autoclitic

autoclitic

n. a unit of verbal behavior (a verbal operant) that depends on other verbal behavior and that alters its effect on a listener. For example, in saying “I think that is a cat,” the words I think serve as an autoclitic to indicate to the listener that the speaker is less than certain about the remaining verbal operants in the sentence. The is is also an autoclitic, indicating that the same stimulus is occasioning the words that and cat.