indirekas
Indirekas is a theoretical construct in discourse analysis and semiotics that describes indirect communicative strategies in which a speaker conveys a proposition not through direct assertion but through contextual cues, implicature, or deixis. It focuses on how meaning is recovered from what is left unsaid or framed by surrounding discourse.
Etymology and scope: The term combines the notion of indirectness with a suffix found in several linguistic
Mechanisms: Indirekas relies on pragmatic inference, presupposition, and shared knowledge; it often uses vagueness, reframing, and
Examples: Saying "It’s getting late" to signal that a meeting should end without explicitly instructing attendees
Criticism and application: Critics point to interpretive variability and cross-cultural differences in what counts as indirect.
See also: Implicature, indirect speech act, politeness theory, pragmatics.