Tendency to Read Between Lines (of Speech)

  When reading about indirect speech this week, I wondered about and mentioned the tendency of humans to read between lines several times. Of course, not everybody reads between the lines of speech like everybody else–some don’t even do it at all when talking to others–, but for those who do tend to gravitate towards this behavior, it tends to be instinctual. Whether this is because of the years upon years of education we’ve received in different English classes to look beyond the face-value of words or because of our own varying levels of intuition and observation, there is something in our own subconsciouses that makes us do this. Especially after reading “Word Don’t Mean What They Mean”, I wanted to find out exactly why this is. This concept is hinted at in the essay when Pinker mentions that the hypocrisy of humans wanting direct language but also getting offended when polite, buffer speech is used is “human nature”. What about human nature inadvertently looks for the hidden meaning behind blunt speech?

Then, I found the Semantic Triangle. 

It’s a device used to determine why people say certain things and the ideas lingering in their minds that provoke such strains of words. However, this triangle could also represent the thoughts of those who are receiving such speech or text–the path that the thoughts would travel would simply be in reverse, from “concept” to “referent” instead of the opposite for those who were the ones speaking. Perhaps, then, it isn’t simply reading between lines that we are doing– we see something else entirely in another’s words subconsciously.