Everyday definition

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Under everyday definitions (Engl. Folk definition ) are by definition similar method in everyday life understood, serve to explain a word meaning or explanation of a thing (or advising on one thing). They are descriptions of meanings that enable the identified reference object to be identified in a speech or text. These explanations can include individual words, sentences or entire text segments, for example:

  • A common problem in the uncontrolled waters is cercaria: larvae of parasites that normally live in waterfowl . They can dig into people's skin and cause itchy pustules. (Apotheken Umschau, February 15, 2002, p. 40)
  • Above all, the "pulling off", in other words the forcible stealing of expensive, prestigious branded clothing from children and young people , is increasingly burdening the crime statistics, especially in the larger cities. (Mannheimer Morgen, February 23, 2001, p. 3)
  • “If the waters were still poly- or hypertrophic, i.e. over-fertilized, then these plants would not grow,” says ecologist Schiewer. (Berliner Zeitung September 30, 1998, p. II)

Since everyday definitions are descriptions of the meaning of a (speech) reference object, which is usually referred to by a lexeme, everyday definitions are lexical explanations. There are different names for such explanations in other scientific studies.

The following terms, used synonymously for everyday definitions, can be found in various scientific explanations that deal with lexical meaning:

  • "Explanations similar to definitions within the text and within the clauses" (Reichmann 1979, 148 cited in Schmidt 1988, 344),
  • "Non-scientific explications in everyday dialogues" (Quasthoff / Hartmann 1982, 104),
  • "Contextual paraphrase of a piece of speech in a counter-conflicting function" (Wiegand 1977, 66),
  • "Everyday dialogues about nennlexical expressions" (Wiegand 1989, 553),
  • "Text testimonies of a metalinguistic character, in which historical language participants express their views on texts, sentences, words, word meanings, grammatical forms, pronunciation or spelling, that is, reflect the language of their time in their own perspective without obscuring" (Schmidt 1988, 341f.),
  • “Semantically relevant formulation processing” (Deppermann 2002, 23).

All of these terms refer to one and the same linguistic phenomenon, namely the definition of everyday life.

literature

  • Greta Stanaityte: Everyday Definitions and Their Functions . Dissertation, University of Mannheim 2005 ( full text )