Jelentéstételt

Jelentéstételt is a term used in Hungarian linguistics to describe the process by which meaning is assigned, communicated, or established for linguistic signs within a discourse. The word combines jelentés (“meaning”) with tétel (a proposition or item), and in practice it refers to how a signer or writer selects, presents, or constrains a particular interpretation of a sign in a given context.

The concept is used mainly in semantics and pragmatics, where it denotes the pathway from two linked activities: encoding a meaning in an utterance by a speaker, and decoding or negotiating that meaning by a listener or reader. Jelentéstétel thus encompasses both the intended sense of an expression and the actual interpretation that emerges in communication, shaped by context, background knowledge, and discourse relations. It is often discussed alongside related ideas such as sense and reference, implicature, and semantic pragmatics, highlighting how meaning is not fixed solely by linguistic form but also by usage and situational factors.

Applications of the notion appear in discourse analysis, translation studies, terminology work, and information design, where analysts examine how meanings are made explicit or inferred, how ambiguity is managed, and how communicative goals are achieved through context-sensitive interpretation.

The term is not uniformly standardized across Hungarian sources; some writers use related concepts such as értelmezés (interpretation) or jelentésadás (meaninggiver). As a result, delineations of jelentéstételt may vary between theoretical frameworks, but the underlying focus remains on the mechanism by which meaning is constituted in communication.