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Glite Dictionary
🙇 Showing respect 🙇 Addressing someone
allocutive

allocutive

9.9
Describing a form used to address someone that shows respect or social status
  • adjective
  • /ˌæl.əˈkjuː.tɪv/
  • Specialized
translation icon : allocutivo
  • In formal speeches, using an allocutive form shows respect to the audience.

Examples

  • Because of the present tense, the "you" narrative loses a good deal of its narratorial and allocutive qualities, backgrounding, that is, both the narrator's function of narration (which usually consists of a telling after the fact) and the effect of address or allocution inherent in the use of you.

    Academic text (1994)

  • ("You walk down the street" has a reduced allocutive effect since the addressee is hard put to construct a factual scenario that will apply to his or her immediate situation.

    Academic text (1994)

  • The teacher used an allocutive expression when addressing the students as 'young scholars'.

  • Many cultures have specific allocutive terms that indicate social status during conversations.

Synonyms

vocative
vsallocutive
  • Specialized
9.9

A form of a name or word used when you call someone directly

marks respect or social status rather than simply naming grammatical case

Surface Forms

allocutive positive

Morphology

allocutive = allocution (opaque) = allocut + ive

The word is built from a Latinate root plus -ive but the root 'allocut-' is not a productive, recognizable English base and the meaning is technical, so it is not derivable by a B1 learner.

Etymology

The word allocutive comes from Latin parts ad- 'to' and loqui 'to speak', the same 'speak' root you see in eloquent. So, as an adjective allocutive describes a form used when you speak directly to someone to show respect or whether you are being formal or informal.