James Kass: > Asmus Freytag wrote: > >>> Words suffice. We go by what people actually say rather than whatever >>> they might have meant. When we read text, we go by what's written. > >> That is a worthy opinion, but not one that is shared, either in principle >> or in lived practice (...) by vast numbers of people. > > True, but there are also plenty of people who strive to say what they > mean and mean what they say.
It's astonishing how you apparently ignore how human communication actually works. We are not machines where the Shannon-Weaver model of a message encoded by the sender and accurately decoded by the receiver applies (with some correction for errors induced by noise in the transmission channel). Communication, even written, is a very complex process that involves a lot of unspoken assumptions and external knowledge on all sides. Words do not suffice. We do not go simply by what's written. Stuff like typography or emoji can improve the effectiveness and efficiency of textual communication a lot. (And if used badly or maliciously they can deter it as well.)
