AbuseUse of a speech act that appears to take effect but lacks sincerity on the part of the speaker; for example, I promise to buy you ice cream uttered by someone who has no intention of fulfilling the promise
AccommodationA process proposed by Lewis 1979 in which a hearer confronted with information that is linguistically presupposed yet previously unknown will treat it as though it were in fact previously known, and will change their discourse model accordingly
AnaphoraPronominal reference to a previously mentioned referent
AntecedentThe proposition in the if-clause in a conditional (or that precedes the arrow in the predicate-logic representation of a conditional); also, the previous mention of an entity from which a pronoun takes its reference
ArgumentAn entity or entities to which are applied the attribute, activity, relationship, etc., denoted by a predicate
Argument-reversingA noncanonical structure that places a canonically preverbal phrase in postverbal position and a canonically postverbal phrase in preverbal position, such as long passives and inversion
ArticleA member of a class of determiners that indicate definiteness or indefiniteness, with little or no further semantic content; in English, the articles are the, a, and an
BiconditionalA logical operator that returns ‘true’ when both of the propositions on which it operates have the same truth-value, and ‘false’ otherwise; shown as ↔
BivalentHaving exactly two values; a bivalent system of logic is one that allows for a proposition to be true or false, with no other option
CalculabilityThe property of an implicature such that it can be arrived at by a process of considering what was said, the context in which it was said, and the Cooperative Principle
CancelabilityThe property by which an implicature that would otherwise be licensed can felicitously be denied
Canonical word orderThe basic, default word order in a language; in English, this is subject-verb-object (where ‘object’ includes a range of complements of the verb, including not only direct objects but also prepositional phrases, adjective phrases, etc.)
CataphoraPronominal reference forward to an about-to-be-mentioned referent
Change-of-state verbA verb whose semantic meaning includes a change from one condition to another, such as melt
Cleft sentenceA noncanonical sentence that divides its constituents into two parts, one presupposed and the other focused, as in What I ate was the tuna
Cognitive Principle of RelevanceIn Sperber and Wilson’s (1986) framework, ‘human cognition tends to be geared to the maximization of relevance’
CognitivismAnother term for mentalism
Common groundThe interlocutors’ shared background assumptions
Communicative Principle of RelevanceIn Sperber and Wilson’s (1986) framework, ‘every ostensive stimulus conveys a presumption of its own optimal relevance’
Computational linguisticsA field of linguistics that uses computational tools to study human language, as well as the use of language in computers or the use of computers to facilitate linguistic interaction
ConditionalA logical operator that returns ‘false’ when the antecedent is true and the consequent is false, and ‘true’ otherwise; shown as →
ConjunctionA logical operator that returns ‘true’ when both of the joined propositions are true, and ‘false’ otherwise; shown as ˄
ConsequentThe proposition in the then-clause in a conditional (or that follows the arrow in a predicate-logic representation of a conditional)
ConstantA unit in propositional-logic notation that stands for a single unvarying entity
Context-dependent meaningMeaning that can vary from one context to another
Context-independent meaningMeaning that does not vary by context
Contextual implicationsIn Sperber and Wilson’s (1986) framework, conclusions that an utterance in context might lead a hearer to draw
ConventionA relatively fixed social agreement or shared practice
Conventional implicatureAn implicature that is conventionally carried by an expression but is not part of its truth-conditional meaning, such as the sense of contrast carried by the word but
Conversational implicatureAn implicature based on the maxims of the Cooperative Principle; it is characterized by being nonconventional, calculable, and cancelable
Cooperative PrincipleH. P. Grice’s principle and associated maxims, designed to explain how interlocutors’ assumption of each other’s cooperativity accounts for differences between semantic meaning and pragmatic implicature
Copresence heuristicsVarious ways, according to Clark and Marshall 1981, in which people can come to share knowledge (through, e.g., being physically copresent, or sharing a culture), enabling them to bridge the Mutual Knowledge Paradox
CoreferentialHaving a shared referent, as with a pronoun and its antecedent
Corpus linguisticsA field of linguistic study that examines large collections of naturally occurring language
Criterial featuresA set of definitional features for counting as a member of a category
DeclarativeThe syntactic form conventionally associated with a statement; e.g., The cat is on the mat
DefeasibilityAnother word for cancelability
DefiniteA member of a class of expressions typically (but not always) used in reference to familiar or uniquely identifiable entities or groups, including, e.g., noun phrases introduced by the or a possessive, as well as personal pronouns, demonstratives like these and those, and proper names
Definiteness effectThe perception of a constraint precluding definite noun phrases from appearing in postverbal position in an existential
DeicticAdjectival form of the word deixis
Deictic centerThe point of reference from which deictic proximity is measured
DeixisExpressions that ‘point’ to some object (or some time or place) in the physical context of utterance; e.g., here, now, that guy
DeterminerA member of a class of expressions that introduce a noun phrase, including for example the articles the, a, and an; demonstratives like these and those; and possessives like his and my
Direct speech actAn utterance that performs the act conventionally associated with its form, such as an interrogative that serves to ask a question
Discourse deixisDeictic reference to a stretch of discourse
Discourse entityAn abstract construct in a discourse model, representing some entity in a discourse and available for reference
Discourse modelA mental model of the ongoing discourse, including the individual’s beliefs about their interlocutors’ beliefs
Discourse referentAnother term for discourse entity
Discourse Representation TheoryKamp’s (1981) semantic framework, in which ‘discourse representation structures’ track referents and their attributes across sentences
Discourse-new informationInformation that has not been evoked in the prior discourse and cannot be inferred from previously evoked information
Discourse-old informationInformation that has already been explicitly evoked in the discourse, or which can be inferred from such information
Discourse-statusThe status of information as either discourse-old or discourse-new
DisjunctionA logical operator that returns ‘false’ when both of the joined propositions are false, and ‘true’ otherwise; shown as ˅
Distal deixisDeictic reference to something spatially or temporally far away
Ditransitive verbA verb that takes both a direct object and an indirect object, such as gave in Mary gave Sally the book
Dynamic Montague GrammarGroenendijk and Stokhof’s (1990, 1991) semantic framework, which dynamically tracks modifications to the hearer’s information state
Dynamic SemanticsAn approach to semantic theory that accounts for the development of meaning over the course of a text or discourse
EntailmentA proposition that must, in all possible worlds, be true if the proposition entailing it is true; also, a relationship such that in every world in which a certain proposition is true, another (entailed) proposition is also true
Event-related potential (ERP)A response by the brain to some external stimulus
Exclusive ‘or’A reading of ‘or’ in which if both joined propositions are true, the disjunction is false
ExistentialIn English, a postposing construction that includes a ‘dummy’ (semantically empty) there in subject position and a copular verb (i.e., a form of be)
Existential quantifierA quantifier that expresses the quantity ‘at least one’; shown as ∃
Experimental pragmaticsThe use of empirical methods to study issues of production and interpretation in pragmatics
ExplicatureIn Sperber and Wilson’s (1986) framework, the truth-conditional content of an utterance, including any contextually filled-in information necessary to result in a truth-evaluable proposition, such as the referents of pronouns
ExtensionThe set of entities in the world that are picked out by the semantics of an expression
Eye-trackerA piece of equipment that allows the researcher to make subtle measurements of where the subject is looking at a given moment
Face-threatening actAn appeal to positive or negative face that exceeds what is appropriate to the relationship or circumstances, or has the potential to exceed the addressee’s comfort level
Factive verbA verb that presupposes its sentential complement, such as regret in I regret that I burned dinner
FelicityPragmatic acceptability, contextual appropriateness
Felicity conditionA condition that, if not satisfied, renders a speech act infelicitous
File Change SemanticsHeim’s (1982, 1983, 1988) semantic framework, which allows referents and their attributes to persevere across sentences
FilterAn expression that sometimes does and sometimes does not allow the presupposition of an embedded clause to ‘project’ up to also be a presupposition of the larger clause
FloutTo violate a maxim so blatantly that it is clear to the hearer that they were intended to notice the violation and to draw some appropriate inference
FocusInformation that is presented as nonpresupposed, and typically as the new and informative content of the sentence
Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)A method for creating dynamic images of the areas of the brain that are active in the performance of some cognitive task
Generalized conversational implicatureA category of implicature that holds by default over an entire class of situations; for example, the expression Can you X? generally implicates a request to perform the action denoted by X
Given informationInformation that is in some sense already familiar (or believed by the speaker to be already familiar) to the hearer
Given-New ContractThe principle (Halliday 1967, Halliday and Hasan 1976) that states that given information tends to appear closer to the beginning of a sentence and new information closer to the end
Hearer-new informationInformation that is assumed by the speaker to be unfamiliar to the hearer
Hearer-old informationInformation that is assumed by the speaker to be familiar to the hearer
Hearer-statusThe status of information as either hearer-old or hearer-new
HedgeTo mitigate a speech act by means of a phrase that lessens its force or leaves the hearer with an ‘out’
HoleAn expression that allows the presupposition of an embedded clause to ‘project’ up to also be a presupposition of the larger clause
HonorificAn expression or affix that conventionally marks the relative rank of the interlocutors and/or those being spoken of
HyperboleBlatant exaggeration
I-heuristicIn Levinson’s (2000) framework, ‘what is simply described is stereotypically exemplified’
Illocutionary forceThe speaker’s intended function for an utterance
ImperativeThe syntactic form conventionally associated with a request or command; e.g., Please pass the peas.
ImplicateTo make an utterance that will, in context, license the hearer to infer something above and beyond the semantic meaning of that utterance
ImplicatureA meaning above and beyond the semantic meaning of an utterance, which typically depends on inference and context for its interpretation
ImplicitureInformation that is not part of the semantic content but is implicitly part of the communicated content that figures into the truth-conditions of the utterance (Bach 1994); e.g., an impliciture of I haven’t eaten might be I haven’t eaten lunch yet today
Inclusive ‘or’Logical ‘or’, in which if both joined propositions are true, the disjunction is also true
IndefiniteA member of the class of expressions that are not definite, typically used in reference to new or nonunique entities or groups, including noun phrases introduced by a, an, or some or lacking a determiner (for example, the noun phrase dogs)
IndeterminacyThe property of an implicature by which it is not completely fixed by the semantic content, the context, and the Cooperative Principle; some other implicature might have been intended
IndexicalsExpressions whose contributions to the truth-conditions of a sentence depend on the context of utterance; includes deictics and pronouns, e.g., here, him, yesterday
Indirect speech actAn utterance that performs an act not conventionally associated with its form, requiring an inference on the part of the addressee; e.g., I’d appreciate it if you passed the peas, which takes the form of a declarative but serves as a request
InfelicityPragmatic unacceptability, contextual oddness
InferTo make a reasonable guess as to a speaker’s intended meaning based on such evidence as the utterance, mutual beliefs, contextual clues, and/or the Cooperative Principle
Inferrable informationInformation that stands in an inferential relationship with what has previously been evoked in the discourse, such as a set-based relationship or a relationship of identity
Information packagingThe process of organizing information in a sentence based on its information status
Information statusThe extent to which some piece of information is presented as new, informative, focused, or already known or presupposed
Information structureHow various levels of familiarity, presupposition, newness, etc., are organized within a sentence to optimize the hearer’s processing of the sentence in context
InterlocutorA participant in a conversation or other interactive communicative event
InterrogativeThe syntactic form conventionally associated with a question; e.g., Is John coming?
InversionA noncanonical structure that places the canonical subject in postverbal position and some canonically postverbal phrase (other than a direct object) in preverbal position
It-cleftA cleft construction that features a focus phrase introduced by it, e.g., It’s cake that I want
IterativeAn expression whose conventional meaning indicates repetition, as with come back
Left-dislocationThe noncanonical placement of a phrase in pre-subject position while its canonical position is occupied by a coreferential pronoun, e.g., That Stephen Hawking, he was a genius
Lexical decisionA priming task that measures how quickly the subject can determine whether a stimulus constitutes a genuine word of the language
Lexical pragmaticsApplication of the insights of pragmatic theory to issues of the lexicon and word meaning
Lexical semanticsThe study of semantic meaning at the word level
LinguisticsThe scientific study of language
LocutionAn act of speaking
Locutionary forceThe semantic force of an utterance
Logical operatorA function applying to one or more propositions, which takes as input the truth-values of those propositions and returns a new truth-value
Long passiveA passive structure that includes a by-phrase, e.g., The cake was eaten by Sandy
MaximsSubparts of the Cooperative Principle that enjoin speakers to make their contribution as informative as required but no more (the maxim of Quantity), to not say what they believe to be false or unsupported (the maxim of Quality), to make their contribution relevant (the maxim of Relation), and to make their contribution brief, clear, orderly, and unambiguous (the maxim of Manner)
MentalismA philosophical position that views referents as entities within a mental model, and hence language as a set of relationships between utterances and mental constructs
M-heuristicIn Levinson’s (2000) framework, ‘a marked message indicates a marked situation’
MisfireUse of a speech act that fails to take effect because one or more of its felicity conditions fails to be satisfied; for example, I now pronounce you married when uttered by someone who lacks authority to perform a marriage
Mutual Knowledge ParadoxAn infinite regress of mutual beliefs that are theoretically necessary for successful communication (Clark and Marshall 1981)
Natural meaningA direct, unintentional indication, as in Clouds mean rain
NegationA logical operator that returns ‘true’ when the proposition on which it operates is false, and ‘false’ when the proposition on which it operates is true; shown as ¬
Negative faceAn individual’s desire for respect, autonomy, and independence
New informationInformation that is in some sense unfamiliar (or believed by the speaker to be unfamiliar) to the hearer
Noncanonical word orderIn a sentence, any word order other than canonical word order
Noncanonical-word-order constructionAny syntactic construction that features noncanonical word order
NonconventionalityThe property of an implicature of not being part of the semantic, conventional meaning of the sentence
NondetachabilityA property of an implicature whereby any other way of stating the same semantic content in the same context gives rise to the same implicature
Non-natural meaningAn arbitrary, intentional relationship wherein one thing stands for another, as with (most of) the words of a language
Non-truth-conditional meaningMeaning that does not affect the truth-conditions of a proposition
Open propositionA proposition that is missing one or more elements, without which it is not truth-evaluable
Optimality TheoryAn approach that views various linguistic competencies in terms of sets of ranked constraints
Particularized conversational implicatureA category of implicature in which the implicature is specific to an individual utterance in an individual context
PassiveIn English, a noncanonical structure that places the canonical direct object in subject position while the canonical subject is either placed postverbally in a by-phrase or omitted
Performance errorAn accidental error in linguistic production that does not reflect the speaker’s actual linguistic competence
PerformativeAn utterance that, in being uttered, performs the act it describes, such as I promise to mow the lawn
Performative verbA verb that can be used in a performative utterance
Perlocutionary effectAnother term for perlocutionary force
Perlocutionary forceThe effect of an utterance on the addressee
Personal deixisDeictic reference to an individual or entity
PlugAn expression that does not allow the presupposition of an embedded clause to ‘project’ up to also be a presupposition of the larger clause
Politeness TheoryBrown and Levinson’s (1978) account of expressions that show interlocutors’ concern for issues of relationship and relative rank
Positive faceAn individual’s desire for closeness, inclusion, and solidarity
Possible worldAny way a world could logically, possibly be, including the real world and all logically possible variants
PostposingThe noncanonical postverbal placement of a phrase, or a construction that features such placement and does not fill that phrase’s canonical position with a referential phrase
PragmaticsThe study of contextual, intentional, and/or non-truth-conditional linguistic meaning
PredicateAn attribute, activity, relationship, etc., that can hold of one or more entities
Predicate logicAnalysis of the logical structure of propositions
PreposingThe noncanonical preverbal placement of a phrase, or a construction that features such placement and does not fill that phrase’s canonical position with a referential phrase
PresentationalIn English, a postposing construction that includes a ‘dummy’ (semantically empty) there in subject position and an intransitive verb
PresuppositionA background assumption that holds for both a sentence and its negation, though precise definitions differ by theory
Presupposition triggerAn expression whose utterance conventionally invokes a presupposition
PrimingThe propensity for evocation of one concept to make related concepts more readily accessible
Projection problemThe issue of under what circumstances a presupposition of an embedded clause survives to also be a presupposition of the larger clause
PropositionWhat a sentence expresses; a unit of thought or meaning that can be judged either true or false
Propositional logicAnalysis of the logical relationships among propositions and how these relationships are affected by logical operators
Prototype TheoryA theory that views the meaning of a word as a ‘fuzzy set’ defined by resemblance to a central prototype
Proximal deixisDeictic reference to something spatially or temporally nearby
Psychic continuityCognitive persistence of an entity in a model, by which we recognize it as having a continuous identity over time
Q-heuristicIn Levinson’s framework, ‘what isn’t said, isn’t’
Q-principleIn Horn’s (1984) framework, ‘say as much as you can, given R’
QuantifierA way of expressing the extent to which the expressed predicate holds of a variable or set of variables—e.g., universally (for the universal quantifier) or for at least one entity (for the existential quantifier)
Question Under Discussion (QUD)Information that is currently considered by the interlocutors to be ‘on the table’ or at issue
Reaction-time studyAn experimental study that measures how quickly the subject can perform some task
ReferenceUse of a linguistic expression to stand for some individual or discourse entity in a particular context
ReferentAn entity being referred to linguistically
ReferentialistA philosophical position that views referents as real-world objects, and hence language as a set of relationships between utterances and the real world
ReinforceabilityThe property of an implicature by which it can be explicitly affirmed without redundancy
Right-dislocationThe noncanonical placement of a phrase at the end of the clause while its canonical position is occupied by a coreferential pronoun, e.g., He was a genius, that Stephen Hawking
R-principleIn Horn’s (1984) framework, ‘say no more than you must, given Q’
Scalar implicatureA case in which, by uttering some value on a scale, the speaker implicates that no higher value on the scale holds
SemanticsThe study of literal, conventional, and/or truth-conditional linguistic meaning
SenseThe descriptive meaning of an expression
SentenceA linguistic expression of a proposition
Sentential semanticsThe study of semantic meaning at the sentence level
Spatial deixisDeictic reference to a location
Speech actAny act performed by means of speaking
Temporal deixisDeictic reference to a time
Truth tableA table showing the effect of one or more logical operators, and by means of which the truth-values of complex propositions can be calculated for various possible worlds
Truth-conditional meaningMeaning that affects the truth-conditions of a proposition
Truth-conditionsWhat it would take for a proposition to be true in a given world
Truth-valueWhether a proposition is true or false in a given world
Universal quantifierA quantifier that expresses the quantity ‘all’; shown as ∀
UptakeAcknowledgment and acceptance of a speech act
UtteranceThe use of a sentence in some context
VariableA unit in propositional-logic notation that can stand for varying entities
Wh-cleftA cleft construction that features a presupposition introduced by a wh-word such as what, e.g., What I want is cake