Based on decades of studying indirectness in conversation — and a lifetime of using language to communicate — I’d say no. Risch was talking about the message: the literal meaning of words spoken. King, and later Sen. Kamala D. Harris (D-Calif.), were referring to the metamessage: what it means to say those words in that way in that context. But messages come in handy when someone wants to deny a meaning that was obvious when the words were spoken. The lesson, I’d say, was to listen for the metamessage in the words of a superior.

Source: Washington Post June 09, 2017 23:57 UTC