IMPLICATURES OF VOCATIVES AND THEIR THEORETICAL IMPLICATIONS

Abstract

Vocatives (terms for calling and addressing) have been studied from various perspectives but there has been little research on them from the viewpoint of Gricean implicatures. The goal of the present paper is to show that a new light can be shed on vocatives by looking at them from the perspective of Gricean implicatures. After reviewing previous works on vocatives in terms of conventional implicatures and generalized conversational implicatures, I point out that there is a systematic way of yielding particularized conversational implicatures in vocatives. I argue that they are metaphoric in nature and can be captured by the Cooperative Principle and the first maxim of quality. Some theoretical implications of the findings are also discussed.