Language is a Model

I realized something today. Language is not nearly as explicit as we think. This is not specific to any language (English, German, Spanish etc). It is an attribute of language itself.

Language is a model. And like any model, it has underlying assumptions... And like any assumptions, they are not always true.

An example: "Hi, I'm Lea."

How can that be misinterpreted? Well, in most cases, it is not. But I am actually making assumptions that you, luckily, also make. "I" is refering to my name, not my arm, my head, my heart, or my thoughts... or my eye...

And this is always true: Every single thing you speak has assumptions in the background. And when your assumptions don't match the assumptions of the person you are speaking with, the assumptions should pushed to the foreground to address the discrepancy.

"What do you mean you're Lea? That girl over there said she's Lea. How can both of you be Lea? Is there some super-Lea being that is both of you?"

They say to 'never assume anything'. What a joke! Without assumptions we would be mimes. It would take an infinite amount of time to define exactly what we mean by every statement we make. We are subject our personal beliefs that we are capable of leading others to choose the right assumptions.

Whether this is true or not, we cannot really be sure, though we have developed quite an extensive system of assumptions that so far has been good enough to support the creation and use of technologies we all enjoy today.