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The expressive power of languages is an intriguing subject. Logical languages are more or less expressive, and that certain concepts expressible in some of these cannot be expressed in others. This chapter shows that there are precise ways of talking about facts of expressivity for natural languages, and moreover that, in the case of facts concerning quantification, they can be established using relatively simple model-theoretic tools. It can be shown that one language is more expressive than another by not only providing a translation in one direction, but also by demonstrating that no translation in the other direction is possible. This chapter examines how the concept of expressiveness can be specified and focuses on the related notions involved. It also presents a sketch of a theory of expressivity and discusses the expressibility of quantifier expressions versus predicate expressions. The concept of sameness as a partial equivalence relation is also considered.

This chapter applies the Ehrenfeucht-Fraïssé (EF) technique to present a variety of results about the expressive power of certain monadic quantifiers. After repeating the general method, (un)definability relative to first-order logic and then relative to stronger logics is considered. The chapter also discusses issues of expressivity and monotonicity, and gives a number of exercises for applying the EF-tools. The direct applications of the method concern logical languages, but results about such languages may transfer to natural languages under certain conditions. The possible consequences for expressibility issues within natural languages are examined. In particular, the prospects of finding a universal statement that would somehow describe or even explain the role of monotonicity in the context of expressive power in natural languages is analysed, in view of certain rather striking technical results about definability in terms of monotone quantifiers.

The conclusion summarises the main arguments of the book through commenting upon the generic terms through which melodrama establishes its relationship to reality. Because of its core problematic – the gap between expressive elevation and prosaic reality - melodrama can offer special ways of rendering realism, of considering tensions around such ideologically charged subjects as the family, the conditions of the oppressed, and female experience, and it can offer a stimulating framework through which to highlight its relation to music and to the other arts. Whether in the interplay of disappointment and protest, of feeling and authenticity against performance and stylisation, in a Catholic hope in transcendence or the proliferation of social realism, the dynamics of melodrama lie in its potential as a form of tension, a potential whose realisation is responsible for its particular success in post-war Italian cinema.

This chapter considers how theory and research on expressivity may inform day-to-day practice in the music profession. First, a critical discussion of traditional views on expressivity is provided, and some of the myths that surround the concept of expressivity are dispelled. Then, a revised view of expressivity based on modern research is proposed. Finally, a new and empirically-based approach to learning expressivity, termed cognitive feedback, is described and evaluated. The bulk of the chapter is devoted to the expression of emotion, but in the process, other important issues regarding expressivity are considered. The focus is on psychological research rather than philosophical inquiry.

An apparently almost irresistible popular line of explanation for this general lack of musical accomplishment in the population is the invocation of the presence or absence of ‘musical talent’. John Sloboda, Jane Davidson, and Michael Howe proposed the existence of a folk psychology of talent, which postulates substantial innately determined differences between individuals in their capacity for musical accomplishment. One major purpose of this chapter is to marshal evidence and arguments for an alternative view to the prevalent folk psychology. This alternative view holds the capacity for musical accomplishment of one sort or another to be a species-defining characteristic. The chapter addresses the distinction between technical and expressive aspects of musical performance. Those who are prepared to concede that talent might not be the best explanation of technical development are much more reluctant to concede on the issue of expressivity.

While there are many perspectives and dimensions that can be adapted to explain individual development, the researchers in this section focus on three dimensions: the selection of sample, the selection of questions to be asked from the sample, and the type of observations to be made from the study. For the first dimension, the researchers chose to get samples that were performing above average in terms of musical competency; for the second, the research focuses on uncovering factors that propel individuals towards being musical virtuosos; finally, the research perspective deals with the relationship between the development of musical expertise and the external resources that may be responsible for bringing it out. Through this, the researchers were able to define the characteristics of expert musical performance, the conditions for development of performance skills and whether expressivity can be learned or practiced. The chapter also documents an observation of young performing musicians.

This chapter looks at what defines expression, how expression is measured in a highly notated piece, and how to tell apart deliberate expression and unintentional blunders when making music based on a defined and notated music piece. This chapter attempts to draw a fine line of distinction between these two scenarios, and it uses Jamshed Barhucha's coined terms: veridical and schematic expectancies. These concepts are somewhat similar to the episodic and semantic memories discussed in the previous chapter. This chapter also makes a turn towards discussing musical performance, the common features of expression in Western classical music performances, and the psychological principles behind these variations in timing, articulation, and dynamics. The musicians' or performers' physical performance also conveys a message and leaves a mark on the audience's minds. Finally, this chapter also discusses how emotion plays a central role in expressing the mood and communicating the message of a song. This section points out how musical structure, bodily movement, emotion, and performance styles work as a single and complex unit, interacting with one another in any musical performance.

The final chapter is concerned with looking back and looking ahead. It concludes with a broad view of the topics dealt with in this book and summarizes the main findings: expressivity can partake in agreement, expressivity can trigger movement, and expressivity can be selected for. The chapter briefly predicts what the main conclusion—that expressivity is represented in syntax—may mean for existing and future research on expressives and the syntax-semantics interface, before giving some concrete suggestions for future directions of investigations including reflections on expressive adjectives, expressivity and its relation to determiners, cross-linguistic variation, and diachronic development and acquisition.

This chapter focuses on the relationship between gestures and persuasive discourse. It begins with an overview of the history of gesture research and studies about gesture expressivity. It then presents a model of persuasive discourse in terms of goals and beliefs. This model is illustrated by using case studies on the gestural behaviour of famous politicians. Finally, this chapter discusses how such a model can be used to implement persuasive gesturing in an embodied conversational agent.

This chapter introduces the first section of the volume on musical expressivity. It begins with a brief overview of the issue of how it is that music is expressive of emotion. The chapters in this section are then summarized. The chapter finishes with a discussion of the ways that research in this area may develop in the future.

Though Greek mathematics would have considered the notion of “irrational numbers” to be inherently contradictory, in the sixteenth century this concept found advocates on musical grounds well before it appeared in the theory of equations. Michael Stifel, the leading German mathematician of the century, first used the term “irrational numbers” in the context of his discussion of music, but then drew back from the infinity of digits implicit in this concept. Girolamo Cardano, the famous physician and mathematician, brought this concept forward in his musical writings and later used it in his treatment of algebra. Nicola Vicentino’s interest in reviving ancient Greek quarter-tones in enharmonic music led him to advocate “irrational proportions.” Each of their involvements with practical music and composition related closely to their mathematical views. Distrust of the irrational, both musical and mathematical, also color controversies about the expressive dissonances used in early opera, such as Giovanni Maria Artusi’s critique of Claudio Monteverdi. Throughout the book where various sound examples are referenced, please see http://mitpress.mit.edu/musicandmodernscience (please note that the sound examples should be viewed in Chrome or Safari Web browsers).

Expressive behaviors are an indispensable part of any believeable virtual agent. They add liveliness to the virtual character and allow for clearer communication. This chapter is dedicated to computational models of expressive behaviors. The variety of these models arise from the richness of the theories trying to explain human behavior. For this reason, first the chapter introduces the main theories of human expressive behavior and then classifies computational models according to them. Expressive behaviors based on interactions not only consist of the choice of the appropriate set of nonverbal signals (e.g., facial expressions, gestures) to express agent’s intentions but also in their appropriate realization. For this reason, the authors also present the computational models of expressive and dynamic qualities of a movement. Finally, the expressive behavior can be influenced by social context or the behavior of its interlocutor. The authors conclude this section by presenting models of regulation of emotional expressions.

San Francisco’s Cockettes troupe staged radical anti-disciplinary spectacles onstage, in short films, in public, and in their domestic spaces. They hyperbolized the leftist political programs that informed both the liberation movements and the communal living practices in which they were ensconced. Through elaborate gender-defying combinations of drag and nudity, the Cockettes used their bodies as sites of social transformation. Sylvester, who later became a recording star, was perhaps the best-known Cockette. Using a repertoire of black virtuoso diva techniques, including a proficient singing voice, attention to black musical forms, and articulate modes of dress, Sylvester perfected a black expressive originality constructed from historically black signs. The difference between his radical virtuosity and the transgressive drop-out aesthetic of the predominantly white Cockettes troupe reveals a lack of organic unity in this revolutionary space and a racial cleavage in the project of liberation.

In the films subsequent to Damnation (1987) the basics of the Tarr style do not change, but a certain evolution can be detected in several details. This chapter discusses this evolutionary process. The constants in his films are rather obvious: all are black and white; the average shot length (ASL) does not go under two minutes, but in two cases it increases by 84 per cent as compared to Damnation; the environment is characterized always by some combination of desolation and poverty; a film noir visual style dominates; and all the stories continue to be based on the situation of entrapment, but from Damnation on these stories strictly and consistently adhere to a circular structure and are detached from all historical and geographical concreteness. However, there is also an increasing degree of emotional expressivity in Tarr's films. He seems to seek an ever more powerful way to express a feeling of general desperation over the impossibility of changing the situation of human helplessness.

This chapter examines several “snapshots” from a recording by the legendary singer Kesar Bai Kerkar (1892–1977), in which the customary audience response to a concert of classical Hindustani music, in the form of appreciative verbal interjections, is clearly audible. These responses identify “special” moments in the performance, which can be considered particularly expressive. Praat software was used to generate pitch-lines, which elucidate what is happening in the performance at these selected moments. The analyses must be understood within the framework of the music being performed and the ideas about aesthetics of expression. A brief outline of expressivity in the context of Hindustani music is given. The recording is from one genre, a particular period, and one school, and the introductory sketch about expression of emotion and the role of raga in the context of Hindustani music is necessarily a brief synopsis of a vast subject.

To speak of the expressivity of music is to refocus attention from musical artefacts such as scores towards the experience of music as performed: rather than the expressivity of the performance adding to that of the work, the listener's concern is with the total expressiveness of what is heard. This refocusing of attention represents a radical reconstruction of the object of musical study—one that does not entail forgetting about scores, but rather seeking to understand the role that they play in the culture of music as performance. Seen in this perspective, musicology is able to draw on the tradition of cross-disciplinary research, ranging from cultural to computational perspectives. It might indeed become the first field to deliver on the potential for productive interaction between traditional and digital approaches to the humanities.

This introductory chapter talks about sexual expressivity or explicitness in black literature and culture as a rejection of the Western will to truth, or the quest to produce a truth about sexuality, and underscores such truth as a joke. It describes how black cultural producers have strategized against the sexual con of white supremacist, capitalist patriarchy outside of politics. The chapter references novelist Ralph Ellison and former pornographic actress Vanessa del Rio as a way of underscoring lineages that have been ignored in the quest for a sexual politics, which includes pleasure and questions about agency. These questions need to be considered for black women, men, children, and transgender folk; and needs to begin in home fictions rather than home truths.