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Emotional Expressions as Speech Act Analogs

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Andrea Scarantino
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Abstract

In this article I articulate the Theory of Affective Pragmatics, which combines insights from the Basic Emotion View and the Behavioral Ecology View of emotional expressions. My core thesis is that emotional expressions are ways of manifesting one’s emotions but also of representing states of affairs, directing other people’s behaviors, and committing to future courses of actions. Since these are some of the main things we can do with language, my article’s take home message is that, from a communicative point of view, much of what we can do with language we can also do with nonverbal emotional expressions.

Type
Cognitive Sciences
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 85 , Issue 5 , December 2018 , pp. 1038 - 1053
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

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Footnotes

†

I am grateful to the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation for funding in the fall 2017 semester during my stay at the Berlin School of Mind and Brain at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and to Michael Pauen and Annette Winkelmann for their hospitality while at the school.

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