Utterance
- An utterance is a natural unit of speech bounded by breaths or pauses.
- An utterance is a complete unit of talk, bounded by the speaker's silence.
Utterance does not have a precise linguistic definition. Phonetically an utterance is a unit of speech bounded by silence. In dialogue, each turn by a speaker may be considered an utterance.
Linguists sometimes use utterance to simply refer to a unit of speech under study. The corresponding unit in written language is text .
Pei, Mario A., and Frank Gaynor. 1954.A dictionary of linguistics. New York: Philosophical Library.
Crystal, David. 1991.A dictionary of linguistics and phonetics. 3rd edition. Cambridge, MA: Basil Blackwell.
Crystal, David. 1985.A dictionary of linguistics and phonetics. 2nd edition. New York: Basil Blackwell.
Aronoff, Mark and Janie Rees-Miller (editors). 2001.The handbook of linguistics. Blackwell Handbooks in Linguistics. Oxford: Blackwell. xvi–823.
Related terms
- RT⇆ Absolute-Relative Tense
- RT⇆ Absolute Tense
- RT⇆ Alethic Modality
- RT⇆ Assertive Illocutionary Point
- RT⇆ Close Future Tense
- RT⇆ Coding Time
- RT⇆ Command
- RT⇆ Commissive Illocutionary Point
- RT⇆ Commissive Modality
- RT⇆ Commitment Between Illocutionary Acts
- RT⇆ Conjunctive Illocutionary Act
- RT⇆ Conversation Analysis
- RT⇆ Declarative Illocutionary Point
- RT⇆ Declarative Mood
- RT⇆ Deductive Mood
- RT⇆ Defective Illocutionary Act
- RT⇆ Deixis
- RT⇆ Deontic Modality
- RT⇆ Direct Illocution
- RT⇆ Directive Illocutionary Point
- RT⇆ Directive Modality
- RT⇆ Downgrade
- RT⇆ Echo Question
- RT⇆ Embedded Repair
- RT⇆ Environment
- RT⇆ Epistemic Modality
- RT⇆ Epistemic Qualification
- RT⇆ Exclamation
- RT⇆ Experiential Perfect Aspect
- RT⇆ Expressive Illocutionary Point
- RT⇆ First Part
- RT⇆ Future-In-Future Tense
- RT⇆ Future-In-Past Tense
- RT⇆ Future-Perfect-In-Past Tense
- RT⇆ Future Perfect Tense
- RT⇆ Future Tense
- RT⇆ Generative Phonology
- RT⇆ Given Information
- RT⇆ Hodiernal Future Tense
- RT⇆ Hodiernal Past Tense
- RT⇆ Illocutionary Act
- RT⇆ Illocutionary Connective
- RT⇆ Illocutionary Consistency
- RT⇆ Illocutionary Force Indicating Device
- RT⇆ Immediate Past Tense
- RT⇆ Implicature
- RT⇆ Indirect Illocution
- RT⇆ Intended Perlocutionary Effect
- RT⇆ Interrogative Mood
- RT⇆ Jussive Mood
- RT⇆ Mixed Metaphors
- RT⇆ Mode Of Achievement
- RT⇆ Newsmark
- RT⇆ Next Turn Repair Initiator
- RT⇆ Nonfuture Tense
- RT⇆ Nonpast Tense
- RT⇆ Not-Yet Tense
- RT⇆ Obligative Mood
- RT⇆ Past Perfect Tense
- RT⇆ Past Tense
- RT⇆ Perfect
- RT⇆ Perfect Of Persistent Situation
- RT⇆ Perfect Of Result
- RT⇆ Post-Hodiernal Future Tense
- RT⇆ Potential Presupposition
- RT⇆ Pragmatics
- RT⇆ Precative Mood
- RT⇆ Predictable Information
- RT⇆ Present Tense
- RT⇆ Presupposition
- RT⇆ Presupposition Suspension
- RT⇆ Presupposition Trigger
- RT⇆ Proposition
- RT⇆ Propositional Act
- RT⇆ Relative Future Tense
- RT⇆ Relative Nonfuture Tense
- RT⇆ Relative Nonpast Tense
- RT⇆ Relative Past Tense
- RT⇆ Relative Present Tense
- RT⇆ Relative Tense
- RT⇆ Salient Information
- RT⇆ Scalar Implicature
- RT⇆ Second Part
- RT⇆ Self-Initiated Repair
- RT⇆ Self-Repair
- RT⇆ Speaker
- RT⇆ Speculative Mood
- RT⇆ Speech Act
- RT⇆ Still Tense
- RT⇆ Text
- RT⇆ Turn
- RT⇆ Volitive Modality
- ExactMatch: https://glossary.sil.org/term/utterance
