Huh? The Valuable Role of Interjections
April 23, 2025 at 12:37AMIf you’re stuck for something to say in response to someone, you might feel silly, uninformed, or even disingenuous about interjections such as “cool,” “huh,” or even “mm-hmm.” But according to linguists who study spoken conversation, these little bits of feedback—which often convey surprise or interest—are universal and can be the bits of glue that keeps the discourse flowing.
The role of interjections goes even deeper than regulating the flow of conversation. Interjections also help in negotiating the ground rules of a conversation. Every time two people converse, they need to establish an understanding of where each is coming from: what each participant knows to begin with, what they think the other person knows and how much detail they want to hear. Much of this work — what linguists call “grounding” — is carried out by interjections.
“If I’m telling you a story and you say something like ‘Wow!’ I might find that encouraging and add more detail,” says Nguyen. “But if you do something like, ‘Uh-huh,’ I’m going to assume you aren’t interested in more detail.”
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from Longreads https://longreads.com/2025/04/22/huh-the-valuable-role-of-interjections/
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