Pregledni rad
https://doi.org/10.22210/strjez/54-2/4
On the Vocative as a Marginal Case
Igor Dvoršćak
orcid.org/0009-0000-4217-201X
; Filozofski fakultet Sveučilišta u Zagrebu
Sažetak
This paper examines the status of the vocative as a grammatical case on the basis of newly
formed vocative expressions in Russian and the contemporary Croatian standard language.
The long-standing problem with the vocative lies in the fact that, on the one hand, it does
not enter into syntactic relations with other clausal elements, while on the other hand, it is
consistently marked morphologically by the same means used to mark other cases. In this
context, the new Russian vocative is an especially interesting linguistic innovation because it
reintroduces into the system an element that the system itself had eliminated in the course
of its simplification. Analyzing these new formations, Henning Andersen developed a new
approach to the vocative, emphasizing specific derivational and functional constraints associated
with it, which led him to define the vocative as a transcategorical derivation. However,
as will be shown, similar constraints can also be found in other cases. Instead of excluding
the vocative from the case paradigm, an approach based on prototype theory and the idea of
gradience is proposed, whereby case is viewed through a continuum of syntactic, semantic,
and pragmatic features rather than as a strictly delimited, primarily syntactic category. In
the central part of the paper, typical case forms are examined according to their prototypical
features, leading to the establishment of a center–periphery hierarchy and to assigning the
vocative the designation of a marginal case.
Ključne riječi
vocative; case; transcategorical derivation; prototype theory; marginal case
Hrčak ID:
346081
URI
Datum izdavanja:
16.2.2026.
Posjeta: 184 *