Abstrakt
The article explores pragmatic aspects of the Latin vocative. The vocative is taken as a syntactically independent utterance and independent speech act with its specific communicative functions (illocutionary force).
The traditionally recognized functions of "call" and "address" are first defined and shown not to cover (contrary to the common opinion) the whole scope of vocative functions. Then, the other functions of the vocative in Latin and other languages are described.
Finally, some space is given to a discussion about how such a pragmatic approach to the study of the vocative is related to the sociolinguistic approach of Dickey (2002).