The semantics of interjections: An experimental study with natural semantic metalanguage

Abstract

The paper reports the results of a pilot experimental study aimed at evaluating NaturalSemantic Metalanguage (NSM) explications of English interjections. It proposes a novel online survey-based technique to test NSM explications with language speakers. In particular, the survey tests recently developed semantic explications of selected English interjections - wow, gosh, gee, yikes ('surprise' group) and yuck, ugh ('disgust' group), as published in Goddard (2014a). The results provide overall support for the proposed explications and indicate directions for their development. Interestingly, neither respondents' pre-existing knowledge of NSM nor other background variables (age, gender, being a native speaker or studying linguistics) prove to be important in influencing the test results.