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interjection

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interjection

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Also known as int., exclamation, INTJ, J

An interjection () is a word or expression that occurs as an utterance on its own and expresses a spontaneous feeling, situation or reaction. It is a diverse category, with many different types, 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 historic

AI overview

An interjection is a word or expression someone says spontaneously to express an immediate feeling, situation, or reaction — like "ouch!", "wow!", "hey", or "um". This category includes many different types of utterances such as exclamations, greetings, hesitation markers, and curses, making interjections a diverse and partly overlapping category that helps us communicate emotions and reactions naturally in speech.

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Commons category
Interjections
entry in abbreviations table
int.
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~11 min read

Article

10 sections
Contents
  • Historical classification
  • Meaning and use
  • Distinctions and modern classification
  • Primary and secondary interjections
  • Interjections and other word classes
  • Interjections as deictics
  • Interjections across languages
  • Examples from English
  • See also
  • References

An interjection () is a word or expression that occurs as an utterance on its own and expresses a spontaneous feeling, situation or reaction. It is a diverse category, with many different types, 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.

== 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.

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