The evolution of terms of address with social contents in old and middle French

Abstract

Based on a corpus of texts in Old and Middle French, this research paper examines the behavior of vocative nominal groups in direct speech. After analyzing the currently available descriptions of vocative, apostrophe and appellative, we present the concept “terms of address” (detached nominal groups used vocatively in direct speech to address the co-locutor, i.e. the addressee), in contrast with “designatives” (bound nominal groups used in narrative to refer to the locutor, the addressee or the third person –délocuté). We adopt a sociolinguistic approach by which terms of address are markers of social status, place and sphere. Before presenting an analysis of the position of terms of address within utterances from the corpus, we define the grammatical nature of terms of address, and then compare it to the nature of designatives.  The generally accepted proposition that terms of address are mainly speech markers is brought under scrutiny and put into question.