Resumen de 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 that 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¿. These two notions are characterised in theoretical terms, and some implications of the proposed approach are considered.