meansdenoting

Meansdenoting is a term used in linguistics and philosophy of language to describe expressions that denote the means or instrument by which an action is carried out. The notion focuses on instrumentals rather than agents or patients and is applied to phrases, morphemes, or other linguistic forms that specify how an action is achieved.

Examples include prepositional phrases such as "with a key," "by using a lever," or instrumental suffixes where present in a language. Meansdenoting expressions often contribute an instrumental argument to the proposition, indicating the method rather than the entity involved.

In semantic theory, a means-denoting element can be modeled as relating the acting agent and the action to a designated instrument. They interact with other thematic roles and with scope phenomena in questions, negation, and conditionals. In English, means can be rendered by "with," "by using," or "through," while some languages rely on instrumental case, clitics, or verb morphology.

Cross-linguistic study shows considerable variation in how means are encoded, including dedicated case marking, fixed word order, or clausal periphrasis. Diachronic analyses trace how instrumental meanings broaden or shift with grammaticalization into adpositions or affixes.

The term "meansdenoting" is a descriptive label used in scholarly discussions. While not widely adopted as a formal technical term, it provides a concise way to group expressions that specify instrumentality in action description.