Interjections classify by structural and semantic criteria:
- A structural division is as follows:
- A primary interjection is one lacking syntactic structure (although it may be morphologically complex).
- A secondary interjection is a sentence or phrase which has phraseological status in the system and is used like a holophrastic utterance.
- A discourse-functional division is as follows:
- A deictic interjection conveys a – typically emotional – reaction to something in the speech situation.
- An anaphoric interjection conveys a reaction to something said before.
This produces the following cross-classification:
structural
semantic ╲ | primary | secondary |
deictic | Ouch! | Good heavens! |
---|---|---|
anaphoric | No. | Hear, hear! |