ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with accountability, commitment, and responsibility in language usage, as well as why communication is best explained by cooperation, relevance, and trust between participants. It also addresses the question of the dissemination of scientific research and primarily focuses on why outreach is now an important part of the scholar's job. The qualitative difference between what scholars know and what laypeople believe makes the issue of dissemination crucial in a post-truth world in which self-proclaimed and real experts both have the same credibility in the media. The chapter concludes by claiming that the truth of what ordinary speakers and scholars mean—and more specifically what they believe to be true— is what links them together. In other words, both ordinary speakers and scientists are committed to the truth of what they want their addressees—readers, audiences, etc.—to understand as the intended meaning of their utterances.
