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Studies at the Grammar-Discourse Interface: Discourse markers and discourse-related grammatical phenomena
Edited by Alexander Haselow and Sylvie Hancil
[Studies in Language Companion Series 219] 2021
► pp. 245–272

Chapter 9
On pragma-semantics of expressives

Between words and actions

| Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University , Russia | National Academy of Sciences , Armenia

Expressives can be understood as: (1) a manifestation of speaker’s emotional or affective attitudes; (2) a peculiar type of performatives; (3) a linguistic entity expressing or displaying what is the case. The third conception is taken as the basic one; we attempt to develop it, taking into account Bühler’s representational theory of language and the theory of performatives (Austin, Searle). Expressives are closely connected with behavioral patterns, situations, and actions. An actualization of verbal behavior (a performative component of expressives) meets its counterpart in the verbalization of action (a descriptive component). We suggest to describe pragma-semantics of expressives as based on prototypical behavioural frames.

Keywords: semantics, pragmatics, performatives, expressive speech acts, expressives, context, social meanings, cognitive frames
Article outline
  • 1.The theoretical background: Expressives and the theory of meaning
  • 2.Expressives in linguistic theory: Main approaches
    • 2.1Expressivity and the expressive function of language
    • 2.2Expressives as performatives
    • 2.3David Kaplan on expressives and hybrid semantics
  • 3.Expressives as meaningful actions and a situational models of behavior
    • 3.1Expressives: Situations and attitudes
    • 3.2On descriptive meaning of expressives
    • 3.3Expressives and behavioural patterns
  • 4.“Making sense out of events”
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 3 June 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.219.09zol
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