An evolutionary approach to emotional communication

Abstract

The study of pragmatics is typically concerned with ostensive communication (especially through language), in which we not only provide evidence for our intended speaker meaning, but also make manifest our intention to do so. This is not, however, the only way in which humans communicate. We also communicate in many non-ostensive ways, and these expressions often interplay with and complement ostensive communication. For example, fear, embarrassment, surprise and other emotions are often expressed with linguistic expressions, which they complement through changes in prosodic cues, facial and bodily muscular configuration, pupil dilatation and skin colouration, among others. However, some basic but important questions about non-ostensive communication, in particular those concerned with evolutionary stability, are unaddressed. Our objective is to address, albeit tentatively, this issue, focusing our discussion on one particular class of non-ostensive communication: emotional expressions. We argue that existing solutions to the problem of stability of emotional communication are problematic and we suggest introducing a new class of mechanisms—mechanisms of emotional vigilance—that, we think, more adequately accounts for the stability of emotional communication.