ekspressive

Ekspressive is an adjective used in linguistics, literary studies, and the visual and performing arts to describe features that convey the speaker's or author’s attitude, emotion, or affective stance rather than purely propositional content. The word is a form of "expressive" that appears in several languages, including Indonesian and Malay where ekspresif or ekspresif is common, as well as in Turkish and other languages where forms corresponding to "expressive" are used. In English-language scholarship the term "expressive" is standard, but ekspressive variants are encountered in multilingual discussions of affective meaning.

In linguistic usage, ekspresif or ekspressive meaning covers non-referential information that colors an utterance with affect: prosody (tone, intensity, duration), voice quality, interjections, lexical choices, and even certain morphological markers that signal attitude. These features may accompany propositional content or modify it. For example, adding a discourse marker or changing intonation can express surprise, irony, sympathy, or dissatisfaction without altering the basic truth conditions of the proposition.

In arts and media, ekspressive approaches emphasize the portrayal or evocation of emotion and subjective experience. Expression is central to expressive theories of art, performance, and narrative, where stylistic choices represent the creator’s affective stance.

See also: expressive meaning, affect, prosody, expressivity, emotion in language.