Thursday, April 04, 2024

Language as underdetermined

When we say that language is underdetermined, we are asserting that humans do not say everything they ‘mean’ but only what is ‘relevant’. A speaker does not have to spell out every single detail of his potential communication. To do so would make communication overloaded and so be less relevant to the hearer.—Margaret Sim, A Relevant Way to Read, 12

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