[1][2] It is a diverse category, encompassing many different parts of speech, such as exclamations (ouch!, wow!
The use and linguistic discussion of interjections can be traced historically through the Greek and Latin Modistae over many centuries.
Greek and Latin intellectuals as well as the Modistae have contributed to the different perspectives of interjections in language throughout history.
Unlike their Greek counterparts, many Latin scholars took the position that interjections did not rely on verbs and were used to communicate emotions and abstract ideas.
[3] In contrast to typical words and sentences, the function of most interjections is related to an expression of feeling, rather than representing some idea or concept.
The main thing these word types share is that they can occur on their own and do not easily undergo inflection, but they are otherwise divergent in several ways.
One way to differentiate between an interjection and adverb in this position is to find the speaker of the item in question.
[7] Routines are considered as a form of speech acts that rely on an understood social communicative pattern between the addressee and addressed.
[7] In addition, routines generally are multi-word expressions whereas interjections tend to be single utterances.
Interjections, on the other hand, can stand alone and also are always preceded by a pause, separating them from the grammar and syntax of other surrounding utterances.
[3] Interjections are bound by context, meaning that their interpretation is largely dependent on the time and place at which they are uttered.
', used when one has not caught what someone just said, is remarkably similar in 31 spoken languages around the world, prompting claims that it may be a universal word.
[11] Across languages, interjections often use special sounds and syllable types that are not commonly used in other parts of the vocabulary.
are made entirely of consonants, where in virtually all languages, words have to feature at least one vowel-like element.
[12] The phonetic atypicality of some interjections is one reason they have traditionally been considered as lying outside the realm of language.