Syntactic features. Particles usually refer to the word (or, sometimes, phrase) immediately following and give special prominence to the notion expressed by this word (or

Semantic features

The Interjection

The Particle

Particles usually refer to the word (or, sometimes, phrase) immediately following and give special prominence to the notion expressed by this word (or phrase), or single it out in some other way, depending on the meaning of the particle.

The question of the place of a particle in sentence structure remains

unsolved. The following three solutions are possible:

(1) a particle is a separate secondary member of the sentence, which should be given a special name;

(2) a particle is an element in the part of the sentence which is formed by the word (or phrase) to which the particle refers (thus the particle may be an element of the subject, predicate, object, etc.);

(3) a particle neither makes up a special part of the sentence, nor is it an element in any part of the sentence; it stands outside the structure of the sentence and must be neglected when analysis of a sentence is given.

Each of these three views entails some difficulties and none of them can be proved to be the correct one, so that the decision remains arbitrary.

Interjections have for a long time been an object of controversy. There has

been some doubt whether they are words of a definite language in the same sense

that nouns, verbs, etc. are, and whether they are not rather involuntary outcries, not

restricted to any given language but common to all human beings as biological

phenomena are.

Modern scholars consider interjections part of the word stock of a language

as much as other types of words. Interjections belonging to a certain language may

contain sounds foreign to other languages. Thus, for instance, the Russian interjection ax contains the consonant phoneme [x], which is not found in English,

etc.

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 (увы) 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.

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.

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