direct address
Naming the listener
Direct address is speaking or writing to someone by name or title, often set off by commas: Maria, can you hear me? , Ladies and gentlemen, welcome.
In grammar, the noun or phrase naming the person addressed is called a vocative.
Direct address creates immediacy, whether intimate (Sweetheart, I'm home) or formal (Mr. President, I object).
- vocativeCase for direct address
- asideBrief theatrical digression
- thouArchaic second-person pronoun
- apostropheMark showing ownership
- youThe person addressed
dear reader · hey you · audience engagement · public speaking · O · hail · political speeches · my fellow Americans · monologue · salutation · addressee · persuasion · call to action · interjection · open letter · religious sermons · audience · emphasis
- actingacting, act, performing, playacting, actor
- second personyou, your, yours, yourself, yourselves
- metafictionfourth wall break, self-reference, breaking the fourth wall, metanarrative, metafiction
- political theatrepolitical theatre, agitprop, political satire, political drama, political allegory
- lettersa, d, e, h, q
- gesturesgesture, hand gestures, applause, hand raise, tap on shoulder
grammatical/rhetorical person
direct addressthird-person narration
Storytelling from outside perspective