Meintemeinten

Meintemeinten is a term used in linguistics and philosophy of language to denote the speaker's intended meaning behind an utterance, distinct from its literal semantic content. It concerns the communicative force the speaker aims to produce in a given context—such as making a request, issuing a warning, or expressing approval—which listeners are expected to infer beyond the surface words. The term is discussed mainly in pragmatics and, in some Dutch-language scholarship, as a label for these intended effects rather than the sentence’s dictionary sense.

Origin and standing: Meintemeinten is not universally standardized; it emerges in contemporary debates about how language users connect what is said with what is meant. It is often treated as a practical shorthand for distinguishing literal content from the speaker’s intended illocutionary act.

Relation to other concepts: It overlaps with concepts such as speech act theory, implicature, and illocutionary force. Meintemeinten emphasizes the speaker’s aim and the listener’s interpretation, drawing attention to context, tone, and shared knowledge.

Examples illustrate its use. "It’s cold in here," can be a literal observation or, in a context where someone wants a window closed, a polite request to close it—illustrating intended meaning versus literal content. "Nice day, isn’t it?" often functions as a conversation starter rather than a genuine inquiry about the weather, reflecting the speaker’s intention to initiate talk. "Could you pass the salt?" is structurally a question but functionally a request, with the meintemeinten being the desire to have the salt passed.

Assessment and limits: Critics argue that disentangling intended meaning from literal content is difficult and context-dependent. Meintemeinten relies on cooperative assumptions and can vary across cultures, languages, and situations. It is primarily a descriptive tool for analyzing pragmatic effects rather than a strict mathematical measure.