Øv – A Problem for Categorization

Authors

  • Ehm Hjorth Miltersen Aarhus University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7146/sss.v10i1.114670

Abstract

The Danish word øv is traditionally categorized as an interjection. However, in a set of data primarily from chat conversations, several instances of øv do not match any traditional definition of interjections: It is syntactically integrated and thus does not constitute a full utterance on its own, and its semantic-pragmatic use is more nuanced than “expressing an aspect of the speaker’s mental state”. Th e main part of the article is a functionally-based analysis of these instances of øv, the insights from which are used to question the general practice of lexical categorization. I argue that a pragmatically based model of categorization is better able to account for the full range of uses for a word form.

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Published

2019-05-31

How to Cite

Miltersen, E. H. (2019). Øv – A Problem for Categorization. Scandinavian Studies in Language, 10(1), 41–62. https://doi.org/10.7146/sss.v10i1.114670