VOCATIVES ON THE CLAUSAL SPINE: THE STATE OF THE ART

Abstract

This paper provides a critical overview of the formal proposals that attempt to capture the mechanism by which vocatives relate to the clause structure. Briefly, all the studies agree that vocatives merge in the clause in response to a trigger, namely a probing [addressee] feature. However, the studies diverge when it comes to the location of this probing feature and the implementation of its syntactic checking. Crucially, while recognizing the considerable progress the theory has made so far on this issue, this overview also reveals the areas that still pose challenges for all the current studies, and for which further research is needed.