What is the technical term for the part of speech in bold?
Look, I'm not sure what you've been told, but carrots don't glow in the dark unless they mean business.
or
Listen, the only thing keeping him alive right now is that carrot.
I want to find some information on this kind of word for a class I am teaching. I want to find more examples and instances of usage.
The problem is that I'm finding it impossible to come up with a search term that correctly encompasses it. I'm sure if I knew the technical word I could find more information myself, but just searching with "look" and "listen" is hopeless, because they are such common words.
From what I have been able to ascertain so far, the answer appears to fall somwehere between the camps of interjection and discourse marker, but not into either exclusively or perfectly.
Anything to point me in the right direction would be appreciated.
EDIT: Just to be clear, I need to know the technical term so that I can search effectively for explanations and usage examples. I will then use these to craft an explanation that is easy for the students to understand. I am not looking to use the technical vocabulary to explain things directly to students.
SOLUTION(?)
Not sure enough to post it as an answer, but it may help others with a similar problem to know that term attention-getting device seems to be used a fair amount. Here are some interesting (though slightly tangential) resources I found:
- Imperatives of visual versus auditory perception as pragmatic markers in English and Dutch
- Links between Eyebrow Movements and Voice Variations : an Experimental Investigation
- Discourse Markers in Native And Non-native English Discourse
Also found some good information here which helped me form my teaching plan, though again not precisely what I was looking for: