Kat in GA Posted February 15, 2008 Share Posted February 15, 2008 In the sentence: Mother, may I have a new book? What is "mother?" In Latin, it would be vocative...but what do we call this in English? Thanks so much for the assistance! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beth in Central TX Posted February 15, 2008 Share Posted February 15, 2008 According to R&S Grammar 5, it is a noun of direct address. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kat in GA Posted February 15, 2008 Author Share Posted February 15, 2008 Thanks Beth - so basically it's the same thing as vocative. If you were going to diagramm this sentence...where would you stick "mother?" :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beth in Central TX Posted February 15, 2008 Share Posted February 15, 2008 Well, we aren't there yet in R&S Grammar, so I looked in up in Descriptive English Grammar. DEG does call it the vocative case. It's diagrammed on a straight line by itself above the diagram of the remaining sentence. ___________ ___________________________________________ That's the best I can describe and I've tried to draw some representative lines. HTH! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kat in GA Posted February 15, 2008 Author Share Posted February 15, 2008 Thanks so much for your help! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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