Interjections, phonetics, and the body

Abstract

Emotive interjections are normally associated with the spoken language, but in this article, I will investigate the use of two interjections, åh ‘oh’ and puha ‘whew’ in written communication on Facebook – on the two Danish Facebook groups built around the illness and death of two young children in 2015: “Fighting for Magnus (Miv)” and “Commemorative site for Lærke Rønde Timm”. Interjections are understood as affective expressions because they reflect some of the bodily reactions and participatory investment of the followers of the two groups. The main argument in the article is that the participants write interjections as a way to deal with affective extraordinary experiences. Through phonetic analysis the interjections are seen as bodily felt and triggered reaction.

Living Word and Audiality as a Problem of Modern Media Text

“…To solve traditional tasks and functions, media text actively and purposefully uses as if natural, spontaneous sound-noise and voice element of live life. These can be interjections used as "vocal gestures" (Ameka [21]); or "affective signs" (Hougaard [29]); or "the flotsam and jetsam of mere performance" (Dingemanse [30]). As a result, the time for perceiving information is minimized and its comprehension is transformed predominantly into a feeling, an effect that is it would seem, almost accessible to analytical perception, comprehension.…”

“…However, develop the basics and tasks of the living word, audiality in media communications is still at the margins of research interests. There are separate articles on interjections in the media, about the ways of expressing emotions in reality TV [14,[21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30]. In 2018, Affective Societies Collaborative Research Center was created in Freie Universität Berlin.…”