Across languages, it is argued that vocative phrases are composed of a vocative head that selects a noun phrase (NP) or a determiner phrase (DP) as its complement. Based on data from Standard Arabic, in
addition to selecting NPs and DPs, the study reveals patterns where a vocative head may select a prepositional phrase (PP). This class of vocative constructions appears in situations where speakers are calling for help and
is referred to as nɪdaʔ ʔalʔɪstɪɣaθa ‘Vocative of Entreaty.’ This study focuses on the syntax of nɪdaʔ ʔalʔɪstɪɣaθa ‘Vocative of Entreaty’ and expands the boundaries that limit the selection options of vocative heads to NPs and
DPs. For this purpose, the study utilizes the Minimalist program (Chomsky, 1995) for data analysis and follows Hill (2013) in analyzing vocatives as speech act projections. This study is significant because it challenges
all previous accounts on vocatives (Haddad 2020; Abdelhady 2020; Al-Bataineh 2019) and reveals new patterns where a vocative particle becomes obligatory in vocative phrases, provided that its complement is a PP.
This type of data has implications for proposals related to case assignment patterns of nominals that are ccommanded by VOC.