vocative

I get pedantic about the placement of the vocative comma in “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen.”

And I like Mitch most when he returns fire, peppering Matt, who is young and pretty, with a barrage of snarky vocatives.

His first vocative expressed all, but he was a politician and used to elaborating his mental processes for the benefit of befuddled intellects.

Lord Vanity, not feeling himself included in the last vocative, took a pinch of Rappee and gazed very fiercely at my Lady Bunbutter through the rheum and water of his ancient eyes.

Now, Ma!" broke in Sophia, accompanying this vocative with a tart gesture of remonstrance, "Claire doesn't know a bit better than you or I do whether he was high-toned or not.