Meanings
nounslifting (uncountable)
- uncountablehuman sciencesThe preposing of an embedded clause containing reported speech or beliefs.
The rule of Slifting (described in Ross 1973) moves complement clauses and adjoins them to the left of the original embedding structure as a coordinate clause, leaving the rest of the structure as a tag.
1977, Alice Davison, Indirect Speech Acts: a Natural Class or not?
Origin
Blend of sentence + lifting. Coined by American linguist John R. Ross.
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
APA
slifting. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/slifting
MLA
“slifting.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/slifting. Accessed November 2, 2026.
Chicago
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “slifting,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/slifting.
Source: slifting on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.