I use words every day for more than just the basic communication of needs that passes as conversation these days. I try and express an idea or an opinion somewhat comprehensibly in writing. To say I've been thinking of language recently may have a Coals To Newcastle sort of ring to it. But than again, who is more apt to think of language and how things can be so easily misconstrued than someone who writes for public consumption on a regular basis?

I've had people leave angry comments about things I've written because they've missed the tiny word "not" in a sentence. Sometimes, and I'm not saying this is the situation in all cases, people are so keen to get their own point across that they don't really read (listen) what has been stated by an author and assume they need to go on the offensive in order for their point to be understood. In those cases it doesn't matter what the original opinion was because it is only serving as an excuse for the other person to sound off.

In either case, willful and accidental misunderstanding, where the disagreement exists or the failure to communicate occurs, is on a simple intellectual or philosophical level. The gulf is no more or less than a difference of opinion, where there is a common body of awareness and comprehension to draw upon. Even if my views on a subject are diametrically opposed to someone else's, we have a similar frame of reference for our ideas.

As long as the person comes from the same philosophical tradition, in my case Western European Judeo-Christian, it doesn't even matter what their native language is, our ways of thinking have been trained in similar manners. There are certain concepts simply accepted without question and taken for granted when we enter into a discussion or conversation.

Where things become difficult are the occasions we attempt to bridge the gulf between our way of thinking/being and that of another group whose core philosophy comes from a different way of thinking. They live according to concepts our minds can't define because they don't exist for us. Our language doesn't have the capability to define the concept without years of study. Even if a word is translated to mean the same thing, our comprehension doesn't encompass the same comprehension as theirs.