någots

Någots is a term that appears in some linguistic discussions as a hypothetical indefinite referent used to illustrate how languages encode indefiniteness and discourse reference. It is not a term in standard Swedish grammar or in major reference grammars, and it lacks a formal definition accepted across the field. Instead, någots functions as a thought-experiment label used by researchers to test theories about how speakers introduce, track, and re-identify unknown entities in discourse.

The coinage is reported mainly in online discussions, conference abstracts, and some introductory explanations of indefiniteness. The word is typically presented as a neutral placeholder rather than as a sentence element with fixed morphosyntactic properties. In analyses, någots can be modeled as a determiner or as a noun phrase head, depending on the theoretical framework. Some approaches treat it as a cross-linguistic marker that signals a referent is not yet fixed but is relevant to the current discourse, while others argue it should be considered a purely pragmatic device.

Because någots is not part of a formal language standard, its accepted usage varies by author. It is often used alongside other indefinite markers such as något, några, or equivalents in other languages to explore how languages distinguish existential, generic, and referential readings.

See also: indefinite pronouns, definiteness, referential theory, discourse representation.