TY - JOUR U1 - Zeitschriftenartikel, wissenschaftlich - begutachtet (reviewed) A1 - Helmer, Henrike T1 - How Do Speakers Define the Meaning of Expressions? The Case of German x heißt y (“x means y”) JF - Discourse Processes N2 - To secure mutual understanding in interaction, speakers sometimes explain or negotiate expressions. Adopting a conversation analytic and interaction linguistic approach, I examine how participants explain which kinds of expressions in different sequential environments, using the format x heißt y (“x means y”). When speakers use it to clarify technical terms or foreign words that are unfamiliar to co-participants, they often provide a situationally anchored definition that however is rather context-free and therefore transferable to future situations. When they explain common (but indexical, ambiguous, polysemous, or problematic) expressions instead, speakers always design their explanation strongly connected to the local context, building on situational circumstances. I argue that x heißt y definitions in interaction do not meet the requirements of scientific or philosophical definitions but that this is irrelevant for the situational exigencies speakers face. KW - Interaktionsanalyse KW - Konversationsanalyse KW - Deutsch KW - Kommunikativer Sinn KW - Bedeutung Y1 - 2020 UN - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:bsz:mh39-91612 SN - 1532-6950 SS - 1532-6950 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1080/0163853X.2019.1646567 DO - https://doi.org/10.1080/0163853X.2019.1646567 N1 - This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis Group in Discourse Processes on 16/08/2019, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/0163853X.2019.1646567 VL - 57 IS - 3 SP - 278 EP - 299 S1 - 22 PB - Routledge (Taylor & Francis Group) CY - London ER -