Interjectors are words and phrases that express pain, surprise, anger, pleasure, or some other emotion or sentiment on the part of the speaker. Unlike most other grammatical functions in the English language, interjectors are not constituents of the subject or the predicate and are not grammatically-related to any other part of the sentence. The category of interjector (and subsequently interjection) is quite heterogeneous, including exclamations, curses, greetings, response particles, and hesitation markers. Interjectors thus overlap with other categories such as tag questions, profanities, discourse markers, and fillers. Although almost any word, phrase, or clause can function as an interjector in English grammar, interjections most frequently perform the grammatical function.
Interjections as Interjectors
The primary grammatical form that can perform the grammatical function of interjector is the interjection. Interjections are words and phrases that express an emotion or sentiment on the part of the speaker. For example, the following italicized interjections function as interjectors:
- Sure, I would love to visit Scotland with you.
- Wowzer, that baby is not a looker.
- Geeze, you own a lot of comic books.
- I wonder if he would, um, call me tomorrow night?
- Crud! I forgot to put the clothes in the dryer again!
- Hallelujah! Her son finally graduated from high school!
An interjector is a word or phrase that expresses pain, surprise, anger, pleasure, or some other emotion or sentiment on the part of the speaker.
Summary
Interjectors are words and phrases that express an emotion or sentiment on the part of the speaker.
Interjector is a grammatical function.
The grammatical form that can function as the interjector in English grammar is the interjection. Other grammatical forms may also perform the function of interjector.
Interjectors are not constituents of the subject or the predicate. Interjectors are also not grammatically-related to any other part of the sentence.
References
Brinton, Laurel J. & Donna M. Brinton. 2010. The linguistic structure of Modern English, 2nd edn. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.
Hopper, Paul J. 1999. A short course in grammar. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.
Huddleston, Rodney. 1984. Introduction to the grammar of English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
