adresaat

Adresaat is a term used in some linguistic and communication studies to denote the person or entity that is the intended recipient of a message, i.e., the addressee or recipient. It appears as a parallel to the sender (the speaker or writer) and to the audience (the broader group addressed). The adresaat is the receiver for whom the content and form of the communication are primarily shaped.

The etymology of adresaat is linked to the idea of addressing a message to someone. Variants include adresat and adresaat, reflecting different orthographic traditions across languages. In practice, the exact scope of the adresaat can vary: in some analyses it refers to the actual addressee, in others to a more general audience implicitly addressed by the speaker. The term is not universally standardized and may be used primarily in certain linguistic schools or language-specific literatures; in many contexts, authors prefer the English term addressee or recipient.

In discourse analysis and rhetoric, identifying the adresaat helps explain choices of pronouns, formality, politeness strategies, and the inclusion of presuppositions or assumptions about the adresaat’s knowledge. It also informs how a message may be tailored in terms of topic selection and argumentation to align with the adresaat’s expectations, needs, or social role.

In summary, adresaat refers to the intended recipient of communication, functioning as a key element in analyses of how language is directed and received.