Definition and Examples of Interjections in English

Definition and Examples of Interjections in English An  interjection,  also known as an ejaculation  or an  exclamation, is a word, phrase, or sound used to convey an emotion such as surprise, excitement, happiness, or anger. Put another way, an  interjection is a short utterance that usually expresses emotion and is capable of standing alone. Though interjections are one of the traditional parts of speech, they are grammatically unrelated to any other part of a sentence. Interjections are very common in spoken English, but they appear in written English as well. The most widely used interjections in English include hey,  oops, ouch, gee, oh, ah, ooh, eh, ugh, aw, yo, wow, brr, sh, and yippee.  In writing, an interjection is typically followed by an  exclamation point, but it can also be followed by a comma if it is part of a  sentence. Knowing the different kinds of interjections, and understanding how to punctuate them, will help you use them correctly. First Words Interjections  (such as  oh  and  wow) are among the first words human beings learn as children- usually by the age of 1.5 years. Eventually, children pick up several hundred of these brief, often  exclamatory  utterances. As the 18th-century  philologist  Rowland Jones observed, It appears that interjections make up a considerable part of our language. Nevertheless, interjections are commonly regarded as the outlaws of English  grammar. The term itself, derived from Latin, means something thrown in between. Interjections usually stand apart from normal sentences, defiantly maintaining their syntactic independence. (Yeah!) They arent marked  inflectionally  for  grammatical categories  such as tense or number. (No sirree!) And because they show up more frequently in spoken English than in writing, most scholars have chosen to ignore them. With the advent of  corpus linguistics  and  conversation analysis, interjections have recently begun to attract serious attention.  Linguists  and grammarians have even segregated interjections into different categories. Primary and Secondary Its now customary to divide interjections into two broad classes: Primary interjections  are single words (such as  ah, brr, eww, hmm,   ooh, and  yowza) that are not derived from any other word class, are used  only  as interjections, and dont enter into syntactic constructions. According to linguist Martina Drescher, in her article The Expressive Function of Language: Towards a Cognitive Semantic Approach, which was published in The Language of Emotions: Conceptualization, Expression, and Theoretical Foundation, primary interjections generally serve to lubricate conversations in a ritualized manner. Secondary interjections  (such as bless you, congratulations, good grief, hey, hi, oh my, oh my God,  oh  well, rats, and shoot) also belong to other word classes. These expressions are often exclamatory and tend to mix with oaths, swear words, and greeting formulas. Drescher describes secondary interjections as derivative uses of other words or locutions, which have lost their original conceptual meanings- a process known as  semantic bleaching. As written English grows more colloquial, both classes have migrated from speech into print. Punctuation As noted, interjections are more commonly used in speech, but you might also find yourself using these parts of speech in writing as well. The Farlex Complete English Grammar Rules gives these examples: Ooh, thats a beautiful dress.Brr, its freezing in here!Oh my God! Weve won! Note how punctuating both primary and secondary interjections in writing depends entirely on the context in which they are used. In the first example above, the term  ooh  is technically a primary interjection that generally does not enter into syntactic constructions. It often stands alone, and when it does, the word is generally followed by an exclamation point, as in  Ohh!  Indeed, you could reconstruct the sentence so that the primary interjection stands alone, followed by an explanatory sentence, as in: Ohh! Thats a beautiful dress. In the second sentence, the primary interjection  brr  is followed by a comma. The exclamation point, then, does not come until the end of the connected sentence. But again, the primary interjection could stand alone- and be followed by an exclamation point- as in: Brr! Its cold in here. The third example contains a secondary interjection  Oh my God that stands apart from the second sentence, with the interjection and sentence both ending in exclamation points. You can also use secondary interjections as integral parts of  sentences: Hey, why did you let the dog in here?Oh my, I knew I should have turned off the oven!Good grief Charlie Brown! Just kick the football. Of course, the creator of the Peanuts cartoons would have likely used the secondary interjection more like a primary interjection. Indeed, a biography of the famed illustrator uses the phrase in just that way: Good Grief! The Story of Charles M. Schulz Since interjections depend so heavily on how they are used in speech, the punctuation they take varies greatly, according to context, but they are usually followed by an exclamation point when standing alone or a comma when introducing a sentence. Versatile Parts of Speech One of the more intriguing characteristics of interjections is their multifunctionality: The same word may express praise or scorn, excitement or boredom, joy or despair. Unlike the comparatively straightforward  denotations  of other parts of speech, the meanings of interjections are largely determined by  intonation,  context, and what linguists call  pragmatic function, such as: Geez, you really had to be there. As  Kristian Smidt wrote in Ideolectic  Characterisation in  A Dolls House published in Scandinavia: International Journal of Scandinavian Studies: You can fill it [the interjection] like a carrier bag with twenty different senses and a hundred different shades of meaning, all dependent on context, emphasis, and tonal accent. It can express anything from indifference to comprehension, incomprehension, query, rebuttal, rebuke, indignation, impatience, disappointment, surprise, admiration, disgust, and delight in any number of degrees. With interjections fulfilling such a large role in English, grammarians and linguists are calling for more attention to and study of these important parts of speech. As  Douglas Biber,  Stig Johansson,  Geoffrey Leech,  Susan Conrad, and Edward Finegan note in Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English: If we are to describe spoken language adequately, we need to pay more attention to [interjections] than has traditionally been done. In an era of increasing communication via text messaging and social media- which is often laced with interjections- experts say that paying more attention to these loud and forceful parts of speech will help create a better understanding of how human beings actually communicate. And that thought certainly deserves a loud and forceful  Youwza! Sources Biber, Douglas. Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English. Stig Johansson, Geoffrey Leech, et al., Longman, November 5, 1999. Farlex International, Inc. The Farlex Complete English Grammar Rules, 2016: Grammar. Bukupedia, June 16, 2016. Johnson, Rheta Grimsley. Good Grief!: The Story of Charles M. Schulz. Hardcover, First Edition edition, Pharos Books, September 1, 1989.