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| An example of an
interjection. |
Interjections
An interjection is a word or expression that occurs as
an utterance on its own and expresses a spontaneous
feeling or reaction. It is a diverse category,
encompassing many different parts of speech, such as
exclamations (ouch!, wow!), curses (damn!), greetings
(hey, bye), response particles (okay, oh!, m-hm, huh?),
hesitation markers (uh, er, um) and other words (stop,
cool). Due to its diverse nature, the category of
interjections partly overlaps with a few other
categories like profanities, discourse markers and
fillers. The use and linguistic discussion of
interjections can be traced historically through the
Greek and Latin Modistae over many centuries. |
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Historical classification
Greek and Latin intellectuals as well as the Modistae
have contributed to the different perspectives of
interjections in language throughout history. The Greeks
held that interjections fell into the grammatical
category of adverbs. They thought interjections modified
the verb much in the same way as adverbs do, thus
interjections were closely connected to verbs.
Unlike their Greek counterparts, many Latin scholars
took the position that interjections did not rely on
verbs and were used to communicate emotions and abstract
ideas. They considered interjections to be their own
independent part of speech. Further, the Latin
grammarians classified any small non-word utterances as
interjections.
Several hundred years later, the 13th- and 14th-century
Modistae took inconsistent approaches to interjections.
Some, such as Thomas of Erfurt, agreed with the former
Greeks that the interjection was closely tied to the
verb while others like Siger of Courtrai held that the
interjection was its own part of speech syntactically,
much like the Latin scholars. |
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Meaning and use
In contrast to typical words and sentences, the function
of most interjections is related to an expression of
feeling, rather than representing some idea or concept.
Generally, interjections can be classified into three
types of meaning: volitive, emotive, or cognitive. |
- Volitive interjections function as
imperative or directive expressions, requesting or
demanding something from the addressee (e.g. "Shh!" =
"Be quiet!").
- Emotive interjections are used to
express emotions, such as disgust and fear (e.g. "Yuck!"
= disgust).
- Cognitive interjections express
feelings which are more related to cognition, or
information known to the speaker of the utterance (e.g.
"Wow!" = surprise).
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While there exists some apparent overlap between emotive and
cognitive interjections, as both express a feeling,
cognitive interjections can be seen as more related to
knowledge of something (i.e. information previously known to
the speaker, or recently learned). |
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Interjections across
languages
Interjections can take very different forms and meanings
across cultures. For instance, the English interjections
gee and wow have no direct equivalent in Polish, and the
closest equivalent for Polish 'fu' (an interjection of
disgust) is the different sounding 'Yuck!'. Curses
likewise are famously language-specific and colourful.
On the other hand, interjections that manage social
interaction may be more similar across languages. For
instance, the word 'Huh?', used when one has not caught
what someone just said, is remarkably similar in 31
spoken languages around the world, prompting claims that
it may be a universal word. Similar observations have
been made for the interjections 'Oh!' (meaning, roughly,
"now I see") and 'Mm/m-hm' (with the meaning "keep
talking, I'm with you").
Across languages, interjections often use special sounds
and syllable types that are not commonly used in other
parts of the vocabulary. For instance, interjections
like 'brr' and 'shh!' are made entirely of consonants,
where in virtually all languages, words have to feature
at least one vowel-like element. Some, like 'tut-tut'
and 'ahem', are written like normal words, but their
actual production involves clicks or throat-clearing.
The phonetic atypicality of some interjections is one
reason they have traditionally been considered as lying
outside the realm of language. |
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|
 Kiddle: Interjections
Wikipedia: Interjections |
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