Imagine you’re home alone and wake up late for work. You open your eyes, take one look at the time and immediately begin rushing around the house to get yourself ready to go. In your haste, you stub your toe on the bed post (we have all done it.) What word immediately comes out of your mouth? “Ouch!” But why? Nobody is home, so it’s not like you intended for anyone to hear it. You said it as a reaction, without even giving it much, if any thought at all. Words like “ouch” are considered expressive terms because they are uttered with the intended purpose of expressing feeling. Expressive terms vary from other words in many ways. Expressive terms such as ouch, and yum are unique from other words since they tend to stand alone and aren’t usually uttered as a means of communication with other individuals. While these specific words tend to be spoken out loud, their target audience is usually meant to be the speaker. Verbal communication entails conveying a message to other individuals typically, by stringing together a series of words to form a sentence. Sentences are a string of words that typically contain a subject and a predicate. Since expressive words do not seem to follow the same patterns as other words, I am going to explore some questions that I have about these terms. Some questions that I have are, who uses these terms; adults, children, both? When are these terms typically used, in formal, informal settings or both?  Who are the intended audiences, others, oneself, or both? I would also like to explore the origins of these words. I will consult the Oxford English Dictionary to determine the meaning of some specific expressive words. I will compare the use of expressives to the use of other types of words. I will also consult “The Meaning of Ouch and Oops” by David Kaplan to help uncover some answers.

While at Thanksgiving dinner if person A were to bring up a controversial topic, person B might violate Grice’s maxim of quantity to indirectly get the message across to  person A that his or her contribution is not welcome. Person B might simply say something like “Anywho…” and go on to change the subject entirely.  This would violate Grice’s maxim of quantity because by leaving out the detailed information that would explain that person A’s contribution is not welcome, and why it’s not welcome (such as it’s either inappropriate or  your views are different,)person B is saying “anywho…” to get the message across that he/she is intentionally changing the topic of conversation.

For my paper, I would like to explore the expressive meaning of words, specifically expressive terms. Expressive terms like “ouch” “oops” and “yum” are unique from other words. Unlike most words that are used to formulate sentences, expressive terms typically stand alone. Typically, people speak to communicate with one another. Expressive terms however, are unique because while terms like “ouch” or “oops” oftentimes are uttered out loud, they are usually uttered as an impulse reaction rather as a means of communication with others. I would like to further explore the origins of these words as well as the formality or lack of formality of these words. It isn’t common to see the words “ouch”, “oops” or “yum” written down, in a formal work or to hear them in a formal setting. This can be because it is not typical to write these terms or to say them in a sentence since they are considered exclamation words or because they overall are less formal words. I intend to use the Oxford English Dictionary, our textbook, as well a book by David Kaplan called “The Meaning of Ouch and Oops.” I also found an interesting article from Oregon State University, “On the origin of the word ‘oops’“ that I would like to refer to. I think it would be difficult to survey people about their use of these specific words so I most likely will not conduct or include any surveys in my research. I can lookup videos of people’s reactions when falling in order to make up for my lack surveys with regards to the specific term “oops”. I also anticipate that it will be challenging to determine the exact origin of these specific terms as well as a clear origin of use, so I intend to include multiple origins that I find in my research that I deem plausible.

1.Simple Antonyms : A) occupied B) vacant

A) The bathroom is occupied.

B)  The bathroom is vacant.

These two sentences are contradictory. There is no middle ground, meaning both sentences can’t be true and it can’t be that neither sentence is true. It must be one or the other. This proves that the two words: “occupied” and “vacant” are simple antonyms.

 

2.Gradable Antonyms: A) Rich B)Poor

A) I am rich.

B) I am poor.

These sentences are contrary meaning  both sentences can’t be true but one can be true and one can be false or both can be false. A person cant be both rich and poor but they can be either rich or poor or can be neither rich nor poor. These two words “are opposite ends of a single scale and therefore belong to the same syntactic domain,” meaning that they are in fact gradable antonyms.

 

3. Reverse pairs: A) up B) down

A)Go up the stairs to get to my apartment.

B)Go down the stairs to get to my apartment.

These two words “up” and “down” “denote motion in opposite dirrections” illustrating that they are reverse pairs.

 

4. Converse Pairs: A) Husband B) Wife

A)Mike is Kates Husband.

B)Kate is Mikes wife.

A is the husband of B, B is the Wife of A

A and B are converse pairs because they “express the same basic relation, with the positions of the two arguments reversed.”

5. Taxonomic sisters: A) Scorpions B) Spiders

Scorpions and spiders are taxonomic sisters because they are both hyponyms of arachnids.  The pair of words are incompatible, A scorpion can not be a spider; and a spider cannot be a scorpion.

1A entails 1B

1A) The manager fired Mark today.

1B) Mark was fired.

 

2A Presupposes 2B:

2A) My aunts hair is brown.

2B) You have an aunt.

The presupposition trigger is the possessive phrase “my aunt.”

 

3A Presupposes 3B:

3A) Mary is sorry that she pushed Mike.

3B) Mary pushed Mike.

The Presupposition trigger is the factive predicate: “Is sorry.”

 

One pair of expressions that have the same denotation, but different expressive meanings are “tired” and “exhausted.” Both tired and exhausted can be defined as being in need of rest or drained of resources. While these words share the same definition, I find the word “exhausted” to have a more extreme sense of urgency than the word “tired.” When a person says that he or she “is tired,” it comes across as a natural, common feeling for a person to have. If a person is says that he or she “is exhausted” on the other hand, it implies a much more severe and almost unnatural feeling that a person is experiencing. The word “exhausted” gives the impression as if you are incapable of staying awake (when pertaining to sleep) or that you have used every last bit of recourses that you had and now have absolutely nothing left (in regard to resources). Whereas, tired may just imply that you could use some rest, (when relating to sleep) or that you are wearing thin or running low on resources.