The Potential For Misunderstanding

Considerable evidence proves that misunderstanding is inevitable. Linguists, sociologists, psychologists, etc. have been concerned for the research into misunderstanding, and these scholars study the misunderstanding from different perspectives and in different ways. The author makes an extensive research on misunderstanding in verbal interaction through records of personal experiences, or by novel, recorded TV programs. Through careful review of the literature on the misunderstanding at home and abroad, two triggers have been studied:the ambiguity of language and lack of intersubjectivity.Domestic and foreign scholars also conducted some research on the sources or mechanism of the misunderstanding, but these causes are multiple and complex and have not formed an organic unity. Language is a tool for communication, if the language itself in the communication has more than one interpretation, then different people will have different understandings. A misunderstanding occurs when a communication attempt is unsuccessful because what the speaker intends to express differs from what the hearer believes to have been expressed. Therefore, the ambiguity of language is one of the triggers of misunderstanding. Three basic aspects have been studied in detail:syntactic ambiguity, semantic ambiguity and pragmatic ambiguity.During the process of understanding, if the hearer can know the context, emotion, viewpoint, etc., the speaker used to construct the utterance, then maybe the hearer can understand the speaker's utterance meaning accurately and completely. But this is only an ideal state, because each individual is unique and every human thought and cognition is also unique. So no one can reach the same cognitive state as the partner's. Therefore, lack of intersubjectivity is one of the triggers of misunderstanding.In the study of misunderstanding in the communication, in addition to this factor, i.e. the ambiguity of language, the study of intersubjectivity in the communication, which is, focused on the interlocutors in communication, is definitely a new research approach. This perspective of research can deepen our understanding of the misunderstanding, and provide guidance for verbal communication activities.