ABSTRACT
This chapter concerns verbal communication in which words are used in face-to-face situations. Practically everything people do, even when they are on their own, could be construed as actual or potential communication. There is an account of non-verbal communication and the role of language in defining social status in another volume in this series. The use of language to convey meanings in social contexts comes under the heading of pragmatics, so called to distinguish it from syntax and semantics. It is interesting to note that in the 1970s Winograd had introduced his well-known language-understanding computer program called SHRDLU, which interpreted typed-in linguistic inputs about a small world of toy blocks. The emphasis on speech acts, speakers' intentions and listeners' knowledge adds richness to our understanding of language use. In one sense of understanding, people must be able to recognize words and appreciate possible syntactic combinations of words.
