The Gap between Speaker’s Meaning and Hearer’s Meaning in Communication: Within and Beyond Classical Gricean Theory of Meaning

Abstract

Under the guidance of classical Gricean theory of meaning, it is conventionally accepted that speaker’s meaning is contingent upon speaker’s intention in communication, whereas hearer’s meaning involves the recognition and interpretation of speaker’s intention according to other principles of meaning in pragmatics. Consequently, a gap emerges between speaker’s intended meaning and the meaning comprehended by the hearer. This paper presents the gap at first and then illustrates three primary factors contributing to it: namely, the unclear boundary between what is said and what is implicated, the indistinct contextual cues, and the different backgrounds of both speaker and hearer. Finally, for the purpose of facilitating effective communication, strategies are proposed to bridge the gap, emphasizing the importance of shared linguistic knowledge and contextual information between speaker and hearer, as well as the hearer’s assuming about the speaker’s intention. It is hoped that the paper would provide some new aspects for the research of communication.