The interjection as a grammatical category in John Wilkins' philosophical language

Bibliographic Data

ID3955488
AuthorsRichard Nate (Universität Essen, corresponding author)
Year1996
Volume23
Issue1-2
Pages89-109
Publication date1996-01-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueHistoriographia Linguistica (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0302-5160 • E-ISSN: 1569-9781
PublisherJohn Benjamins Publishing Company (PUBLISHER • NL)
DOI10.1075/hl.23.1-2.05nat
OpenAlexW2079128475
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited11

Considering the fact that John Wilkins (1614-1672) constructed his artificial language as a mirror of reality, which should be based on logical principles, the incorporation of the interjection into his Natural Grammar seems surprising. It is probable that Wilkins kept the interjection as a grammatical category because it belonged to the fixed canon of the eight parts of speech in traditional Latin grammars. Moreover, interjections were conceived of as immediate, i.e., natural, expressions of feelings and were held to be universal. Wilkins' description of interjections shows that he is aware of their pragmatic functions. His classification is based on communicative principles. In constructing his artificial writing system, however, Wilkins adheres to his rationalistic position and transforms the interjections into purely referential signs. Thus, his grammatical analysis reveals insights into the pragmatic functions of language for which there was no room in an artificial language based on logical principles

Grammar · Grammatical category · Linguistics · Natural (archaeology · Natural language · Noun · Rule-based machine translation · Computer Science · Historical and Literary Studies · Historical Linguistics and Language Studies · Historical Philosophy and Science · History · Philosophy · Artificial Intelligence

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