Semantic and pragmatic features of Dutch interjections zeg and hoor

Abstract

With the class of interjections, the national uniqueness of individual linguistic cultures is connected, it is possible to define the belonging of a person to a particular nation according to interjections. The article presents a view on interjection as a special part of speech that is neither content nor function word and differs from content parts of speech in the absence of a nominative meaning, and from functors that interjections are not inherent in the binding function. The article describes the place of two frequent secondary interjections zeg and hoor in the system of the Dutch language. The specific position of interjections in the language system is accounted for by the fact the words of this class function on the dialog level. Against the backdrop of a marked increase in the use of both oral and written dialogue in the last decade, questions about the meaning and ways of translating into foreign languages are heard increasingly. The process of transition of the imperative of the mother-verb into interjections is considered as a staged movement of a word-form proceeding from the stage of occasional use in the function of interjection to the stage of constant use, then a functional transition. By process of grammaticalization, the verbal-form has bleached and became an interjection. In that function, zeg and hoor can no longer be combined with objects or prepositioncpmplements, and their meaning has become different from that of the imperative, although they still have certain semantic and pragmatic aspects in common. The place in the sentence (preposition/postposition), as well as the type of proposal, should be considered as key to the interpretation of interjections.