meaningsomething

Meaningsomething is a hypothetical linguistic construct used in some discussions to refer to the intended message an utterance conveys beyond its literal semantic content. It functions as a placeholder for the speaker's communicative goal or for the pragmatic effect the speaker expects the listener to infer in a given context.

Coined as a simple, memorable label, meaningsomething is not a standard term in linguistic dictionaries. It appears in teaching materials and analytic writings as a way to discuss how meaning arises from the interaction of syntax, lexicon, context, and speaker intention.

Meaningsomething is closely tied to pragmatics and discourse analysis. It helps distinguish what a sentence literally says (its semantic content) from what the speaker intends or what listeners infer (the pragmatic meaning). It relates to concepts such as implicature, presupposition, and deixis.

In practice, analysts might use meaningsomething to illustrate how the same sentence can carry different pragmatic meanings in different situations. Example: "That's an interesting idea" may express genuine appreciation or polite disagreement, depending on context and tone, with meaningsomething capturing the intended effect rather than the literal evaluation.

See also: pragmatics, semantics, implicature, deixis, context, discourse analysis.