Hostname: page-component-76d6cb85b7-dqfph Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-07-12T15:13:44.525Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Emotional Expressions as Speech Act Analogs

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Andrea Scarantino
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

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.

Information

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

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

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.

References

Austin, John L. 1962. How to Do Things with Words. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Bar-On, Dorit. 2013. “Expressive Communication and Continuity Skepticism.” Journal of Philosophy 110 (6): 293–330..CrossRefGoogle Scholar
D’Arms, Justin, and Jacobson, Daniel. 2003. “The Significance of Recalcitrant Emotions (Or Anti-quasijudgmentalism).” In Philosophy and the Emotions, ed. Hatzimoysis, Anthony, 127–46. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Darwin, Charles. 1872. The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals. New York: Philosophical Library.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ekman, Paul. 1980. “Biological and Cultural Contributions to Body and Facial Movement in the Expression of Emotions.” In Explaining Emotions, ed. Rorty, Amelie O., 73–102. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Ekman, Paul. 1997. “Expression or Communication about Emotion.” In Uniting Biology and Psychology: Integrated Perspectives on Human Development, ed. Segal, Nancy, Weisfeld, Carol Cronin, and Weisfeld, Glenn E., 315–38. Washington, DC: APA.Google Scholar
Ekman, Paul. 1999a. “Basic Emotions.” In Handbook of Cognition and Emotion, ed. Dalgleish, Tim and Power, Mick J., 45–60. Chichester: Wiley.Google Scholar
Ekman, Paul. 1999b. “Facial Expressions.” In Handbook of Cognition and Emotion, ed. Dalgleish, Tim and Power, Mick J., 301–20. Chichester: Wiley.Google Scholar
Fernandez-Dols, José-Miguel. 2017. “Natural Facial Expression: A View From Psychological Constructionism and Pragmatics.” In The Science of Facial Expression, ed. Fernández-Dols, José-Miguel and Russell, James, 457–75. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frank, Robert H. 1988. Passions within Reason: The Strategic Role of the Emotions. New York: Norton.Google Scholar
Fridlund, Alan J. 1991. “Evolution and Facial Action in Reflex, Social Motive, and Paralanguage.” Biological Psychology 32:3–100.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fridlund, Alan J. 1994. Human Facial Expression: An Evolutionary View. San Diego, CA: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Frijda, Nico. 1986. The Emotions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Green, Mitchell. 2007. Self-Expression. Oxford: Clarendon.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grice, Paul. 1957. “Meaning.” Philosophical Review 66 (3): 377–88..CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keltner, Dacher, and Cordaro, Daniel. 2015. “Understanding Multimodal Emotional Expressions: Recent Advances in Basic Emotion Theory.” In Emotion Researcher: ISRE’s Sourcebook for Research on Emotion and Affect, ed. Andrea Scarantino. http://emotionresearcher.com/understanding-multimodal-emotional-expressions-recent-advances-in-basic-emotion-theory/.Google Scholar
Krebs, John R., and Dawkins, Richard. 1984. “Animal Signals: Mind-Reading and Manipulation.” In Behavioural Ecology: An Evolutionary Approach, 2nd ed., ed. Krebs, John R. and Davies, Nicholas B., 380–402. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Lazarus, Richard S. 1991. Emotion and Adaptation. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Maynard Smith, John, and Harper, David. 2003. Animal Signals. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
McAninch, Andrew, Goodrich, Grant, and Allen, Colin. 2009. “Animal Communication and Neo-Expressivism.” In The Philosophy of Animal Minds, ed. Lurz, Robert W., 128–44. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Parkinson, Brian. 1995. Ideas and Realities of Emotion. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Parkinson, Brian 2005. “Do Facial Movements Express Emotions or Communicate Motives?” Personality and Social Psychology Review 9:278–311.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Russell, James. 1994. “Is There Universal Recognition of Emotion from Facial Expressions? A Review of the Cross-Cultural Studies.” Psychological Bulletin 115:102–41.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Scarantino, Andrea. 2013. “Animal Communication as Information-Mediated Influence.” In Animal Communication Theory: Information and Influence, ed. Stegmann, Ulrich, 63–81. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scarantino, Andrea. 2016. “The Philosophy of Emotions and Its Impact on Affective Science.” In The Handbook of Emotions, 4th ed., ed. Lewis, Michael, Haviland-Jones, Jeanette, and Barrett, Lisa Feldman, 3–65. New York: Guilford.Google Scholar
Scarantino, Andrea. 2017a. “How to Do Things with Emotional Expressions: The Theory of Affective Pragmatics.” Psychological Inquiry 28 (2/3): 165–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scarantino, Andrea. 2017b. “Twelve Questions for the Theory of Affective Pragmatics.” Psychological Inquiry 28 (2/3): 217–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schelling, Thomas C. 2001. “Commitment: Deliberate versus Involuntary.” In Evolution and the Capacity for Commitment, ed. Nesse, Randolph, 48–56. New York: Russell Sage.Google Scholar
Searle, John R. 1969. Speech Acts: An Essay in the Philosophy of Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Searle, John R. 1979. Expression and Meaning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Searle, John R., and Vanderveken, Daniel. 1985. Foundations of Illocutionary Logic. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Tooby, John, and Cosmides, Leda. 2008. “The Evolutionary Psychology of the Emotions and Their Relationship to Internal Regulatory Variables.” In Handbook of Emotions, 3rd ed., ed. Lewis, Michael, Haviland-Jones, Jeanette, and Barrett, Lisa Feldman, 114–37. New York: Guilford.Google Scholar
Van Kleef, Gerben A. 2016. The Interpersonal Dynamics of Emotion. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wharton, Tim. 2009. Pragmatics and Nonverbal Communication. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar