Лекции по теоретической грамматике английского языка. Тивьяева И.В. - 72 стр.

UptoLike

Составители:

Рубрика:

interjection ax contains the consonant phoneme [x], which is not found in English,

etc.

Semantic features

The characteristic features which distinguish interjections from practically

all other words lie in a different sphere. The interjections, as distinct from nouns,

verbs, prepositions, etc., are not names of anything, but expressions of emotions.

Another characteristic feature of the meaning of interjections is, that while

some of them express quite definite meanings (for instance, alas can never express

the feeling of joy), other interjections seem to express merely feeling in general,

without being attached to some particular feeling. The interjection oh, for example,

may be used both when the speaker feels surprised and when he feels joyous, or

disappointed, or frightened, etc. The meaning of the interjection itself is thus very

vague.

Syntactic features

On the sentence level the function of interjections is a controversial matter.

The usual interpretation is that the interjection stands outside the structure of the

sentence. Another view is that it is syntactically a kind of parenthesis at least in

some cases. The controversy cannot be decided by objective investigation and the

answer only depends on what we mean by sentence structure on the one hand, and

by some element or other being outside the sentence structure, on the other.

6. The Modal Word

The modal word, occupying in the sentence a more pronounced or less

pronounced detached position, expresses the attitude of the speaker to the reflected

situation and its parts. Here belong the functional words of probability (probably,

perhaps, etc.), of qualitative evaluation (fortunately, unfortunately, luckily, etc.),

and also of affirmation and negation.

Modal words stand in a special relation to the sentence. They are not

sentence members, since giving an evaluation of the entire situation presented in

the sentence, they stand on the outside. For instance, in the sentence Perhaps,