MORPHOLOGICAL-SEMANTIC FEATURES OF SOME INTERJECTIONS IN 18TH-CENTURY TAJIK HISTORICAL PROSE

1.1. Nature and Status of Interjections in Parts of Speech

In the intricate taxonomy of linguistic units, interjections constitute a unique and often debated class within the system of parts of speech. Unlike prototypical lexical categories such as nouns, verbs, or adjectives, interjections are fundamentally characterized by their primary function as direct expressions of diverse human emotions and affective states, encompassing phenomena such as joy, sorrow, surprise, fear, and aversion

A defining feature of interjections is their inherent lack of full syntactic integration into sentence structure; they typically do not function as conventional sentence constituents (e.g., subject, predicate, object)

1.2. Significance of Studying Interjections in Historical Prose

The genre of historical prose, particularly in its traditional forms such as chronicles (solnomah) and comprehensive histories (tārīkhnomah), is conventionally characterized by a pronounced commitment to formality, objectivity, and a purportedly scientific or factual style. The quintessential role of the historian within this genre is traditionally construed as the precise and dispassionate recording of events, including military campaigns, territorial conquests, political stratagems, and dynastic successions. Given this inherent predisposition towards an impersonal and factual recounting, the conspicuous presence and strategic deployment of interjections within such ostensibly objective historical narratives presents a remarkable and linguistically significant phenomenon.

The analysis of interjections in historical prose of the 18th century, therefore, assumes considerable significance due to several compelling factors:

A. Aesthetic and Emotional Infusion: Interjections serve as crucial linguistic mechanisms for imbuing otherwise ostensibly dry and factual historical narration with rich aesthetic and emotional layers. They transcend mere denotation, transforming chronological sequences into compelling narratives that resonate with the reader's affective domain, thereby elevating the historical account to a form of literary artistry.

B. Character Animation and Psychological Realism: The frequent occurrence of interjections within the direct speech attributed to historical characters plays a pivotal role in animating their portrayal. These emotive utterances contribute significantly to the psychological realism of the dialogue, providing a linguistic window into the characters' instantaneous emotional states, reactions, and internal motivations. Their strategic use aids in distinguishing individual voices and making the historical figures more relatable and vivid.

C. Authorial Subjectivity and Evaluative Stance: Crucially, interjections occasionally serve as a deliberate stylistic choice by authors to express their personal attitudes, moral judgments, or profound sentiments (e.g., lamentation for tragic events or commendation for heroic deeds). In such instances, the interjection represents a controlled, yet discernible, departure from the convention of neutral narration, thereby allowing the historian's subjective voice and implicit ethical evaluation to penetrate the historical record.

Consequently, a rigorous analysis of interjections within 18th-century Tajik historical texts provides an unparalleled opportunity to delve deeper into the individual stylistic idiosyncrasies of the historians of that era. Furthermore, it offers profound insights into the subtle yet potent pragmatic aspects of their writing, revealing how these linguistic units were manipulated to shape reader perception, convey implicit messages, and imbue historical accounts with a dynamic interplay of fact and feeling.

1.3. Research Background

Despite extensive scholarship dedicated to various aspects of Tajik historical grammar, particularly in the domain of historical morphology, a systematic and focused investigation into the category of particles — with a specific emphasis on interjections — within the discrete textual corpus of 18th-century Tajik historical prose remains notably underdeveloped. Previous research endeavors have predominantly concentrated on the diachronic analysis of major lexical categories such as verbs, nouns, and other content words. Consequently, a significant lacuna persists in the comprehensive understanding of interjections as integral components of the linguistic system during this pivotal historical period

1.4. Aims and Objectives

The overarching aim of this study is to conduct a comprehensive analysis and detailed description of the semantic and stylistic features of interjections as they are employed in 18th-century Tajik historical prose. To achieve this primary aim, the following specific objectives have been formulated:

– to identify, collect, and systematically compile empirical material comprising instances of interjectional usage extracted from the designated corpus of historical texts;

– to establish a robust classification framework for interjections, categorizing them into distinct semantic-functional groups (e.g., emotional-expressive, imperative-vocative, and, if applicable, etiquette-related functions);

– to conduct a meticulous contextual analysis of each identified interjection, thereby discerning its primary and any secondary communicative functions within both authorial narrative and direct character discourse;

– to ascertain the precise stylistic role and significance of interjections in shaping the overall discourse structure and rhetorical impact of the historical narratives;

– to synthesize the analytical findings and extrapolate conclusions pertaining to the broader system of interjections as it existed within the 18th-century Tajik literary language.

1.5. Data Sources and Scholarly Significance

The primary empirical data for this investigation are drawn from a carefully selected corpus comprising five seminal 18th-century Tajik historical works, which include: “Jahonkoshoi Nodiri”

This study employed a qualitative, descriptive, and comparative research methodology to investigate the morphological-semantic and stylistic peculiarities of interjections in 18th-century Tajik historical prose. This approach was selected to facilitate a detailed, in-depth analysis of linguistic phenomena within a specific historical corpus, allowing for the nuanced interpretation of form, meaning, and contextual function.

2.1. Research Design

The core of the research design involves a systematic textual analysis aimed at identifying, categorizing, and interpreting the occurrences of interjections. The design is explicitly comparative, distinguishing between interjectional usage in authorial narrative versus direct speech attributed to characters. This allows for a deeper understanding of the stylistic choices made by the historians of the period. The ultimate objective is to map the observed linguistic patterns to their pragmatic and aesthetic functions within the historical discourse.

2.2. Corpus Selection and Delimitation

The empirical basis for this study comprises a carefully curated corpus of five seminal 18th-century Tajik historical works. The selection of this particular century is critical as it represents a significant period for the development of formalized historical prose in Tajik literary tradition, providing a sufficiently robust and stylistically representative sample of the era's linguistic norms. The rationale for selecting these specific texts lies in their recognized status as authoritative historical chronicles and significant literary achievements of the 18th century, ensuring the generalizability of findings regarding the formalized literary language of the period. This corpus allows for an examination of interjections within a genre characterized by its purported objectivity, thereby highlighting their deliberate inclusion and specific functions.

2.3. Data Collection Procedure

The data collection involved a systematic and exhaustive identification and compilation of all instances of interjections present within the selected historical prose texts. This process entailed:

1. Manual Textual Scan: Each text was meticulously read and reviewed sentence by sentence to identify every occurrence of an interjection, based on established morphological and syntactic criteria (lack of syntactic function, direct expression of emotion/volition).

2. Contextual Extraction: For each identified interjection, the immediate linguistic context (the sentence or short passage in which it appeared) was extracted to enable subsequent contextual analysis.

3. Source Attribution: Each instance was annotated to indicate whether it occurred in authorial narration or within direct speech attributed to a specific character. This distinction is crucial for the comparative aspect of the analysis.

4. Compilation: All collected instances, along with their contexts and source attributions, were systematically compiled into a database for quantitative and qualitative analysis.

This rigorous collection procedure ensures the comprehensive coverage of the chosen corpus and provides a reliable empirical foundation for the study's claims.

2.4. Analytical Framework

The collected data was subjected to a multi-layered analytical framework, integrating morphological, semantic, and stylistic approaches:

– Morphological Analysis: Interjections were examined for their internal structure, including their phonological form and any fixed morphemes, particularly in cases where their origin might be discernible (e.g., from verbs or nouns that have lost their original meaning). This analysis aimed to confirm their status as distinct interjections rather than other parts of speech.

– Semantic-Functional Classification: Interjections were categorized into distinct semantic-functional groups based on the primary type of meaning they conveyed and the illocutionary force they typically carried. Drawing upon linguistic typologies of interjections

Emotional-Expressive Interjections: These primarily express subjective affective states (e.g., sorrow, joy, admiration, astonishment, pain).

Imperative-Vocative Interjections: These primarily serve to attract attention, establish direct address, or issue a command.

Note: A smaller category for etiquette-related functions was also considered based on initial observations, to determine if any interjections served purely social politeness roles.

– Contextual-Functional Analysis: Each interjection's usage was meticulously analyzed within its specific textual context. This involved:

Discerning Primary and Secondary Functions: Identifying the dominant communicative role of the interjection (e.g., primarily expressing lamentation) and any co-occurring secondary functions (e.g., also conveying authorial judgment or evoking empathy).

Attributional Analysis: Systematically distinguishing and comparatively analyzing interjection usage in authorial discourse versus character discourse. This involved examining whether specific interjections were preferentially used by the narrator or by particular types of characters (e.g., rulers, wise men, commoners), and what stylistic or pragmatic implications this distribution held.

– Stylistic Role Assessment: Beyond their semantic and pragmatic functions, the study rigorously assessed the stylistic contributions of interjections within the broader framework of historical discourse structure. This involved evaluating how interjections:

Contributed to the dramatic effect and narrative pacing.

Enhanced the emotional resonance of specific passages.

Functioned as tools for conveying implicit or explicit ethical evaluations by the author.

Served to "animate" otherwise formal or objective historical accounts, injecting a "human voice."

– Diachronic Comparative Perspective: While focusing on the 18th century, the analysis implicitly or explicitly drew comparisons with the interjectional system of Modern Tajik. This diachronic perspective aimed to highlight instances of archaism, semantic shift, or complete disuse of 18th-century interjections in contemporary language, thereby tracing the evolution of this linguistic category over time and affirming the 18th-century texts' role in standardizing literary language.

This structured and multi-faceted analytical framework ensures a profound and systematic exploration of the interjectional system in 18th-century Tajik historical prose, providing robust findings regarding their morphological, semantic, and stylistic peculiarities.

The meticulous textual analysis reveals that, notwithstanding the inherently formal and often elevated stylistic register characteristic of 18th-century Tajik historical prose, authors strategically and effectively employed interjections. These units served not merely as lexical fillers but as purposeful linguistic tools designed to imbue narratives with emotional depth and to animate the discourse. This strategic deployment underscores a deliberate choice to integrate subjective and affective dimensions within a genre typically associated with objective factual recording.

3.1. Emotional-Expressive Interjections: Encoding Affective States and Evaluations

This category of interjections primarily functioned to convey the subjective emotional states, attitudes, or evaluative stances of either the authorial voice or the characters within the narrative.

3.1.1. Daregho (Alas!/Woe!)

The interjection daregho stands out as a highly potent rhetorical device for expressing profound sorrow, lamentation, and regret. Its usage is almost exclusively confined to authorial discourse, where it serves as a direct authorial comment on tragic historical events, marking a deliberate intrusion of subjective sentiment into the objective narrative flow.

Example 1: Daregho, ki on sardori dilovar va maydonshikan, ki az kase haros nadosht, dar on maydoni korzor ba dasti dushmani nomard kushta shud

In this instance, Abdurrahmon Tāle consciously diverges from a neutral narrative stance. The deployment of daregho functions as a direct expressive speech act, articulating profound lamentation for the hero's demise. This choice not only imbues the sentence with intense emotional resonance but also serves to evoke a strong sense of empathy in the reader. Furthermore, the interjection subtly carries an implicit ethical judgment, contrasting the “valiant” commander with the “cowardly enemy”, thereby elevating the historical account beyond mere chronology to a plane of moral evaluation.

Example 2: Daregho, ki on davlati boshukūh va obod ba sababi betadbirii amiron va fitnai dushmanon ba inqiroz rū ovard

Here, Muhammadvafo Karminagi employs daregho to articulate a deep sense of lamentation for the downfall of a once-flourishing state. The interjection transcends simple grief; it simultaneously functions as an implicit historical judgment, signaling the author's evaluative assessment of the causative factors — the “amirs’ imprudence” and “enemies’ sedition”. This rhetorical strategy transforms the historical narrative into a didactic commentary, prompting the reader to reflect on the moral and political responsibilities leading to historical outcomes. The use of daregho thus demonstrates the historian's role not just as a chronicler but as a moral interpreter of past events.

3.1.2. Zihī (Bravo!/Excellent!)

Zihī represents an archaic interjection whose consistent presence in Classical and 18th-century texts underscores its stylistic value as a marker of elevated discourse. It primarily functions to convey enthusiastic praise, formal commendation, or profound admiration. Its usage is predominantly observed in direct speech attributed to characters, particularly those holding high social or political authority, such as kings and amirs, thereby lending a ceremonial solemnity to their pronouncements of approval.

Example 3: Shoh ba on farzona-mardi khiradmand guft: “Zihī tadbiru royi tu, ki moro az in vartai halokat berun ovard!”

In this context, zihī functions as a performative commendation, expressing the king's highest approbation and profound gratitude for the vizier's astute counsel. The interjection acts as a powerful illocutionary force indicator for extreme positive evaluation. Its inclusion significantly contributes to the dramatic tension of the scene, highlighting the gravity of the crisis averted and ceremonially legitimizing the wisdom of the vizier's actions.

Example 4: Chun sarozon on qal'ai ustuvorro fath kardand, Nodirshoh khitob kard: “Zihī ghoziyoni dilovar va yasovuloni bahodur!”

Into the bargain, zihī serves a vital sociolinguistic and rhetorical function in the context of leadership rhetoric. It is deployed as a collective and public affirmation of the soldiers' valor and efforts. The interjection operates as a powerful motivational speech act, designed to boost morale and formally acknowledge the meritorious actions of the military personnel, thereby reinforcing the hierarchical relationship between the leader and the led.

3.1.3. Ofarin (Bravo!/Well done!) and Voh (Oh!/Ah!)

Ofarin operates semantically akin to zihī, yet it is characterized by a relatively simpler structure and a closer proximity to colloquial usage, indicating a stylistic gradation within the lexicon of praise. Voh, conversely, typically expresses spontaneous astonishment, physical pain, or immediate regret.

Example 5: Ubaydullohkhon az shunidani in khabari khush shod gashta, ba qosid guft: “Ofarin bar tu, ki chunin muzhda ovardī!”

In this example, ofarin directly conveys praise and appreciation, functioning as a clear affirmative speech act. Its deployment in a simpler dialogue, in contrast to zihī's more ceremonial usage, underscores the nuanced stylistic choices available to authors to reflect differing social contexts or character dispositions, allowing for a more immediate and less formal expression of commendation.

Example 6: Chun zarbai shamsher bar dastash rasid, faryod bardosht: “Voh, dastam!”

The interjection voh in this context serves as a spontaneous, almost involuntary emotive utterance, foregrounding raw human physical experience. Such instances, while generally rarer in historical prose compared to daregho or zihī, are strategically deployed, typically within vivid battle descriptions. Their inclusion represents a deliberate stylistic shift towards stark psychological and physical verisimilitude, intended to momentarily break the formal narrative distance and immerse the reader in the immediate, sensory experience of the event, thereby enhancing the dramatic impact of the scene.

3.2. Imperative-Vocative Interjections: Directing Communication and Establishing Address

Interjections classified as imperative-vocative do not primarily convey an emotional state per se, but rather serve to directly influence the communicative act itself or to establish a direct link with the addressee. Their function is primarily to direct attention or to frame a direct address.

3.2.1. Ey (O!/Hey!)

Ey is notably among the most frequent and versatile vocative interjections observed in 18th-century Tajik historical texts. When positioned immediately preceding personal nouns or terms of address, it lends a distinct quality of formality and elevation to the utterance. Its consistent usage suggests its role as a highly conventionalized attention-getter that simultaneously signals the commencement of a significant speech event, be it a direct call, a formal address, or an impassioned plea.

Example 7: Nodirshoh ba sardoroni khud rū ovarda guft: “Ey mardoni korzor, imrūz rūzi imtihon ast!”

Here, ey functions as a potent rhetorical device for commanding immediate attention and inspiring action within a military context. It marks the utterance as a solemn and momentous pronouncement, elevating the subsequent discourse and preparing the listeners for a critical directive. The interjection imbues the king's address with an authoritative and impassioned tone, characteristic of leadership rhetoric in times of crisis.

Example 8: Piri khiradmande ba shogirdi khud nasihat kard: “Ey farzand, pandi maro ba gūsh gir va hargiz az rohi rost berun mashav”

The above-adduced example illustrates ey's capacity for semantic and affective nuance. While retaining its formal and elevated tone, in this context, it also conveys a sincere and fatherly admonition. The interjection marks the upcoming counsel as personally significant and benevolent, establishing a warm yet authoritative bond between the elder and his disciple. It functions as an address marker that prefaces didactic or moral discourse, signaling the profound importance of the forthcoming advice.

3.3. Contrastive Analysis of Interjection Usage in Authorial vs. Character Speech

The analysis of the textual data reveals a significant and functionally differentiated distribution of interjection usage across distinct discursive domains:

– Authorial Discourse: Interjections within authorial narration are characterized by low frequency and a restrained application. Their deployment is primarily associated with the expression of profound ethical or philosophical sentiment.

Specifically, the interjection daregho demonstrates near-exclusive occurrence within authorial discourse, serving to convey lamentation for historical tragedies. This pattern suggests that authors only exceptionally deviate from a stance of narrative neutrality to overtly express personal emotional investment.

– Character Discourse: Conversely, interjections in direct character speech exhibit both high frequency and considerable formal-semantic variability. They function to convey characters’ psychological states, imbue dialogue with vitality, and enhance narrative realism.

Notably, interjections signaling approbation (e.g., zihī, ofarin) and direct address (e.g., ey) constitute the predominant forms within character utterances, particularly those attributed to figures of high social status, such as kings and amirs. This observed functional distribution represents a salient stylistic device employed by historians of this period.

3.4. Interjections as Elements of Elevated (Literary) Style

The selection of interjections consistently reflects the overarching stylistic register of the analyzed texts. Specifically, archaic and distinctly literary interjections, such as zihī and daregho, demonstrate a clear predominance. This finding indicates that authors-maintained fidelity to elevated literary norms even when conveying affective content.

Concurrently, simple, colloquial interjections, presumed to have been active in the contemporaneous spoken language, are virtually absent. This observation substantiates that these texts serve as exemplars of the era's standardized literary register, rather than functioning as accurate transcriptions of vernacular speech.

The comprehensive analysis conducted in this study allows for the derivation of several theoretical conclusions pertaining to the status and functional roles of interjections within the specified linguistic period (18th-century Tajik historical prose).

4.1. Dual Functionality of Interjections in Historical Discourse

The findings indicate that interjections, as employed in 18th-century Tajik historical prose, exhibited a discernible dual functionality. Firstly, they contributed significantly to the vivification of direct discourse, imbuing characters' speech with heightened realism and emotional resonance. Secondly, these linguistic units served as potent rhetorical instruments, enabling the author to implicitly or explicitly convey ethical and affective evaluations pertaining to narrated events. This inherent duality underscores that the historical prose of this epoch transcended a purely factual chronicle, simultaneously operating as a form of sophisticated literary and artistic expression

4.2. Interjections and Stylistic Elevation

The selection of specific interjectival forms unequivocally reflects the elevated and formal literary style characteristic of these historical works. The consistent deployment of archaic and solemn units, such as zihī and daregho, indicates authors' adherence to prevailing literary conventions even in the domain of affective expression. This observation further highlights the distinct linguistic continuum between the formalized written literary language and the contemporaneous vernacular, thereby substantiating the role of these texts as exemplary instances of standardized literary discourse.

4.3. Diachronic Evolution of the Interjectional System

A comparative analysis of interjectival usage in 18th-century historical prose with that of Modern Tajik reveals a clear pattern of systemic diachronic evolution. Specifically, numerous interjections prevalent during the earlier period, notably zihī and daregho, have become largely archaic in contemporary usage, their presence now predominantly confined to classical poetic works or deliberately stylized historical narratives. These forms have been progressively supplanted by lexically simpler and more colloquial alternatives within the everyday lexicon. This phenomenon is consistent with established principles of linguistic change, which often describe a gradual shift from morphologically complex or stylistically marked forms towards more accessible and less opaque expressions over time

Thus, the relevant comprehensive analysis beset with the morphologico-semantic peculiarities of interjections within 18th-century Tajik historical prose leads to the following key findings:

1. Interjections, despite the inherently formal and often elevated stylistic register of historical prose, constituted a significant and systematically utilized linguistic resource for conveying affective states and subjective evaluations.

2. These linguistic units primarily functioned within two distinct semantic-functional categories: (1) Emotional-Expressive, encompassing exclamations of lamentation (e.g., daregho), approbation (e.g., zihī, ofarin), and other affective reactions; and (2) Imperative-Vocative, serving as attention-getters and direct address markers (e.g., ey, yo).

3. A distinct distributional pattern emerged across discursive contexts: authorial narration predominantly featured interjections of profound lamentation (e.g., daregho), while direct speech attributed to characters, particularly high-status individuals such as kings and amirs, exhibited a prevalence of expressions denoting praise (zihī) and direct address (ey).

4. Furthermore, these interjections functioned as pivotal stylistic devices, effectively augmenting the dramatic impact, emotional resonance, and ethical evaluative dimensions of the historical narratives. Their inclusion arguably imbues these historical records with a palpable "living human voice," transcending mere factual recounting.

5. The observed predilection for literary and archaic interjectival forms underscores the elevated stylistic register characteristic of these historical works, thereby highlighting a significant lexical and pragmatic divergence between the formalized written literary language of the period and the contemporary vernacular.

Ultimately, the corpus of our study reasserts the substantial theoretical and practical utility of conducting a granular analysis of interjections, positing them as vital linguistic components for a comprehensive understanding of the pragmatic, stylistic, and aesthetic strata embedded within historical prose.