Sprachliches

Sprachliches is a German-language term used in linguistics and philology to denote the language-related aspects of a subject. The word can function as a noun—das Sprachliche—and as an adjective—sprachlich—derived from Sprache (language) with the suffixes -liches or -lich. In scholarly writing, Sprachliches refers to the linguistic level: features of the language system (phonology, morphology, syntax, lexicon) as well as stylistic and rhetorical devices (sprachliche Mittel) and semantic-pragmatic aspects (Semantik, Pragmatik).

The scope of the term includes phenomena such as word choice, sentence structure, figurative language, metaphor, register, and discourse organization. It is often used to differentiate language-specific phenomena from non-linguistic content or form, for example in analyses of a text where the Sprachliche (how the language functions in the text) is distinguished from the Inhalt (what is said) or the Form (structural arrangement).

In practice, phrases like sprachliche Mittel, sprachliches Phänomen, or das Sprachliche eines Textes are common. The term is widely used across German linguistics, literary studies, and philosophy of language to emphasize language as a distinct dimension of analysis.

Related fields include Sprachwissenschaft (linguistics), Semantik, Pragmatik, and Stilistik. The English equivalents are linguistic or linguistic aspects when translating, but Sprachliches retains a specifically German scholarly nuance.