The New Russian Vocative: Synchrony, Diachrony, Typology

Abstract

1. Since the 1800s some proper and some common nouns of the Russian 2nd (-a) declension are attested with innovated vocative forms, apparently formed from nominatives by truncation. 2. Current usage is somewhat heterogeneous, and speakers differ markedly in their evaluation of new vocative forms depending on phonological, morphological, and semantic features. Here it is shown that the state of variation these differences reflect is a synchronic projection of the orderly progression of a gradual change. 3. The change is one of two renewals of the vocative in the history of the language, each of which calls for an interpretation. 4. They also raise the general question of the place of the vocative in grammar. Their functions and idiosyncratic conditions of use indicate that vocatives are lexico-pragmatic derivatives. 5. A rudimentary typology of vocative expressions reveals a possibly universal correlation between prosodic contours and types of vocative expression. 6. A final synthesis draws on the preceding sections to present a coherent synchronic and diachronic account of the innovated truncated vocative, concluding with an analysis of the striking similarities between the new vocative forms and the forms of the imperative.