attitudinal (adj.)

A term sometimes used in SEMANTICS as part of a classification of types of MEANING: it refers to the emotional element in meaning, as in the different attitudes expressed by varying the INTONATION or loudness of a sentence, e.g. anger, sarcasm. In the context of PROSODY, ‘attitudinal meaning’ is usually distinguished from GRAMMATICAL. Alternative terms include AFFECTIVE and EMOTIVE; opposed terms include COGNITIVE and REFERENTIAL.