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In social interaction, different kinds of word-meaning can become problematic for participants. This study analyzes two meta-semantic practices, definitions and specifications, which are used in response to clarification requests in German implemented by the format Was heißt X (‘What does X mean?’). In the data studied, definitions are used to convey generalizable lexical meanings of mostly technical terms. These terms are either unknown to requesters, or, in pedagogical contexts, requesters ask in order to check the addressee’s knowledge. Specifications, in contrast, clarify aspects of local speaker meanings of ordinary expressions (e.g., reference, participants in an event, standards applied to scalar expressions). Both definitions and specifications are recipient-designed with respect to the (presumed) knowledge of the addressee and tailored to the topical and practical relevancies of the current interaction. Both practices attest to the flexibility and situatedness of speakers’ semantic understandings and to the systematicity of using meta-semantic practices differentially for different kinds of semantic problems. Data are come from mundane and institutional interaction in German from the public corpus FOLK.
This article examines a recurrent format that speakers use for defining ordinary expressions or technical terms. Drawing on data from four different languages - Flemish, French, German, and Italian - it focuses on definitions in which a definiendum is first followed by a negative definitional component (‘definiendum is not X’), and then by a positive definitional component (‘definiendum is Y’). The analysis shows that by employing this format, speakers display sensitivity towards a potential meaning of the definiendum that recipients could have taken to be valid. By negating this meaning, speakers discard this possible, yet unintended understanding. The format serves three distinct interactional purposes: (a) it is used for argumentation, e.g. in discussions and political debates, (b) it works as a resource for imparting knowledge, e.g. in expert talk and instructions, and (c) it is employed, in ordinary conversation, for securing the addressee's correct understanding of a possibly problematic expression. The findings contribute to our understanding of how epistemic claims and displays relate to the turn-constructional and sequential organization of talk. They also show that the much quoted ‘problem of meaning’ is, first and foremost, a participant's problem.
The paper presents a summary of an attempt to define the notion of “sentence mood”. It pursues the question for which phenomena it makes sense to subsume them under this term. It proposes to capture by “sentence mood” one aspect of sentence (not clause!) meaning which can be seen as the base of the traditional sentence type (Satzarten) distinction. This aspect of sentence meaning is a special kind of attitude towards the state of affairs denoted by the sentence. It is typically determined by supralexical factors, and is to be interpreted under normal conditions.
Geht man - wie wir es tun - davon aus, dass entwickelte, lebendige Literatursprachen in zwei Varianten - nämlich als gesprochene und als geschriebene Sprache - existieren, die für die Aufrechterhaltung der sprachlichen Kommunikation gleichermaßen wichtig und mit jeweils spezifischen Funktionen versehen sind, so ergeben sich daraus Konsequenzen für die Sprachbeschreibung. Im Folgenden sollen einige Aspekte, die diese Annahme in Bezug auf die Fassung des Wortbegriffes hat, am Beispiel des Deutschen zur Sprache gebracht werden. Vorausgeschickt wird eine Skizze des gegenwärtigen Forschungsstandes.
Vulgarismus
(2014)