Editing Vocative case (section)

{{Short description|Grammatical case for noun addressed}}
{{Redirect|Vocative|the category of grammatical item|Vocative expression}}
{{more citations needed|date=July 2012}}
In [[grammar]], the '''vocative case''' ([[list of glossing abbreviations|abbreviated]] {{sc|'''voc'''}}) is a [[grammatical case]] which is used for a [[noun]] that identifies a person (animal, object, etc.) being addressed or occasionally for the noun modifiers ([[determiner]]s, [[adjective]]s, [[participle]]s, and [[numeral (linguistics)|numeral]]s) of that noun. A [[vocative expression]] is an expression of direct address by which the identity of the party spoken to is set forth expressly within a sentence. For example, in the sentence "I don't know, John," ''John'' is a vocative expression that indicates the party being addressed, as opposed to the sentence "I don't know John", in which "John" is the [[direct object]] of the verb "know".

Historically, the vocative case was an element of the Indo-European case system and existed in [[Latin]], [[Sanskrit]], and [[Ancient Greek]]. In many modern Indo-European languages (English, Spanish, etc.) the vocative case has been absorbed by the nominative, but others still distinguish it, including the [[Baltic languages]], some [[Celtic languages]] and most [[Slavic languages]]. Some linguists, such as {{Ill|Albert Thumb|de|4=}}, argue that the vocative form is not a case but a special form of nouns not belonging to any case, as vocative expressions are not related syntactically to other words in sentences.<ref name="Реформатский_1988">''Реформатский А. А.'' Введение в языковедение / Под ред. В. А. Виноградова. — М.: Аспект Пресс. 1998. С. 488. {{ISBN|5-7567-0202-4}} {{in lang|ru}}</ref> [[Pronouns]] usually lack vocative forms.