Editing Interjection (section)

== Distinctions and modern classification ==

=== Primary and secondary interjections ===

Interjections may be subdivided and classified in several ways. A common distinction is based on relations to other word categories: ''primary interjections'' are interjections first and foremost (examples: ''[[wiktionary:oops#English|Oops!]]'', ''Ouch!'', ''Huh?''), while ''secondary interjections'' are words from other categories that have come to be used as interjections by virtue of their original meaning (examples: ''Damn!'', ''Hell!'') <ref>{{cite book|title=Völkerpsychologie: Eine Untersuchung der Entwicklungsgesetze von Sprache, Mythus und Sitte|url=https://archive.org/details/b28118996|last1=Wundt|first1=Wilhelm|date=1904|publisher=Engelmann|edition= 2nd|location=Leipzig}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Wharton|first1=Tim|date=2003|title=Interjections, language, and the 'showing/saying' continuum|url=http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/publications/WPL/00papers/wharton.pdf|journal=Pragmatics & Cognition|volume=11|issue=1|page=175|doi=10.1075/pc.11.1.04wha|access-date=5 June 2015}}</ref><ref name=":0" />  Primary interjections are generally considered to be single words (''Oh!'', ''Wow''!). Secondary interjections can consist of multi-word phrases, or interjectional phrases, (examples: ''sup!'' from ''What's up?'', ''Excuse me!'', ''Oh dear!'', ''Thank God!''), but can also include single-word alarm words (''Help!''), swear and taboo words (''Heavens!''), and other words used to show emotion (''Drats!'').<ref name=":0" /> Although secondary interjections tend to interact more with the words around them, a characteristic of all interjections—whether primary or secondary—is that they can stand alone. For example, one can utter an interjection like ''ouch!'' or ''bloody hell!'' on its own, whereas a different part of speech that may seem similar in function and length, such as the [[Conjunction (grammar)|conjunction]] ''the'', cannot be uttered alone (one cannot just say ''the!'' independently in English).<ref name=":0" />

Further distinctions can be made based on function. Exclamations and curses are primarily about giving expression to feelings or emotions, while response particles and hesitation markers are primarily directed at managing the flow of social interaction.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Ameka|first=Felix K.|date=1992|title=Interjections: The Universal Yet Neglected Part of Speech|journal=[[Journal of Pragmatics]]|volume=18|issue=2–3|pages=101–118|doi=10.1016/0378-2166(92)90048-g|issn=0378-2166|url=http://pubman.mpdl.mpg.de/pubman/item/escidoc:855720/component/escidoc:855719/Ameka_1992_Interjections_J_Pragm_1992.pdf|hdl=11858/00-001M-0000-0011-5356-1|hdl-access=free}}</ref>

=== Interjections and other word classes ===
Interjections are sometimes classified as [[Grammatical particle|particles]], a catch-all category that includes adverbs and [[onomatopoeia]]. 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. A key difference between interjections and onomatopoeia is that interjections are typically ''responses to'' events, while onomatopoeia can be seen as ''imitations of'' events.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal|doi=10.1016/j.pragma.2014.11.011|title=Distinguishing onomatopoeias from interjections|last=Meinard|first=Maruszka E. M|journal=Journal of Pragmatics |volume=76 |year=2015 |pages=150–168}}</ref>

Interjections can also be confused with adverbs when they appear following a form of the verb “go” (as in "he went 'ouch!'"), which may seem to describe a manner of going (compare: 'he went rapidly'). However, this is only a superficial similarity, as the verb go in the first example does not describe the action of going somewhere. One way to differentiate between an interjection and adverb in this position is to find the speaker of the item in question. If it is understood that the subject of the utterance also utters the item (as in "ouch!" in the first example), then it cannot be an adverb.<ref name=":1" />

[[Routine speech|Routines]] are considered as a form of speech acts that rely on an understood social communicative pattern between the addressee and addressed. This differs from an interjection that is more of a strategic utterance within a speech act that brings attention to the utterance but may or may not also have an intended addressed (directed at an individual or group).<ref name=":1" /> In addition, routines generally are multi-word expressions whereas interjections tend to be single utterances.<ref name=":0" />

Under a different use of the term 'particle', particles and interjections can be distinctions in that particles cannot be independent utterances and are fully a part of the syntax of the utterance. 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.<ref name=":0" />