Fully competent native speakers

Based on your knowledge of other languages,of course,you make certain assumptions that guide your guesswork: you assume, for instance, that "Gah" is probably a noun, referring to a specific object on the table, or a verb ("Give!"), or an imperative sentence ("Give me that thing that I want!").Parents usually become skilled interpreters of their infants' languages quite quickly. The infant experiments constantly with new words and phrases,requiring new abductions, but repeated exposure to the old ones rapidly builds up B-language competence in the parents, and they calmly interpret for visitors who hear nothing but random sounds.

Fully competent native speakers of a language do not always use that language in a way that certain observers are pleased to call "rational":they do not say what they mean, they omit crucial information, they conceal their true intentions, they lie, they exaggerate, they use irony or sarcasm,they speak metaphorically.The English philosopher Paul Grice (1989: 22-40), best known as the founder of linguistic pragmatics,tried famously in a lecture entitled "Logic and Conversation" to explain precisely how we make sense of speakers who "flout" the rational rules of conversation;it wasn't enough for him that listeners make inspired guesses,or abductions.