Aussageabsicht

Aussageabsicht is a German term that describes the speaker's intended purpose behind a statement. Etymologically, it combines Aussage (statement, assertion) and Absicht (intention). The term can refer to what proposition the speaker aims to convey as true, or to the illocutionary force of an utterance in speech-act theory.

In linguistics and pragmatics, Aussageabsicht is used to distinguish between the literal wording of a sentence and the speaker’s intended meaning or communicative goal. It is closely related to concepts such as illocution, force of an utterance, and pragmatic purpose, and is often discussed when analyzing how context affects interpretation.

In legal contexts, Aussageabsicht concerns the speaker’s or witness's intended effect of the statement. It is relevant for assessing credibility and for determining criminal liability in cases of false testimony or perjury, where intentional deception may be an element. The existence or absence of a deliberate misleading aim can influence how a statement is treated by courts, and it allows courts to differentiate between intentional falsehoods and inadvertent errors.

Overall, Aussageabsicht is a cross-disciplinary concept crossing linguistics and law, focusing on what a speaker intends to accomplish with a given utterance rather than solely on its literal content.