Apostrophe is a figure of speech that is in the category of thought figures.
It is characterized by expressions that involve invocations, calls and interpellations from an interlocutor (real beings or not).
For this reason, the apostrophe performs the syntactic function of vocative, being, therefore, a characteristic of direct discourses.
In this way, she interrupts the narration in order to invoke someone or something that is present or absent at the time of the speech.
The apostrophe is a stylistic resource widely used in informal (everyday) language, in religious, political and poetic texts.
In addition to the apostrophe, the figures of thought are: gradation (or climax), personification (or prosopopeia), euphemism, hyperbole (or auxesis), littor, antithesis, paradox (or oxymoron) and irony.
Understand more about the Vocative.
Examples
- oh god! Oh God! Why did not you call me?
- Sir, have mercy on us.
- Priest, can I confess?
- people of São Paulo! Let's win together.
- freedom, freedom! That's what we want in this fight.
- Our! How did you get?
- My daughter! How beautiful you are!
Examples in Literature
- “o salt sea, how much of your salt / They are tears from Portugal.” (Fernando Pessoa)
- “Look Marilia, the flutes of the shepherds,/How good they sound, how falling!” (Bocage)
- “Kid! you shall see no country like this:/Imitate in greatness the land in which you were born!” (Olavo Bilac)
- “have pity on me, Sir, of all women.” (Vinicius de Moraes)
- “god oh god! Where are you that you don't answer me?” (Castro Alves).
- “Supreme Lord and Governor of the universe, that the sacred corners of Portugal, and the weapons and wounds of Christ, succeed the heretical lists of Holland, rebels against their king and God...” (Father Antônio Vieira)
Learn all about figures of speech by reading the articles:
- Figures of Language
- Thought Figures
- Word Pictures
- Syntax figures
- Sound Figures
Attention!
Do not confuse apostrophe with apostrophe. While the first is a figure of thought, the second is a graphic sign (’) that indicates the suppression of letters and sounds, for example: glass of water.
The apostrophe and apostrophe are paronyms. That is, terms that are similar in spelling and pronunciation, but differ in meaning.
Learn more about the topic by reading the article: Homonyms and Paronyms.