What is an exclamation?

Definition
	Here are two senses for exclamation:
	An exclamation, broadly defined, is any utterance made with strong emotion. An exclamation, narrowly defined, is a sentence type that is used to express a strong emotional state. It contrasts in syntax or morphology with other sentence types which typically express statements, commands, and questions.

Example (English)
	What a hot summer it was!

Generic
	An exclamation is a kind of
	What is an illocutionary act?

Sources
	Crystal 1985 114
	Hartmann and Stork 1972 80
	Sadock and Zwicky 1985 162–163

Context for this page:

Concept module: exclamation
In overview module: Glossary (Linguistics): E
In modular book: Glossary of linguistic terms, by Eugene E. Loos (general editor), Susan Anderson (editor), Dwight H., Day, Jr. (editor), Paul C. Jordan (editor), and J. Douglas Wingate (editor)
In bookshelf: Linguistics

This page is an extract from the LinguaLinks Library, Version 5.0 published on CD-ROM by SIL International, 2003. [Ordering information.]

Page content last modified: 5 January 2004

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