The Ineffable Case of Expressives

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14394/filnau.2022.0035

Keywords:

expressives, descriptives, descriptive ineffability

Abstract

Expressive terms (damn, fuck, bastard) are said to convey speakers’ attitudes and feelings. These can be positive or negative, depending on the context. In this paper, I focus on the property of expressives that I take to be of the most importance: descriptive ineffability. Descriptive ineffability is a property of expressive terms for which no suitable descriptive paraphrase can be found that
captures the full meaning of the expressive. In the face of arguments that attempt to show either that descriptive terms also carry this feature or that expressives (at least in some instances) can be effable, I defend the idea that descriptive ineffability is unique to expressives. I end the paper by considering what descriptive ineffability can teach us about expressive terms.

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Published

2022-12-31

How to Cite

Berškytė, J. (2022). The Ineffable Case of Expressives. The Philosophy of Science, 30(4), 77–99. https://doi.org/10.14394/filnau.2022.0035