Linking Words Fulfilling Interjectional Functions

Fumiko Matsuo

Linking words, such as conjunctions and conjunctive adverbs, connect linguistic units, such as words, phrases, clauses and sentences. But seen from a discoursal or conversational point of view, they can have some other functions.

Conversation is interactive. It means that conversation is co-constructed by two or more interlocutors. Contexts develop dynamically with ongoing interaction. Speakers express what they have in mind, and by doing so, they reconstruct the contexts. It is a linking word that shows a speaker’s thinking clearly. Interjections also show a speaker’s thinking. Linking words particularly indicate the relationship between ideas. Interjections mainly display a speaker’s emotion. Both of them reflect a speaker’s internal state at the moment of utterance.

In this paper, I describe how linking words can function not only as connectives but also as interjectional connectives and vocatives. The linking words dealt with here are now, so, but, and and.