Semantics and pragmatics of vocatives in the epistolary discourse (based on the correspondence of V. Mayakovsky and L. Brick)

The article presents the analysis of the vocatives used by Vladimir Mayakovsky in his correspondence with Lilya Brik in 1915-1930. The novelty of the research is in the fact that, for the first time, it describes the derivational and semantic-pragmatic features of substantive vocatives, determines the specificity of emotive adjectives addressed to the poet's muse, identifies the most frequent components that make up the addressing, characterizes the linguistic units of the figurative system that underlie expanded metaphors and comparisons. The study proved that, in Vladimir Mayakovsky’s epistolary work, there is a manifold system of vocative expressions derived from both expansion of the syntagmatic potential of the language units used, and occasional word formation with an obvious dominance of suffixation. Particular attention is paid to the words and constructions that underlie modeling of emotionally colored images. The authors present their own classification of vocatives in the epistolary texts by Vladimir Mayakovsky, taking into account their semantic and grammatical features.