Notional grammars traditionally define interjections as words that “express pain, surprise, anger, pleasure, or some other emotion or sentiment.” Unlike the other grammatical forms of the English language, interjections are not constituents of the subject or the predicate. Interjections are also not grammatically-related to any other part of the sentence.
In grammar, an interjector is a word or phrase that express an emotion or sentiment on the part of the speaker. Although almost any word can function as an interjector in English grammar, interjections most frequently perform the function. Examples of interjections as interjectors include the following:
- 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!
Interjection as Interjector
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.
