What is an interjection?

Answer 1

A word or group of words used to express surprise or a sudden feeling

Answer 2

Interjections demonstrate emotion and are usually separated from the rest of the sentence by an exclamation point, and sometimes by a comma if the emotion is less stressed.

Some examples would be:

• Darn! I missed the ball.
• Shoot, we're going to be late.

Often, most often, it begins the sentence, but this is not a hard, fast rule.

Answer 3

It is an insertion into a paragraph or larger piece of text or prose that is at least somewhat disconnected from the central thought or idea. The classic example is found in the first stanza of the Robert Frost poem Birches. In the poem Frost starts to craft an idyllic story of how birch trees become bent by boys swinging on them. Then a voice whom Frost identifies as "Truth" interjects that "ice storms do that. Frost describes this as "Truth breaking in with all her matter of fact."

While an interjective is seemingly disconnected from the main idea or thrust in a literal sense. It's function is often to strenghten the main idea by providing a bit of contrast.

Within prose or poetry that is not intended for the stage, an interjective may also serve a similar function as an asidein a theatrical work. It can be a way of stepping outside of the main flow of the story and addressing the reader from an alternate voice or point of view. This is somewhat like a footnote or endnote, but it is intended to be read as a part of the main flow of the text or poetry, and is thus properly included therein as opposed to being set aside as an optional or deferred reference. This can be carried out on a grand scale as does Herman Melville in Billy Budd."

Melville adds two chapters at the end of the story that are told in completely different voices and from very different points of view from the main body of the novel. The final chapter of the main body comes to a fairly tidy end in very the conventional form of an epilogue. It tells the story of the death of Captain Vere, and his seeminly out of context final words of "Billy Budd, Billy Budd." But instead of ending there, Melville adds two more chapters that are interjective in their nature. The first is in the form of an article in the "Naval Gazette" relating the Admiralty's and thus the public's view of what transpired in the story. The final chapter is in the form of a sailor song or ditty written and later published by one of his shipmates, and which significantly alters the story and somewhat impuning Billy's good character. It has an echo of Anthony's memorial speech in Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar" (III,ii).

Answer 4

An interjection is a word or phrase that expresses emotion or sudden feeling, such as "wow," "ouch," or "hey." It is often used to convey excitement, surprise, or emphasis in a conversation.