The first thing we are going to do, before entering fully into the clarification of the meaning of the term apostrophe, is to know its etymological origin. In this case, we can say that it is a word that comes from the Greek, exactly “apostrophe”. This can be translated as “turning the other way” and was used in the theater to refer to the moment when one of the actors turned his back on the audience to speak to another person, whether real or imaginary.
We can determine that Greek word is the result of the sum of two clearly delimited components:
-The prefix “apó”, which means “far from”.
-The verb “strofe”, which is equivalent to “return” or “flip”.
It is a notion that is used in the context of rhetoric to name an interpellation that is vehemently performed on one or more subjects, who may or may not be alive; to something inanimate; to an abstract entity; or even yourself.
It is important not to confuse the apostrophe with the apostrophe: an orthographic sign that is used for the union of two terms, eliminating some letter. That sign is ‘.
Returning to the idea of an apostrophe, the figure appears in the narrative as an appeal to an interlocutor, regardless of whether the interlocutor is present or can hear the speech. The apostrophe usually appears in invocations, prayers, and soliloquies.
According to DigoPaul, an example of an apostrophe is the following: “Rough sea, calm down now! It stops shaking the walk and allows you to reach your destination. Serene your waves and grant the honor to advance in peace through your domains ”. As you can see, the speaker goes to the sea: of course, the ocean cannot respond to him to enter into a dialogue. So the apostrophe does not intend to develop a conversation.
Apostrophes, on the other hand, are frequent in political discourse: “What do they want for the country? We know that these are difficult times and that you have to make important decisions. Are you willing to fight for the well-being of all our compatriots? ”.
