force

en-noun

force (countable and uncountable, plural forces)

From Middle English force, fors, forse, from Old French force, from Late Latin fortia, a noun derived from the neuter plural of Latin fortis (“strong”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰerǵʰ- (“to rise, high, hill”).

der

non-rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger

When the aspectual force of the verbal categories weakens, the 'terminative', punctual or determinative value of the prefix gains in importance,...

1962, J Gonda, The aspectual function of the R̥gvedic present and aorist, S̓-Gravenhage, Mouton, page 43:

(linguistics, semantics, pragmatics) Ability of an utterance or its element (word, form, prosody, ...) to effect a given meaning.

voima

linguistics: ability of an utterance to effect a given meaning


sense

en-noun

sense (countable and uncountable, plural senses)

→ Afrikaans: sense

From Middle English sense, from Old French sens, sen, san (“sense, perception, direction”); partly from Latin sēnsus (“sensation, feeling, meaning”), from sentiō (“feel, perceive”); partly of Germanic origin (whence also Occitan sen, Italian senno), from Vulgar Latin *sennus (“sense, reason, way”), from Frankish *sinn ("reason, judgement, mental faculty, way, direction"; whence also Dutch zin, German Sinn, Swedish sinne, Norwegian sinn). Both Latin and Germanic from Proto-Indo-European *sent- (“to feel”).

gl

enough sense to pound sand into a rathole

where there's no sense there's no feeling

(pragmatics) The way that a referent is presented.


hedge

From Middle English hegge, from Old English heċġ, from Proto-West Germanic *haggju, from Proto-Germanic *hagjō, from Proto-Indo-European *kagʰyóm (“enclosure”). Cognate with Dutch heg, German Hecke. Doublet of hey (a choreographic figure) and quay. More at haw.

doublet

look as if one has been dragged through a hedge backwards

When not inaccurate, much commentary on the contents of Hobson-Jobson is couched in hedges or relies on speculative estimates in the absence of exact information.

2018, James Lambert, “Setting the Record Straight: An In-depth Examination of Hobson-Jobson”, in International Journal of Lexicography, volume 31, number 4, →DOI, page 487:

(pragmatics) A non-committal or intentionally ambiguous statement.


implicate

en-verb

implicate (third-person singular simple present implicates, present participle implicating, simple past and past participle implicated)

implicates (present singular third-person)
implicating (participle present)
implicated (participle past)
implicated (past)

First attested in the 15ᵗʰ century, in Middle English; inherited from Middle English implicaten (poorly attested), from implicat(e) (“wrapped, entwined; incolved, connected (with)”, possibly also used as the past participle of implicaten) + -en (verb-forming suffix), borrowed from Latin implicātus, perfect passive participle of implicō (“entangle, involve”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), from plicō (“fold”). Doublet of imply and employ.

af

(pragmatics) To imply without entailing; to have as an implicature.


implicature

/ɪmˈplɪkət͡ʃə/

/ɪmˈplɪkət͡ʃɚ/

Coined by British philosopher Paul Grice before or in 1967.

coinage

(pragmatics) An implied meaning that does not semantically entail.


origo

Learned borrowing from Latin orīgō. Doublet of origin.

(pragmatics) The reference point on which a deictic relationship is based.


hedging

Such hedging is necessitated by the lack of in-depth knowledge of the contents, which also gives free rein to the scripting of unsubstantiated factoids concerning the book.

(pragmatics, composition) The use of intentionally ambiguous or noncommittal statements.


exercitive

en-adj

exercitive (comparative more exercitive, superlative most exercitive)

more exercitive (comparative)
most exercitive (superlative)

(pragmatics) Having the character of an exercitive act.


exercitive

An exercitive is the giving of a decision in favour of or against a certain course of action, or advocacy of it.

1962, J.L. Austin, How To Do Things With Words (paperback), Oxford, published 1965, page 154:

Exercitives are not so common. Philosopher-authors are rarely in the position to tell people what to do or think.

1999, Jeffrey A. Mason, The Philosopher's Address: Writing and the Perception of Philosophy, →ISBN, page 51:

The hearer's recognition of the speaker's locutionary intention is also an important felicity condition of Austinian exercitives.

2003, Mary Kathryn McGowan, “Conversational Exercitives and the Force of Pornography”, in Philosophy & Public Affairs, volume 31, number 2, pages 155–189:

(pragmatics, hermeneutics) A speech act in which a decision is made regarding action; examples include orders and grants of permission.


behabitive

behabitive (comparative more behabitive, superlative most behabitive)

more behabitive (comparative)
most behabitive (superlative)

'God is good' is behabitive and commissive said by someone brought up in the Christian tradition, but may not be said by an animist of his high god.

1969, Robert W. Jenson, The Knowledge of Things Hoped For, page 117:

(pragmatics) Adopting an attitude, by making an utterance.


behabitive

As a behabitive, unsuccessful forgiveness is also connected to sincerity — in this case, a sincere willingness to work on oneself and eliminate resentment.

2001, Peter Digeser, Political Forgiveness, →ISBN, page 30:

(pragmatics) A speech act by which an attitude is adopted.


commissive

commissive (comparative more commissive, superlative most commissive)

more commissive (comparative)
most commissive (superlative)

"I will kill you if you do that" is a commissive statement.

(pragmatics) Making a commitment, such as a promise or threat, by illocutionary means.

kommissiv

making a commitment by illocutionary means


commissive

(pragmatics) A speech act by which a commitment is made, such as a promise or threat.


verdictive

verdictive (comparative more verdictive, superlative most verdictive)

more verdictive (comparative)
most verdictive (superlative)

(pragmatics) Having the illocutionary force of issuing a judgment.


verdictive

Verdictives consist in the delivering of a finding, official or unofficial, upon evidence or reasons as to value or fact […]

1962, J.L. Austin, How To Do Things With Words, Oxford University Press, published 1965, page 152:

(pragmatics) A speech act whereby a judgment is issued.


implicatum

Introduced by Paul Grice in 1975, from Latin.


whimperative

Blend of whimper + imperative. Coined by Jerrold Sadock in a 1970 essay.

Since whimperatives look like questions, the lowest hypersentence must be interrogative.

1970, Jerrold Sadock, “Whimperatives”, in Studies Presented to Robert B. Lees by His Students, page 235:

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?

2007, Stephen Pinker, The Stuff of Thought, →ISBN, page 388:

(pragmatics) An order or imperative phrased obliquely as a question, such as "would you mind closing the window?"


infelicitousness

(linguistics, pragmatics) The quality or state of being infelicitous, or pragmatically ill-formed


contextualist

A contextualist believes that the phrase "some eels are fish" is primarily interpreted as "some, and perhaps all, eels are fish", and the pragmatic interpretation "some, but not all, eels are fish" only appears when demanded by the context.

(pragmatics) One who believes that scalar implicatures arise from contextual inference, not from a default association with a word.


locute

en-verb

locute (third-person singular simple present locutes, present participle locuting, simple past and past participle locuted)

locutes (present singular third-person)
locuting (participle present)
locuted (participle past)
locuted (past)

Back-formation from locution. The first sense could also be directly derived from Latin locut-, perfect active participial stem of loquor (“talk, speak”).

The translator locutes propositions, but illocutes nothing at all.

2011, David Braun, “Implicating Questions”, in Mind and Language, volume 26, pages 574–595:

By contrast, for Grice, one who for instance speaks ironically makes as if to illocute, rather than making as if to locute.

2020, The Oxford Handbook of Assertion, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 367:

(philosophy, pragmatics, intransitive or transitive with the utterance as object) To utter a meaningful sentence; to perform a locutionary act.


requestive

(pragmatics) A speech act that solicits actions or information.


cooperative principle

Our talk exchanges do not normally consist of a succession of disconnected remarks, and would not be rational if they did. They are characteristically, to some degree at least, cooperative efforts [...] One might label this the Cooperative Principle.

1975, H. Paul Grice, “Logic and conversation”, in Peter Cole, Jerry Morgan, editors, Speech Acts, New York: Academic Press, →ISBN, page 45:

(linguistics, pragmatics) A theory of how listeners and speakers cooperate to communicate with language.


explicitize

explicitize (third-person singular simple present explicitizes, present participle explicitizing, simple past and past participle explicitized)

explicitizes (present singular third-person)
explicitizing (participle present)
explicitized (participle past)
explicitized (past)
explicitise (alternative)

Very often it is completely unnecessary (and thus even disruptive) to explicitize exactly what one means.

1984, Frans H. van Eemeren, Rob Grootendorst, Speech Acts in Argumentative Discussions: A Theoretical Model for the Analysis of Discussions Directed towards Solving Conflicts of Opinion, . Walter de Gruyter, →ISBN, page 119:

One of the ways we explicitize our view of happiness is to talk about our view of a “successful life”.

2000, Robert J. Spitzer, Robin A. Bernhoft, Camille E. De Blasi, Healing the Culture, →ISBN, page 127:

It is not enough to merely explicitize tacit knowledge. Rather, tacit knowledge has to be put in some sort of system to be useful.

2001, Linda Kyle Stromei, Creating Mentoring and Coaching Programs, page 24:


defaultist

A defaultist believes that the default interpretation of the phrase "some eels are fish" is the pragmatic interpretation "some, but not all, eels are fish".

Hence, there can be little doubt that Levinson is a strong defaultist.

2010, Bart Geurts, Quantity Implicatures, page 87:

For Experiment 8, the defaultists could make a similar argument about the absence of an SI-cancellation effect that I made about the absence of an SI-calculation effect.

2010, Arjen Zondervan, Scalar Implicatures Or Focus: An Experimental Approach, page 191:

There is, however, no true conflict between defaultists and contextualists.

2018, Rita Finkbeiner, Ulrike Freywald, Exact Repetition in Grammar and Discourse:

(pragmatics) One who believes that scalar implicatures arise from a default association with a word, rather than arising from contextual inference.


illocute

illocute (third-person singular simple present illocutes, present participle illocuting, simple past and past participle illocuted)

illocutes (present singular third-person)
illocuting (participle present)
illocuted (participle past)
illocuted (past)

In some such cases, at least, there will be illocutions q such that S can illocute q and thereby (among other things) convey to A that p.

1981, Peter Cole, Radical pragmatics, New York: Academic Press, →OCLC, page 93:

Typically, one can illocute in order to perlocute, but not conversely.

2012, J.F. Rosenberg, Linguistic Representation, Springer Netherlands, →ISBN, page 11:

So, we must not conflate consent with nonrefusal: a failure to illocute refusal does not entail that one has illocuted consent to sex instead.

2019, Mari Mikkola, Pornography: A Philosophical Introduction, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 66:

[…] [S]ome of these refinements also help us make progress on the question whether machines can illocute.

2022 January 27, Mitchell Green, Jan G. Michel, “What Might Machines Mean?”, in Minds and Machines, volume 32, pages 323–338:

(philosophy, pragmatics, intransitive or transitive with the speech act as object) To perform an illocutionary act.


perlocute

perlocute (third-person singular simple present perlocutes, present participle perlocuting, simple past and past participle perlocuted)

perlocutes (present singular third-person)
perlocuting (participle present)
perlocuted (participle past)
perlocuted (past)

[…] a case in which a question illocuted as a genuine, non-rhetorical question is erroneously perlocuted as a rhetorical question.

1994, Cornelia Ilie, What Else Can I Tell You?, Almqvist & Wiksell International, page 41:

2002, Marco Rühl, Arguing and Communicative Asymmetry, Peter Lang Publishing, →ISBN, page 167:

Whether the interactive effect of perlocuting occurs is under the addressee's responsibility.

(philosophy, pragmatics, intransitive or transitive with the effect as object) To achieve a perlocutionary effect.