© Roger M Tagg 2011
Welcome to FROLIO – a new attempt to merge philosophy and the "semantic web" . This website is under continuing development.
People often ask questions like "What do you mean?" or "What is the meaning of this?". In many cases, the questioner is asking for a paraphrase of what the other person said or asked - rather like translating from one spoken language into another. In Wittgenstein's terms, the other person may be being asked to translate between language games. In the terms of my own concept of 'story' (see my essay Stories.htm on this website), it might be to re-interpret some events or ideas, from the conventions of one 'story' into those of another.
However in this essay I am more concerned with a rather different sense, which is "What was your purpose in saying (or asking) this particular thing, to this particular individual (maybe 'me')? And what do you mean by using these particular words, with that tone of voice or accompanying body language, and at this particular time or occasion?". Of course, there may actually be no words spoken or written, since even silence - or lack of written correspondence - can have a meaning.
I would argue that this second form of 'meaning' is not so much in the content of the message (i.e. the words, sentences, questions or requests used), but in the impression that person A (the speaker or writer) wants to have on person (or persons) B (the listener or reader). For B to appreciate the meaning, he or she may need to "read between the lines". This is often not easy, and mistakenly interpreting someone's meaning often gives rise to undesirable outcomes.
I am distinguishing here two levels of this form of meaning, namely the 'tactical' and the 'strategic' meaning. Tactical is what we mean within a given context; strategic is why we are communicating - or saying or writing anything - in the first place.
At the tactical level, we assume that an overarching context already exists. A meeting or dialogue between people happens or is arranged, or the purpose of a series of meetings and communications is understood. Tactical meaning is more apparent in face to face, phone or electronic communications than in longer written material.
Some possible 'tactical meanings' (the general preamble "I wish to inform you that ... " is omitted) are:
| Facts, information, judgment, decision | Requests, Questions | Emotions, feelings | Phatic, Social niceties |
| I believe some 'fact' to be true (this fact may be conditional, i.e. "if A, then B") | I wonder if you can give me information | I'm expressing some emotion that I feel to you | I acknowledge your presence |
| I am uncertain about this | I am interested to hear your opinion | I want you to feel some motivation or emotion (e.g. love, hate, disgust, desire, relief) | You have my good will (at least for the moment) |
| I am making a certain judgment | I am interested to know what you feel | I want to share something that has inspired me | Please go on |
| I'd like some particular thing to happen | I would like you to fix something for me | I feel sympathy for you | I want you to pay attention to me |
| I don't agree with you, but am prepared to ride it out | Do this under pain of sanctions that I can apply against you | I'm warning you off | I want to put you down a peg or two |
| I agree with you | I am suspicious about your motives | I'm listening | |
| I hear what you say (but may or may not agree) | I think you are a ratbag | I'm waiting for a more convincing response | |
| I'm reserving my judgment | I feel under threat | I'm trying to lighten things up | |
| I think you are wrong | I am fed up | I'd like to keep our relationship going | |
| I don't agree with you, and intend fighting you over it (verbally or physically) | I am bored | I'm ignoring what you just said | |
| I am quoting someone | I'm struggling to follow all this | ||
| I intend to make this change | |||
| Things are not the same as they were | |||
| I'm telling a story | |||
| I'm offering an possible solution, or course of action | |||
| I'm elaborating a possible theory | |||
| I'm elaborating an opportunity | |||
| I'm presenting a number of alternatives | |||
| I've done what you asked | |||
These meanings often explain why we are communicating in the first place. They occur in both spoken and written communication. The general preamble in these examples is "I want ..." .
| Self-justification | Manipulating someone else | Commercial or authority relationship | Social relationship |
| to justify my self-importance | you to conform to my group's conventions | to sell you something | to dominate you |
| to maintain that I/we have always been right | you to do as I say | to persuade you to act as I wish | to be friends with you |
| to show how insignificant or inferior you are compared with me | you to accept my opinion | to give you the spin that supports my (group's) position | to have sex with you |
| to justify my job position | you to admire my knowledge, skill judgment or wit | to object to your approach | to express my respect for you |
| to justify my consulting fee | to decline your offer or request | ||
| to justify my conformance to a group's norms | |||
| to fight against the threat of losing my (group's) current power and influence |
Note that I didn't include "to tell you something"; this is because I feel that we always have a motive for telling someone else anything.
OK, so why am I (Roger Tagg) putting up all these web pages? I've certainly asked myself the question.
The best excuse I can give is that, over a long and varied, though not arduous life, I've been conscious that I've struggled to achieve success in communication. I've tried to discover for myself what makes things tick, by reading and by reflection on "how things went". Retirement from a busy working life as an IT consultant and lecturer has given me undreamt-of time to read more thoroughly and think things out. I may still not have got it all right, but maybe I can repay those societies, which indirectly enable me to live on pensions, by offering - for what it's worth - my conclusions, before I descend into further senility and demise.
Unfortunately, in my opinion, one needs a certain amount of nerve, insolence or cheekiness to do get the right meaning from what people say or write. People seem habituated to expressing themselves in roundabout ways. If one is not sure what they really meant, one may have the chance to ask "which of the following meanings of what you said (or wrote) are you asking me to take?" - and suggest a few possibles from the lists above.
Of course, one may get the answer "You can take that however you like". In which case my reply would be "Then both of us will have some responsibility for whatever the consequences of my reaction will be".
A longer essay on this subject, entitled "What Did They Mean".
Index to more of these diatribes
Some of these links may be under construction – or re-construction.
This version updated on 29th January 2012
If you have constructive suggestions or comments, please contact the author rogertag@tpg.com.au .