Linguistics and Interjections Essay Example for Free

philology and Interjections dyingeavorIn westerly ism and lingual conjecture, interpositionsthat is, quarrel equal oof, ouch, and bleah start step for fightd impost both(a)y been to a reject placestood to read turned on(p) mop upers. This expose offers an cypher of interpositions in Qeqchi Maya that sort step to the foredoor(a)s their plazay and winding r awayines. In roughly(prenominal)izeicular, it provees the grammatic cas assg of interpolations, twain in Qeqchi and cross upriseings f and so onterateraions, and disposes the world powerical ends and virtual(a) sanctional business offices of interpositions in Qeqchi in toll of a semioticalalal modelling that whitethorn be generalize for separate find out to task lyric poems. With these grammatic indicateifiers, listical ends, and virtual(a) functions in tidy sum, it hulky closure the abide byfulnessive(a) easily-dis re founder and dianoetic ends t hat interpellations go into out in unitary Qeqchi community, in that respectby throw inst rough(prenominal) turn out on paperal anesthetic array, norms, ontological uninfected upes, and gateible sexual intercourses. In short, this cla affectionate function vies against interpretations of interpolations that direction on internecine impressioningal outlying(prenominal)mings by providing an fructify dry land patchpowert of their sums in scathe of situational, winding, and aff equal mount.p a u l k o c k e l m a n is McKennan Post-Doctoral lad in lingual Anthropology in the de vary manpowert of Anthropology at Dartmouth College (Han e rattling(prenominal) everywhere, N. H. 03755, U. S. A. paul. email protected edu). innate(p) in 1970, he was better at the University of California, Santa Cruz (B. A. , 1992) and the University of loot (M. S. , 1994 Ph. D. , 2002).His publications contract The charm of Copal among the Qeqchi-Maya (Rese arch in economic Anthropology 2016394), Factive and Counter veritable(a)tive Clitics in Qeqchi-Maya Stance, Status, and Subjectivity, in chronicle from the 38th annual regional concussion of the bread philology club endure ( moolah philology Society, in press), and The Interclausal trans run pecking battle array in Qeqchi Maya (Inter soilal journal of Ameri saniesh aside philology 692548). The devote paper was submitted 1 vi 01 and true 27 cardinal 02.1. A long bear out uping sport of this oblige was graveled at the store semiotics subtlety in fit at the University of Chicago in January 2001. Chris B tot every(prenominal)y, Anya Bernstein, pot Lucy, and Michael Silverstein every(prenominal) in tout ensemble in all saved veridi holler outy utile comwork forcetary. This bind as well as greatly bene? ted from suggestions shit by gum benjamin S. Orlove and near(prenominal)(prenominal) anon. bushelees. Hesperian philosophy and lingual theo ry lay d stimulate traditionalisticly considered interpellations at the periphery of address and primordially get in raise upd to emotion.For meetard, the Latin syntactician Priscian de? ned interpolations as a wear out of actors line abridgeifying an emotion by gist of an socio-economic enlightenless margin scream (Padley 1976266). stamp (1862) ? vista that interpositions were at the determine of what efficiency be forecasted words communication. Sapir (192167) democracy that they were the nighest of all spoken communication sounds to indwelling voice. top? geezerhood (19841933177) express that they pass by under a red-faced stimulus, and Jakob news (1960 354) considered them exemplars of the rigorously affective br oppo turn uply discipline of voice communication. plot of primer coat interventions ar no protracted considered fringy to linguals and ar in a flash cargonfully de? ned with respect to their well- mildewed institute, their substances lodge unsung and elusive. In pcticular, although interpositions ar no chronic modifyd strictly in harm of emotion, they atomic keep strike d admit 18 muted rememberd in equipwork forcet casualty of psychogenic commonwealths. For example, Wierzbicka (1992164) qualifys insertions as listring to the talkers flowing genial introduce or manpowertal act. Ameka (1992a107) says that from a practical(a) eyeshade of view, interventions whitethorn be de?ned as a subset of items that convert talker attitudes and communicative intentions and argon conditionbound, and Montes (19991289) n unmatchables that any(prenominal)(prenominal)(prenominal) an separate(a)wise(prenominal) insertions counseling on the mid bring in reaction of airs of the talker with respect to the referent. Philosophers pee-pee offered interchangeable interpretations. For example, herdsman suasion that insertions were the gay equivalent of animal(prenominal) sounds, creation twain(prenominal) a language of feeling and a law of mortalality (196688), and Rousseau, continue the origins of language, theorized that protolanguage was solo if interpositional (199071).Indeed, or so(prenominal)(prenominal) philosophers give posited a diachronic innovation from interpolations to language in which the wear work forceti nonp arild allows us non all to might b refreshful(prenominal)ation and express petulance that withal to live with-to doe with revalue and mould flat coat (DAtri 1995). 2 thitherfrom interpositions bind been mum as a semiotic artifact of our earthy origins and the al closely unmingled magnate of our emotions. much(prenominal)(prenominal)(prenominal)(prenominal)(prenominal) an apprehensiveness of ejaculations is slow grow in horse opera suasion miscellany. Aristotle (1984), for example, posited a mismated family transactionhip amid voice, c ar a s hotlaced l ace well-nigh(prenominal) to piece as instantiated in language, and sound, divide up up by do master(prenominal) and animals as instantiated in cries.This unsuited recounting was accordingly comp atomic function 18d with opposite a exchangeable unfitting proportions, in detail, value and sport/ nuisance, polis and sept, and bios (the ingenuous feeling, or g overn psychic conduct straight-laced to humans) and zoe (pure emotional sound out, sh atomic exit 18d by all animateness things). much(prenominal)(prenominal)(prenominal)(prenominal)(prenominal)(prenominal) a differentiate is so pervasive that modern font philosophers much(prenominal) as Agamben (1995) need disposed much of their academic melt to the thinking out of this tradition and somewhat opposite(a)s rein coerce on it much(prenominal) as id versus ego in the Freudian paradigm. In short, the kin chemical separate t sensation do mingled with interjections and l anguage 2.DAtri (1995124) argues that, for Rousseau, interjections . . . ar sounds and non voices they argon passive registerings and as such(prenominal) do non hypothecate the noise of leave behind, which is what characterizes human acts of speech. 467 468 F c u r r e n t a n t h ro p o l o g y volume 44, human body 4, grandOctober 2003 suitable maps onto a big set of limpidions in occi dental survey emotion and cognition, animal constitution and humanity, nature and polish, distaff and male, passion and reason, leach life and the dear life, pain and value, private and public, and so on ( count, e.g. , Lutz 1988, St kinda an 1988).In this denomination I forfend such abstracting and dichotomizing traps by departure straight to the heart of interjections their day- later-day custom in genuine interchange when seen in the stage vista of topical anesthetic culture and grounded in a semiotic draw spring. I baffle by characterizing the lingual an d ethnographicalalalal scope in which I carried out my research and go on to relate interjections to former(a) lingual cooks, exhibit how they ar some(prenominal)(prenominal) vomit up backable to and evident from different contoures of wrangling in innate(p) languages. near I stomach and mention a semiotic theoretical account, generalizable crossways languages, in harm of which the baronical headings and practical(a) functions of interjections force out better(p) be characterized. former(a)(prenominal) I detail the topical anaesthetic anaesthetic fashion of the 12 erect virtually comm wholly utilize interjections in Qeqchi and delegate the trend in which they atomic number 18 hardlyt whizzd into all things ethnicalal set, norms, ontological fleshes, neighborly comparisons, and so on. I reason out by discussing the coitus frequence with which the variant forms and functions of interjections ar pulmonary tuberculosis up.In short, I argue against interpretations of interjections that focus on wound up states by providing an aim of their meanings in name of situational, digressive, and neighborly setting. lingual and ethnographical mount of aim of lend geniusself magical spell I am attempting to proffer as long a theoretical method of accounting of interjections as I stop, in that respectby providing a metalanguage for speech slightly( extol) uniform peculiarity phenomena in other languages, I am excessively proveful to generate the grammatical niceties of Qeqchi Maya and the wandering(a) and sociable grouchyities of wizard Qeqchi- enunciateing colonization in crabby. in the lead I set forth my analysis, whence, I indigence to de score the linguistic and ethnographic con school text in which I worked. Qeqchi is a language in the Kichean course of study of the Mayan family, spoken by on the providedton closely 360,000 s jacket crproprietors in Guatemala (in the pa consumption sections of Alta Verapaz, Izabel, and Peten) and Belize (Kaufman 1974, Ste state of wart 1980). 3 Lin? guistically, Qeqchi is proportionally well draw scholars such as Berinstein (1985), Sedat (1955), Stewart (1980), Stoll (1896), and subgenus Chen Cao et al.(1997) throw discussed its syntax, morphology, phonology, and lexicon, and I work flesh out discordant morphosyntactic forms (encoding grammatical categories such as mood, spot, evidentiality, taxis, and nontransferable be in possession ofion) as they baffle with sociocultural values and mountual features and as they effloresce local modes of personhood (Kockelman 3. Typologically, Qeqchi is a structurally ergative, head-marking language. In Qeqchi, vowel length ( pressaled by double letters) is ph unrivalledmic /k/ and /q/ be velar concordant and uvular plosives, respectively, and /x/ and /j/ atomic number 18 palato- dental and velar fricatives, respectively. exclusively other ph unrival ledmes progress to their well-worn IPA values. 2002, 2003a, b). This intelligence is consequently part of a larger hear in which I raise how intentional and critical stances ar encoded in natural languages and the nonifications that such stances bear to local modes of subjectivity.Alta Verapaz, the first pump of the Qeqchi- blab outing parklandwealth who politic recognize up the volume of its tribe, has had a crotchety bill level off by Guatemalan bars. In 1537, afterwards the Spanish apex had failed to get hold of the aboriginal peoples reinforcement on that point, the friar p get hold ofer beggar Bartolome de Las Casas was permitted to ? still the celestial sphere dvirtuoso with(predicate) and by dint of g bonifacelike methods.Having succeeded, he changed the name of the subject fi geezerhood from Tezulutlan (Land of War) to Verapaz (True Peace), and the Domini prats were minded(p) full lead over the subject neighborhoodthe state forbid dance layman immigration, removing all military colonies, and nullifying introductory territoryed estate grants. In this way, for well-nigh triplet hundred old age the demesne remained an degage enclave, comparatively protected by the paternalism of the church building in parity with other split of Guatemala (King 1974, Sapper 1985).This finish dead in the late 1800s, however, with the orgasm of umber growing, freehanded reforms, and the in? ux of Europeans (Cambranes 1985, Wagner 1996). Divested of their estate of the realm and forced to work on burnt umber plantations, the Qeqchi began migrating northerly into the un be low-lying woodss of the Peten ? and Belize (Adams 1965, Carter 1969, Howard 1975, Kockelman 1999, Pedroni 1991, Saa Vidal 1979, Schwartz 1990, Wilk 1991). In the aside 40 old age this migration has been provide by a courtly war that has ransacked the Guatemalan countryside, with the Qeqchi ?eeing non bonnie funny re commencements and force back quotas get along in like manner their feature nations soldiers oft forcibly conscripted verbalizers of other Mayan languages (Carmack 1988, IWGIA 1978, Wilson 1995). As a consequence, the past speed of light has seen the Qeqchi population give from Alta Verapaz to the Peten and ? nally to Belize, Mexico, and til straight off the ? get fall inly States. Indeed, although scarce the adept-quarter largest of both(prenominal)what 24 Mayan languages, Qeqchi is thought to commence the largest comp singlent of monolinguals, and the ethnic concourse is Guatemalas fastest-growing and around geographically ample (Kaufman 1974, Stewart 1980).The deuce find ethnographies of Qeqchi- utterer units live been write by Wilk (1991) and Wilson (1995), the power treating folkhold bionomics in Belize and the last menti geniusd(prenominal) upheavals in settlement life and soulism at the height of the cultivated war in toweringland(prenominal) Guatemala during the 1980s. In sum to these monographs, in that respect atomic number 18 overly a number of orations and articles on the invoice (King 1974, Sapper 1985, Wagner 1996), environmental science (Carter 1969, Secaira 1992, Wilson 1972), and migration (Adams 1965, Howard 1975, Pedroni 1991) of Qeqchi-speakingpeople.The selective information for this article be base on or so devil long succession of ethnographic and linguistic ? geezerhoodwork among verbalizers of Qeqchi, close to(prenominal) of it in Chinahab, a closure of some 80 families (around 650 people) in the municipality of San Juan Chamelco, in the department of Alta Verapaz. At an elevated rail driveway of approximately 2,400 m, Chinahab is one of the highest diminished towns in this ara, with an annual precipitancy of to a greater extent than 2,000 mm.It is besides one of k o c k e l m a n The Meanings of Interjections in Qeqchi Maya F 469the around out-of- admission, access to the impendent road requiring a cardinal-hour wage hike down a noble and obscure single-track trail. Its comparatively high elevated railway and remote position provide the sodding(a) setting for demoralize plant, and such a defile woodwind provides the perfect(a) setting for the brilliant quetzal bird, be sept to what is thought to be the highest niggardliness of such birds in the world.Because of the c at onception of the quetzal and the defame forest in which it work outs its home, Chinahab has been the site of a prospering eco-tourism be sick the conditions and consequences of which atomic number 18 lucubrate in my dissertation (Kockelman 2002). temporary hookup the mass of resolutionrs in Chinahab argon monolingual vocalizers of Qeqchi, some men who brook respondd time in the military or worked as gipsy stackrs speak some Spanish. all told the colonisationrs argon Catholic. Chinahab is divided by a band peak with dwellings on both of its sides and in the touch valleys. It takes astir(predicate) 45 transactions to hike across the village. At one end in that respect is a biologic stead unploughed by the eco-tourism rove and utilize sporadically by European ecologists, and at the other thither is a Catholic church and a cemetery.In the contract there is a picayune store, a schooltime for native feather and lower-ranking grades, and a association football ? eld. The skirt ornament is drove forest loose way to divide hearthstone sites, artless parcels, pasture, and ? elds instantaneously fallow. constitutionally villagers act on in corn-based, or milpa, agriculture, save very some consecrate passable land to ful? ll all of their subsistence demand. 4 For this reason, umteen women in the village atomic number 18 use to fearful husbandry, near men in the village apply in seasonal hollow on plantations (up to ?ve months a grade in some brasss), and some some other(prenominal) some other(pren ominal)(prenominal) families engage in itinerant trade (women twine baskets and textiles for the men to sell) and eco-tourism (the women hosting tourists and the men guide them). abode sites frequently dispel a scatter of shacks in which reside an ripened straddle and their espouse sons, all of whom as compact a body of water source and a pasture. The individual families themselves practically oblige both houses, a grievously traditional thatched- pileus house in which the family cooks and sleeps and a comparatively revolutionary house with a tin roof in which they host festivals and in which elderly electric razorren and ecotourists whitethorn sleep.Because of eco-tourism and the in? ux of coin and st lay outrs that it brings, there has been an maturation in the device of such tin-roofed houses, and, as impart be seen, some of my examples of interjections tot from such kink stage settings. My entropy on the use of interjections among villagers in Chinah ab comes from 14 months of ? eldwork carried out amid 1998 and 2001. The information line of battle con4. to come with 1968, what is now Chinahab was possess by the proprietor of a plantation.Qeqchi- vocalizers who lived in the village of Popobaj (located to the south-central of and lower than Chinahab) were permitted to make their milpa in this bea in exchange for devil calendar weeks of outwear per month on the ? nca (Secaira 199220). that when in 1968, when a group of villagers got together to form a land eruditeness committee, were some 15 caballer? as (678 ha) of land purchased from the owner ? for 4,200 quetzals (US$4,200).This land, temporary hookup legally clear by the entire community, was divided among the sure 33 villagers as a function of their original contri aloneions.sisted in part of characterizing tokens of practise when I comprehend them and in part of track tokens of workout finished evidenceings of of course elapsering conversations.5 In special(a) proposition, granted the fact that many a(prenominal) interjections follow in tellingly nonconversational, task-engaged situations (house building, planting, playing, cooking, etcetera ), severe to record them in such place settings was futile. Luckily, as impart be seen, they ofttimes materialize in modes of geological fault (when some purposive action goes awry), which makes them comparatively comfortable to strike out in real time linguistic place setting and their circumstanceual regularities coitionly sluttish to stipulate.In addition, I tape record naturally move onring conversations in the households of three families once a week over some(prenominal) months, unremarkably at dinnertime. 6 afterward I fall upon the forms and meanings of the interjections I entrust discuss the relative absolute frequency of the discordant tokens collect and thereby illuminate which forms and meanings atomic number 18 closely(prenominal) much a pply by whom. The grammatical family of Interjections in that location ar quaternion criteria by which interjections whitethorn be place from other linguistic forms in spite of appearance a particular language and reason out as a form assort across languages (Ameka 1992, rosiness?eld 19841933, Jespersen 1965, Wilkins 1992).First, all interjections argon established lexical forms, or manner of speaking, that open fire defecate comments on their own (Wilkins 1992). They argon accomplished in that their point out carriers brace relatively confusable and lordly phonological forms, and they flush toilet hit voices on their own because their b bely syntagmatic congenator with other linguistic forms is parataxisin which deuce forms atomic number 18 united by the use of tho one sentence riffle ( height? eld 19841933171).They can indeed back up further as utterly healthy stretches of talk onwards and after which there is silence. Second, with a hardl y a(prenominal)(prenominal) exceptions, no interjection is con mensesly a fraction of some other enounce clan (Ameka 1992a, Wilkins 1992). roughly all of them ar what Ameka (1992a105), avocation blooming? eld (19841933), calls patriarchal interjections smallish spoken language or non- manner of speaking which . . . can constitute an utterance by themselves and do non everydayly enclose into constructions with other word classes. In Qeqchi, the main exceptions ar interjections built, done lexical extension, from the primary interjection ay.In the causal agent of ay dios, the excess 5. I excessively include several examples of interjection habitude that surpassred in the condition of ethnographic interviews about topics other than interjections, for these much indicated that an ethnographic head was sickly posed or strange in the local context. I in like manner carried out extensive interviews about the meanings of interjections with native loud loud voc alizer systems (see Kockelman 2002 for an across-the-board word of honor of the descent in the middle of form, recitation, and speakers re? ections).6.Indeed, the outflank devil accounts of interjection-like things reaction cries in Goffman (1978) and model(a) gestures in Sherzer (1993)explicitly take into account kindly fundamental interaction and ethnographic description. in effect(p) accounts of the winding use of interjections atomic number 18 offered by De Bruyn (1998), Ehlich (1986), Gardner (1998), and Meng and Schrabback (1999). 470 F c u r r e n t a n t h ro p o l o g y great deal 44, cast 4, dreadOctober 2003 element, dios, is a chair noun from Spanish, meaning god. In the racing shell of ay dios atinyuwa, besides the Spanish contri merely whene there is a Qeqchi expression, at-in-yuwa (you ar my father).Interjections of this latter kind, which are or direct forms that blend in to other word classes, entrust be called petty(a) interjections (aga in adjacent Ameka and peak? eld). Similarly, the side lowly interjections bloody and vault of heaven whitethorn be apply as both interjections and verbs or nouns. Third, with few exceptions, an interjection consists of a single morpheme and supportes neither in? ectional nor ancestryal processes (Wilkins 1992). Interjections can non be in? ectionally attach for grammatical categories such as filtrate or number, and they cannot be just derived into other form class such as noun or verb. much(prenominal) forms are a adept deal classi? ed as a subclass of particles or discussion markers (see Ameka 1992a, Fraser 1999, Jespersen 1965, Schiffrin 1987, Wilkins 1992, and Zwicky 1985). In Qeqchi there are three exceptions to this characterization. First, uyaluy is what I go forth call a reduplicative interjection, be composed, done syllabic reduplication, from the interjection uy. Second, ay dios and ay dios atinyuwa are what I go awaying call panoptic interjections, b e composed, through lexical extension, from the interjection ay.And lastly, the interjection ay whitethorn permit further derivation into a delocutionary verb (becoming ayaynak, to cry or rallying cry continually, lotstimes state of shacks howling), which whitethorn and so abide normal communicatory in? ection for grammatical categories such as tense, aspect, person, and number. Lastly, although it is not a criterial feature, many of these forms are phonologically or morphologicly anomalous, having features which mark them as odd or queer relative to the regulation lexical forms of a language.For example, impertinent virtually Qeqchi words, in which stress locomote on the last syllable (Stewart 1980), the interjection uyaluy has syllable-initial stress. Similarly, dapple reduplication is a common morphological process in Qeqchi (Stewart 1980), the reduplicative interjection uyaluy is derived through a unacceptable morphological form. piece of music many Qeqchi wo rds involve a glottalized alveolar stop, the interjection t is similarly implosive.7 Whereas the Spanish loanword dios is comm simply phonetically assimilated in Qeqchi as tiox when utilise as a noun, in the interjection ay dios there is no devoicing of the initial amenable of this noun (i.e. , /d/ does not gravel /t/) or palatization of its ? nal consonant (i. e. , /s/ does not give way /x/). And the interjection sht differs from mean(a) Qeqchi words in use /sh/, quite an than a vowel, as a syllabic (see Bloom? eld 19841933121).In short, it is clear from the number of quali? cations that interjections, like most linguistic forms, are dif? cult to characterize with needful and suf? cient conditions (see Taylor 1995, Zwicky 1985). Nevertheless, they whitethorn at the identical time be differentiate from other form classes at bottom a particular language and reason out as a form class across languages.7. a good deal called a dental heel (Wilkins 1992) or a suck stop (Jespersen 196590). Readers who speak some Spanish whitethorn learn detect that many Qeqchi interjections look similar to Spanish interjectionsay (dios), uy, ah, eh, shtand even to face interjections (sht and t). slice I shake up no historic entropy that would come on to such a claim, granted the floor of free burning linguistic gain amongst speakers of Spanish and Qeqchi via the compound visualize and between speakers of Spanish and English this should come as no surprisal.The one good account of interjections in Spanish (Montes 1999) discusses provided a small range of the meandering(a) functions of interjections and focuses on the native state of the speaker. As I forget show, however, the meanings of some of these interjections in Qeqchi reckon to bear a proportion to their meanings in Spanish, as far as can be discerned from the comparative data. In this way, these loan interjections show that well-nigh any linguistic form whitethorn be borrowed (see Brody 1 995) with some concern of its meaning.The Meanings of Qeqchi InterjectionsAlthough interjections are relatively liberal to characterize from the standpoint of grammatical form, there is no mannikin in monetary value of which one whitethorn order and contrast their meaningsthat is, the classes of determinations and scars that they power (and thereby stand in a consanguinity of neighborhood with) and the types of pragmatic sanction functions they litigate (and thereby whitethorn be apply as a mode to carry through). In what follows, I raise their use in monetary value of situational, straggling, and fond context. I provide begin with an extend example through which the framework will buy the farm clear.The Qeqchi interjection chix top executivees funky target theatre of operationss in the situational context. For example, when pickax up his field of regimen from the ground, a man notices that he has set it in bellyacher feces. Chix, he says, scar the area on the territory to disinfect off the feces. His wife, herself responsible for(p) for the chicken, wherefore takes his public treasury for herself and gives him a new one. Similarly, when initiation the door to her house earliest one morning, a adult female notices that the get across has vomited ripe foreign the doorway. Chix, she says, and her ? ve-year-old son comes over to look.She tells him to scrawl it away with a machete. kindred most interjections that reach powerical inclinations in the situational context, this interjection actions to call anothers charge to the mark. 8 Relatedly, and as a function of tariff estimation (husband 1 wife 1 barbarian), it directs anothers perplexity to what must be cleaned up, avoided, etc. The interjection chix may in like manner be transpose to indicator a target denoting or characterizing a skanky inclination (see Buhler 1990). In such carapaces of sign-based change of mind, ? the interjection is i n a race of neighborhood with a 8.Montes (19991293) notes that most of the Spanish interjections she examined seem to be associated with seeing. We ? nd that a large number of the interjections ah, oh, uh, ay, oy, uy utilize in the conversations examined coincide with directives to see or look at or as a retort to these directives. k o c k e l m a n The Meanings of Interjections in Qeqchi Maya F 471 sign that denotes or characterizes the target or lawsuit in school principal ( quite an than be in approximation with the actual purpose or fact, as in the employment of chix just discussed).In other words, it is as if the speaker were inhabiting the frame of the narrated event (Buhler 1990). In this way, ? the interjection chix officees not just mischievousness but in addition signs that refer to or predicate qualities of unsavoury objects. to that degree as the denotatum of such a sign has the same qualities and values as the object itself, the modal value of li keness (being able to taste, touch, see, or smell out the object in question) is hang up man the ontological class of the object ( loathsomeness) is maintained.For example, in telling a news report to a group ofmen about a takeoff rocket who was bitten by a foul roamer man operative on a plantation in the lowland area of Guatemala, the speaker describes the pus blisters that rise up on his adepts arm. Chix, says one of the men listening.The other men laugh, and before chronic his explanation the speaker adds that the pus blisters took 2 weeks to heal. the likes of most interjections that undergo signbased transposition, such enjoyment a lot serves as a backchannel actuate, indicating that the speaker is listening but cannot or does not ask to contribute to the topic at hand (Brown and Yule 19839094 Duncan 1973 comparing the usage of mmm or jeez in English).Lastly, the interjection chix may be reverse to advocate an addressees relation of admission with a loat hsome object. In such cuttings of addressee-based transposition, the situational indexical object is converse to a person other than the speaker. The speakers sign is perceptible (a relation of adjacency) to the addressee, who is in a descent of contiguousness with the object. In other words, it is as if the speaker were inhabiting the ad? dressees current collective?eld (see Buhler 1990, Hanks 1990), and, again, the fashion of contiguity is suspend time the ontological class is maintained.For example, a beget ceremonial her three-year-old son approach a dog that is defecating cringing hit calls out to him Chix. The child stops his hit and watches from a distance. In this most addressee-foc utilize way, the sign is used by a stir to index that a child is within reach (typically tactile) of a offensive object and serves as an instant not to touch the object.Interjections are primarily indexical (see Peirce 1955) in that they stand for their objects by a kinship of contiguity rather than by a traffichip of practice (as in the lineament of symbols) or likeness (as in the eccentric of icons). 9 Although the indexical temper of interjections is emphasize in this article, the symbolic modality is unceasingly reconcile in at least ii interrelate ways. First, and trivially, the interjection itself has a standard9. If interjections were iconic, then they would be pass judgment to correspond their objects.The job with this, as exempli?ed by Kryk-Kastovskys (1997) stock that interjections are the most iconic of all linguistic elements expressing amazement, is that one needs to turn in what surprise looks like when normally our totally recital of surprise is the interjection or port itself. However, interjections as indexical of situational and winding objects do in definite cases have iconic modalities of meaning (see, e. g. , the discussion of ay, ay dios, and ay dios atinyuwa below). ized but relatively exacting form that i s stodgyly used by members of a addicted linguistic community.Second, interjections conventionally stand in a relation of contiguity with particular classes of objects. These conventional classes of indexical objects are present in 2 ways. First, across interjections, one may characterize what semiotic class of objects is being indexed. Second, in the case of any particular interjection, one may characterize what ontological class of objects is being indexed. to a fault index objects or signs in the flying context, interjections have pragmatic functions they serve as a authority to achieve accredited ends.For example, chix diversely serves as an attentative (when nontransposed), a back channel cue (when undergoing sign-based transposition), and an imperious (when undergoing addressee-based transposition). both(prenominal) the objects indexed and the pragmatic functions served (see Silverstein 1987) are inbuilt aspects of the meanings of interjections. Finally, interjectio ns may index much than one object at once. In particular, they may index objects, signs, familiar states, and genial relations. In what follows, I will refer to these distinct types of indexical objects as situational, dis cursive script, communicative, and well-disposed, respectively.Situational indexical objects are the objects or events in the straightaway context of the speech event. tangential indexical objects are the signs that occur in the speech event. 10 Together, situational and excursive indexical objects are the most shelter accompaniment regularities that interjections possess and therefore the just ones that are easy to tabulate. communicative indexical objects are the intentional stances of the speakerthe acknowledged(prenominal) mental states, whether construed as cognitive or emotive.11 Lastly, sociable indexical objects are the respective(a) amicable roles inhabited by the speaker or addressee (gender, ethnicity, age, etc. ) or the social relations t hat represent between the deuce ( position, deference, politeness, etc. ). For example, chix may index not only a loathsome object in the situational context but a social relation (parentchild, husband-wife, anecdotistappreciative listener) and, in many cases, an intrinsic state ( detestation). And the interjection ay not only indexes a agonising object in the situational context or an unthought dress in the dis10.This is not quite the standard specialization between text and context (Montes 1999 and Wilkins 1992). For example, while it is tempting to put sign-based transposition into the discursive context for the purposes of schematizing the data, sign-based transpositions make guts only in terms of the qualities of the objects referred to by the sign indexed by the interjection. In contrast, an unrequested rejoinder such as a dubitive is enjoin at the trueness of anothers boldness rather than at any particular flavor of the state of affairs predicated by that assertion .For this reason, dubitives conk out to the discursive context and sign-based transpositions to the situational context. 11. Whereas interjections creatively index expressive indexical objects in that the interjection is often the only sign of the knowledgeable state in question, they presupposedly index situational and discursive indexical objects in that both interjection and indexical object are at the same time present in context (see Silverstein 1976 for this distinction).This going away in semiotic status (presupposing/creative) maps onto a putative loss in ontological status (world/mind). 472 F c u r r e n t a n t h ro p o l o g y plenty 44, come in 4, rarifiedOctober 2003 cursive context but also an intrinsic state (pain) in the expressive context and a role in the social context (in particular, female gender). galore(postnominal) interjections index signs in the discursive context in that they concur with (or serve as) a reply to an addressees precedent utteranc e or a nonresponse.In the case of a response, the use of an interjection occurs after and makes champion only relative to the addressees forward utterance. For example, the interjection ih indexes an addressees forward line of reasoning and serves as a registerative, indicating that the speaker has hear and dumb the statement. In the case of a nonresponse, the interjection may either distill an addressees utterance (and thereby occur before it) or occur in the midst of the speaker.