Beyond the Limits of Saying: Linguistic Breakdown and the Affective Excess of Meaning

Abstract

It is widely acknowledged that language has long been considered the primary medium through which human consciousness articulates meaning, emotion, and experience. Yet literary theory, philosophy, and psychoanalysis persistently reveal the inadequacy of language in capturing the full intensity of affective life. This paper explores the dialectical relationship between language failure and emotional overflow, arguing that moments when language collapses or falters often mark sites of heightened emotional excess rather than communicative absence. Drawing upon philosophical linguistics (Wittgenstein), poststructuralism (Derrida), psychoanalysis (Freud, Lacan), and affect theory (Kristeva, Sedgwick), the study examines how emotional overflow destabilizes linguistic structures while simultaneously generating new modes of expression. Through a critical synthesis of interdisciplinary scholarship, this paper demonstrates that language failure is not merely a deficit but a productive rupture that exposes the limits of signification and the surplus of affect. Ultimately, the study contends that emotional overflow constitutes both a challenge to linguistic representation and a transformative force that redefines meaning beyond stable sign systems.