Cover not available
Part of
Discourse Phenomena in Typological Perspective
Edited by Alessandra Barotto and Simone Mattiola
[Studies in Language Companion Series 227] 2023
► pp. 65–89

Chapter 4
The use of interjections as a discourse phenomenon

A contrastive study of Chuvash (Turkic) and Wan (Mande)

| CNRS-LACITO
| CNRS-LACITO
| University of Picardie Jules Verne

This study describes and compares two conventionalized uses of interjections in traditional narratives in Chuvash (Turkic) and Wan (Mande). First, interjections are shown to be associated with a quotative function: they help signal instances of reported speech. The use of interjections interacts with the grammatical marking of reported speech: the presence of an interjection is negatively correlated with the presence of a grammaticalized quotative element. Second, in Chuvash, but not in Wan, interjections are used, outside the context of reported speech, to emphasize an event’s intensity or duration. We relate the absence of an intensifying function in Wan to competition between interjections and ideophones. The two phenomena shed light on the interaction between interjections and language-specific grammatical and lexical resources.

Keywords: interjections, Mande, Turkic, reported speech, narrative grammar
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The quotative function
    • 2.1Interjections help signal reported speech
    • 2.2In the context of reported speech, interjections tend towards initial positions
    • 2.3The prosody of quotative uses
  • 3.Functions outside reported speech
    • 3.1The intensifying use in Chuvash
    • 3.2The prosody of the intensifying use
    • 3.3Absence of the intensifying use in Wan
  • 4.Heterogeneity among interjections
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
Published online: 1 March 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.227.04nik
References
Aijmer, Karin
2004 Interjections in a contrastive perspective. In Emotion in Dialogic Interaction: Advances in the Complex [Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 248], Edda Weigand (ed), 99–120. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ameka, Felix
1992 Interjections: The universal yet neglected part of speech. Journal of Pragmatics 18(2–3): 101–118. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Aznar, Jocelyn
2021 Silent gaps as a distinctive feature of direct speech: A corpus study of Nisvai narratives, Vanuatu. Presentation at the Workshop “From Dialogue to Grammar”, University of Helsinki.
Chanard, Christian
2015 ELAN-CorpA: Lexicon-aided annotation in ELAN. In Corpus-based Studies of Lesser-described Languages: The CorpAfroAs Corpus of Spoken AfroAsiatic Languages [Studies in Corpus Linguistics 68], Amina Mettouchi, Martine Vanhove & Dominique Caubet (eds), 311–332. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Coulmas, Florian
2011 Direct and Indirect Speech. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Dingemanse, Mark
2017 On the margins of language ideophones, interjections and dependencies in linguistic theory. In Dependencies in Language: On the Causal Ontology of Linguistic Systems, Nicholas J. Enfield (ed), 193–202. Berlin: Language Science Press.Google Scholar
Drescher, Martina
1997 French interjections and their use in discourse: Ah dis donc les vieux souvenirs. In The Language of Emotions: Conceptualization, Expression, and Theoretical Foundation, Susanne Niemeier & René Dirven (eds), 233–246. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Evans, Nicholas J.
2013 Some problems in the typology of quotation: A canonical approach. In Canonical Morphology and Syntax, Dunstan Brown, Marina Chumakina & Greville G. Corbett (eds), 48–98. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
Goffman, Erving
1981 Forms of Talk. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Güldemann, Tom
2008 Quotative Indexes in African Languages: A Synchronic and Diachronic Survey. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hantgan, Abbie
2020 Dogon reported discourse markers: The Ben Tey quotative topicalizer. Folia Linguistica 54(3): 581–613. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Johanson, Lars
2021 Turkic. Cambridge: CUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Klewitz, Gabriele & Couper-Kuhlen, Elizabeth
1999 Quote – unquote? The role of prosody in the contextualization of reported speech sequences. Pragmatics 9(4): 459–485.Google Scholar
Knyazev, Mikhail
2019 Two ‘say’-complementizers in Poshkart Chuvash: Subject-orientation, logophoricity and indexical shift under verbs of hearing. In Proceedings of the 14th Workshop on Altaic Formal Linguistics (WAFL14) [MIT Working Papers in Linguistics 90], Tatiana Bondarenko, Colin Davis, Justin Colley & Dmitry Privoznov (eds), 137–144. Cambridge MA: MIT.Google Scholar
Kockelman, Paul
2003 The meanings of interjections in Q’eqchi’ Maya: From emotive reaction to social and discursive action. Current Anthropology 44(4): 467–490. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lillo-Martin, Diana
2012 Utterance reports and constructed action. In Sign Language: An International Handbook, Roland Pfau, Markus Steinbach & Bencie Woll (eds), 365–387. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Martínez Caro, Elena & Borreguero, Margarita
2016 Discourse markers in reported speech: Evidence from English and Spanish. Presentation at the FDG Conference, Vienna.
Nedjalkov, Vladimir & Otaina, Galina
2013 A Syntax of the Nivkh Language: The Amur Dialect [Studies in Language Companion Series 139]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Nikitina, Tatiana
2012a Personal deixis and reported discourse: Towards a typology of person alignment. Linguistic Typology 16(2): 233–263.Google Scholar
2012b Logophoric discourse and first person reporting in Wan (West Africa). Anthropological Linguistics 54(3): 280–301. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2018 When linguists and speakers do not agree: The endangered grammar of verbal art in West Africa. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 28(2): 1–24. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Nikitina, Tatiana & Bugaeva, Anna
2021 Logophoric speech is not indirect: Towards a syntactic approach to reported speech constructions. Linguistics 59(3): 609–633. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Nikitina, Tatiana & Hantgan, Abbie & Chanard, Christian
2019 Reported speech annotation template for ELAN. Villejuif: LLACAN. [URL]Google Scholar
Nikitina, Tatiana, Aplonova, Ekaterina, Hantgan-Sonko, Abbie, Jordanoska, Izabela & Perekhvalskaya, Elena
eds In preparation The SpeechReporting Corpus: Discourse Reporting in Storytelling Villejuif-Paris CNRS-LLACAN [URL]
Nikitina, Tatiana & Vydrina, Alexandra
2020 Reported speech in Kakabe: Loose syntax with flexible indexicality. Folia Linguistica 54(1): 133–166. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Norrick, Neal
2009 Interjections as pragmatic markers. Journal of Pragmatics 41(5): 866–891. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2015 Interjections. In Corpus Pragmatics, Karin Aijmer & Christoph Rühlemann (eds), 249–279. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar
O’Connell, Daniel & Kowal, Sabine & Ageneau, Carie
2005 Interjections in interviews. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research 34(2):153–171. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Quer, Josep
2011 Reporting and quoting in signed discourse. In Understanding Quotation, Elke Brendel, Jörg Meibauer & Markus Steinbach (eds), 277–302. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ravenhill, Philip L.
1982 The Wan language. Mandenkan 4: 57–69.Google Scholar
No date. Philip L. Ravenhill papers, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution.
Reinöhl, Uta & Casaretto, Antje
2018 When grammaticalization does not occur: Prosody-syntax mismatches in Indo-Aryan. Diachronica 35(2): 238–276. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Savelyev, Alexander
2020 Chuvash and the Bulgharic languages. In The Oxford Guide to the Transeurasian Languages, Martine Robbeets & Alexander Savelyev (eds), 446–464. Oxford: OUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Spronck, Stef & Nikitina, Tatiana
2019 Reported speech forms a dedicated syntactic domain. Linguistic Typology 23(1): 119–159. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Taavitsainen, Irma
1995 Interjections in Early Modern English: From imitation of spoken to conventions of written language. In Historical Pragmatics: Pragmatic Developments in the History of English [Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 35], Andreas H. Jucker (ed), 439–465. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2020 Interjections in early popular literature: Stereotype and innovation. In Voices Past and Present: Studies of Involved, Speech-related and Spoken [Studies in Corpus Linguistics 97], Ewa Jonsson & Tove Larsson (eds), 79–93. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wharton, Tim
2003 Interjections, language, and the “showing/saying” continuum. Pragmatics & Cognition 11(1): 39–91. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wierzbicka, Anna
1991 Interjections across cultures. In Cross-Cultural Pragmatics: The Semantics of Human Interaction, Werner Winter (ed), 285–340. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wilkins, David
1992 Interjections as deictics. Journal of Pragmatics 18(2–3): 119–158. DOI logoGoogle Scholar