Taloliitesanan

Taloliitesanan is a term used in theoretical linguistics to describe a self-referential noun phrase that acts as a word for a word within a sentence. In metalinguistic discussions, it denotes a noun that both names another linguistic unit and serves as the referent within the same clause.

The form is typically discussed in the context of constructed languages or thought experiments in semantics. Its morphology resembles agglutinative patterns, and the ending sanan resembles a genitive form of “sana” (word), though no single natural-language etymology is standard; the term is primarily a scholarly device used to illustrate self-reference.

Taloliitesanan is used to clarify how a language can name its own words and how such names function within a clause. It helps scholars explore the boundaries between lexical items and their descriptions, and it often appears in discussions of autological vocabulary, meta-language, and lexical metalinguistics. In practice, taloliitesanan serves as a concrete example of how a term can simultaneously refer to another term and occupy a grammatical role in the same expression.

Example 1: In a hypothetical sentence, taloliitesanan is described as “the taloliitesanan word,” demonstrating a self-descriptive use. Example 2: A sentence may treat taloliitesanan as “the word for word itself,” illustrating a meta-linguistic reference that points to more than one level of meaning.

See also: autological word, self-reference, meta-language.