| 释义 |
vocative, a. and n.|ˈvɒkətɪv|
Also 5 vocatyf, 6 vocatyve, 6–7 vocatiue (6 foc-).
[a. OF. vocatif, -ive (mod.F. vocatif = Sp., Pg., It. vocativo), or ad. L. vocātīv-us (sc. casus; also as n.), f. vocāt-, ppl. stem of vocāre to call.]
A. adj.
1. vocative case: That case of nouns, adjectives, or pronouns, which in inflected languages is used to express address or invocation.
c1440Gesta Rom. xci. 418 (Add. MS.), The fyfte is the vocatyf case. 1520Whitinton Vulg. (1527) 1 The verbe shall accorde with his nominative or vocative case. 1549Lily Introd. Gram. B ij, The seconde person is spoken to: as Tu, thou: vos, ye. And of this person is also euery vocatiue case. 1598Shakes. Merry W. iv. i. 54 What is the Focatiue case (William ?). 1612Brinsley Lud. Lit. 101 In construing..we begin commonly of a Vocatiue case if there be one. 1668Wilkins Real Char. iv. vi. 448 Interjections, divers of which are said to govern the Nominative, Dative, Accusative, Vocative Case. c1791Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3) VIII. 42/1 Thus the nominative case would pass into a vocative, of which the use is always to solicit attention. 1867Brande & Cox Dict. Sci., etc. III. 959 Vocative Case... In strictness of speech it is not a case at all. a1892D. Fraser Autobiog. i. 14 Reasoned and didactic prayers—what I once heard well stigmatised as ‘sermons in the vocative case’.
b. In fig. context. (Cf. next.)
14..Piers of Fulham 370 in Hazl. E.P.P. II. 15 To knowen folke that ben datyff: Their purches be called ablatif: They haue their iȝen vocatif.
2. Characteristic of, pertaining to, calling or addressing.
1644Bulwer Chirol. 55 To this vocative, alluring and inticing compellation of the Hand. 1827G. S. Faber Sacr. Cal. Prophecy (1844) III. 112 Pope Gregory, in his first epistle to the Emperor Leo Isauricus,..salutes him with the vocative title of βαοιλεῦ. 1871Earle Philol. Eng. Tongue 162 As to the sense: the O prefixed merely imparts to the title a vocative effect.
B. n.
1. The vocative case.
a1522Lily Gram. Rudim. in Colet's æditio (1537) A viij, Whan the nominatiue endeth in us, the vocatiue shal ende in e. 1549― Introd. Gram. A vi b, All nounes of the neuter gendre..haue the nominatiue, the accusatyue, and the vocatiue lyke in both numbers. 1647Jer. Taylor Lat. Gram. 5 [In neuter nouns] the nominative, accusative, and vocative are alike in both numbers. 1719Lat. Gram. 6 These Nouns following make their Vocative in e or in us. 1736Ainsworth Lat. Dict. ii, O..is often understood both before an accusative and vocative. 1751Harris Hermes i. viii. (1786) 145 note, The Vocative..was nothing more than the Form of address in front of names, titles, and epithets. Ibid. ii. iv. 276 The Vocative..being not only unknown to the modern Languages, but often in the ancient being supplied by the Nominative. c1792Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3) IX. 541/2 Those [Latin nouns] in um, whose nominative, accusative, and vocative..are alike. 1818Stoddart in Encycl. Metrop. (1845) I. 33/1 The vocative or ablative, which latter some writers have considered as the primary and original case of the noun. 1872Geo. Eliot Middlem. xxxv, O endless vocatives that would still leave expression slipping helpless from the measurement of mortal folly!
2. An invocation or appeal. rare—1.
1747Richardson Clarissa (1811) II. v. 27 The two latter will hardly come neither, if they think it will be to hear your whining vocatives.
Hence ˈvocatively adv.
1662Bp. Pearson Creed (ed. 2) 145 The Nominative may as well stand vocatively without an Article. 1904Bradley Making of English 192 To use the word [fellow] vocatively to an equal in the sense of ‘comrade’. |