kifejezéstl

kifejezéstl is a hypothetical linguistic term used in speculative linguistics and worldbuilding to designate a grammatical category that marks discourse about expression itself. In the imagined language family where it appears, kifejezéstl signals that a statement concerns the act, method, or status of expressing content, rather than the content of the expression alone. The concept is commonly discussed as an example of metapragmatic marking in fictional grammars and is not attested in natural languages.

The term combines the Hungarian word kifejezés, meaning expression or phrase, with a fictional suffix -tl used to create a dedicated discourse-marking category. The combination illustrates how authors borrow real-language morphemes to build plausible, self-referential grammar systems. The term has limited use outside of constructed-language circles and is not part of standard linguistic terminology.

In practice, kifejezéstl may appear as a mood, evidential, or clitic element attached to a verb or clause head, indicating that the proposition discusses its own expressive act. Its presence can affect polarity, evidential stance, or the evaluation of the utterance by a narrator or interlocutor. Variants in different texts may treat kifejezéstl differently, ranging from a separate particle to an affix on the verb.

Because kifejezéstl is fictional, examples vary by author. It is often used in analyses of self-referential discourse and metapragmatic complexity in constructed languages, serving as a tool to explore how speakers manage talk about talk. Critics note that the term highlights the meta-level nature of discourse rather than providing a ready-made counterpart in natural language.

See also: kifejezés, pragmatics, metapragmatics, self-reference, constructed language.