selfdescriptively

Selfdescriptively is an adverb describing something conveyed in a self-descriptive or self-referential way. It denotes that the subject describes or characterizes itself, rather than being described by an external agent. The form is typically hyphenated as self-descriptively in formal writing, though some texts employ the unhyphenated variant selfdescriptively. The usage is relatively uncommon and most often appears in linguistic, literary, or information-science discussions.

Etymology: The word combines self-, meaning “of itself,” with descriptive, and adds the standard -ly suffix to form an adverb. The construction follows the common English pattern for turning adjectives into adverbs.

Usage and examples: In literary analysis, a passage may be described as selfdescriptively written if it not only addresses its themes but also comments on its own method, structure, or stance. In data modeling and information science, self-descriptive data formats embed metadata that describes the data’s own properties, such as type, origin, and encoding. The term is related to self-referential and autological concepts, where self-descriptive statements or terms describe themselves.

Related concepts: Self-referential language, autological terms (words that describe themselves), autograms (sentences that describe their own letter frequencies), and metadata (data about data) are all associated ideas in discussions of self-description and self-awareness in text and data.