Interjection facts for kids

An interjection is a word or phrase that shows a sudden feeling or reaction. It's like a quick shout or sound you make. Think of words like ouch!, wow!, hey, or oh!. Interjections can also be greetings, quick answers, or sounds you make when you're thinking. They are a special kind of word because they often stand alone.

How People Thought About Interjections Long Ago

For many centuries, smart people in Greece and Rome, and later the Modistae, thought about interjections. They had different ideas about what interjections were.

The ancient Greeks believed interjections were like adverbs. They thought interjections changed or added to the meaning of a verb. So, for them, interjections were always connected to verbs.

But many Latin scholars disagreed. They thought interjections were independent. They believed interjections were used to show feelings and ideas on their own. They even said small sounds that weren't full words were interjections.

Hundreds of years later, in the 13th and 14th centuries, a group called the Modistae had mixed ideas. Some agreed with the Greeks that interjections were linked to verbs. Others, like the Latin scholars, thought interjections were their own special part of speech.

What Interjections Mean and Do

Most interjections are used to show feelings, not to describe things. They are different from regular words and sentences. Interjections usually fit into three types of meaning: volitive, emotive, or cognitive.

• Volitive interjections are like commands or requests. They ask or demand something from the person you are talking to. For example, Shh! means "Be quiet!" or Boo! can be used to scare someone.
• Emotive interjections show strong feelings like disgust or fear. For instance, Yuck! shows disgust. Boo! can also show disapproval, like when an audience doesn't like a performance.
• Cognitive interjections show thoughts or things the speaker knows. For example, Um! might mean someone is confused or thinking. While emotive and cognitive interjections both show feelings, cognitive ones are more about knowledge or information.

Interjections and Other Word Types

Interjections are sometimes grouped with particles. This is a general group that includes adverbs and onomatopoeia. These word types can stand alone and don't change their form easily. However, they are different in other ways.

One key difference is that interjections are usually responses to events. Onomatopoeia, like "buzz" or "meow," are imitations of sounds or events.

Interjections can also be confused with adverbs. This happens when they follow the verb "go," like in "he went 'ouch!'". It might seem like "ouch!" describes how he went. But "go" here doesn't mean moving somewhere. To tell them apart, think about who said the word. If the person doing the action also says the word (like "ouch!"), it's an interjection, not an adverb.

Routines are fixed ways of speaking in social situations. Interjections are different because they are sudden sounds that grab attention. Routines are usually made of many words, while interjections are often single words or sounds.

Another way to think about 'particles' is that they cannot stand alone. They are always part of a sentence's grammar. Interjections, however, can stand alone. They are also usually separated by a pause from other words. This shows they are not fully part of the sentence's main grammar.

Interjections and Context

Interjections depend on the situation. Their meaning changes based on when and where they are said. In language, interjections can be a type of deixis. This means their meaning is fixed (like "Wow!" always means surprise), but they also point to something in the situation.

For example, when someone says "Wow!", it refers to something that just surprised them. Without knowing the situation, you wouldn't know what caused the surprise. Similarly, "Ouch!" means pain, but you need the context to know what caused the pain.

Volitive interjections like "Ahem", "Psst!", and "Shh!" are good examples of this. They are like commands. The person they are directed at changes depending on who is listening. This is similar to how the pronoun "you" changes its meaning based on who is being spoken to.

Interjections Around the World

Interjections can be very different across cultures and languages. For example, English words like gee and wow don't have direct matches in Polish. The Polish word fu (for disgust) is similar to English Yuck!, but they sound different. Curse words are also very specific to each language.

However, some interjections used for social interaction are quite similar everywhere. The word Huh?, used when you didn't hear what someone said, is almost the same in 31 languages! This makes some people think it might be a universal word. Other similar interjections include Oh! (meaning "now I understand") and Mm/m-hm (meaning "keep talking, I'm listening").

In many languages, interjections use special sounds. These sounds are often not found in other regular words. For instance, interjections like brr and shh! are made only of consonants. Most words in almost all languages need at least one vowel sound. Some, like tut-tut and ahem, are written like normal words. But they are actually made with clicks or throat-clearing sounds. Because of these unusual sounds, interjections were sometimes thought of as not being part of language.

Examples from English

Many English interjections contain sounds that are rare or don't exist in regular English words. For example:

• Ahem (meaning "Attention!") might use a glottal stop. This sound is common in American English and other languages like German.
• Gah (as in "Gah, there's nothing to do!") ends with a sound not found at the end of regular English words.
• Psst (meaning "Listen closely!") is made only of consonants. Its consonant sounds don't usually appear at the beginning of regular English words.
• Shh (meaning "Quiet!") is another word made entirely of consonant sounds.
• Tut-tut (meaning "Shame on you"), also spelled tsk-tsk, uses clicks. These clicks are a normal part of speech in some African languages.
• Ugh (meaning "Disgusting!") ends with a velar fricative consonant. This sound is rare in English but common in languages like Spanish, German, and Russian.
• Whew or phew (meaning "What a relief!") might start with a voiceless bilabial fricative. This sound is made with a strong puff of air through the lips. It's common in languages like Suki (from New Guinea) and Ewe (from Ghana and Togo).
• Uh-oh (meaning "Oh, no!") contains a glottal stop.
• Yeah (meaning "Yes") ends with a vowel sound that is not found at the end of any regular English words.

See also

In Spanish: Interjección para niños

• Aizuchi
• Discourse marker
• Filler (linguistics)
• Words without vowels