Self-Expression

The book consists of seven chapters. Chapter 1 establishes the significance of self-expression and evaluates four models of communication: the code, inferential, extended-senses, and signaling models. Chapter 2 develops a systematic definition of expression through a series of conceptual principles. Chapter 3 distinguishes different forms of showing and examines their relation to speaker meaning, communicative intention, speech acts, indices, and handicaps. Chapter 4 analyses meaningful expression, automaticity, implicature, and competing theories of self-expression. Chapter 5 studies facial expression through Darwinian, neurocultural, behavioral-ecological, and strategic-readout perspectives. Chapter 6 addresses natural, idiosyncratic, and conventional forms of expression, including verbal devices for communicating attitudes and internal states. Chapter 7 examines expressive qualities, sensory-affective congruence, empathy, artistic expression, and the capacity of art to show what an emotion or experience feels like.