373. Among interjections are properly included calls to animals (like “whoa!”) and imitations of sounds such as “mew!” “cock-a-doodle-do!” “ding dong!” “swish!” “tu-whit-tu-who!”

374. Interjections usually have no grammatical connection with the phrases or sentences in which they stand.

Hence they are counted among the “independent elements” of a sentence ([§ 501]).

Sometimes, however, a substantive is connected with an interjection by means of a preposition. Thus,—

Adjectives and adverbs are also found in this use: as,—“Good for you!” “Up with it!”

Note. All such expressions are often regarded as elliptical sentences, as if “O for a camera!” stood for “O, I wish for a camera!” and “Good for you!” for “That is good for you!” But it is better to treat them as exclamatory phrases.[42] Other exclamatory phrases are “Dear me!” “Goodness gracious!” “O my!” and the like.

375. Almost any part of speech may be used as an exclamation.

Such words are often called interjections, but it is better to describe them as nouns, adjectives, etc., used in exclamation, and to confine the term interjection to words which belong to no other part of speech.