Pragmatic Analysis of Vocative in Latin

The thesis presents several so far unnoticed functions of (not only) Latin vocative. It argues against previous believes that vocative is used either for addresses, calls and summons, evaluation of addressee and emphasis, or is otherwise only conventional, polite, and thus lacking any real function. Firstly, the author describes vocative from the Speech Act Theory view-point and offers definitions of speech acts call and address. In chapters 3 and 4, he pays attention to vocatives so far considered as lacking function. Relying on the analysis mostly of Cicero's speeches and old Roman comedies, he presents two crucial functions of vocative in non-initial position in a text: 1) vocative as a mean of cohesion which helps to make the organization of the text more transparent and which emphasizes the structure of the text; 2) vocative of assurance/guarantee. In chapter 5, several minor functions of vocative are mentioned (mostly of pragmatic character): triumphal vocative, vocative as a disgrace and vocative as a parody. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org