, Vanyush).
- Terms related to family (moms, aunts, dads, grandfathers).
- Some words form a vocative form even in the plural (boys, girls).
The ways of the formation of vocative forms can not be called diverse, but in oral speech they are often used.
Vocative Forms
In the table we present the main forms characteristic of words in the vocative case.
| The form | Short name form | Special form of the word |
| How is formed | With the help of truncation of endings in nouns | By alternating or flexing |
| Where to use | Used only to refer to the face. | Used in church appeals or outdated. |
| Example | Mash, Anh, Vit, Light, Lyub, Mish and others | God, Lord, wife, older, father |
In addition to the truncation of endings in proper names, it is also possible to use short forms of the names of relatives. Also formed vocative in Russian. Examples are given below:
- Mom, where is the tablecloth?
- Dad, help solve the problem!
- Auntie, and when will you come?
The vocative form is also preserved in the words “grandfather”, “daughter”:
- Docha, come soon to visit!
- Grandfather, go faster here, help!
Such sentences have a pronounced conversational tone.
The vocative case in Russian: an example and interesting facts
- The second name is Sv. p - vocative.
- There is an old vocative (used as an equivalent case in the ancient form of the language) and a new vocative case (formed in verbal speech by native speakers by truncating endings in nouns).
- Initially, it was in many languages: Sanskrit, Latin and Ancient Greek, but it did not move into modern languages.
- In some languages it has been preserved: in Romanian, Greek, Ukrainian, Serbian, Polish and others.
- From the Russian language, the vocative form disappeared quite early, in the XIV-XV century, remaining only as a respectful appeal to the boyars and princes.
Only nouns in the singular of the masculine and feminine could form the vocative case in Russian. Examples: Friendly! Oh god Prince!
Frequently, vocative forms are used in stable phraseological turnovers: Lord God Jesus Christ (all four words in the sound of item), our lord.
In the literature of the XIX-XX centuries, the vocative case was also used for archaization. Examples today are quite diverse:
- In Pushkin’s text “What You Need, Older,” the form is used to create the archaization effect.
- "Turn around, son." This form helps to recreate the peculiarities of the speech of the Ukrainian Cossacks.
Vocative case in Russian: the rule
Words in the vocative case in the sentence play the role of conversion, therefore are separated by commas in the letter.
Let's give an example:
- Marus, come to the show today.
- Mom, help wash the dishes!
- Vanya, where is the new book?
From the above examples it can be seen that this rule applies to any sentence - narrative, incentive or interrogative.
Often, the vocative case in Russian is used to make the text ironic. Example: Man! When will you take your mind and will work as it should!
Звательный падеж в русском языке, примеры the uses of which have been given above are an amazing grammatical phenomenon, indicating that our language changes over time. If many centuries ago this form was commonly used in oral speech, it is now often used only in religious texts or to give an elevated coloring to a sentence.
