Grammar question

[Kat in GA]

In the sentence:

Mother, may I have a new book?

What is "mother?" In Latin, it would be vocative...but what do we call this in English?

Thanks so much for the assistance!

[Beth in Central TX]

According to R&S Grammar 5, it is a noun of direct address.

[Kat in GA]

Thanks Beth - so basically it's the same thing as vocative. If you were going to diagramm this sentence...where would you stick "mother?" :)

[Beth in Central TX]

Well, we aren't there yet in R&S Grammar, so I looked in up in Descriptive English Grammar. DEG does call it the vocative case. It's diagrammed on a straight line by itself above the diagram of the remaining sentence.

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That's the best I can describe and I've tried to draw some representative lines. HTH!

[Kat in GA]

Thanks so much for your help!