The Status of Vocatives in Persian Grammar and the Science of Figures of Thought

In all Arabic and Persian books on rhetoric، vocative sentences are considered as performatives and the very presence of interjections or the vocative intonation in a sentence makes that sentence a vocative one which has secondary meanings and intentions. The issue of vocatives in language deserves contemplation. Investigation of evidences shows that vocatives are of different types and there is no single rule for all of them because each of them has its own features which should be studied on the basis of both rules of Persian grammar and secondary intentions. In this article، first، vocatives are classified according to Persian grammar and some suggestions are made in this classification with regard to features of each type. Then، regarding the semantic load of each type، some points are proposed about the secondary intentions of each type. This article tries to provide appropriate answers for the following questions: 1) Are interjections such as “ey”، “ya” and “e” always used for vocative purposes? 2) Are there different types of vocatives in Persian? 3) According to the definition of vocatives in rhetorical books، do they always have secondary intentions or these intentions are determined on the basis of sentences which follow the interjections?