From words and sentences to interjections: The anatomy of exclamations in Peirce and Wittgenstein

Abstract

AbstractInterjections are exclamatory signs fostering a realistic conception of the perils and uncertainties of human experience. Natural interjections are reactionary signs in degenerate pre-signs (preverbs or prenouns), unconnected to other syntactic forms of grammar. The simplicity of natural interjections are distinguished from the more complex occasional interjections, expressed in full pseudo-sentences with grammatical constructions. The prehistory of the natural interjections are first the simple cries of babies, and second the artificial construction of pidgin (creolization) of mixed languages. In interjections, literal language becomes transformed into figurative and metaphorical “language,” that is intermedial speech with vocalization and gestures. Peirce’s “syntax” (Charles Sanders Peirce 1839–1914) argues for the pragmatic interjections in the exclamations of spontaneous cries and shouts. In the framework of Peirce’s logical categories, interjections represent first of secondness. The degenerate form analyzes the vague or indeterminate meaning through pictures of diagrams. Wittgenstein’s social “grammar” (Ludwig Wittgenstein 1889–1951) of language-games is subject to cultural forms of life. Wittgenstein disagrees on accepting the “nonsensical” or meaningless interjections, but in his later writings he will agree to giving the interjections fuzzy meanings.