Wednesday, 24 March 2010

Is there a linguistic term for this?

I'm speaking purely as a linguist / language enthusiast here - there are times when performative actions of certain verbs cannot exist without the performative actions of other (usually more commonly used) verbs.

For example, imagine you're just having a pint in your local pub and some guy approaches you and asks you if you know where the toilet is. So you indicate it to him. But I have not operationally defined what is meant by "indicate" in this context. I suppose the most conceivable approximation would be to POINT in the general direction of the toilets while STATING a rough description of where the entrance door is in relation to certain other objects which you know are there and which you know the guy will be quick to identify.

You know, in the English language, we have the term "eponomy". It is about words that are based on other words which are always proper nouns. Like certain terms of measurement: force in measured in Newtons (after Isaac Newton); Hz / MHz / GHz are derived from the name of Heinrich Rudolf Hertz etc. Romeo and Juliet are eponymous lead characters of the popular Shakespeare play with the same name. Well, is there a word situations such as the word "indicate" for its use in the preceding paragraph?

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