ABSTRACT
Intentionality is one face of a two-part complementary process. The other face is interpretation. One of the two basic constituents of intentionality is a psychological mode that packages personal meaning for public consumption. Every kind of intention/intentionality reflects two systems, one intellectual and the other social. In real life, expressed intention, whether the simple intentions of action, or the more heady intentionality of intentional action or even intentional utterance, carries both personal meaning and social meaning. When intentionality is encoded in a symbolic system, intentions can be expressed by speakers literally on the one hand, or metaphorically, mockingly, or ironically on the other. Moreover, they can be offered earnestly or formulaically, giving rise to the pseudointentions of ritual greetings. More often in human affairs, both intentions and their interpretations are very complex, drawing on vast pools of common cultural knowledge.
