Äußerungen

Äußerung is a German noun meaning an utterance, statement, or expression. In linguistics and philosophy, the term denotes the actual spoken or written realization of language—the concrete form in which a speaker conveys content—rather than the abstract proposition or meaning that content expresses. Thus, an Äußerung includes features such as phonetics, syntax, lexicon, and prosody, and it occurs within a communicative context that may influence interpretation.

In linguistics, particularly pragmatics and speech‑act theory, Äußerungen are analyzed as acts performed by speakers, such as asserting, promising, or ordering. The relationship between an Äußerung and its propositional content is central to truth‑conditional semantics: the same content can be conveyed by many different Äußerungen, and an Äußerung can carry non‑literal or indirect meaning depending on context, tone, and intention.

Types of Äußerungen include wörtliche Äußerungen (literal utterances) and non‑literal forms such as figurative language, irony, or metaphor. Distinctions are often made between the form of the utterance (the surface realization) and its illocutionary force (the speech act performed) as well as between explicit statements and implicit implications.

Relation to related terms: Aussage refers to the propositional content or the assertion conveyed, while an Äußerung is the concrete linguistic vehicle that expresses that content. In analysis, utterances are treated as data units, with attention to context, audience, and communicative purpose. The term is widely used in linguistics, philosophy of language, media studies, and law to describe remarks as linguistic phenomena.