Stylistics of vocatives

A vocative denotes the person or thing to whom the speaker’s words are directed and also expresses an attitude to it: neutral, official, affectionate, solemn or negative. In the official style a vocative gives an official colouring: «Hurmatli Aziza Karimovna, Sizni ota-onalar yig‘ilishiga taklif etamiz» (“Dear Aziza Karimovna, we invite you to the parents’ meeting”). In the colloquial, artistic and publicistic styles it has emotional-expressive colouring: «Bolajonim, charchamadingmi?» (“My dear child, aren’t you tired?”), «Ey ona tabiat, seni asraymiz» (“O mother nature, we will protect you”). To strengthen the address, interjections (hoy, ey) are used or the vocative is repeated. A vocative at the beginning of a sentence is separated by a comma or an exclamation mark, in the middle by commas on both sides, at the end by a comma before it. When it comes in the middle or at the end of the sentence, the emotionality of the vocative usually grows.