The discussions on meaning, constructing, making sense are interesting; to
throw in my two cents' worth:
In ancient Chinese philosophy, it is held that one can never
be perfectly sure about what another person "really" means, and likewise,
one can never be sure that another person "really" gets what one means;
that has not prevented us from making sense to/of one another for all
these ages though...
On a similar thread, in ethnomethodology / conversation analysis (CA) terms,
we negotiate what we mean to different degrees of satisfaction (or
dissatisfaction) "for all practical purposes" in each individual context.
However, we don't get at that "perfect" meaning (as if there really
existed one!); perhaps, it's not
necessary--life goes on, with more or less (dis)satisfaction with how well
we communicate with one another. And a CA-ist approaches it from this
perspective: by being concerned with describing
"how people, in their dealings with each other, document for each other
what is taking place" (Anthony Wootton, 1989, p. 243). (Ref.: Wooton, A.
J., 1989. "Remarks on the methodology of conversation analysis". In Roger,
D. & Bull, P. (Eds.), Conversation: An Interdisciplinary Perspective, pp.
238-258. Clevedon, Avon: Multilingual Matters.)
Just some half-baked ideas.
Cheers,
Angel
--------
Angel Lin
City University,
Hong Kong