vastliggen

Vastliggen is a neologism used in discussions of language, philosophy, and information governance to describe the act of fixing a proposition or statement so that its core meaning remains stable across varying contexts.

Etymology and usage: The term blends elements from Scandinavian languages, with vast meaning fixed or firm and ligge meaning to lie. It is sometimes connected to the Dutch verb vastleggen, meaning to record or establish.

Concept and applications: In philosophy of language, vastliggen denotes the process of anchoring a claim within a shared interpretive framework to resist reinterpretation. In information governance, it is used metaphorically to describe immutable logs or append-only records. In literary studies, it refers to a technique of stabilizing a central metaphor by repeated reference.

Reception and critique: The term is not widely attested and remains confined to a few scholarly discussions. Critics argue that it overlaps with existing notions such as fixation, stabilization, or anchoring, and that its usefulness may be limited outside specific communities.

Example: The author attempts to vastliggen the motif by returning to it at regular intervals throughout the text. See also: fixation, anchoring, immutability.