Pragmatics
Arguing semantics is often what one is called out for in a debate, focusing on the technicality of an opponent’s speech instead of the “obvious” meaning. This describes very well the field of semantic analysis. But pragmatics is a little harder to define.
Most of what we say is not communicated directly. For example, when Alice tells asks Bob “Do you have an extra pair of gloves?” on a cold day, she doesn’t just want to know the answer.
Though neither she nor Bob mentioned anything else, they both understand that what Alice means is “Bob, if you have a pair of gloves that you aren’t using, could I use them?”
The study of meaning in this sense is Pragmatics, it’s meaning with context. For example, the same sentence can have many different meanings depending on the context.
If Alice and Bob are both packing for a glacier expeditions, the sentence “Do you have an extra pair of gloves?” can be interpreted differently. Bob may be quite forgetful, or maybe Alice anticipates that one might get lost.
These two contextual meanings are called utterances and sentences can have hundreds, thousands even, and through context alone we are able to pick up the extra meaning that isn’t said.
How and why we are able to do this is explained by philosopher H. P. Grice through his maxims of conversation. These maxims are in a way defining common sense, yet offer great insight into this objectively weird ability we have to pick up on unspoken meaning.
He detailed four of these maxims, quality, relation, quantity, and manner.
The maxim of quality states that one does not typically say something they believe to be false. Important to note, these maxims are all broken quite frequently, but we notice when they are. Lying is easy to pick up and not the norm for conversation.
Grice’s maxim of relation describes that what one contributes to a conversation is always relevant to the topic at hand. Like the others, this one is easy to see when it is broken. If Alice and Bob are gossiping about a professor, and Bob notices her walking around the corner, he may utter “No! I hate pickles!”. Alice is able to realize something is up, pickles have nothing to do with their Chemistry professor. The breaking, or flouting, of this maxim has meaning. “No! I hate pickles” the sentence takes on completely different meaning in this utterance.
The maxim of quantity is that one provides just enough information to a conversation, no more and no less. There are tons of examples, as this is a commonly flouted maxim by clever children. For example, when a mother asks her daughter is she finished her homework and the daughter responds that she finished her English essay, the mother can easy see through the equivocation.
Finally, is grice’s maxim of manner. This one if flouted most frequently by those in academia or when someone wants to sound smart. It states that one must be clear and to the point with what they way, avoiding jargon and fanciful language where it is not needed.
When financial counselors and lawyers want you to have no idea what they’re saying they throw in technical terms that the lay person would never get. The speaker may also use unnecessarily large words. As Grice described this maxim, “Be perspicuous, avoid obscurity of expression”.
Most of what we say is not what we mean and most of what we mean is not what we say. There are rules governing conversation beyond that of simple verb conjugation and syntactic hierarchy. Context is perhaps the most important aspect of language. It affects every aspect of language, from morphemes to words to sentences to utterances.