Unintentionalsuch

Unintentionalsuch is a neologism used in linguistic pragmatics to describe a class of utterances in which the speaker, without intending to, signals a general category, relation, or evaluation through non-specific referential prompts such as "such" or broad demonstratives. The phenomenon often yields vagueness and unexpected implications, as hearers infer a scope or norm that the speaker did not explicitly state.

Etymology and scope: The term is formed from unintentional + such, and appears in theoretical discussions since the 2010s in English-language discourse analyses. It is not standardized and is mainly used in scholarly articles and online debates about referential indirection and implicature.

Mechanism and examples: In everyday speech, "unintentionalsuch" arises when a speaker uses phrases like "such mistakes," "such people," or "such events" to refer to a category rather than to concrete instances. Example: "Such errors happen all the time" may indicate a broad class of mistakes beyond the current case. Listeners rely on context to gauge intended scope, risking overgeneralization or miscommunication.

Relation to other concepts and critique: It overlaps with overgeneralization, hedging, and implicature. Critics note that the term can be vague and its usefulness depends on discourse context; it is primarily a descriptive label rather than a prescriptive guideline for speech.

See also: generalization, implicature, discourse analysis, referential vagueness.