Nonvalorative

Nonvalorative is an adjective used in philosophy, linguistics, and related fields to describe content that does not express value judgments or normative evaluations. In contrast to valorative statements, which express approvals or disapprovals such as good or bad, nonvalorative statements are primarily descriptive, factual, or explanatory.

Etymology and scope: The term derives from non- (not) and valorative (relating to value). It is applied to sentences, utterances, or arguments that convey information without asserting an evaluative stance. Nonvalorative content can appear in science, mathematics, history, and everyday description, where the aim is to report or explain rather than to judge.

Examples: The water boils at 100 degrees Celsius at sea level. The Earth orbits the Sun. The novel was published in 1954. These statements are typically nonvalorative because they state facts or describe relationships without expressing approval or disapproval.

Caveats and usage: Some statements may be nonvalorative in form yet imply normative assumptions or presuppose standards, which can complicate classification. In ethics or aesthetics, even descriptive claims can be embedded in evaluative frameworks, making their nonvalorative status context-dependent. The term is most common in analytic philosophy, semantics, and linguistics, where researchers distinguish descriptive or factual content from evaluative content.

See also: descriptive, evaluative, nonnormative, valorative, semantics, philosophy of language.