The expressive dimension

TLDR

Expressive words such as “damn” and “bastard” are performative, reveal speaker perspective, and dramatically shape current and future utterances, yet speakers find it hard to articulate their meanings. The study proposes a general theory of these volatile, indispensable meanings. The theory introduces expressive indices that determine the expressive setting of context, with expressive morphemes actively altering that setting, and unifies descriptives and expressives in a multidimensional framework.

Abstract

Abstract Expressives like damn and bastard have, when uttered, an immediate and powerful impact on the context. They are performative, often destructively so. They are revealing of the perspective from which the utterance is made, and they can have a dramatic impact on how current and future utterances are perceived. This, despite the fact that speakers are invariably hard-pressed to articulate what they mean. I develop a general theory of these volatile, indispensable meanings. The theory is built around a class of expressive indices. These determine the expressive setting of the context of interpretation. Expressive morphemes act on that context, actively changing its expressive setting. The theory is multidimensional in the sense that descriptives and expressives are fundamentally different but receive a unified logical treatment.