UCL Working Papers in Linguistics 12 (2000)
Interjections, language and the ‘showing’/ ‘saying’ continuum
TIM WHARTON
Historically, interjections have been treated in two different ways: as part of
language, or as non-words signifying feelings or states of mind. In this paper,
I assess the relative strengths and weaknesses of two contemporary approaches
which reflect the historical dichotomy, and suggest a new analysis which
preserves the insights of both. Interjections have a natural and a coded
element, and are better analysed as falling at various points along a continuum
between ‘showing’ and ‘saying’, where showing is relatively natural behaviour,
and saying is properly linguistic.
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