Pooh-pooh

Synonyms

Expressions of emotions theory; Expressive theory; The interjectionist theory

Definition

The pooh-pooh theory suggests that language has emerged from intuitive emotional cries, expressive, for example, of agony or joy.

Introduction

This early speculative language theory refers to the notion that language emerged from unintentional vocal responses to agony, fright, astonishment, enthusiasm, satisfaction, or other emotions (Barber 1965). Although animals produce sounds as well, yet language is unique only to humans. “Ouch!”, “Aaah!”, and “Wow!” are some examples of the unintentional vocal responses emerged from this hypothesis. This theory can be found in the literature as the expressive theory, the interjectionist theory, or the expressions of emotions theory (Barber 1965). Max Muller supported the pooh-pooh theory for a while, but later he abandoned it (Müller 1877).

The notion of the pooh-pooh theory that language has many emotional exclamations has been widely criticized by...