Negativity induced differences in the semantic-pragmatic behavior of expressive adjectives

Abstract

Expressive Adjectives (EAs) (e.g., damn, blasted) express a negative speaker attitude toward a discourse referent. EAs are typically treated as a homogeneous class in semantic and pragmatic literature, mainly focusing on damn as the prototypical EA. The presumed behavior of damn is then generalized to all other EAs, neglecting the potential impact of meaning variations among EAs on their interpretation. This article addresses this shortcoming by investigating how different degrees of negativity in EAs affect their interpretation and acceptability. We report three studies: a valence rating study that establishes a negativity hierarchy of common EAs; a forced-choice study showing that EA negativity interacts with utterance-internal emotional cues in EA-interpretation; and an acceptability rating study showing that differently negative EAs vary in their compatibility with positive referents. While some results remain inconclusive, the findings challenge earlier generalizations on EA behavior and highlight the necessity for future research on EA processing to take these distinctions into account.