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Abstract

Previous work has shown that masculine vocatives are increasingly used beyond their typical context of designating a masculine addressee across a range of languages. Building on this scholarship, this study investigates the Saudi Arabic vocative (‘my brother’), drawing on a self-report survey and a corpus of X.com (formerly Twitter) posts. The findings reveal that exhibits usage patterns comparable to those of several vocatives in other languages. It is used to address both men and women and serves various interactional functions. Moreover, displays rich stance-taking and indexical properties, making it a useful resource for navigating interactional and cultural contexts. These findings contribute to a deeper understanding of and offer broader insights into the cross-linguistic patterning and development of masculine vocatives.

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/content/journals/10.1075/prag.24069.alh
2026-08-18
2026-09-09
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  • Article Type: Research Article
Keywords: address terms ; stance ; forms of address ; masculine vocatives ; Saudi Arabic
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