Comparative analysis of vocative forms in the Russian and Japanese languages (a new edition)

Abstract

This article undertakes a comparative analysis of address forms in the Russian and Japanese languages. As address constitutes a linguistic universality, numerous commonalities in speech functioning, syntactic peculiarities, as well as phonetic, morphological, and semantic developments of linguistic units used in vocative positions were discovered in Russian and Japanese. However, some significant differences were identified. For instance, address forms in Japanese, to a greater extent than in Russian, are associated with expressing social hierarchy relations.

Consequently, Japanese speakers tend to avoid using address forms when communicating with unfamiliar people (whose social status is unclear). In familial interactions, juniors are addressed by their names, while elders are referred to using kinship terms. In business sphere, superiors are addressed by their titles, while inferiors are addressed by their surnames with added necessary politeness suffixes. In the Russian language, a wide range of figurative and metonymic means are employed as address forms, and their list is not limited. There even exist specific grammatical constructions characteristic of the vocative position. In the Japanese language, the freedom in employing vocative means, akin to Russian, is only present in poetic style. In colloquial Japanese, the utilization of figurative and metonymic means is restricted.