Expressivity and Lying

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Abstract According to the standard view, lying requires that the pertinent disbelieved content is asserted, while merely misleading does not. Expressives form an interesting test case for the standard view: expressive content is standardly considered to be not asserted. Thus, if one can lie with expressives the standard view is wrong; if one cannot, the standard view is further supported. However, our intuitions are not as clear-cut as one may hope and it is thus hard to settle the question merely on intuitive grounds. Some considerations are suggested that may help us to settle the question independently of our intuitions. It is argued that these considerations speak in flavor of the standard view of lying and against a non-standard, commitment-based, view.