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punctuation - Comma after address


Here's an example:




  • Chocolate lovers rejoice!

  • Chocolate lovers, rejoice!



To my understanding, the first one says that chocolate lovers are rejoicing and in the second one, we are asking the chocolate lovers to rejoice.


Am I correct? Or is it fine to use both 1 and 2 interchangeably?


Also, if am wrong about the second one, then how do you convey to chocolate lovers that they should rejoice?



Answer



Both versions are imperative clauses, and both have directive force. The difference is: your first version uses a 3rd person subject, while the second version uses a vocative.


In both versions, there is the directive "Rejoice!"


Both versions basically have the same meaning. In a roomful of chocolate lovers, you can give the directive "Rejoice!" or the directive "Chocolate lovers rejoice!" or the directive "Chocolate lovers, rejoice!", or the directive "Everybody rejoice!", or the directive "Everybody, rejoice!" or the directive "Rejoice, everybody!"


For more info, there's the 2002 reference grammar by Huddleston and Pullum et al., The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language, Chapter 10, pages 925-8 (9.2.1 - 9.2.2) which includes the section "Subject vs vocative in imperatives".


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