Interjectional theory is a theory of language formulated by the pre-Socratic philosopher

Democritus Democritus (, ; , ''Dēmókritos'', meaning "chosen of the people"; – ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek Pre-Socratic philosophy, pre-Socratic philosopher from Abdera, Thrace, Abdera, primarily remembered today for his formulation of an ...

, ca. 460 BC to ca. 370 BC, who argued that human speech derives from a variety of sounds and outcries of an emotional nature. These ideas were later held by

Epicurus Epicurus (, ; ; 341–270 BC) was an Greek philosophy, ancient Greek philosopher who founded Epicureanism, a highly influential school of philosophy that asserted that philosophy's purpose is to attain as well as to help others attain tranqui ...

and

Lucretius Titus Lucretius Carus ( ; ; – October 15, 55 BC) was a Roman poet and philosopher. His only known work is the philosophical poem '' De rerum natura'', a didactic work about the tenets and philosophy of Epicureanism, which usually is t ...

who cited Democritus as their authority. The theory continued to influence the study of the

origin of language The origin of language, its relationship with human evolution, and its consequences have been subjects of study for centuries. Scholars wishing to study the origins of language draw inferences from evidence such as the fossil record, archaeolog ...

into the 18th century when it was again put forward by Vico and Rousseau. Criticisms of this theory include, that it only explains the origins of

interjections An interjection is a word or expression that occurs as an utterance on its own and expresses a spontaneous feeling, situation or reaction. It is a diverse category, with many different types, such as exclamations ''(ouch!'', ''wow!''), curses (''da ...

, that emotional expressions often include sounds not used in language, and that it does not explain the origin of nouns.

References

Evolution of language {{historical-linguistics-stub

See also

References