Interjections are invariant phrasal units which express the semantics of
a whole sentence, constituting a whole linguistic act. They make use of
the holophrastic language and are used in the spoken language.
Semantic criterium:
- they express a reaction, an order, a request, a hesitation,
a call.
Graphical criterium:
- if it appears at the end of the sentence, it is followed, for the
most, by the exclamation mark or the question mark;
- if the interjection appears at the beginning of the sentence,
the exclamation/question marks appear at the end.
Che c'e, beh? Toh! E' Maria}.
Oh, ora si' che la stanza e' pulita!
Beh, che vuoi?
Interjections can be subdivided into:
- primary: they are characterized by the presence of the
grapheme
h, which, in Italian, appears in final position
ah, eh, beh or in the core of the word ahi, uhm.
- secundary: they constitute an open class, since members of other PoS
can be used as interjections, causing a lot of confusion phenomena
(see below):
noun: cane!
adjective: bravo!
verb: senti!
adverb: dentro!
adposition: su!