Document Type : Original Article
Authors
1 koya university
2 raparin university
Abstract
The act of communication involves the ability of two or more persons to speak and interact with each other. In language, the denotative meanings (the dictionary meaning) of the words cannot express all the meanings that the speakers want to express because speakers often mean more than the words uttered by them and there are often other meanings and connotations behind the speakers' speech. In order to fill in this gap, speakers resort to different methods or strategies to understand and decode the intention of the speaker. This research explores the two topics of prior assumptions and inferences, which play a significant role in the act of understanding. The analysis of both topics has been done based on examples taken from Kurdish language. Conversation between two persons speaking the same language is based on prior assumptions. The prior assumptions stipulate the existence of background information about the subject of the conversation. Prior assumptions, especially, if true, help the reader or listener to extract the new information from the conversation. Drawing inferences does not consider the speaker's intentions? perspectives?, but it pays more attention to the denotative meanings of the utterances and looks for the logical relations that firmly tie the meaning of the utterance with logic. Therefore, to understand the meaning we have to consider real-world knowledge (logic) and the context and circumstances in which the utterances are spoken.
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