Expressive anger
Definition
Language that vents strong negative emotion using threat vocabulary without a genuine instrumental intent to act on the harm named. The phrase 'I could kill you for that' said in ordinary frustration is expressive. Distinguishing expressive from instrumental use is a core analytical task.
Related terms
- Conditional threat
- A threat whose harm is contingent on a specified triggering event or the recipient's behaviour. 'If you go to the police, you...
- Direct versus indirect threat
- A direct threat explicitly names the harm, the sender, and the target. An indirect threat achieves the same communicative effect through implication,...
- Threat (linguistic definition)
- A speech act in which the speaker signals an intention to carry out harmful action against the recipient, with or without a...
- Unconditional threat
- A threat that signals harm without specifying a condition. The harm is framed as certain or likely without reference to what the...
- WAVR21
- Workplace Assessment of Violence Risk, 21-factor version. A structured threat-assessment tool used in occupational and institutional settings that integrates language analysis with...
Explained in
- Threatening Language: Taxonomy and AnalysisLanguage that vents strong negative emotion using threat vocabulary without a genuine instrumental intent to act on the harm named. The phrase 'I could kill yo...