Plain English Part 84

Exercise 1

Mark the interjections in the following sentences. Which express surprise? Which joy? Which sorrow? Which disgust?

1. Alas! We shall never meet again.

2. Bravo! You have done well.

3. Pshaw! Is that the best you can do?

4. Ship ahoy! All hands on deck.

5. h.e.l.lo! When did you come?

6. Hurrah! We have won the victory.

7. Alas, alack! Those days will never come again.

8. Hist! You must be as still as mice.

Exercise 2

Write sentences using an interjection to express: 1. Joy. 2. Surprise.

3. Pain. 4. Sorrow. 5. Disgust. 6. To ask a question. 7. To call attention. 8. To silence. 9. To direct. 10. To imitate the sound made by an animal. 11. By a machine.

EXCLAMATORY WORDS

+390.+ Interjections express only emotion or feeling. They do not express ideas. However, we have a number of words which are used somewhat as interjections are used, which we may cla.s.s as exclamatory words, but they express more than interjections, for they express ideas as well as emotions; but, like interjections, they are used independently and have no part in the construction of the sentence.

+391.+ Many ordinary words and phrases are used in this way as exclamations. When they are so used they have no place in the construction of the sentence; that is, they do not depend upon the sentence in which they are used, in any way. A noun used in this way is not used as the subject or the object, but simply as an exclamation.

For example; the noun _nonsense_ may be used as an interjection, as in the sentence; _Nonsense! I do not believe a word of it_. In this sentence, _nonsense_ is a noun used as an interjection and plays no part in the sentence, either as subject or object, but is an independent construction. There are a number of words used in this way:

1. Nouns and p.r.o.nouns, as _fire_, _mercy_, _shame_, _nonsense_, _the idea_, _what_.

2. Verbs like, _help_, _look_, _see_, _listen_, _hark_, _behold_, _begone_.

3. Adjectives like, _good_, _well_, _brave_, _welcome_, _strange_.

4. Adverbs like, _out_, _indeed_, _how_, _why_, _back_, _forward_.

5. Prepositions like, _on_, _up_, _down_.

6. Phrases like, _Oh dear_, _dear me_, _good bye_.

Words and phrases such as these, used as exclamations, are not true interjections, for they express a little more than feeling. They express an idea which, in our haste, we do not completely express. The other words necessary to the expression of the idea are omitted because of the stress of emotion. For example:

Silence! I will hear no more.

In this sentence it is understood that we mean, _Let us have silence, I will hear no more_. But in the stress of our emotion, we have omitted the words, _Let us have_.

If we say, _Good! that will do splendidly_, you know that we mean, _That is good_, we have simply omitted _That is_, which is necessary to complete the sentence. Sometimes when we are greatly excited we abandon our sentence construction altogether and use only the most important words. For example:

A sail! a sail!

This is not a sentence, for it does not contain a verb, yet we know that what was meant was, _I see a sail, I see a sail_.

Exercise 3

Write sentences using the words given in the foregoing list as exclamatory words, and add as many more to the list as you can think of.

YES AND NO

+392.+ The words _yes_ and _no_, which we use in reply to questions were originally adverbs, but we no longer use them as adverbs. We no longer combine them with other words as modifying or limiting words, but use them independently. They are in themselves complete answers. Thus, if you ask me the question, _Will you come?_ I may say _Yes_, meaning, _I will come_; or, _No_, meaning, _I will not come_.

The responsives _yes_ and _no_ thus stand for whole sentences, so they are really independent words. We may use them in connection with other sentences. For example; I may say, _Yes, I will come_, or _No, I will not come_. Used in this way, they still retain an independent construction in the sentence. We call them responsives because they are used in response to questions.

OTHER INDEPENDENT EXPRESSIONS

+393.+ Other words may be used in an independent construction in sentences, without depending upon the sentence in which they are used or without having the sentences depend upon them, such as:

1. +A word used in address.+ For example:

Mr. President, I move that a committee be now appointed.

Fellow Workers, I rise to address you.

In these sentences, _Mr. President_ and _Fellow Workers_ are nouns used independently; that is, they are neither the subject of the sentence nor used as object or predicate complement. They are independent of all other words in the sentence.

The most common use of words used independently in direct address occurs with imperative sentences. For example:

_Comrades_, rouse yourselves.

_Men_, strike for freedom.

2. +Exclamatory expressions.+ These are nouns used in the manner in which we have already discussed, as in the sentence:

_Nonsense!_ I do not believe a word of it.

Alas! poor _Yorick_! I knew him well.

3. +Words and phrases used parenthetically+, as for example:

_By the way_, I met a friend of yours today.

We cannot, _however_, join you at once.

He called, _it seems_, while we were gone.

In these sentences such words as, _however_, and such phrases as, _by the way_, and, _it seems_, are used independently,--in parenthesis, as it were; that is, they are just thrown into the sentences in such a way that they do not modify or depend upon any other word in the sentence.

When we a.n.a.lyze our sentences, these independent words are not considered as elements of the sentences in which they are used. It is sufficient to say that they are independent words.

4. +Conjunctions used as introductory words.+ We have noted the use of conjunctions like the co-ordinates _and_, _but_, etc., and the subordinates _because_, _in order that_, _so_, _for_, _wherefore_, _how_, _whether_, etc., which are used to introduce sentences and connect them in thought with sentences and paragraphs which have gone before.

INTRODUCTORY WORDS