Note the lyrics of the song “Cidadão” by Zé Ramalho:
Citizen
Joe Ramalho
See that building, boy?
I helped to get up
It was a time of distress
There were four driving
two to go, two to go back
Today after it is ready
I look up and I get dizzy
But a citizen comes to me
And tell me, suspicious
You are there, admired
Or are you trying to steal?
my sunday is lost
I go home saddened
makes you want to drink
And to increase my boredom
I can't even look at the building
that I helped to make
See that school, boy?
I also worked there
There I almost break up
I made the dough, put cement
I helped tow
my innocent daughter
come to me all happy
Father, I'm going to enroll
But tell me a citizen
child standing on the floor
Here you can't study
This pain hurt harder
Why did I leave the north?
I started to tell myself
There the drought punished
But the little I planted
had the right to eat
See that church, boy?
where the priest says amen
I put the bell and the clapper
I filled my hand with calluses
There I worked too
There was it worth it
There is a fete, there is a novena
And the priest lets me in
It was there that Christ told me
Do not stop now... There's more after the advertising ;)
Boy, stop being foolish
don't be frightened
I was the one who created the earth
I filled the river, made the mountain
I didn't miss anything
Today man has grown wing
And in most homes
I can't enter either
I was the one who created the earth
I filled the river, made the mountain
I didn't miss anything
Today man has grown wings
And in most homes
I can't enter either.
Can you see the function of the words highlighted in red? Can you see who these terms refer to? Do you notice that the lyrical self uses them to interpellate, to call directly the interlocutor? The term that has this function is known as vocative. Thus, we define that:
Vocative: it is the term of the sentence that has the function of directly calling the interlocutor (2nd person appellative function).
Examples:
Peter, Come home!
You, Maria, will be very happy.
Peace, when will you arrive?
By Mariana Rigonatto
Graduated in Letters
Would you like to reference this text in a school or academic work? Look:
RIGONATTO, Mariana. "What is vocative?"; Brazil School. Available in: https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/o-que-e/portugues/o-que-e-vocativo.htm. Accessed on June 27, 2021.
