4. The interjection is an independent element. It may be a single word or a group of words with the office of one. Such words and expressions as Ah! Oh! Alas! Dear me! O my stars and garters! Hurrah! fudge! pooh! are used to communicate not our thoughts but our feelings. In doing this they perform the work of a whole declarative sentence; as,—
“Hurrah!—Hurrah!—the west wind
Comes freshening down the bay,
The rising sails are filling,—
Give way, my lads, give way!”
—Whittier.
The interjection eh? is interrogative. Whoa! and hist! are imperative. O is frequently used before the noun of address.
The Prepositional Phrase used Independently.—This is usually a stereotyped phrase ready to hand for any one who wishes to use it, such a phrase as for example, in fact, in short, at any rate. In the following sentence from Stevenson, “I take it, in short, that I was about as near Nirvana as would be convenient in practical life; and if this be so I make the Buddhists my sincere compliments,” the little independent phrase signifies to the reader that the author, instead of going on with a long description of his state of feeling, has thought of a happy way by which he can communicate a knowledge of it in very few words.
In Irving’s sentence, “This, by the way, is a mere casual remark, which I would not for the universe have it thought I apply to Governor Van Twiller,” the independent phrase indicates that this sentence also is only a casual remark, much like a personal “aside” from the author to the reader.
In this sentence from Mrs. Gaskell,—“In the first place, Cranford is in possession of the Amazons,” the phrase is equivalent to the independent infinitive phrase to begin with. It informs the reader that the remark it introduces is necessary as a setting or background for further description of Cranford.