"whimperative" meaning in English

See whimperative in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: whimperatives [plural]
Etymology: Blend of whimper + imperative. Coined by Jerrold Sadock in a 1970 essay. Etymology templates: {{blend|en|whimper|imperative}} Blend of whimper + imperative Head templates: {{en-noun}} whimperative (plural whimperatives)
  1. (pragmatics) An order or imperative phrased obliquely as a question, such as "would you mind closing the window?" Categories (topical): Pragmatics
    Sense id: en-whimperative-en-noun-yM-LFXjN Categories (other): English blends, English entries with incorrect language header Topics: human-sciences, linguistics, pragmatics, sciences

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for whimperative meaning in English (1.9kB)

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  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "whimper",
        "3": "imperative"
      },
      "expansion": "Blend of whimper + imperative",
      "name": "blend"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Blend of whimper + imperative. Coined by Jerrold Sadock in a 1970 essay.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "whimperatives",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
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  "head_templates": [
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      "args": {},
      "expansion": "whimperative (plural whimperatives)",
      "name": "en-noun"
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  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
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          "parents": [],
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          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Pragmatics",
          "orig": "en:Pragmatics",
          "parents": [
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            "Language",
            "Social sciences",
            "Communication",
            "Sciences",
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            "Fundamental"
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        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1970, Jerrold Sadock, “Whimperatives”, in Studies Presented to Robert B. Lees by His Students, page 235",
          "text": "Since whimperatives look like questions, the lowest hypersentence must be interrogative.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2007, Stephen Pinker, The Stuff of Thought, page 388",
          "text": "We see this in the way that whimperatives use pro forma openings like Can you rather than other wordings with the same meaning, such as Are you capable of passing the salt?",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "An order or imperative phrased obliquely as a question, such as \"would you mind closing the window?\""
      ],
      "id": "en-whimperative-en-noun-yM-LFXjN",
      "links": [
        [
          "pragmatics",
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        [
          "imperative",
          "imperative"
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        [
          "oblique",
          "oblique"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(pragmatics) An order or imperative phrased obliquely as a question, such as \"would you mind closing the window?\""
      ],
      "topics": [
        "human-sciences",
        "linguistics",
        "pragmatics",
        "sciences"
      ]
    }
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  "word": "whimperative"
}
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      "name": "blend"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Blend of whimper + imperative. Coined by Jerrold Sadock in a 1970 essay.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "whimperatives",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
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    }
  ],
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      "expansion": "whimperative (plural whimperatives)",
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        {
          "ref": "1970, Jerrold Sadock, “Whimperatives”, in Studies Presented to Robert B. Lees by His Students, page 235",
          "text": "Since whimperatives look like questions, the lowest hypersentence must be interrogative.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2007, Stephen Pinker, The Stuff of Thought, page 388",
          "text": "We see this in the way that whimperatives use pro forma openings like Can you rather than other wordings with the same meaning, such as Are you capable of passing the salt?",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "An order or imperative phrased obliquely as a question, such as \"would you mind closing the window?\""
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "pragmatics",
          "pragmatics"
        ],
        [
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          "imperative"
        ],
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      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(pragmatics) An order or imperative phrased obliquely as a question, such as \"would you mind closing the window?\""
      ],
      "topics": [
        "human-sciences",
        "linguistics",
        "pragmatics",
        "sciences"
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    }
  ],
  "word": "whimperative"
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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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