The social life of emotive interjections in spoken British English

Ulrike Stange

doi:10.7146/sss.v10i1.114677

Abstract

This paper explores the discursive use of selected emotive interjections (Ow!, Ouch!; Ugh!, Yuck!; Whoops!, Whoopsadaisy!) in spoken British English. The data (drawn from the Spoken BNC2014) are coded for age, gender, social grade and type of dyad to identify potential factors governing the discursive use of these interjections. Based on 140 relevant tokens, the results suggest that: 1) The individual interjections vary significantly regarding how frequently they are found in discursive uses (p<0.001***). 2) Whoopsadaisy! is not attested in discursive uses. 3) Young female speakers behave differently from the other speaker groups in that they use emotive interjections discursively significantly more frequently (p=0.006***). 4) Female speakers in general use a wider range of interjections discursively: Ow! and Whoops! in discursive uses were absent from male speech. 5) Socio-economic status is irrelevant, as is 6) type of speaker dyad. Thus, the social life of emotive interjections is mainly influenced by speaker gender, and if the speakers are female, also by their age.

Highlights

3) Young female speakers behave differently from the other speaker groups in that they use emotive interjections discursively significantly more frequently (p=0.006***). 4) Female speakers in general use a wider range of interjections discursively: Ow! and Whoops! in discursive uses were absent from male speech
The social life of emotive interjections is mainly influenced by speaker gender, and if the speakers are female, by their age
This paper explores the discursive use of emotive interjections in presentday spoken British English

Summary

Introduction

This paper explores the discursive use of emotive interjections in presentday spoken British English. Drawing on the Spoken BNC2014, this study focuses on interjections of pain (Ow!, Ouch!), of disgust (Ugh!, Yuck!) and spill cries2 (Whoops!, Whoopsadaisy!). Discursive uses are not stimulus-bound per se, rather the speaker is thinking about something that causes him to produce an emotive interjection (cf Goddard 2014b: 55).

Results

Conclusion