THE PROBLEM OF THE UKRAINIAN VOCATIVE: WAVERING BETWEEN PRESCRIPTIONS AND PRACTICE

In the general context of a gradual greater or lesser narrowing of the functioning of the vocative case forms in the common Slavic language space (up to their actual disappearance), in the Ukrainian language this category, although it remains one of language’s distinctive features, also shows an increasing tendency towards limitation (with a combination of both internal and especially external factors – influences from the Russian language). Consequently, in already independent Ukraine, when society started paying more attention to the language issues, the problem of returning the mentioned grammatical category to full-fledged functioning also became relevant.