🖂 Corresponding author: Jl. Affandi, Mrican, Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta 55281 E-mail: nabillakafa@gmail.com p-ISSN: 2252-6323 e-ISSN: 2721-4540 9 RAINBOW Vol. 11 (2) 2022 Journal of Literature, Linguistics and Culture Studies https://journal.unnes.ac.id/sju/index.php/rainbow The analysis of interjections types and emotional state used in “Sam & Cat” sitcom Kafa Bella Nabila1 🖂, Ouda Teda Ena2 1, 2 English Department, Faculty of Teachers Training and Education, Sanata Dharma University, Indonesia Article Info Abstract Article History: Received 08 March 2022 Approved 04 August 2022 Published 31 October 2022 Interjections in an everyday speech frequently serve as pragmatic markers, initiating utterances and connecting them to the preceding interaction. Interjections can happen in three different types: primary emotive interjections, primary cognitive interjections, and secondary volitive interference. Thus, the present study aims at analyzing the interjection types and emotional state in the “Sam & Cat” sitcom. This research focused more on 5 episodes in this sitcom. This qualitative research is conducted by observing and analyzing the conversation between two main characters in the sitcom. Using the theory that discuss those three types of interjections and twenty one emotion states, the researchers discovered some results. According to the data, the most common use is primary emotive interjections that appeared 50 times. Continued with primary cognitive interjections that appeared 33 times and secondary volitive interjections that use 26 times. Furthermore, there are three emotional states with the same amount: imitation, contempt, and enthusiasm. These emotional states express the main character's situation that appears 14 times. However, triumph and wonder are two emotional states that have not appeared in those 5 episodes. © Copyright 2022 Keywords: Interjections, emotions, sitcom, Sam & Cat How to cite (in APA Style): Nabila, K., & Ena, O. T. (2022). The analysis of interjections types and emotional state used in “Sam & Cat” sitcom. Rainbow : Journal of Literature, Linguistics and Culture Studies, 11(2), 9-15. INTRODUCTION Language has a strong connection with communication. It happens because language is one of the tools to communicate with others. According to Lee (2017) languages frequently include a group of words that describe these sounds, enabling interlocutors to not only imitate sounds produced by their surroundings but also to convey their understandings and feelings toward certain situations. Language function can divide into the spoken and written language (Yuniarty, 2018). Yatno, Nurkamto, Tarjana & Djatmika (2018) state that interjection is often used in informal conversations like movies and social media. Interjections are words or language features that have no real linguistic or meaning value and are commonly used in spoken language to represent the state of a speaker's expression (Nugroho & Setyaningsih, 2019; Yanto, Nurkamto, Tarjana & Djatmika, 2018). Various symbols and words in the movie build the character of the figure. Many directors use interjection to create an interesting feeling, emotions, or ideas for the addressees (Aryanti, 2018). Interjections are words that express a speaker's current mental state, reaction, or attitude toward an element (Ameka, 2006; Simanihuruk & Mulyadi, 2020). Based on Downing & Caro (2019) that interjection is a linguistic expressions of emotions and feelings, forming complete and self- Rainbow: Journal of Literature, Linguistics and Culture Studies, Vol. 11 (2) 2022 p-ISSN: 2252-6323 e-ISSN: 2721-4540 10 contained expression. The functions of interjection, as emotionality and expressiveness, allow people to associate them with non - linguistic means like intonation, facial expressions, gestures, and so on (Kolesnikova, Markova & Chibisova, 2021). They also state that interjection in oral speech is used to express emotions and sensations. Based on the explanation above, people can express their feelings and emotions using interjection. Goddard (2013) states three interjections: emotive interjections, cognitive interjections, and volitive interjections. First is primary emotive interjections, which indicate spontaneous interjections with denotative words without meaning but have meanings and goals. For instance, ops, wow, and yock have no meaning in the dictionary (Yanto, Nurkamto, Tarjana & Djatmika, 2018). Based on Stange (2019) the use of emotive interjections is especially influenced by the speaker’s age and gender. It happens because different age and gender might use different interjections. Speakers can express their feeling spontaneously by using this interjections. Second is cognitive interjections that expresss expression in the form of word-like primary parts of speech that are deductive and functioned to direct, inform and rebuke, such as shit and yuck! (Goddard, 2013). The last category is volitive interjections that combines the primary emotive forms and primary cognitive forms. (Wiles, 2020) states that volitive interjections encompass the component of meaning 'I want to have something' but not the component of interpretation 'I feel something,'. These three categories indicate how interjections use to express people’s emotions. Emotion is a person’s reaction to an incident that they feel is relevant to their current condition (Koole, Van Dillen & Shepes, 2011). In dialogue, interjection has particular emotional expressive to express the speaker’s emotion. The clear meaning of interjections can serve a meaningful communication. In that case, Jovanovic (2004) classifies emotional expression on interjections as anger, annoyance, approval, contempt, delight, disgust, enthusiasm, fear, impatience, anger, irritation, joy, pain, pity, pleasure, relief, sorrow, surprise, sympathy, triumph, and wonder. Using this theory, Nugroho and Setyaningsih (2019) explored about interjections in Semarangan language. Through their research, they found that fear and joy or surprise has the same amount. This topic used sitcom as the focus content to be analyzed. Sitcom's concept is an activity produce natural humor related to people's daily lives or activities (Wahyuni & Hamzah, 2019). In sitcom, the actors can express their emotions like Sam & Cat is one famous TV show that gets awards and nominees, such as a winner in Kids' Choice Awards USA (2014) and a nominee in Primetime Emmy Awards (2014). It talks about Jennette McCurdy as Sam and Ariana Grande as Cat, who run a babysitting business to earn more money. Therefore, the researcher wants to analyze 5 videos from season 1 lists on Netflix. Table 1. Episode title and duration No Episode Duration 1 #Pilot 23:07 minutes 2 #FavoriteShow 22:46 minutes 3 #NewGoat 22:35 minutes 4 #TheBritBrats 22:36 minutes 5 #BabysitterWar 22:37 minutes The previous studies discussed interjections in various content. Sari and Syahputri (2020) investigated the form and the meaning of interjection in the tangled movie script. They found that acceptance was the most dominant type of meaning in the Tangled movie script. Meanwhile, in another research, Tanjung, Zainil & Wahyuni (2020) explored the interjections’ types and function in webtoon digital comics. They found the primary interjection dominates that webtoon. Some of the previous studies discuss the types of interjections that appeared in the content, but there is still a limited study about the connection between interjections and emotions. To fill the gaps on this research, the researchers combined and analyzed the types of interjections and the emotional states from the sitcom Sam & Cat on Netflix. METHODS Rainbow: Journal of Literature, Linguistics and Culture Studies, Vol. 11 (2) 2022 p-ISSN: 2252-6323 e-ISSN: 2721-4540 11 The study aimed to find out the interjection types and emotional state from a sitcom entitled Sam & Cat used qualitative method. Mohanjan (2018) states that qualitative research is a type of social interaction that focuses on how people interpret and create meaning to understand people's social realities. Queiros, Faria & Almeida (2017) argue that qualitative research deals with aspects of a situation that cannot be measured, concentrating on the comprehension and explanation of the dynamics of social relationships. The qualitative method gives an insight into the human condition in various circumstances and the context of a perceived situation (Bengtsson, 2016). In qualitative research, it uses several methods to collect the data; Ary, Jacobs, Sorensen & Walker (2014) mention that there are: interviews, observation, document or artefact analysis, etc. Since this research will analyze visual content, it will focus on content analysis. By using qualitative research method, the researchers can get a deeper understanding about the interjections types and the emotional state. Therefore, qualitative research method is the best method to use in interpret and analyze the interjections type and emotional state in “Sam & Cat” sitcom. In order to gather the data, this research applied three steps of analyzing qualitative data according to Ary et al., (2014). The first step was familiarizing and organizing the data. This step was done by watching the sitcom video on Netflix entitled Sam & Cat. After that, the researchers made some lists of tables about interjections and emotions in that sitcom. Second, coding and reducing by reading and reread the data. After that, the researchers reduced unnecessary data, if any. The third step were interpreting and presenting the data. Interpreting the meaning from the data about the types of interjection and the emotion found in the movie. For that step, the researchers applied a theory from Goddard (2013), discussing three interjections types. Meanwhile, to interpret the second data, the researchers applied a theory from Koole, S. L., et al. (2011) and Jovanovic (2004), which talk about emotions and emotion functions in interjections. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Interjections are language features to express the speaker’s condition. In spoken communication, interjections have an essential role to build the situation. Sam & Cat sitcom uses the three types of interjections based on Goddard's theory. Moreover, those interjections present some types of emotion according to Jovanovic (2004). Table 2. Types of Interjections in Sam & Cat sitcom No Types of interjections Number of sentence Total 1 Primary Emotive Interjections 2,4,5,10,13,16,17 ,19,20,21 23,24,25,29,30,3 3,35,44,45,51,53, 54,55,58,59,60,6 1,62,67,70,72,73, 74,82,83,85,86,8 8,89,90,95,96,97, 99,101,102,104,1 05,107,108. 50 2 Primary Cognitive Interjections 3,7,12,26,34,36,3 7,38,39,40,42,46, 47,48,49,50,52,6 3,66,69,71,75,76, 77,78,79,84,87,9 2,94,100,103,109 . 33 3 Secondary Volitive interjections 1,6,8,9,11,14,15, 18,22,27,28,31,3 2,41,43,56,57,64, 65,68,80,81,91,9 3,98,106. 26 The total of interjections 109 This table presents that emotive interjections as the most often found in Sam & Cat Sitcom. On the second position is a cognitive interjection, followed by secondary volitive interjections. According to the data above, Sam & Cat sitcom uses emotive interjections to express their immediate feeling. The researcher classified the emotion that appears in the main characters' conversations. Rainbow: Journal of Literature, Linguistics and Culture Studies, Vol. 11 (2) 2022 p-ISSN: 2252-6323 e-ISSN: 2721-4540 12 Figure 1. The Emotional States Chart The chart above presents the emotional states of the sitcom. This sitcom uses almost all of the emotional states. However, three states have the same amount. Those three states used to express contempt, enthusiasm, and irritation. Meanwhile, some of the emotional states have not appear, such as triumph and wonder. These results show that the main characters have various problems but, sometimes they argue too. Based on the results about the emotional states, the researchers use some emotional states for each episode. Since the emotional states influence the flow of the story. The following parts discuss about the analysis of emotional states in each episode. Table 3. Data of #Pilot Episode No Example Types of Interjectio ns Emotional State 1 “Oh, My God!” (2:06) Primary Cognitive Interjection s Pain 2 “Whoa, you are Sam from iCarly” (2:56) Primary Emotive Interjection s Delight 3 “Hey! You nutty old lady!” (9:50) Secondary Volitive Interference Anger The synopsis of this episode shows Sam Puckett, one of the actors on the iCarly TV series, arriving in Los Angeles. She sees a girl named Cat Valentine, that girl gets dumped into a garbage truck. She tries to catch the truck for Cat. Later they get to know each other. Cat allows Sam to live with her at her grandma's apartment as a thank you. Through their short first meeting, other interesting activities are created. The first interjection appears when Cat feels off in the garbage truck. Cat tried to find her bubble gum in the trash can. Suddenly, the garbage truck came and took the trash can, which Cat was in, and threw the trash into the car. She screamed Oh, My God! because her head was hurt. Thus, the interjection expresses her pain feeling. That expression belongs to the primary cognitive interjections because of the use of Oh! at the beginning of the sentence. In contrast, the second interjection showed her delightedness. The delight emotion appears when Cat meets with one of the actors in the iCarly TV show. So, she says Whoa, you are Sam from iCarly. The use of Whoa is the implementation of primary cognitive interjections. The third interjection happened the night when Sam sleeps in grandma's apartment. She sleeps on a couch but, Nona is sleepwalking and folding the couch. Sam tries to scream and says Hey! You nutty old lady! to wake Nona up but it is useless. That interjection showed her angriness emotion. There are 17 interjections found in the first episode. These interjections from the first episode come with different emotions, such as irritation, fear, sorrow, surprise, so on. The main characters’ emotions are more transparent when they use the interjections. It makes the audience of the movies feel the emotion as well. Those emotions make the use of interjections more meaningful for the first episode. Based on the results about the emotional states, the researchers use some emotional states for each episode. Since the emotional states influence the flow of the story. The following parts discuss the analysis of emotional states in each episode. Table 4. Data of #FavoriteShow Episode No Example Types of Interjectio ns Emotional State 1 “Aw, geez, I got to get to school” (4:20) Primary Cognitive Interjection s Sorrow 2 “Hey, hey, hey, why are you freaking out?” (6:17) Secondary Volitive Interference Sympathy 3 “Ew, Bob, you’re drooling on my sweater.” (8:29) Primary Cognitive Interjection s Disgust In the second episode, Sam and Cat decide to continue the babysitting service from Cat’s grandma. They plan to watch their favorite TV 0 5 10 15 Rainbow: Journal of Literature, Linguistics and Culture Studies, Vol. 11 (2) 2022 p-ISSN: 2252-6323 e-ISSN: 2721-4540 13 show entitled That’s a Drag together but, Cat has to go to school. She goes back from school and cries because the news about the That’s a Drag show is canceled. They attempt to save their favorite television show from being canceled while babysitting two kids named Bob and Ethan. Interjection Aw, geez from the second episode is used by Cat when Sam and Cat get their first customer for the babysitting but, she gets a notification about her school. Meanwhile, She wanted to watch That’s a Drag too but, she has to go. Thus she says Aw, geez to express Cat’s feeling that in reality, she had to go to school. That expression categorizes as a primary cognitive interjection. It supported by her face expression that she is sad. Still from the second episode, Cat uses Hey, hey, hey, to shows her sympathy. Meanwhile, she uses Ew interjection that presents her condition. This part happens when Sam and Cat get a babysitting customer. His name is Bob and he is a hugger. He hugs and drools on the Cat’s sweater. For Cat, it is disgusting. So, she uses Ew interjection to show her reaction towards Bob. From the second episode, there are 13 interjections with various emotions. The most dominant emotion in this episode is anger. Since this episode starts with the cancelation of That’s a Drag TV show and ends up with tiring babysit jobs, this interjection showed the atmosphere of the problem. Table 5. Data of #NewGoat Episode No Example Types of Interjectio ns Emotional State 1 “Oh, my gosh!” (4:22) Primary Cognitive Interjection s Surprise 2 “Oh, No! Sam! Dilben’s father owns the building we live in.” (12:26) Primary Emotive Interjection s Irritation 3 “Ew! What happened ?” (18:20) Primary Emotive Interjection s Disgust In the morning, Dice comes with the pygmy goat and asks the girls to care for it. After that, there is a boy, who confesses himself as their landlord’s son, who comes and talks to them. He talks to them with evection because he thinks that a goat is not permitted in their apartment. Thus, Dice helps them by hiding the goat in the bathroom to prove to Dilben that they do not own a goat. Even though Dilben sees the goat and realizes that they are lying. Meanwhile, Dilben also lies that his father is not the landlord. The pygmy goat is surprised them. Cat has that primary cognitive interjection Oh, my gosh! to expressed her feeling. She is surprised at that moment because . So, she uses that expression to show her feeling spontaneously. Then, she also said Ew! What happened? when she saw the goat sneezed in Dice’s face because it was disgusting for her. These two interjections present the emotions toward the situation. Thus, the primary emotive interjection appears here. Another primary emotive interjection as the expression of irritation showed on the minute 12:26. This scene happens when Sam talks about a boy with a cape that comes to their apartment and complains about the goat. Sam is angry and says that she rearranges his clothes, stoles his cape, and throws him out. Thus, Cat says Oh, No! Sam! to respond to Sam’s reaction to Dibben. There are 12 interjections in this episode. Almost all of the scene in this part shows the reactions to Dilben. Since Dilben as the main rival for the two main characters, it makes irritation the most emotion in this episode. Table 6. Data of #TheBritBrats Episode No Example Types of Interjectio ns Emotional State 1 “Hey, you know what British kids love?” (1:58) Secondary Volitive Interference Enthusiasm 2 “Well, I’m going to eat some cereal or cut up sausage.” (8:41) Primary Cognitive Interjection s Delight 3 “Hey, if you want to beat a con artist, there’s only one way.” (15:44) Secondary Volitive Interference Sympathy Rainbow: Journal of Literature, Linguistics and Culture Studies, Vol. 11 (2) 2022 p-ISSN: 2252-6323 e-ISSN: 2721-4540 14 This part happens while Cat is caring for two courteous British girls, Gwen and Ruby. Dice recognizes that they have a "Pear Phone 6," a phone which is yet to be released in the United States. Dice buys five new Pear Phones for $500 from them but, they give him a box of rocks. Cat goes to the girls to figure out the Pear Phone, yet Cat gives her bicycle for a tin of bibble. Instead of bibble, she is given a tin of cotton swab. From that tragedy, Sam has an idea to trick the British brats into a bingo game at Elderly Acres. Finally, Dice receives his money and Cat gets her bicycle back. Based on the data from the fourth episode, two expressions show different emotional states. First, is Hey, you know what British kids love? for enthusiasm from Sam about the British kids. The second is Hey if you want to beat a con artist, there’s only one way as the sympathy to Dice and Cat. Since these two sentences use Hey, these two sentences categorize into secondary volitive interference that showed the speaker request attention from the listener. There is also a primary cognitive interjection from Cat that she says Well, I’m going to eat some cereal or cut up sausage. By saying well, she shows that she has an idea. It shows her delight in doing her activity. According to the #TheBritBrats episode, there were 22 interjections with contempt as the most emotional state. It happens because during the scene, these two main characters face a big problem with their customers. Table 7. Data of #BabySitterWar Episode No Example Types of Interjectio ns Emotional State 1 “No! Stop being impressed by them!” (10:06) Secondary Volitive Interference Anger 2 “Come on! I don’t like sleeping on couches!” (10:31) Secondary Volitive Interference Impatient 3 “Well, I think that’s awesome. ” (13:01) Primary Cognitive Interjection s Joy Sam and Cat argue about who is the best babysitter for Benny. They make a competition to decide the best babysitter. When they win the competition, one of them will get the master bedroom as a reward. They get three children for babysitting. They are Daisy, Jarvi, and Sophie. Both of them create some interesting activities so, the children can decide who is the best babysitter. Daisy and Jarvi choose their choices but, Sophie does not choose. For her, they will be the best babysitter when they work as a team. From the data and the description about the episode above, No! and Come on! belong to secondary volitive interjections. These two interjections represent anger and impatience from Cat. This scene happens when Cat asks Dice to help her find an amazing idea to catch the children's attention from Sam. The first interjection shows the anger expression. It can be seen from the sentence that uses exclamation mark. However, Come on! also uses exclamation mark but it does not show an angry expression. It uses to express impatience from the speaker. This episode also has a primary emotive interjection with Well for joy expression. Sam did not like a talkative child and it was her reaction toward Sophie. This episode has 41 interjections with enthusiasm as the most emotional state. The background of this episode is the competition to be the best babysitter. They compete with each other to be the winner. Thus, they take care of the children enthusiastically. CONCLUSION According to the data from five episodes (#Pilot, #FavoriteShow, #NewGoat, #TheBritBrats, #BabysitterWar) all types of interjections are used. The researchers find that primary emotive interjection is the most common use to express the main characters’ emotions. It happens because primary emotive interjections are denotative words without meaning. Sam and Cat as the main characters use denotative words spontaneously to express their emotion. These findings are strengthened by the number of emotional states in those 5 episodes. Irritation, contempt, and enthusiasm have appeared 14 times to show the feelings. It is related to the type of interjection that is mostly found in the sitcom. Those 5 episodes show some competition between Sam and Cat. Then, they also work together in solving their problems. Thus, the researchers conclude that irritation, contempt, and enthusiasm are found in the sitcom. Meanwhile, the two emotional states that not appeared in those 5 episodes are triumph and wonder. It happens because, during the flow of the Rainbow: Journal of Literature, Linguistics and Culture Studies, Vol. 11 (2) 2022 p-ISSN: 2252-6323 e-ISSN: 2721-4540 15 stories, both Sam and Cat express their fruitfulness with enthusiastic expression. So, the researchers assume that triumph and wonder are not in the 5 selected episodes because the main characters use an enthusiastic expression instead of triumph and wonder. The findings in this results are in line with the theory from Aryanti (2018) that interjections are implemented in the movies to build the feeling and emotions of the actors. However, this research can be developed in a larger and deeper area. Considering some theories about interjections, the next researchers might analyze the use of interjections in real life or in daily conversation. 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