Italian interjections are invariable words used to express a sudden emotion such as joy, pain, anger, surprise, fear, danger, disappointment, anger, impatience, encouragement, or contempt. Traditionally, it is customary to think of the interjection as the ninth part of speech (parte del discorso). But unlike other parts of speech, the interjection has no syntactic connection with the sentence it is associated with, given that it constitutes a sentence by itself. Since interjections can condense impulsive sentiments in a brief expression, they are used particularly in the spoken language, where their meanings are highly variable depending on the modulation of the voice and the context in which they are spoken. In the written language interjections are frequently found in theatrical texts, which, more than others, try to imitate the modulation of speech. Interjections have a range of intonations, which can only be partly rendered in writing. To reproduce the emphatic tone characteristic of interjections it is necessary to use the exclamation point (punto esclamativo): Oh!, Ahi!, Ohimè!, Puah! Frequently the exclamation point is placed at the end of the phrase that follows; in this case there is a comma after the interjection: Diamine, state esagerando! If the tone of the sentence is a mix of surprise and doubt, the exclamation point can be combined with a question mark (punto interrogativo): Come?! Interiezioni proprie (proper interjections) (for example, Oh!, Ahi!, Beh!, Mah!, Boh!, Sssh!) are characterized, in writing, by the presence of the letter h, which serves a double function. It is used to avoid confusion with other words (for example, oh, without the letter h, could be confused with the conjunction o, and ahi could be confused with the prepositional article ai), and it is used to render graphically the particular modulation of the voice with which interjections are spoken.
Posted on: Wed, 27 Aug 2014 05:14:51 +0000