ABSTRACT
Itappearsatfirstsightthatwordsandsentencespossess meaninginsomeinherentway(everybodyknowswhat'tree' and'Oaktreeshavegreenleaves'mean).Butinaddition,to inferappropriatemeaningfromwhatissaidorwrittenoften cruciallydependsuponapplyingrelevantassumptionsabout theworld(includinglanguageitself)tothelinguistic'message'. Pretend,forexamplethatsomeonesaystoyou'Goon,then'. Ifyouareplayingcardsandtheotherpersonhashadaturn, youwillinterpretthephraseasmeaningthatitisyourturnto playandthatyouhavenotnoticedthattheotherpersonhas alreadyplayed.Ifyouareachildwhohasbeenaskingtobe allowedtoplaywithyourfriendsoutside,thesamesentence canbeusedtogivepermission,eveninasituationwherethe immediatelyprecedingconversationhasnotbeenrelatedto yourrequest.
