Is there an aesthetic component of language?

TL;DR

This paper explores whether language has an inherent aesthetic component by examining expressives, which are linguistic devices used to convey feelings and opinions, and discusses their elusive nature and relation to linguistic principles.

Contribution

It investigates the concept of expressives across languages and analyzes their role in the aesthetic dimension of language, highlighting their unique and complex features.

Findings

Expressives are used universally across languages.

The nature of expressives remains elusive and complex.

Expressives may represent an aesthetic component of language.

Abstract

Speakers of all human languages make use of grammatical devices to express attributional qualities, feelings, and opinions as well as to provide meta-commentary on topics in discourse. In general, linguists refer to this category as 'expressives'in spite of the fact that defining exactly what 'expressives' are remains elusive. The elusiveness of expressives has given rise to considerable speculation about the nature of expressivity as a linguistic principle. Specifically, several scholars have pointed out the 'special' or 'unusual' nature of expressives vis-a-vis 'normal' or 'natural' morpho-syntax.