vocative?
Yoshimasa Tsuji
yamato at yt.cache.waseda.ac.jp
Wed Dec 1 15:44:33 UTC 1999
Dear experts,
I wonder if accusative case form is used for vocative in the Russian
language. I have long thought only the nominative case form is used
for that purpose.
Here's my recent experience: As I was sitting in a marshrutnyj taxi,
which is just a micro bus, yesterday, a chap suddenly found a friend
in the street and invited him to join him in the bus. On that occasion
he cried, "Va-le-ru!" a couple of times. I was puzzled by thinking
why he didn't say "Valera!" Valera because he was wanted? Or is that
a Ukrainian vocative?
I have asked a couple of my Russian friends for explanation, and got
the same answer so far: "illiteracy". As I don't think there exists
such a thing as illiteracy among language users, I have felt it
necessary to put you a query.
Thank you.
Tsuji
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