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In:“You can say you to me”: Address in German
Edited by Heinz L. Kretzenbacher, Horst J. Simon and Christa Dürscheid
[Topics in Address Research 7] 2026
► pp. 12–46

Chapter 2
Vocative, where are you going, man?

Cyclicity in pragmaticalization: From vocative to discourse marker and interjection

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Abstract
Cyclical change is not exclusive to grammaticalization: A case in point is the secondary pragmaticalization of vocatives such as Germ. Mensch (‘(hu)man’) / Engl. man, or Germ. Alter (‘dude’) / Engl. dude into discourse markers and interjections, going along with the renovation of new vocatives. General terms of person reference are a recurrent source, expressivity due to social indexicality is the driving force starting the cycle. Advanced stages show routinization and bleaching, most importantly, dereferentialization and illocutionalization. We describe bridging contexts with extensive functional overlap as well as newly developed prototypical functions using examples from contemporary and historical corpora of spoken and written German. Syntactical disintegration and functions of social, affective, and discursive alignment constitute features shared across all stages.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Starting the vocative cycle
    • 2.1Vocatives as source items
    • 2.2Social indexicality and extravagance of vocatives driving the cycle
    • 2.3Best candidates: What kinds of vocatives enter the cycle?
    • 2.4Common denominator: Provoking practices with source items
    • 2.5Discourse functions of vocatives driving the cycle
  • 3.Turning the cycle: From vocative to discourse marker
    • 3.1From affiliation to discourse organization via dereferentialization
    • 3.2Selected discourse functions I: Former vocatives as repair markers
    • 3.3Selected discourse functions II: Former vocatives in staged quotative constructions
  • 4.From vocative and discourse marker to interjection
    • 4.1Interjections as affective markers
    • 4.2(Relative) Syntactic and prosodic autonomy of interjections
    • 4.3Degrees of (inter)subjectivity
    • 4.4Illocutionalization
    • 4.5Scope extension
    • 4.6Formal properties
    • 4.7Functional differences between interjections and vocatives
  • 5.Concluding discussion and outlook
    • 5.1The vocative cycle revisited
    • 5.2Outlook: Comparing alternative pathways vocatives can take
  • Author queries
  • Notes
  • Corpora and primary sources
  • References
References (83)
Corpora and primary sources
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