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
Relation to other concepts: It overlaps with concepts such as speech act theory, implicature, and illocutionary
Examples illustrate its use. "It’s cold in here," can be a literal observation or, in a context
Assessment and limits: Critics argue that disentangling intended meaning from literal content is difficult and context-dependent.