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Chapter1
2002),communicationandmutualunderstandingispossibleunlessthe
participantschooseotherwise.Generally,howeverashumanhearerswe
assumethatpeoplemoreorlessadheretoGrice’smaximsorsomekind
ofdiscoursegrammar(Paradis2009)andweinstinctivelyarecuedto
makesense,tograspthemeaningintendedbythespeaker.Inthiswaywe
satisfyoursocialneedforcommunicatingwithothersevenifwehaveto
readbetweenthelinesandignoreincidentalambiguities(Pinker2007).
Languageindeedisapeculiarsystemwithitswonderfulflexibility
whichalwaysremainsausersensitivedevice.Thesamemessagewillbe
structureddifferentlywhenaddressedtoourboss,ourcolleague,ourclose
friend,ourpartnerorachild.Indeed,theabilitytostructuretheformin
whichpeopleexpresswhattheymean,orexplainwhatsomebodyelse
saidtootherpeopleissodeeplyingrainedthatwearenotawarethatwe
areinfactconstantlytranslatingforothersandevenforourselves.AsPel-
latt(2009:345)reminds“OttavioPazsaidthat‘whenwelearntospeak,
wearelearningtotranslate’(Paz1971).Evenamonolingualchildlearns
byexplainingandparaphrasing”(Pellatt2009:345).
IfonefollowstheRepresentationalTheoryofMeaningwhich,accord-
ingtoCattell(2006),underliesalmostallcurrentpsychologicalresearch
onthinking,theviewthatwearealltranslatorsgetsfurthersupport.Fo-
dor’stheory(1975,2008)thatthelanguageofthoughtwhichhasitsown
combinatorialsyntaxandsemanticsjustlikeanyothernaturallanguage
impliesthattheactofputtingourthoughts,intentionsandideasinto
wordsentailsinfactanactoftranslationwhich,howeverweremainun-
awareofmostofthetime,butnotallthetime.Whenwecanseethatour
communicativeintentionsaremisunderstoodormisinterpretedbyourlis-
tener,weimmediatelysay,‘thisisnotwhatIwantedtosay,‘youdon’tget
thepoint’,‘whatImeantwas’,‘letmeputitthisway’,etc.AsCattell
(2006:75)explainsintheclassicalTheoryofMind,
“mentalrepresentationsareexpressedinalanguageofthought,which
cannotbethesameasanynaturallanguage,andwhichmustbeuniver-
sal,inthesensethatanyone,ofwhateverlanguagebackground,mustbe
abletointerpretit(unconsciously)”[emphasismine].
Inothertermsitisnotwordsthatmakeusspeakbutourcommunicative
intentionswhichhavetobeverbalizedaswegetonwiththebusinessof
livinginwhichnumerousthingshavetobedonethroughlanguageuse.In
Levelt’s(1989)speechproductionmodelbelow