Sinnvariante

Sinnvariante is a term used in linguistic and semantic discussions to denote a particular sense of a word as activated in a given context. It is a way to describe how the meaning that a listener or reader derives from a word can vary depending on linguistic, discourse, or cognitive factors, while the underlying lexeme remains the same. The word Sinnvariante itself combines the German words Sinn (sense or meaning) and Variante (variant).

In theoretical accounts, Sinnvariante is distinguished from the broader lexeme or dictionary sense and from the referent. A single word form may have multiple Sinnvarianten, with context selecting the most salient or appropriate one. This perspective emphasizes that sense is not monolithic but can be contextually partitioned into variants that guide interpretation, prediction, and disambiguation during language processing.

Examples often cited are polysemous terms such as the German Schloss, which can mean “lock” or “castle.” In different sentences, different Sinnvarianten of the word are activated, guiding expectations and interpretation. The Sinnvariante framework can be used to model how readers navigate ambiguity, how context-pragmatics influence sense selection, and how lexical entries may be structured to accommodate multiple sense variants.

Relation to other concepts is close to polysemy, sense, reference, and context-sensitivity. The term is not universally standardized and appears mainly in certain German-language discussions of semantic decomposition. It remains one among several tools for analyzing how meaning varies with context.