Expressing Value in Language (EVIL)

An ERC research project investigating evaluative adjectives
from the perspective of philosophy, theoretical linguistics & experimental linguistics

Funded by a Starting Grant (No. 101162444), it will run 2025-2030 at the University of Bristol.

Overview

Evaluative adjectives—words like 'good', 'ugly', 'tasty' and 'elegant'—have interpretations that appear to depend on the context. If you describe a knife, a bear or an act of charity as 'good', you do not seem to be saying that it has some fixed property of goodness. Rather, the context in which you are speaking affects the interpretation of 'good'. Evaluative adjectives are closely linked to concepts of central importance in philosophy, such as moral goodness, beauty, and value. Hence their apparent context-dependence has troubling consequences for many philosophical debates. For example, an act of charity could count as 'good' when we are talking about it in one context and as 'not good' when we are talking about it in another context, due to different interpretations of 'good'. This startling conclusion is difficult to reconcile with most ethical theories.

The project aims to give an account of the meaning of the word 'good' and other evaluative adjectives, along with the nature of goodness and other forms of value. It will incorporate philosophical and linguistic perspectives, generalisations about evaluative adjectives and particular case-studies, along with empirical results. The novelty of the project lies in this integrative and interdisciplinary aspect.

Events

To be announced.

Talks