I think the told/meant distinction is confused. You’re conflating different uses of “meant.” When somebody misunderstands us, we say “I meant...”, but it doesn’t follow that when they do understand us we didn’t mean what we told them! The “I meant...” is because they didn’t get the meaning the first time. I can’t do what I’m told without knowing what you meant; in fact, doing what I’m told always implies knowing what you meant. If I tried to follow your command, but didn’t know what you meant by your command, I wouldn’t be doing what I was told. Doing what I’m told is a success term. Somebody who says “I was just doing what you told me!” is expressing a misunderstanding or an accusation that we didn’t make ourselves clear (or perhaps is being mischievous or insubordinate).
There is no following commands without knowing the meaning. The only thing we can do in language without knowing what is meant is to misunderstand, but to misunderstand one must first be able to understand, just as to misperceive one must first be able to perceive. There’s no such thing as misunderstanding all the time or misunderstanding everything. The notion of a wish granting genie that always misunderstands you is an entertaining piece of fiction (or comedy), but not a real possibility.
Well, one of my points is that there’s no actual distinction. People make a distinction though, because firstly there’s cognitive effort on both the saying and listening side to make communication clear, and there’s a distinction between things that one side is responsible for and things that other side is responsible for. Secondarily, it is often selfish-optimal to misunderstand commands to some extent which can be attributed to an alternate understanding. Particularly prominent in lawyering.
I think the told/meant distinction is confused. You’re conflating different uses of “meant.” When somebody misunderstands us, we say “I meant...”, but it doesn’t follow that when they do understand us we didn’t mean what we told them! The “I meant...” is because they didn’t get the meaning the first time. I can’t do what I’m told without knowing what you meant; in fact, doing what I’m told always implies knowing what you meant. If I tried to follow your command, but didn’t know what you meant by your command, I wouldn’t be doing what I was told. Doing what I’m told is a success term. Somebody who says “I was just doing what you told me!” is expressing a misunderstanding or an accusation that we didn’t make ourselves clear (or perhaps is being mischievous or insubordinate).
There is no following commands without knowing the meaning. The only thing we can do in language without knowing what is meant is to misunderstand, but to misunderstand one must first be able to understand, just as to misperceive one must first be able to perceive. There’s no such thing as misunderstanding all the time or misunderstanding everything. The notion of a wish granting genie that always misunderstands you is an entertaining piece of fiction (or comedy), but not a real possibility.
Well, one of my points is that there’s no actual distinction. People make a distinction though, because firstly there’s cognitive effort on both the saying and listening side to make communication clear, and there’s a distinction between things that one side is responsible for and things that other side is responsible for. Secondarily, it is often selfish-optimal to misunderstand commands to some extent which can be attributed to an alternate understanding. Particularly prominent in lawyering.