Expressivity and Perspectivity

Abstract It is a general feature of linguistic expressions with expressive content that they have to be interpreted with respect to some prominent perspective. In some cases, the speaker’s perspective is the only one available, while, in other cases, contextually prominent referents are available as perspective-takers as well. The chapter provides an overview over the conditions under which various kinds of expressives such as epithets, expressive adjectives, and pejoratives allow for non-speaker-oriented interpretations, with a focus on indirect discourse, free indirect discourse, and protagonist projection/viewpoint shifting, and discusses several theoretical options to account for the observed pattern. In the final part of the chapter, German demonstrative pronouns are discussed as a special case of linguistic items exemplifying the connection between expressivity and perspectivity: in general, demonstrative pronouns avoid maximally prominent referents as antecedents. If the speaker’s or narrator’s perspective becomes highly prominent via the presence of expressive elements, however, even maximally prominent referents become available as antecedents.